Okay, so I want to support Cable Girl of 42 in what I think is a wonderful effort, so I'm doing Flashback Friday today, and encouraging people to visit her site and read the other Flashback Friday entries, but honestly speaking, I'm only flashing back.... to...
yesterday.
I have a pre-diabetic guinea pig. And yes, I promise you this is not another Jen post about the wonders and perfection of guinea pigs.
But anyway, Pookie Girl is pre-diabetic. And she needs glipizide twice a day. And the only way she'll take it is to know a treat (ie. a bit of cucumber, or an herb, or some other green, non-sugary vegetable) is waiting for her. And, of course, her sisters wouldn't understand if Pookie Girl got a treat and they didn't. Because piggies don't roll that way. So... twice a day, I call out, "Do I have a good girl?" And Pookie Girl comes running up to me and takes her .07 mg of glipizide and then I call out "Treeeeaaaatttttsssss!" and all the piggies scramble to the bottom the cage to see what wonder awaits.
Okay, so I promised this wouldn't be about pigs. And it's not. About guinea pigs, in any case.
But I have to admit, I was reminded just what a small town I live in yesterday. And this is why.
A new grocery store opened just down the road from me. But it's not just any store... oh, no, it's an organic/all natural/gourmet food/pharmacy/wine seller with salad and hot food bar, and a pizza station and homemade breads and pastries and a sushi bar, a See's candies shop and a Zingerman's cafe. I was happy for two reasons: one, I can now buy a gallon of milk easily when I run out. Two, I have to admit - I'm a foodie, and the temptation of all that was very... tempting.
I didn't, however, expect what I ran into.
Now, this super-duper fancy a-- grocery store is darned similar to a mega Whole Foods that we already have in another part of town. In addition, Whole Foods is opening their biggest store in the state of Michigan in yet another part of town. We have a mostly organic/local/natural food store that's been in business for 30 years that's independent. We have two, local gourmet shops with a wide variety of produce, meats and groceries. We have a well-stocked, amazing food co-op. We have a Trader Joe's. In the summers, we have three separate days of farmers markets. We have representatives of four grocery chains - all of which are well-stocked, clean and reasonably-priced.
And we're a city of a whopping 100,000.
Makes you wonder.
But this morning, you would have thought that the people in my town had never seen food before. It was as if someone had blasted "Trrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaaaattttttsssss!!!!" through the tornado sirens, and all the good citizens were scrambling like lemmings to take cover in the aromas of Peet's coffee and the perfume of fresh bergamot.
Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country. It seems like every third house is for sale. Houses in my neighborhood have been on the market for two years. No one works permanently anymore - almost everyone is on yearly contract. A successful job is one with health insurance.
And it makes me wonder... are we really all a bunch of guinea pigs, following the latest trend, getting into debt because we're told we need "stuff"?
Yeah, the new store is really nice.
But is it really necessary?
