Hot and humid, cooler in the shade. And I’ve really got to figure out why my weather station isn’t working. I changed the batteries for fresh, but I guess I got one in backwards or something.
Yesterday was about as nice weather-wise as Houston gets in the summer. Blue sky, cooling breeze and not stifling. Still hot as blazes in the sun though. We’re supposed to have a couple more days without rain, which will be nice.
I hope I have the issues with my garage fridge sorted, but it’s not actually getting cold as quickly as I’d hoped. The freezer is still solid, but the fridge is only 45F. I fit all the important stuff into the kitchen fridge but it’s packed solid now. I need the garage fridge to be working. I’ll check it again, and if there isn’t any change I’ll try to figure out why.
Instacart came promptly with my resupply drop. Only a couple of things went out of stock between my starting to order and when he started picking. Soda for the kids and cheap bacon showed in stock, but weren’t. Turkey legs got substituted with turkey thighs. The thighs aren’t as much fun to eat, but the guy made a good choice. If you’re as picky about shopping as I am, instacart isn’t a great choice, but given the times, I’m being more flexible. There are definite limits to what’s available and I don’t know if they are service related or if the items are truly not in the store. If they’re not in the store, then disruptions in supply chain are more widespread than they look. There are a lot of items that Instacart doesn’t even list as available. If I had the time and inclination, I could compare to the HEB app, or walk the store myself, and I might just so you don’t have to…
Speaking of food, we are eligible for the P-EBT summer school lunch card. It would be about $700 bucks between the two kids. It’s based on your school, not your particular family need. My wife does not want to get it. She feels that we don’t need it and shouldn’t use it. I’m reluctant for the same reason, but am practically considering that $700 buys a lot of food. Food that might be in short supply later in the year. It raises a moral question for me, as I don’t believe that giving everyone the money is a good thing or a proper use of tax dollars. On the other hand, they are giving the money out no matter what I think, and it would be nice to get some of our tax money back. I don’t think I’ll be working too hard to convince her we should apply.
Looking at the shelves and the pantry, it hardly looks like we’ve even dented the stacks. We’ve been able to resupply and eat most of the stuff we would normally eat anyway. On sale meat is the exception to that. There was only so much freezer space, and we went into this full up. We are depleting my stores of frozen meat. Costco and HEB both had it, but the prices were high. The real question is, are the high prices the new normal, and in 6 months I’ll wish I bought every scrap I could at that price, or will prices come back down? Anyone have anything more than a gut feeling? I’ve been wrong about the direction of the price for food on just about every previous occasion. Crude oil too, for that matter.
Outside of stocking the freezer, I’ve got so many projects that it’s starting to get fractal. I need to seriously get some done to make way for the others. I’m working on that today.
Dinner last night was a Costco pre-cooked meal, hawaiian chicken with pineapple specifically. 5 minute rice as a side, using up the last of my minute rice. I was stocking minute rice as part of my ‘intermediate’ preps on the theory that it takes a lot less energy and time to prepare, and energy might be scarce in a post-disaster situation. It was worth the small cost premium to save the coleman fuel required to cook rice for 30 minutes. It’s still convenient, but I have so much regular rice that I really need to work on using that. For quick rice, I have pouches for the microwave.
Take a good look at your pantry. No one ever said, I have too much food, or too much money, or too much ammo when times get tough. Keep stacking.
nick