Sunday shopping report.

I went to the Franklin Av. Aldi late Sunday afternoon.  There seemed to be plenty of three pound bags of white rice, the "benchmark" item I am watching.  I picked up one bag.  Curiously, at Aldi Macaroni and cheese costs less per ounce than boxed Macaroni.  They are something like thirty-seven cents a box so I got three.  I've used year old Macaroni and cheese, at worst the "cheese powder" clumps a bit so you have to break it up.  That is probably heat.  From experience I found that the one "staple" that gets rancid with age are cookies.  I had some nine month old cookies, sealed snack size packages and they were rancid.  

This got me thinking about regular emergency preparedness.  I haven't used a manual can opener in a year and a half.  I should have a few around here but I have to look for them.  I need to track down the service door keys to the (detached) garage.   I've used only the remote for the last year or so.  I have plenty of candles, batteries and even a few wind up led flashlights.

The freezer is in the basement where it's always 45 and it has room.  One trick I have to get to is freezing some bottles of salt water for backup cooling of the freezer.  Basically save empty milk jugs, rinse them out and fill almost to the top with salt water.  Any salt will do, even sidewalk or water softener salt.  With a permanent magic marker clearly mark them "Salt water! Do not drink!"  Then put them in the freezer with the cap sealed.  The salt should reduce the freezing temperature to zero or maybe ten degrees Fahrenheit.  In a power outage the salt water in the jugs will gradually melt and absorb a lot of heat in the process.   This will help with the freezer during a power outage.  Have old blankets ready to cover the crest freezer and try no to open it during an outage.  The frozen salt water jug is a quick and easy trick.  

On Friday, the first of the month I get my checking account recharged with the pension.  Staying proactive, I paid my total $2650 property tax for 2009 in March and April.  Even with tax refunds that "stung".  I try not to dip into savings but it's four days until the Friday. 

At this point I am not really concerned about major utilities going down.  Unlike SARS, this seems treatable with proper medical treatment.  The key utility people should get high priority.   Also, it's Spring and electrical demand is low.  Added to that my Longfellow Neighborhood of Minneapolis has a rather robust electrical grid.  The high voltage lines run between Minnehaha and Hiawatha and the substation is at 39th And Hiawatha.  The local electric lines are in the alleys where they are very well protected against storms.  

For now I gotta find the garage keys and manual can opener and think about a "beer run" to get six or eight cases of $8.69 per case Mountain Crest Beer from Top Value Liquor.