Why I'm not shopping at Whole Foods (2nd column) May 7, 2026

 

Why I’m not shopping at Whole Foods

May 7, 2026 (2^nd column)

I’m boycotting Whole Foods.   This is the store that, when I saw they were coming to my town, I was one of the people at their entrance the very second they opened.   I’ve been shopping there now ever since on a bi, even tri-weekly basis.

But no more.

First, their prices are OUTRAGEOUS.   I can no longer afford to shop there.  Instead of buying their oranges (5 for $11.00), I bought a bag of 9 for $5.99 at COSTCO.  I’ve spotted some of the organic snacks at COSTCO, too, so I buy them there, too.

Second, their meat is GOD AWFUL!  Hubby, whose stepfather was a butcher back in Pennsylvania, ALWAYS complained about the quality of their meat. And, the men that work in their meat department are surly and sour.   They scowl.  Frankly, they’re RUDE.  So, I buy meat elsewhere, too.   Enough of that! I’m tired of having my selection(s) thrown across the counter at me. I was DONE with their meat department a LONG TIME AGO.

Third, half the time the stuff they have on special is out of stock.   HOW CONVENIENT!

Fourth, I’m sick and tired of supporting another damn billionaire who doesn’t care for us “common folk” while he parades around gala openings showing off his current wife.

Fifth, I plan on making my own salads AT HOME.   While I enjoyed making up my salad combinations at Whole Foods, I can make my own at home without it costing me $11.99 a pound!  I do enjoy their broccoli salad and I might get a small box of it every now and then, but other than that, I’ll be making mine at home.   Sometimes when I go there and actually look into their romaine salad mix, I see brown lettuce.  One time I saw the guy throw new stuff into the old lettuce container, stir it, and walk away.   How safe is THAT?

Sixth, while I love their little chicken tenders, I can also make those at home and I’ll actually know the ingredients that go into them.

Finally, just HOW SAFE are salad bars?  I’ve had stomach issues a few times that I’ve eaten food from the Whole Foods salad bar and frankly, I feel like I’m playing Russian roulette with my selections.   I KNOW how clean my kitchen is.   And, hubby is very firm on our kitchen cleaning routine (since he started working for Alpha Beta when he was 16 and saw first hand how to clean and sanitize one…)

So, my conclusion is that while there are certain items I might still run in and grab, my trips to Whole Foods will be a lot less frequent and a lot less expensive.  Especially in these days when the price of gasoline keeps going up!  The only good side to that is that we do have a hybrid and I usually only have to fill it up once a month, even though it requires the premium blend.

Until next time!

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Things we don't have anymore 050726

 

Things we don’t have anymore…

May 7, 2026

My bias is that I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s.   As I watch the grandkids grow up these days, I remember things we had back then and no longer have.

First, my parents had one telephone for the whole house and it was located in the kitchen and was a rotary phone.   I remember my mother running from the bedroom to the kitchen to answer it.   My aunt & uncle had one that was on the wall.   Ours was on a cabinet.   I was always envious of that wall phone.   Remember when you could slam down the phone?   What a joy!   NO MORE!

Second, remember ice cube trays?   I sure do because I was STUPID, STUPID, STUPID one time and licked it and yup, I got my tongue STUCK on it.   Next…

No, we never had our milk delivered.   But, I go remember the egg ranch store down the street from my grandparents and my grandfather would walk down there and talk to the guy who sold the eggs.  

Third…NEWSPAPERS.   Who even gets a newspaper these days?   I NEVER see one in any of the driveways around us.   One neighbor used to get The Desert Sun (i.e. The Desert RAG) every day, but no more.   My parents used to subscribe to the Los Angeles Times, which these days is a complete JOKE and WASTE OF TIME.   I grew up reading the front page and the racing results in the Times while munching on my morning cereal.   These days I barely even glance at it, it’s THAT POORLY WRITTEN.   I remember the days when it had an entire page devoted to recipes.   HA!

