With no regard to the warning not to photograph, make a recording, shoot videos, or otherwise capture images in my local grocery store, I threw caution to the wind, risking who knows what for the chance to bring you this shiny picture of the ugly, genetically modified, prepared and over-processed fluorescently packaged stuff we Americans call FOOD. I tend to make it a practice not to shop at these giant conglomerates that have become bastions for the boring masses, instead opting for small markets, farmers markets, and ethnic grocery stores where usually I get to know the owner and find great tips and good conversation from my fellow shoppers. But it does happen that I need something I can’t otherwise find, such as Woolite or that colored watery stuff we put in our dishwasher to stop water stains. Other than that, these stores are off-limits, just like Walmart.

The wind kicks up and quickly fills the streets with blowing dust as a monsoon brushes the city. Open lots and construction sites are the main culprits in creating the brown-out conditions when we have these small localized dustups. Big storms that originate in the south kick up the top layer of the desert and under those circumstances a wall of dust half a mile thick blankets Phoenix. For a moment the blowing dust looks cool and then the reality that people might freak out while driving as visibility falls grips you, bringing you back to normal paranoid driving.