I said I would never do it! I made fun of people who did it! I accused them of being lazy and privileged beyond redemption! Now I have joined them. Oh, whoa is me! I’ve betrayed myself and my beliefs.

What is this terrible thing I have done? Worse yet, I have become what I demonized. I’M STARTING TO USE THE PICKUP OPTION FOR GROCERIES! There I said it, I’ve given in, please don’t hate me.

It all started a couple of weeks ago. It was just an innocent action on my part. I rationalized with myself that I did have the need and the right to just order my “stuff” online, charge it and have someone bring it out to my car and put it in there.

Oh, if only they would go home with me and take it in the house and unpack and put it away. Now, I’m really hating myself for thinking that.

Back to my reasoning. I was doing my daily shopping in person at Walmart. Gibbs needed his usual 40 pound bag of dog food. Since Walmart always has it in stock I headed to the pet department. I could get smaller amounts of dog food but having been married to a very “thrifty” person for almost 60 years, I learned that bigger is most always cheaper, at least in dog food.

I found what I needed, but there was no way I could lift it off the bottom shelf and put it into my cart so I started looking around for a helpful employee. Where are they when you need them?

I casually walked around looking for any sign of help, when a gentleman shopper saw my dilemma and offered to put that in my cart.

I was grateful for that, but when I got to the checkout, I knew I had to have someone take the dog food out of the cart and put it into the car. How I was going to get it out of the car was my problem. But that’s what sons are for, right. Problem solved.

Last week, I was just looking at the weekly ad and saw something about delivery or pick up. Hmmm! I checked the price of Gibbs’ favorite food and found it was a bit cheaper to get online, so I took the plunge and ordered it for pick up. Then I thought oh, what the heck, I’ll just add the other stuff I need.

I was hooked. Paid with my credit card and relaxed for a few hours. I went to Walmart, parked in a specified spot, and waited for my goodies to be put in my car and away I went. Sweet!

Now, I’m doing it again. I feel really bad for being so lazy and entitled, but hey, I’m old and it is way hot here in Texas today, so I’m doing it again.

And to make myself feel better, I rationalized that because it is so hot here Gibbs can’t go to the store and wait in the car for me so I’m doing him a favor as well as myself. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Reach Kaye Brown at [email protected].