Ran errands / hot patch

I got up early to set out the trash and run errands before the heat of the day set in. My first stop was Tractor & Supply, followed by the post office (boy did we have a lot of mail), then HEB to pick up a prescription and to gas up.

Gasoline prices continue to go down to my delight as well as that of my pocketbook. $3.289 for a gallon of Unleaded Gasoline is a bargain in comparison to a few months ago.

I usually park my car in the garage/carport facing the street in case I ever need a boost the Triple-A technician can do so without too much effort. However, I was going to drive back to town to pick up some lunch plates at Stripes now 7-Eleven so I didn't...it is a good thing because I noticed I had a nail in my tire.

I panicked and drove straight to Mario's Tire Repair a local small business I frequent. One of the guys told me that they could not fix it because it was too close to the sidewall and it was illegal in the US. He did tell me that I could have a "hot patch" done in a vulcanizadora in México where it is permitted.

He also asked me if I had bought insurance when I purchased my tires but I do not remember all I know is that I bought them on February 6, 2017, at the local Toyota dealership and I only know that because I documented it in this blog. 

I called the dealership when I got home and of course, they did not have me in their system. The Parts Guy said I would have to bring in the receipt...but after five years he doubted it would be covered. At the repair guy's advice, he said that if I decided to buy a new tire...Walmart had the best prices.

I did a Google search and after reviewing the pros and cons of a "hot patch" I think I will just purchase a new tire rather than risk a blowout or worse.

While we were fortunate to not reach the triple digits it was still hot and very humid. We had a high of 95 degrees today.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Dairy Queen / Buttered Popcorn

Drove into town to pick up our mail and run some errands. It had been a while since I had rewarded myself so I stopped for a late lunch at Dairy Queen and enjoyed some steak fingers, fries, and some cold unsweetened iced tea. Thought that would be sufficient but kept on seeing people coming in and enjoying an ice cream cone...so if I had already cheated, might as well cheat all the way...therefore proceeded to purchase one as well 😋

Stopped by the $1.25 Dollar Tree and scored big! The last time I was able to buy buttered popcorn was back in December 2021. 

          

In case you are wondering...NO...I did not hoard all the popcorn...left plenty for others though I was tempted to buy some more.

   

Noticed that in their frozen food section they now carry items selling for $1.25, $3.00, $4.00, and $5.00

     

In their can food aisle, some items are selling for less than $1.25 but I can not bring myself to buy Vienna Sausages. It brings back memories of an individual we dislike that ate them straight out of the can...yuck!!! 😝😝

We had clouds until noon so we only got to 100 degrees this afternoon but temperatures are forecasted to be higher tomorrow as well as this weekend. It is currently a little after 1:00 a.m. and it is 89 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

We are roasting in Texas

It has been incredibly hot in Del Rio and it is not even summer yet. The forecast does not look good for the coming two weeks either not to mention we have not had a drop of rain. The only lucky ones have been people that reside in the Panhandle and parts of Dallas that saw precipitation. We reached 109 degrees this past Monday.

The temperature at 10:30 p.m. has been in the 90's.  I feel for the people that do not have air conditioning or have it but can not afford to pay for the electricity to run it.  After watching this news report I quit my "b*tching" and felt fortunate that I live in this great country of ours.

In Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua border town with El Paso, Texas people have been sleeping outside their humble homes made of cardboard and wood pallets and cooking outside to mitigate the high temperatures. If that was not bad enough no water was coming out of their faucets.

They insulated their house with cardboard boxes and newspapers they picked up from the street. 

You would think that I would have stayed home but unfortunately, I had to go pick up some items I ordered online and make good use of my gas by running several errands while I was in town. We are fortunate that our gasoline prices are lower than in other states.

Unleaded $4.49, Diesel $4.94

I made a mini grocery run to HEB where the prices have not gone up much. Their soup is still $1.58 a can. What did go up was the cans of menudo but I stocked up on them a couple of months back.

I bought some pre-packaged salads and some avocados to make them more palatable.

Did you know that they grew tomatoes in Marfa, Texas?  Neither did I...

Laundry detergent is going up so decided to buy Sun Tropical Breeze (the purple bottle). You can save money by buying the yellow one for $5.00 at the $1.25 Dollar Tree.

HEB brand milk Hill Country is still reasonable, the one I bought was $3.98 a gallon.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Wildfires / Warm Temperatures / Goodyear

It has been very warm lately but as soon as the sun sets it cools down significantly. Our dew point levels have been low 10 to 15% something I do not recall ever seeing before. There have been two wildfires close to San Antonio and many acres have been burnt.

At noon I heard there was a new wildfire in northern Kinney County which is where Brackettville, Texas is located and only 30 miles from Del Rio.

There is no rain in the forecast.

I drove to the post office to pick up the mail, dropped off recyclables, and paid a visit to Ross. I wanted to check out their tennis shoes hoping to find some with more padding and support. My parents house has a lot of cacti and darn mesquite trees branches whose sharp thorns do a number on my shoes.

I was very surprised to find that Goodyear...yes, the famous tire maker now makes tennis shoes 😁 

They look sturdy and at $26.99 a good price but they were more like hiking shoes and were heavy so I had to pass.

Learned that Goodyear also makes luggage...who knew?

I considered going to Marshall's which is located at the other end of the mall but my feet were hurting perhaps on another occasion?

On the way home I passed by HEB and this was the going price for gasoline today. They seemed to be doing a brisk business.

$3.79 for unleaded gasoline

I do not know what I did but I messed up the alignment of this post...sorry about that!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Thought of the Day

This crazy weather / HEB

Yesterday the weatherman said it would be sunny, warm, and windy. This morning it was cool and cloudy the only part they got right was the "windy". I got an e-mail from HEB Pharmacy reminding me that I had not picked up my prescription and I only had three days or it would be returned to stock. I had planned on going tomorrow since today is a federal holiday and the post office was closed but I decided it would be best to go today.

