On the trips out I went to Grocery Outlet, and bought donuts, a Toblerone chocolate bar, apple juice, orange juice, another jar of Kalamata olives, and a couple of things I've not seen before: a small jar of roasted tomatoes and chilies, from Italy, and a package of lime shrimp ramen. I have no idea if either will be any good, but if they aren't they were at east cheap, and I won't be out much over a dollar. Later I went to CVS and picked up a six pack of beer and two bags of small candy bars left over from the Halloween stock and on sale for 99 cents each. They also had Kahlua on sale, so I bought two bottles for 21.98. With what I already had on hand that should last me well into spring.
Trader Joe's provided me with the mushrooms and onion I went for, plus the tortillas I bought on impulse, and which turn out to be pretty good, and a package of romaine hearts, for which TJ's charges less than any of the other stores around here. Who knew? And naturally I stopped at the Goodwill store, and found a fairly beat up copy of Whitman's writings, probably previously owned by at least three Chico State students, but quite serviceable. I know Whitman is all in the public domain, but he is one of the writers I feel I should have on paper.
So that was probably my last trip out at least until Monday, as three days of rain are coming up. It's likely to be windy, too, with the strongest winds on Saturday. I'm hoping there will be no power outages, and no local flooding. I don't feel like mopping up water in the cold. In Paradise I had a backup gas heater with no fan, so not dependent on electricity, and a gas range, so I could at least heat up a can of soup or beans when the power was out, but here I've got nothing. A winter power outage here would mean peanut butter and crackers for dinner, and layers of clothes and piles of blankets to stave off hypothermia. I hope the experience will be indefinitely delayed.
