Grocery Night

Mike prepares to embark on a grocery run in Alexandria to take advantage of several deals at Albertsons. Maintaining his commitment to car-free living, he describes the challenges pedestrians often encounter in suburban areas, including the reliability of local transit service and lack of sidewalks, crosswalks, and other pedestrian infrastructure.

Good evening — or whatever time it is where you are, since I know it’s morning over in Taiwan and East Asia. I’ve actually called my mom so many times today that I think she’s finally getting tired of me, which is a point of pride because not many sons can say their mothers tell them they call too much. I have to keep reminding myself to look at the little 'hole' in the camera instead of watching myself on the screen, because that's where you guys are.

I see Jake in the comments mentioning 'HVAC' issues, and that gives me a perfect soapbox moment because I have a pet peeve about undefined acronyms. In my professional world, HVAC means high-voltage alternating current—typically anything over 600 volts—so if the HVAC lines in your neighborhood were actually down, it would be a massive debacle for thousands of people. It reminds me of New Orleans, which only has two major lines coming into the city, both of which were famously taken out during a hurricane.

I’m currently getting ready to head to the store, and as a reminder for those who don't know, I live in a version of 'suburbia hell' here in Alexandria. I am surrounded by nothing but parking lots, highways, and strip malls, which makes things difficult since I am a militant transit Nazi who refuses to own a car. It is awkward as fuck to get around a small town in central Louisiana without a vehicle; you either have to walk ten miles or leverage a roommate with a car, which I’ve been lucky enough to do recently. I’m not anti-car, but I am anti-dependency on them, and I think we’ve lost the creativity to add value to our lives without just falling into 'tit-for-tat' political thinking.

Before I head out, I’ve been working on being more resourceful, like starting a composting project for all my food scraps and kitchen waste instead of washing it down the drain. I’m also gathering up my recyclables to take to Target because you can’t have a night of decent American shopping without a stop there. It’s a beautiful day, finally dropping down from a miserable 35 degrees Celsius—I've given up on trying to be the smartest or fastest at math, so I'll let the calculators handle the Fahrenheit conversion while I focus on being clever.

The main event tonight is the grocery run, and the Lord is good because the deals are incredible. I’ve been flipping through the circulars and found two pounds of strawberries for $3 and strip steaks for $6 a pound. It’s also uniquely crawfish season here in Louisiana, so the stores are going to be packed with good things.

I’m also going to share a bit of 'ghetto street smarts' with you: get a food stamp card. It doesn't matter if you're bougie or working a great job; it's a vital safety net to have in the system for when things go sideways, like my 'spectacular and abrupt' departure from a job in Portland last year. I just checked my balance and realized I have $1,200 in EBT money that built up while I was struggling, so we are going to eat very well tonight on steaks and crawfish.

I’m going to sign off now to organize my reusable bags and head out into the evening. Thank you guys for watching and playing along. This has been Mike George. Take care of yourselves, and take care of each other!