Miracle Whip - 60 oz -- Spare Change Jar

 

Miracle Whip - 60oz - My Change Jar

I'm one of those strange folks that can't warm up to using a credit card in stores and still use cash for most of my purchases; hence I also get a lot of coins in change.  I'll also root through my pocket to find the correct change when I get that bill for $12.64 to use some of my coins.

Even though I spend change when possible, I still end up with a pocket full of coins once in a while.  Typically, in the morning I'll lay the coins from my pocket on to the top of the dresser.  I'll pick out about 4 quarters, 3 dimes, 2 nickels and 4 pennies to put in my pocket.  That way I usually have correct change when needed at a store.

The remaining coins on the dresser are scooped off and into my change jar.  The image above shows my change jar.  Once the change jar gets full over the top of the label, I think about taking it to the credit union coin counter.  That happened this morning and typically happens once a year.

Receipt from the coin counter this morning came back with a total of $144.60, a new high for me and the coin jar.  I deposited the money from the receipt into my credit union account and came away with a smile on my face and an empty, much lighter coin jar.

JD, here in the BToS with an empty jar.

I'm Just a Chevy Kinda Guy

Toy Truck parked out back (foto from 2013)

I needed to return an item to Costco yesterday; okay, it was set of bed pillows that I found I didn't really like after I got 'em on the bed.  On the way into the parking lot, I noticed the gas pumps were moderately busy and the Toy Truck was getting close to the quarter tank mark.  I decided to fill 'er up while there.

It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine, moderate temps and a light breeze.  While waiting for the tank to fill, a fella walked over and asked why I decided to go with the Chevy pickup instead of a Ford or another brand.  I am and have been for as long as I can remember, been a car nerd, including trucks.

My first thought was to specify the Chevy advantages, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I bought the Chevy because I'm a Chevy Kinda Guy.  So that's what I told him, "I am just a Chevy kinda guy and this is the one I liked".

So that's the deal.  In today's world of shoppers' comparison publications/websites, what really matters for me in a vehicle is 'what strikes my fancy, what I like.'  All vehicles today are tremendous when compared to 20 years ago that it hardly matters what you buy as long as you like it and it suits your needs.  Anything beyond that is just nitpicking.

JD, here in the BToS on a rainy spring day.

PS - If you want the story of my purchase of the Toy Truck, you can visit my previous blog post Toy Truck Renewal.

PPS - I sure wouldn't buy a Ford just because Consumer Reports told me it was the highest rated truck, or that Truck Trend told me it won their 'Truck of the Year' competition.  The more you consider the culture behind magazine writers, the more you realize your own opinions are probably better for your own needs.

Earthquake Excitement in the BToS

I never heard of Mineral, Virginia until yesterday afternoon. Even though I was born in Danville, Virginia and have driven through most of the state over the years, Mineral was a town I'd never visited.

I got a surprise around 1:51 PM yesterday when greetings from Mineral came knocking on my front door and shaking the whole house in the process. I had just finished mowing the lawn and taken off my sweaty clothes. I was standing under the bedroom ceiling fan that was set on high to cool off a bit and my legs began to feel a bit wobbly.

It took me a few seconds to realize the whole house was shaking. My house shaking isn't too unusual here in the Big Town of Savage. BToS is close to valuable rock deposits and occasionally there'll be an explosion where they're digging and I'll get a quick shudder of the house.

Typically that type house movement is quick and I might hear the noise and things are normal again. In this case there was no noise just the house shaking, which seemed to go on for an interminable length of time. I understand it was only 10-15 seconds, but it sure seemed more drawn out to me.

Other than the floor moving around beneath my feet, the only thing I noticed was the 32" flat screen TV on my dresser shaking back and forth. About the time I thought it might fall to the floor the whole event was over and the bedroom went back to normal.

I put on some dry clothes and checked out the house for any damage...none that I could find. Then I got a phone call from neighbor lady wanting to know what happened and if all was ok. And that was the end of the episode for me.

I must say that the most excitement I've had after the whole experience was this morning in the checkout line at Sysco Discount Food Center. Checkout gal and I were talking about it, then the ladies behind me got involved and I walked out with my two bags, still laughing at their comments.

Hope you weathered the visit from Mineral, VA as well as I have,
JD

Costco's Got Me Where They Want Me

I made my regular trip to Costco this morning with the intention of buying some new rechargeable AA batteries for my camera. Turns out I was trying to recharge the original alkaline batteries that came with the camera which proved to be less than a success.

