altivo

I've discovered that any time I feel fat, all I need is a visit to Wal-Mart to cheer me up. It's rather a puzzling thing, but seems to be true of every Wal-Mart store in our vicinity. It starts in the parking lot, where the proportion of oversized gas-guzzling SUVs is very high. Especially since the recession really took hold and gas prices started to skyrocket. The number of Navigators, Expeditions, and Hummers on the road has really dropped, except in Wal-Mart's parking lot, where they are piled up in all the spaces nearest the entrance, including the handicapped parking (though none of them have handicapped plates.)

Then you go into the store and discover there are many people shopping in there who are so wide in the beam that they block entire aisles. Given the expansive width of Wal-Mart's grocery aisles, this alone is remarkable. What is not remarkable is the content of their shopping carts: piles of snack food, frozen pizzas, and often, cases of beer. Never anything you actually have to cook, and certainly no fresh fruit or veggies, not even what passes for same at a Wal-Mart (so unfresh and overpriced that I refuse to buy that stuff there.)

I guess Wal-Mart customers still drive SUVs because they can't wedge themselves behind the steering wheel of a Mini-Cooper or, for that matter, even a Jeep Cherokee. And of course, Wal-Mart gives them what they want: acres of convenience food and booze. Who needs fresh stuff? Who needs things you have to actually cook before you can eat them? What's a "kitchen" anyway?

On another topic entirely, the sleying is now complete, the rethreaded warp tied onto the cloth bar, and the weaving started again. Alas, I need to unweave about a dozen picks in order to change some proportions (my "chariot wheels" were coming out "flat".) Not a big deal at this point, but I decided to go to bed instead of doing it right now. Here's a photo taken while the sleying was still in process: