Sticker Shock!

 Sticker Shock!

 

Despise Walmart, but they usually have what is needed around here, plus it is close by. Today is Sunday, so they also had some marked down meats in at least two areas of that department. Bought chicken leg quarters and some thin sliced beef at reduced rates. Made a sandwich for me and dog food for these two beasties. Tomorrow and the next day will see more chicken in their food bowls. The beef, well, that may be a snack for their breakfast if it does not appeal to me in the morning. If $3.41 will pay for two breakfasts along with some chicken broth, that is a pretty good deal. It was also cheaper to buy an entire gallon of milk rather than what is normally purchased as a half-gallon jug.

 

Walking up and down the aisles over there was totally enlightening. HOW can anyone afford to eat unless it is just beans and rice? And even those two items were expensive. On SALE, one pound of coffee was a little over $11. It was a close-out item at that. Sitting here shaking my head. No, there is zero nutritional value in coffee. But tea and coffee are standard fare in most homes. Coffee keeps some of us going bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the mornings. And for others, it keeps them from being quite so homicidal when they have to mingle with other humans. You know who you are.

 

It was $2.00 for three bell peppers. Didn’t even bother to look at the cucumbers. They had humongous bins of watermelon at $6 apiece. Found some small ones on for $3 and actually bought one. It’s better than cheese Danish or something of that nature. And the hens will eat the rinds to the very edge of the melon. Oh well. It is just food prices. Did not even look at the sprayer nozzles for water hoses. The one on the hose out back has cratered. Now it is dripping on the apricot tree that Reece planted. The one planted by Grayson seems to be doing ok, but Reece needed water. They have names, you see: Grayson and Reece. The ground is so dry that the trees around here look desperate.

 

We may all have to set up “go fund me” accounts to pay our electric bills here in Texas. And from what the news reports are posting, ours is not the only state in that situation. Think it was Utah that was going to have to go without water soon. Things are just pretty sad. About the only thing that will save the entire nation would be the intervention of God. Storms, fires, droughts—and we already have plenty of violence. The city of Wichita Falls has had multiple murders lately. Insanity. It has always seemed as if we were a fairly calm place to live. Sitting here shaking my head again. And this is going on just about everywhere! Satan (not spelled Satin—that is a material) is on the rampage.

 

Patty told me this morning that her friend Debbie saw that the “trailer house” across from me costs $100K new. And this one is new. Maybe that means not just any dodgy person would be able to move over there. Next time the house flipper comes by, the subject of the condition of the road will be on my mind. Here is hoping that he will see to it that the contractors who put in the gas lines will repair the pavement correctly—and maybe he will see to it that the hole down around the sewer riser will be filled up with cold pack asphalt. It is always good to have hope, huh.

 

My hens left me three eggs today. And today has not been as bad as it has been for the last week with the extreme heat. Currently, it is only 94 degrees! Not going to gripe! And the wind is more like a cooling breeze instead of the normal gale force heat waves. It is not that bad at all. Now if we could only get about three days of good, solid (not frozen) rain.

 

Poor Thompson tore a toenail chasing behind the workshop to get a squirrel this morning. And no, he did not catch the nasty critter. But it makes me feel so sorry for him. Just can’t see spending a hundred dollars for a vet right now. His toenail will have to come off eventually, but not sure if he will bite it off or otherwise lose it. Poor baby. Yours truly put some heavy-duty balm on it, but he keeps licking and biting on it. If it does not get infected, it will eventually heal up.

 

Just walking around Walmart and loading and unloading the groceries took a lot out of the old woman. Used the wagon Jennifer got for me and brought all the groceries inside with just one trip. That was so nice and easy. My daughter is the best at being thoughtful about things. Her brother thinks of things that neither of us would even consider at all. Every time a bowl is needed around here, one of the three pretty bowls he got for me will usually do the trick. AND, they have lids! Think it is called the Country Woman series that has the same pattern in the butter dish that he bought for me. Jenn laughed and told me that my old butter dish is down at her house. Can’t even remember why.

 

Honestly don’t know as much as those silly hens out under the deck. Do know that Thompson just finished tearing the hard part of his toenail off. That was trashed, and then the dingy old woman started applying balm to the wrong freaking foot! So now he has two icky feet instead of just one! Nothing wrong with getting the feet mixed up—much. Did the same thing the last time he hurt a foot! Told the vet it was the right when it was the left—HIS left.

 

Ok, enough for today. Still have laundry to fold and put away. Maybe tomorrow some shorts will be fashioned from the long pants bought at a resale shop. Have ONE decent pair of shorts and one tank top. Could go to the Women’s Refuge Resale shop, but that would mean driving and using gasoline. Pinch, pinch, pinch those pennies!

 

Rest well, and enjoy the life God has given us. Be grateful for all things. You are loved.