FOURTH…street lights.   Now, I know some streets have street lights, but ours doesn’t.   My parents’ house had one by the mailbox and I remember the fall nights when it came on about 4:45 p.m.  I miss streetlights.  We, and all our neighbors, now either have the stick-in-the-ground Dollar Tree lights (which we have) or they have their lights attached to electricity.   But, no street lights in our neighborhood.

FIFTH:   pay phones…The last time I used a pay phone was about 10 years ago up near Lake Hemet.  For some reason my cell phone died and I had no reception.   I was fortunate to find one at one of the private campgrounds up there and I did have enough change to phone home to my husband.   Nowadays I don’t see any along the state highway.   Are they even around anymore?

SIXTH:   Television sets with “rabbit ears”.   Yes, we had one.   I seem to recall our tv was in black and white before the color ones came out.  Oh, and going along with that were the big stereos of the 60’s.   My father had one and he used to listen to Oklahoma and South Pacific over and over and over to the point that I can’t even listen to either of those soundtracks ever again! But, he dearly loved his stereo setup and would retreat to his man cave to escape my mother’s cooking.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS!

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Why don't people write letters anymore?

 

Why doesn’t anyone write letters anymore?

Wednesday

May 6, 2026

I’ve always loved writing letters.   My maternal grandmother wrote to me almost every day.   I had a huge pile of her letters and I remember her handwriting well.   Unfortunately, at some point in the 30 years since she died, I have lost them.   I’ve torn the house apart looking for them, just to hold them and reread and hear her words.   I cannot find them anywhere.   I have found a couple of her letters and they are carefully guarded now because they are so precious.

I write the grandkids (5 of them) who live all the way across the country at least once a week.   I’m sharing family stories with the oldest and I make cute cards for the youngest ones.   The two middle girls get medium sized letters, stickers, and bookmarks.   How many of them have written me back?   ZERO.   NONE.   Not a single one.

Writing on a piece of paper with a pen in hand is different than email.   I think it is more personal.   You have to THINK before you put your words to paper.   Now, I can type (or I used to be able to type)…100 words a minute.   I’m fast.   I owe it to all my years at the piano, enabling me to have nimble fingers.   But, I LOVE to write out letters.   I have all kinds of papers and pens.   I even have fountain pens, which I adore!  For me, writing isn’t a chore.   It’s a delight.

I joined an online group of folks around the world who share postcards and I went out the bought many different postcards, but I never really made any connections with any of those people.   There was one gal in Portugal who was teaching English to her students and we did write back and forth for a while, but then we stopped.   It seems like people always STOP.   Do they not have time?   Don’t they want to communicate with another human?   I don’t get it.  I realize some people are verbal and don’t care for writing skills, but I get such pleasure out of it I can’t imagine that others wouldn’t.   Maybe I’m wrong.   I guess I am wrong.   Our culture, our society, our country is too damn busy with the latest headline, the latest Tweet or Truth Social post, that we’ve lost connection to one another.   And, that’s too bad.  It’s sad.   It’s a complete breakdown.   I hope we survive it.

 

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More thoughts about newspapers and digital ones 050526

 

May 5, 2026

Tuesday

 

Recent Changes

 

Has anybody else noticed how poorly written and run both the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post are?   We subscribe to both of them, along with the New York Times.   I grew up reading the Los Angeles Times.   I spent many mornings glancing over the headlines and then turning to the sports pages to see how my horse picks for the races were doing!   YES!   Even at ten years of age, I was following the horses.  

 

But, I digress.

 

They both have turned into RAGS or, even worse, propaganda rags.  I hardly read anything on the LA Times anymore, except stories about rattlesnakes or mountain lions or bears.   What a waste!   The Post is even worse.   I hardly read it at all.

 

If I want information, I go to the New York Times, which I am still learning how to navigate, or I go to The Atlantic.   I see that The Atlantic has picked up journalists and writers from the WA Post and they now write for it.

