Yet Another Journal

Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans,
cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of.


 Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net

. . . . .
. . . . .  

 
 
» Saturday, February 03, 2018
When Things Get Done...

Urgh. Since we couldn't make Gordy Tire last week, it was up early (eight o'clock) to go today (after breakfast and perambulation of the pooch, of course). However, we needn't have taken the car; Jason (the guy who fixed the door) was able to fix the sound in the left speaker of the truck in about twenty minutes; he'd just forgotten to refasten a wire, which is what we figured. So we took Twilight home and went on to Walmart.

People complain about Walmart, saying it's a corporate monster, you shouldn't shop there, blah-and-blah. But when I am looking for something, where does it invariably turn up? Where was the only place I found soy isoflavones (at a reasonable price; I'm not talking about the Vitamin Shoppe)? Walmart. Where is the only place they stock James' favorite scent of deodorant? Not Publix, Kroger, Walgreens, CVS, or Rite Aid—it's Walmart.

And when a friend mentioned she loved a certain kind of low calorie yogurt, and I found they carried it in chocolate and coffee flavors, guess who only stocked the chocolate and coffee flavors? You got it, Walmart. (The supermarkets have only those disgusting fake-fruit tasting flavors.) And when Cooks Illustrated tested jarred spaghetti sauce and recommended a reasonably-priced brand named Victoria which, miracle of miracles, has no damn sugar in it, guess what was the only place that sold it? Publix? Nope. Kroger? Nope. Ingles? Nope. Food Depot? Nope. Walmart.

(We found both of them. I had to stand on tiptoe to reach the Victoria and sadly, the coffee flavor yogurt is as bitter as all the other brands I've tried. Oh, Yoplait, why did you quit making the café au lait?)

We also returned a console organizer we bought for the truck (too big) and gathered toiletries to make a Christmas gift for Aaron Lawson—a project I hadn't finished since our gift exchange with the Lawsons got delayed—since he's going away to Pharmacological college in the fall. After a quick stop at Lowes, we finally arrived home. I was still dead sleepy from this morning, so when I finished making Aaron a keychain, I set a timer for an hour and fell asleep for an hour. When it rang I reset the timer for another hour and fell back to sleep, and only woke up because I realized it was almost time to go!

We had a swell time at the Lawsons. They had spiral ham and turkey, we brought chips and cookies, there were veggies for salad and veggie dip, and Melinda brought homemade gingerbread and a strawberry Jello salad. David and Juanita showed up in a new, bright blue pickup truck (they needed one for their camper) and aside from a jolly gift opening—Jerry and Aaron had brought back all sorts of funny things from the Duluth Trading Company on their travels between Aaron's university interviews, from soap to gadgets, and there was a lighthouse book and a soft blanket (I told everyone we'd probably have to fight Tucker for it), too—we had a riot of a time playing games like Autonia and Smart Ass. I laughed so hard I got a sore throat, but it was worth it.

Funny. When we got home I found Fiver—the little resin rabbit who sits near the bush next to our sidewalk and "greets" visitors—on the sidewalk, facing the lawn. It wasn't like that when I took Tucker on his walk before we left. Someone had been messing with the phone lines they're supposed to be burying, too, so maybe it was the phone guys, or a solicitor, or even one of the little kids across the street, although they are usually very respectful and just bike up and down the street. It was just very strange.

Labels: , , ,