Plumbing Problems / Angi

It has been hot as hell this summer with no relief in sight. I run errands early in the morning and try to get home as soon as possible before the oppressive heat of the day. At least that was the case until yesterday. All of a sudden a leak developed in the kitchen sink and even though I have a water meter key to shut it off at the meter as well as the faucet keys under the sink it continued to leak.

I had to go to pick up our mail at the post office so I timed how long it would take to fill a container and the back-up bucket. I made it back in 30 minutes just in time. This had happened to me before but after two days finally quit leaking. This is what happens when you procrastinate and do not address the problem when you should.

I have been to the City of Del Rio Water Dept. twice asking them to come fix the meter. While they have come out my issue has not been resolved and I am not the only one. People are complaining about their high water bills. I suppose I should be glad our bill has only reached $100.00 and not $700.00 like other people.

The city is tearing up streets and upgrading the water lines which is good but at the same time, there is a shortage of personnel to address other issues.

I have used Angi once before when the neighbor's tree fell on my driveway and I could not go to Houston to take care of the problem. It was expensive but well worth it. I was Googling Plumbers in Del Rio as I did not want to use the one we have used in the past. Though it is rated one of the three best, it has gone downhill since the widow of the owner put her young incompetent nephew in charge.

With my poor record of hiring people in particular in the lawn care sector, I did not want to mess up on this and decided to use Angi. Unfortunately, they did not have any available slots for today or the early morning hours tomorrow. It came to $400.50 you pay Angi and they pay the provider. I had questions so I called the main line but all I got was a message telling me to download their App. I hate Apps...I wanted to talk to a live person!

I hope I do not have to spend another sleepless night monitoring the water bucket level as I have been so tired lately.

Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

City of DR billing problems/ Prescriptions / Americans smuggling beer into Mexico

The City of Del Rio Water Department has been having billing problems for a couple of months now that I was not aware of until I saw it being covered by the San Antonio television stations a few months back.

The city was hacked in November or December of 2018 and it apparently caused many problems. People were getting bills for $700.00 or more and citizens were showing up at City Hall meetings by the hundreds. Since it did not happen to us I figured we were in the clear.

Our bill has doubled and it is showing an outrageous amount of usage so I contacted them before Texas closed down and issued stay at home orders. I left dozens of messages who were not returned. This past Tuesday I was finally able to speak to an employee. A city worker came by today and with that out of the way I was free to run my errands.

I have been putting off going to pick up our prescriptions since we have had strong winds, gray skies, with the threat of storms not to mention very hot temperatures all this week.  I had no choice but to go today as the crowds are going to double in the stores with Mother's Day shoppers.

Finally was able to give my car a much-needed wash before heading to HEB to pick up my prescriptions. Was surprised gasoline prices still remain high in comparison to other parts of Texas. This Exxon corner station was selling regular unleaded for $1.739 a gallon.

Used the drive-thru as I did last month to pick-up my medications. If you look to the right of the picture you see a white vehicle...this is the area where you park and pick-up your order if you requested curve-side delivery. Last month there were quite a few cars using this service not so today.

Even though I was in the safety of my own car I had both my gloves and mask on.

I drove around the front of the store to see how long the line was and was surprised that there was no line at all. While I prefer shopping at "Little HEB" there are many items that I have not been able to find on my prior visits such as pre-packaged salads, larger packages of pre-washed spinach, lettuce, good quality serranos, avocados and larger bottles of olive oil.

HEB was very well stocked and even at noon they still had plenty of toilet paper.

The same held true for paper towels. My favorite being Viva.

This one is for JudithK. They had more Bounty than Viva...so I win...even though it was not a competition, lol, just kidding :-)

I was literally dying for some sugar-free ice cream and my serranos.  Hopefully, I won't die by catching this virus by having ventured out to purchase them! Little HEB does not carry this brand of ice cream.

This week I saw HEB advertise in the San Antonio stations that they were limiting the purchase of any type of meat to two packages per customer.  I was surprised that in Del Rio they were allowing five items per transaction.  Since I do not cook it does not affect me.

I wanted to try turkey bacon but did not know what " Uncured Turkey Bacon" meant and I did not want to ask anyone so I bought a package of regular bacon instead.

I finally found out why there is a shortage of beer on the six o'clock news. It appears this problem is confined to border towns.  I mentioned on a prior post that Mexico declared the beer industry "non-essential" and ordered it to close during the pandemic. This resulted in panic buying throughout Mexico  All that beer has now been consumed so American citizens are smuggling beer into Mexico to sell to their families and friends.

You might ask...how can that be when the border with Mexico is closed? American citizens can still cross into Mexico...it is Mexican citizens with laser visas that can not cross into the United States unless it is an emergency and it is up to the border crossing agents to make that call.

We as Americans can cross back to our country any time we feel like it 24/7.  So that is why there is a shortage of beer in Del Rio. Even at big HEB, there were no 30, 24, 20, or 12 packs available.  However, I lucked out and took the last three 15-packs of my more affordable (sounds nicer than cheap) beer.

I was in and out in no time flat as the check-out lines were small.  Everyone was wearing masks and this old guy who was riding in an electric wheelchair had a pair of pink women's underwear as his mask...takes all types!

Swung by the post office to pick up the mail and send off a payment. So this was my exciting day!
We had a low of 61 and a high of 88 degrees today.

Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Aunty Acid Saying of the Day