Just finished a stretch of 8 days in a row at work. My feet are tired to say the least!
Its overcast here today and the local weather guru is calling for storms later today. We got a little rain from Hurricane Issac yesterday,it barely was enough to water the lawn. I don't know what the hoopla is all about when it comes to hurricanes.....right?
Funny.....somehow I don't quite remember seeing this cloud yesterday......
The summer is winding down here in Michigan,school is back in session,its college football season,its getting darker earlier and hardware/home improvement stores are setting up snow shovels and blowers.
Personally,I can't wait for the chill to hit so that it trigger a visit for some apple cider and freshly made donuts.
The leaves will drop and I'll be able to enjoy the job of raking them up...which I actually DO enjoy.
I had a birthday since I last wrote....had a great day with Lori as we went down to the Howell outlet mall and shopped for some new shoes for my job. Lori had a gift card from Bath and Body Works plus a coupon of coupons to use,you can get so much more for your dollar at that store when you shop at the outlet. One of the few places you can really see the deep discounts that led to the outlet mall craze back in the day.
The Howell mall is about 40 miles from our home and it takes about an hour to get there. It was a beautiful sunny day and while there were a lot of back to school shoppers about,it wasn't packed in.
We parked the Rodger and headed in. Finding shoes was the first order of the day and we went into Famous Footwear,this was the best store and had the best prices by far. I scouted out a good pair and asked the salesperson to hold them while we shopped the rest of the mall. I knew we wouldn't find a better price but still....
We went into the two kitchenware stores,saw zilch and kept moving. The walking of a mall is half the fun,isn't it? The sun was out,it wasn't crowded,we weren't on a schedule...then we landed at
where the greeter at the door was doing her best Katy Perry. Had her weird fashion sense down perfectly. They had a good sale going on and we ended up stocking up on a lot of hand and body soaps....throw in our coupons and gift card and we got 40.00 worth of items for only 6.00. Well worth it by far....
Continued the shopping trip.....got a few shirts from Eddie Bauer for the fall/winter. It seemed sort of weird,like we caught a lot store between seasons because the inventory/selection wasn't the best. Still were able to find some nice stuff...
The never ending search for a nice barn coat continues. When I first moved to Michigan back in 1999,I really didn't have a heavy winter coat as the California winters are nothing compared to here. We went shopping for a coat and ended up at the old Livonia Mall when Mervyn's was still around. We found a beautiful heavy barn coat for 55.00 and that jacket is still with me despite Lori starting to hate it about 5 years ago. Its still in great shape and it fits me very well. But I told her,if we can find another jacket like it,I will gladly trade it in". We are still looking for that replacement. But because I have many heavy sweatshirts and that last winter really never happened,I barely wore my old trusted barn coat.
What I am hoping for is that when I do have to break the coat out.....it will be like a new jacket since I barely have worn it the past two years!
The weather here is still hot and humid and in the 80s...we suspect we are going to get another mild winter so this whole concept of wearing/getting a new coat just may be a moot point.
The new food stamp numbers are out....46.7 million Americans are now using a food stamp card. Wow....and that 10% of Americans went hungry at some point last year. 41% of those who collect food stamps come from households who are actually working a job,the "working poor",so to speak. The rise in the number of folks using food stamps has risen with every president and will continue to mount...it costs about 76 BILLION a year right now.....
And with gas prices being jacked to over 4.00 a gallon BEFORE the winter even starts,you can that the social safety net is going to be set to tear even more so if we actually do have a normal winter. and that isn't even factoring in the expected hike in meat and dairy prices brought about by the severe drought nationwide.
Its why I'm very grateful to be working....and why I'm haven't had much time to blog as of late. I'm currently in the middle of working 15 out of the next 16 days,just wish I was making much more money. But because we are so used to budgeting,we can get by with much less.
One of Lori's co-workers went food shopping this past week....she spent 500 dollars on food for a family of 5 for two weeks!! And no,they are not rich,both adults are working full-time jobs and Lori hears her complain about money woes all the time. Her co-worker's mother helps out but the point that you would spend 500 bucks on the most expensive things just boggle the mind? How many of you can afford to drop that kind of cash for a 2 week supply of food?
I made a coupon book for one of my co-workers,a young man who really is trying to do it the right way. He is a very hard worker and a nice person. I knew he was struggling but didn't offer/say anything until I saw that he had quit smoking. He didn't like the habit and he knew he couldn't afford it. Our company has a quit smoking program that he took advantage of and he has quit. When I saw that,that is when I offered to make him a coupon book. Not only did I do that,but I also started to give him the spare coupons we don't use instead of tossing them in the recycle bin.
I'm not writing this as a ego trip but as reminder at what we can do to help each other out. (and yes,we made Lori's co-worker a binder months ago when she asked us to.) Small gestures can really help us all out and in this day and age,isn't that a lot better then sniping at each other?
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