Cold again, getting warmer throughout the day. And then back to cold at night. It ended up being a gorgeous day yesterday, once the sun warmed everything up. Hoping for more of that today.
Did my pickups, and spent the afternoon with my daughter. We did go grocery shopping at the “small” HEB store near our house. There were a lot of empty spots on shelves. I’ve never seen the veg and fruit area with so many empty areas. They flipped the trays over to take up the space, something I’ve never seen before, so they weren’t just slow restocking. They were putting the items on the front of the shelf with nothing behind too.
The weirdest thing though was the meat cooler. They usually have about 6ft of cooler for beef steaks, and featured cuts. Yesterday they had ONE foot with a couple trays of NY strips for $12/pound, choice grade. They had filled the rest of the space with packaged food from other parts of the store. There was still beef in the “cheap” section of the upright display cooler, lower grade and lower cost cuts, but not the usual number of choices either.
Canned veg was stocked as it has been, there was some dried pasta on the shelf. I was able to get the last 4 bags of egg noodles, which have been out of stock for a long time. Soda was ‘new normal’ or maybe a bit better. Snacks had big holes in every category. Seafood was in the cooler but prices were crazy high, snow crab clusters were $17/pound. They used to be $7. Cat food and litter was back on the shelf, with gaps scattered throughout.
The milk cooler had brands I’d never seen before as well as the usual. Eggs were stocked but limited choices. Still no cinnamon rolls or regular biscuits in the fridge rolls.
All in all, the absence of choice or better grade beef was the most disconcerting, with the flipped over trays in the fruit and veg display areas coming in a close second. Never seen that before.
Dinner was hamburger helper beef stroganoff flavor and grilled skewers of chicken hearts. D2’s favorite.
Today I’ll be pulling stuff for a local auction, and dropping that off, then doing a pickup. I won a bunch of scanners in another auction, but don’t know yet if I have to go get them or if they will transfer them to Houston for me… it’s a mix of analog handhelds and digital base/mobile units. Most I will list on ebay, but several will be added to the ‘shack’ here and at the BOL.
Speaking of the BOL, the title company is moving forward but we still don’t have a closing date. It’s been a month, and that’s without inspections or bank financing. I don’t remember this house taking that long, and I don’t know if the title company is dragging their feet or just swamped with work.
I did notice a bunch of newly closed businesses around town. There are some new places opening, and new construction continues in some areas, but the level of trash on the ground, car parts in particular, and on the roads is higher than at any other time I can remember. The empty storefronts, and signs with the company name removed are definitely increasing, at least in some areas around town. There seems to be a lot of illegal dumping too. The slide is continuing.
In the face of continued shortages, buy what you can when you see it. With the idea that it’s getting worse, not better, stack it high.
And keep your eyes open and brain engaged. Things are getting stranger and more desperate every day.
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