Sleepless night / Zelle / Walmart

Went to bed around 11:30 p.m. but was awaken by the neighbors' dogs who started barking at 3:11 a.m.  As hard as I tried I could not go back to sleep so finally gave up and got up at 4:30 a.m.  

I have been complaining to my homeowner's association that they should give options so we could be able to make our payments online versus mailing them. I had Paypal in mind but the board decided on Zelle a form of payment I had never heard of but that supposedly is used by many banks...of course, many but...NOT MY BANK!!!

If your bank does not use this program then you have to download the app to your smartphone and pay with a debit card.  If you call their support telephone number you are connected to a call center in India. I ended up hanging up on the guy as I could not understand him or vice versa.

This morning I decided to write a check instead and head off to the Main Post Office as mine is closed on Saturdays and besides mine always lose my payments. This post office is located in the north part of town close to Walmart. Since it was early I went to see if I could find some more discounted Christmas storage totes but they were all gone.

The last time I came to Walmart I bought some dark chocolates which are supposed to be good for you...ate a couple but then misplaced them...I am sure they are somewhere in this house. Since I had not eaten since yesterday I guess my sugar levels were out of whack. I ended up buying a carrot cake, muffins, more chocolates, menudo, chili and to make myself not feel so guilty...salads, nopalitos, and serranos :-D

As I passed by HEB I noticed that the price of gasoline had gone up and there were a lot of cars filling up. I still have 3/4 of a tank so I might gas up the next time I swing by here. Unlead gasoline was going for $2.09 a gallon.

Today we only reached a high of 79 degrees but with the wind gusts, it felt much colder.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

Header Picture

Recycling Center / Closed Parks / Little HEB

Had to run some errands in town. I was hoping to get an early start but my morning chores took longer than expected. As I headed to town I saw a long line to get into the Val Verde County Community Center for a free food give away.

As I passed big HEB I noticed that gasoline prices were once again on the rise. Regular Unleaded gasoline was selling for $1.979 a gallon... before we know it, it will be over $2.00 a gallon...and I have not been able to take advantage of it.

My steel cans and plastic bottles were growing exponentially and were begging to be taken to the Recycling Center so that is where I headed.

The City of Del Rio Recycling Center is very close to the parks that are along the banks of San Felipe Creek. I drove by some of them and only Moore Park had cars in its parking lot but I did not see any people.

Headed to San Felipe Lions Park where they had barricades set up to keep people from parking and it worked as I did not see a single soul there.

The County Library is close by and it was open today it had some patrons but I bypassed it and went to pick up our mail. When was the last time I was here?  Our P.O. Box was full, glad I stopped by.

Having been by the main HEB and seeing a full parking lot, there was no way I was going to stop there even if it meant that I would miss out on buying my favorite ice cream or my larger size package of spinach for my salads.

Little HEB was the focus of my shopping on this day. While the parking lot was not full a vast majority of the people that shop here walk to the store. This store is small so I had to go around the aisles a couple of times to respect the social distance.

Happy to report that egg prices have once again gone down to even lower prices than pre-COVID.  Before a dozen medium eggs sold for .88 cents and today, they were priced at .77 cents a dozen which made them cheaper than at Dollar Tree.

I was going to take a picture but had left my phone in the car.  What did go up was the price of beer by $2.00 for a 30-pack of Natural Light and it appears that the "beer smugglers" have taken a break or perhaps are buying beer at larger establishments like big HEB and Walmart to then smuggle into Mexico for resale.

I only purchased 23 items mostly bread, serranos, a large bottle of Tabasco, eggs, and canned goods.

We had another triple-digit day. Per KSAT12 we had a high of 103 degrees and were the hot spot in Texas.

Per AccuWeather, the high was 104 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

Ransomware consequences

Initially got up with the thought of going to go buy me breakfast but by the time I took a shower, got dressed and put on make-up it was lunch time, lol !!!

Was puzzled that the water bill had not been deducted from mother's bank account.  Headed to the Water Billing Department only to find out that they are still struggling with the hack the City of Del Rio suffered in January.  They are only accepting checks and cash payments but since she is enrolled in ACH payments it is taking them longer but they will not be penalizing the customers that use this method.

