Grocery shopping is not easy today. And just when I think I have it down, they move the goal posts!

I'm 80 years old (never could stomach that 70 or 80 years young thing), and can testify that grocery shopping was much simpler when I was a child.               

Take water, for example. Sure we had water bills, but back then water was primarily seen as a gift from God and Lake Michigan, one that conveniently came out of our faucets.

I can remember when I first saw water bottles on the shelves of the grocery and did a double take. "How foolish to actually buy water and pay for it,"I thought to myself." Surely people will soon wise up and not allow themselves to be taken in by this ruse."

I can just hear you chuckling out there as you contemplate the elaborate arrangements of the many diverse offerings that we now find on our store shelves. As for our family, we have gone from that old classic, Perrier, to a zillion other brands in search of the perfect water. I thought I knew them all. That is until my son, Bill, introduced me to a water bottle that looked like one of its sides was accidentally flattened in storage.

It turns out that the unusual shape is intentional, and the water is said to be exceptionally pure and high in potassium. Bill has to deal with recurrences of gout and he's hoping that the potassium in the water will alleviate his problem.

Well, Bill and I have no expertise in the field, but he has tried other things without success, so he's giving it a go. Maybe the new water will do the trick.

As for me, I now like having many water options available. There are many, many theories about which water is best, but this new water tastes quite good to me.

And they say potassium is good for elders. If I'm a victim of a ruse, I'm a happy one.