The Dog Days of Summer

As I grow older, dealing with these triple-digit Texas temperatures seems more challenging. It is not like they just started happening it gets HOT in Texas every summer and always has. When I lived in Houston it was not only hot but humid but for some reason, I do not recall it affecting me perhaps because I went from my air-conditioned house to my air-conditioned car to my air-conditioned office.

Every time I go into town now I come back exhausted. I like to watch late-night comedy shows so I can laugh and relax after listening to the not-so-nice news of the day. I have not even made it past the ten o'clock nightly news lately thus my lack of posts.

I much prefer sleeping to going online. With that said I am wide awake by 4:00 a.m. At least I am getting six hours of sleep nightly that when one suffers from insomnia is a wonderful thing. If you can sleep through the night you do not know how fortunate you are.

Since the rise of gasoline prices, I have been filling up as soon as I use 1/4 of a tank. My trip to México last week brought my gauge closer to half a tank but at least gasoline prices are going down so I put it off a little longer. Sunday I made an early trip to the HEB gasoline pumps where I was the only car there...at least for a few minutes...then everyone started to show up.

$3.859 for Unleaded gas
$4.789 for Diesel

Before going inside the store I spotted this El Camino...it has been a long time since I have seen one.

I stocked up on more canned goods, water, toilet paper, and something I have not eaten in a long time...Beef Jerky...

Monday I went to Walmart and was surprised to find they were mostly out of water.

Laughed at the price of a dozen eggs...😂...there is no way I was going to pay that plus we don't eat that many eggs.

Gasoline was .03 cents cheaper here. I apologize as I do not know why these photos came out smaller when I emailed them to myself.

The weather is so crazy from drought, fires, triple-digit temperatures, monsoons, and torrential rains in our nation as well as in the rest of the world. I hope wherever you may happen to be reading me that you and your family are safe.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Humid / Drizzly / Severe Storm

It has been very humid this week and mornings have been drizzly including today. I could not put off my errands any longer so headed to town this morning. My first stop was the post office, I thought with the real estate bubble about to burst and the rise in interest rates I would not be hearing from flippers any longer...I was WRONG...most of my mail was from them. At least they have given up on calling me and I have to credit my wonderful answering machine that screens all calls and even if they manage to leave a message I don't return their calls.

Back in early February, I considered using up the six-month grocery stash that I have maintained during the past two years due to Covid and just keep a one to two month supply on hand. Then Putin's invasion of Ukraine happened, inflation escalated, and now you can not go on YouTube without seeing prepper videos come up as suggested viewing.

With my insomnia, I have stayed up late watching a bunch of them so to make a long story short...I am back to my six-month stash going on eight-month just in case.  

My second stop was HEB where I managed to pick up a couple more items and had the good sense to bring in my umbrella. I was just about to check out when my phone notified me I had an e-mail (I only turn on my phone when I leave the house) and it just happened to be from HEB Pharmacy letting me know my prescriptions were ready. I was so happy as I saved myself a return trip to town.

On my way to the post office, gasoline at HEB was going for $3.69 a gallon for unleaded gasoline. Two hours later on my way home, it had gone up twenty cents to $3.89 a gallon.

I will upload some pictures of my purchases tomorrow as I am too tired to email them to myself tonight.

The weather forecasters had predicted strong storms from México reaching the border with the possibility of tornados, heavy rains, strong winds, and hail. Since these are San Antonio channels they told their audience not to worry as they did not think it would reach the Alamo city. 

We did get all that but lucky for our area only pea-size hail. However, Laughlin Air Force Base on the east side of town had winds that reached 65 mph. I was shocked to hear one weatherman (KENS 5) say they got it WRONG! Not only did it hit along the border but all the way to San Antonio.

Understandably, they focused on that and not on what happened in Del Rio so I do not know how much rain we received but we had a pool in the front yard. I estimate we received between one to two inches.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Surge in Covid cases / Cold Front / Grocery Run

The Covid numbers keep on going up in Del Rio as well as in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila - México. The cases are so out of control they had to open a third testing kiosk. It is so discouraging that after two years of this pandemic we still have not learned to avoid family gatherings during holidays or to mask up.

Yesterday Wednesday, January 19th it was 84 degrees, as I am typing this it is 42 with a feel like of 31 degrees with wind gusts of 27 mph. I knew it was going to be cold for the next couple of days so I made the decision to go to the post office as well as HEB.

I had so many things to do outside that time got away from me so I waited until after 6:00 p.m. when in my estimation there would be fewer people...I was wrong!  I have never seen the line at the pharmacy drive-thru be so long. It has two lanes but one must have been out of service as there were no cars in it and the other lane had at least 14 cars...you know me and lines...I avoid them!

