Thanks Again, Walmart

Although I think Sam Walton's children have too much money and Walmart employees don't have enough, I'm hard pressed, as a Walmart customer, to find much to complain about.  

Yesterday I pulled together, for return, all the bits and pieces of a double curtain rod I had purchased several weeks ago at Walmart thinking it was exactly what I needed for the draperies I have planned for the bunk beds here in the cabin.  I'd even spotted it in April and waited until I got my May Social Security check to buy it because it wasn't inexpensive.  

Yes, I knew it was intended for wall mounting, but with my usual spatial deficiencies, I could not visualize, until I got it out of the packaging and tried it, that ceiling mounting simply wouldn't work.  Both curtains would have been on the same plane instead of one behind the other!  

It was packaged in that really hard shell-like plastic and I absolutely had to cut the packaging into shreds in order to access it.  There were two rods, three supports and all the plugs and screws necessary for mounting.  I wouldn't have been surprised if they had refused to accept it for return even though I had my receipt, but when I drove it back to the Longmont Walmart and took it to customer service, they didn't blink an eye and gave me cash back.  

I also noted, and heard one of the Customer Service clerks comment to that effect, that they're no longer waylaying people coming back into the store with merchandise for return and marking it.  I stood around at the entrance for a bit waiting for someone to descend on me with the familiar stickers, and finally gave up and walked the curtain rod, cut up packaging and zip-lock baggie full of bits and pieces to Customer Service unchallenged.  That was a plus.

Although there were numerous items I needed, I knew I could easily have spent my entire refund, so went for the critical things....a broasted chicken to keep me and the foxes in protein and...some cover-up for my black eye.  The bruising is drifting south.  My dark glasses no longer cover it and I'm tired of trying to see inside in dark glasses and of getting those looks.  I had stopped at Walgreens and they had nothing...pancake make-up seems to be a thing of the past...but Walmart had this terrific cover-up...

I'll tell you, if they sold this in those five-gallon white spackle pails, I'd start using it on my entire body!


Here's my eye as of today with no make-up...

...here it is with my regular make-up base...

...and here it is with Glamoflauge...

I think it's a lot better.  At least it makes me feel less self-conscious even though that lump above my eyebrow doesn't seem to be getting any smaller and is still numb.


This was a really busy day.  It was warm and sunny, but too windy to paint, so I decided to put the oil cloth on the very weathered wooden picnic table and benches...

I was able to do this, tipping the table over on its head, cutting out the oil cloth and affixing it to the furniture, using the electric stapler, without pain to my injured arm, but by the time I got to the last bench, I noticed that my right arm muscles were trembling and not really obeying brain signals very well.


So I was ready to call it a day, then my neighbor, working with another resident whom I didn't know, came and took the old hide-a-bed away for the free Nederland trash pick-up tomorrow.  I suffered blog fog and forgot to take a picture of it riding away in the back of the pick-up with a bunch of other junk.  Then, he and his wife decided they were ready to take some of the free furniture they are cleaning out of these other cabins down to my apartment.  

Here is the chest of drawers, which the previous owner obviously had started to paint or prime, sitting on my neighbors' patio waiting to be loaded into the truck...

The hardware came with it, but I may eventually opt for something else.

I had loaded my car earlier in the day with stuff to take to the apartment and also needed to take my June rent down, so I led the way to the apartment building, and after my neighbors ran an errand, they returned and unloaded everything and put together the computer desk...

...I've even managed to get a television set out of this although I've been without T.V. for so long now I'm not sure I want to get back in the habit, and the apartment is right across from the Boulder Library.

Yesterday when I was in Longmont I stopped at Goodwill and was unusually sensible and disciplined in my shopping.  I saw four engraved water goblets in that color of glass I love...bronze? champagne?  They were $2 each and I thought, I can get 1.5 Cheap Chickens on Wednesdays for that, so passed them up.  Instead, I got a small bathroom waste basket and one of these shower caddies...

