3 whole hours

There's a Kroger Marketplace on my way home from work, which opened a few months ago. It's like other Kroger grocery stores, except larger, with a small clothing section too. I haven't yet memorized the store layout, so still have to hunt through the aisles looking for things. The health/natural/vegetarian items aren't grouped conveniently together as they are in some of the other stores.

I pushed my cart along slowly, dazedly. Gazing at the goods on the shelves, hoping to find some special treats in addition to the few items on my shopping list.

Eventually, I reached the corner with Halloween merchandise. Inquisitively pressed "Try Me" buttons. An old-style rotary phone, which when you turn the dial, starts ringing and glowing red. When the receiver is lifted, it plays a spooky message - a different message for each number dialed.

I almost bought a cheap headpiece with long lacy tubes with LED lights inside, but then saw it had feathers.

There were Halloween lights that made a spooky electric zinging crackling sound.
There were skulls that glowed and emitted eerie laughter.
There were battery-driven strands of 15 LEDs in orange and purple, that per the packaging "lasts over 120 hours!" I got one of each color, to put on my gate on All Hallow's Eve.

I bought candy to give out, thinking of the lady who mentioned being disappointed the one year I didn't.

In the peanut butter aisle, there was an interesting looking spread made from ground flax seeds, orange juice, and dates. The ingredients included chili pepper, which I knew might be too hot for me and not taste good, but I was still curious to try it. Then I saw that the price was $9.99, and decided NOT.

But later in another area, while digging through the shelves with special discount/marked-down items, I found a single jar of the same product, for only $0.89! Sudden glee. Hunter/gathering at its best! The expiration date on the bottle wasn't even until mid 2017. I found several other marked-down goodies in that section too.

Left the store feeling accomplished, in spite of having been in there way too long.

achy ears in cold weather/wind

In cold/cool weather, when I go for walks or do yardwork or anything else outside, or even just stand around in the cold for a longer period, my ears start to ache. If I don't cover them, it turns into moderate to strong pain. This happens even when it isn't very cold - I'd estimate it starts around 60 degrees and below, but it also depends on the amount of wind. Once I go back inside to someplace warm, the aching slowly subsides for around 15 minutes, and then I feel better.

To avoid all this, since my college years at least, I've worn ear muffs, or in recent years, a headband with ear muff material sewn to it on the sides. I used to feel self-conscious, wearing turquoise ear muffs when the weather was in the 60s or 50s and the sun was shining. But the headband I wear nowadays is brown, matching my hair color, and I'm no longer self conscious about it. If I don't have my headband, putting a small rolled up ball of tissue into each ear helps somewhat, though that is uncomfortable for other reasons.

No one else I know appears to experience this condition. But now I found a forum thread with several other people who have the same or similar issues!

Ear pain when running with cool wind

When I was a small child, I had tubes put in my ears. They never fell out on their own later like they were supposed to, so I had some minor procedure to remove them (which might have been simply putting wax-dissolving solution in my ear? I don't recall the details).

On airplane flights, during ascent and descent, pressure builds up in my ears and becomes painful. I have to close my nostrils and blow, to equalize the pressure. I think this is more common, as my family members were the ones who taught me to do the blowing thing, and they always did it too.

So I've always suspected the issue with cold weather was due to my eustachian tubes not functioning normally, or being narrower than usual.