Unsolicited buyer / Prescriptions / Lunch Plates and more beer

It was going to be a warm day so I was outside watering the trees by 7:30 a.m.  At this hour it was still pleasant when a car came to a stop by the fence and a man got out without a face mask on...I did not have one on either as I was in my home with two locks on the main gate and not expecting company.

I did not walk to the fence I just asked him what he needed and he yells that he wanted to know if my van was for sale (Terlita my camping van) and I told him it was NOT.  He does not go away asks me if it runs...what difference does it make?  It is not for sale...grrrrrrrrrr!!!  I was polite and told him it did not. He then asks me what is wrong with it, I reply the transmission went out on it. Then he asks what kind of motor it has.  I was losing my cool...told him I had NO idea.  He asks again if I was sure I did not want to sell it...my polite reply was...No, Sir... as I moved on to a tree further from the fence.

This man wants to buy Terlita, Pollito wants to buy Mom's mini-van and a creepy man wants to purchase dad's old car.  Excuse me but I do not have a For Sale Sign on any of our cars. Ok...end of rant!

I called it a morning and went inside to take a shower to cool off and calm down.  I usually do not go online until the evening but I was waiting for an e-mail from my new health care professional but his staff is so incompetent I am having second thoughts even though I like him.

That is when I got an e-mail from HEB notifying me my prescriptions were ready to be picked up...darn has a month already gone by? With or without a pandemic time sure flies by in my little world. Our temperatures are in the high 90's and starting next week we will be in the triple digits.

After some consideration decided to go pick them up today using their drive-thru. I apologize for the poor quality as my windshield was dirty...I need to stop off at the carwash soon!

It was past noon and I was hungry so I decided to go back to the same Stripes as yesterday to purchase some lunch plates. Today I did not crop the pictures so you could see the plexiglass that protects the food from people sneezing on it.

In this picture, you can see the plexiglass goes almost all the way down leaving about an inch clearance towards the bottom.  You might have to enlarge it by clicking on it as I have a cheap cellphone that takes terrible pictures.

Here are the Salsa and Fruit Bars that have been closed since the pandemic began.

My lunch plate consisted of a Chile Relleno, with rice and beans with a flour tortilla that I had to give to the cats :-(

The other lunch plate was half a chicken with rice and green beans.

Yesterday when I came to purchase my breakfast tacos it was early in the morning. Today it was past noon so they had even more beer for sale for our Mexican neighbors though actually since the border is officially closed only American citizens or legal residents can cross it into Mexico.

Today we had a low of 76 a high of 99 with a heat index of 104 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

Terlita / Menudo / Another record broken

I miss Terlita (my camping van) it has been patiently sitting in the garage since 2010 waiting for a new transmission that seems to never come as other items take priority.

Terlita is a full size 1991 Dodge Ram 150 van that I could fit everything and even throw in the kitchen sink...my Toyota Corolla...not so much :-(    Having a dedicated vehicle for camping makes preparing for the Chili Cook-off less stressful.  I can pack it ahead of time and when I return unpack at my leisure.

I need to go to Ciudad Acuña to purchase supplies for my trip and a bottle of Kahlua.  Looked at the Border Wait Times app and it was 60 minutes this morning...no thank you!  Headed to town instead as my lab results have been mailed.  I was surprised that there were so many cars at the post office, street, and Federal Building.  It's Saturday there are no trials and the post office is closed so what gives?  Apparently, there was a parade downtown.

I have been getting so little sleep lately two to three hours and my blood pressure has been high even when I take my medication religiously at the same time every day.  I have so much stress that I am hoping to erase when I am in my favorite desert.

I have been good since the last time I went to Sirloin Stockade and had four plates!  I was going to go pick-up some menudo at the drive-thru window of a little restaurant but it is quite pricey at $8.66 includes tax.  Decided instead to go to the breakfast buffet at Sirloin Stockade...don't panic...I did not have multiple plates on this occasion!

 The bowls are smaller than they appear since this is a buffet.

I had two bowls of menudo and a glass of unsweetened ice tea and that did the trick.

Headed to HEB to fill-up my car the going price today was $2.229 for unleaded and $2.499 for diesel. Then I went inside to purchase eggs so I can finally try out my Egglettes.

We broke a record set in 1938 of 93 degrees.  We had a low of 62 and a high of 95 degrees.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.



Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

Vet / Cats / Shopping without buying

Monday when I was in Ciudad Acuña I took the opportunity to set up an appointment for Paquito (My One-Eyed Jack) to be neutered.  His vet has a lot of customers mainly from the USA.  The earliest appointment they could give me was Thursday, March 28th.  I guess the receptionist saw my disappointment and asked if I wanted to be put in a waiting list in case there was a cancellation, of course, I said yes.

They called me late yesterday afternoon to see if I could make it this morning.  I only have one cat carrier and it has been outside for a while so I had to clean it.  Paquito was right next to me when I was doing that even going inside it unprompted.  I was happy because he had obviously gotten over the drama or perhaps trauma involved in our prior trips to the vet.

This morning he was a no show.  I looked everywhere for him and thought the worst because if you do not follow my other blog...I recently lost my other cat Rudy Gay :-(

Not wanting to lose my appointment I grabbed Nico LaHood (Paquito and Rudy's brother) and off we went to Ciudad Acuña.  Being that tolls have gone up and me being a centavera (Spanish for penny pincher) I did not want to have to pay $5.60 twice...$4.00 to cross to Acuña...$1.60 to cross back to the USA.

Decided to kill six hours by going shopping but not actually buying anything.  This is when I wished that Terlita my camping van was still drivable.  It was a cloudy day in the '70s so I could have taken a nap in my van if I had it.

I ate at the food court of Plaza Bella, the only mall in this border town.  It made me sleepy so I had to go walk it off at Aurrera (owned by Walmart).

Could not help but notice that in every store I walked into that had automatic tellers there were long lines.  I asked one of the security officers why and he said that maquiladora workers get paid on Thursdays. Their paychecks are automatically deposited into whatever bank their employers work with and they go and withdraw it.

Went to pick up Nico and noticed that in his new official paperwork his name was listed as Niko, not Nico...oh well...I was too tired to argue.

Unlike Monday this time I got lost trying to find the International Bridge. They have changed the traffic flow of a lot of streets and made many one way. Had to go around and around until I finally found my way.

This time I only had a 15-minute wait to cross back to the USA.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

An attempt at yard work

The rains began at 2:19 a.m. Wednesday morning. I was catching up on e-mails and watching TV.  I could not help but think that if I still had that god awful DISH my internet, as well as TV signal, would have gone out. I did lose the picture but not the sound but only for seconds every now and then but never my internet signal.

Around 3:15 a.m. I started getting all these e-mails from my power company in Houston to let me know they were working on a power outage in my area.  Received the last one at 6:00 a.m. to let me know the issue had been resolved.  Was going to call my Houston neighbor but never got around to it.

With the rain, we received last night all my water catchment barrels are now full. Today was trash day and I had put ours in the garage because of the high winds and tornado we were expecting.  As I went to retrieve it and roll it out to the gate I noticed how easily the weeds were bending under its weight.

Went to grab my Sally hoe and shovel and started tackling the weeds.  It would have gone faster if Paquito and Nico (my stray cats) had not wanted to attack the hoe. They finally got tired and went to take a nap.

The sun came out, we had beautiful blue skies and it reached 85 degrees.  I am going to let it dry some and attempt to weed it or mow the front and back yard, the other two lots will have to wait.

Pollito's son went by and I know he saw me pulling weeds (he lives down the road from me).  A short time later Pollito went by slowly eyeing the yard but I was inside Terlita (my camping van) looking for my machete so he did not see me see him.

This evening even though I did wear a back brace my back is sore so I had to pop a couple of aspirins. Forgot to mention the darn mosquitoes also bit me, who knew they were already around?

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Food for thought...

Yesterday I was busy in the kitchen and for some reason had the television on.  I only turn it on if I am stuck washing dishes and a Spurs game is on or the nightly news. They interrupted with breaking news of what had happened in Hawaii when they inadvertently sent out an emergency notice that they were under a missile attack and warning people to take cover.

I tried to put myself in their shoes and I honestly can not phantom what I would have done. There is nowhere to take shelter in Del Rio and I do not think I would have wanted to be out on the street where everyone is trying to save themselves.  I guess I would have hugged my Mom told her how much I love her and waited for the impact.

My interest in prepping came in 1999 when I was seriously worried about what would happen in particular with the Russian missiles that could have gone off due to Y2K.  My plan was to be in Terlingua on that date, however, the company I worked for canceled all December vacations and we worked until late that day.  Since I needed my job and in case nothing happened I had no other alternative but to stay.

Back then I had Terlita (my camping van) and I made sure to always have it stocked with food, water, and other items I would need in case I had to leave at a moments notice. Unfortunately, Terlita is now parked in the garage in need of a new transmission. 

I do not know if it is even worth prepping as a nuclear attack even if I was fortunate enough to survive it, the aftermath would surely kill me.  Food for thought...

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Second trip to the desert

Post for October 28 to October 30, 2014

On Tuesday October 28th, I took mother to her doctor's appointment and she got a clean bill of health...what a great relieve that was for us both...as you never want your loved ones to be in pain.

Since I did not know whether or not I would be able to return to the cook-off...I decided to bring my stuff back. The last thing I wanted was to give my friends extra work by having to take down my camp. Then having the extra burden of having to bring the stuff to Del Rio, when they were going to be pretty loaded down themselves.

I never got around to setting up my tent on my first trip.  Decided to put it up at home and I am glad I did.  Even though I had cleaned it last year, I failed to set it up to make sure all the dirt and mud was gone and boy was it muddy.

Like I mentioned on last year's post...cheap mesh tents have no place in the desert...unless of course you use them to reserve your campground.  Decided I did not need it and left it up in the backyard so I could unload my stuff whenever I got back.

Why would you put your stuff in a tent versus your home?  Though it may not bother you when you are at the cook-off...the smell to campfire is overwhelming when you get back...trust me on this.  Do NOT bring in any clothes, or camping equipment into your home, except maybe in the garage or your house will smell awful!

Unfortunately, this year as well as last...I ended up hurting my back from loading and then reloading stuff...guess I will never learn!  I really need to get Terlita fixed (my camping van).  I could fit the kitchen sink and them some when I used to take her :(

On Thursday October 30, 2014, I made my second trip to Terlingua. Drove like a mad woman since I got a very late start.  Even though I arrived after sundown I was surprised how well I was able to see on this particular night.

I was so glad to be able to see my best friend.  Though we both live in Houston, the only place I get to see her, is at the Chili Cook-off.  The last time I saw her was two years ago!

Stay tuned for more stories from the desert and pictures to back it up.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Here I thought I was only a bargain hunter

If you have been following me for a while, you know I love a good bargain.  If I happen upon one I jump on it and buy as many as I can.  I guess I got that from my mother, as a kid growing up in the 60's they did not have such things as the coupons we know of today.  HEB used to mail its customers a one page print out of various coupons but people were not into coupons at that time so our neighbor would give them to my mother.

I remember being able to buy a can of Campbell's tomato soup for .05 each limit 4 with that coupon. My mother, my cousin and I would separately go in with our coupon and buy them...dad would have no part in it...jajajaja!  We sure did have a lot of tomato soup at our house.

When I moved to the big city (Houston) coupons were all the rage, the good thing about that was that many stores doubled or triple them up to a certain amount and you could buy tons of stuff for practically nothing.

Does anyone remember Aurora toilet paper?  It was a very fancy toilet paper with flowers embossed on it and it came in many colors and patterns.  Krogers would put it on special for .69 or .79 cents a four pack and I would buy up tons of it and share it with my parents when I came home.  Same thing for paper towels and paper goods that were much cheaper to purchase in Houston.

My best friend always tells this story about the first time she came to my house...she said I opened up my pantry and proudly showed her all the cans I had...what stood out to her was all the ravioli ones.  She could not believe I had so many not just in the pantry but in boxes in my spare bedroom which was basically a large pantry in and of itself.

One of my co-worker was a Mormon and she would tell me that I would put her to shame.  She explained to me that in her religion they were supposed to have at least a year's worth of food to be prepared in case of an emergency and she didn't even have a month's worth.  Wonder whatever happened to Trudy?

I must say it did come in handy when hurricane Alice hit Houston back in the early 80's.  Everyone was running to the stores to buy up what they could...not me, I was prepared.  Even had a friend and his family come stay with me for a couple of days because they had no food, water or electricity at their house.

