first mission accomplished
Full credit to us here on the reduce/recycle front. We sold our car in about half an hour on craigslist.
If you have a gas sipper you’ve been thinking about selling, now is the time! We spent yesterday cleaning out our little Saturn, and this morning we washed it and tacked up the sagging headliner, took photos and listed it in Austin, and in about 15 minutes the guy who bought it called us. I was more interested in moving it than in getting top dollar, and the car has potential problems which I pointed out, so I think we were all fair and happy overall. He paid cash, no bank worries, the paperwork is done, and….I miss my little car! I think I’ll get over it when I make the bank deposit tomorrow.
We had about eight other calls too in the short time it was listed, but it was mostly people wondering how low we would go with the price, which wasn’t going to be too low since it hadn’t been listed for more than an hour.
Lots of room cleared on our driveway. If only I were so efficient with the rest of my storage space.
losing my shit
The big three therapies: make stuff, clean stuff, throw stuff away. And possibly a fourth: acquire new stuff. See any conflict here?
It’s high summer and too hot to work or play outside. Consequently I’m drowning in my garbage stuff. I’m in a mood to sort, organize, use or get rid of a bunch of it.
So my challenge to myself: reduce and reuse. Refashion, recraft, remake, repair. Without buying new stuff.
What hasn’t been used in the past three years goes out, no debate. If it’s good for a garage sale or Freecycle, okay. If it’s junk, into the trash. Highest points for turning something that’s just sitting around into something usable.
I’m starting small there, not very imaginatively, and hoping my grandma will forgive me for turning her table linens into…table linens. True confession: we are not the kind of family who sits around the crisp damask. We are the kind of degenerates who watch Simpson re-runs during dinner. [Otherwise we might have to talk to one another.] Almost the only time we sit at the dining room table is for the particularly messy food, peel-and-eat shrimp, for instance, and we don’t want damask then. Which is to say, two permanent-press tablecloths are enough, and the lovely old stained things have to go. But they don’t have to go far, as I’m converting the household to cloth napkins. So I’ll be hemming this weekend. Extra points here because I also happen to have some antique hand-blown glass rings lying around that will make perfect napkin rings.
There, aren’t you fascinated? Anybody want to join me? Make something new out of what you’ve already got. Stay out of the stores. Let me know how it goes!
truck love
And here it is:
I’ve always driven a fairly efficient car, fuel-wise. I’ve always run the risk of spraining my elbow while patting myself on the back, looking out at rivers of giant trucks and SUVs cruising by on Texas roads.
What can I say? I’ve been seduced by the dark side. And I spent a fortune in gas driving this baby 1200 miles from Mom & Dad’s place back here to home. But it was a great trip. I’ve never driven an 8-cylinder engine before. Passing up hill? No problem! Up and down a 10% grade? RRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Not one hitch in the gitalong. Dad bought this thing to haul a boat up and down the Salt River Canyon…it didn’t even notice it was carrying one little ol’ girl.
Anybody want to buy a used Saturn?
dog days
The Fourth is not a happy holiday for Milo. He’s terrified by the popping and zinging of fireworks, sounds which start around here at about midnight on the 2nd and will doubtless continue through Sunday evening–unless somebody burns down the neighborhood first, which is not so unlikely this year. Last night he spent a couple hours trying to worm his way underneath the bed, though there is no room under there for him to even breathe once he’s wedged in.
I was feeling sorry for him until this afternoon after I finished cooking the key lime pie and took a jar of sun tea outside to set on the deck and heard him growling at me as he gnawed on…something…
Something with feathers. And feet.
So the two little Things met a tragic end today. I’ve been letting the two roam the yard as they hadn’t integrated with the big-girl flock yet, and I trusted Mojo out there with them; Milo only with supervision. But somehow I lost track of my yard management duties this morning.
I failed my chicks. And I have certainly failed this rather horrible little dog, long term.
And I even lost my potato salad recipe. Tragedies abound.
break time
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! The forecast high for tomorrow is 88! OMG you guys! It’s been like 99+ for days on days on days–and for days before summer even officially started. OMG I’m old. Writing about the weather. I am SO firing up my torch tomorrow!
