Now that the economic crisis is here, have you noticed that your restaurant bill is a little more than you figured when you tallied up your order in your head while making your menu selections? We have run into this several times. Jerry could not figure out why our bill has been running us anywhere from $5 to $10 more than he thought it would. Today it finally hit us why. Not all eateries are giving free refills on their soda beverages anymore.
We stopped at a pizza place for lunch today and made our order. I was thirsty so I had already finished one glass of root beer and asked the waitress for another while we were waiting for our food. Jerry decided he wanted a salad with our meal and asked the waitress to see the menu again, which she had already taken away. Something caught Jerry’s eye in the beverage section and there in fine print it said “only one free refill”.
Most times we don’t even look at the beverages on the menu. When the hostess sits you at the table she asks what you would like to drink. Jerry usually gets iced tea and I get an orange soda or root beer since I am not drinking caffeinated drinks anymore. And I was only getting them for the free refills. I would much rather drink milk with my meals.
From now on I am just going to ask for a glass of water when we are seated, and order milk with my meal. I don’t need all the calories from the sodas anyways.
Is it just me because I am getting older, or are the summer days shorter this year? I remember when I was a child clear into my late 20s that the summer days seemed l—o—n—g. I had plenty of time to read a book, work on a puzzle, etc.
I know the summer days were longer in Iowa than in San Diego. In Iowa the sun gets up around 430 a.m. and sets after 945 p.m. Here in San Diego it doesn’t get light until after 5 a.m. and it is dark by 830 p.m. But even then, I have been back in Southern California for 9 years now. Before I went to help Jerry take care of his dad, my summer days were long and lazy still.
This summer I don’t know where the time is going. I am not getting anything done like I want. Maybe it is because Jerry and I have been on the go a lot. Maybe that is why I don’t seem to have the relaxing time at home like I used to. I get my daily homemaking chores done and off we go. When we get home I do some more things I want to accomplish in the day. I don’t have the few hours to sit and relax with a fan blowing on me while I read or do a jigsaw puzzle or some hand sewing.
The summer heat finally arrived today. At least for me it did. I guess we had one day of 100 degree weather when I was in the hospital. I was in a nice air conditioned room so I didn’t notice. This weekend is supposed to be hot. Yesterday we put the window fans in and I brought the last couple of floor fans in from the garage. I shut the windows and pulled the shades before we left mid morning today so that the house would stay cool.
My mom taught me to play the ‘shade’ game many years ago. You open the windows in the early, early morning hours (which means you get up with the sun or before), and long about 8 or 9 a.m. you shut the shades and windows on the east side of the house. By 10 you have all the windows and shades shut on the west side of the house, too. It really does make a big difference on the days it is over 85 degrees. I usually start opening the house up again about 5 or 6 p.m. when the breeze blowing in from the ocean hits the valley.
No, we don’t have air conditioning.
No comments:
Post a Comment