Happy Cinco De Mayo!!

Does anyone know what the 5th of May is all about?  Well I figured I'd just look it up and give you a little history since there's not much else exciting going on around here.

After the Mexican American War and the Reform War (Liberals against Conservatives who wanted to keep the church and the government as one), Benito Juarez issued a moratorium on debt payments since the treasury was empty.  Don't you wish you could do that??  France, Britain and Spain said no way Benito, and landed forces in Veracruz demanding payment.  Britain and Spain agreed on a payment schedule, but France's Napoleon III decided to make Mexico HIS.

The 6,000 strong French Army attacked the poor Mexican Army of 2,000 and guess who won.  The Mexican Army crushed the French, the premier army in the world at that time, on May 5th near Puebla, Mexico.   Thus came about the Cinco De Mayo celebration.

Unfortunately, it was short lived, as a year later, the French returned to take control, but that didn't keep the people from celebrating their victory every May 5th.  So get your margueritas and your tacos on and lets have some fun!!  That means another run to the grocery store for me, but this time I'll skip Walmart.  At least it comforting to know I'm not alone in the Walmart boat.

My trip to Fresno yesterday was uneventful, thank goodness, as I found the place right off the bat.  It's a huge building full of fabric and more machines than you can count.  I would expect to see this store in Phoenix or maybe San Francisco.   This picture is from the book they gave me that lists all the events for the next three months.  

I was quickly hooked up with Barbie ... yup a blond lookalike ... but this girl had brains!!  She knew absolutely everything about my machine.  I sat there for an hour while she showed me all the cool adjustments and how to find them.  This thing is like a computer!!  I wish I could have signed up for some classes, but I'm not sure what my schedule will be.  It makes it a little more difficult when you  have to drive 1-1/2 hours to class each day.  Guess I'm just getting lazy!!

With the correct bobbins, needles and more thread, I headed off back home .... starving!!  This diet thing isn't working so well for me.  It's hard to know what to eat and what NOT to eat.  I've cut out bread and potatoes almost entirely and am trying for meat and veggies.  Actually I had ONE Taco Bell taco in mind, but couldn't find one.  Since I needed fuel, both diesel and food, I hit Jack In The Box next door.

This is a Bacon Swiss burger.  Good heavens it was yummy!!  I peeled off the bottom bun and decided I wouldn't eat the whole thing.  That was pretty difficult, but I did throw about a quarter of it away.  I didn't try their fries since I'm off potatoes.  Not that it's working, after all this time I still have only lost three pounds.

On the fuel front in California, look out folks.  They are out to rip you off.  If I see a station I might stop at in my rig, I check it out first when in my truck.  I stopped at the Pilot Station near Madera to find fuel at $2.99 a gallon.  Not bad, so I put 30 gallons in my truck.  It was then I discovered the 76 Station one block away that had diesel for $2.45.  I thought Pilot Stations were cheaper!!  

They certainly sell more fuel to the big trucks!!  Even with their discount credit card, it's still MUCH more expensive.  To make it worse, I can smell that crappy diesel every time I drive the truck, which I have to smog on Monday.  It will be interesting to see if it passes with a tank full of crappy fuel.

Back home, I was out in the yard making further sprinkler adjustments.  The gardeners finally got the message when I stuck a big pipe in the ground with a large note taped to it ... PLEASE FIX SPRINKLER.  They did.  It works great, watering the neighbor's entire driveway with maybe three drops on my lawn.  Are these guys dumb or just incompetent??  Wouldn't you try it and see if it worked??

It's been in the mid 90's the last week, up to 94 yesterday.  With my last couple of crazy PG&E bills due to watering the entire neighborhood with the broken sprinkler, I turned both my AC units off.  This is my new air conditioning system.  It does double duty ... it keeps the door open for the puppies in the morning and it brings in cold morning air (68 degrees) to my 77 degree house, cooling it down nicely, which lasts the entire day.   About 9:30 am when the temperatures equalize, I turn it off and shut the door.

With another storm predicted by late today, the daytime high will be around 63.  That's a pretty far jump in one day!!  I'll be able to turn my mini AC off for awhile.  In the meantime, I'm gunning for the lawn crew, after which I'll hit the grocery store for taco material.   It's time to CELEBRATE!!