Shopping List

    I think scientists should do some research on the amazing properties of the shopping list.  There are some truly unexplored powers that the shopping lists exhibit that need to be explained.  

    Since our closest merchants are in the tiny village of McBride (a place that only has one grocery store) we have to periodically make a trip up to the “big city” of Prince George in order to fill in a lot of the supplies that we desire.  Because a round trip to PG takes up a whole day, we want to make sure that we get all of the things we need while we are up there, so we make a shopping list.

    I knew I was going up to Prince George to pick up Joan from her recent trip, so I started a list of supplies for when I was up at Prince.  The day of the trip, I folded it and stuck it in my back pocket, making sure I didn’t forget it and leave it at home.  Along my drive, when I got to the Slim Creek Rest area, and was walking the dog, I reached back to my back pocket to make sure that I still had the shopping list.

    I panicked because my back pocket seemed empty, but fortunately, I then felt it at the edge of my pocket.  I had forgotten that I had folded it vertically, and so it didn’t take up much pocket space.  Satisfied that I still had it, I relaxed and continued to walk Skye around.  

    When Joan finally arrived at the airport and as we were putting her bag into the back of the car, I checked again to see if I still had the list,  and was again reassured when I felt it in my pocket.  We had to get a service for the car, so we sat around at the Subaru dealer until that was done.  Again I checked to make sure I had the list, but when I felt it, I started to think that if I was so worried about losing it, I would be better off just to put it in a more secure place, so I took it out of my back pocket and put it in the chest pocket of my down jacket, which I could zip shut.

    When we pulled into the parking lot at Costco, our major shopping stop, it was pouring rain.  I didn’t want to get my down jacket wet, so I took it off and put on my rainproof windbreaker instead.  We grabbed our shopping bag an rain through the rain to the store.  

    Once inside the store, pushing the shopping cart around, I thought I’d better check what all we needed to get, so I reached into my back pocket to get the shopping list.  When I found my back pocket empty, I remembered. “Oh yeah, I put it in my zippered coat pocket” and my hand automatically reached for the chest pocket on my jacket.  It was then I realized that I was now wearing a different jacket and the shopping list was in my zipped down jacket, safe and secure in the car, out in the rain soaked parking lot.  

    I didn’t feel like facing the weather and going out to get it, so I just had to trust my memory.  Fortunately, this time I did remember everything on the list, but I couldn’t help but be amazed at the ability of shopping lists to disappear when you most need them.  If I had a dime for every shopping list that couldn’t be found when we needed it, I would be a very wealthy man indeed. 

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