the express lane

the other day, i walked from my home to the nearest grocery store, about a 10 minute walk. it was a fine fall day, and i needed the brisk walk. i needed just one item, laundry soap. so i got there, walked straight to the aisle, picked out the soap and walked to the express checkout without even breaking stride. it's fun to do this, as i passed by people who were wandering about, pondering important decisions such as what brand of orange juice to get. so about 5 steps before i could make it to the express line (11 items or less), an older couple steered their cart into the checkout before me. suddenly she says to him, "oh we can't go in that lane". reluctantly, he steers the cart of of "my" lane, and goes to a different lane. as i step in front of them, i overhear her saying "we have more than 11 items don't we?". I peek over my shoulder and see about 3 items, but i'm not about to count with them.

i checked out, and i noticed the woman behind me also bought only one item, a cabbage that was about 12 inches in diameter. the total cost???? 97 cents!!! Then i got to thinking about a radio show i heard a couple of years ago, where the host was trying to decide about the best way to spend one dollar. One of the things he noted was about 100 litres of tap water. In the city where i live, our water bill comes to about 90 cents per thousand litres, or 9 cents per 100 litres. if you could split this cabbage, for about 10 cents i'm sure you could eat for a week! So for less than 20 cents of that one dollar, you could have tons of water (or about 100 litres) and a big pile of cabbage!

I walked home trying to think of other things i could do with the 80 cents i would have remaining...