I have a van whom I affectionately call Terlita... she is my camping van and I always had her packed and ready to go with camping supplies, canned goods, water, beer, clothes, ammunition, my gun and a full tank.  Not because I feared a financial or social collapse but so I could be ready to go to the beach or to some other fun location at a moments notice.  Regrettably, Terlita is currently out of service.

If you are still reading at this point...you are wondering where I am going with this?  Well, after watching videos on YouTube on off grid living...I came upon some prepper videos and it hit home.  Here I thought I was only a bargain hunter...but I may be a prepper in disguise!  Who knew?

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Duck Tape – A Fix All

Now that I no longer have any looming tax deadlines, life seems to have slowed down some for me.  Today I took down the tent shower I put up a couple of weeks back, cleaned it and patched up its battle wounds with what else but Duck Tape one of the best inventions ever.

This shower is a veteran of many chili cook-offs and because of its flexibility did not suffer the same fate as my newer one, which succumbed to the fierce Terlingua winds of last year.

Need to put up the first tent I ever owned so I can transfer everything I have in the canvas tent in order to take it down and prepare it for its annual trip to South Brewster County.  Wish my Terlita (camping van) was still running so I could get a head start in loading it up.

Why would you want to load it up when you still have two weeks to the cook-off you may ask?  I have back problems and I am not able to lift a whole lot of weight or over-exert myself without having to pay a dear price for it.  The last thing I want is to be in pain when I really want to be having the time of my life.

I cannot load the car at this time as we still have an out-of- town doctor’s appointment, I  need to take the car in for servicing and I have yet to decide whether or not I want to go to Houston before or after Terlingua.

Speaking of Terlingua dreams…on two different occasions I have dreamt that I get to my campground but I have forgotten to pack my tent, my beer and my clothes!  Then I tell my friends that I have to go back to Del Rio after having just arrived…talk about a nightmare!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

I am all Giddy

I can’t help but be giddy as a schoolgirl who is looking forward to going to the prom.  In my case I am giddy at the thought that in a couple of weeks I will be spending my first night in Terlingua.

However I have a lot to do before then.  You might think all you need to do is pack up your camping supplies, clothes and food…but there is a lot more to it than that.  If I am fortunate enough to attend, it will be my 17^th Chili Cook-off.

With the exception of the first year that I drove down with a friend in his vehicle…all the other years I have taken Terlita (my camping van) in which I could literally…even take my kitchen sink.  Unfortunately Terlita needs a new transmission so she has not been able to make the trip these past two years.

camping gear, ice chest and other stuff go in the trunk

Making the trip in a car has been a challenge because I have had to pare down on so many things I am used to taking.  No more ”I will take this in case I need it”.  I can only take things I will definitively use.  My first trip without Terlita was difficult, I almost froze to death one night because I could not fit my bulky sleeping bag and opted for a blanket instead…wont make that mistake again!

Last year we had a terrible sand storm that lasted for hours and tore my tent shower to pieces.  Had I been in Terlita it would have been no problem because I would have taken my extra shower tent (I have three).  It was a little tight but I managed to rig up a showering area inside of my tent.

Before

The same goes for clothes; you never know what Mother Nature and the desert are going to throw at you.  It could be hot as hell or it could be as cold as all get out.  Back in 2004 it was cold!  Remember it getting down to 18 degrees but I had plenty of anti-freeze in me and a ton of blankets so that was a non-issue.

After :-(

The most important thing to bring with you (besides beer) is water.  I use to take six green containers that hold 6 gallons each.  Now I can only fit one container in the car.  The difference is that when I started attending the cook-off they did not sell water in town and now they do.  My friend’s tent camped and now they have new trailers and motor homes so they are able to bring plenty of water with them that they have generously shared with me.

I like being self-sufficient and since reading a trick in the Burningman forum, I can take a shower with a garden sprayer and use less than a gallon and that includes washing my hair.  I therefore only accept their kind offer of water when they leave because they will dump their fresh water tanks anyway and I do not like to see water wasted in any way shape or form.  Have I mentioned that I stay a couple of days afterwards to decompress?  Well, more like I used to, two years ago I had to come back that Sunday and last year I came back on Monday.  Hopefully I can manage to stay a couple more days this time around…only time will tell.

