Dang it's cold now....

[TAB]

not bad here. low to mid 20s   it is this damn inversion that is killing it.   cold and no sun sucks.

[Rastus]

Frank.  Two words.  Walmart Plus.  Buy a membership for $100 a year, 1/2 that if on government assistance plus you get streaming services like Prime with the membership.

They deliver for a few bucks.  Usually a 4-6 hour time to delivery that you pick (and you can pick your time whenever from a list including tomorrow) and the cost is zero with a minimum order of $50 sometimes less.  There is recommended driver tip but you can say no. 

There is a $5 option for delivery within 3 hours. 

I joined three years ago when I was staying in Louisiana with my mom.  It was 8 miles (15 minutes) to the Walmart plus the time there and the time back which was an issue since she needed constant care.  It was a great deal for us.  I used it once or twice a week...which quickly covered my (then $50 annual fee it was new then) membership fee. 

It's great when we head to one of our boy's houses and need to pick up stuff for Thanksgiving or Christmas ( or whatever..birthday, etc.) because you can specify alternate delivery addresses.  One son lives in the Tulsa area and the other in Baton Rouge.  We order what we need and have it delivered...it costs nothing with the paid membership.  Sometimes we order on the drive over...and if you do it right it arrives before you get there so you don't have to be the one to put it up!!!

Yes..sometimes they get something wrong in the order and sometimes you get something extra.  They will straighten it out if you call.  Maybe you get green bananas...things like that which you learn.  They also assume substitutions with items but you can turn substitutions off individually or for the entire order.  I zero out any substitutions so sometimes I don't get an item...they will text/email and let you know that an item is unavailable and you may have the option to allow a substitution.

All in all pretty slick.  If you don't have it you should.  Delivered to your doorstep.  I can't get delivery here in the Ozarks I am 40 miles from the nearest Walmart...but we still use it since you can order your groceries (or motor oil, television, whatever) and schedule a pickup on the same day or the next day or so. 

When you order it remembers what you order and you can choose from past items which speeds up the process.

Not a bad deal.  We used it yesterday and saved an hour and a half of time.

[Big Frank]

With very few exceptions, I don't even set foot in Walmart, or shop at Walmart online. I went there once last year or the year before when Kroger was closed for the night but they were still open, and I got something to eat. I might go to Walmart twice a decade, but don't make a habit of it.

Walmart is the only company I know of that got in trouble with the law for slavery in the U.S. in the 21st century. They made people work through their breaks without pay. And forced them to work hours of overtime without pay. And did it over 2 million times. Plus Walmart purchases food supplied by prison labor programs, where people are forced to work for little to no pay, often under threat by armed guards and in unsafe conditions, and unsafe working conditions have led to incarcerated workers sustaining serious injuries. F**k Walmart and their Gulag mentality.

[Jim Kennedy-ar154me]

Well, with the oncoming storm, I have only one thing to say:


https://youtu.be/VJsMVSFzRSc?t=4

[Majer]

The overnight lows for the coming week here will be between -10 to 4 degrees, daytime temps  18-22 degrees, Wed to Thur will be -10 overnight.
We have a nasty storm headed our way that starts early Sunday, supposed to snow for 30 hours straight with up to 2 inches an hour at times.

[Sponsor]

[Rastus]

The overnight lows for the coming week here will be between -10 to 4 degrees, daytime temps  18-22 degrees, Wed to Thur will be -10 overnight.
We have a nasty storm headed our way that starts early Sunday, supposed to snow for 30 hours straight with up to 2 inches an hour at times.

No way I can post a like on that.  Ugghhh. 

I keep saying it, we need to file a class action suit against Al Gore and his global warming farce.

[PegLeg45]

The high here Sunday is supposed to be 70° and then winter breaks loose....lows at 19-20° and highs in the low 40's..... I like COOL weather, but my bones and joints don't like that kind of COLD.....geeez.

[MikeBjerum]

Frank,

If done properly, prison labor programs are the best way to go. The primary benefit is that it gets the inmates (my go to term since I am not up on all the current PC titles) up and working, learning skills, gives them a sense of accomplishment, holds them accountable in real world ways, and when managed properly it gives them assets they can use in a limited way for extras (earned reward) and it builds a nest egg for when they get out. For the state the benefit is that it occupies the inmates - "Idle hands are the devil's workshop" Proverbs, it generates a small inflow to help with expenses, and it improves the overall moral of the population.

As to companies purchasing from these programs: If a prison is participating in these programs, once their products enter the supply chain they are not segregated. Hogs, poultry, dairy, beef, etc. supplied by a prison farm goes into processing right along with items provided by thousands of other farms.

If there is a gripe concerning "slavery," that gripe goes to the state prison system, and to federal if you don't get satisfaction locally.

One of the worst things that happened in Minnesota was when Minnesota Correctional Facility - Stillwater shut down Minnesota Implement. This was a prison run farm implement manufacturing company. The products were like 99% of other ag equipment suppliers - Common, basic, simple, and highly plagiarized by every maker. MCF-Stillwater turned out excellent quality, no frills wagons, running gears, manure handling, feed handling, etc. all made on site by inmates, with inmates engineering, managing, and participating in marketing. Private business caused the shut-down, and immediately the competing products experienced very high inflation rates, and small ag supply companies lost access to their supply chain. Even worse, a few years later there became an issue with inmates being released after serving their time and no longer coming out with valuable trade skills they had learned. MCF-Stillwater went from being a correctional institution to a daycare center for criminals. They only education available was fine tuning your criminal skills as you were housed with people who's chosen profession and expertise was crime.

There is an excellent book written by Charles Colson and Jack Eckerd - Why America Doesn't Work (1992). The book is dated and needs a sequel, but an excellent view from a man who spent time for a crime and researched the good and bad in our systems.