I had one of those rare weeks where I left the mountains and headed into a city multiple times. I normally head down the mountain (as opposed to going into town) just once every month or six weeks because it’s a 90-minute trip. This time I took three separate trips to three different cities over five days. Why so many? Because I took my wife’s car to the dealer for service, picked someone up at the airport, and took a neighbor to a medical appointment.
Making the Most of It
While there was no way to consolidate these three trips, I ran multiple errands while I was out. If you’re going to make a three-hour round trip, you might as well make it useful. Here’s what I accomplished:
- Picked up more than 25 pounds of meat and salmon at Sam’s Club, refilling our freezer. This included pork loins, lamb chops, chicken tenderloins, bacon, and six pounds of ground beef, the latter of which was $1 off per pound. I’ve learned that when we are in the city, it pays to go to Sam’s Club or Costco whether we need to or not.
- Bought five bags of layer feed and a bag of scratch, bringing my total in-house stash of chicken feed to 13 50-pound bags.
- Took advantage of a sidewalk sale at Harbor Freight.
- Bought some discount books at Books-a-Million.
- Popped into a Dollar Tree and Walmart.
- Purchased lumber and some foam insulation at Lowe’s for a project I am working on.
- Bought filters for our HVAC system that are not available at Lowe’s or locally but can be found at a Home Depot.
- Took my wife out to dinner.
- Visited two gun stores, but bought no guns. I bought a box of 115-grain Critical Defense rounds, and the store rang me up for only $20. DEAL!
- Had lunch with a friend at a Greek restaurant.
- Swung by the optician to pick up my new reading glasses.
All-in-all, a productive week, even if it is one I don’t want to repeat anytime soon. On the plus side, I shouldn’t have to be going anywhere other than town for a couple of months.
Happy, Friendly People
Everywhere I went—to the east, south and north—people were in good spirits. I didn’t even run into a rude driver.
The wait staff in restaurants were friendly, the employees at Lowe’s and Home Depot were helpful, the nursing staff and folks waiting in the waiting rooms seemed pleasant. I had a pleasant chat with the service technicians at the car dealer and then a young mom sat near me in the waiting room, and we talked about the impending hurricane. Customers in stores were polite, and the few kids I saw were well behaved. The way people acted, you’d think things were going great. And from their perspective, maybe they are!
That’s my point: No matter what the media, the economists or the opposition party says, sometimes you have to go out and mingle with the people in the real world to get a sense of how the country feels. Now none of these cities were giant urban centers, but at least one of them is a pocket of liberalism in an otherwise conservative state. Nonetheless, I didn’t see any crime, protests, or ICE raids. There was no obvious homelessness or tent cities. Anger seemed to be absent, and people appeared happy, or at least satisfied.
I consider this an important lesson: when the world appears to be losing its mind about politics, the S&P 500, and peace talks with Russia, a good portion of the country is humming along oblivious to the noise. Maybe you should be too.
Hurricane Prep
I know some parts of the East Coast had dangerous waves and high water, but I think everyone else was pleased when Hurricane Erin swung out to sea as predicted. I expect those of us who got socked by Helene last year were the most relieved. We’ll probably never look at hurricanes the same after getting hit by Helene. It’s not PTSD—although plenty of victims have it—that’s just experience talking.
Restocking chicken feed on one of our trips was one of our last-minute pre-hurricane preps. Filling up our gasoline storage cans is another. Between topping off the log splitter, the generator, which holds more than five gallons, and refilling the UTV, which holds ten, I had two empty gas cans to fill. I threw them into the back of my truck and put a bottle of Sta-Bil in the back seat area. My plan was to fill them up on the way home from my last trip. Unfortunately, after I picked up the lumber, which included some plywood, the empty cans not only became unreachable, but I had to turn them on their side because the lumber was in the way. The cans are still in the back of the truck. I’ll get them refilled next time I am out, unless a hurricane threatens us first.
