TJ and his dog Hildie will be here at 8. TJ (that's Tom Johnson, son of Bob Johnson from Rocky Point, husband of Connie Allen from North Boyer Road), his dog and Bill are going pheasant hunting today near Bonners Ferry.

TJ was a student in my first period English class during my first year of teaching a long, long time ago----almost 40 years. Hard to believe. Anyway, TJ now works as the south side of Bill.

To be fair, Bill works as the north side of TJ. They're both foresters for the Idaho Dept. of Lands. TJ works with landowners south of the Pend Oreille River, while Bill sticks with those north of the river.

Bill just walked into the living room with his pheasant hunting apparel, top and bottom purchased from Sportsman's Warehouse. Brother Kevin (who works in the fishing department at Missoula's Sportsman's Warehouse) would be proud of his brother-in-law.

Anyway, the two foresters will take the one dog and see if they can flush out and bag some pheasants. With the economy as it is, having pheasant to go with some of the veggies could save a few bucks here and there. Of course, like the $64 tomato, those hidden costs of shotgun, shells, gas, Sportsman's Warehouse duds, etc. could make that pheasant pretty spendy stuff.

I'm typing my Saturday Slight with a handicap this morning. No papers again. Somehow I feel better prepared to tackle the blog after reading the papers, but then again, maybe it's best to stick with what I know rather than what I don't want to know about the stock market, the politics, the woeful times ahead.

So, I type on, remembering a better afternoon yesterday after watching CNBC off and on throughout the day and peeking once more at my PERSI Choice total, which, in two weeks has fallen by $3,000. And, that's with the pittance I put in, so I hate to even think of how badly other folks are cringing these days.

The afternoon went well because Tony came. He fixed my rototiller so that it would start. The premium gas episode two days ago did not work. And, it was obvious that something besides a wimpy lady trying to pull that cord was causing the machine's reluctance to fire up. Tony tinkered at it for about 45 minutes, eventually putting in a new diaphram.

I wonder who invents diaphrams for rototillers. They're little rubbery patches that do something to make the gas behave. Now, I hate to go there on what other diaphrams do, but I did take a moment or two thinking about the diaphram manufacturers of this world and thinking about their conversation around the water cooler.

Whaddya spose they talk about? Maybe they're talking that they could have a lot of business in the next few years as cash-strapped folks hold back on spending their money. Maybe they're figuring a lot of diaphrams on second hand rototillers will be stretched out of shape and in need of replacement.

I'm thinking the businesses to get over the next few years are the ones involving second-hand/discounted goods. Proof of the pudding came in a small installment the other day when I was driving through the Bonner Mall parking lot and had to wait a full minute at the crosswalk next to the dollar store.

My first impression was that the mall sure was busy. Then, I realized that it was so much the mall as it was the Dollar Store. So, I think people are stocking up.

I stocked up on Meow Mix the other day. That was the day the stock market went down 678 points. I waited to see how bad it was going to be and then wasted no time getting in my car, driving on my cheaper gas (it's now $2.99 at Schweitzer Conoco) and heading to Wal-Mart to load up on Meow Mix.

I kinda felt like I was being sneaky doing such a thing, but the usual Catholic guilt didn't last long. It's not sneaky to want to feed your cats all winter with $12 bags of Meow Mix as opposed to $16 bags purchased from Yoke's. I love Yoke's but I don't love some of their skyrocketing food prices on some items.

To my daughter, Annie: I promise not to tell the cats that their food came from Wal-Mart. Besides, as long as it's Meow Mix, they don't care where I purchase it. By the way, I took the last two bags, so I'm betting someone else may have come in with the same idea.

Another area we're going to cut back on spending money is with toilet paper. Most folks who know me know that it gets used around this place. Bill likes to keep ahead on paper towels and Tide. In fact, he marks the date on the giant Tide box purchased from Costco just to see if the latest box lasts a few days longer than the last box that lasted 6 months and 2 days.

Of course, he never factors in that maybe we wore our clothes longer between some of those washings in during the past Tide cycle. I wouldn't want to bring that up.

Anyway, back to the toilet paper. I like to keep at least 12 rolls ahead of the game. I still purchase Scott toilet paper even though another brother quit working for Scott Paper years ago. Well, the other day when those 4-roll, 1,000-square packs of Scott tissue were priced at more than $4, I told Bill to pick up toilet paper at Costco.

I didn't care how scratchy it was going to be. He came home with 36 rolls for $17. Added to the 12 we already had, I'd say we've got 4 or 5 months of wiping ahead. Of course, I should factor in Christmas when the toilets see a spike in activity. We haven't checked out the softness or lack thereof of this different brand, but when the economy gets tough, so much the body parts.

Well, the papers are here and the hunters are gone. I was able to snap the before-hunt photo, so I'll include it. And, please do notice the Filson hat atop, Bill's head.

I'll wish you all a happy Saturday and many successful days ahead in the bargain centers.