February Prices Update

 Since I was in Walmart about 1 month after I last checked prices, I thought I would look back at the same items from before and see what, if anything, had changed.  Eight out of the 12 items had not changed prices in the past month.  But the other 4 had all increased.

Ground beef up to $5.34 from $4.94 a month ago.

A dozen large eggs up to $5.97 from $4.53 a month ago.  A dozen eggs is now more expensive than a pound of ground beef! The eggs prices are still high due largely to bird flu, but I read that the Department of Agriculture is looking into importing eggs to try to reduce prices.  Corporate greed is likely having some impact here too, though.  According to the New York Times:

But there is at least one winner in the current shortage, which began in 2022: the country’s biggest egg producer.

Cal-Maine Foods, which controls about a fifth of the egg market and sells to Walmart and other large retailers, reported that its revenues jumped to $954 million in the quarter that ended in late November from $523 million from the prior year — an increase of 82 percent. The company said those numbers “were primarily driven by an increase in the net average selling price of shell eggs as well as an increase in total dozens sold.”

The company’s net income surged more than 500 percent, to $218 million, from year-earlier levels, thanks to higher prices, the lower cost of feed and acquisitions of other operators. And prices have shot up even more since the company released its quarterly financial statement. [...]

But as consumers confront empty shelves in their grocery stores and prices soar in some places to over $10 for a dozen eggs, the concentration of egg production in fewer hands is raising concerns, stoked by previous findings. Two years ago, the largest producers were found liable for inflating prices in the 2000s. Now, some lawmakers are calling for federal regulators to investigate the industry.

A gallon of store brand whole milk is up to $4.67 from $4.02 a month ago.

A gallon of diesel fuel is up to $3.52 from $3.34 a month ago.

The interesting thing to me is that the items that have increased don't seem to be things that are imported, but things that I assume are at least mostly products of the USA.

January 2025 prices

I thought that I'd put this here so that I'd be able to find it easily in the future.  I wanted to document the prices of some staple groceries and gas prices at the beginning of this political term for a few reasons.  One, Trump campaigned on a promise of bringing down grocery prices.  Two, Trump campaigned on raising tariffs, which historically raises the price of goods.  And three, I'd like to have a record of what prices actually were here in Troy, Alabama at the beginning of this political cycle (presidential and congressional), so that if someone's campaign ads in the future reference price changes, I'll have something to compare to. In other words, I'll know if they are telling the truth or lying through their teeth. 

I had hoped to do this on Inauguration Day, but it was the day before a significant snow event in my area (where average seasonal snowfall is zero), and I didn't want to be in Walmart under those circumstances. So here are prices at my local Walmart on Friday, January 24, 2025.

1 pound 73% lean ground beef = $4.94

4 pound bag of Great Value Sugar $3.14

5 pound bag Great Value All-Purpose Flour $2.38

9.6 oz. can of Great Value Coffee $4.44

1 loaf of Great Value white bread $1.42

A dozen large eggs (which they were actually out of) $4.53 (Bird Flu is currently affecting egg prices and availability)

1 pound of Great Value salted butter $3.96 (unsalted was the same price)

1 gallon of Great Value whole milk $4.02

Regular Unleaded Gasoline $2.79/gallon  Diesel fuel $3.34/gallon

Bananas 50 cent/ pound.  I'm really curious what tariffs do to the price of bananas, because I assume they are mostly, if not completely imported.

Avocados 96 cent each.  These aren't exactly a staple item, but everything I've read suggest that tariffs will greatly increase the price of avocados.

My finger (or thumb) is in the pictures because I'm covering up the QR code on all the price labels.

Reading List 2024

Time for my annual reading list post. Pretty pathetic this year.  Here it goes:

1. Scaredy Cat - Sofie Ryan
2. Listen to Me - Tess Gerritsen
3. Fur Love or Money - Sofie Ryan
4. Lifespan: Why We Age - and Why We Don't Have To - David A. Sinclair & Matthew D. LaPlante
5. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
6. The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy

So I got caught up on my Second Chance Cat Mystery books by Sofie Ryan and the Rizzoli & Isles books by Tess Gerritsen.  I read one non-fiction book that was health related and two classics that I read with my husband.  Not a lot to see here.  No deep dives this year.  In fact, the last book I finished was all the way back in August.  My husband and I are currently reading a novel together, and we originally thought we would finish it before the New Year, but that didn't pan out.

I was much more productive in my creative endeavors in 2024 than I was in my reading.  And that's okay.

2023 Reading List

 

 Time for my annual reading list post.  Exactly the same number as last year - interesting.  Here it goes:

1. The Risk Pool - Richard Russo
2. Surviving Death - Leslie Kean
3. Life Before Life:Children's Memories of Previous Lives - Jim B. Tucker, MD
4. Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives - Jim B. Tucker, MD
5. Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife - Eben Alexander, MD
6. After - Bruce Greyson, MD
7. Infinite Awareness - Marjorie Hines
8. Mindfulness for Beginners - Jon Kabat-Zinn
9. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English - Henepola Gunaratana
10. The Map of Heaven - Eben Alexander, MD
    

The first book of the year was a novel that I read with my husband.  I enjoy it when we read things together and discuss them.

