connections

I am in California for a while as nanny for my first grandchild. She is a cutie, but a great occupier of time as most babies are.

Therefor, I am learning new routes, new driving rules (motorcycles, for example, can drive in the space between lanes), new stores, and new faces.

My daughter does a lot of shopping at Food-4-Less, which I immediately figured out was part of Kroger (cans labeled Kroger!). I tried my scan tag which said King Soopers and it worked. I have now used the card in Colorado and California in the following Kroger stores: King Soopers, City Market, and Food-4-Less. I have seen Ralphs in California, but have not been inside...yet!

Libraries across the country must have very tight connections. When I got a new card in Belle, they would only let me check out two books. When I got a new card in Riverside, they would only let me check out 2 books!. They are centuries apart in technologies. The 2 book rule must go back to the dark ages.

In some ways our country is way too homogenized, probably impossible to stop considering tv, movies, social networking sites, and ease of travel. Every semi-large place has a McDonald's or two, Olive Garden, Starbucks, Target, Pizza Hut, etc. What I really like is to eat and shop at places that are really rooted in their place (like the Tattered Cover, McGuckin's Hardware, The Green Bean, The Wild Rose, and MONA{Museum of Nebraska Art}).

Even with all the connectedness, this sameness in our culture, there is not a greater understanding of the essential likeness of all of us.