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So, this is filed under miscellaneous, but if there were an even more random category, it would fall under that.

It was a blustery evening after work, a little above freezing and since the days are still short, dark. The air was chill and unmistakably damp, all around rather unpleasant. I rushed across the parking lot, the ground black and glistening from melted snow. I strode briskly through the sliding doors and the anarchy that is T&T washed across me in a roar of chinese and checkout scanning blips. A crotchety old chinese man returned the frozen halibut that scanned in higher than he expected, a young couple filling in their lucky draw slips, giggling at some private exchange.

I flew through the aisles, one arm juggling a basket and phone, the other pulling items off the shelves in a flurry. Before long I came upon the produce section and scanned over the area. Eyes passed over piles of fruit and short chinese people alike, scanning for the most attractive looking fruity goodness. Winter. Winter is all about navel oranges, isn’t it? I quickly navigated the carts and rolling baskets to the oranges.

The oranges looked pretty good, fairly large and juicy, and ripe for the most part. I began to sift through the oranges at random, gauging colour and size, mentally measuring roundness while hefting them in hand to estimate juice-factor. After subconsciously calculating using a random formula of these most important properties, I began to bag orange after orange. As I continued, my eyes wandered their way over to the adjacent fruit. More oranges, at first glance seeming identical to the ones I was currently elbow deep in.

But wait! what was this!

These newly discovered oranges were $1.40 a pound! Almost double the price of the heap in front of me. My curiosity was instantly sparked at the fact that these near identical oranges were close to twice the price. The orange I was holding in my hand had dropped, forgotten, and the remaining Sunkist navel oranges in my bag now appeared pale, dry, and lifeless.

[.. to be continued ..]

Anyhow.. not wanting to expend all the energy finishing this, I bought some Cara Cara oranges and they turned out to be pink inside, almost like a grapefruit. They also have a very interesting taste which is, while distinctively orange, also distinctively not. It’s like one of those Tropicana orange juice mixes, but in a fruit.