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

Power Outage / License tags / Ollie's

I woke up early this morning because I felt warm, so I removed the sheet covering me and turned to look at my clock. That is when I realized that my room was dark, and so was my clock. It had not happened in a while but it was evident that the power had gone out.

Grabbed my solar flashlight and set out to find my watch...it was 4:41 a.m. and I had no idea when the electricity went out. Looked out the living room window and everything was dark including the street lights. 

Why did the power go out? It's not like people were running their washing machine or dryers or for that matter their dishwashers at that hour...it sucks when you don't have a local newspaper to obtain answers.  I went back to bed and when I woke up again I felt the cold A/C blowing on my face and my alarm clock was flashing.

We were warned that this week was going to be very hot so last week I went to get my car inspected and then stopped by the Val Verde County Courthouse to purchase my license tags.

There were two people in line in front of me. It is at times like this that I am grateful for living in a small town.

Sorry about the poor quality of this picture

We have a new business coming to Del Rio...Ollie's...I had never heard of them before so I googled them. Seems they will be giving the Dollar stores a run for their money whenever they open.

Saw this travel van with an out-of-state license plate and whose owner is working at this store. It made me sad because I wish Terlita (my camping van) was driveable again. 

I have not gone anywhere this week with this infernal heat. Why is it that it never bothered me when I was young? or did I just answer my own question? 

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid Saying of the Day     

         

Val Verde County Property Taxes / High of 87 degrees / Rowdy-drunk neighbor is back

Went early this morning to the Val Verde County Courthouse to pay our property taxes. There was no line or anyone taking your temperature at the entrance like there was back in July when I was last there to buy my license plate tags. One less item crossed off my To-Do List.

The Courthouse is caddy-corner to HEB #1 better known as Little HEB. I was surprised that there weren't that many vehicles there but I do not currently need anything so headed off to the Post Office to pick up our mail.

No lines there either I suppose people will not be mailing their Christmas presents until December. Decided to head home but as I passed the car wash I pulled in to finish washing my car that I only got half washed after the incident with Paquito.

The rowdy/drunk neighbor left Friday morning I thought to go spend time with his family who lives out of town. Monday he came back with his wife and three kids. The dogs on this street like peace and quiet they started barking like crazy because his eldest kid was going up and down the street first in his bike then in his skates. Right now he has the music full blast in his truck as he bar-b-qs in his step-father's grill.  Oh, joy...this is going to be a long week!!!

We had a warm day as temperatures reached 87 degrees today. We expect cooler temperatures this weekend.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

Recent Header Pictures

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

We dodged a bullet

The state of Texas had some severe weather last night, while we were never in the danger zone we did get pelted with strong winds but unfortunately did not receive a single drop of rain. I hope all the people in harm's way fared well.

I have been so tired lately I have been falling asleep before the ten o'clock news. Yesterday I sat down to watch the Spurs vs Grizzlies game and fell asleep by the time I woke up, it was over. I did not even care to look up if we won or lost just closed my eyes again.

I have not been out of the house since Tuesday when I went to Mexico. On the way back I stopped at Walmart to pick up a couple of items I did not find at Bodegas Aurerra. This was the price at the pumps that day.

$2.249 a gallon for unleaded gasoline

This was the price this morning at Stripes...$2.289 for a gallon of Unleaded gasoline.

Even though it was early (10:00'ish) our main HEB was already packed so drove to the original HEB who is affectionately referred to as "Little HEB".

My intention was to only buy some serranos but ended purchasing much more.  You might ask "why did I not purchase them in Mexico like you usually do?"...According to our government tomatoes and chiles are infected and can not be brought into the country until further notice. When I pressed the agent on the phone what they were infected with he did not elaborate and just repeated I could not bring them. Funny, the serranos I purchased today at HEB are from Mexico.

If you ever want to shop at our little HEB it is located caddy-corner from the Val Verde County Courthouse in the downtown area.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.



Aunty Acid Saying of the Day

Paid up and up-to-date for another year

The first thing on the agenda today was to go down to the County Courthouse and pay our property taxes.  In Val Verde County if you pay them in October you get a tiny little discount but we will take it :D

The license plates division is also housed here so I got the tags for dad's old car and headed to the Auto Parts store to finally purchase a new headlight for it so it could pass the State Inspection.  Remember I have mentioned Mario's Tire Shop before on this blog?  Their dad has an used car lot next door where he also performs oil changes and minor car repairs.

I was originally going to take it to my mechanic but decided they were closer.  He only charged me $5.00 ...I am sure my mechanic would have charged me twice as much.  I then went over to his son's place and got my inspection sticker.  Dad's old car is good for another year!

For those of you that follow Walter's World...there is finally news on that front.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Incompetent Institutions

On the agenda today was to go by the P.O. Box, the library, the bank, the county clerk’s office, and the pharmacy.

My life has been a whirlwind since September and I have not had the time to focus on things that really required my attention.  I did find it odd that I had not seen a bank statement in a while.  Decided to go to the bank and inquire.  What I found was a horrific nightmare.

Turns out someone (they told me the name but I have no idea who that person is) signed up for e-mail statements for his account and somehow registered mine.  But wait it gets better, turns out that we both have THE SAME ACCOUNT NUMBER.  How can this be?  How can a bank be so terribly incompetent to issue the same number to two different customers?  Even worst is how did they not know?  Do they not have an audit department?

I might add that I did not just open my account.  I have had my account since August 2007 and the other person since July 2007.  If it weren’t because I stopped getting my statement I would have never found out.  I presume that other person already knows or maybe not since he has not notified the bank. Thankfully I don’t have much money but imagine if the bank had deducted his checks from mine or mine from his.  This is just totally unacceptable!!

Yesterday, when I went to the P.O. Box I found another jury summons for my mother.  This is the third summons in five years even though each time she receives one I have gone and personally hand delivered an exemption request and been assured that she will not get another one in the future.



Val Verde county courthouse



For those readers who are not from Texas or are from another country a person gets a jury summons about every two years or so to appear at the courthouse from a pool of citizens whose names are derived from voter registration records and/or driver’s license data banks.  However if that person is over 70 years of age they can choose to exclude themselves.  Theoretically this should only have to be done once, but this will be the third time mother has to file one.

Back of courthouse where the County Clerk's offices are located

 Last week I called in to refill mother’s medications.  The automated service said they would be ready on Dec 23^rd but I did not go to pick them up till yesterday.  Only one was refilled because the other two needed authorization from the doctor so the pharmacy sent the doctor’s office a second fax.

Today I went to pick up her prescriptions and no response from the doctor’s office so will have to make another trip.  Guess today did not turn out like I envisioned but heck at least I am alive and in somewhat good health.