7 Quick Takes: Vol 4.

For more Quick Takes Fridays, check out the Conversion Diary. Good stuff, I promise.

1.
I am so absolutely livid this very moment that I don't know if I'm going to make it through this post. To make a long story short, an organization was supposed to pay me a very large amount of money (ok, large for me ... probably not really at all that large for the rest of the world) in a very specific timeframe. When that deposit did not appear as promised, I called them on the day it was supposed to post (they're usually early, which is even more befuddling), and was told that they "Um ... er ... uh ... forgot." WHAT?! You forgot to do your job?! Your one and only job, to pay people, and you forgot to do it?! Awesome. Great. Fabulous. I was then promised it would be fixed right away and taken care of overnight. When I checked my online bank this morning, nothing. When I used my 'bank on call' phone number, thinking perhaps my online banking was less cool or up to date than the other (uh, wrong, by the way ... desperate times, etc etc), nothing. When I called my bank's customer service line to see if they perhaps could see something I could not (a super pending, not accesible to my screen yet something) and then sat on hold for 30 minutes while they dug through a million records and places looking for the deposit, still ... nothing. Now, no bill paying, no grocery shopping, no ... anything until this deposit shows up. Greeeeeeat. Thanks.

(insert elevator music or a dancing monkey show to entertain you during the time I've gone to calm myself down before all of my 7 Quick Takes turn into bitter rants about crap I don't like)

2.
I had great fun yesterday chatting with an old friend over far too much coffee. There are nothing like solid friends, the people who know you (crazy or not), love you, and listen to your chaotic ramblings or not-so-hilarious stories. My thanks to him for the evening. It was a good reminder that even though we spend less time together than we did in undergrad, the friends made in college, in struggle, in intense circumstances, are still the best ones around. Good friends are good for the soul ... like chicken soup without the having to kill chickens part.

3.
My next door neighbors are being foreclosed on, or at least that's what we hear from their insane screaming at each other (when they aren't running their semi-lucrative narcotics selling business, that is). There are four houses on this side of the block. The one to the left of ours has been empty for months, also a foreclosure. The one on the far other end has been empty since long before we moved here 2 years ago. It is owned outright, but the foundation is crumbling under an otherwise really nicely remodeled house, and the owners decided to move rather than spend the enormous amount of cash lifing a house and repouring a foundation would take. I suspect one day it may just fall over. Now, the house between that one and ours will be empty as well. We keep talking about how sweet it would be, if we had the cash, to buy one or the other of the lots next to us so that we would have enough acreage per the township zoning ordinance to keep animals here. I wonder how low the prices will go ...

4.
Have you heard about the giant public debacle that was the 'Oprah Sends Millions of People to KFC for Free Chicken' event was? KFC stopped honoring their coupons, instead offering "rainchecks" for "later dates", which I suspect probably means ... never, because they "underestimated" the response. This is Oprah we are talking about here. When she says "Buy this (insert car, book, fashion accessory, etc)!, people do it post-haste. Did they not consider an even greater response if she said, "Go get this for FREE!"? This has spurred a hilariously wonderful selection of internet ramblings, especially between KFC and El Pollo Loco (which we don't have here ...). For your giggling pleasure ...



Oh! And!



Ahahahaha. I am endlessly entertained by corporations battling each other online. Nicely done!

5.
Be was released from the care of his surgeon on Wednesday, after 18 months. He will continue on a 'maintenance regimen' at physical therapy to make sure he doesn't regress for awhile, but the PT has written his 'permanent restrictions' so they believe it likely that nothing will change much. On the one hand, a huge sigh of relief that he has healed enough after 2 surgeries and countless thousands of hours of physical therapy that he no longer requires the constant attention of a surgeon. On the other hand, mildly difficult for him to handle because it means the status of his knee is probably as good as it gets. This is not the same as before the accident (obviously), and he is having a bit of a time coming to terms with that. When he still had doctor's appointments, there seemed to still be a chance that the knee would somehow go back to the way it was, its strength, stability, functions, etc.

This release also means a number of other implications regarding courts and trials and lawyers, but nothing I can tell you about. Big ole complicated mess, it is.

6.
The Red Wings (if you don't know who that is ... we may have to talk ...) won their series last night 4-3, meaning they move on to the conference finals against the Chicago Blackhawks on their road to the Stanley Cup finals (Please note, when following that link, who is pictured holding the Stanely Cup last year ... oh yes, the Wings. Note also, the number of times they have won the Finals through the history of the cup. Yea, we rock.). Hockey is the only professional sport that I watch, because I am from Michigan, and it is required here by law that all residents watch, love, and defend the honor of our adored Red Wings. I'm more of a college sports fan, which also stems largely from being a Michigander and attending a Big 10 school. Go BLUE! As such, there will be much tension and anxiety as the Wings try to make it through to the finals. There will likely be cursing, popcorn throwing, and if we're lucky some jumping up and down. It is Stanley Cup season in MI ... it's what we do.

