Bargain Saturday

Woke up at 5:30 a.m. and could not go back to sleep.  The weatherman had warned of showers so went to eat breakfast and run errands early to be one step ahead of them. Got home by 11:00 a.m. when the sky opened up.

One of my stops this morning was the Giant Dollar Store where due to inflation things now cost $1.09.  I usually make this my last stop in the dollar store circuit and purchase what I could not find for a dime less (let’s say I am frugal) jajajajaja :D

We were invaded by flies two weeks ago and since then have read in various blogs where it has happened to other bloggers in different Texas cities.  Trouble in Tx mentioned fly strips and for the life of me I do not know why I did not think of them when we were bombarded in Del Rio.  Guess I can blame my CRS syndrome for this as well.  So look what I bought…doubt I could have found them any cheaper elsewhere.

If your city has a Staples store I highly recommend you sign up for their Rewards card, it is free and you can save a lot of money.  I personally buy a lot of batteries and at different times during the year you can get them for free.  Well you pay for them…but they will reimburse 100% to your Rewards card … then you can use the money to buy whatever you please.  I got an 8 GB SDHC card as well as a 4 GB memory stick for free.

Last but not least Harbor Freight…needed this Mesh Screen Face Shield  for when I am wacking weeds…saved a little by using one of their 20 percent off coupons.  Their Dust Masks are much better than those sold at the dollar stores while still costing the same and I used one of their purchase any item coupon and got a 6-piece Screwdriver Set for free.

We probably got about ½ an inch of rain or more and are expecting more showers tomorrow.  Hope you were lucky enough to get some liquid gold in your respective areas as well.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Tired and Whiny

These past two days we have been under an Ozone Alert and today I have not even bothered to check.  Basically what an ozone alert means is that people with breathing problems, the young, the elderly or people not in good health should not be outside.  For that matter even people in good health as the air is filled with contaminants.

Wednesday I took it to heart and gave myself a day off…yesterday Ozone Alert or not I had to try to mow that backyard.  Spent five hours out there but gave up at noon.  Noticed some clouds but the weather guy said no rain was in the forecast until this weekend.  After I took a shower I sat down to rest when all of a sudden I heard thunder so had to run back out to put up my lawn mower and weed eater that I had left out with the hopes of getting back to it in the late evening. 

Unless you have a bad back you have no idea how hard it is to be able to lift things.  I managed to throw my two bicycles out of the shed to make room for the lawn mower but lifting that sucker up, what two or three inches and in a hurry without my back brace put a hurting on me.

God I hate yard work!  This morning the grass was still too moist to cut specially with an electric lawn mower. Yesterday, being more concerned about the mower and the weed eater, I forgot to put up my 100 ft. cord.  Since it is rare that it rains when I mow the grass, does anyone know if this matters? I don’t want to die electrocuted!

I purchased a pair of Walkie Talkies about a year and half ago and for the life of me have never been able to open them.  On two occasions I had to take them back to Academy so they could help me put batteries in them. The manager remembered me and he gave me a brand new pair!  Now that is what I call good customer service.

On the other hand I ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut yesterday and it was AWFUL, it was not even well cooked.  Called to complain and all the girl could tell me is “we can make you another one MsBelinda” yeah like I was going to eat a second pizza after they get through “playing” with it when customers complain.  This was supposed to be my reward for all my hard work but as tired as I was and as much as my back hurt I did not ask to speak to the manager, as I should of in the first place.

Received my new Homeowners Insurance Policy (remember I had to drive to downtown to make a deposit at my bank) well this is the second time I ask that my address be changed to Del Rio, guess where it arrived?  Yeap, here in Houston…and I’m supposed to be “In Good Hands”…imagine if I weren’t?

Ok, that is all my belly aching and whining for today.  Need to go redeem my Staples Rewards coupons that expire tomorrow as well as buy a couple of groceries.

I will blame the Heat

In case you are wondering if I have finished mowing the backyard, the answer is NO.  I was hoping to shame myself into cutting it by taking pictures of my jungle and told myself I would post them if I did not get it done. Figured I would be too embarrassed to do so but I guess I have no shame…hahahaha...:D

Had to cut a path so I could get to the backyard

Today it was 105 degrees in Houston and while I have been in hotter temperatures in Del Rio and without air conditioner (last year it got to 107 and A/C broke) it just seems hotter  here.

I have tried these past two days but the heat has been unbearable and my foreign soap operas might have had a tad to do with it too (blushing). They come on just as it is getting cool outside so my evening schedule during the week is spoken for.

Woke up at 5:30 a.m. but did not get up until 7:00 a.m.  Went to have breakfast at Whataburger and proceeded to Home Depot to buy landscape timbers and mulch.  Remember back on Memorial Day they were on sale for .97 cents?  Well today the price was $3.57 so I passed.

Barney of Old Fat Man Adventures http://ofmadventures.blogspot.com/ mentioned that before he purchased his Castle on wheels he used an electric edger when he did the yard.  Decided to check them out while I was there but they only carry a Black and Decker edger that sells for $79.00 a little high for my budget so passed on this as well.

The only thing I purchased was three bags of mulch and some spray paint.  When I was getting ready to put the mulch bags in my car, a nice young man that was walking to his vehicle offered to put them in the trunk for me.  It renewed my faith in mankind as yesterday a lady customer at Target helped me lift a folding table into my shopping cart as well.

Want to welcome WandaL to the blogging audience.  Thank you talking the time to read me.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Making Headway

Got up early and decided to hit the grocery stores before the masses arrived.  As I have mentioned on various occasions, I am not a morning person, so I was shocked that on Sunday there would be people at 7:00 a.m. grocery shopping.  Guess I figured they would be sleeping late or getting ready for church…guess I was wrong!

My first stop was Joe V’s and I lucked out with the special of the day…Restaurant style chips 14 oz.  These sell in Del Rio for $1.50 each and I got them…2 for $1.00 !!!

Have you noticed how high mayonnaise has been lately?  Almost reaching $4.00…well I found it here for $1.98.

Then it was off to Food Town where I found a 3lb bag of small red potatoes for $1.59 and 5 lb bag of carrots for $2.99, avocados 3/ $1.00 and my favorite Blue Bell ice cream ½ gallon for $3.33 with their in-store coupon.  Hunts tomato sauce sold for 3/ $1.00 and even though a couple months ago I bought it 4/1.00 it is still a good price in comparison to what it sells for in Del Rio.

This afternoon after the sun went down I tackled the backyard, stayed out till 9:00 p.m. but was not able to finish. Grass is way too high, hopefully I can finish it off tomorrow but I wont hold my breath on that happening.

I am so surprised that after all the rain we got there was not a single mosquito out there.  Guess I better hurry up before their eggs start to hatch.  As usual due to my CRS, I forgot to bring Skin So Soft the only mosquito repellent that works for me.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Farewell Dear Ben

This is so difficult for me to write but I feel I owe it to Ben.  His blog “An Older Texan Remembers” was well known and read within our blogging circle and beyond.

I “met” Ben like many of you did by reading his comments on “The Field Lab”.  I have been reading his blog for four years and you could set your clock by it.  Being a night owl I would go check it before going to bed. He made his posts early in the morning, sometimes even at dawn and he updated it throughout the day.

Trouble in Texas said bloggers ARE family and I can certain say that is true.  I never met Ben in person but we read each other’s blogs and kept in touch by e-mail.  He was a great supported of my dream to one day make my home in Terlingua.

His dream was to purchase his Rita Casita and travel to Oregon to visit his daughter and her family.  He then wanted to travel the great state of Texas that he was so proud to be from and dearly loved.

He purchased Rita on June 8, 2012 but he never had the opportunity to take her on the road.  He was so happy when he got her home, like a kid with a new toy.  I’m sorry… I have to keep stopping because I can’t stop crying.  I feel like I have lost a family member, a friend or like he would refer to me “his little sister”.

My condolences go out to his family, friends, and fellow bloggers that will miss him as much as I will.  I know his rug rats will miss him as well. I sincerely hope that someone adopts them both, so they will not be separated.

Rest in peace dear Ben, at least you are with Ann now.

Trip Downtown

It rained again yesterday so I could not mow the lawn.  Had not gotten around to reading my e-mails in over a week so did that as well as read my snail mail.  Back in April I had gone in person to my local insurance agency and asked that they change my mailing address to my Del Rio one.  At the time I also wanted to pay my home insurance premium but was told that it was not due until June and an invoice had not been generated yet so they would not even know what to charge me.

Thought it was strange that I did not get a bill in May or early June.  Knew I would be making a trip back home so decided I would handle it when I got here. The reason I did not get my bill was because they never made the address change and it was mailed to my house.  Turns out it was due June 15^th, I was very upset because I always strive to make my payments in a timely fashion.  To make a long story short I had to make a deposit to my checking account so I could make the payment and thus keep my policy from being canceled.

Went to the closest IBC, which is a 20-mile round trip and lord and behold…it wasn’t there anymore! It had been closed for months per the HEB employees, as had other branches in the area. Came home and called the main office to find out why and was told they closed all the IBC locations located inside HEB and Kroger stores.  Only stand-alone locations were kept open in the greater Houston area.  My choice was to drive to Pearland, Sugarland, Katy, Kirby or downtown Houston.  Knew I was probably going to regret it but drove to the closest one, that being downtown.

Located on McKinney and Main had no problem locating it…the problem was where to find parking.  In search of a parking space I managed to get lost for a while but found it once more. There were three employees outside passing out flyers and I got one of them, a very nice guy named Blake, to hop in the car with me and lead me to their parking garage.  As expected the parking was tight and I did not want to hit the Lexus next to the only available spot so he offered to park my car. Thank you Blake!

It was fun trying to find my way out of downtown especially since I had not been there in ten years.  When I first moved to Houston I worked in downtown for three years and I swore I would never work there again.  Of course back then they did not have Park and Ride or the rail system.  Wow, I was very impressed with the rail trains I saw today.  Somehow even though I was a nervous wreck, I could not help but notice the beauty of downtown Houston.  I was very impressed! 

Tonight was the Homeowners Association annual meeting and election of officers but with all the drama I went through today decided to skip it. Instead I turned on the A/C, bought me a Pollo Asado and accompanied it with a nice glass of wine.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Storms

Went to bed “early” last night…11:00 p.m. and woke up at 4:11 a.m.  Had been debating whether or not to leave today with rains in the forecast but decided I could not put it off any longer.

Stopped at Nora’s Tacos in Sabinal, Texas.  If you are a fan of “old school country music” this is the hometown of Johnny Rodriguez…remember him?  Ara recommended this taco stand a while back to his blog readers.  I try to stop by for breakfast when I pass through town.  Ordered a nopalito with egg as well as a ham and egg taco.  They were very tasty.

Gas in Del Rio was $3.31 a gallon.  Glad I waited to fill-up because I found it for $3.17 a gallon in San Antonio.

The cloudy skies made for a nice drive back home.  About 34 miles before Houston the skies got very dark and it started pouring.  Seriously considered getting off at Katy Mills Mall and waiting it out but I could not see the exit sign.  It was so bad I had to turn on my flashers for fear someone might hit me.  Other drivers did as well.

My front yard is not as bad as I thought it would be…but the backyard is a real jungle!  This observation is just from looking out my bedroom window bet it is even worst in person…I will know tomorrow.

Two hours later the storms reached my house, they were strong enough that I lost power for nearly an hour.  On the positive side it lowered the temperatures which will make it a little more bearable as I do not plan to turn on the A/C.  This will make good practice for when I move to Terlingua, of course they do not have to deal with the humidity.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Package Arrived

Have I mentioned that I am not a morning person?  Never have been, never will be but when you have to work for a living…well you have to make adjustments.  I wrongly assumed that when I retired I could give myself the luxury of sleeping in late but so far it has not worked out that way.

Of course we all have different definitions of what sleeping late means.  I define it to mean not getting up till noon or later.  Then again I am a night owl so if I say I went to bed early, I mean it was before 3:00 a.m.

All this week I have been getting up “early” and frankly I am worn out.  Had to make a trip to Home Depot, Wal-Mart and the post office before the heat of the day set in.  Finally received the package I was waiting for, well one of three packages but it was the most important one.  Had I sent it off when I should of instead of procrastinating like I always do, I could have already been to Houston and back.

Speaking of Houston, are there any bloggers out there that live in Northwest Houston?  All my friends and acquaintances live in the City of South Houston, Pasadena or Deer Park and that is an hour away from my house so have no way of knowing if it has rained or not and if we are under watering restrictions in my sub-division since I am in a MUD district and not on City of Houston water.

The only neighbor on my street that I trust has a special needs child plus two grandchildren she takes care of during the day.  I therefore do not like to call her unless it is an emergency. The other neighbor lady lives a street down but most of the time she is under heavy medication that has her sleeping for days on end.

Yesterday when I drove into town regular gasoline was selling for $3.39 a gallon and today Wal-Mart was selling it for $3.32 a gallon…nice .07cent drop in price, and hope it goes even lower!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Two Trips to Town

Got up early (for me) 8:11 a.m. and decided to water the trees along with the few plants I have not managed to kill yet.  It was overcast but humid and we did get a shower…well more like a sprinkle… that lasted all of two minutes.  That is when I spotted a county worker mowing on the main road into the sub-division.  Waved to him and asked him if he would be kind enough to mow where my weed eater was not able reach outside of mother’s fence and he did.  Must say the new County Commissioner for my district has done a great job and has kept his campaign promises something rarely seen these days.

Trouble in Texas asked if the header picture was my house.  No, it is not.  We were driving around when I saw the beautiful Esperanza’s in this house and just had to take a picture.  Esperanza’s are very popular in Del Rio and you will see them in the yards of humble homes as well as in mansions.  I bought two for my Mom last year but lost one to the sleet.

Have not called the Maytag guy so decided to drive into town to visit the local laundromat.  The big machines are still $3.00 each but the regular washing machines jumped in price from $1.75 to $2.00 guess it is only a matter of time before the price goes up on the others as well.  Have a lot blankets as well as my sleeping bags to wash so I will probably be making a return trip soon.

One of the main reasons I drove into town besides washing clothes was to pick up my mother’s medications but as hot as it was decided I would do so AFTER I finished washing.  You guess it…I FORGOT!!  Darn, this CRS (Can’t Remember Sh*#) syndrome is getting worst.  Needless to say, had to make another trip to town :-(

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Bit the Bullet

As you know I think I saw a baby snake a couple of weeks back in the outdoor bathroom/storage room/tool shed.  When that happened I decided I would NEVER go in there again, but soon realized that was impractical since that is where I keep my lawn maintenance gear.

Little by little I have been getting a few things out.  Today I decided to bite the bullet and removed everything and cleaned it out good.  Now I wont say I was not a little apprehensive but I got her done.

It has been very hot; it was 107 degrees both yesterday as well as today.  Hope everyone is keeping cool.

Want to welcome West TX at Heart to the blog audience.  Thank you for your readership.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Issues with Cricket

I have been having a lot of problems getting my pictures to upload to Photobucket.  They have taken up to five hours and sometimes could not load them up at all because my Cricket Broadband (more like dial-up) would go dormant.  Other times when I was writing a comment and would hit the publish button, what I wrote would go to “cyber comment heaven”.  It would then proceed to inform me that I was not connected to the Internet.

Last night was the final straw when I was not able to connect at all.  Called their worthless technical support around 2:30 a.m. only to get a recording saying they were closed.  I recall when I had MSN dial-up… I was able to get in touch with them 24/7.

This morning I was finally able to reach them and was told my modem was the culprit and I needed to go to the store to pick up a new one. Since I have insurance it would cost me $20.00 plus tax.  Wonder what it would cost if I did not have insurance?  Posed the question to the lady and she told me she had no idea.  Talk about knowledgeable sales staff!

A trip to the only Cricket store in town on a Saturday with the limited parking space as well as sitting capacity of that store was not exactly what I wanted to do today but oh well… I do like my Internet…slow and all.  To think that in Houston I have four Cricket stores within a 5-mile radius of my house, including one that I can even walk to if need be.

When I got back home there was this small cat with black stripes curled up by my chair in the front porch.  At first I thought someone had dumped him/her but then I realized it was about 3 or 4 months old and very skinny.  It broke my heart to see this poor cat but right now I cannot take in any pets.

Walter came by but he got spooked when he saw me and retreated back home.  He came back several times afterwards but he never did touch the water I left out for him.  Poor horse being out in the sun has probably fried his brain and he does not know who I am anymore.  At least he does remember there is plenty of grass for him to eat here.

Going price for gas today in Del Rio, Texas

I am pretty tired this evening so I think I am going to turn in early…well that is early for me.  By that I mean I won’t be going to bed at 5:00 a.m.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Electric String Trimmer Review

I am beginning to sound like a broken record but since this is my cyber diary I have to document that once again I spent the day wacking weeds, pruning trees and raking.  When asked most people that win the lottery will say they want to quit their job, buy a new house, a new car, go on vacation, etc., etc.  If I were lucky enough to ever hit it big the first thing I would do is HIRE A GARDENER!

I absolutely HATE yard work…always have, always will, but at this particular time, I do not have much choice.  Guess what awaits me when I get home?  You got it…more yard work, but at least there I can use my electric lawn mower on the little grass I have left unless it has somehow died off since my last trip to Houston.

