We were out on Friday doing our usual run picking up the grandboys at school and I had to hit the bathroom before we left that neighborhood. While I was occupied Jon got a call from the assistant manager of the apartments. He said a car ran into one of the buildings and where were we and it was rather confusing. So we got home and sure enough...
The older of the yard maintenance guys apparently hit gas instead of brake and plowed into the corner of our building. If not for that cement and steel post he would have caused a lot more damage. Both airbags in his truck deployed and apparently he was okay. Because that's him helping to clean up the completely destroyed bougainvillea that was on the corner there.
The lady that lives in that apartment now has a hole in her bedroom and there's a large shadecloth hanging over the corner until it gets repaired. The manager and son of the owner/building maintenance guy Mike came by the next day and asked if everything was okay. Rocky was traumatized of course but other than a few pictures being askew no other damage. They said insurance adjuster may come by at some point to check on things just in case. No severe structural damage happened, thankfully but still wondering how that isn't considered major damage.
The food budget is my frustration this month. I spent almost $200 on getting gas, paper goods and a small amount of food that we needed. And our cupboards and dry goods are still mostly empty.
I can't make any more bread because I'm out of honey and yeast. I have the sourdough starter but it's not looking healthy so that's likely going to need to be refreshed before I can use it. We are still missing a lot of canned goods and staples. I was able to get some eggs and a loaf of white bread along with some canned tomatoes and pasta sauce, two boxes of mac and cheese, two bell peppers, cooking oil and something else but that's it. We do have the food donation box pick up this week but so help me if they have another 'plant based meat product' we are going to refuse it. We are shopping at Kroger/Food4Less exclusively because they have the best prices.
We got three households of food last time and the lady was surprised and told us not to waste it. We told her oh not us. Well half the tiny avocados were inedible so those had to be chucked. The dry goods and canned goods are useable as was most of the fruit and veggies. We had three 2 lb bricks of actual hamburger which we used up alternating with the chicken thighs I had bought the previous day. Then there was the three 2lb tubes of 'plant based beef crumbles' from the Jensen meat company.
We have been trying whatever they give us to be fair but this stuff.... it smelled horrid when I was cooking it, like rubber mixed with something else. It was almost turning my stomach as I was cooking it to put in spaghetti sauce. I dumped as much pepper and salt in it as possible along with Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and added onion and bell pepper... it still didn't change that smell. I thought, give it a chance and see if the sauce can mask the flavor and smell. Nope... it, was, awful. I had about five bites and couldn't stand it anymore, Jon was a bit more hungry and he ate his whole bowl but we both agreed it was a 'never do again ever'.
Seriously. We tried the 'plant based beef patties' a while back and those tasted like cardboard. So no, we will never be having any of that sort of meat ever in the house again. Ever.
So that frustration along with not having enough money to pay all the bills again and not enough food in the house. It's cheaper to buy chicken thighs from Kroger at this point because a 3lb chub of hamburger is almost $20 and the 10 pack of thighs is $7 (they were on sale for a while at 99 cents/lb but now up to 1.49).
We're out of condiments, much of our canned goods except for canned green beans and other things is depleted. We have enough spaghetti noodles to last a while, rice is good and that's about it. The food donations that come around for the complex are almost (or actually) expired packaged goods and severely bruised and beaten vegetables from Trader Joe's. I won't sign up for it because the only thing we're missing out on is the usual expired and frozen lemon herb spatchcock chicken or something like it. We checked one time on the label, it was a week expired last time. No thank you. We go down after they put the remainder of the things out and pick through for onions, tomatoes and potatoes or whatever other veggies aren't completely ruined.
'Just go to the food pantry places, they have food'. Right. Obviously they've never done it before. We'd be using gas every week to drive around to different locations just to come away with a bag of vegetables.
Somethings going to break and I don't know what or when. If it was just me I'd put everything in storage and pack up the car and drive to Oregon or WA and look for a new place to live. Apply for a USDA loan or something and say I don't have a place to live. But with Jon and Rocky... there are no options other than staying put.
Surviving, not thriving.
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