I just spend a solid 10 minutes trying to find you the YouTube of a hilarious McDonalds commercial that runs in Michigan which lists the things we love here. Driving cars, working on cars, snow, and our moms are all on the list. Hockey also appears ... 5 or 6 times in the course of the commerical, and is the only thing that is repeated. It's terribly funny ... er ... true .... er both, probably.

7.
Did you know the US Postal Service hates recycling? Yea. They do. No lie. Apparently, they made it illegal for you to reuse a Priority Mail box for shipping other things, even if you turn it inside out or cover all the previous markings. That's annoying. Thanks for not loving the planet, Post Office. Thanks a ton. I'd suggest we all send them letters in protest, but if the rest of your local Post Office's are anything like mine, I doubt they would ever get delivered ... to themselves. The telling of the trials and tribulations of dealing with our local Post Office will be saved for another day, probably right after the next time I stop by to mail something and they are randomly "closed" because the 1 lazy, lonely guy that works in our tiny Post Office hates 1. people, 2. work, and 3. working with people.

What's going on in your life this week? Write a Quick Takes! It's fun times.


Simply,

Em.

Gratituesday

I'm not inclined to write huge prose about my gratitude this week. There's not necessarily an overarching theme or common thread to pull it all together other than I happen to be grateful about a bunch of random things (ok, about mostly everything ...), so I will save you the forced narrative and we'll do a snippet version today.

(Ooooooh, and I have to number things. It's one part former policy debater and one part current minor OCD-er)

1. My baby brother got himself a job this week. That's no small feat in this state these days with our double digit unemployment rates. It's pretty good paying for his experience, and I don't think he hates it, a bonus.

2. We had a full house over the weekend, which I love. We got to hang out, relax, be crafty, cook yummy food, and laugh hysterically (remember the late night cake run excursion?).

3. The weather was actually pretty ok ... warming up a little during the day, letting the sun peek out from behind the massive gray grossness that has been smothering us for months. Sunny weather always makes me inherently more grateful. It's not that I'm not grateful on overcast days, simply that the conscious act is culled to the front of my brain by warm sunny weather.

4. There was cake. And pie. And ice cream. And pita. All reasons to be praiseful regardless of the rest of your life.

5. The adorable Be was exceptionally adorable this week. I like it when he takes the time to remind me why I like him in the first place. Haha. Those of you in the 'we have been together 100 (ok, 8 ...) years' club can relate, no?

6. The house is cleaner than it was on Friday. This is always a good thing.

7. I got to spend some absolutely blissful time alone in my house this afternoon. Seriously, I have not had the house all to myself in ages ... months at least. I enjoy even a few hours of time to clean, deal with clutter, prepare food, tidy the office (read: write blogs and waste time on the internet), and just relish the super quiet of our home. It's one of those 'Aaaahhhhhh' moments.

8. I found a number of great reads online this week. A couple helped me with some crafty things I've been trying to figure out. Another, a blog about conversion stories, spoke to my heart. How great is the internet? I. Love. It.

9. We have an abundance of produce in our house this week. This doesn't happen in the winter months here ... um, ever. I will enjoy the bounty of broccoli and bell peppers more because of that.

...

Of course, before I could get to 10, I came to the realization that my house has grown quiet again. This means only one thing ... everyone scampered off to bed (because I'm really writing on what most people consider Monday night). This brings another thought ... I bet the 2 that ate dinner at 1130 left it out for me to put away. Ugh. Moments of inconsideration make it difficult for me to be perfectly grateful. Now, to close my eyes for a moment and let the warm fuzzy feelings of living and loving that which we are most grateful for erase the beginning to bubble irritation about what I'm likely to find in the kitchen only moments from now ...

...

...

... still trying ...

...

... come on, guy, be still my heart.



Simply,

Em.

Attitude is Simply Everything.

The Saturday before the holiday, we were doing laundry and preparing some snacks for a handful of friends intending to brave the blizzard to hang out in our basement for the annual gathering of our friends from college. Less than 10 minutes after rebooting the laundry (read: switching loads, for those non-household productivity nerds out there), the mud room grew intensely quiet. The washer was still running, but the dryer stood silent. I figured perhaps someone had set the timer to the air dry or fluff cycle mistakenly, but of course no such luck. Be fiddled with it for awhile, but without a brand new motor, there likely isn't hope for the old beast.

