I did something stupid.....

                   

    I actually went in an shopped at walmart on Saturday afternoon in December!
I know I know..... I should know better!
    I didn't have enough to order pick up. I needed something special they couldn't pick out anyway. I needed some needles with a large enough eye to put some normal yarn through so I could do a blanket stitch on a throw since I gave away my sewing machine, I could ask Nikki to do it but she is soooo pregnant now she is about to pop and car peddles are hard to reach so I am sure her poor arms may not be long enough to sit at the sewing machine even for a easy few minute job without sitting weird to reach things. So I had to find the correct needle to do the job. Not only that I needed to pick up a bell and horn for a toddlers JD Tricycle. Good thing I went in because evidently bike horns can malfunction and not work so I tried them out to find one that worked and sounded right. ( Kind of fun really. LOL )
    OH MY GOSH! WALMART PARKING LOT WAS SCREAMING BUSY AND FULL !!! Made hubby a nervous wreck! When your used to driving country roads and then get plunged into that kind of traffic with people walking around it can be a bit nerve racking. He has the added benefit of arthritis in his neck that makes it difficult to look all directions sometimes.
   Me...? I noticed first thing you go through the doors get your basket and to get in you have to go through what looks like metal swatter gates that automatically open. I guess this is to slow down hoards of people coming in during a "peaceful protest" ? That was new since the last time I was there maybe a yr? ago.
    Speaking of people. Lots of working types of people. Nobody was what I would call well dressed. I mean we are talking about out of the deer woods clothing and beards or "play"? clothes. Very relaxed in appearance. Hair was just hair. I don't mean it has to be perfect but at least brush and do something with it instead of wild and crazy or stringy. Americans of all economics need to take more pride in their public appearance for sure. It is such a simple thing to present yourself and family in a manner that says you give a flip about yourself and family.
    The cleaning aisle was almost wiped out along with the baby wipes. I didn't check out the medical alcohol stuff.
    The Christmas area to me was maybe a 1/4 of merchandise we have seen in the past.
    The bicycles I just happened to notice they had quite a few adult riding pleasure bikes. Not the geared bikes just comfy ones.  It looked fun but I know better than that for me even if I lived with pavement to ride on.
   People everywhere. Most with masks on the adults and the children without. Many adults had masks pulled down under nose to breathe better I guess. My breathing is never good but I wear mine anyway in hopes it might work enough to keep me for getting something bad. I had to ask where some things were. I found candy canes but they were either flavored weird or plastic filled with candies. I found some "normal" peppermint canes by brach and they were naturally half as skinny and inches shorter than normal and in much smaller boxes.

 I have a family funny about masks involving my 2 brothers. I have a Democrat Brother DB, and a Republican Brother RB.
DB.... about 73 yo. Air Force educated electrical engineer. Way different from me and rest of the family. Prides himself at being factual and scientific in the information department.
    I was telling him about the study in Denmark about the 6000 people they used for it. Divided them up in 1/2. Each group had to be out of the house 3 - 4 hours a day minimum. One group  had a mask the other didn't . They were all tested for Covid before and were clear.
    When the the test period was done they tested everyone again and made sure who did or didn't go by the guidelines. When it was all said and done it showed it didn't matter if you did or didn't wear a mask the same few people got sick in either group. They then published this in a medical journal.
    WELL!! DB was in a dither! ( I thought he would have liked it since this was done in another country and was conducted in a scientific manner and then published in a medical journal) Evidently not! LOL He said it was against physical laws and explained how the lung functioned and how the masks absolutely positively worked! He said he would have to investigate that better. I guess thinking it is all a lie and someone is just printing baloney.
RB -- I was talking to him and telling him how DB was just all in a dither about all that and just absolutely could no believe it!
    Now you have to understand the RB..... he is EX Navy. Car hot rod enthusiast and no where near nerdy. Both bothers have had Top Secret clearance in the past DB top secret, RB need to know top secret.

     My RB simplified the masks ability to do it's job. His words were..... are you ready for this?.... are you sure?....

           If you can smell a FART through the mask you can bet a virus can go through those masks!

   I died laughing!!!
     I don't talk like that but he does and it so fit the conversation. Well anyway I survived my walmart stupidity .. so far... no covid at least....
I for sure got a reminder about crazy shopping. If I am wanting to shop more local at a store like that I better be more careful as to the chosen time to go and give it a try.  I did get 3 boxes of graham crackers for pie crusts and the ever so fun Moose Farts and Unicorn Farts people get a kick out of this time of year.
   The check out line was stupid long. I had 2 people in front of me one was having to check prices on the few toys she had to make sure she had enough money to pay for them.When I got to check out looked behind me there were at least 5-6 people there just a cart distance from the others. They are trying to make us use the self check out and I figure the more I do that the more they can fire someone from their check out job so I don't use them. Oh yes, I must have seen at least 3 huge, huge TV's as tall as I was on the freight cart and at least 5' long.
Ok have to get to work cleaning up a kitchen recipe I tried out and didn't like it at all.

