Not what we expected but we will take it...

The weather forecasters have been promising rain since Monday but it eluded us until this afternoon. However, it was more drama than precipitation. A strong wind gust came first, kicking up so much dirt I could barely see in front of me as I ran to bring in all the cats' bowls while they were still eating. This was followed by loud thunder and then a three-minute shower.

This is all I got in my primitive rain catchment.  Since it had not rained in a long time I got more dirt from the roof than water.

This is the larger of two metal tubs
I used to have for the stray dogs

Because I knew the quality of the rain I would capture would not be pristine I did not open the lids of the water containers that from lack of rain I had filled with City of Del Rio water. Del Rio gets its water from San Felipe Springs which then feeds San Felipe Creek and that I have featured many times on this blog.

This weekend I spent raking all those pesky mesquites pods managing to fill the trash can that thankfully went into the city dump today. Even so, I still have a ton more for next week and was afraid that the rain would make them sprout. My arms still hurt 😢

You can see my little piles of
those nasty pods 😠

You can see from the above picture how little rain actually fell and how many more piles of pods I have to deal with.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

June 2022 trip to Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila - Part 2 - UPDATED

Click on the pictures to enlarge

This is the second part of the trip I took to Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila this past Tuesday, June 21st. This post covers my shopping at Soriana a large Mexican store on the outskirts of town. I don't shop here often since it is a bit pricier than my go-to stores of Bodegas Aurrera, Gutiérrez, and Merco. Another plus of shopping at the aforementioned stores is that they have stores in at least two locations...near the central part of Acuña and in the outskirts where Soriana only has one store although its size makes up for it.

First a little background on Ciudad Acuña, it is the safest border in Texas you use to see a lot of tourists dining in restaurants, enjoying the nightlife, and shopping. There were numerous liquor stores in the tourist section of town since most tourists bought bottles to take back home as well as an ungodly number of pharmacies where you could buy prescriptions far lower than you could in the USA. However, after 9/11 and the requirement that American citizens now had to present a valid passport to return to the United States including at land points, the 2008 economic downturn, and the killing of a Coahuila State Police Commander said to be drug war-related brought tourism to a halt not just here but in all border towns.

When the tourists quit coming many famous restaurants like Mrs. Crosby's, bars, nightclubs, liquor stores, and pharmacies at the entrance to Ciudad Acuña (the tourist section) were forced to close. In the above picture, you can see the iconic sign still remains but alas the famous restaurant and bar are no more.  However, that was then and now the tourists are back in full force.

You are probably saying..." what does this have to do with shopping at Soriana? "...don't get impatient just wanted to give you a little background information first.

With the demise of liquor stores, many grocery stores picked up the slack, and one with the best selection of liquors, wines, and anything related to that is Soriana. If you want to know what these prices are in dollars simply divide the peso amount by $20.00 which was the going rate that Tuesday. Also, bear in mind that you have to pay Texas Liquor Tax when you bring it back and you are only allowed a one-liter bottle per person.

YouTube preppers tell you to buy Vodka to barter with...

Who knew that they had different flavors of Vodka?

Plenty of Tequila...

Guess what I found? If you have been reading me for a while you know that I have been trying to find Kahlua since 2019 at the other grocery stores I shop at and here it was. For a mere $200.00 pesos or $10.00 USD.

They also had Don Pancho Kahlua for $141.00 pesos or $7.05 USD.

Bailey's...I have never tasted it before...$3.95 USD

Clamato...$3.35 USD

I had never heard of Cuban-style Clamato...it did not have a price.

Now we are going in the opposite direction and focusing on tetra pak, regular, and powdered milk.

I bought a six-pack of Lala milk for $5.70 USD

$3.75 USD

Lots of powdered milk...

Well, we were going in that direction but my pictures are failing to upload for some reason 😠😖 Gosh, I hate technology...grrrrrr!!!!

I had no idea that they were having a special where you can buy three items but only have to pay for two. I purchased three 10-liter bottles of water for only $37.50 each or $1.88 USD.

I also bought my favorite hair color by Nutrisse for 56.00 pesos or $2.80 USD. At HEB they sell for $7.97 each. The savings just on this paid for the two tolls to cross the border and then some...I love to save money 😊

Folks, I think I am going to cut this post short as my computer and/or my pictures are not being cooperative. I started this post at 8:15 p.m. and it is now almost 11:10 p.m. and I am tired.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

June 2022 trip to Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila - México - Part 1

This past Tuesday, June 21st I had an appointment with my Mexican veterinarian which I detail in my other blog Walter's World. You can click on my header picture to take you there or on this link https://mylittlewalter.blogspot.com/

Please click on the pictures to enlarge

In Walter's World, I keep track of everything that has to do with my feral, stray, and home cats for as you know I suffer from CRS, and having a single place to refer to has proven to be beneficial in my case. I know that can be boring to some people so I keep their information separate from this blog. In this post, I am going to concentrate on the shopping aspect of my trip to Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila.

When you enter the city you will find many Exchange Houses where you can convert your dollars to pesos or if you have pesos they will sell you American dollars. The average exchange rate this morning was $20.00 pesos to $1.00 US dollar. To the left of this picture is a private hospital...Hospital Ejeza...and most of their clients are Americans. Across the street is an Exchange House...Macodolar...with today's rates. This was the only stretch I found where there was no traffic and I could safely take a picture.

