Inflation Woes

AUGH! is all I can say, I reckon- and just bite the bullet, pay the bill and keep on living.

Sure am glad I'm living in the bush where I don't have to make a trip to town every day or I'd be worse than broke- I'd be outta money, too!

Okay, here's the scoop: had a lunch date with Mom cuz she hadn't seen me for nearly a week, so I made up a shopping list, hopped in the wagon and drove to her place, picked her up and we went to the Niece's for lunch. Good deal there. Had all I can eat, Mom filled up on her fries and gravy and chicken strip, a few cups of coffee and conversation later and I took her home, went about filling my shopping list.

Since cooler weather is coming and my last trip I'd bought a pair of canvas pants for $20 from the local dealer, I figured I'd buy some sox and a couple sets of long-jons and hankies, some T-shirts and top it off with a box of ammo and go home.

To whit, the shopping list:

Sock, two pack acrylic/marino...2 @ 9.99 = 19.98

T-shirt, two pack blk w/pkt...1@ 6.29 = 6.29

Discpolypropylene bottom blk 1@ 1.00 = 1.00

DiscUndrshrt Super Jon 1@ 2.00 = 2.00

bandanalghtass't 4ea @ 1.09 = 4.36

bandanared 22" 1 @ 1.09 = 1.09

bandanablue 22" 1@ 1.09 = 1.09

Socwhtetube 7pk 1@ 10.99 = 10.99

Socwhteqtr 7pk 1@ 10.99 = 10.99

Moccasinflcemen 1@ 16.99 = 16.99

STnoTx 75.87

Ammunition30-06Fed20rd 1@ 15.99 = 15.99tx

. 17

total 92.03

I almost flipped my wig and blew out my teeth as I choked on that cost. A hundred dollar bill for 12 items that didn't fill the shopping bag they were loaded into. It's a good thing I wasn't buying any Canadian Club today or I'd have had to return the sox, or maybe the long-jons, since I have several pair of those already.

I am beginning to wonder anew how people are going to survive the coming costs of preparations if they have not already begun or are just in the midst of it. Ammo has risen two bucks a box in the last few weeks except the Feds I use for the 30-06. Even the lowly little ole .22 has risen almost half its original prices. Something scary is happening on the market level, I'm afraid. Cost of doing business has risen dramatically for sure. The local nickel-dime stores have shelves going empty and aisles that are devoid of mortals acting as customers. Food costs seem to have stabilized in the last couple weeks. Or, rather, coffee hasn't jumped another dollar a can, but the size has gone from 39 ounces to 32 ounces per can- same size can, tho.

So those folks on the lower end of the pay spectrum are really going to be hurting by fall if they aren't into dire straits already. Talking with my sisters, who manage Mom's accounts, and they told me her gas was fixed at $2.89 a gallon cuz she's on a pre-pay plan. But theirs had risen drastically compared to last year. At this time they were afraid the price was going to be more than $4 a gallon for Liquid Propane (LP), and their husbands were expecting even more. My brother, who heats with oil, sat at the table and cried about how he wasn't going to be eating this winter if he wanted to heat his house. Of course, on the money he's getting from his mine pension I can believe it. Still, he's getting more than my retirement's giving me. The big difference is that I'm a country bumpkin and use wood most of the winter and my cutting permit costs $25 from the state. If I'm gone from the house a few days, LP kicks in, but that doesn't happen often.

Well, if push comes to shove and he needs a place to stay, he can visit one of his kids, I imagine. Not that anyone else is better off than another.

I remember well the late 50's when going to someones house for dinner and having potatoes was a real treat when we'd been eating macaroni for a month. Or getting an actual piece of meat rather than ground venison left-overs. It's a good thing that back in those days all the men hunted and a few trapped, and we all fished. Once we got old enough, we kids learned and did the hunting as well. And Grandma was never afraid to send one of us kids out to collect dandelion greens while another went to gather blue berries or June berries or raspberries while another'd be in the garden digging out some spuds, maybe even getting to shuck a few ears of corn.

The times, they are a-changing, all right. Coming full circle in all honesty. From the earth we first survived, from the earth we will continue to survive. Some, anyway- many won't make it. And there will be those who rob and steal, kill and destroy just to have a meal, and many who'll die trying to do their nasty deeds.

The United States of America is the absolute most giving, generous country on the planet. We Americans give more to charities and impoverished areas, disaster-destroyed nations than the whole world gives combined. We have done it time and again, regardless how much the UN (damn! get us OUT of there!) says we are to give, we give more. And we volunteer to give, not because we have to. Those days are coming to an end, I think. There is coming a time when what we give will be to those right at our doorstep, not halfway around the globe. Sad to say, but one day soon the rest of the world is going to have to starve or grow on its own merits, not American assets, and I don't care what Barack Hussein Obama tells me: I am my brother's keeper, I will help him willingly and gladly. But I do not have to help someone who wants to destroy my country or family or me. The enemy of my country is my enemy, I will not succor him in any way, shape or form. Goodnite , Obama.

Thus endeth this sermon.

Shy III