 

There used to be a column written by a gal who posted recipes in the LA Times.   In fact, I have a book of compiled recipes from that era.   And, they are really GOOD recipes.   But, alas, no more recipe column like the good old days.

 

And, to be honest, I miss the feel of a newspaper delivered or bought daily.   I remember when my Grandfather used to walk across the street from their house, buy a copy of The Herald Examiner, and bring it back to the kitchen table where he would review the horses running.   He used to take me with him to the track, Santa Anita, and I’d leave their home with $2.00 and usually come back with $10.00 or more.   He, of course, would place my bets for me and I was pretty good at choosing the horse to place (come in 2^nd).   I was never really good at picking the winner.  I did, however, pick the winner of this year’s Kentucky Oaks, Always a Runner, because, well, I liked her name.   I did NOT, however, pick this year’s Kentucky Derby winner…didn’t even notice him!  I haven’t really kept up with my horse racing interest, which probably is a good thing, because I have so many other things to do now, but I DO miss sitting at my parents’ kitchen table, eating my cereal, reading the back of the cereal box, and looking at the previous day’s horse racing results.   THOSE WERE THE TIMES!

 

Anybody have thoughts or comments?

 

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May 5, 2026

 

So, I’m watching “800 Words” on Prime (Acorn) and really enjoying the series.   It’s about a recently widowed man and his two teenage children who move from Sydney, Australia to a little town in Weld, New Zealand. I suppose it would be like moving from Los Angeles to a small town in Northern California~the cultural shock would be about the same.   Oh, and he buys the wrong house!   He thought he was buying a house that he visited with his parents during summers when he was growing up, but instead is unloaded with a real fixer upper.   No power, one bathroom, no furniture…Then the septic tank explodes!   It’s a fun and introspective series and I’m inspired to get back to writing from just watching it.

 

He writes a daily, maybe bi-weekly column for a newspaper in Sydney, but his escapades hit the local newspaper and one show focuses on gossip and how it gets started and it gets out of hand.   That’s something for us ALL to think about in these times.

 

Speaking of these times, I watched the press conference at the Pentagon this morning, which is now carefully managed by the Department of Defense (or whatever it is called these days).   What a room full of sycophants.   Really, they call themselves journalists?   Although I did notice that even a couple of them got under Hegseth’s skin.

 

My husband worked as an intern during college for the Riverside Press Enterprise and was the first intern to actually get paid for his writing.   I kept ALL of his articles and I found them recently in a box out in the garage.   I need to bring that box inside and let him browse it.   I’m sure it would bring back fond memories for him.   He doesn’t seem to have many of those these days.

 

And, so, life goes on.   We are both getting older, stiffer, and we have less patience to put up with bullshit and nonsense. That’s understandable.   We just don’t have the time for that stuff.   We’re too busy taking naps!

 

Anything on your mind?

 

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Tomato seeds and pepper seeds PLANTED

 I got a half of a packet of yellow cherry tomato seeds planted a couple of days ago and a half a packet of peppers too.  I planted them in the little seed starting trays with some good potting soil and carefully watered them.   Good thing I covered them with a pillowcase because that night it got down to 40 degrees here in the desert southwest!   We have one more day of sunshine and then an atmospheric river is coming out way Wednesday night and all day Thursday.   I do have some California poppies sprouting out front and I'm hoping this nice rain will get them going further.

I'm so glad that I got my garden up and going this year.   I have a feeling we will ALL be bartering for things we need soon.   I remember my grandfather's garden.   He owned 2 lots and half of the 2nd one was for his garden.   He grew green onions, tomatoes, rhubarb, beets,cabbages,  turnips, radishes, corn, and even had an avocado tree.   He had another plot up at my parents' yard and there was a fig free, boysenberries, and a small garden with crops. I remember my parents giving me a bucket and sending me out to pick boysenberries.   I certainly wasn't a fan of figs, however!

I'll try to get some photos today of my garden to share with everyone.

(((BIG HUG))) to everyone and... STAY STRONG!