...you can see I just ripped the purple tag off of it, hung it over the shower head and I can't tell you what a thrill it was, after two years, to be able to hang up my bath brush...yes, it's actually a clothes brush but the bristles on the brushes usually sold for the bath are way too soft for me...and my wash cloth and to put my soap and shampoo in place.  I hope whoever patented these caddies got rich...they sure are useful.  I had seen a very snazzy chrome version at Goodwill in Boulder a couple of months ago, but didn't know if or when I'd get an apartment so didn't buy it.  Now I'm sorry I didn't nab it. 

My neighbors headed on back to Eldora and I stayed and had a shower then drove back.  Vixen was waiting for me...relaxing in the in the yard.  She ate and took off, and I just looked out the west window and saw this wonderful sky...

red sky at night sailor's delight...so had to get a quick shot.  When I opened the door, Valentino was waiting for chicken, so he's been fed too.  All's right with the world and I am exhausted and heading for bed.  Teddee

Sow's Ear

Yesterday I decided to go to Longmont so I could hit both Goodwill, which was having a 50% off Saturday, and Walmart.  Dixie had ended up staying all night and I was undecided about taking her along.  It was sunny here and NOAA was predicting a high of 60F degrees in Boulder.  I loaded her in the car and stopped to get my mail at the post office in Nederland.  By that time she was already panting, so I drove her all the way back to Eldora and dropped her at her house.  She didn't want to get out of the car and, as it turned out, it was more overcast in Boulder and Longmont than it was in the mountains and I think she would have been fine, but I had numerous stops to make, so it was a relief not to have to worry about her getting too hot.


I went to Goodwill first and found a little secretary that I think will meet many of my storage needs.  I got both pieces for a total of $15! It's a bit of a sow's ear, but I think with some filling, sanding and paint I can make it acceptable if not a "silk purse."  I couldn't get it in my car, so they gave me until Monday to pick it up.  After giving it some thought, I decided I'd unload everything out of my car this morning and drive back today to see if they could fit it in.  If not, I'd know that I'd have to rent a truck tomorrow.  I had decided that if I did have to rent a truck I would take advantage of the opportunity to try to get someone to help me load this black Naugahyde hide-a-bed into the truck for the return trip where I would drop it off at the Goodwill in Boulder.

I had discovered Friday when I did laundry that Dixie had thrown up in the car as well as throwing up in the cabin.  I'm sure she got too hot Thursday morning while she was curled up in the back seat where she loves to rest.  I had opened both back doors, but the wind had blown the west door shut.  To access the east door she had to clamber over my dirty laundry with just one hind leg.  She'd managed, but not before she got so overheated that she vomited in the car and then, after drinking a lot of water, again in the cabin.  I felt horrible for not paying more attention.  With temperatures rising I will have to start putting something in the west car doors to prevent them from blowing shut or just stop allowing her to rest there.  I have no shade.

I had purchased some upholstery cleaner yesterday so I could clean off the back seat.  The combination of unloading everything from the car, which I use as a second room, and shampooing the back seat, got me started and I decided to clean out the car, which I hadn't done in, well, too long.  I kind of use my car as a pickup truck.  I'd hauled kindling in it and just living here had left enough gravel on the floor on my side for a dish garden.  I don't have a vacuum and will take advantage of a car wash vacuum one of these days.  In the meantime, I used a whisk broom on the floors and seats and a damp cloth on the dash and other vinyl parts.  Couldn't let those guys in the back room at Goodwill see what a mess I'd let my car get in!  

I knew it was supposed to rain...

..so I just left my floor mats under the eave to wash while I was gone...

...outfitted with rocks to keep them from blowing away in case the wind came up.  Then I hopped in the car and drove to Longmont.  Thank goodness, Dixie had not shown up because I knew there wouldn't be room the car for anything but this secretary if they could even fit it in.


The man working the back room at Goodwill was able to fit the base in the back seat.  While he was wrangling the top into the front seat I asked, "What do you think?"  He said, "I try not to."  Back room humor.  He managed it.  I could just barely change gears.  I couldn't see anything but furniture in my rear view mirror and my right side mirror was obscured as well, but I made it back to Boulder from Longmont and up the canyon to the cabin without incident.  

Here are some pictures I took of the two pieces still in the car.  I'm not sure I can get them out by myself, and since it's rainy, this is the best place for them right now. 


This is the base.  It's on its side and the the legs are on the left.  Some kind of laminate.  Based on that hardware, would you say 1960s, 1970s?  Keep in mind, $7.50 for this piece and I get three big drawers for towels and sheets so I don't  have to unload everything off the top of the trunk every time I want something out of it.  No, the damage to the headliner on the car did not occur during this excursion.  That's left over from trying to get an unwieldy piece of metal lawn furniture into my car in Phoenix and that's not the worst of it.  Like I said, pickup truck.

Here's the rest of the base and what makes it a secretary...

 

...the hinges are on the left, pull the knob to let the desk down and it has the requisite cubbies inside.  It's apparent this got a lot of use based on the wear around the knob.

Now this is what originally caught my eye. I thought it was a separate piece for which I was willing to pay $15...

 ...a glass-front cabinet with two shelves, glass intact, that sets atop the other piece.  Not much character at this point, but I think I can give it some and it will provide more space to display porcelain.

So, now the fun part.  I plan on painting it and think, since I went whole hog with the dark charcoal brown paint on everything else intentionally to make it disappear, I need to paint this another color.  So there will be paint swatches to peruse and then, of course, there's new hardware. I think I'll even be surprised about how cute this may turn out.

Animal update.  Fox feeding is ongoing at least twice a day.  Vixen actually came inside the cabin briefly this morning to grab a piece of chicken out of her bowl that I had set just inside the door.  I think that girl telepathizes.  I'll get the "itch" to check to see if she's out there and, sure enough, she's lying in the yard.  I notice that there's a U-Haul at the cabin where Apollo's owners live.  Maybe we won't have to contend with him for too much longer.  That would certainly take some stress out of everyday living.

That's my Sunday.  Teddee

Happy Easter!

This is probably it for me.  I had one of these for breakfast...

...now I can see that would have been cheerier if I hadn't already eaten the yolk.  What is it with eggs and Easter?  A holdover from pagan days?  Fertility?  Oh, no.  Let's not have any of that again.  I was aghast not too many weeks ago to read a blog on which everyone was congratulating the blogger because her sister had just had her tenth....I repeat, tenth...child!  Whatever happened to Zero Population Growth?

I digress.  I did not find any sander at Walmart yesterday to compare to the one I'd seen at Ace and by the time I returned to Nederland, Ace had been closed several hours so I'm not spending Easter Sunday sanding.  Of course I had had to stop at Savers and Goodwill in Boulder even before I headed out to the Longmont Walmart.  My friend Paula had alerted me a new Goodwill would be opening in Longmont, but that isn't until next Saturday.  That's going to be a crazy day if I allow myself to get caught up in it because it is also, finally, a 50% off Saturday at all Goodwills.  They haven't had one for some reason for several weeks.

I had a filled punch card at Savers, so used the 30% off on some fabric and tie-backs I may eventually use to curtain off the bunk area.  The tie-backs were $4.99 each less 30%.  One of them still had an original shop tag on it of $8.50.  They are both luscious and well made.  I think the one created from ribbons is the most interesting.

The orbs are apparently Christmas ornaments or were used as such--they have monofilament loops on the tops (color coordinating again!).  They are really heavy but I can't determine of what the core, around which the wire is wrapped, is made.  I got the pair for $2.99 less 30%.

I love the colors in the fabric, which is a drapery panel ($6.99 less 30%), but think both the fabric and colors might be a heavy for summer.  It can actually get hot in the afternoons here even at this altitude and when that occurs it takes a while for the temperatures to cool off after the sun goes down and you're opening all of the windows and praying for a breeze.  I think if I get the rods in place, I can use something lighter and paler for summer and switch over to this for fall and winter...or I may just forget doing anything this summer.  We'll see how it goes.  I did purchase an off-white king-sized flat sheet the other day for possible use this summer, but it doesn't have much character.

I also nabbed these little fake wooden books to use as risers to bring things up to the proper height in tablescapes and shelf vignettes.  They are individual pieces so can be used separately or stacked in whatever combination needed.  If you enjoy arranging your "finds" on table tops and in bookshelves then you can't have too many plate holders, small easels and pedestals and other items you can use to change the height of items. Grab them whenever you see them, especially if, as in this case, they're only $1.99 less the everyday Colorado Goodwill senior discount of, what?, 10%?  I think it's 15% on Mondays.

My "big find" was this case of 60 watt standard light bulbs or bombillas if you prefer. 

These will no longer be made after January of next year I understand and I am going to be quite sad and frustrated as I detest the light the "new" energy saver bulbs emit...and no one can tell me it is more "natural" than that produced by incandescent bulbs.  I kept trying them when they first came out and not only is the illumination reduced, but there's something just plain weird about the color of the light.  But I'm going out in real sunshine right now and take a walk.  It is truly a gorgeous day.

Is the weather cooperating where you are?  Teddee

My Lucky Day

I didn't post a blog yesterday.  Instead, I met my friend Paula for lunch at the Olive Garden in Boulder.  The restaurant was my choice.  I'd been craving that all-you-can-eat green salad.  The food was great and we had a good visit, but when our waiter brought our checks, things got confusing.  Our orders only differed in that I had iced tea, but he had initially just split the ticket when we asked for separate checks, then realized this was inaccurate and recalculated.  We received a shower of receipts, along with an explanation, but he assured us we would only be charged for the check we signed.  Of course, when I checked my bank account this morning, I had been charged for both amounts.  I called the restaurant and the manager said this often happens with debit cards and she was pretty sure the wrong amount would "fall off" within five days, but I should call her if that didn't occur.  In the meantime she was sending me a gift card.  Thank you Neptune!  (The local astrologer Karen Anderson told me recently that after 144 years, my ruling planet Neptune has entered my sign or whatever and this is like having an ally). 

After lunch I had to pick up my 2010 income tax documents from H&R Block which had been reviewed for free and found accurate. By the way,  after Thursday's rant about the IRS, Uncle Sam was satisfied with deducting the rest of the 2010 taxes I'd been paying on a monthly basis from my 2011 refund and did not take out the monthly payment as well, so I take it all back and I'm a free woman! (Neptune again?).

Then I stopped in Savers which is just next door.  I got a couple of cardigan sweaters with part of the $20 my friend Cindy sent me for my birthday.  Thank you Cindy! (Neptune was on duty.  Cindy actually sent $20 in cash, silly girl, and the post office equipment had tried to eat the card, but the $20 bill was unscathed).

Here are the sweaters.  Identical, but one black and one brown.  They are a little large under the arms but these pleats flatter my "figger," as one of my grandmothers used to say.  No discount (Savers is a notoriously stingy thrift store), but the sweaters were only $6.99 each and I filled a punch card which translates into 30% off my next purchase.



There may be need for those sweaters by tomorrow.  Our unseasonably warm weather which, I believe, is setting records, is ending.  Today it was supposed to be 59F degrees here in the mountains (my thermometer says 60F degrees at 5:30 p.m., so I think it was warmer than that).  NOAA predicted  77F degrees in Boulder.  The Eldora forecast is 30% chance of rain/snow tomorrow with 38 mph winds, 60% chance of snow tomorrow night, 50% chance of snow Monday and a 40% chance of snow Monday night with a low of 17F degrees.  I'm not sure we'll be able to adjust. 

Goodwill was having a 50% off Saturday today, but I decided to forgo the pleasure.  I needed to tote some wood from that pileout by the car in preparation for the return of cold weather...

 
...and I'm saving myself for the Beautiful Junk Sale next Saturday in Golden, Colorado. 

I think this is my third visit.  The subtitle is "Jefferson County's largest bargain sale with 10,500 square feet of discount treasures."  It's held inside at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds' Exhibit Hall.  Admission is $3 and they deduct $1 if you bring two cans of food.  I didn't think the last sale was as much fun as the two previous events, but it's always fun to see what they have and there's never a bad community garage sale.

After Savers I finally got out to the Walmart in Erie where I needed to purchase a gift card for my great niece.  I've given my great nieces and nephews (or is it grand nieces and nephews?) these gift cards for their birthdays and at Christmas for years and they really seem to enjoy them.  I also needed ink cartridges for my printer and those aren't cheap even at Walmart ($32.97 for a Kodak color/black and white combo).  My shopping list had grown considerably waiting for the second Wednesday of March to arrive.  Those of us who receive our Social Security checks on the second Wednesday of the month had one of those months in which that was not until the 14th.  The second Wednesday in February was the 8th.  Those extra days can really make a difference.  Paula and I agreed yesterday that having the government issue these checks on a specific Wednesday each month instead of a specific date really causes hardship.  Why don't they just always issue them on the 10th?  Maybe I'll start a campaign. 

