911 to the grocery store

It started out like any other day. The alarm went off, the shower was taken, the kids were woken up. Everyone dressed for breakfast. The coffee was made......(insert sound of record being ripped off the record player--would that be CD being yanked out of the walkman now?)

EEGADS! The coffee was made that morning with the LAST coffee filter. The coffee filter packs that I buy have 250 filters in them. You mean to tell me that we have made coffee 250 times all ready? My! how time flies when you love caffeine!

So even though I cannot stand to make a middle of the week shopping trip, out of coffee filters is certainly call for 911 to the grocery store. I mean almost anything else and I would have required the whole family to just grin and bear it until the Monday shopping trip, but I must, must, must have the coffee filters. Otherwise all that lovely java in the cabinet is just a taunting mocking voice that is keeping time with the drum beat of my caffeine deprived brain.

All of this is humorous in a sardonic way because I only started liking coffee a year ago. But to the casual observer I probably seem like a Starbucks junkie. Because I come from a long line of coffee afficianados, I was told that I would learn to like coffee in college--couldn't stand the taste of it even though an all nighter was staring me in the face. Of course, I was also told that if I was going to drink coffee that I had to learn to drink it black. That was before the invention of all those lovely creamers--Hazelnut, caramel, vanilla, pumpkin spice, chocolate mint and on and on. Those magnificent silky liquids even have the decency to come in lowfat and sugar free versions. My thanks to the brains at the dairy!

So it made me think about what other things I would hightail it to the grocery store for if we ran out mid week. When the future greats were wee, the last diaper or wipe was cause for great alarm and haste. But now the list is shorter. Bread, milk, eggs, OJ, the staples of this house can all be stalled with some substitution. I can usually scrounge up crackers for bread, powdered milk for the real stuff, egg beaters or just do without. And the same goes for OJ, need some vitamin C? Have an apple or banana for your fruit. Even TP can be stalled if a good box of Kleenex is around! Although those feminino productos can create a stir.

Basically it comes down to the coffee or the filters--must haves for this household. What sorts of things if you run out of cause you to run for the grocery cart?