Coffee heat rising

Shopping

Ditch the Class Snobbery! I’M IN LOVE!!

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O…M…G… I just got a wonderful whack upside the head!

Did you read yesterday’s FAM post?  OINK, we say. Lady! Come down out of your classist eagle’s nest!!!

Okay…. Eventually I quit sitting here going oink oink oink and resigned myself to having to walk up to the (muy hispanico) corner at Main Drag West and Conduit of Blight North.

Trudge through the steamy heat and arrive in a classic corner shopping center. Barge into the El Rancho supermarket. Grab a cart and stroll around. And…

And…gosh.

I like this place!

Damned if it doesn’t have all the kinds of things I like to eat and to cook — bein’ WT myself, I guess, I fit right in. The staff: quiet, nice folks. The other shoppers: damned if they’re not my kinda people!

Suddenly, I’m NOT outside my social class…as is invariably the case at the ritzy AJ’s or the upscale Albertson’s.

I’m walkin’ around in there and thinking, “This ain’t real. IS it?”

But….yeah: it IS real. 

For the first time in I don’t know HOW long, I feel…where I belong. And that is not where everyone around me is better than me…

What fun! Omigawd! I felt like I’d gone home!

Gosh. I wish I’d found that place sooner…like when I first moved into the neighborhood, 87 gerjillion years ago.

Classism lives, folks!

Another Icky-Sticky Day

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Need to walk(!) down to the nearest supermarket to restock supplies. But… At 7:30 in the morning it’s pushin’ 80 degrees out there. And overcast! In Arizona, that makes for a hot and sticky morning.

Ohhhh how do I not feel like trudging down there?

Actually, there’s a closer supermarket-like affair in the corner commerce just to the north of us. But they target Latino shoppers from the mercado just to the north of us. Not a bad store, but they stock items that I would never buy, and don’t stock items that I regularly use.

Walking down to the Albertson’s will entail dodging through the neighborhood — adding steps on steps — in order to avoid the sh!theads on 19th Avenue who scream obscenities out their car windows at every passing woman. Even a doddering old bat!

Guess they’re so stupid they think that’s funny. I don’t: I think it’s damned annoying.

There isn’t an easy way to reach either of the corner shopping centers on foot from the neighborhood. Because several tracts built at different times stand between here and those markets, you pretty much HAVE to walk down Main Drag West to get to the stores.

The prospect of doing so in melting heat and sticky humidity does not appeal.

Nope. Not a-tall.

Ay, señors y señoras! I do believe we’ll be shopping latino today. That (mostly) Mexican supermarket carries about everything I really need, and it also has some fun stuff to experiment with. And it’s only about a ten-minute walk to the north of us. It would help a lot if I’d contrived to make myself fluent in Spanish during all the years I’ve lived in the American Southwest. But…never too late, eh?

In fact, maybe it would be worth taking a year of introductory Spanish at one of the community colleges here. If I could figure out how to get a ride to said institution.

Hmmmm….  This is innaresting:
https://www.thespanishexperiment.com/review

Since I’m fluent in French and can stumble around in Italian, an online course in Spanish just might do the trick. Bet I could learn enough to navigate the local commerce.

Yeah. Absolutely. It’s past time to learn Spanish!

B-O-I-I-N-G!!! How did I miss this?????

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Good grief! I only JUST discovered that Amazon delivers groceries!

Who knew?

Holeeee maquerel! If they do a decent job of it, this will solve a HUGE problem that has arisen in recent weeks. To wit: since my son kiped my car, I can’t get to a decent grocery store to haul stuff back to my house. But….but…hey!!!!  Apparently Amazon will shop for you in local stores! 

If that’s the case, you’d at least have a shot at having edible fresh produce delivered. If it comes in a box, a bag, or a can, who cares? but if it’s fresh veggies and fruits…THAT makes a difference.

Given how much a car costs to own and maintain (add in the licensing and taxes…), ordering food to have it delivered would at least break even and maybe even be cheaper than getting the Uber guy across the street to drive me to the nearest Sprouts.

Mwa ha ha!  This will foil my dear son’s plan to punish me by kiping my car. Grocery shopping really IS the only thing I need a car for regularly. Most of the other vendors, professionals, and peddlers are within easy walking distance of the Funny Farm.

The main problem I can see with this is getting quality produce delivered. Most Americans haven’t a clue how to pick out produce…and for sure, some high-school or college guy ain’t gonna know how to do that. But…it’s worth a try, isn’t it?

Well…yeah: it IS too good to be true.

But what if it works? What if about 90% of purchases come in reasonably decent? Even if you had to throw out some of it, you’d be ahead of the game by not having to traipse across the city to a store.

Have you tried shopping online through Amazon?  What happened? Were you pleased (or not) with the result?

AMAZON!!

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Woo HOO! Thank the hevvins for Amazon and its insane home delivery!

As that paeon hints, their deliveries aren’t always perfect. But…in 110-degree heat, they sure do beat hiking down Main Drag West to the Sprouts, running around the store grabbing this, that, and the ‘tother; and then charging back through the heat to the Funny Farm!

My GAWD, it’s hot out there!

The back-porch thermometer says it’s only 105 in the backyard (with high, thick clouds in the offing…). Wunderground claims it’s 107. WhatEVER. It’s too hot and humid for human life, IMHO.

Anyhow, Amazon’s delivery guy just showed up with the pool floater I ordered. Didn’t bother to ring the doorbell, but fortunately I spotted his truck when he pulled up to the house.  So now we can re-load the chlorine in the backyard drink–without having to hike halfway to Timbuktu to get to the pool store.

My son’s having kiped my car is…well… I can think of a number of terms, all of them highly unflattering. But the long and the short of it is…UNHOLY INCONVENIENCE. When you live in an L.A.-style city like Phoenix, you NEED a car to get around, even to the most minor and relatively close destinations. Especially in 110-degree heat.

The Uber guy across the street would have charged me through the wazoo to drive over to the pool store and back. So…at least now we have the chlorine floating gadget. And we’re not bankrupted. Quite.

That’s something.

I guess. 

Swampy Dampy Day

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Uch!  Just back from an attempted doggy-walk. That was a serious FAIL!!!

The air is thick with moisture….literally. Feels almost like you’re walking through Jell-O out there. No exaggeration!

The human needs to make a grocery-store run…but that ain’t gunna happen today,  not without a car. My dear son, as you recall, managed to confiscate the Dog Chariot, so I am stuck here in the ‘Hood, on foot, with no viable means of transport other than paying for a cab.

No, don’t even ask about the public (heh!) “transportation” here.

An Uber driver dwells across the street…but no, I’m not about to trot over to his house and lean on his doorbell at 7:30 in the morning.

You can arrange someone to deliver groceries. But that’s a pretty hilarious joke! Americans don’t eat decent food and they don’t cook. So when you ask some poor soul to pick up a pile of groceries on a list, you get…  Well… Something between har har and ugh! 

This leaves me with having to walk six or eight blocks (each way!) to the Albertson’s or the Sprouts or the Fry’s, or else trying to mooch a ride with a neighbor. Or paying through the schnozola to get a cabby to drive me back and forth.

At any rate, I ain’t about to walk to any of the local stores through this grim weather. So…hope for the best in the freezer! 😀

Egad!! No Doggy-Walks Here…

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Get this! Wunderground says today’s high is supposed to be 111 degrees. You saw that right: a hundred and eleven degrees! 

Where does this damn place think it is? Saudi Arabia?

As we scribble, the back-porch thermometer reads 110 degrees…in the shade of the north-facing back porch. A covered porch. A ventilated covered porch…

Holeee sheee-ut!

We do have salmon and shrimp and accouterments that can be cooked up on the barbecue today. But tomorrow…well… Tomorrow I’ll have to walk(!!!) to the Albertson’s or the Sprouts to restock the supplies. And that will be a challenge.

I may see if I can get the neighborhood Uber driver to tote me over there…but…whaddaya bet that guy won’t feel any enthusiasm for getting on the road as dawn cracks?  And I sure don’t wanna be slamming around in the heat.

Let’s see…what time do these worthy retailers open?

  • Albertson’s:  6:00 a.m.
  • Sprouts: 7:00 a.m.
  • El Rancho: 6:00 a.m.

Hmmmm…  The El Rancho is closer. But the Albertson’s is a far better store for a middle-class shopper.

If I leave the house at 5:45, I could get to the store just as they’re opening. Grab the loot. Pay up. Gallop out the door…and maybe get back here by 7:00 a.m.

Or so…

Actually, that might not be too bad. Except that I don’t wanna start charging around at that hour. And toting groceries six or eight blocks through questionable territory doesn’t sound like much fun.

Also, one thing I’ve discovered over the kerjillion years that I’ve lived here: there’s a route through the neighborhood that comes out on the back side of the Albertson’s shopping center. That would allow me to get down there and yet dodge the jerks screaming obscenities at me.

Hm. They open at 6:00…okayyy… I might get back here by 7:00 — surely no later than 7:30. It would still be hot outside, but not yet hotter than Hell.

Dare not walk down there in the evening. For one thing, it’ll be hotter than the Hubs, all right: after a full day of Arizona sun blasting. But more to the point: whatever the weather, it’s just not safe. Too many jerks, assholes, and predators roam around between here and that shopping center.

Been there, done that, ain’t doin’it again!!

Really: what a place to live. If my son weren’t just down the road, I’d pull up stakes and head for either north Scottsdale or (un)lovely Sun City. Sure wouldn’t stay in central or north Phoenix: it truly isn’t safe.

I don’t wanna live in Sun City. Been there, done that, ain’t doin’ it again. BUT…at least in a ghetto for old folks, you don’t have a$$holes screaming obscenities at you as you walk to the nearest grocery store.