Pepper and Salt Grinders
Now Playing: NIN - With Teeth
Topic: Physical Well Being
For many a year I would go past the large box store
called 'Bed,Bath and Beyond'and never go in it. Their website Out
of respect for the feelings of a friend who once had
a bad experience with that store I stayed away from
it. I know I'd see it at least once a week, it's
always near the Barnes and Noble or some other store
I would go into. I'd see that large sign on the
front and think about the person who told me the
story which I have completely forgotten except for
the part that Bed, Bath and Beyond was not good and
friendly to her. Going into the store was no big
loss of course, who needs to see a store full of
bedsheets and towels. That sounds slightly less
exciting than a ladies shoe store.

A salt grinder, a pepper grinder. My kingdom for a
salt grinder. You know how you decide you need
something, something to make your life a tiny bit
better. It started in this case with those little
McCormick Salt and Pepper grinders. Clever little
things, inexpensive and useful as can be. You take
the perfect pasta dinner and take a bite. Ah let's
see, like last night's dinner. A mini penne, done al
dente with just a bit of butter and chopped fresh
parsley. A bit of grated Mozzarella cheese. Some lime
and cracked pepper grilled chicken breast, sliced
and put atop the pasta. Into the oven at 350 until
the cheese melts. Garnish with sliced Roma tomatoes,
sliced hard boiled egg and lettuce. Ummm. You take a
bite and of course it needs just a bit more pepper
and salt. But for it be really exceptional you need
to have the fresh ground pepper and a good sea salt.
This would be where those McCormick grinders come
in. Those little guys are great but you know, I
always worry about what happens if I look for
something and it's not there any longer. They are so
small and easily lost. Hence my search for the
bigger and better grinders. Well you know it's not
as easy as it seems. Something like a pepper grinder
is not an item you generally would think of often.
At least I never thought of it much. Finding one
became a chore. And when I would find one there
wouldn't be a salt grinder to go with it.

It started as a low level search that got more
intense as I didn't find what I was looking for.
Don't know exactly what it was, a walk in front of
the store while thinking of the problem of finding
or not finding the salt grinder but eventually I did
find myself walking into the dread store. You could
see kitchen stuff there through the window and it's
a awfully big store so I thought perhaps they might
actually have some grinders. Walked in and wow. As
far as I could see there before me was an array of
kitchen items. Well now, I can take or leave the bed
stuff, don't much care for the bath stuff but I'm
all over the kitchen stuff. And this place has some
kitchen stuff. That Swedish style kitchen stuff,
high end pans, baking things, utensils, just
everything you never knew you needed. And to make it
even better they had a genuine selection of grinders
which even included salt grinders. Aha, at last.

As is my wyrding way I vented my spleen at the
manager who checked me out. Excuse me sir, but you
know, the name of your store 'Bed,Bath and Beyond'
has kept me from even coming in. Who the hell wants
to come into a store to just look at towels and
bedsheets? My god man, you've got stainless steel
kitchen utensils! You've got Salt and Pepper
grinders in many sizes and styles! I ranted in my
good natured way and the fellow was very kind,
explaining how they've expanded the inventory and
the types of things they carry. I said thank
goodness as I clutched the three pack of ice cube
trays- the ones I'd never seen before that had big
long thin ice 'cubes' for plunking in your workout
water bottle. And I might add they keep the iced
tea very very cold and have become my preferred
handmade ice cubes. New Salt Grinder and thin long
ice cubes. A very good haul indeed. I still felt
guilty being in the store but I did get some things
I absolutely needed.