Everything else on the list was the result of a deep dive into the afterlife and spirituality.  Reading the books on life after death were inspired by a discussion at parent's house about children remembering past lives.  My parents sometimes get information from questionable sources so I wanted to try to find something academic on the subject.  I really wasn't impressed by Leslie Kean, but Dr. Tucker and Dr. Greyson I found very interesting.  Dr. Alexander was a bit of a mixed bag for me.  I read a couple of his books.  There are more, but I don't think I'll read them.  I don't feel like they really say much in the end.

The Jon Kabat-Zinn book I had actually started a few year ago and didn't finish.  I decided to pull it out and start over with it.  This time I read it all the way through with my husband.  It's still not one that I would exactly recommend.

The books by Hines and Gunaratana were interesting because they were coming to mindfulness and awareness from the viewpoint of eastern religions. 

2022 Reading List

 Time for my annual reading list post.  A couple more books than last year.  Here it goes:

1. We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
2. Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
3. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
4. Persuasion - Jane Austen
5. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
6. Totally Pawstruck - Sofie Ryan
7. The Last Curtain Call - Juliet Blackwell
8. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
9. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad
10. Howards End - E.M. Forster

The first two books of the year were real disappointments.  Many people really love both books, but I was not positively impressed.  Neither seemed very believable to me.  I found the whole premise of "Crawdads" unrealistic and the end was bothersome.

All three of the Austen novels were re-reads with my husband.  I enjoy it when we read things together and discuss them.

The Sofie Ryan novel and Juliet Blackwell novel were parts of the only two series that I'm still keeping up with.  They are fun distractions.

The Remains of the Day was definitely my favorite of the new novels I read this year.  I thought it was very well written and insightful.  I would absolutely recommend it.

The last two novels on the list are part of a little mini-course that I asked my husband to make for me on the modern novel.  We have a few more to go in our course before it's done.

There probably would have been an eleventh book on the list, but I decided that I didn't want to finish it.  My husband and I started reading Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut, but I had a very strong emotional reaction to a couple of the chapter in the middle of the book, and I decided that it wasn't worth it to keep reading.  I had enjoyed it up until that point, but I was just put off after that.  I have enjoyed the other Vonnegut novels that I've read, but it was just the wrong time and place on this one, I guess.

The Little Things

Two months ago today, Dec. 6, our contractor tore out our kitchen - no appliances (except the refrigerator that got moved to the dining room), no cabinets, no countertops, no running water.  We had been told we would be without a kitchen for 3 weeks.  We knew it would take longer, but we weren't expecting it to take over 8 weeks, but it did.  Things still aren't back to normal, but as of Friday the kitchen now functions with cabinets (that still need some work), countertops, a working stove, and running water.  When the countertops went in on Tuesday I actually kinda hugged them and said to my husband, "I never want to be without countertops again."  

When you have to go for an extended period of time without the things that you normally take for granted, you really appreciate them once you get them back.  I know that remodeling is a luxury that many people wish for and don't get to do.  And for that, too, I am thankful.  But living through this whole process (which still isn't finished), has really made me come to appreciate the little things in life.

Be

"Be" is a very simple word, but it's a word I've been thinking a lot about lately.  Hozier has a song by that title with the following repeated lyrics and they keep going through my head:

Be, be, be, be, be
Be as you've always been

And while I don't really want to be as I've always been, since how I've always been seems to be anxious, fearful, and self-doubting, I do think that the idea of just being who you are and how you are is a good idea.  In my case, I interpret that as simply allowing myself to behave in the way that comes naturally to me instead of trying to be like I think others want me to be.  It's harder to do than it sounds.

Another way I've been thinking about the word "be" is being something as opposed to simply "acting" that way.  Today I was looking a list of things to do in order to put other people as ease.  The last item on the list was "be interested."  And it struck me that it is important to actually be interested, not just act interested.  I know people who are willing to act interested in other people and what they have to say because they want to be polite, think it will get them something, or want the other person to like them, but unless you actually are interested, it is just a form of manipulation or deception.  Honesty is important to me, so I feel like it is important to either change your mindset and actually be interested, or just be honest about your lack of interest and move on.  

And this goes for other areas, too.  You may act patient, but really be quite impatient.  You might act easy going, but really be uptight and anxious.  In these cases, you aren't really doing yourself, or anyone else, any favors.  You are just giving a false impression of who you are to the people around you.  You are also denying your own needs and not giving others the opportunity to meet, or at least account for, those needs, because they can't see what they are.

So ultimately I've been trying to remind myself to just take a deep breath and be.  That's all I have to do - just be.  That should be good enough.  But like I said before, it's harder than it sounds.