So here I am in the middle of the freezer section getting ready to get a box of Mystic Pizzas and I look in the cart and I can't figure out how all those items got in the cart!

I thot it was getting pretty heavy to push and here I have a seemingly huge bag of Scotts Turf Builder w/weed control, a case of diet Cokes, a case of green tea in plastic bottles, bananas, grapes, popcorn, and lord only knows what else. I even had the batteries w/charger.

Sometime you don't know you need stuff until you're walking the aisles at Costco. What I originally figured would be a less than $50 trip turned out to be a $139 trip...there are times when I think Costco has me by the balls and forces me to buy all that stuff!!!

Ponder it,
JD

Terrapin Adventures - Here in the BToS

This is old news, but it appears something new opened here in the Big Town of Savage back in April. Of course all that rough lumber, ropes and stuff don't look all that new, but what else ya gonna do beside an antique cotton mill on a river bank, but build scary stuff that can be fun.

Obviously, I won't partake of the action, but I never pretended to be in the main demographic for any of this stuff anyway. :-)

Happy Phryday,
JD



PS - Visit Terrapin Adventures for more info.

Creamy Chocolate Easter Eggs in BToS - Wrapup

Sales have been excellent, but Lana and Barbara had to cut off production of those wonderful Creamy Chocolate Easter Eggs for the Savage United Methodist Church fund-raising. After all, Easter is almost upon us. They may still have a few left, so if you're interested call the church:
301-725-7630

They produced 677 of the delicious Creamy Chocolate Easter Eggs. Here's the count of each flavor:

Flavors; showing production of each:
49 - Maple Nut (my favorite)
151 - Peanut Butter (my favorite)
37 - Fruit and Nut
98 - Chocolate
102 - Coconut
104 - Butter Cream
76 - Orange Cream
60 - Cherry

As you can see, peanut butter was the favorite flavor, followed by butter cream, coconut and chocolate. My other favorite, maple nut, was far down on the list, but I did get two more of them this morning thanks to Barb's quick action.

Lana and Barbara deserve a lot of credit for taking time from their busy schedules to purchase the supplies and produce and package these Creamy Chocolate Easter Eggs for the Savage United Methodist Church fund-raising.

Thanks to all that purchased them,
JD

Creamy Chocolate Easter Eggs in BToS

Sales are booming and Lana and Barbara are making even more of those wonderful creamy Chocolate Easter Eggs for the Savage United Methodist Church. The ladies are nice enough to do this so the church can sell them to raise funds.

These delicious eggs are pretty good size, half-pounders as I found out, and they are delicious. If you're close to the BToS and think you might like to get a few, give the church a call. Here's the info:

Chocolate Easter Eggs - Phone - 301-725-7630

Cost: $5.00 ea.
Flavors:
Maple Nut (my favorite)
Peanut Butter (my favorite)
Fruit and Nut
Chocolate
Coconut
Butter Cream
Orange Cream
Cherry

Give 'em a call,
JD

PS - I know I'm kind of wierd, but I do have both as favorites!!!

Is today the Day???

This is a shot of my front door this morning. As you can tell tell from this I seldom rush into anything. I may be the worst/best procrastinator you ever discovered. My daughter was very kind when she bought this wreath for my front door. I just hate to take it down while it's still in such good condition...no needles falling yet, bow's still intact. I think the rascal still looks fine, so maybe I'll just leave it up until I see some needles on the floor of the foyer.

Last year at this time I placed an order for a new computer case, motherboard, processor, video card and hard drive to become a replacement for my backup computer. The boxes were delivered expeditiously as promised by the vendor. Today the boxes are stowed safely in the middle of the floor unopened. Today I have a new backup computer that's a year old, but not yet assembled. Yep, I am definitely a procrastinator.

About a month later, Feb 2008, I bought a new radio receiver for my TT (Toy Truck) that would provide the capability to receive local HD radio stations and play MP3s off a memory stick via USB port. You wouldn't believe the time I spent selecting the hardware. And of course, as always, Crutchfield was great to deal with sending the complete install package and instructions.

I got as far as opening the shipping container and inspecting the product to insure everything was included. I'm still riding around in the TT, but NOT listening to HD radio from 88.5-2, WAMU-2, Bluegrass all the time. Boxes are stored away on a shelf. My new HD radio is a year old yet not installed in the TT. Yep, I am definitely a procrastinator.

Keep your eye peeled. One day I may remove the wreath, or you may see me riding in my TT with a big grin on my face listening to bluegrass on HD radio. If you don't see me posting for a while, you'll know my computer broke and I haven't assembled my backup!!!

Your favorite procrastinator,
JD

PS - Here's my TT in case you see me in it.

Where Do You Christmas Shop - Internet???

A quick review of my Excel Christmas gift spreadsheet indicates that I purchased 11 out of 17 gifts via internet shopping venues. How about you? Do you purchase a lot of your gifts from internet sites? Are you on constant lookout for the UPS or FedEx delivery guys???

My local, non-internet shopping was mostly for last-minute items. I purchased two clothing items at the local Harley Davidson dealership. The other four items were from a shopping venue that I visit every week. Most folks call it Costco. But for some of us old time customers, it's known simply as 'The Club'. In case you aren't aware, Costco bought out my favorite shopping venue, Price Club, quite a few years ago. Well 'The Club' was good for two relatively high-dollar items, a box of fancy food stuff and a little computer gizmo.

I purchased one item from Lowe's. If you ever shop Lowe's or Home Depot, you know how big their stores are and how easy it is to waste gobs and gobs of time while looking for a specific item. Well, I gotta tellya that buying it on the website for local store pickup is great! I was in the store about 7 minutes to pick up the purchase. Fantastic!!!

Another six items came from Amazon's website, books and DVDs. They're the easiest folks in the world to deal with, especially if the USPS actually cooperates, which they did in my case. Unless you're a real cynic or an especially serious price shopper, it's hard to beat Amazon with free shipping.

I purchased two other low-circulation books from the website of a local Maryland specialty shop. Their service was excellent and the books are just what I expected. Another website purchase was from a specialty shop located in California that offers personalized items. They are due for delivery via UPS later today.

And then there's my favorite geek website, Newegg. I bought a relatively high dollar item from them for a superb price. They are amazing. Ordered it before noon Tuesday and it was delivered Wednesday afternoon via UPS with standard, no-cost shipping. Luv those guys and they're great to do business with.

I haven't been counting, but I think that covers pretty much everything. As you can tell, I am definitely internet-centric when it comes to shopping. I had fun doing the Christmas shopping deal this year and can only hope the kids/grandkids enjoy the gifts as much as I enjoyed buying 'em. :-)

JD

PS - As you may know Maryland has an awful sales tax of 6%. The legislature passed a 20% increase in the sales tax and it was promptly signed by our 'I love to spend your money' Governor, Martin O'Malley. It sure puts a damper on local shopping. Many Marylanders visit adjacent Delaware where there is no sales tax.

If you can find a website with free shipping that doesn't do business in Maryland, then you don't pay the site any sales tax. Of course we all know that Congress will eventually pass a law requiring internet vendors to collect sales tax to help fill the purchaser's home state coffers, anything worthwhile is fair game in today's Tax-Happy United States. So enjoy it while you can!!!

Retirees Shopping at Costco

There are a few idiosyncrasies that I've noticed since retiring. One of the more interesting is that Costco doesn't open on weekdays until 10:00 AM. As a matter of fact, except for grocery stores and Wal-Mart, and maybe Target, most stores seem to be on the 10 AM shift. Why is that?

Most of the morning rush hour traffic around here has died down by 8:30, kids are already in school and hockey/soccer moms are back home from ferrying kids to school (nobody rides the school bus around here). Most of the home service and construction folks are already on the job and the only menace on the road is the local delivery trucks (many of those drivers around here don't even speak English, much less read road signs).

Around 11:30 traffic is becoming hurried and hectic again and tends to become disheveled when office workers decide to go out to lunch (and there are a whole lot of them in central Maryland). Most don't really eat lunch, they have urgent errands to run and clog the local roads with traffic since they often get lost without their GPS to find XYZ shop. At least rush hour traffic knows where it's going, lunch traffic is just plain scary!

I guess retirees in general aren't one of Costco's main demographics; you know, really big spenders! Why did I even noticed this phenomenon? I'll tellya why. The only real quiet time on the roads on Monday thru Friday during the school year is from about 8:30-11:30 AM. So by the time I make my quiet tour of Costco and start back home, it's already 11:30, the roads are going crazy and the whole morning is shot.

So basically, I'd like to be able to visit Costco to spend my 'modest' sum (does anyone shop modestly at Costco?) of money and maybe run some other errands and then get back home before the 11:30 office-worker, banzai runs. Is it too much to ask that Costco (and Sam's for that matter) open earlier, maybe 9 AM on weekdays??? I don't really care what they do on weekends...I don't shop on weekends. When kids are out of school and folks aren't working, traffic isn't safe.

Ponder it.

JD