Today I drove to Manna Grocery twice, which probably defeated the purpose of going at all since I was patronizing it for the good of the earth. A "health food" store, it's 3.5 miles from my house, 7 miles round trip. 7 x 2 = 14 miles = 1/2 gallon of gas = another $2.00 contribution to the foreign oil crisis. Oh well, "intentions" I reminded myself.

First thing this morning: purchasing tea in an effort to kill the coffee habit. Requirements: no caffeine, no black, no green, no acid. Even with all those limitations, there were still too many options. Where was my consultant? Would someone else please advise me on this because I had no interest in doing the required research? Why wasn't my naturopath on call? Too parched to deliberate any longer, I settled for what I knew: mint, but non-organic, because it was cheaper.

This afternoon, back again: purchasing epsom salt for muscular pain relief bath. Requirements: must say "epsom salt" on the packaging. Since I really didn't know what epsom salt was, deviating from the literal seemed risky. But no luck. There were too many choices with all the wrong labels. I needed my consultant again. The sea salt crystals looked like a convincing enough match, but they were overpriced. I refused to spend $6.00 on a container of only 2 cups of sea salt when an entire cup was required per bath. Were the other varieties any cheaper? Not really.

So I walked next door to Rite-Aid. Bath blasphemy! And then I hurried back into Manna. More consternation, changing body positions, and frustrated facial expressions. I had now attracted the attention of staff. "Are you finding everything okay?" "Yes," I grunted. I had to get out of there. And finally, individual-sized packets of some mineral variety looked manageable at $2.50 each. $2.50 wasn't bad, right? If I didn't buy more than one, no. But I bought five. Sigh. Buying in bulk was always such a commitment.