strawberries are sometimes quite cheap here and are sometime too expensive to bother with. it depends on the time of year. this doesn't actually make sense, though, as essentially all strawberries sold here are from florida, california or mexico (with the vast majority from california), and the growing season there is mostly year-round. strawberries do grow locally, but the ones i see on the shelf are always very small - about the size of raspberries - and often white or even green. on top of that, they're often strangely expensive. rather, it seems like ontario exports most of it's quality strawberry production. again: i'd rather buy strawberries from local producers, but what can i do when the local farms ship them to the prairies and the local grocery stores buy them from california, except point out the stupidity of the situation?
it's probably just an excuse to drive the price up. if they ship them around, they can charge more and blame it on transportation costs. that's the kind of thing that needs to change.
for now, what i do when the price of strawberries goes up is buy them frozen instead because the price of frozen berries seems less subject to "market conditions". i looked everywhere and saw the same high price everywhere, except the place i looked first - which was only marginally overpriced. what i did was get enough of the mildly overpriced berries for a few days and a batch of the frozen ones for backup. i'm hoping that the price has come down a little by next week; if not, i'll get some more frozen ones.
i also got some canned anchovies, which took me a long time to find. i accidentally realized that i was looking in the wrong place - i thought they'd be with the tuna & sardines, on the shelf. it turns out that i actually had to go to the fish counter to get canned anchovies. weird. this is just to try it; i don't know if i'll like it or nor. i may want to get fresh ones in the end, if i decide this works. over the last few days, i also got some algal oil and some high fluoride toothpaste for the fruit bowl (i'm going to hold off on eating the toothpaste until i'm sure i can measure it properly) and some garlic, in addition to the anchovies, for the pasta bowl - which i'm going to need to put through an optimization process relatively soon.
so, the first thing i'm going to need to do, after i finish this crazy post i've been working on that splits the chart into four, is an update on the breakfast bowl. i should finish that thought first, though. i've been toying with doing a breakfast bowl update first, but i want to keep this a bit more linear.
and, i collapsed again when i got in - this time for almost 8 hours of sleeping. that much sleep is unheard of for me, and something i'd prefer to avoid if i have any choice in the matter; i did not, last night.
i contacted the dentist this morning about cancelling the "fillings" and booking a cleaning instead, and his receptionist actually gave me a ton of pushback on it. they said they'd schedule the fillings and the cleaning on the same day, which is setting me up to pay for a cancelled appointment, which set off a ton of red flags. why don't they want me to get a cleaning and then look at my teeth and think about it, to the point that they're willing to try and manipulate me into paying for a service that isn't rendered?
i had to threaten to book at another office before i got the receptionist to agree to confer with the dentist. this is all very bad news in terms of transparency and consumer choice; this is my body, and i make the decisions, not the dentist. the receptionist shouldn't have to ask the doctor for permission to cancel an appointment; that's absurd. i need to be able to request services on demand based on what i want, not be told what to do by an "expert" based on "what's good for me". that's fascistic-type thinking. we live in a democracy....
so, are they trying to drill into stains, again? it looks like it...but what do i do, now? i've been to three crooked, authoritarian dentists, now, that all want to tell me what to do instead of listening to what i want. am i going to go to ten more and deal with the same despotic behaviour over and over?
i need my teeth cleaned, at least. if they won't do it, i'll call somebody else, and be more assertive and upfront about it, next time.
so, i'm in, now, for a few days, at least. let's hope i can finally finish that post in a day or two.