…I stopped into a certain European food store to pick up a few things we need for Christmas. We often buy our Polish sausage there since our old fave kielbasa place closed a while back. It was bedlam in there, bumper to bumper.

The first thing I noticed as I walked through the veggie section was a display of chanterelles with a sign “product of Ontario”. Now we haven’t seen chanterelles in this part of Ontario since perhaps early September. Maybe in SW Ontario the season is a little longer, but it’s all over and it’s been all over for months. Last I heard, you can’t cultivate chanterelles, so my question is, where did these grow? By the way, you can buy a bag for only $30/pound – yikes. I took a pass.

At the sausage counter, I was #390 and they were serving #364. There were a lot of employees behind the counter though, and I only had to wait twenty minutes or so. I bought some Goralska sausage and another kind that looked good and was on special. Over to the meat counter and I find some pork for patychky and a batch of sticks.

Another ten minutes of shopping, and I head for the cash. The line-ups are long and heavy-duty. I hear an announcement above the din: “mumble mumble mumble debit and credit cards mumble mumble mumble sorry for the inconvenience. I push through the crowd and ask a cashier, “Is there some problem with using debit or credit cards?” “Oh, they might work….if you’re lucky…something is wrong with the readers.” Great. I have $20 in cash in my wallet and a closer to $100 worth of food in my cart. I feel like I’m at Casino Niagara.

The woman in front of me in line is up to bat. Her cart is a Tardis – it doesn’t look like there is that much in her cart, but she keeps on pulling more and more stuff out of it. She hands the cashier her VISA card and crosses her fingers. Everybody waits as the technology considers weather this woman gets to buy her groceries or not. Approved. “I’m approved!”

I thought, no, I’m sunk. How likely is it that the fickle machinery will approve two customers in a row? I decide to try VISA rather than debit. “This is a chip card sir, you need a PIN number. A pin number? Oh geez, what’s my pin number. I can’t formulate it in my brain. I simply don’t use it that much. I depend on my fingers to figure it out independent of my mind. It works. I get approved too!

I get to the door and there is an employee shouting at incoming customers, “CASH ONLY…CASH ONLY…CASH ONLY” People are streaming into the store. I don’t know if they hear her or not. I get safely to my car and zoom off home.

Memphis is waiting for me at the door. She doesn’t care what kind of day I’ve had. She’s just thrilled to see me. I’m pretty happy to see her too.