11:08 – It was 25F (-4C) when I took Colin out this morning, with winds gusting to probably 30 MPH (~50 KPH). There was a light dusting of snow. The real snow is to start coming in tonight and tomorrow. We’re expecting as much as 4 inches (10 cm) over the weekend.
Barbara returned home about 3:45 yesterday afternoon. We unloaded the back of her car, which was pretty packed from the Costco run. A 50-pound bag each of flour and sugar, two 10-pound boxes of Quaker Oats, two 13.5-pound bags of baking soda, two large jars of cinnamon and one of Italian seasoning, a pint of vanilla extract, two 3-liter bottles of olive oil, and a bulk pack each of toilet paper and paper towels.
The only prepping-related things I added this week were two packs of oxygen absorbers and a case of dehydrated onions from the LDS online store. The onions are actually cheaper on-line ($48.75/case of six #10 cans) than at an LDS Home Storage Center ($54.00/case). They’re also half the price per pound that Walmart charges for Augason Farms dehydrated onions. The LDS on-line store does charge shipping, but it’s only $3.00 per order if you choose the slow-boat method.
I saw a blog comment somewhere complaining about the LDS on-line store charging shipping, which they didn’t used to do. I didn’t remember paying shipping the last time I ordered from them, so I went out and did a search. The top hit was to a discussion forum that had a Mormon complaining about now having to pay shipping on underwear orders.
There’s apparently a lot of discussion among non-Mormons about Mormon underwear, which Mormons refer to as “garments”, with lots of conspiracy theories among the anti-Mormon crowd. It’s all just stupid. Mormon garments have religious symbolism for them, just as a yarmulke does to Jews or a cross necklace to Christians. Yes, practicing adult Mormons, men and women, wear underwear. So what? I do, too, as does everyone I know. Or at least I think they do. There’s nothing to see here. Move along.
We’re in reasonably good shape on science kit stuff for this time of year, so we’ll be working on regular tasks around the house this weekend. That, and repackaging more LTS food. Some of that can wait for now. For example, the Quaker Oats that Barbara picked up at Costco have a best-by date 18 months out in their original packaging. That translates to a real shelf life of at least five years without being repackaged. We’ll eventually transfer them to PET bottles with oxygen absorbers, which gives them an extremely long shelf life, at least 10 to 20 years and probably more.
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