Must Have Been Bedbugs

An Welcome Guest Just About Everywhere

Yesterday as I was dropping off the must-be-dry-cleaned vacation clothes, about  a dozen HUGE plastic garbage bags sat on the floor of the dry cleaners.  The clerk told me these bags all had to be sorted and another employee was coming in to help.  I noticed there were gym shorts and t-shirts and similar clothing items on the counter--stuff one would not ordinarily send to the cleaners and this is definitely a cleaners--the only thing they launder is shirts.


The pile was so huge that I wondered if we dumped out all the chests, closets, etc. if we would have that much stuff.  The clerk also said they had towels in there.  My writer's mind tried to devise all sorts of scenarios for leaving every piece of fabric that you own at the dry cleaners and after some really bizarre speculation, it came to me.


These folks must have bedbugs!  I mean, what else could it be?  The clerk was somewhat mum about the reason for this large dumping of everything into the bags and bringing them in.  Maybe he knew and didn't want to say. 


Of course now I'm not too keen on having our stuff in the same room at the bed buggy stuff.    I mean, what if they decide to, well, to migrate? 

It was really weird.   When I go in to pick up our clothes, maybe I will ask.  Don't expect to get an answer.


We had our own disaster, no, not the washing machine but the basement fridge.  It must have crapped out while we were gone.  The cat sitter didn't notice, nor did S.O. when he put the meat in the freezer compartment.  When I went to grab the orange juice yesterday, there was a totally disgusting smell and all the meat ($25) we bought on sale last week was rotten.  An event to break a cheeseparer's heart.  I told Significant Other that we would have to eat five vegetarian meals to make up for it.  He agreed, and the first meal will be a Spanish soup of cabbage and white beans.  Sounds good.

This is so aggravating.  I think we were so  sick that no one noticed.  A head cold can make you really dense and stupid.   Hoping no more appliance incidents mar the fall.  The fridge was at least 25 years old, but not to notice!  I mean really.  The  lemons were all rotten!  Big Clue!  


I harvested the seed from the Four O'Clocks to plant next year.  It's always great getting free plants.  They did great this year, and provided lots of late season color.  The garden is still pretty with the cleomes, morning glories, and regular flowers blooming.  We're eating the last cucumber from 2 plants that were amazing in the fecundity.   


The good stuff and the bad stuff all evens out, somehow.  But I am still exercised about the  ruined meat. 


Yours in Frugality. 

The Cheeseparer


                                

Frozen Leftovers Save Your Life

Due to Hurricane Irene, we had a bare freezer, but not for long.  I stocked up on a bit of meat, a couple frozen pizzas, and some frozen fruit.  Oh yeah, ice cream.  I also stuck a few homemade items, dinner for two into the freezer that we didn't eat.  Then we went off to Spain and Portugal for two weeks.  

Ham What Am

 Came home with bad colds, really bad colds, and did not feel like a) shopping b)  cooking or c) much of anything.  Imagine my delight  when I found some frozen Swedish meatballs, pork chops, and even some yummy chicken breasts with  a sauce of Apple Jack and apples.  Died and gone to heaven.  We had a goodly stock of canned peas and I did make it to the store for salad fixins'.  This has been a life saver.   We don't really even feel like going out and hacking, coughing and blowing our collective noses.   

Getting a big better now.   Spain and Portugal were . . . how do I say . . . worth catching a bad cold for.     We had not expected such thoroughly modern countries, with good roads, good plumbing, good infrastructure.   And the food!  Those Spanish hams can't be beat.  Wonderful inexpensive white wines.  A dish of olives at almost every meal.  The food was relatively cheap, at least where we ate.  Museums were also cheap.  At the Prado in Madrid, they wouldn't accept our senior ID's because we didn't belong to the European Union.  Alas!   

I will have more later on cheeseparing while traveling, that discusses more than taking the soap and the shampoo.    The paradores in Spain all had weird grape-scented toiletries that smelled like grape gum, the kind that drove my husband batshit when the kids were little.  I didn't take any of that.    We also noticed the breakfast buffets had cereal like cocoa puffs.  Hmmm.  I saw adults eating it.   The world is a strange and wonderful place. 


More Anon.     And I'll tell you about the most BIZARRE sight today at the dry cleaners.     A mystery inside an enigma.  I 'm  still trying to puzzle it out.                                               


The Cheeseparer, back at last with traveler's tales.