I went inside and while there were only two people in front of me one lady took forever due to problems with her insurance carrier. By the time I knew the line in the back of me had grown considerably. I wore two good-quality masks and a face shield.  I was glad to see more people masked it was 75/25 in favor of masks.

Since by the time I began grocery shopping it was 6:45 p.m. I do not know if some of the shelves that were empty had to do with people stocking up for the upcoming bad weather, supply chain issues, or worker shortages.

As usual toilet paper was scarce.

How do prices in your area compare?

They did have plenty of paper towels in stock...

Soups...

Pasta aisle...

Who knew there was organic ravioli?

Cold cuts were in low supply but I still managed to score my Turkey Jumbo Franks for $1.28 a package.

I have not bought turkey bacon in at least three years, that changed today as I could not believe the price of only $1.49

HEB brand cookies have gone up very little in price so I bought a few...

Abel in Austin - I was able to find cans of menudo but I almost did not see them as they were in the bottom shelf way in the back.  Picked up four because I was afraid to kneel down and then have to ask for assistance to get up.

I do not think I have tried this brand before (CRS) but when you don't cook you take what you can get.

There was no shortage of hot sauce...

They had reasonable prices on eggs...a dozen large eggs for $1.42 a carton

I read that there was a shortage of mayonnaise but I found my favorite brand Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil on sale for $2.98.

What did go up was Olive Oil...

My buggy at checkout...

I only went to pick up one prescription and to purchase milk, bread, eggs, and bananas but you all know how that goes...I ended up spending $122.90.

By the time I left the store, it was dark. While I had my night vision glasses I was able to drive home just using my new regular ones.

I got home just before the cold front hit Del Rio so I only got down the important things and left most of my can goods in the car.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams and bundle up!

Aunty Acid

HEB grocery run / seesaw in temperatures

The temperatures have been spring-like yesterday Wednesday, January 5th we missed breaking a record high by one degree. It was a very comfortable 82 degrees.

I had to go pick up a prescription at HEB and couldn't help but notice the signs at the pharmacy announcing they were out of Covid tests like in most of the nation.

I had run out of milk, individual salads, bread, and was down to my last two boxes of cereal from the stash I bought back in April 2021 so made a grocery run.  I usually buy HEB store brands that I find to be just as good as the national brands.

If your store has its own national brand, how do HEB's prices stack up?

Fortunately for me, my Turkey Jumbo Franks have not gone up in price they remain at $1.28 a package.

The same goes for my salads, bread, milk, and avocados.

Just a short story about avocado prices...my neighbor in Houston was complaining that avocados were no longer 5 for $1.00 at Joe V's (HEB's discount store) they were now 4 for $1.00...are you kidding me, woman?  That is still a super bargain price!  I would be more than glad to pay that price any day...in Del Rio, they continue to sell for .78 cents each.

They had a variety of slices of cake but thankfully no carrot or red velvet cake, so I was not tempted.

Here is my buggy at the checkout counter.

Gasoline was going for $2.739 a gallon for unleaded gasoline.

This evening temperature is supposed to dip below the freezing mark.  It is currently 43 degrees. This is the time of year when we experience a seesaw in temperatures.

Good night.  May you have Terlingua Dreams and bundle up!

Aunty Acid

One of my Amazon orders arrived / Grocery run to HEB

Yesterday I took a day off to watch everything to do with the Inauguration and enjoyed every minute of it. This morning I finally checked my e-mails and decided to track my Amazon order only to learn it had arrived yesterday, however my hat the main reason for my order would not arrive until Friday.

Drove down to the post office to pick it up and once again my P.O. Box was full of mail. They left a new key instructing me to use it to open one of the lockboxes to pick up my merchandise.  It seems they are phasing out the old orange knob keys.

What was my surprise but to see that my hat that was not suppose to arrive until tomorrow was already there but the rest of my order that shows it was delivered yesterday was not...grrrrrrr!! The line has been long since December and I had no desire to stand in it but neither did I want to have to drive back into town tomorrow.

As you all know I hate cellphones and I have only the bare minimum of apps and Amazon is not one of them. All my passwords are stored on my desktop using Dashlane (a password generator) and you can only have it on one device or you have to pay extra and I am a bit on the frugal side. So I stood in line for nothing as I was not able to get the tracking number and the post lady had no record I received anything yesterday. That is a shame because I had ordered new face shields with glasses and six cat collars.

I had no other choice but to stop at HEB as I went through a can of Nestle Hot Chocolate mix as if it was water. As usual, when one goes shopping when hungry...you end up buying more stuff than you intended.

As I passed the ice cream aisle noticed that they now carry a Spurs and a Houston Texan ice cream I had never seen that before I think it might be a new product.

Found there was also a new line of HEB brand diet ice cream that will come in handy as soon as we shed these cold temperatures.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

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