The City is also having problems issuing birth and death certificates for the same reason.  They do not want to open up current or older files to protect them from the ransomware demanded by the hackers.

The granddaughter of a friend of ours was born at the beginning of the year and she has yet to be issued a birth certificate because apart from the City of Del Rio hacking there has also been a problem with the State of Texas new system for birth and death records.

Why is this a problem? Without a birth certificate, she can not get a passport for her newborn child.  She works at a Maquiladora in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila-Mexico where they offer free childcare for employees.

Gasoline has once again gone up, filled up at Walmart who had the cheapest price in town $2.14 a gallon for unleaded gas.

I got so much accomplished today thanks to my readers and their suggestions.  I am too cheap to buy index cards so I just cut up cereal boxes to the same size and wrote down everything I needed to do or purchase and then another list of the order in which to do them to save on gas and not to have to do return trips.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

A beautiful winter day in the 70's...

We had a beautiful sunny winter day in the 70's today. This evening a cold front is supposed to come our way and go down to the '30s.  I am not complaining though, I have seen how cold it is supposed to get up north. My friend in Chicago is seriously questioning WHY she is even there.

Have tried to go to the laundromat but all the ones I have passed by are too full for my liking.  Decided to do some hand washing to take advantage of the strong winds that hit us this afternoon and glad I did.

Gasoline prices are on the rise but I was still lucky enough last week to fill up at $1.99 a gallon for unleaded gasoline.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

A long day

Man, it has been a long day!  Got up at six this morning and have been going strong up until eleven o'clock this evening.  When I worked in the oil patch, I never knew what time I would get home.  Working 12 to 14 hour days were the norm.  At the time I thought those were long hours, I laugh at that thought now.  It is more taxing physically and emotionally now that I do not work...as in a paying job...but more demanding than I ever thought possible.

This afternoon mother finally got her MRI.  Actually, it was two MRI's...MRI Thoracic Spine...and MRI Lumbar Spine.  Her primary physician is on vacation next week so I have no idea when we will know the results. The good thing is that her pain levels are down and by default her intake of pain medication.

Yesterday I was happy to see regular gasoline going for $2.03 a gallon and inching closer to the less than two dollars a gallon benchmark. I was disappointed to see that the price had jumped six cents overnight to $2.09 per gallon.

It rained this morning but was still warm and humid. The cold front hit around noon, mainly it was the winds that made it feel colder.  The good thing is that our "winter" is about six weeks long.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Tiny Teardrop

Earlier this week had to make a run to Walmart where I spotted this cute little teardrop being towed by a motorcycle.

It is the smallest teardrop I have ever seen.

I took the first two pictures before I spotted a guy eating in the picnic area and I asked him if it was his...he said it was and I asked his permission to take this last picture and he graciously allowed me to.

Would have loved to have asked him a couple of questions but I respected his privacy as he was eating and obviously passing through town.

When I came back out he was no longer there so I do not know if he was shopping or taking a nap but his teardrop was a hit as other people were snapping pictures right and left.

On another note, gasoline prices have gone up by .05 cents in two days. Regular unleaded is now selling for $2.19 per gallon.

Today we had another appointment at the wound care unit of our local hospital.  I have to take mother there three times a week. Wednesday and today were sheer torture as they had to remove the yellow part of the wound. Thankfully her doctor finally prescribed some pain medication as Tylenol and Aleve are basically useless in her case.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Measles / House Fire / Gas Prices

Today we had to go to the local hospital for mother's monthly blood draw as well as an X-ray. Got to watch CNN as we waited.  Had no idea the measles epidemic was that bad or how easy it is to contract it.  Kind of scary particularly because we frequent hospitals and doctor's offices.

Did you know that an infected person can leave a room and someone that walks in up to two hours later can still become infected?  Not news I wanted to hear :-(

On January 23rd there was a house fire in which a lady tragically died.  My mother thought it was the wife of a friend of my father's. Today we drove by there but it wasn't the person she knew.

The lady was in her late 70's and lived alone. The space heater caught on fire because she had a lot of things in close proximity to it.  Things like this really sadden me.

It appears that gasoline prices are once again on the rise.  This afternoon in our way into town this was the price at the local Exxon.

