Sunday Carnation Salvation

Roused
from our lethargy on another cool and cloudy Sunday afternoon by Norma
Yvonne’s craving for massive quantities of protein, we put on
our new black calfskin sneakers and black hooded sweatshirt, and head
for the local mega-chain supermarket.

We are dressing fashionably all in black these days, ever since the
Anarchists put us on their shit list because of the nasty things we
wrote about them after the Anti-Nazi Mother’s Day Rally a week ago. We
figure if they do manage to track us down, we can claim to be one of
them, just
grown old and faint-hearted. We’ve talked our way out of tighter spots.

Back at the supermarket, the joint was hopping.  Sunday afternoon
seems to be supermarket prime time. In the parking lot, before we even
got into the store, we see three separate guys trudging to their cars
with bouquets. Obviously attempting to atone for transgressions committed
the previous,
Saturday
night.The poor deluded fools, we thought.  Not that we haven’t availed
ourselves of the same pathetic knee-jerk reaction to flowers endemic
among those of the feminine persuasion,whatever their sex,
but it is a temporary balm at best, and most of these guys are in the
kind of trouble, on an existential level, that a flower farm full of
orchids couldn’t salve over.

In the market, there are only a few derelict carts left in the cart
bay, those with wacky wheels or broken brakes. Did we miss a National Weather Service emergency warning? Luckily we only need
a few things.  Today, our mission is to satisfy our wife while
buying only things that begin with the letter "C".  This
is a little secret game we play, to make shopping and cooking more challenging.
Except for major marketing expeditions, on each trip to the market we
try to buy only things that begin with a single letter.

Yesterday it was "P". Potato, Papaya, Paper Towels, Papel Higencio,
pepino and pescado.  As astute readers can tell, we cheat a little
by using names in Spanish as well as English. Today we are working on
the "C"s; costillas, coffee, cherries, cebolla and cereal.

Norma has been in a kind of bad mood lately. Maybe we should get
her flowers. But only if they have Carnations….