Brite and fair
May. 3rd, 2009 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoAnd warm too. Tess got to go out briefly. The pasture is still soggy but no longer covered by standing water. Since she is supposed to get her feet wet, I figured it would be good. She got wet all right, came back in with black, sticky feet. (Her hooves are normally white.)
Not quite as lazy as yesterday. Baked bread (semolina, with flaky crackly crust) and pulled a couple of small steaks out of the freezer so we could use the grill for the first time. Don't tell Argos, but it tasted pretty good.
Alas, the local grocery seems to be going downhill more rapidly. They had signs up Saturday saying that there were empty shelves because they are switching distributors, which will result in more variety and lower prices. Well, no. I'm not convinced. They are switching from Certified Grocers to Central. I have long term exposure to both, and "Centrella" brands are higher priced but lower in quality than Certified's "Country Delight" brand. Sure enough, they are destocking several things we like. I have a good memory for prices, too, and in spite of the claim, where Centrella products were on the shelves the prices were generally five, ten or even fifteen cents higher for the same size item. We have a sneaking suspicion that they are changing distributors in order to get more lenient credit, rather than for any other reason. Whatever the cause, though, I'm afraid I'll be seriously looking now for another suitable shopping place.
The trouble is, the good ones are too far away and the nearby ones are either inadequate or very high priced. We've already examined the nearby discount chains: Wal-Mart and Aldi. Neither meets my requirements for a primary supplier. Their stocking is hit or miss, they focus on convenience foods rather than ingredients, and of course neither is particularly nice to its employees either. In particular, the fresh produce at either store is overpriced and not particularly good. Joseph's Market in Crystal Lake is better, but that's 22 miles away and gas prices are rising again, so it won't do for a weekly supplier.
While I'm being grumpy, I'll also note that a nearby school district shut down ALL its facilities indefinitely starting on Friday because one part time employee had flu symptoms. Not even a confirmed case of H1N1, just "possible." This is stupid, incredibly stupid. Even bubonic plague wouldn't warrant the level of fear and panic that has been stirred up over this.
Oh, and our bank replaced its ATM with a machine that "conveniently" accepts deposits without envelopes, which seems dubious at best to me. I used it anyway on Saturday because the bank was closed, but since it scans each check and uses OCR to determine the values, and you have to confirm or reject each one on the screen, it takes about five times longer than it used to. Guess I'll be going to the teller inside in the future. Sometimes technological "advances" are really a giant step backward.
Oh, and Argos grows wistful about poetry over here.
Not quite as lazy as yesterday. Baked bread (semolina, with flaky crackly crust) and pulled a couple of small steaks out of the freezer so we could use the grill for the first time. Don't tell Argos, but it tasted pretty good.
Alas, the local grocery seems to be going downhill more rapidly. They had signs up Saturday saying that there were empty shelves because they are switching distributors, which will result in more variety and lower prices. Well, no. I'm not convinced. They are switching from Certified Grocers to Central. I have long term exposure to both, and "Centrella" brands are higher priced but lower in quality than Certified's "Country Delight" brand. Sure enough, they are destocking several things we like. I have a good memory for prices, too, and in spite of the claim, where Centrella products were on the shelves the prices were generally five, ten or even fifteen cents higher for the same size item. We have a sneaking suspicion that they are changing distributors in order to get more lenient credit, rather than for any other reason. Whatever the cause, though, I'm afraid I'll be seriously looking now for another suitable shopping place.
The trouble is, the good ones are too far away and the nearby ones are either inadequate or very high priced. We've already examined the nearby discount chains: Wal-Mart and Aldi. Neither meets my requirements for a primary supplier. Their stocking is hit or miss, they focus on convenience foods rather than ingredients, and of course neither is particularly nice to its employees either. In particular, the fresh produce at either store is overpriced and not particularly good. Joseph's Market in Crystal Lake is better, but that's 22 miles away and gas prices are rising again, so it won't do for a weekly supplier.
While I'm being grumpy, I'll also note that a nearby school district shut down ALL its facilities indefinitely starting on Friday because one part time employee had flu symptoms. Not even a confirmed case of H1N1, just "possible." This is stupid, incredibly stupid. Even bubonic plague wouldn't warrant the level of fear and panic that has been stirred up over this.
Oh, and our bank replaced its ATM with a machine that "conveniently" accepts deposits without envelopes, which seems dubious at best to me. I used it anyway on Saturday because the bank was closed, but since it scans each check and uses OCR to determine the values, and you have to confirm or reject each one on the screen, it takes about five times longer than it used to. Guess I'll be going to the teller inside in the future. Sometimes technological "advances" are really a giant step backward.
Oh, and Argos grows wistful about poetry over here.
