All summer the traffic has been light around town. Perhaps it’s the high gas prices, perhaps it’s the heat, or perhaps it’s because everyone left town. I’ve also not had to deal with crowds in the stores the few times I’ve been out shopping, usually early in the morning so as to be home by the time the temperature reaches 100. Every Saturday morning I head to Whole Foods very early to grocery shop for the week, and it’s been quiet and relaxed on these summer Saturdays.
Today, it all changed. The traffic was heavier, the stores I visited had PEOPLE in them, and Whole Foods? Whole Foods was, as my mother would say, working alive. I had to say “excuse me” a couple of times to get past people blocking aisles. I couldn’t get help at the fish counter because there were people ahead of me. I gave up at the prepared foods area too because I really didn’t want to wait. I maneuvered my way into the baked goods so I could buy bagels, but then I had to carefully navigate the checkout lines as they were stacked up. And this was all before 11 a.m.
Everyone is getting back into the routine. By Monday all the schools, including the colleges, will be back in session. Some schools have been back for two weeks now. Everyone who went away for the summer is back; they are on the streets and in the stores, and I am just going to have to get used to it.
At least you won’t have to deal with being flooded by thousands of Republicans the first week of school. Ugh.