No bags please!

I don't care that I'm being charged 5 cents a bag. I do care that it is the city that insists upon it and yet the money is collected by the store who then decides what to do with it. I don't even care if they pocket it, I'm just annoyed that they are told what they have to collect this encouragement fee to avoid bags and then get hassled.

C and I were having a coffee and I noticed a man carrying two packages of white dress shirts. Forgetting about the bag issue momentarily I wondered why he was carrying them around. It looked like he walked out of the store without paying. Then I remembered the whole bag issue.

A friend of my mother's related a story growing up in logging country BC. She was sent to the corner store with a note from her mother. The clerk wrapped up a box in brown paper. Now the little girl was quite intrigued in what her mother could be buying that would be wrapped up like a gift. So she spent her trip back carefully unwrapping the sanitary products. Her mother was horrified to find that by the time she got them home they were exposed to the public.

Now, back to the bag issue. C and I started to wonder which items we could purchase in this little plaza and place smack dab in the middle of our table in the Food Court which would force someone to give us a bag! Oh My!

Would you like to keep your urine?

I handed over my urine for testing ketones as part of my diet. After she was finished the clerk asked me "Would you like to keep your urine?". Oh My. Why would I want to. Seeing my puzzled look she offered "or would you like me to throw it?".

Uh, yeah, throw it. She seemed a bit surprised and I noticed that there was no other urine bottles in the waste basket. I could only picture people carrying their urine home to store for future posterity. But why?

When I booked my next appointment I understood why. I need to pay 25 cents if I want to buy a collection container.

She wasn't asking if I wanted to take my urine home, she was asking if I wanted to keep the container! Of course it would be up to me to dump the urine and clean it out. I wish it had been more clear. Could have saved a quarter.

Apparently the containers do not have to be sterile. You can use a container from home. Juice glass?