In case you were thinking of buying a RYOBI  12” Cordless String Trimmer, on a scale of 1 to 10…I give it a ZERO!  Save your money it is a POS.  Too bad I did not return it last year like I did the electric Black and Decker weed eater that fell apart on me the first time I used it!

The only saving grace is that the battery is interchangeable with other RYOBI tools but in my case that does not apply as I do not own or for that matter know how to operate power tools.

This year I bought an inexpensive HOMELITE  4 Amp 13 inch cutting swath weed eater and I absolutely LOVE IT!  I had hesitated as I had never owned a two-line string trimmer before and didn’t know if I could thread it correctly.  Decided to buy pre-threaded spools, which come in a package of 3 and are not exactly cheap.  Another waste of money, I had to keep stopping to advance the tightly wound string that looked like a third grader had wound it.  Another POS…save your money and thread it yourself!

Sorry for the rant but if it helps just one person out then it was worth it and in the very remote case someone from RYOBI is reading this dribble…I want my money back!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Well, I really messed up!!

Came to update my blog when I am greeted with blank spaces in one of the posts I was most proud of “The Sage is Blooming”.  Turns out I deleted some pictures in Photobucket that I thought were duplicates and I guess they were the ones linked to my blog post.  I will have to fix that but it will have to be another night, sigh!

Del Rio only has trash service once a week, so I was outside last night until pretty late raking and filling up trash bags.  This morning my arms hurt but I had to go tackle the weeds growing on the street side of the fence since it is highly unlikely the county will mow again until next spring.

It was hot outside and I had my big brim hat, sunglasses and plenty of cold water on hand to help me bear the elements.  I could see Walter in his stable with the darn sun bearing down upon him and his one little lowly mesquite tree for shade.



I took this picture last month.  The Mesquite tree offers little shade.

School is over and the owner’s son was most likely in his air conditioned home watching TV or playing videos and probably does not even care the poor horse had no shade and probably hot water…that is if he had water at all!  All the darn kid had to do was get off his fat rear end and let him come to our property.  It saddens me that some people have no consideration for their animals.

Was outside for around four hours, came in took a shower and ate.  Then Mom and I sat down to watch the news and we BOTH fell asleep until 7:00 p.m.   Well at least we got a good two-hour nap.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Busy, Busy Week

I have been so busy after the Memorial Day weekend that I have not had a chance to sit down and write a post or for that matter even go online.  I am a Spurs fan and I am ashamed to admit I have not watched a single playoff game this season! Some fan, huh?

Got a new mechanic to fix the brakes in this case non-brakes on Mom’s mini van.  We did not exactly get off on the right foot but at least the van is drivable now though the jury is still out on whether or not I will use him again.

Remember my dollar investment on the Roma tomato plant?  Think I pretty much lost it, jajajaja…even bought some good soil and re-potted it…guess I just have a brown thumb, literally!

Last time I was in Houston, Home Depot had landscape timbers on sale for $1.97 but when I finally made it to the store the special was over.  I was so surprised to see them on sale for only .97 cents each but I need them in Houston not here.  It is times like this that I wish I owned a truck.

With all our comings and goings have not had a chance to call the Maytag guy to fix the washing machine.  Had to make a trip to the Laundromat and boy it was expensive!  Used three large machines and just that was $9.00 plus all the quarters it took to feed the dryers we pretty much spent close to $20.00 bucks.

Walter came around this weekend and he let me pet him for the first time.  I was weed eating when he came over, figured he might get spooked but the sound did not seem to bother him.

His owner came by later to get him and he spoke to my mother.  Wanted to know if the horse was a bother and my mother told him that I had told his son he was welcome here anytime and that since I did not know his name I decided to call him Walter.  Mom said he mumbled Walter? To which she reply “Yes, Walter”.  She also mentioned that I always had fresh cool water for him to drink, hoping he would get the message and do the same.  You go Mom!

We have a new visitor to Terlingua Dreams-Del Rio branch but he only comes to sleep under the cars.  I named him Socks.  I am trying to make friends with him but he wont let me pet him…need him to check out that bathroom/laundry room…but it is not going to be easy to lure him there, maybe a can of tuna?

By the way did you have a chance to look at the moon last night?  It was simply spectacular.  Made me think of all the lucky bloggers that live out in Terlingua and how fabulous it must have looked out that way.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.