Great deals shopping and soaring gas prices and I'm glad I'm home

I had to travel to northern California last week to teach a class.  On the way home yesterday I wanted a soda.  I could stop at McDonald's and get one for a dollar but instead I stopped at Walmart in a small town called Willows.  I planned on getting a 2 liter bottle of soda and would use the cup in my truck to drink it.  No matter what store I go to I always look at the clearance aisle. Sometimes there's something good.  Most times there isn't.  

I hit the jackpot yesterday.  They had sliced green beans (the kind that go into the green bean casserole at Thanksgiving) 4 cans for $1.25 - I bought 24 cans.  I would have bought more if they had more.  They had 28 ounce crushed tomatoes for 50 cents.  I bought all they had.  They had spaghetti sauce for 50 cents - four jars.  They had something called Betty Crocker Complete.  It's a can of soup with some chicken chunks in it, some seasoning, and a cup of rice.  You add milk and water and bake.  Those were 50 cents each, down from $3.00.  I would never have bought them for $3.00.  They were barely worth the 50 cents after I opened up the box to see what it was but it was still a deal.  Jello was .30 each.  Star and flag jello molds with two boxes of jello were $1.00 It wasn't all food.  Girls underwear was packed 3-$1.00.  I did spend the .84 for the soda. 

I ended up spending $27 rather than .84 but it was money well spent.  Did I need green beans, tomatoes, chicken/rice?  No, I never "need" anything since my homestore is usually pretty full.  But since we do eat, we do need to replenish, so buying food, especially when it's something you WILL EAT, and is a good deal is always worth buying. 

I don't always pay attention to gas prices.  If I'm filling the company vehicle I have to go to a major brand station since the independents don't take the charge card.  I usually stop at the one that looks like it will have the best bathroom.  Price doesn't matter.  That's not the case for our family truck.  I usually fill up at Costco because it's usually the cheapest around.  When I'm lucky I only have to fill up every three or four weeks.  Gas prices in California jumped this week.  When I left to go up north I paid right around $4 a gallon.  When I returned it was $4.59.  What happened?  Did some refinery get bombed?  That's not just from a regular shutdown.  It cost $20 more for me to get home than drive up north.  That's ridiculous!  I guess all those people who are now employed (wow, it's under 8%) won't notice?  OK, don't get me started.  I know the unemployment rate is higher with the people who no longer get counted, and those who had their own businesses so they never did count. 

The loss of freedoms that we are experiencing have been devastating, yet most people don't even realize they are happening.  I'm hoping that idiotocracy, the upcoming elections, Mayan calendar,  economy, and overall unrest that's simmering don't provide people with a good excuse to destroy our country.  We need to start seriously preparing for upcoming unrest.  Sure I've been preparing but I'm looking at November and December as the Y2K for our times now.  That didn't amount to the widespread disaster as predicted but the world is a different place than it was even 12 short years ago.

Now that I'm back from my month and a half of crazy schedule I'm hoping to settle back into my regular routine...regular life plus preparing for the future.  I'm looking forward to getting back to writing something each day.