Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

                      Jan and I went shopping at the beginning of the week. We wanted to fill a couple of boxes for Samaritan's Purse's Operation Christmas Child. It's an annual event designed to send boxes overseas to various countries to children who normally would never celebrate Christmas. It's an opportunity to share some of the blessings that we've enjoyed because we were fortunate enough to be born in this country. There is a list of suggested items to send, and there are also labels designating the gender of the child and the general age group. I chose the ten to fourteen year old group because I think they have a tendency to be neglected. I believe a lot of people want to buy something for the little kids, which is great also, but regardless of your age, it's nice to be remembered. We bought everything we needed at Wal-Mart. They have pretty good prices and a decent selection. We both bought an assortment of schoo...

  I went to the local Three Bears Market today. I don't normally shop there, even though it's the closest store to the house. The prices are much higher usually than at Wal-Mart or even Fred Meyers, depending on what you're buying. If you just want a candy bar or some soda, it's not a big deal. However, if you're shopping for a weeks worth of groceries, you might consider going the extra mile, or ten miles in my case, and shop at Wal-Mart. The money saved can be substantial.  One thing I do buy at Three Bears is gasoline. It's usually competitively priced, and if I'm on the way to the post office anyway, I just stop and fill up. Yesterday I was going to get gas at a different Three Bears location, but the cars were stacked up three and four deep, so I thought I'd wait. Today I went to the gas station and was surprised to see that the gas was less than $5.00 a gallon. In fact I think I paid $4.89 a gallon. For some reason I was happy to pay it. That is, u...