A block away HEB had the following price.  I commented to mother that I bet when we made our way back home they would have raised it.to match HEB...sure enough that was the case.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Three Fat Chicks in the Desert

This week has been a blur, I can barely believe it is Friday already.  Between problems with my computer, blood draws, screaming kids in hospital waiting rooms, getting up at the crack of dawn and long waits at the doctors office...my nerves are shot.

If that wasn't bad enough I think I flooded dad's old car last night when I was trying to move it to the garage.  Billy Bob likes to say "Google is your best friend" might give it a shot...but not tonight.

Where is my tall weathered cowboy with mechanical knowledge when I need him?  Oh wait, I think I am enamored...for the moment...with Creek Stewart of "Three Fat Guys in the Woods" fame.  If you have not heard of this show, I highly recommend you check it out, it is being shown on the Weather Channel.

Have learned a lot just by watching him but I am not anywhere close to being able to spend a week in the woods.  Here Creek gives five other uses for everyday things that could help you in case you find yourself in a survival situation. http://creekstewart.com/about/

I think in a pinch I might be able to start a fire but I need desert survival skills more than I do being in the woods skills.  Creek is easy on the eyes so I will keep on watching him do his magic :)

Maybe they should have a series titled  "Three Fat Chicks in the Desert"...and I might audition. Now, don't go stealing the name to this future show, I came up with it first! Then again that might involve killing a rattle snake and having to skin and eat it,,,never mind. :-(

Today we made our monthly trip to Uvalde and I noticed that gasoline was $3.04 a gallon this morning.  A few hours later on our way back home, gasoline had gone up .15 cents!

Stripes in Uvalde, Texas

I was going to fill up but not at that price!  When we reached Del Rio, HEB had their gasoline at $3.07 a gallon for regular unleaded.  Decided to go check the new Stripes and the price was about the same as in Uvalde.  Made a beeline back to HEB to fill up on the cheaper priced gasoline.

Here I thought gasoline prices were going to go down, not up for my future trip to the Chili Cook-off.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Whatever happened to affordable eggs during Easter?

I recall from the time I was a kid to up to a few years ago, retailers dropped the price of eggs during Easter so the parents could afford to buy them for the Easter Sunday egg hunts.  I guess that must be a thing of the past because I have not see any sales on them even in the Houston grocery ads that I subscribe to.

Thursday I drove mother to Uvalde for her doctor's appointment.  I have mentioned before that Del Rio does not have any national drugstore chains...the nearest one is in Uvalde 70 miles away. Looking at their ad online was very excited to see a dozen large eggs for .99 cents plus other miscellaneous items that we needed to get stocked up on.

Of course once inside could not find the eggs anywhere, turns out they sold out yet their flashing sign was still advertising them.  Did not find any of the other items I was going to purchase either...good thing I did not make a special trip just to shop at Walgreens or I would have been pretty darn upset.

Of the one thing I was thankful for, was that the weather forecasters were wrong and it did not get to the high 80's.  It was a cloudy day in the 70's.  Once again the price of gasoline went up.  In Uvalde it was selling for $3.45 a gallon and in Del Rio for $3.49.

HEB in Uvalde, Texas

HEB in Del Rio, Texas

On a side note this time that we passed the Immigration Check Point in Uvalde, I noticed more cameras than on our last trip, wonder what gives?  I could only take this picture from afar since they tend to get upset if they catch taking a photo.  If my blog disappears this is probably the reason why.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Rain Envy :-(

I have been reading a lot of blogs where they are talking about all the rain they have received lately...even in Nevada and Arizona traditional dry states...I think I have rain envy :-(

Where is my share of the rain?  It has rained a little but not anything to write home about.  Oh well...on the positive side the rains in the surrounding areas have made for some tolerable temperatures even though it has been very humid...I am talking Houston like humidity!

Gas prices are once again climbing and both Stripes and HEB had ended their save .12 cents off...if you use their store debit card promotion.

Last night I went to fill up mom's mini-van at the Stripes across from HEB since I still had a balance in my debit card only to find out that this store uses another debit card!!!  How stupid is that?

My particular Stripes debit card can only be used at the new Stripes or the one heading to Mexico.  Since I was not going to get a discount anyway opted to fill up here.

Since many of my overseas readers have asked me to post gasoline prices including diesel...your wish is my command :-)

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.