My younger brother did not arrive home last evening until just after 9 p.m., so I headed directly for bed as soon as I was aware of that fact.
I didn't manage as much sleep over the ensuing few hours as I would have liked, but at least I never found myself constantly checking the time. I was to rise in the midnight hour to come here to my computer to perform some work. My brother must have newly repaired to his bedroom, for the light was still illuminating that space beneath his bedroom door.
It was my plan to get out early this morning to do some grocery shopping at the nearest Save-On-Foods outlet (Google map) that is at least 1¼ miles from here ─ I would be walking, since I do not drive. The plan was to arrive there as soon after its 7 a.m. opening as was feasible.
I was not foolish enough to believe that I could stay up all night and have the desire to tackle that hike, so around 3:45 a.m. I returned to bed with my cellphone's alarm set for 5:30 a.m. Although I fared poorly at napping, I did derive some sleep; and upon rising, a cup of hot, black instant coffee helped put some needed life back into me.
It was 6:50 a.m. when finally I was outside the locked front door and taking my first step on my expedition. It was probably as dark out as it had been at any time overnight, but dawn swiftly enough began to brighten conditions.
I got my shopping done, but I did not expect my bill to come to $106.10. Also, the two tote bags I had brought for my groceries seemed to weigh around 20 pounds apiece once filled. Believe me, I got quite a workout hauling everything home.
Once here, I decided to check the receipt to see if I could espy any reason for such an escalation in expected total cost. And I found the culprit.
I now have it solidly reinforced not to purchase any organic produce that is not clearly marked as to price. I am always reluctant to make such purchases anyway ─ I cannot afford to be blindly paying for anything.
What had tempted me were quite large apples ─ Honeycrisps, they were. I only selected six of them...but I was evidently charged $16.02 ─ which works out to being $2.67 apiece!
That's freakin' ridiculous. No wonder the price was not posted ─ no one would buy them!
This is a lesson I will hold firmly in mind from this time forth. If the produce does not have its price plainly indicated, I will no longer be taking my chances and including whatever it is amongst my purchases.
Incidentally, we haven't had any rain since yesterday morning, but it is
mainly cloudy and cool out there. My early walk was therefore a dry
one.
I managed to remain up until well beyond 10 a.m., by which time my brother had risen. I was feeling almost ravenous, so I wanted to lose some time in unconsciousness because my intermittent fasting schedule does not allow for me to take in any calories until 12:30 p.m. has been surpassed. As it was, I was madly craving my day's first hot caffeinated beverage ─ a delicious mugful of blended instant coffee, unsweetened cocoa powder, demerara brown sugar, honey, blackstrap molasses (or 'C' Molasses), and liquid heavy whipping cream.
A mug of that is nearly like a liquid meal, and nicely obliterates hunger.
I've been on an intermittent fasting schedule now for at least a month ─ probably longer. And I seem to be hovering around 180 pounds in bodyweight at a height of maybe five feet and 10¾ inches. For most of my younger adult life, I have weighed throughout the 180-pound range, but prefer to be in the low 180s.
I just recently had my 71st birthday, so I neither want to burgeon in poundage, nor suffer the other fate of progressive frailty.
As for my hot caffeinated beverage, I was to enjoy it while my brother was back in his bedroom resting up for his afternoon away to eventually resume his daily drinking somewhere. I took that opportunity to peruse the Saturday morning edition of the Vancouver Sun that I subscribe to, and I decided that I would scan the names in the obituary section when I came to it.
To my great surprise, I came upon someone I actually knew ─ a former co-worker:
May Schlappner
May 24, 1958 - October 7, 2020A native Vancouverite, May grew up in a crowded house with her parents and six siblings in East Vancouver. She attended Britannia Secondary School where she met the love of her life and BFF, Peter. They married in 1985. She worked for the federal government for 27 years (most recent was the Department of Ocean and Fisheries) before retiring in 2008. May was an avid fan of figure skating, tennis and the Vancouver Canucks. May enjoyed travelling and spending time with friends & family. She was an adoring Aunt to her nieces and nephews. May fought hard but ultimately lost her battle with breast cancer.
May is predeceased by her parents, Sing and Jing Fong Lam. She is survived and will be profoundly missed by Peter, half-sisters Fun Ha and Judy, and brothers and sisters Jack (Agnes), William (Annie), Johnny, Helen (Pierre), Alice (Mike), Jean and many nieces and nephews.
The family would like to extend sincere thanks to Dr. Sophie Sun, the care team at BCCA and the staff at Evergreen Home Care Centre.
No public service will be held due to COVID restrictions. In lieu of flowers, donations to a charity of your choice in May's name are welcome.
Condolences, memories and tributes may be sent to the family by visiting: www.dignitymemorial.com
Published on October 16, 2020
May was superlative in helping educate me in the ways of handling what we called 'Fleet pay' for the Canadian Coast Guard ─ we worked together as Compensation Advisors in the Compensation section of the Human Resources branch of Vancouver's federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
And I am going to take a break here at 4:28 p.m. Time sure sucks.
To the expense of this blog post, I put considerable work into the draft of my first post at my new website MyRetirementDream.com. As yet, it only has three or four static pages, so I rather keenly wish to finally get a post finished and published there.
But I am some distance from accomplishing that yet.
By the way, I forwarded May Schlappner's obituary to six or seven former co-workers of ours whom I thought likely not to have yet learned of her passing. I have since heard from two of them.
Okay, I have to bring this post to a close, for it is now working towards 8:30 p.m., and I need to be set to get myself to bed if my younger brother fails to arrive home by 8:30 p.m.
I am considering trying to advance-vote early tomorrow in the current provincial election, but I hope to do a far better bid at sleeping overnight than I did last night. Or any recent nights of late!
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