This poorly-told story is a two parter.
Part one: We have a lot of plastic jugs in the basement that cause me angst. The litter inside was cheap, but the wasteful plastic has a heavy cost. (*cough* heavy handed *cough* tree hugger) On Sunday I took one of them to Lincoln to see if any of the pet stores sold litter in bulk. They do! They sold two sizes to refill: 16 pounds or 30 pounds. I showed the cashier my non-standard container and asked if I could fill it. She hemmed and hawed and I said, “If it’s between 16 and 30, I’ll pay for the 30.” She agreed.
I filled up my jug and then stood for twenty years in the checkout line. The people ahead of me were buying a bunch of stuff for their adorable puppy and it involved coupons and rebates and took a really long time. The girl I spoke to originally was gone, and the new girl was flustered from all the the puppy paraphernalia, and then by my non-standard jug. She weighed it and it was 22 pounds. Teenage Manager Boy came over and told her to punch in a code (which she did wrong three times) and finally she rung up my total…… for 16 pounds. I just thanked her and left.
And then. The guilt.
Part two: The Early Dark has come, and Sunday night I was laughing because I was sooooo tired and was getting ready for bed and it wasn’t even 9:30. THEN I realized that I hadn’t set back the bathroom clock and it was actually 8:30! I slept a wonderful sleep…. until guilt woke me.
At 4:30 I was doing bad calculations to figure out how I could make up for cheating PetCo out of two dollars. It involved some basic ‘chunk’ math. If I buy three containers of 20 (not filling the jug up all the way), I can pay for two 30-pound refills. That is not a problem. What is a problem is that every. single. time. I try to figure out cost per pound, I can never remember what to divide where. It’s even there in the sentence! It’s money divided by stuff, right? Right? But no, I have to start out with: “If I had one thing for one dollar. What if I had two things for one dollar? Which way does that go?” I am so, so stupid.