My focus this morning was to swing by the only bank that lets you get change without giving you grief for not being a customer. I simply present my Texas driver's license which identifies me as a tourist and I have no problem. Citibamamex moved out to the suburbs many years ago and is located in the only mall in Ciudad Acuña. What would be my surprise when I got there and found huge lines outside of the bank and it wasn't even open yet. My first thought was...has a run on Mexican banks begun? Excuse me but I watch a lot of YouTube videos with the same headlines but of our American institutions. 😲

I realize it is not a good picture but it is the best one I took and it doesn't show how the line wrapped around the corner...

I don't do lines so headed inside to Bodegas Aurrera (owned by Walmart) you might recall that the last time I was here was in April and there was a shortage of shopping carts. Surely they had resolved that issue by now? Well, they haven't and I was not going to go on a hunting spree so decided to head to their other store that is more centrally located though smaller.

I will not be returning to this Bodegas Aurrera
anytime soon

I guess the last time I was here I failed to notice that they now have a KFC in Acuña...

As I drove back to town I spotted Soriana which is located about a mile from Bodegas Aurrera and they did not have many cars in their parking lot so I decided to stop. I would describe Soriana as a nicer store with wider aisles, a large selection of everything you would need, kind of like a Target.

It has been a while since I have been here even though I do have a store card (it's free) and if you buy certain items you get points that you can later redeem for free items.

In their parking lot, they have a gasoline station...

They have also built another one of these shoe stores that are all over the city...BHermanos...

In Soriana they did not have a buggy shortage as a matter of fact their buggies were brand new.

See what I mean from the upper picture of wider aisles and few people? Just my type of place! They have an ample selection of fruits and vegetables. They have specials on these on Tuesday and Wednesday as the signs indicate...Martes y Miercoles de Campo.

They have a large Bakery section. I believe these leftover cakes from Father's Day were about to be cut and offered to the customers for free.

I took a lot of pictures of items that I thought were good buys but I do not want to photobomb (I am not sure if I am using this term correctly) you this afternoon so I will leave those for Part 2.

Good afternoon.  Hope you have Terlingua Dreams this evening. 😴

Aunty Acid

Memories

Yesterday (Saturday, June 18th) I gave myself the morning and afternoon off from yard work. I had not left the house in a week and needed to pick up the mail at the post office. Glad I did because it was so full I could barely get it out.

Del Rio has some very long trains that cross through town and while there are several ways to get to the post office that is not going to happen when the trains are in motion so I headed to the very first overpass that was built (we only have three). That involves driving by the main HEB, the price for unleaded has not changed it was still $4.49 a gallon and the store parking lot was almost full at 11:00 a.m.

When we first moved to Del Rio we rented a house close to downtown which is known as Historic South Del Rio. The house where we lived as all the houses on our side of the street were sold and moved, or torn down.

Last year I had seen one of the houses on the next street over for sale on Realtor.com someone bought it and appeared to be working on it. What would be my surprise two months ago when I saw they had torn it down and were building a new one in its place. In a way, I am glad it was torn down, though the owners of the house had to pay a heavy price through no fault of their own for being related to two family members who up to that time or even perhaps today committed the most heinous murder in Del Rio history.

A new large structure caddy corner to that one is going up. It brought back memories of the late Mrs. Salas and her four grandchildren that she raised on her own after her irresponsible daughter took off to Chicago with some guy and never sent them a dime for their care. It made me feel sad and at the same time old since I doubt anyone else would know this besides their family who are dead and the kids now adults who all live in Illinois.

You know how we tend to forget a lot of things later in life which I call CRS? Well, it is like the floodgates opened and so many thoughts and memories long forgotten suddenly became fresh. I recalled dating Mrs. Salas's oldest son before he too left for Chicago...in the '70s that was the city most Del Rioans moved to obtain a good-paying job. We had already moved out to the county when I learned that her youngest son had taken his own life. I remember helping him with his homework and having long talks with him. All this just from looking at a new house?

Little HEB is three blocks away so I parked there to wipe my tears and get myself together before driving home. That is when I realized there were very few cars there so decided to go in.  All I needed were serranos, bread, and bottled water. Got the first two but they were all out of HEB brand water and had very few of the other higher-priced brands.

Here is what a loaf of bread is going for in our little HEB...

I bought Essential Grains that if you bought two using a coupon came out to $2.00 each

I checked on the price of beef though I seldom purchase any...

A 5-pound bag of potatoes was going for $2.37...

At that price, I could purchase the 15 lb bag for an additional $1.10 and save some money but we can not eat that many nor do we have room to store them. If I was getting ready for Terlingua I would have bought it.

No shortage of Valentina Hot Sauce...

They also had a good selection of Peanut butter that I understand there was a shortage of last month.

Now what I do like...Mayo 😋...I purchased Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil though I have also been seeing it made with Avocado Oil.

I purchased some sliced salad olives for $2.72 a jar.

They had good prices on tuna but I bought those on my last trip to the main HEB and have not opened any yet.

Mushroom stems and pieces are still cheaper at the $1.25 Dollar Tree.

I have never understood why there is a price difference between the HEB brand and Hill Country Fare (also an HEB brand)...

I do not eat a lot of eggs (except boiled eggs when camping) but took a picture for you to see the price.

I almost bought some cream cheese...

Talk about getting ready for Terlingua if it was closer I would have bought these Clamato's which were for half price at $2.49 for 64 oz.

They had a product I had never seen before Clamato Michelada Especial with jalapeños, spices, and lime 32 fl. oz size for $1.48.

I suppose they had wine boxes on sale for Father's Day, another must-have item for the Chili Cook-off.

I am a little late but I hope all my male readers had a great Father's Day.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid