June 6: I Don't Get Paid Enough For This

 

Last night, after I finished writing, I sat here chasing thoughts.  What meals would I prep for next week?  WHEN will I ever get to the grocery?  How will I manage my eating plans in a home not mine?  What sort of lunches could I take with me? 

 No visits to Mama for the next four weeks...Wondering if John realizes that I likely am NOT going to leave home on third Saturday to go to Outreach after spending a week in the city and knowing I've got to go back again on Sunday and every day the following week.  Considering my weekend time and what all I shall likely need to get done on those days at home.  

I wasn't even thinking of anything extra or deep housekeeping or yardwork.  Just the bare basics of home care and being prepared for each day.

I was tense and uptight when I went to bed last night and then I had leg cramps.  Nothing to do with being tense.  I forgot to take my magnesium tablet two nights in a row.  Felt that!  I got up just as tense and uptight this morning and more tired than when I went to bed.  I had a tall glass of homemade electrolyte water this morning before I even had coffee.  

I got most of my house blessing done today.  I also managed to inventory all of the proteins in the big freezer.  I did a few other minor chores and then I got ready to leave the house.  

John wanted to go get his new glasses ordered today.  I told John that under no circumstances was he to buy glasses at the eye doctor's yesterday.  I insisted that if he wanted to pick out and try on his own frames than we'd go to Walmart and do it there.  The glasses he ordered from Zenni Optical 18 months ago have been worn less than an hour each month. They look fine on him, but he swears up and down that they don't fit right.  He's gone and had them adjusted multiples of times.  I offered many times to order him a different pair.  No.  He wanted to wear his old glasses.  I am sick of looking at his old glasses.  They were just ever so slightly the wrong prescription for him.  He's having trouble with his vision now and that is what drove him to the eye doctor.  

The doctor noted that it was 'only a slight change since the last eye exam..."  So that's two small changes in vision and the same pair of old glasses he's had for both of the changes.  Sigh.

Honestly, I could have done without this today.  I wanted to be at home, do a proper home Blessing cleaning, and some meal planning and food prep for next week.  I planned a drop by visit to Kroger to grab sales priced cheese.   Anything to try and salvage the day.

We got to Walmart and the young lady informed John that he might as well come back on Tuesday.  They had no one there to measure pupillary distance so they couldn't order glasses.  He convinced her to at least let him LOOK at the frames.  He found a pair very similar to the size and style of his current pair at a very reasonable price.  They are a different color.  Thank goodness.  I truly am weary of looking at his old glasses!  

I'm going to just say this and say it very lovingly.  We all waste money in some way or another.  I have a pressure canner I've yet to bother to use or even attempt to use.  It's sitting right there in my kitchen.  So I am not slinging stones without considering my own faults here.  But my husband, who is almost as close to a true cheapskate as you can get in so many areas, can make some major spending decisions that prove to be very expensive.  I wish I could tell you how many dollars' worth of equipment he has sitting in his shed that is UNUSED.  Exercise equipment that he ended up giving away.  Music equipment that is stored in a closet.  Clothes and shoes he's purchased and then won't put on...He flabbergasts me.    I will at least cull and give away or donate my things, admit they aren't what I wanted or needed, acknowledge my mistake and let it go.  But John does not.  He collects his mistakes and stores them.  There is some deep psychological implication here.

Never mind.  We found the glass frames he likes.  He took a picture of the label on them so he can go back on Tuesday and order them properly.  We went over to Kroger, and I went in to pick up enough fruit and veg to see us through next week as well as the cheeses that were on sale.  We bought a bargain lunch (jut $5 each) and headed home.

I have no complaints over the groceries I bought today.  I have vegetables but needed more lettuce.  We eat salad fairly often in a week's time.  Katie gave me radishes from her little plot yesterday.  I bought tomatoes, more lettuce.  I found mushrooms and washed, cut collards marked down.  I bought strawberries and grapes for fruit for the week ahead.  I scanned the meat counter for markdowns but saw only chicken breasts and I have plenty of that on hand.  I bought cheeses, a cup of plain yogurt so I can make my own yogurt here at home with my milk bought on sale and some breads from the bakery clearance section.  I came out with enough food to fully fill three grocery bag (not plastic bag, reuseable ones) and spent $65.  I'm not ashamed of that.  My sole splurge was a cherry pie from the bakery for $2.30.  I can't buy cherries or pie filling for either price.  And I'm saved making pastry and baking so there's the bonus.

The store was busy.  Not hectic, but busy.  And the lines were full.  I said to myself, "I can save time standing in line and use the self-checkout even though I do have more than a handful of items.  It will be fine!"  

I DO NOT GET PAID ENOUGH FOR THIS TASK.

Three items in and the machine beeps that "Help is on the way".  Why?  I don't require help.  Nothing has failed to scan.  Nothing was placed in the cart instead of the bagging area, nor was anything removed from bagging area.    It beeped again and then proceeds to allow me to continue checking things out.  I'm assuming an override was done at the main register.  

Another beep.  "Did you place something in the bagging area without scanning?"  Nope.  Beep.  Working again.   Beep! "Did you remove something from the bagging area?"  No... but the tiny space is filled so I went ahead and moved the loaded bag into the buggy and waited.  This time the clerk had to come scan her card and override.  Then it refused to read a barcode.   It just looked at me.  The clerk came over again and scanned her card and suddenly the product came up on the screen three times.  I told her, "Ma'am, I only have two.  You'll need to clear that last one."  She scanned her card, removed the item, scanned her card and said "Ok, good to go."  

Ha.  Not on your life baby!  There wasn't a single transaction thereafter that went easily.  I managed to get through it all with just one more scan of the master card and then I paid.  Nothing happened.  It asked me how much cash back I wanted. I said, '$0'.  Wrong answer!  It wasn't a wrong answer, I didn't want cash back, hadn't asked for cash back, wanted only to pay and leave.  It made me start over again with the payment process.  It clicked through and I hurriedly gathered receipt and coupons and pulled away from that register before the doggone thing thought to beep at me again.  

When I got to the car, I told John, "From now on, no matter how long the line is, unless I have only one or two items, I'm going to wait for a proper cashier to ring up my purchases!"  He laughed.  He long ago gave up on self-checkouts.  

John has gone off to mow.  It's supposed to rain every day for the next seven or ten days.  The lawns are lovely and lush and green.  Keeping them cut whenever they might dry out enough to get a few feet done will be John's big task for the next week or so.  Today and tomorrow will be hot, as in low to mid-90's and then it's going to be cooler, low to mid-80's which is nothing to complain about.  

While he's out mowing, I have put a roast beef in the oven that I've been trying to cook for the past four days.  I also have a loaf of bread in the big oven.  I'm going to go dice vegetables for a ham pot pie to cook this evening and maybe mix up piecrust and put to chill in the fridge.

Tomorrow, I plan to assemble said ham pot pie and lasagna.  I'm thinking I might get two pot pies, one for now and one for the freezer.  I'll bake the lasagna in a 9 x 13 pan and then I'll divide that into portions and pack and freeze some and put at least two portions in the fridge for next week.  I'll plan roast beef for Saturday dinner and sandwiches of same for Sunday supper.  

If there are leftovers after that I think a nice pan of Hash will be lovely, as it will cook quickly and is both stretching and filling.  John will be gone Monday evening for Men's group.  I'll scratch myself up some sort of meal when I come in.  And then we'll eat the ham pot pie and lasagna, perhaps will have a salad meal another night if there's not enough roast beef left for hash and on Friday when I come in, I'll plan to use one of the already prepared and frozen meals that I've bought or made myself that are in the freezer.  

I looked at my calendar and this 'job' should last exactly four weeks.  Cody has the last two weeks of summer off, and they all go back to school the last of July.  I've a plan for surviving my first week so far as home goes.  Meals are thought out.  I'll prep them tomorrow.  John will do minor housekeeping and if any childcare is required from across the field, he and those kids can manage on their own.  If he doesn't know where something is, odds are the kids do.  

Gung ho.  

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