I'm Back and Shopping

Written on Sunday


While I was in Huntsville, my sweetie was talking about what he got at Aldi's. I came home and looked at the ad. Just as I thought, Aldi's has many more good ads for produce on the first of the month. This ad came out last Wednesday, so the coming ad on Wednesday will probably have good sale ads, too.




Sunday night, I bought three pints of grape tomatoes for $0.99/pint. The regular price at Walmart where I price-matched the tomatoes was $2.48. By putting the halved tomatoes very close together, I managed to get three pints on one tray. Yes, I am running the dehydrator with only one tray filled. It costs $0.06/hour to run my nine-try dehydrator.




Usually, when I find the bargains I buy everything I am going to buy for the week and for dehydrating. Then I cannot get it all in the refrigerator and cannot process it quickly. This time, I only bought the three pints. If I could remember what else was in the ad, I would list it here.


Tomorrow, I will go back for more and process it immediately. Then, on Tuesday, the last day of the ad, I will buy again. I still have not gone through the ads and made a list.




My plan was to stay several days in Huntsville, per sweetie's invitation. However, he did not call me until about 4 pm. So, I would not come up until Saturday. I would have had to get up an be ready to walk out of his apartment at 6:30 am. No thanks. His apartment key locks the door from the outside, so I cannot just leave and turn the lock on the way out. ugh




As I headed home, going the way I always have, I ran into a detour. Then, another. As I drove the lonely road next to the airport with commercial farms on the other side of the road, I could see the interstate beyond the farms. Soon, I finally saw a house and then another and another. Next was a sign: Road Closed. My heart sunk.




I went into the driveway of a home with five vehicles. They were cars that were late model and able to run. I honked for 15 minutes. They didn't even bother calling the police to me. At least I would have gotten directions!


So, I went the other direction on County Line Road and spotted McDonalds and decided to buy some energy and stress reliever and get directions. The manager knew exactly where I needed to go. Sooo, I finally was on the interstate. During this whole ordeal, there was a steady rain that did not help my sense of security.


It's almost 2 am and still I have not gotten all the wet laundry from the car.


For dinner on Saturday night, he heated a tamale for each of us and sautéed zucchini. Later, we ate strawberries. Even later, I had an apple and blueberry yogurt. Sunday morning, I scrambled five of my hens' eggs with his cheese, and he brought out precooked bacon. While I was cooking the eggs, he took the things I had used and washed them. He is a  man unafraid of dishpan hands.


I got three loads of laundry done--black pants and socks, 5 purple sweatshirts and blue plaid throw,
assorted ruined t-shirts I wear under sweatshirts. I forgot the whites at home!




The hens got to forage for about an hour today. They seemed happy to be free. Since Tony was not in town Saturday for me to give him their food, I was perplexed as to where to leave the food outside either of our homes. Finally, I just put it in a square bucket, popped on the lid and left it in the pen. Raccoons could not reach it to breach it. And, I knew the hens could not. Now, I will never again carry food to Tony's house. He brought them some sort of scraps. I wonder what.


It is going to rain all week and we will have a hard freeze later in the week. Snow will be gone after the rain.


Your turn
Do you find that there are better things and more things on sale the first week of the month?