I need to set-up my tent in the backyard and give it a good wipe down but with the temperature in triple digits I have been putting it off.  Maybe I will get to it this weekend? Or maybe not…

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Will I get it all done in time?

I have so much to do to get ready for my trip.  For one I need to go through my winter stuff that is in Terlita (my camping van) as you never know what the weather will be like and NO you cannot believe the weather forecast.  Last year I about froze to death on Tuesday night and I am NOT exaggerating.  Of course I am to blame as I choose not to pack my sleeping bag or enough warm blankets in order to save space. 

Except for the first year that I rode to the chili cook-off with a friend I have always taken Terlita as she is a full size van and can carry everything including the kitchen sink.  Sadly after 20 years of faithful service Terlita is experiencing transmission problems and I now have to make do with a sedan.  Obviously I cannot fit everything I am accustomed to taking and it is creating a dilemma.

When I was in Houston I went to the dollar store to buy some mothballs and died laughing when I saw that they made the box the size of a box of baking soda.  That will not do, need a very large box to place all around my campground as I do not want to experience another “rattling” moment like I had to last year.

Remember I mentioned that I was freezing to death on Tuesday night?  Well I could not wait till Wednesday morning so I could drink a warm cup of coffee at my friends camp even though I don’t particularly care for coffee but I needed to unthaw.  As soon as they were up I went to their camp and did not even bother to dress (get out of my pajamas) or put on my glasses…that is how desperate I was!!

After a wonderful breakfast I walked back to my camp when I thought I saw something move by my tent. Remember I mentioned I did not put on my glasses?  I froze on my tracks and then I saw something about two feet long and the color of dirt slithering.  I camp all around my friends and the nearest camp was like 20 feet from me.  I screamed but I could not hear myself screaming and I turned and ran toward their camp but I felt like I was running in slow motion and could not get there fast enough.  I yelled for everyone to help me as I hollered SNAKE, SNAKE!!!

The guys came with a shovel and another one with a rake (he was just going to flip it over the ravine) glad my friend with the shovel did not share his sentiments and he cut his head off…love you Hector!!!  It was a baby rattler but make no mistake they are just as poisonous as a full grown one.  My thoughts were if this was a baby, surely he or she has sisters and brothers and a mother and father, YIKES!!!

Needless to say I had to go back to my friends camp and calm my nerves with a stiff adult beverage.  There they told me that in fact I had yelled quite LOUD.  Next day some people were riding around and when they saw me they said “you were the girl that was screaming about the snake yesterday weren’t you, we are camped across the ravine and heard you” :D

So you see I am not taking any chances and I am buying as many mothballs as I can carry as I am told snakes and critters do not particularly like their scent.

Want to thank Shoeless Joe and Jimmie Lane for signing on as followers.  I appreciate you taking your valuable time to read me.

Nine more days to Terlingua!!!

Farewell to Luby's

The phone ran at 8:00 am this morning.  Being that I went to bed at 3:30 am I was still very much asleep.  Why do people insist on calling us early, we are not morning people and all of our friends and acquaintances know that.  In this occasion it worked out for the best as I needed to go to the courthouse (that is where the license plate renewal office is located) to get new tags for “Terlita” my beloved van.  In and out in 5 minutes as there was no one in line.

Drove dad’s old car into town and it had a strong smell to gasoline.  Swung by the library to check out a couple of newspapers and found out they closed our local Luby’s.  No notice to employees, no nothing and calls to the headquarters from the local media had not been returned.  This is where the mechanic’s wife works.  I am sorry for her and all the people that lost their jobs.  In a small town like Del Rio employment is hard to find.

I don’t normally go to Walmart on Wednesday but glad I did, as there were very few people at that hour.  Have you all noticed how much paper products have gone up?  I find I get better prices in Houston but looking at the local ads online for stores there, I might as well buy them here.  I need to order checks and was surprised to see that the price has not doubled but tripled.

Looked in the camping section for some mark downs but found none.  Maybe after Labor Day they will start slashing prices so I can find a couple of things for my upcoming trip to Terlingua.

I cannot believe I actually took a three-hour nap late this afternoon.  I guess the heat (dad’s car does not have a/c) the lack of sleep and all the running around took its toll.

Good night.  Terlingua Dreams.