Evil Costco

I couldn't figure out why I was so groggy while watching Jeopardy until I remembered that I had almost no sleep last night, unable to fall asleep until after 5 a.m., and then getting up at 7.  Normally I would have taken a nap, but it just never occurred to me.  Walt asked if I thought it was because of Peggy's letter...and yeah, I guess so.  Probably also why I'm up at 2:30 a.m. this morning writing this journal entry!  I went to sleep promptly at 10 p.m. last night and was wide awake at 1:15.  I hope that I will put myself to sleep writing this (so you can see how exciting an entry you are in for!).  I'm sure this will pass quickly.  I am really not feeling all that upset any more, but I guess my brain hasn't figured that out yet.

I took a run to Costco in the late morning.  We have one of, if not "the" largest Costcos in the countries, opening just a few miles from here a couple of years ago.  That monolith to excess!  I got used to buying in bulk when the kids were all home and it seems pretty ridiculous to continue doing it when there are just two of us, but old habits die hard. 

My plan had been to do my shopping at Costco this week, instead of the regular supermarket, but we were running out of some essential things on Sunday...and one thing you don't want to do, if you don't absolutely have to, is go to Costco on the weekend, when everyone who works is there and it is a madhouse.  So I went off to the local supermarket to buy "a few" things, intending to fill in where necessary, with a run to Costco.  (A good idea...when I got to check out yesterday, I was the only person in line!  That certainly would never have happened on a weekend day!)

Only my "few" supermarket purchases came to more than $150 so I decided to do the Costco run a bit later in the month, but I had specifically not purchased things that I knew I could get cheaper at Costco, like peanut butter, the special dog treats that I give our dogs, which I have not seen elsewhere, and the "puddle pads" that Polly is very good about peeing on, though relieving herself outside seems abhorrent to her.

Walt suggested I could just buy a few things.  And I really had all good intentions, but I am powerless over the lure of Costco.  I was doing well with just the few things I needed until I hit the meat aisle and saw the prices for the things I buy regularly.  Everything was much less than in the supermarket, but of course you have to buy in gargantuan sizes.  Thus I bought 8 pork chops, 8 lbs of ground beef, and a 5 lb lamb roast, which was easily half the price of anything I'd seen in the supermarket and will feed us for several days.

Though my cart was not heaping, as it usually is, everything I bought cost a bit and when I checked out, I had spent >$160.  I'd better not need to go to the store for at least a month, after paying $300 for groceries for two of us in the past two days!

I also stopped at nearby Michael's craft shop, intending, again, to just get a couple of things.  I needed extra strong glue sticks and some double stick tape.  I did get away for under $60, but just barely.  For someone who is not really "crafty," I certainly seem to be enticed by many things in a craft store.   My "composition journal" is coming along nicely, now nearly 70 pages long.   I love the spread I did for the Lamplighters.   

 I'm now working on pages to explain Cousins Day and include the rules to "65."

In the late afternoon, Walt and I went to visit our friend, about whom I wrote when we went to watch her having her head shaved as a fundraiser for the Baldrick Foundation's fund raiser to raise funds to fight children's cancer.

She had called me a couple of days ago to say that while doing a favor for friends (picking up mail while they were out of town for a couple of days), she fell down their stairs on leaving the house and had broken her hip and her shoulder.   She was calling from the hospital and said she would be moved to a convalescent hospital in a couple of days.

Poor lady!  My heart went out to her!  She's 78 and a professor at a community college in Sacramento.  I didn't know how long this accident was going to put her out of commission.

We visited with her for about 45 minutes, though she was flying high on pain meds and fading in and out of sleep. They were also polishing the floor right outside of her room and since she spoke so softly it was almost impossible to understand her.

Having recently been in the market for Senior Living places, I found the convalescent hospital, though a very nice one, very depressing, with that familiar smell of urine and disinfectant, and the people in wheelchairs in the hall with blank expressions on their faces.  I remember all that from my visits to my cousin Kathy, when she was dying.

As we left the place, I said a prayer that my mother would die in Covell Gardens and not reach that end stage where she needs to be moved into a place like this.  I think about things like that a lot these days, I discover!

Well, it's now after 3 a.m. and I think I'll give sleep another try and see if I'm successful this time. The dogs hate nights like this because they don't know where to sleep!