“So what are you going to do when I’m in Colorado?”

“Work.”

“So what are you going to do on the weekend?”

(silence…)

There are people who have to have to make plans and have plans for every day. There are people who don’t plan and see what the day brings. I am one of the second type of people. It’s Saturday and despite having a list of chores and errands I didn’t “plan” on doing much of anything at all. But I did manage to complete a few things off my list which made the entire day a guilt-free experience.

serendipity (noun) from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
• The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
• An instance of making such a discovery.

One errand I absolutely needed done was getting gas for my Non-Green Non-EV. On the way home I stopped in a Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store in Edmond Oklahoma. I’ve lived in this town for nearly 20 years and only learned today that Edmond has a Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store. Of course I had to explore and see what I could find. I was motivated to see if I could locate some replacement spices and herbs because one of the other things on my list was to clean out the spice rack. There were just a few that expired.

• Cayenne – August 2017
• Dill – July 2010
• Coriander – December 2016
• Curry powder – February 2019
• Ground mustard – no date
• Ground ginger – no date
• Sesame seeds – January 2018

No I’m not embarrassed. I’m mortified. The rack looks better now that I’ve tossed 7 or 8 containers.

At the Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store I chose not to replace any of discards from the list. I simply don’t use these spices enough to justify buying replacements just to have sitting around for another 10 years or more before getting tossed out from lack of use. But here’s my haul from the Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store:

Tomato paste from Turkey. Five bucks for 25 ounces.

Mild red chili powder. This is not the chili powder blend in the store but just ground chili from India. I almost bought the hot version but chickened out at the last moment.

Roti from Canada. Yes, Canada.

I bought a single samosa for a snack. But I neglected to snap a picture before I ate it so here’s a stock photo. I did get some of the red sauce and it’s spicy hot.

Morning stretches followed by a morning walk. Drank coffee. Read a book. Cooked a pot of chickpeas. Wrote a journal entry. Cleaned the shower and scrubbed a toilet (totally guilt-free after knocking these two things off my list). Got gas in my Non-Green Non-EV. Cleaned out my spice rack. Found a Pakistani/Indian restaurant and grocery store in of all places Edmond Oklahoma and bought some awesome tomato paste, ground chili and roti.

5:00 PM. Drinking a beer. It’s been a good day. Hopefully there’s a World Cup soccer game on the tube tonight.