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

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

Early voting, grocery run to HEB

How time flies...I can not believe it is already July 1st...where did the month go?  For that matter where did half the year go?

It has been very hot lately and there is no relieve insight worst yet the holiday weekend is almost here so I did not want to postpone the errands I needed to run.

Had to do my civic duty so headed to Val Verde County Courthouse to cast my early vote.  Found that early voting is no longer inside the courthouse but on another building in its grounds that once housed the County Jail.

If you did not know any better you might have thought you walked into a hospital. The personnel was in full PPE gear which made me feel much better.  At the time I went in, I was the only voter inside.

The courthouse is caddy corner to HEB #1 (Little HEB) ordinarily, I would have done my shopping there but I had gotten an e-mail saying our prescriptions were ready to be picked up so had to head to Big HEB instead.

Needed some more spinach and other items for my salads.

They had a good price on grape tomatoes.

Avocados...

 Hot dogs...

There were limiting many items.

As reported on San Antonio news media there is once again a run on paper products.

I was surprised there was a limit on ice cream as there has NEVER been an occasion that I have needed to purchase 4 tubs of ice cream in one transaction.

Gasoline prices keep on going up, therefore, I decided it was a good time to fill-up before it goes up even higher.

I apologize for the poor quality. Price was $1.879 a gallon
for unleaded gasoline.

It was an extremely hot and humid day. We had a low of 81, a high of 105 with a heat index of 109 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

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