I was surprised there were so many people picking up their mail. For those that do not have a P.O. Box while the post office is closed the lobby stays open 24 hours. By now it was around 2:30 p.m. and the HEB parking lot was packed...when are they going to build another store or the city allow a competitor to come to town?

They have yet to fix the pharmacy drive-thru but I needed to go inside anyway. I inquired about the free N95 masks the government was giving out but the clerk told me they had run out and she did not know when the next shipment would arrive.

Other than a canister of Nestle Hot Chocolate, my pre-packaged salads, bananas, and serranos I did not have a plan to purchase anything else. That is why I have no idea how I ended up spending $105.71... money does not go as far as it use to 😒

Glad they lifted the ban on avocados from Mexico and that the price has not gone up. 

I did not buy these but Jumbo avocados were selling for $2.50 each.

Pre-packaged salad has not gone up in price, it is still selling for $3.08 each.

When I saw the saltines I could not help but think of JudithK.  No saltine cracker shortage in Del Rio...

I had not seen Jalapeño Saltines before so I bought some to try them out...

Lucked out and found some Nestle hot chocolate...

Bought some Light Fruit Cocktail...

I was not able to find Strawberry Flakes cereal at Little HEB but they had plenty here...

Now that everything costs $1.25 at the Dollar Tree decided to buy hand sanitizer for only $1.00 here...

Bought a lot of canned goods, toilet paper, decaf coffee, two dark chocolate bars, chips, dip, and way too many cookies 😏

Gasoline was selling for $3.069 for unleaded gas and $3.549 for diesel...

At the corner Exxon it is was considerably more...

It was very warm as I drove home that I had to turn on the air conditioner. I would later learn that the temperature reached 96 degrees. The winds were terrible I had to hold on tight to the steering wheel. More of the same is expected tomorrow before another arctic freeze descends on us Wednesday.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid

Another cold front / Breakfast tacos / Little HEB

Even though we have had temperatures in the 70's as soon as the sun goes down it gets cold fast. If you have been reading me for a while you know I do not do well in cold temperatures. Last night (Friday) I went to bed at 8:45 p.m. so it is not a surprise that I was wide awake by 4:00 a.m. I was not about to get up at that ungodly hour so remained in bed.

I have been craving menudo and Stripes breakfast tacos so as soon as daylight broke I was out the door. Bought four different kinds of tacos and some chocolate Abuelita (a popular brand of Mexican hot chocolate). Being a truck stop I was surprised that there were few people there.

Swung by the post office to pick up our mail and since Little HEB is just down the road I headed in that direction. This is a very small store and its parking lot is even smaller. I was no longer living in Del Rio when they built the new larger HEB and the plan was to close this store down. My parents told me that the people organized, petitioned, and held demonstrations to prevent its closure and they were successful in their efforts to keep it open.

The front parking lot was empty and the side parking lot had three cars so I was not sure if the store was open or not but walked in anyway. I guess the early bird does get the worm as I practically had the store to myself.  All I wanted to buy was a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, and some serrano peppers. I apologize because when I email me the pictures for some reason they shrink and I have no idea how to make them bigger so you can see the price. Anyway, serranos remain at $1.37 lb.

I was not planning on purchasing avocados...but you know how that goes! As usual, I bought the small ones at .88 cents each. Medium avocados were selling for $1.25 and jumbo ones for $2.50 each.

Bananas remained the same at $.48 cents a pound.

I had heard that potatoes were one item that had remained stable in price. I do not typically buy them unless I am headed to Terlingua where I cook them or my idea of cooking is wrapping them in foil paper and placing them in the campfire.

15 lbs bag $3.47

5 lb bag $2.26

I would later look at the Joe V's ad (HEB's discount store in Houston) and shed a tear when I saw their price for avocados and potatoes. 😢

HEB Whole Wheat bread sells for $2.00 a loaf but with their in-store coupon, you could save a dollar if you bought two and that is exactly what I did.

Bought a couple of cookies as this store does not have as big a selection as their main store.

I had missed their Oatmeal Raisins cookies...

While I do not buy meat as I do not cook, I noticed they had placed limits on some items...

I like their black beans with no salt, they went up a nickel to .78 cents so bought a couple of cans.

Canned sliced peaches were on sale for $1.68

I was not expecting to find Juanita's Hot and Spicy Menudo but did not hesitate to take the last four cans on the shelf at $3.68 each.

They jumped right into my cart 😁

Some HEB brands of cereal were on sale for $1.98 each bought only two as I really wanted the one with strawberries but they did not have them at this location.

Since it was early I do not think they had sold out of milk, it must be a supply chain issue. They did not have my Non-fat Milk, or 1% Milk so I had to purchase their 2% Milk for $2.86 a gallon.

They had plenty of name-brand paper towels...

They finally got around to selling 40 bottle packets of water previously I could only find that at Walmart but they never had anybody around to put it in the cart for me. I did not need any water at this time.

I saw these Unsalted Restaurant Style chips for $2.18 so purchase one to try it out...

I ended up spending $59.81 which I don't think is too bad as I also bought frozen broccoli florets, hot salsa, foil paper, and HEB brand 1000 sheet bath tissue.

On the way home I passed by the main HEB and as expected it was already getting packed. I took this picture while driving so it did not come out very well but gasoline prices are going down for now no telling what they will be tomorrow.

$2.989 for a gallon of unleaded

A block away at the corner Exxon, it was going for much more...$3.249 a gallon or 26 cents more.

I got home just in time as the strong winds from the north were ushering in yet another cold front. I am sick of winter. 😭

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid