I like to keep a bottle of water on my nightstand. Actually I’d like to keep a bottle of wine or fifth of bourbon but I used up my alcohol life allotment about 15 years ago and I’m trying to cut down. So I keep water there instead. I’d keep a glass of water on the nightstand but I know I’d knock the thing over more than I’d drink from it so that’s not a good option for me.

This water bottle doesn’t have to be filled with bottled water. I’m just as happy with tap water and I’ll do the unthinkable and re-use a bottled water bottle for a week or so. Thus a six pack of fresh mountain spring water might last me a couple of months. Now I don’t do this because I think it’s foolish to pay good money for water when you can get it free out of the tap. For one reason that water coming from the tap isn’t free.  But the biggest reason why I do this is because I’m basically lazy. I don’t want to add “water” on my weekly shopping list. It’s bulky, it’s heavy, and I have limited storage space.

Last week I did have “water” on my shopping list. I don’t care much what type of water I get; I’m more concerned with how sturdy the bottle is. Thus I have no brand loyalty when it comes to bottled water. And thus I found myself in the water aisle and suddenly realized how much water there is there. I suppose I always knew but this day was the day it finally hit me – there’s a lot of freaking water out there. I walked it off. I paced along 36 feet of shelving devoted to water. Each section held 6 shelves for over 200 linear feet of crystal clear, mountain spring, or factory generated, bottled water. And that’s just the plain water. My shopping list specified only “water” so I hadn’t included the vitamin water, sparkling water, soda water, flavored water, mineral water, or seltzer. Just water. Wow.

Someday I have to meet whoever first came up with a marketing plan for bottled water. That person is very good!

That’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?