I feel unclean

I am so ashamed.

I went to Walmart and I bought stuff. It was cheap. I would not have bought stuff there but it is the only place in town that I've seen oven/baking trays that are not non-stick - I don't want non-stick cos it rapidly turns into stick in my experience, closely followed by non-stick coating on your food when you lever it off the tray...

So I bought oven trays. And I bought a heap of polyester fleece material to help us curtain off some parts of the house (but I forgot to buy the velcro sticky spots. Ooops). And I bought a pair of waterproof boots cos I only have one pair of closed shoes and they have mesh on top....

I vowed not to buy stuff there but if it is the only place, including the really nice cooking shop, where you can get the stuff you want, well what choice do you have? Especially when you don't have a car to go tooling around in.

Heh. You shoulda seen me today on my bike. I have a rack on the back of it but no panniers. The rack and some occy straps (bungee cords) helps me get a surprising amount of stuff home without the bike trailer. Admittedly the stuff has to be squashable....


(This is not much stuff at all on the back of my bike, just my bag, some yarn and a coat....)
Anyway, early today I rode on up to the op shop cos I was there on Thursday and saw a winter coat that I thought would be good. I bought a different coat on the day as it was half price then (the coat is in the whiter bag in the above pic). I woke up at the crack of dawn (and what a dawn!)


And couldn't go back to sleep as I kept thinking about all sorts of stuff, even after I paid a visit. (At least it was different stuff than OMG I need to pee NOW! which dominated my first waking thoughts.) So I got dressed and rode on up to the op shop and bought The Coat (goretex, hardly worn but the cord at the bottom inside liner has come out! Oh no! How will I cope with taking 15 minutes to fix it up rather than buying a $150 coat!) and another pile of cheap, pretty sweaters to shred for their yarn and/or felt. (The two are possible in the one sweater cos sometimes I only want to felt the front or the sleeves or whatever.)

I rode home with a bundle that was at least double that of the pic above. And I had to carry my bag on my back!

I then got to ride in an ENORMOUS truck - I got a ride with our neighbours down to a local Home Depot but his borrowed truck has these baby seats in the back - only good for amputees or thalidomide people I'm afraid cos if you have legs, you won't fit in. We met up with their parents and well that is where the ENORMOUS truck came into the picture.

I can see the point of an ENORMOUS truck if you run a business like building and you need to lug around a whole lot of stuff, which they do. But for tooling around town in? Like why? Anyway, this truck was ENORMOUS, as I said. I don't even want to think about its gas mileage, though it was a diesel anyway.

Then I rode to Walmart and got an even bigger pile of stuff home on the bike.

It's been windy all day but the wind has really gotten up now. 40mph, gusting to 47mph. That is nearly 80kmh! It got to about 28C degrees today - unseasonably warm and very uncomfortable for wearing jeans but I haven't shaved my legs for weeks so no shorts for me! People were wearing shorts and singlets this afternoon - their last chance! The forecast is up to 80% chance of SNOW overnight! Ooo err! Our first snow 8-) Temps tomorrow will not even reach 40F. Heck, that is no more than about 4C! Fridge temperature! (I thought Melbourne's weather was changeable but not that changeable!) Hence the need for waterproof shoes cos it if snows tomorrow, we will be out in it. I think we'll mostly be staying in, even if Shrek the Third is playing at the cheap theatre. Doesn't sound like good weather to go riding in. Sounds like good weather to snuggle up in some nice warm handknitted woollies!