Shop Till You Drop

Another look at the calendar sent me into a panic.  Thanksgiving is next week!  It was a case of go shopping yesterday or lock the doors and hide when company comes on Thursday.  Okay, fine...I went shopping.  Knowing that I could find everything needed at the market in Cameron Park, I headed down the hill.  Good grief!  There was certainly smoke up at my place, but dropping farther down was like driving into a fog bank, the smoke was that thick.  The sun was obscured and I could feel it in my eyes and throat, but still I knew it was worse in the valley and up north.  Yuck.

Steve, and later my friend Doris, and I used to go to this market once a week and I knew the aisles like the back of my hand.  Now I go there once a year to buy supplies for Thanksgiving.  They always have a great deal on turkeys and carry a lot of specialty items.  My problem was I didn't have a road map and spent a lot of time cruising up and down and back and forth.  Whoever planned the layout and I differ on what items should be grouped on shelves together.  When the signpost says "Nuts," why were the large bags of pecans across the store next to syrup?  I am not an impulse buyer on the best of days so their plan was for naught.

Deb and I had talked, not about the menu (which never changes), but quantity.  I like to send home large care packages of leftovers so the working crowd is set for lunches and dinners, and cook accordingly.  This year Deb and Craig are leaving on vacation that weekend, Dave usually gets a bonus turkey from work, and Jester always declines, so that leaves Clay and me.  I bought a 20-pound turkey, the smallest bird I've ever gotten, and plan on five instead of ten pounds of potatoes.  I feel like a piker.

I was ahead of most of the after-work traffic and was never so glad to get home.  The turkey will have time to thaw and the breakfast room table is the staging area and stocked with supplies.  All in all, shopping notwithstanding, it was a good day.