Making It Plain

Last week I went to the store to purchase some lotion (among a few other things). I went to the aisle where I knew it would be and saw it. Just before picking it up, right next to my usual brand, there was the store version with a sale price underneath it. It was $2.00 cheaper and was buy one get one free. How bad could the store brand be? I chose it but in picking it up, I saw there was the only one on the shelf. Still, putting it into my cart, it was $2.00 cheaper. Finishing the rest of my shopping, I went to the cashier. When he got to my lotion, I told him of the dilemma to quickly fix the problem. He ran the price checker over the bottle and said, "You're right." Did he do what I thought he was going to do? Call the stock person in the back to supply the demand and bring a bottle to the front? No, instead of reaching for the phone, he picked up a laminated paper, with some writing on it and said to me, " What I can do is reduce the price even further." He...

I recall in the Autumn months when I used to live in Utah, there was this abandoned apricot orchard that my brother and I discovered. A neighbor suggested that we gathered as much fruit as we can because she was used to canning. She had her son come with us and it was the first time my mother made apricot preserves. But before we actually got the product she instructed us which of the fruit we should pick. We, as children, enjoyed going to the orchard to have our fill of the apricots. We didn't pick the hard ones because experience taught us that the hard ones weren't as sweet and delicious. So we left those. We also learned not to be so tired and reconcile to the fruit on the ground because it was more than likely spoiled or the bugs weren't finished with it. I recall the ick dance when picking those apricots from the ground. I thought it would be easier and they looked fine from the top. It was where the ground connected with the fruit when I turned it over did I see the ...