My grand total at Walmart added considerably to their bottom line.  Walmart's owners are among the richest of the rich who just get richer as pointed out in that book I just finished and blogged about, Winner-Take-All Politics:  How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.  (I'm still waiting to hear back from the authors).

According to a December 14, 2011, on-line Forbes article, the "six members of the Walton Family...have more wealth than the bottom 30% of Americans."  "...they are collectively worth about $93 billion."   According to an MSN on-line article dated 8/12/2009, they were worth only $23 billion when founder Sam Walton died in 1992.  In the intervening nineteen years, their wealth had increased by $70 billion!

In a way, it's too bad their prices can make such a big difference in how far a Social Security check goes, let alone the convenience of finding almost everything one needs in one store--I had been wondering where I could find a cobbler (do they even exist anymore?) for some of those sticky traction things you can put on the soles of shoes and boots to keep them from slipping and, lo and behold, there they were among the shoe polishes.  My shopping list went from toothpaste to needles, cat food for the foxes to drill bits, the gift card to the ink cartridges, rubber gloves to poster mount (which I hope I can use like Quake Hold to keep things from vibrating off these shelves next to the cabin door) and I found it all as well as a few groceries. 

I didn't get back until dark.  I have a porch light, but had forgotten to leave it on, so had to leave the car door open for the bit of light the overhead interior light provided, pick my way across the meadow to the cabin, turn on the porch light, grab the flashlight and make numerous trips to unload the car.  My neighbor across the road drove up the canyon behind me and, I think, deliberately left his multiple very bright back porch lights on until I got my car unloaded.  I've only chatted briefly with him once.  Maybe it was coincidence.  If so, it was nice coincidence.

So that's my good luck story.  What's yours?  Teddee

Camp Pucker

All the members of my immediate family can find things so hilariously funny that we get, as we say, "hysterical."  If you do not know us, or from a distance, you might think we were, in fact, crying.  Our faces contort uncontrollably.  Our laughter sounds like sobs.  We gasp for breath.  We cry real tears.  In a group, we feed into each other's "hysteria," laughing because the other person is laughing and because he or she is having so much trouble explaining what's funny without getting even more hysterical.  But a group, I've found, isn't essential to this phenomenon. 

I was working on my income taxes today in preparation for an appointment with a tax preparer on Tuesday.  Volunteer tax preparers, trained by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), prepare tax returns free through the senior centers in Boulder and other Colorado towns.  I don't know if this service is offered nationwide, but I used the service for the first time last year on the recommendation of my friend Paula and found it very helpful...and easy on the budget.

I have been doing a bit of freelance editing, so thought I'd better go prepared with a list of possible business-related deductions.  I was looking, in particular, for printer paper and printer ink expenditures and knew many of these would be scattered throughout purchases of org milk, grnd trky, salmon flts and acid reducr I had made at Walmart.  [Note to self:  Have these business-related items rung up separately from now on].  I'm very short of work space in this one-room cabin, so was finding it difficult to sort through all these receipts I was balancing on one knee without having them fall on the floor and was getting increasingly frustrated with the entire operation.

About this time I spotted an item on one receipt that caught my attention:  Camp Pucker.  Camp Pucker?  What in the heck had I purchased that would appear on a receipt as Camp Pucker?  I could feel my thoughts careening around my brain in search of the answer like the steel ball in a pinball machine.  Then, the ball shot off laterally and all I could think of was the unfortunate child whose parents had just signed him up for Camp Pucker.  Waay worse than Outward Bound!  I started giggling, then laughing, then guffawing, then crying and couldn't quit.  I'd just get my tears wiped and my nose blown and I'd think about it again and off I'd go.

I finally figured out it was a camp shirt made of today's version of seersucker I bought right before I went to visit my brother in Tacoma last July.

Life can be a lot of fun by yourself in a 200+-square-foot cabin in the Rocky Mountains.

What made you laugh today?  Teddee