Random Notes

Yesterday was a pretty good day. We saddled up fairly early… for me, anyway… and headed out to the Big(ger) City™ to run a few errands. We got the oil changed in the car, dropped an item off at the UPS Store, and did a little light shopping for to restock the larder with comestibles not available in the charming village of P-Ville… such as four jars of El Pinto, a couple of bags of butter lettuce (why is it P-Villans only eat romaine or iceberg lettuce, apparently?), a pound of brie (same thing with cheese… if it ain’t cheddar, Swiss, or Monterey Jack, it AIN’T… in P-Ville), a Folly Pack from New Belgium (12 bottles of Fat Tire, 1554, Trippel, and Mothership Wit… which might just as well be called “The Buck Pack,” since this is what we drink here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington) and a luscious carrot cake. Among other things… all of which were bought at Albertson’s… which also served to delay the inevitable commissary and Class VI Store run by a couple of days.

I thought my tab was just a bit… umm… pricey when I checked out at Albertson’s and gave my receipt a quick glance to make sure I wasn’t charged double or triple for any one item. And… shock. Since when did the price of brie jump up to 15-frickin’-Yankee-Dollars a pound? Granted, this was the imported French variety, there being none of the usual Made In USA product I usually purchase. But, still! So… I went googling to see what the actual tariff is on brie and was shocked to discover this:

No one's likely to starve as a result, but the pending 300 percent duty on Roquefort, which could be imposed as soon as April 23, would drive its price into the unheard-of range of $60 a pound.

Dang. I almost always buy domestic cheeses, as indicated above. But I find these tariffs (see the linked article) abominable. Here’s the direct impact on me, aka The Consumer, of trade-wars. So, EU… you won’t drop the tariff on US beef? Good luck selling your Roquefort. (I still don’t know what the actual duty imposed on brie is, but I’m pretty sure it’s substantial, given the price of the French stuff is at least three times that of the domestic.)

And about the UPS Store. More sticker-shock. The last time I shipped anything via UPS was back in 1999, when I boxed up the album collection and shipped it off to Maine for safekeeping in SN2’s basement. That was a rather pricey endeavor, but we’re talking four large boxes filled with approximately 500 vinyl LPs… going from Ra-cha-cha, NY to Maine… via UPS Ground.

Yesterday I sent my 28-135mm lens back to Canon for service (we have focus issues with this lens)… in California… for the princely sum of 23 Yankee Dollars and change. Granted, I sent it Two Day Air… but still. Again. Perhaps I need to get out more, but I found these two examples of sticker-shock to be rather surprising.

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I am NOT a Happy Camper when it comes to teevee… I’m looking at YOU, Versus… coverage of the play-offs. Versus will cover Game One of the Detroit-Columbus series and then nothing more until Game Five, which happens on April 25th. That’s just not right… as the Wings are The Defending Champions!!

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Today’s Pic: A Breakfast Tableau. A good healthy chunk of that carrot cake was sliced off and consumed right after I took the photo. One of the bennies of being an adult: “Cake for Breakfast.”