Supermarket serendipity

Last night, I dragged myself away from the cozy glow of the wood stove and attended a concert by the local symphony orchestra. It was a pleasant programme, including Ode to the Common Man, Overture to The Magic Flute, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, and Beethoven's entire Fifth Symphony. I tried to let go of the day, especially during Jesu, Joy, but a few niggling frustrations kept entering my thoughts and the experience wasn't quite as sublime as it could have been. Also, the cellos had a few issues. Some of the wind solos, however, were close to perfection, which kind of made up for the cello deficits.

Now you know why I don't review concerts for a living.

On the way home, I hit Safeway for a last-minute bargain shop of the week. One of my favourite pastimes is ambling the aisles of grocery stores late at night.
Weird, I know.
Not only is it peaceful, but many of the refrigerated goods have been marked down to giveaway prices. When I combine those savings with coupons, I can often get things like yogurt for almost free.
Last night, I scored seven packages of Hillshire Farm Cheddar Wurst for 99c each. And in case you're wondering, I didn't clean out the bargain bin.
That would have been greedy.

I rely on such sausages to glorify my rice and bean dishes, so I felt justifiably smug. I added a few other mark-downs and some golden bananas to my cart and pulled into the checkout line. 

I noticed the cute young thing in front of me, eyeing my sausages.

And by cute young thing, I mean a "he".

He said, Those are quite a deal.

Yes, says I.

Silence.

The checker started ringing through his purchases and cutiepie's eyes slid to my sausages again. 

I said, Just ring through one of mine and you can run back and get the rest of them.

How many do want? asked the checker.

Five, said he.

Ohh, I don't think there are five left, I sighed, feeling greedy, in spite of my self-restraint.

Tell you what, I'll run back and get them while he's ringing you through.

So off I sped, in my trusty El Naturalistas, and came back with three more packages.

Cutiepie was so grateful.

Te nada, I said modestly.

Then.

I noticed the guy behind me (not so cute, but very nice) had some of the BOGO muffins that I had meant to buy, because Jeff likes them in his lunches. 

Oh darn, I said, I forgot those.

Cutiepie, who was getting ready to leave, offered nicely, I'll go find you some. What flavours do you want?

Blueberry and marionberry, please.

It was, if I may say so, a very gratifying exchange.