Stateside: If You See Me Walking Down The Street

Well, possums I'm thinking of you on your Monday morning at work Down Under where the autumn solstice has just passed and you're headed into the bowels of winter. For me it's a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon, and I have to confess to being a bit summer-casual about writing something this week.

First up, I've jumped ship from the university I was working at and plunged straight into some freelance work, so I don't have a weekend just yet. Having been primed to work 8 to 5 for the past five years--something that doesn't come naturally to me--it's kind of weird to think that I'll be able to go where I want to when I want to. Just so long as I get the work done that brings in the moolah to put a roof over my head and food on my table.

It's been a pretty swank roof for the past year, but I didn't manage to rein in my other spending accordingly, so now that my one-year lease will soon be ended I'll have to move down scale. I've been in the hood long enough to know I like it, so there's no big worries there. Plenty of "For Rent" signs around these days, in contrast to late 1999 when I first arrived in the Bay Area.

I'm getting the "food on the table" part of the equation in hand by buying food tokens at the local Smart and Final. This chain of supermarkets sells merchandise primarily for caterers--ie, in bulk--and it allows you to load up a debit card for spending just at their stores. No different than buying milk tokens from the milkman back in the old days, really, is it?

This "smarter, smaller warehouse store," as S&F bill themselves, is within walking distance of where I live, but it's still a bit of a struggle carrying everything home, so it's prompted me to consider buying my own supermarket trolley. (Shopping cart, for any statesiders reading this.)

In fact, I'm thinking of going into the OYO shopping cart business. It's all very well buying one of those folding shopping baskets on wheels that you can take on a bus or put in the boot of the car, but you still have to unload the shopping cart at the store and then unload the wheelie-thing when you get home.

So why not take your very own shopping cart to the supermarket? For one thing, you'll know it's clean because you'll keep it so. And you can customize it. Mag wheels. Nice pictures hanging off the sides. A flag flying from the handle. The possibilities are endless.

And frankly, it's the only sensible thing to do if you live within walking distance and can take your trolley up in your apartment building's elevator. So, if you see me walking down the street behind a shopping cart, it's not that I'm homeless. Just inventive.

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