Val Verde County Property Taxes / Flu Shot / Long lines

I woke up Friday morning to some powerful wind gusts and waited until 1:00 p.m. for them to die down before I went to run my errands. First on the list was to pay our property taxes at the Val Verde County Courthouse. For the past two or three years, it has been a mess and tax statements did not even go out until November last year but I came down anyway so I could get our discount for paying them in the month of October.

This year they were sent out the last week of October but since I drive down to the post office once or maybe twice a week if I am expecting something I do not know exactly which day they arrived. I was very surprised to find a LONG line of people there for the same reason. We in Del Rio are not used to long lines especially retired people such as myself. The line was made up mostly of women who shocked me when someone came in and wanted to walk directly up to the three payment windows...they would yell at them and tell them to go to the back of the line....jajajaja...😄

Though they had three windows open, one clerk had a closed sign on her window, and another had a lady that was there when I arrived and was at the same window almost the entire time I was in line. Needless to say, the women were all commenting on why this lady was taking so long.

I made my payments and was given four envelopes but I paid for five so I thought perhaps she had placed two in one envelope as that is the way they mail two of the lots. By now my feet were killing me so took a seat on the bench next to the license plate division and checked on it. Sure enough, she forgot to give me a receipt for one of the lots so I sat there waiting for the line to go down before I rejoined it.

At least I had the check number to prove I had paid it. In past year's blog entries, I mentioned that I could not believe how many elderly property owners pay with cash, and this year the trend continues...that is so dangerous!

The clerk apologized for her mistake and handed me my receipt and told me that I should have just gone up to her window and not stood in line again. Fat chance I was going to do that with those aggressive women!

For the past couple of days, I have been looking for my Covid-19 vaccination card but have not been able to find it. Hopefully, the four vaccines I have previously been administered will keep me healthy until I can locate it. I went to HEB and got a flu shot instead. Here I encountered another long line but at least they had chairs to mitigate the wait. Again most were senior women I only saw one young lady in her twenties.

I had every intention of going to Ollie's but my plantar fasciitis did not agree...so I came home 😒

Just Thursday gasoline at HEB had gone up a dime to $3.159 for a gallon of unleaded gas. Friday that same gallon went down by .12 cents to $3.039...what a roller coaster ride!

Today's Aunty Acid is a day late since I failed to make a post last night but I think we can all identify with it. Happy Belated Internet Day!

Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

A day of long lines

We left early this morning for San Antonio, Texas.  It is a good thing that I give myself a little wiggle room for unforeseeable events. There was a long line just before we left Brackettville city limits after all this is Highway 90 East a very heavily traveled highway. I figured there must have been a serious accident and they were waiting to clear the scene.  However, that did not turn out to be the case, the TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) guy said the railroad was fixing their lines and we would have to detour through a country road to reach Uvalde, Texas.

This country road was very narrow and it had far too much traffic for comfort including speeding eighteen wheelers whom you could literally touch if you stuck your hand out the window. There was no shoulder and if you tried to pull over the grass was extremely high and you could possibly start a grass fire.

Then traffic came to a halt and for those that might be worried that our borders would not be secure...well lord and behold Homeland Security and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) had set up a temporary Border Patrol Check Point with at least 20 agents. They did this because the road closure circumvented their permanent facility on Highway 90 East. Had to roll down the passenger window and while I appreciated that they did not question my mother...with a suspicious glance was asked to verbally state the country of my citizenship...so wanted to say "same as yours"...but figured I would probably delay the line even further and possibly risk being arrested. Lordy, lordy, long lines wreak havoc on my nerves and patience!

It takes me one hour and ten minutes to reach Uvalde, today it took two hours and fifteen minutes. We arrived at the doctor's office fifteen minutes before her appointment time.

We left the doctor's office at exactly 5:00 p.m. at the beginning of rush hour. It has been a while since I have been right in the middle of so much traffic. It took us 55 minutes just to get out of San Antonio. I was hauling as I knew I would not be able to reach Del Rio before sundown and my night vision leaves a lot to be desired in particular having to go back down an unfamiliar country road in the dark.

Stopped in Uvalde to gas up at Stripes, while they had plenty of fuel this morning that was not the case this afternoon, but at least some pumps had gasoline and no lines...yeah!!!  Filled up at $2.49 per gallon for regular unleaded.

It only got better, the detour route was no longer in effect so I was able to cruise back to Del Rio at 70 miles per hour versus the 40 to 45 mph we had to endure this morning.  When we got back home we picked up some KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and stuffed our face :D

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.