Life's been a bit distracting lately. Nothing seriously wrong, but little things have been off-kilter for a couple of weeks. Nothing I want to write in detail about, but it seems appropriate enough to at least be that honest, and share that not everything is "raindrops on roses" or "whiskers on kittens" all the time.
It's also not bad. In the positive column, the pain in my thumbs (yes, it's both now) has changed from too painful to open a jar, to just somewhat and sometimes annoying now. I've concluded, after consulting with Dr. Google, that it's likely arthritis and the next time it flares up, I'll get myself to a hand doctor because it appears there's hope for that - arthritis of the thumbs, that is. I didn't even realize that was a thing, but it's evidently a fairly common condition for women of my age. If you're around my age and your thumbs work fine, count your blessings. When my thumbs hurt the worst, I found myself watching people do things like use their cell phones, or pick up their purse, or take hold of piece of paper - with no obvious sign of discomfort, and I marveled at how we take such simple things for granted.
Anyway, I'm not hurting like that at this point, and I'm happy to learn when I'm ready, and if I need it, treatments are a possibility.
And the knee pain I developed right after we moved into our new place has subsided. Has felt pretty normal for a few weeks now, in fact. That is a relief.
And robins have begun making their presence known here, and nothing says spring in Indiana like robins on the lawn. Gauging by the number I've seen in the backyard, I'm expecting at least a few nests are under construction in the vicinity. Their nesting season lasts from April to July. And did you know that robins have up to three broods in a season? I just learned that. I had no idea.
Moving on... I've been able to just about finish crocheting a blanket that has languished for nearly a year and a half. This was meant to be a birthday gift to youngest son in autumn of 2020. I'm hoping to give it to him when I see him this week. That's not so late, is it? There were all kinds of reasons why it didn't get done until now, but we'll not focus on those.
Once I get all the ends woven in, I'll try to take some glamor shots of the finished blanket. If my thumbs continue to behave, maybe I'll be sharing more handcrafted items soon, as I've been wanting to get back to stitching and working with yarn. I need to start justifying moving all of those craft materials to our new home!
And, lastly... as we all face empty shelves and high prices, I thought I'd share a little something that almost went unnoticed. Last week when The Mister went shopping at Menards, I asked him to pick up some Era laundry detergent. It's the brand I've preferred for decades now, and it's always been its best price at Menards. He texted me that the price had gone up $2.00 per jug. I wasn't completely surprised since it's actually been one of the more affordable laundry detergents - up until inflation started taking its toll on the price of everything.
He brought home three large jugs. As I was finding a place to store these large containers, when I picked one up, it seemed lighter than I expected it to be. I grabbed an old bottle and put it next to the new bottle and they appeared to be the same -ish.
FWIW, the pictures were not taken in the order of the story...
While it's more obvious in the above photo, in person it's difficult to immediately discern that one jug is slightly larger than the other. The labels are nearly identical, and both labels claim that the contents will wash the same number of loads, both have 2X's the Cleaning Power - nevermind one says it's Ultra Concentrated and the other doesn't.
Normally I lay these bottles down in the pedestal drawer under my washing machine and when I went to do that, I noticed that I could stand the bottle upright. Wait a minute. Is that right? I tested an old bottle, and yep - it was too tall to stand upright in the drawer. Pulling them both out again, I put them side by side (still not able to see a difference in the sizes) and finally checked the amount that was each one.
Sure enough... while both claim to wash the same 96 loads of wash, the old bottle contains 150 ounces, while the new bottle only contains 138 ounces.
I know this is nothing new; it's happened for decades. I think it may feel more pronounced because the increases in price seem more significant right now than they have in years past. The price increases used to sneak up on us, whereas now we are expecting it. This little discovery just makes me wonder what else I've been buying in the last year or so that has not only gone up in price, but has decreased in size or possibly gone down in quality. Probably everything. I'm over it for the most part, but I'm still trying to figure out how both bottles wash the same number of loads...
The one good thing to come out of this is I can now easily store the larger jugs upright in the pedestal drawer under my washing machine - making that space better utilized. So another check mark in the positive column. ✔
Old habits die hard, but I'm wondering if I've run out of reasons to save those smaller jugs that for years I've transferred detergent into from the larger jugs. We'll see how clunky these slightly smaller larger jugs are to use, I guess.
Curious what prices are doing in your location. The sale price of boneless skinless chicken breasts here has hung in there at $2.29/lb for a few months now - when it's in stock, which it usually isn't. And I feel excited to find a dozen eggs at Meijer for $1.69. The eggs look a little less inspected and perfect as the next least expensive eggs look (which are more than $2.50/dozen), but I can deal with that. The price of regular ol' unleaded gas dances around $4.25/gal - going up or down a few cents daily, it seems.
I know Indiana has historically had a better cost of living than say, states on the coasts, so maybe these prices are amazing compared to where you live. What specific changes like this have you seen? Has a favorite product of yours succumbed (probably again) to inflation?
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