This is not the end of the world. Sure, we had a washer full of clothes that needed to be dried. Sure, Be was leaving in 2 days for a week of holiday festivities 4 states from here. Sure, we have 5 people's worth of laundry to do every week, but still ... not at all the end of the world. The easy solution would be to put the washer through an extra spin cycle and then hang the damp clothes on the line in the bathroom. (Yes, really, we have a clothesline in our bathroom ... it's kind of huge ... I love it.) Easy peasy, really. We have another dryer in the basement of the garage which needs a part from the appliance store to convert it from natural gas to propane, but that's easy enough to order. Be is mechanically inclined, and I wouldn't even have to call the appliance company. Easy enough, right?

Right. The story should be over. Girl's dryer breaks, boy orders part, girl hangs laundry on the already established laundry line in interim, boy replaces part, girl resumes using dryer. That's not so complicated is it? Or, in my world, it could go something like girl's dryer breaks, girl's family has giant fit, boy neglects to order part, girl continues to suggest hanging laundry on line, girl's family throws tantrum about stiff jeans and scratchy towels and high tails it to the laundromat to PAY for both washing AND drying.

Ugh. I, in turn, am protesting. I live with all adults. They make adult decisions, no matter how I try to influence them. 3/5 of them are at this very moment at the laundromat pumping what will likely equal a wee fortune in quarters into the machines because they insist that line drying is either impossible, impractical, or the root cause of several contagious diseases (work and effort are on the list). Add that pile of quarters to the cost of snacks and sodas that inevitably comes with sitting bored in a laundromat attached to a gas station watching your clothes spin around, and my frustration only grows.

Ugh.

I, the grateful, simple, and frugal blogger will not profess to perfection. I have not always been all three of those things. I will confess to crimes of ingratitude, intense complexity, and frivolity with both money and resources in my past (and occasionally my present ... but I'm trying, I swear!). What I don't understand, though, is throwing away money when there are easy, simple, and FREE options available. Sure, line dried clothes are not Snuggle-brand soft, but neither are the clothes that come out of our regular dryer. Today, although I am ever grateful for the people that make up my family, I am having a hard time understanding them.

Why is it so impossible to consider just making do with what you have?

Likely because we no longer live in a society that values making do, thriftiness, or resource ingenuity. They are products (as am I, really) of a "right-now-I-must-have-everything-I-want-and-more" generation full of clutter, unending advertisement, and ever faster standards of production and efficiency. Can I blame them, then, for wanting to continue using the modern conveniences they're so used to? Sure I can. The environment one is a product of may well be an influence, but it is not the only one. The attitude with which one approaches life, and the things that make it life (inconveniences, curves in the road, stumbling blocks all come to mind) is really the key.

That attitude is what makes automatic and unconditional gratitude different than ingratitude. It's what makes simplicity different from clutter and chaos. That attitude is what makes frugality different from wastefulness, and what breeds contentment from the have rather than the have not. I am more committed to that attitude than ever as we begin this new year, and you can look forward to GSF continuing to be a haven for the like-minded.

In the meantime, I'm going to be grateful I'm not sitting on some hard formica benches paying money to watch my clothes dry. Until next time, I'm ...

Simply,

Em.

Warning: Frost Ahead!

The National Weather Service where we live has issued a frost advisory for tonight, meaning the possibility of the evil frost monster, killer of all remaining garden plants is particularly high. I am not thrilled about this. I suppose it's the natural order of things, and kind of required to keep the climate working, but I probably have 5 pounds of tomatoes still green on the vine, green beans still blossoming, bell peppers with blossoms, summer squash with blossoms, and a baby watermelon that could really use some more time. Ugh. Sad day.

So, what's a frugal fanatic to do? Ah yes, frantically dig up all the plants she thinks she can make grow in the house (the bell peppers, specifically) and re-pot them in containers tonight before it gets cold enough to kill. I hate this part. I have no idea how the garden's timing is always so off around here, how everyone else has pumpkins and I only have blossoms, how my tomatoes will not turn red to save my life. One could suppose that I plant things too late, but really, we planted in May and had to make a circus tent of sheets and clothespins and lawn chairs more than once because it threatened to frost again after we thought we were clear to plant.

Darn you, winter, won't you hold off just a little? I still a garden to harvest, apples to put up, herbs to dry. Why must you be so impatient, winter? Don't you think 5 months of you are good enough? Do you really need 6?


Simply,

Em.

Are you kidding me?

A couple days ago, I posted about the TV news and their Super Saver program featuring "savings services". I just popped by the TV news website to check out a headline I missed part of on the noon news, and what do I see?

