I went to town today since I was out of propane and drinking water. My first stop was the Co-Op home store to return two of the poles I’d bought for my internet setup since I didn’t need them. I thought it was going to be a big hassle where I’d have to explain my project and why I didn’t need the poles, etc., but nope. The clerk said a return wouldn’t be a problem and offered to divest me of the poles. I replied I could go put them back while she started on the transaction. When I came back, I just had to sign a return form, run my card through the POS machine, sign the receipt, and done! I’m only using one pole now, but am keeping a second one just in case anything changes and I decide to mount higher up again.

Then, I went for propane. It was just under $40 to fill my 30lber! I remember days when it was $20 to $25 to fill it! Wow! Even on my current income level, wintering here would be a hardship at those prices for propane, plus electricity has also gone up. Gas, though, has gone back down to an almost reasonable $1.10 a litre.

I grabbed a quick lunch with too much coffee (if such a thing is possible), then decided to check out the Salvation Army. They’ve moved to a smaller location while the store is being renovated and so they don’t have as much stock. Well, I struck gold again in the form of a dark purple scarf, one of the colours I was missing for my collection (just need dark green and a royal blue ones after finding a dark teal recently!) as well as a brand new Jessica brand tee-shirt in my size (also dark purple, coincidentally enough). I was even lucky enough to get the cashier who knows about my scarf collection. She gave me a deep discount on my purchase!

And then, I got water and a very small amount of groceries. I’m already at the “I really need to start bringing down my stores!” part of the summer, so I’m not buying much. I’d like to get the big freezer emptied within two weeks. I have a lot of dried goods that I can bring to Mexico with me if I don’t finish them up, but I really need to get through all the meat and shrimp soon. The Patak’s sauces I discovered recently have been on sale for two weeks straight now ($2 off a jar), so it’s been a good time to try different ones. So far, I love their tikka masala and mango chicken sauces, but dislike their bland pineapple sauce. This week, I got butter chicken. My tastebuds are very happy with these new flavours!

I’d run into about five of my neighbours while out in town today and I ran into another one at the store. We should have all carpooled!

Speaking of carpooling, my truck is making a ‘that doesn’t sound good’ noise. I’m going to take it in for a full checkup in the next couple of weeks to see if it just needs a bit of lubrication or if there is something bad going on. C&C told me which shop to go to, so I’ll call them up next week to see if they can fit me in. I may end up having to go to Mexico in a ‘new’ vehicle, but it definitely won’t be my Transit Connect as I wouldn’t feel comfortable plunking down that kind of money right now. There’s a good used car lot in town where I know I could get something decent for under $3,000 just to get me through the winter. Anyway, I might be worried about nothing since the noise just started after I did all that gravel road driving last week and might just need a good cleaning. We’ll se what the shop says. A checkup won’t hurt!

Back to typing I go. I have lots of transcription to do this weekend!