Shopping Sunday

I left home really early this morning - Jeannie called me at 7:30 to see if I wanted to walk. Of course I'll take the exercise when I can get it, and after an hour of it we went back to her house for breakfast. She offered to take me to a couple of stores that I needed to go to, and Donald and the little girls decided to come too. It was a delightful family outing. For an older person, being with younger folks can help your perspective from a young person's point of view; while you might not always agree with it, it certainly doesn't hurt to keep an open mind.

The most difficult part of it for me is the time that it takes to do anything. I'm used to jumping in the car or truck, driving to where I need to shop, quickly locating the things I want to look at and then checking out and going home. It is never simple when you add people to the equation, especially two little people. But the fun of it all greatly overrides my cranky old nature!

At Target Autumn started asking for "Dora" bandaids. If you aren't around little kids, Dora and Diego are two animated characters that are featured in a learning series on TV (as opposed to simply mindless entertainment). At least this is how I understand it. Autumn loves anything with "Dora" on it, so she wanted "Dora" bandaids. I could see that Jeannie was preoccupied, and being a grandmother just itching to spoil my grandkids, I took her by the hand and we went in search of Dora. When we found the bandaids, Autie couldn't decide if she wanted Dora or Strawberry Shortcake, so of course I bought a box of each. When we were in the car driving to our next stop Jeannie saw that she had 3 bandaids on each leg! Then she got afraid that it would hurt to take them off, which if you have hair on your legs or arms does hurt to take a bandaid off. Her dad came to her assistance, and all is well again.

When we got back to my apartment Donald assembled a gas tabletop grill that I had bought, and it took him probably 3 times longer than what the instructions predict. I took one look at the instructions a couple of days ago and told him I would throw the whole thing over the patio fence before I would even try assembling it, so he offered to do it for me. It is all assembled now and waiting for me to fire it up and cook something.

I bought a very nice lounger for my patio and for when I'm camping. It reclines enough that I can take naps on it, and I think I will try it out tomorrow unless the predicted rain falls in Sacramento.

The few bucks here and a few more there, and my checking account is getting down to where I need to stay home for a while. One good grocery shopping trip should be the biggest expenditure for the rest of May.