Aldi's Etiquette

Hey all,

Since my blog is about all aspects of life, here's a recent story that might amuse you.

I stop off at Aldi's grocery store Saturday afternoon and they have this policy of all the shopping carts are chained together and you need a quarter to unchain them, thus for the price of a quarter you save the store by returning your cart for your quarter the store saves money and passes discounts on to you win win for all involved.

On this Saturday in question I pull in and like a good healthy person I park further away from the door to get in a few extra steps. I keep the prized quarter in a tray in my car so it is always handy for shopping day.  Now every time I approach the line of carts several options start to pop up as follows:

1. No one there and you walk up plug in your coin take your cart!

2. As you're about to pick out your cart someone else has just finished and says here take my cart and you inturn hand them said quarter, end of transaction.

3. Awkward in between time of people almost finished with their cart and they do not want the long walk back  and give you the look of "hey if you could just stand here for two minutes I will be ever so glad to give you my cart for your quarter thus saving me that god damn trek to the line, and I will also require your quarter"!

4. Rare but has happened someone really needs a cart but has no change and offers you a one dollar bill..so of course you say "just take my cart, its cool" well its cool until the next time you pull into Aldi's and find out you have no quarter.

5. The pass it on, in this scenario your fellow shopper says : here take my cart ,someone else handed it too me no charge so pass it on!

The pass it on is where my epic tale begins!

I'm walking up to the line of carts and this woman says"here take my cart, some guy gave it me so pass it on!" I thought that was very nice and at the same time I thought oh great now I have the task of finding someone to pass it on too or have an extra quarter rattling around my dashboard tray. I go on with my shopping and by the way Aldi's really rocks!! Great store, anyway I check out and as Im putting the bags in the trunk of my car, a woman pulls up and shouts from the window "Hey I want your cart, I will give you a quarter!!" I was very happy that she new the Aldis rule #2 I listed.  I close my trunk and notice that she is the one person to have found a further spot to park than me. So now I have the choice of waiting for her to walk over to me or I walk my now empty cart to the far side of the parking lot to her and claim my quarter.

I then remember Aldi rule #5 and think hey I will walk over and and say "here you go , pass it on!" and that will be that.

I push my empty cart pass several other shoppers who are now holding out quarters in their hands thinking this guy has no idea about Aldi's etiquette and must be a Dierberg's shopper who got lost.

I ignore these people walk up to the lady in my  best Sir Galahad  and  say "here you go, pass it on" well she heard non of that and is digging through her purse for a fucking quarter and at last I say it again and leave the cart next to her car.

As I am walking back passed the same people I had just ignored she yells from her car " Hey your a good soul!!" So I get to strut pass them with my new accolades of being a "good soul".

My wife hates any form of interaction between a stranger and this would have put her in a clinic for shots.

I chalked it up to another adventure in Markie world and drove away very happy with my single quarter waiting for my next shopping cart drama...

Peace and Love

Having fun yet?

Hey all,

Just asking out loud along with all this eating clean, working out, hiking, biking etc..are you having a good time? If not, your doing it wrong. Life is painfully short, and I for one am doing my best not to waste time on drama and bullshit like self pity or worrying for a moment what people think of me. I consider myself to be very fortunate in the fact that I’m an ugly guy. Made all the difference in my life. If I was born with a handsome face and athletic body my path would have been much different. I knew who was popular very quick in school and I noticed with all of my flaws one thing I did not have was that sense of desperation the hip kids all shared. I never felt jealous of these groups because they never seemed to very interesting people once you met them. Now all the social misfits were well read, paid close attention to films, had lots of free time to learn an instrument or become artists.
I always felt like a bit of an outsider and found strength in my solitude. Now as an adult looking back I had a great childhood and my teenage years even though I was alone a lot I never felt lonely. The day I met my wife I walked up to her without a second thought and asked her out. I had no thought of how cool I was or not, I was confident in myself and 25 years later we still hold hands when we walk.
My rambling has a point, laugh it up while you can. No one has a free ride, enjoy being yourself, shoot for the best version of you by all means but have room to laugh at yourself.
I just found out that my daughters friends after seeing me wolf down a large bag of banana chips came up with a name for me years ago…”Mutton!!”  I thought it was hilarious, I’m sure there's been all kinds of Mutton jokes about over the years.
Having fun is very serious thing, make sure you take time to laugh at yourself as well. We can try and be perfect but we all know we are not, still going to try and I will still fuck up. That’s Ok laugh it off and keep going.

Peace and Love