Meat Store

I went to find some ground beef at the local butcher yesterday and was faced with the eternal conundrum, given two shops that are almost exactly equidistant from my house, which one do I go to?  I usually go to the one north of me as they have a discount on 5 pounds of lean ground beef and I know what the beef jerky and turkey jerky and other meat snacks footprint looks like for my family needs.  But...I am much more likely to BIKE past the other one, so I thought, even though it's winter, I should check it out and see if they were a more bicycling-conducive stop given I roll past twice a day most days of the non-snow months so there's no extra effort involved.

I walked in and couldn't find the discount lean ground beef.  Then I couldn't find the franks I thought would be a good back up.  Then I couldn't find the kind of beef sticks I usually grab.  I didn't see the kind of steak I generally get Aeryn.  And by then I gave up on beef jerky because I was tired of staring at meat.  Now, to be fair, they might have had ALL those things. Probably did. But they were not in places I could discern within a few minutes and I am man with many appointments and less patience, particularly as I age.

So I started heading to the door and I hear, "Scott!"  I looked around and there was Mac.  He's a former coworker, a self-published author, and boss to about six of my former reports [fellow employees] and contractors, not to mention the brother of my kid's pre-school teacher, and co-worker to half a dozen others I worked with at TR.  I hadn't seen him in roughly four years. Not since we talked about potentially coming to work at his company after the great TR manager flattening. Which, to tell the full story, I passed on because I wasn't keen on not knowing where I'd be driving to as a big data contractor and I was in the mood to work downtown with Aeryn graduating.  Ironic, given less than a year later we were all home for pandemic purposes anyway.  We talked work and exchanged pleasantries, and then I walked out to my car.  I kind of wonder what he thought about how lucky he got not hiring a guy who just likes to do laps around a meat store for the smells and eventually leaves without buying anything.  I didn't explain it to him.  So in case he ever asks or I hear it through former co-workers, I now have a place to point him.