Love
Ranchmama
(Who yes... I took my alcohol bath and the truck also when I got into the truck. From elbow down. Phone, billfold anything else that went in with me)

Are We Having Fun Yet?

    I know between the gloomy wet spring weather and all the gloomy news having fun just doesn't seem possible. Ok so maybe we aren't having any fun and just worrying ourselves silly. Everyone has their own way of handling things. I'm not sure if the more you know is a good thing or not. I mean we have to know a few things just to be able to think ahead and avoid any issues. I see on the news lots of people are stocking up.    
    Son in law stopped at a local small town Wally world. He had a good laugh, Said paper towels and TP were not to be had but there was all kinds of food on the shelves everywhere he looked! He said whats wrong with these people?! ( Leave it to a young hard working man to think about the stomach! LOL) Food everywhere and they are worried about the paper products?!
   I did get out and made a Walmart pick up run. It was the first time and that was just PLAIN COOL ! Don't have to hurt and get all worn out shopping! Later on we went into Shawnee. I wanted to get a bunch of flour. My happy spot is baking. We all need a happy spot when times are stressful now don't we ?? LOL Come on now.
     I went to Shawnee Milling. Boy trying to find your way around a big manufacturing place is a trip! They buzzed me in the front door (seemed weird but security now days ya know) The ladies in there were just sweet as they could be. They even tagged a guy I had talked to a week before about the protein content of the flour to get the best performance and he came out and visited with me. Funny, she went in to get him and he said "Oh yes, I talked to someone about that not long ago. " I semi hollered at him from the other side of the wall " Yes, that was me!" The ladies and I got to talking about how so many of them have men that cook and me and the other lady in there has to do all the cooking at our house. Well anyway I told them what a wanted and they did the paperwork.
    You do know you don't go to a factory and just get a 5lb bag of flour or whatever don't you? HECK NO! I was like a kid in a candy store !
I bought 75lbs of flour and 50# of yellow corn meal and 30# of their super good buttermilk biscuit mix ! I was a happy camper.LOL
50# of cornmeal cost me $18.00   it's $2.44 for #5 at wally world
75# of AP flour cost me $19.53  it's $2.42 for 5# at Wally world
30# of Biscuit Mix was $27.40  I didn't see this at Wally world.
    I get this all home and hubby is looking at me funny saying where are you going to put all this?? I told him in the freezer first then I figure it out after that. The only problem is.... our freezer we use is full of things like berries from last summer and some bread and whatever else we normally use. I had to do something awful. Our other freezer I had turned off a few years ago I was using for my cake pans and pie plate stuff. I didn't even know if it would work after not using it for so long. I plugged it in and it cools wonderfully! Dang... now I had to move out 99.5% of the stuff so I can put my baking prize in the freezer a while to kill off any bugs that may be lurking and waiting to hatch out a few months from now. So now all my nicely organized stuff is in bags and otherwise all over the kitchen table to find a decent organized place to put it.(As if there is such a place ! grrr. ) But I have bunches and bunches of baking stuff I can do now!
   One draw back to thinking about hunkering down at home and making sure you have what you need. When you figure out what you need and get it then you really see how much room everything takes.
    Here I am wanting to bake a few new recipes and I have so much reorganizing to do in my house! The thing is it's like moving one piece of furniture in the living room. Once you do that everything has to find a new home! Same goes for kitchen cabinets and freezers. Even if you only get a few things you suddenly see with brand new clarity how much you have been needing to do in your house for a long while! I must have had blinders on. LOL Maybe I was just in the kitchen having too much fun to notice or care??
   I have one sad note........ for me anyway. I ordered about 50# of sugar from Sam's. It got damaged from poor packaging and didn't make it here. I have to find some more sugar somewhere else. Gotta have the sugar now to make some really good sweet stuff don't we ?! Ohhh yeah!!! Lots of sweet stuff !!!
   I need to get this done so I can work on that really good peach cobbler like my grandmother used to make and people would line up for to eat. I also want to make Lyles Golden Syrup copycat to replace the corn syrup in the recipes. Then Hubby is wanting some blueberry muffins and I have half a dozen other things I want to try.
   Oh Yes! Along with my outing to gather all the goodies I noticed all the pretty Pear trees blooming everywhere and the yellow daffodils were so pretty. I have always wanted a whole bunch of pretty yellow flowers to enjoy. The red bud trees should be soon!
     Well have to go get this prize in the freezer. I have to rest in between my breathing isn't great today. Then I have to figure out something for supper.
   You guys find some sunshine out there somewhere. If your out driving and see flowers along the roadside enjoy the view and if they are wild maybe bring some of them into the house to make you smile.

Love
Ranchmama