Higher P.O. Box fees / Ollie's and Dollar Tree / An array of gasoline prices

It has been a while since I have gone to the post office and set out to rectify that this morning. I was glad the long lines were gone as I was the second person there, although the guy in front of me more than made up for it as he had a lot of transactions.

I told the post lady that I had not received my 2022 bill for the P.O. Box...she said they had not gone out yet but gave me mine clarifying...that they could not take my payment until Monday, January 3rd. The fees have once again gone up...$83.00 for six months and $166.00 for one year.

My eyes have been very dry lately and I recalled that my former optometrist told me to use eye drops as well as "blue light blocking reading glasses".  I remembered that Ollie's sells a lot of As Seen on TV items and headed that way. I found them but they cost either $5.99 or $6.99...I do not recall...so tried my luck at Dollar Tree two stores down.

Found them for $1.25 as well as a 7-Day Pill Organizer. There was no butter popcorn to be had. 😢

There was a pillbox at Ollie's but it cost $4.99...may still buy it at a later date.

Del Rio had an array of gasoline prices today. Being the penny pincher that I am...I purchased mine at Walmart for $2.589 a gallon. 😄

If you had a Murphy Oil discount card you could receive a .03 discount per gallon...I do not have said card but I don't think I did too bad paying $16.60 for half a tank.

HEB...$2.799, sorry for the poor picture quality :-(

Exxon $2.959...

Drove to the Stripes truck stop and found their kitchen to be open once again. I bought an enchilada plate with a side of macaroni and cheese, green beans, and a flour tortilla.

I also purchased a beef fajita plate with the same sides...BTW, there is a sneeze guard you just can't tell from the angle I took the picture.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Would you believe a 5.1 earthquake in Ciudad Acuña?

As usual, for lack of a local newspaper, I was reading the online edition of El Zócalo, the Ciudad Acuña daily newspaper that is updated throughout the day as the situation merits it. 

What would be my surprise but to read that there was an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale yesterday in the northern part of Ciudad Acuña. There were no damages reported since the epicenter was located 300 kilometers from Cd. Acuña in the Big Bend area on the Mexican side of the park. https://www.zocalo.com.mx/se-registra-sismo-de-5-1-grados-en-acuna/

It is not the first time that this has happened and they attribute it to perforations in the extraction of shale gas. Though the newspaper mentions that there are no known perforations or gas wells in the area of the epicenter. It was felt as far away as Midland, Texas though I did not feel anything in Del Rio.

We continue to have cloudy and foggy conditions in the mornings but warm temperatures once the sun comes out in the afternoon. We had a high of 80 degrees today.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

San Felipe Lions Park / Excellent Service from the County

I wanted to get a winter photograph of San Felipe Creek at San Felipe Lions Park so yesterday I drove by there. I have featured this house many times on previous posts as they have a birds-eye view of the creek and park along with a lot of security cameras.

They had quite a few Christmas decorations but my camera was not able to capture them from here so I had to cross the little bridge to try to obtain a better angle but the camera (or perhaps me) did not do a good job.

Not a soul at the park even though the temperature was 83 degrees yesterday.

This morning the County heavy trash truck came by again to my delight. The guy saw me watching him and called me over. He told me that the limbs were too close to the cinder block fence which is wabbly and he was afraid one wrong move and he could bring it down. I told him I understood and I explained to him my situation with my MIA yardman whom I have not seen since last Friday and only spoke to him this Monday after he threw me under the bus by telling "scary man" that I wanted him fired.

This young man named Cipriano told me he would call his boss and see what they could do to help me out. I truly did not expect much but in about five minutes his boss showed up and personally grabbed the controls of the big claw...I do not know if that is the proper name...as Cipriano guided him. If that was not enough his boss drove, I believe it might be called a crane (I am not up to date on my terminology) which he used to shove the limbs closer to the street and away from the fence.

I can not tell you how much I appreciated all this as the limbs were scattered along three lots because "scary man" was too lazy to drag them to the first lot where there is no fence as a 6.5-inch rainstorm one night took it out a couple of years ago.

Cipriano came by three times to fill up the dump truck until all the limbs were hauled away. The County went above and beyond my expectations and I will definitively be voting for our County Commissioner in the next election.

Is it any surprise that I would finally be getting a call from David late this afternoon after I am sure he checked with the neighbor to confirm that the tree limbs had been picked up by the County.  I let my wonderful answering machine take a message but he did not leave one. Then I heard the neighbors' dogs barking and I knew he was on the property.

Sure enough like a thief in the night, he came to take his worthless broken down riding mower.  I could see his headlamp along with his flashlight as he secured it to his truck and then leaving through the downed fence so as not to have to open the front gate.

While it was cool this morning the temperature rose this afternoon after the sun made an appearance. The lady meteorologist said Del Rio and Cotulla, Texas had some of the highest temperatures in the nation yesterday. Today we only made it to 81 degrees.

Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

VVRMC / Face mask litter / Closed Stripes kitchen

I am surprised that I slept soundly last night as I usually do not when I have a medical appointment the following day. It was a cool morning and I would have enjoyed a hot cup of cocoa but I had to be fasting.

There were a lot of people both at the labs and radiology department. In radiology, a wealthy lady from Ciudad Acuña was there with her elderly mother. I could not help but note how poor and middle-class Americans like myself go to México for medical care while rich Mexicans come to the United States for theirs. That was also the case in Houston but there they had wealthy people from all over the world.

One disturbing thing that I have noticed is that idiots irresponsibly litter the hospital grounds with their discarded face masks.

You are required to wear a face mask at the hospital and if you do not have one they give you these blue disposable ones and those are the ones you find scattered everywhere.

I decided to treat myself to a turkey leg and/or a loaded baked potato but they did not have either at the Hot-Pit-BBQ across the street from HEB. Was heading home when I remembered my Chiles Rellenos at the Stripes truck stop only to find that their kitchen was closed until further notice...something I found odd.😕

We had a high of 83 degrees on this winter day...

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Pre-registration / 30% Discount / Warm winter day

I got a call this morning that my appointment at the Radiology Department of the VVRMC (Val Verde Regional Medical Center) scheduled for Thursday would have to be re-scheduled as they were going to be closed this Thursday and Friday. They offered me tomorrow or next week but I opted for tomorrow so I can get it out of the way along with my labs.

Like I have mentioned before it is better to pre-register so that is what I did this afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised that there were few people and that I did not even have a chance to sit down when they called my name. I suppose people are busy at home getting ready for the holidays.

I also decided to go visit their billing department in person as I can not seem to resolve a charge that I paid back in August online and they keep on saying is delinquent. Sure enough, I had in fact paid it but I had three new invoices that I have not even received...Ok, local post office I thought you were making progress! 😖😡

She told me that if I paid them today I could get a 30% discount and that seemed like a mighty good reason to get them out of the way. The issue was resolved in ten minutes.

On the way to town, I passed HEB and gas continues to be selling for $2.569 for unleaded gasoline. Could not help but notice how packed the parking lot, the area for curbside pick-up, and the pumps themselves were.

I am down to almost half a tank but if you know me you know that I avoid lines at all cost...it will have to wait until next week or next year.

Since this blog also serves as my Cyber Journal I need to document that I got my Pfizer booster this past Friday, December 17 at the local mall. I had no idea this was a weekly event until I read about it in El Zócalo (Ciudad Acuña's local newspaper) or I would have gotten mine sooner. I tried to make an appointment last November at HEB but they were booked solid. Due to the holidays, this was the last vaccination drive of the year.

That little girl in the above picture was TERRIBLE...neither her mother nor her grandmother disciplined her...they were too busy on their phones. Note the lady in front of me is not standing six feet but more like 10 feet away from her. She was so bad a little boy with his parents in the back of me decided to go sit at some dining tables further down the line to get away from her. Much to his chagrin, she decided to go sit next to him.

This Covid vaccination drive was in charge of the Texas National Guard. I could not for the life of me find my original card but since my first two were also administered by them they found me with no problem. If there is ever a fourth booster I am going to take a small folding chair as my feet and back were killing me. I had no side effects just the usual soreness in the injection site.

On this first day of winter, it was a chilly 41 degrees this morning and the wind made it seem colder. This afternoon at 5:36 p.m., it was 72 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Yardwork nightmare

My Houston friends do not understand how I can not find reliable gardeners in Del Rio. For years we have hired persons that do not have a good work ethic, that show up when they feel like it, and/or never complete a job in the time frame that they promised and to top it off do lousy work.

Last week I hired a guy (David) that was doing tree pruning in the neighborhood and was supposed to cut the grass, prune trees, and take out a few of them as well. He called me Monday to let me know that his helper would be arriving...the guy never showed up. Tuesday his helper did a good job but Wednesday he was a no-show. He called David late that afternoon to let him know he had found a full-time job. David would later mention that he was happy for him as he was on probation.

Friday some other helper shows up that was frankly...scary looking...not to be judgemental but he looked like he had spent some time in prison. On his first day, he took a two-and-a-half-hour lunch even David thought he would not be coming back. I found out via El Zócalo that there would be a Covid-19 clinic at the mall on Friday so I made plans to attend.

When I returned it was almost dark and I drove into the neighborhood the back way. That is when I saw all the limbs strewn along the outer fence line across three lots because his helper was too lazy to drag them to the front gate and was chucking them from the fence to the street.

We had rain, strong winds this weekend as a cold front made its way here so I did not expect him to show up and he didn't but I did not mind because I frankly needed a break.

This morning the guy shows up at 7:55 a.m. and the only reason I know this is because the neighbors dogs were going crazy. I bundled up got my mask and went outside to tell him what I told his boss that I needed those limbs moved and piled together so the County's heavy trash truck could pick them up. A short time later the county heavy trash truck came by and he spoke to the guy. I went outside later only for him to tell me that the guy said: "it was OK to leave the limbs as they were". Who the heck is paying this dude me or this county employee?

I have no idea where David (his boss and person I hired) was as he never called me to let me know he would not be here this morning. His helper was here for six hours and did the bare minimum spending his time on his cellphone. I was furious I could have done more work than this able-bodied man more than half my age.

I called David and asked him when he was going to show up...he told me he was on his way that he had to attend a funeral. The first thing I asked him was not to call this guy and say I ratted on him as who knows what kind of background he has. David said he would call him and tell him he could go home and he would go by his house to pay him tomorrow.

Not ten minutes later he is banging on my kitchen door and I debated whether or not to open it. He said that David had just fired him thanks to me...asked what he had done to make me mad that he was doing a good job it just took time. I let him speak as I had no intention of getting into an argument with this person had it been anyone else I would have owned up to calling his boss but if you saw this dude you would understand why.

I called David right back and demanded to know WHY he told him I had called him. Of course, he denied it but I have my doubts. Now I have a new thing to freak out about...like having gang members come to shoot up the house in retaliation.

There is an old Mexican saying "Mejor viejo por conocido que nuevo por conocer" verbatim it does not make any sense but basically means "it's better to stick to old known people than new acquaintances whom you have yet to get to know".  I suppose I will have to stick to El Pollito and his wino sidekick from now on...grrrr!!!

So if I'm found murdered you can alert the Val Verde Sheriff's Department as to who might have done it.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams...I will have Del Rio nightmares!

Aunty Acid

Adiós a El Rey...Vicente Fernández

Sunday I woke up to the news that a legend, an icon of Mexican Ranchero music Vicente Fernández had passed away. December 12, 2021, an emblematic day for Mexicans and devouts of La Virgen de Guadalupe. This was also the date he said in many interviews that he wanted to go meet his maker...it seems like his wish was granted after having been hospitalized for 128 days.

The coverage in Spanish-speaking media was extensive and deservingly so. There is not one single Latino person that has not heard, sung, cried, laughed, drank, or danced to one of his many songs. Sunday the coverage of the Virgin, some important soccer game, and Miss Universe went by the wayside, and though they were covered it was not to the extent that they would have been under normal circumstances. I must have watched TV for at least ten hours straight. It was a feeling as though I had lost a family member a sentiment that was echoed by many of his legion of fans.

His ranch, Los Tres Potrillos houses a large arena where he use to have his concerts, it was open to the public so the people of Guadalajara and other parts of México could come and pay their respects. People were able to give their last farewell to their idol beginning at 4:00 p.m. Sunday for twenty-four hours straight until 4:00 p.m on Monday. 

All the while the mariachis played his songs non-stop including during the mass the way Chente had left stipulated.

He is the last of the great Ranchero music singers of his time. You may ask why do they call him El Rey which translates to "The King"?  That is the title of one of his many iconic songs.

I do not have Twitter but media coverage said many famous personalities including President Biden, Hillary Clinton, Beyoncé, George Strait, and so many other celebrities who you would not think would have known of him or his music sent their condolences. His star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame was visited by hundreds of his fans.

His widow Doña Cuquita with their son Alejandro Fernández, a successful singer in his own right singing "Volver, Volver" as the last song to be played at his funeral per his father's wishes. Here is a link if you care to hear it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdQ3cB5_rak

The rest of his immediate family his three sons, his daughter, and his wife.  I apologize for the poor quality and angle of some shots as I was photographing the television set.

There were people of all ages paying their respects. This lady was crying because she has seen all the greats of Ranchero music pass in her lifetime including Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante, José Alfredo Jiménez, Javier Solís, and now Chente (his nickname).

Descansa en Paz Don Chente!

We set a new record high for today

It was humid and foggy this morning and warm enough that I did not have to put on my jacket when I went to feed the cats.

The afternoon news showed Del Rio had a high of 90 degrees setting a new record high for this day. It was warm enough that earlier in the day I hand washed some of my nicer sweaters so I could be ready for this weekend's cold spell.

The cold front is scheduled to arrive around 3:00 a.m. with 20 to 30 mph winds so I made sure I removed all things that could become projectiles. Sunday the temperatures are expected to dip lower. I know you people in northern states are probably laughing at our "cold temperatures" 😂

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Busy week / VVRMC / It happened again

It has been a busy week and though I tried to take care of a lot of things on my To-Do List somehow I do not feel like I accomplished much. Time seems to go by so quickly and before I know it the day is gone...perhaps because by 6:00 p.m. it is already dark?

In Del Rio, some doctors do perform lab work in their office but not always nor X-rays so you are referred to the local hospital ours being Val Verde Regional Medical Center...VVRMC for short. We only have one hospital here the other two closest to us are 60 miles south of us in Eagle Pass or 60 miles east in Uvalde, Texas.

It is because of this that I have always recommended you pre-register a day before your appointment. You can pre-register a loved one as well without them being physically present. I did that on Tuesday and am glad I did because it took 1 hour and 38 minutes for them to call me. The waiting room was packed and this time it was older patients. Hospital rules require you to wear a mask and while everyone was wearing one, two years into this pandemic has still not taught some people how to wear one properly.

There was a lady in front of me coughing away with a cheap disposable mask that needed to have been replaced a long time ago and her nose was not covered all the way...sorry end of rant! 😠

After I left VVRMC I decided to go by Dollar Tree and buy some more butter popcorn what would be my surprise but to find that not only did they run out of popcorn but that as of Monday, December 6th the new official price is $1.25.  I am so glad I stocked up last Friday!

However, there was a small section in the canned food aisle that was still a dollar or lower...

Finally, after over a month I made it to the car wash.  The one by my side of town is always full and the water pressure leaves a lot to be desired so I went to the one next to the drive-thru car wash almost across the street from the Toyota dealership.

Last night it happened again...we lost power at 8:58 p.m. thankfully at the tail end of the Rachel Maddow Show that I once again started to watch after my news hiatus since August. I went outside but none of the neighbors seemed to be home...perhaps Christmas shopping?  Everything was dark but as I looked to the south I could see the lights from Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila Mexico...how is it that they never have power outages but we a first-world country do?

I was so tired I fell asleep during the interval so when the lights finally came back on at 10:45 p.m. I kept on sleeping.

After the hospital visit this afternoon I decided to stop at Whataburger and treat myself to a Hatch Green Chile and Bacon burger.  I arrived at the right time as there were few people there.

 

My experience with our Whataburger is that it is hit or miss much like the one by my house in Houston. I was disappointed with my burger but since I had not eaten all day tried to make the best of it.

Temperatures are still in the 80's during the day but a cold front is heading our way this weekend.  Gasoline prices continue to decline. The price at HEB this afternoon was $2.579 per gallon for regular unleaded.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid