Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Darn it.

 Over the weekend, I opened my mailbox, and what to my wondering eyes should appear...but a Christmas catalog! Not cool. Not cool at all. And the prices were eye watering...a 4.4 oz bag of candy for $19.95. Some very beautiful sweaters for $190. Night gowns for $90. Some cute sheets: $120 for twin size. Pretty sure I won't be placing any orders there. 

We had to make a run north this morning, over the state line. Our wondering eyes were treated yet again, this time to the vision of snow covered cars. Once we crossed into New York state, snow was lightly covering the ground. So the forecast was right. We had accumulations in the area. I didn't find that very cool either. 

We finished up our business in fairly short order. Since we were so close, I suggested picking up a box of bananas from Brigiottas, which is a farm store/deli place. My Amish friend told me about this. You can go out back of the store to their warehouse and buy 'seconds'. She bought a box of bananas, which made me laugh. 35 lbs of bananas! I asked her if she was planning to make banana bread. She rolled her eyes. It was a Wednesday. She explained to me that her children loved bananas and that by the end of the week, every one of those bananas would be gone. When I dropped her off, it  had made me laugh to see all the children lined up on the porch waving good bye with a banana in their hand. 

So, Tim and I stopped at the store. I had no clue, but the box cost only $8. Less than 25 cents a pound. I hadn't really looked at what Mattie had bought, but I took the time to look my purchase over. I was surprised that they were very nice bananas. No worse than something you might buy at the Walmart or something. Such a good bargain, but Tim and I could never use that many bananas!

When we pulled up in their driveway, one of her youngest was on the porch. She waved and scampered inside to let her mother know we were there. Mattie came out as I was setting the box down. I said, "I seem to remember a group of young monkeys who live here..." and Mattie laughed. "Yes. The children sure do love bananas!" 

We didn't have time to visit, not really. It was almost meal time and we did not want to intrude. Levi and his oldest would be walking over from the sawmill in short order.  We also had our own things to finish. I still had the other half of my apples to get ready for the freezer. Tim wanted to stop and get another bag of red potatoes from the Amish stand. I had also bought two large bags of bell peppers that would need to be chopped up and put in the freezer as well. 

On the way home, my phone dinged with a message from my daughter-in-law. They've all been sick with congestion and colds. Today, the baby tested positive for covid and RSV. Thankfully, she is not displaying any of the severe symptoms, but it is hard not to be concerned. With two sick kids and two sick parents, I'm sure that it is a struggle for them, and we are too far away to be any real help. 

While we were discussing the situation, we heard a radio advertisement for a day of the dead haunted house. Not uncommon. Haunted Hayrides and ghostly themed activities abound this time of the year. What made this one different was the final line: they will have Disney Princesses there. 

Disney princesses in combination with a haunted house? Sounds potentially traumatic to my ears.   





32 comments:

  1. I love looking through those catalogues, but the prices are crazy. My grandson and daughter had RSV last fall and it was miserable. Possibly worse than Covid. I hope they get better soon. I hated not being able to help when that daughter was 2,800 miles away.

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    1. I keep thinking that I could set meals on the porch and save Brittani at least that much work. Not sure how much help that would actually be.

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  2. It's hard when you're so far away. My middle daughter is 1000km away and having a hard time this week with fatigue, a very common problem with MS. If she was close I could walk the dog for her or make a meal for her. I hope your son and his family get better soon. It sucks to be sick with sick kids too.

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    1. It has only happened to me a few times, but it is awful.

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  3. It seems very early to have snow but maybe it is usual. I've stopped eating bananas and I don't know why. Some of half a kilo here would go to waste.

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    1. Tim only eats 1/2 a banana a day, sliced up on his cereal. I guess that I could force myself to eat a banana at breakfast. 35 lbs of bananas is WAY too much for this house. However, Mattie has eight children, all of who love bananas. They'll make short work of that box, I imagine.

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  4. Hope your family get better soon. As for kilos of bananas, not sure what I would do with them all, they go black so quickly.

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    1. We gave them away and avoided the problem all together! I hope they do too. This is the second round of colds to go through the house in very short order. They're really getting hit hard with 'the creeping crud'. Thank goodness Brittani is a nurse.

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  5. I hope your family quickly recover and are back to normal soon.
    Bin that catalogue!

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    1. Oh, it did not take long for me to do just that! I hope so too. This is the oldest child's first year of preschool, and preschoolers are adorable little incubators, and they share generously with each other. I think this will be a tougher year that usual because that age group in their area has spent most of their lives in some sort of isolation due to covid. These kids are being exposed to a lot of things, for the first time, all at once.

      I hope that my theory is wrong.

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  6. I guess the catalog publisher is hoping that the early bird gets the worm!

    Reminds me of my youth when we were conscripted for school fundraisers to sell overpriced goods for some company only to get a small cut of the proceeds in return. I quickly learned to just ask all my neighbors for a donation and more often than not, I would end up the top net earner for our class though I never won any awards because they only considered the top grossing person to be the winner.

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  7. At schools here, you can opt out of fund raisers by donating money. It is a shockingly small amount...like $25 or something, if memory serves me. Totally worth it in my book. Sad to think that most of the legwork goes to benefit that company NOT the school.

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    1. PS: That is for the YEAR, not for each fundraiser.

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    2. What a deal! At my youngest daughter's school we are required to work three fundraisers a year. To opt out, you have to pay $250 EACH!

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  8. Haunted hay rides sounds like fun.

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    1. They actually started out in an actual cemetery that startled William. It happens to be where Tim's parents and his baby brother are buried. Later, I said to Tim, "William would have lost his mind if he would have seen our last name on a tombstone.

      A good time was had by all.

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  9. Sorry your daughter and her family are all sick! That is rough. Maybe you could send a care package to them? I see lots of ideas online for making your own or ordering one (altho some of those are $$$). I just googled "care package for sick friend"...

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    1. I was thinking to do have a meal delivered. They live in a populated area, where there are a number of options.

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  10. I can't even begin to think about Christmas now. Too bad about the family illness! Do bananas help people recover from the 'rona? You can ship them some cheap! :)

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  11. Hard when you live far away...but then you won't be picking up anything from them and will be fit to go there when they are clear and convalescing.
    We went by a mall yesterday...they had a pumpkin house, made of pumpkins of all sizes....under 12s could enter with an adult or a sensible wizard!!

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  12. That is great! Sensible wizard...i will be laughing about this every time it pops into my head.

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  13. I could imagine Disney Princesses being deceptively benign.

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  14. When I started work at the elementary school and was in contact with the kids, I was sick almost every month. The doctor said these are kids things that you are getting. I told him I worked with kids every day. He said spray your hair heavy with hair spray and you probably will not get lice and for 13 years I sprayed and did not get lice. This was a very low-income school and lice was common in some kids. Hope your kids are doing better by now.

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  15. It's starting to get warm here which is a sure sign Christmas is around the corner. I think I would prefer snow.
    It is such a worry when kids and grandkids are sick. Even more when we can't be there to help. We had two over yesterday full of cold so I wonder how long before we start to sniffle. They are such generous beasts.

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  16. I have not caught a full blown kid cold in the last 40 years. Not, that is, until this week, when I caught it from an 85 year old hacking, sniffling woman who would not wear a mask. !

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    1. You really think they they would be more cautious about shit like that in an assisted living facility for Pete's sake.

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  17. That is an amazing banana deal. Bananas are expensive here in Hawaii even though I see people growing banana trees in their yards.
    I'm so sorry your family is coming down with COVID AND RSV. I hope they all recover quickly.

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I'm glad you're here!

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