Grocery shopping accomplished! Even better, though only slightly, no one suffered massive injuries due to me driving the truck!

It felt so good to take as long as I wanted to picking out food and just wandering the aisles. It even felt good to drive the truck. I wasn’t nervous at all! I even pulled out of my driveway like a pro, and I parked in a angled parking spot between two other trucks (there were no empty areas for practicing first). So the driving went well, and I had fun getting one of my major responsibilities back. I really missed doing the shopping.

Though I do have some complaints. Don’t I always?

.95 pounds of something isn’t a pound, though the scales in the produce department will print up a ticket that charges you for a pound. If something is $1.99 a pound, and you buy .95 pounds, you should only pay $1.89. They did this on everything. I estimate that I paid about one whole buck extra for all my fresh veggies due to these math errors. What a rip-off for the customers, and what a boon of extra money for HEB. On top of that detail, not all of the prices were right in the scales either, especially the sale prices. I don’t imagine many people actually look at the damn stickers after they are printed out. I do, just to make sure it’s right. Two of mine had prices much higher than on the sign by the PLU for the produce I was buying, and since that put me in a snit, I just put the bags down and left them. Didn’t want the damn mushrooms or pears anyway. So not only are they cashing in by charging full pound prices for less than a pound, they are overcharging with the prices as well. Next time, I am going to print out the stickers, stick them to my shopping list, and let the cashier find and ring up the prices so I can see if I get equally ripped off that way. I don’t care if it makes the cashier grumpy. I am not going to use the “convenient” digital sticker-printing scales if it’s going to cost me more money to do so. Screw them.

Just imagine if every person buying food for a week for a household of two hands over an extra buck for their produce every time they go shopping? How much money do you think HEB can rake in that way?! Theft is what it is. Total scam, and yes, HEB will be hearing about it from me. I am actually so annoyed about it, I might make a special trip just to complain to the manager in person. I might also mention he can tell the employees to knock off the “Hi! How are you today?” crap too. Every single employee that passed me said it, some with a stupid grin on their face and some with no attempt at even acknowledging they were saying it to anyone in particular. Just because someone smiles and asks how you are doing while they are robbing you, doesn’t make it a pleasant experience.

I have got to find a better grocery store. Now that I have a vehicle I know won’t break down on me, I may extend my range of possible choices.

All the same, I managed to get out for a few pennies over a hundred bucks, and considering I had to buy a lot of staple items, I think I did good. Lin will probably grumble about the spinach, garlic, mushroom pizza, and I know he’s going to have a fit about the lemon flavored toothpaste. Such is life. I have had to live with his choices on all grocery related items for months, and now the tables are turned.

The microwave has just informed me my four cheese manicotti with broccoli is ready, and I am starving. I ate a small serving of last night’s spaghetti before I went shopping, but I didn’t figure I’d be there so long I’d get hungry again. I forgot to look at the exact time I left, but I had to have been there for almost three hours. Crazy! That’s what happens when you haven’t been allowed to wander aimlessly in the grocery for months topped off with the fact they renivated the whole place and moved everything around. Took me ages to find stuff, and nothing was really in any sort of logical location either. But enough griping about HEB … I’ve got manicotti to eat!