I'm cutting up those to staple over the plastic in hopes it will provide insulation.  Last year it got cold enough in here to impress me with my pansyish non-pioneer spirit, even with Mexican blankets hung over all the windows and the front door on the inside. 

Anyway, I ran spang out of staples and plastic, mid-job, so I toodled down to Rio Rancho Home Depot to buy more.  The clerk asked me in passing, "Does it look like snow out there to you?"

I'd been asking myself the same question almost from daybreak onward.  "Pretty early for it.  Almost never get snow before the first of October.  But it's happened."

Clerk laughed, handed me my bag, and I headed back through Bernalillo toward the mountains. 

As I passed the Dollar General I was reminded I was running short of tortillas and a couple of other incidentals, so I swung in.  I always take a look at their half-price clearance items, which are dirt-cheap and sometimes something a man could use.

There on the half-price clearance table was a plastic package with a hand-crank flashlight and a handcrank AMFM Weather radio.  $12 regular price.  Hmmm. 

Some little voice in my mind says, "Jack, old man, batteries are dead on your flashlight, and likely are dead on your radio.  You need to buy that $6 package of flashlight and battery just in case the power goes out for a few days."

So I put it in the plastic box hanging off my arm, picked up a few extra cans of canned fruit and fruit c*cktail, and headed for the checkout.  Clerk knows me by sight and we're amiable.  "You think it looks like snow out there?"

"You been talking to the guy down at Home Depot?"

Blank look.

"Guy down there just said the same thing.  I think you might be right.  That's the reason I've picked that half-price radio and....

[ More ]