Big Shopping Trip

I don't often go shopping beyond the local WalMart and Brookshires, so I seldom get a real feel for how busy other stores are. However, today I drove into the big city of Tyler...population 91,000...to make some purchases I've been putting off for a while. From the heavy traffic and the number of people in the stores, you would never guess the economy is bad. Traffic in many places was bumper to bumper, restaurant parking lots were full for the noon meal, and I had to stand in line to pay for my merchandise in every store. Maybe there are fewer clerks working the checkout lines, but I couldn't tell the difference.

What I did notice is that almost everything has had a significant price increase since the last time I shopped. A few months ago, I could get a 40# bag of dog food for $35, but now it tops $45! If it keeps going up at that rate, I'll have to train the dogs to hunt feral hogs for their meals. Bonnie might like that, but poor old Belle's legs wouldn't allow her to do much chasing.

It was a pleasant surprise to see the price of a pound of coffee beans dropped, so not everything has increased.

During these rare shopping trips, I usually treat myself to a Sonic-burger and a chocolate shake, and that's something else that has gone up in price. Not long ago, I could hand the carhop a $5 bill, give her a tip, and get some change back, but today it was almost $6. Guess I better get back on my diet.

Stopped at the gun store and once again took advantage of the Second Amendment before the socialists in Washington repeal it. Got a good buy on a new series 80, 1911 Colt Commander. I even picked up a box of Winchester .380 ACP ammo. It's the first I've seen on a store shelf since last spring. The ammo shelves were much better stocked than they were only a few weeks ago, so it appears that situation has improved.

I also bought a 23,000 btu kerosene-fueled heater to use in the garage when I'm working on the car this winter, and since it doesn't need electricity to operate, we can use it for emergency heat in the house. We've had the electricity go off several times since we moved here, so at least now we're covered for winter.

It certainly didn't look like a bad economy out there today, so maybe our part of Texas will be spared a severe recession. We can only hope.

Mad Hatters in the House of Representatives

Has Congress gone stark raving mad?

Our economy is in the toilet; the Afghanistan situation needs immediate attention; graft and corruption are rampant in government; a president is grabbing power like a banana republic dictator, and Congress' priority is to discuss injuries in the NFL?

Rep. Conyers says he doesn't have time to read bills before he votes on them, but he has found time to worry about a few overpaid mental midgets voluntarily damaging their bodies in return for a few million dollars a year? How in the name of Odin can people keep electing these idiots????

Heat up that bucket of tar; I've got a couple of old feather pillows that I can think of a better use for.

Nero on the Potomac

Another eight Americans killed in Afghanistan today, pushing the death toll to fifty-five for the month…and still the president fiddles. Of course, he wouldn’t want to make any quick decisions about we are going to do there, that would require courage. Gen. McChrystal’s report of two months ago said that time was of the essence, yet no decision has been forthcoming from the White House, and yesterday, Obama had the unmitigated gall to tell a group of sailors that he would never send them into harms way until he was absolutely certain that it was the right thing to do. Then he would give them his complete support. Sure.

Here’s a clue Mr. President…you already have troops in harms way and they are dying while you’re wasting your time raising money for the Democrat Party, playing golf and trying to pass a health care bill that the majority of Americans don’t want.

Read some of the interviews with soldiers in the combat zones. Just like Vietnam, morale is starting to fade because of feckless politicians who don’t know how to fight a war and don’t know how to get out of it.

When Obama was elected, I told myself I would never talk about him the way liberals talked about Bush, but I’m having a hard time biting my tongue while he dithers. Please, Mr. President, make a damn decision! As Commander in Chief, it’s your decision to make and it must be done now. Don’t destroy our military from the inside, the way every other recent Democrat president has done. Either give the generals what they need, or get the hell out!

End of the Month Catch-up

When I left on my trip to the Pacific NW, I expected to run into rain as soon as I crossed the Cascade Mountains into Western Washington, but it was a pleasant surprise to experience mostly clear, cool weather for my entire stay. What I didn’t expect was to return home and find Seattle weather in Texas, but I was informed that it had rained nearly every day that I was gone.

During those ten days, more than six inches of rain fell here at our house. My rain gauge holds six inches and it was overflowing the day I returned, so I’m not certain how much total rain fell, but one friend said we had about twice that. Then a couple of days later, we received another two inches, and last night and today, nearly two inches more. This is turning into the wettest fall I can recall in my thirteen years here.

A month ago, we were feeding upward of fifty hummingbirds from our four feeders, but every time the wind switched to the north, we’d lose a bunch of birds as they took advantage of favorable tailwinds. By the first week of October, only a few birds remained and I expected them all to be gone by now, but one little diehard, a female Rubythroat, remains. I hope we haven’t turned her into a welfare queen, so content with us providing her meals that she forgets to migrate.

I received the last of the major parts needed to rebuild the brakes and suspension of my Valiant, so I spent the day getting everything ready to install. If I can coordinate a nice day with my oftentimes-absent ambition, I’m going to start the big project. It will likely take several days, and though I’m not looking forward to crawling around on the concrete floor to do the work, I am looking forward to the improved braking and handling.

Why Doesn't This Guy Get on TV?

I got this YouTube link in an e-mail...thanks Patricia.

What is it with the Republican Party? The same old faces and the same old tired rhetoric on TV. It's time for the current losers to retire and let some of the previously unseen faces be seen so the story can be told in a different way. The liberal bloggers hate him, so that's a good enough recommendation for me.

Slip-Slidin' Away

http://www.komonews.com/news/64083722.html

The morning I left Washington to return home, I was greeted by a sign that said Chinook Pass was closed. The Chinook Pass route is my usual shortcut through Mt. Rainier National Park that knocks nearly an hour off the driving time across the Cascade Mountains. Even though the highway is narrow and winding through most of the park, it’s still the preferred route.

Since there had been no snow the night before, I had no idea why they closed the road, but later that day I heard on the news there had been a landslide that blocked the highway near the town of Naches. No one was injured, but several houses were damaged, either by the slide itself, or from water when the river sought a new route through the slide area.

I didn’t much like the extra driving time, but I’m glad I missed all the action. Had I left a few hours earlier, I might have been right in the mess.

Small Town Fame

I was raised in a state that only a handful of famous people call home, so one of the things about Texas that amazes me is that almost every small town lays claim to a celebrity of one stripe or another. Sissy Spacek was born just two little towns away; Earl Campell was raised just a few miles down the road; Wiley Post called another neighboring town his home; Audie Murphy lived on a farm about thirty miles away, and singer Johnny Horton...Battle of New Orleans...was a Tyler native. Several well known politicians from the past also hail from around here, but I'm not going to give them any publicity.

Lindale has claimed the latest celebrity, in the form of country singer, Miranda Lambert. I've yet to meet her, but most of the folks around here have. She visits quite often and has done several shows in the area...even got into a bit of trouble in a Tyler honkey-tonk. It wasn't her doing, but it made the papers for a while.

The building in the picture above is her fan store run be Miranda's parents. They sell Miranda merchandise, and even a brand of Texas wine, despite this being a dry county. That situation is too difficult to explain, but just know that Smith County is often refered to as the wettest dry county in the state.

The small town where this video was filmed is not Lindale, but it could be.