New Mercury Retrograde Survival Tool
Mercury hit its pattern, essentially, as noted before, and in the book, The Portable Mercury Retrograde, August 12 to September 5, with allowances as need be. “As noted before,” and in the book?
Previously, I have written about Mercury in Retrograde Rituals.
This one seems to require some new tools, or an adjunct to what I already suggest.
New Mercury Retrograde Survival Tool
Shopping, the other day, or rather, availing myself of the free lunch, and yes, I realize it isn’t free, but it came at no direct cost to me, so I’ll assume the free samples were like a free lunch, although, as we all know, there is no free lunch.
I like me some COSTCO shopping. Warehouse style with warehouse prices. Turns out, they seem to have the smallest mark-up on certain items. I have been known to just make a lap through the store and gather up free samples, done right, it can almost be a meal. Years ago, at a competing Sam’s Club, I was limited in my samples, “You can only try one.” I no longer shop at that chain; one bad interaction (plus company policies and politics) soured me.
So, thinking through the synodic mercurial period and its current influences, as I meandered amongst stacks of groceries, the little sausage was good, shooters of granola-like material enjoyable, there was a whole-wheat cracker pita chip with all-natural fruits salsa that seemed tasty enough, and with that, I veered towards coffee. In part, COSTCO sells the old Ruta Maya brand of coffee, and it is relatively inexpensive through the wholesale giant. Runs a little less than $7 per pound, in 2 or 3 pound bags. Single-origin roast runs — at least — twice that in small increments, usually about $15 per pound, or $20 for those nickel-bags.
New Mercury Retrograde Survival Tool
A feature that I enjoy at the COSTCO is the visible pricing. Price for the item then, say, a pallet of water bottles? The price per bottle or the price per unit, like the coffee, it was listed at $7.xx per pound, or the Starbucks, at $6.xx per pound, or, and this is where the rubber hit the road for me, the COSTCO branded coffee was $5.xx per pound, in two or three pound bags, I don’t recall, but compared with Starbucks Breakfast Blend. So it was Starbucks Breakfast Blend Colombian Medium — or Dark — Roast, cost about as much as a small serving of single origin, artisanal beans that were hand-roasted over an open flame with wood that was naturally harvested, and the beans themselves were free-range. Probably cage-free, too.
My current morning ritual is a short walk to get a cup of coffee while it is still dark out, before the August heat visits itself upon us. Then, I follow that with a Chemex full of whatever is on hand. In recent experiments, yeah, still playing.
So the answer, though, now has started to emerge. Some of that COSTCO brand coffee, and if it is like most products associated with that chain? Good quality, low price, best bought in bulk.
Perfect for surviving and thriving when Mercury is Retrograde.
New Mercury Retrograde Survival Tool
More coffee, maybe buy the pallet, good stuff, cheap.
If only there was a manual to help with this mess…
RTFM
Portable Mercury Retrograde