The one program they specifically targeted are advertising sponsors on their website. Ick. Way to go news station, way to pretend for a second that you weren't just furthering the needs of your advertising department. I wonder how much this company had to pay for that segment? I'm even more convinced they're scheisters now.

Now I'm crabby.


Simply,

Em.

Frugal Friday: Scheister Edition

The early evening news last night had a segment about saving money at the grocery store. The anchor met with two women, armed with coupons and magical lists. They spoke of rock bottom prices and stockpiling. I was stoked, for a split second, to see someone validating the adventure that is frugality.

And then I got annoyed ...

Apparently, the only way to be frugal and save money on groceries, is to enroll in one of the unfortunately popular online ad/savings services, and PAY THEM to tell you what to buy or not buy at the grocery store. The program that was most highlighted in the segment runs $19.95 for a month of database and list access. The other runs $10 for 8 weeks for one store, an additional $5 for every store after that.

Now, on face, I can see how these services could seem appealing. It's awesomely easy and brainless to just print off lists and buy what you're told. The time saving factor is probably the biggest draw. Americans like to talk about not having enough time on a regular basis, though I'll be slow to agree with the reality of their assertions while the average amount of TV hours per week is still so astronomical. We probably all have an hour somewhere in our week to take care of grocery saving business, and that's all it takes once you get the hang of it.

I also understand that deal finding can initially be a contrary way of thinking about shopping. What do you mean I only buy one can of soup? or 32 boxes of pasta?! It would make sense to pay for the training or knowledge of deal finding if you wanted to get started. There are tons of free resources on the internet, though, and neither of these services actually teach you to figure these things out yourself in the future. You're beholden to their databases and lists and color codes forever, and since it keeps you writing a check, they like it that way.

I am all for responsible consumerism, deal finding, stockpiling, and paying the lowest possible price or scoring goods for free (even better!). I am not, however, at all a fan of people capitalizing on that endeavor through 'communities' of dutiful check writers. It's entirely contrary and makes my heart hurt a little. Like ... if someone would just show them, they'd save so much more money. Creating a pricebook is probably the best way to get started, and all it takes is a spiral notebook and a pile of receipts.

I suppose scheisters and con-men exist in every arena. They will until people stop paying them to. Don't help them out. Don't pay for advice that it otherwise provided free in the same medium, and is almost always better advice in the first place. Find a free community online. I suggest http://www.hotcouponworld.com/ for starters. Lurk there awhile, learn something.


Simply,

Em.

Happy Day, Earth.

It's Earth Day!

One part of me immediately thinks, "Isn't every day Earth Day?" or perhaps is that some kind of hippy cerebral malfunction that thinks we should cherish our resources everyday rather than pissing them away for a year and changing our ways for 12 hours? Cynical treehugger, am I.

Since it is annual 'Remember We Don't Live On An Unending Resource' day, I want to vent for a hot second. I am highly annoyed at the increasingly recent trendiness of 'going green'. Don't get me wrong, I will continue to believe that we should be doing everything we currently are and more toward the objective of not killing our blue planet, but I'm getting really annoyed with environmentalism being some kind of yuppie market trend.

You do not need to BUY the reuseable bags at the store. I bet you have some at your house that would work just fine. Who cares if they match?

You do not need to BUY 'green' cleaning items. Most of them are still produced using a crazy amount of energy and fossil fuel and none of them really do any better (or safer) job than baking soda, hot water, and vinegar (not necessarily all used together).

We do not need to convince people that consumerism is the only answer to a clean planet. Consumerism is how we got here in the first place. We bought bought bought bought crap we didn't need, that used tons of resources to produce, that wouldn't biodegrade, and then we threw it away when we forgot about it or stopped caring about it's existence. Consumerism is the OPPOSITE of the answer. Reduction, reuse, recycling, and pure simplicity are the ways we don't incinerate ourselves into an ecological disaster.

I'm glad that 'green living' is getting more PR. I just hate that it has to be in the form of advertising and BS. Trends are not consistent, nor long term by design. Framing this movement, that some of us have been heavily involved in for a long, long, long time as an ad campaign, a cool spring idea, a new way to do things (for now) is not going to serve us in the long term, tragically. That's why it irritates me. We're pretending that we care about carbon emissions by building hybrid SUVs, and it's driving me crazy.


So, do something productive for the planet today, lovelies. Something that doesn't involve you spending money on adding more crap to your house. Don't get pulled into the trap. Simplify. Reduce. Find a new use for things you don't regularly use anymore or find a new home for them. Stop wasting food and buying out of season produce. Support local food and production. Be kind to animals, and avoid eating them if you are so inclined. Take a walk. Breath the sweet air of spring. Be happy to live here, and say thank you to the planet and the universe for the chance.


Simply,

Em.