Summer Rain

We had a wonderful rain storm on Saturday night. We had rain earlier in the week also which caused some flooding in places. It was too much in to short a time. But on Saturday, it felt like a typical summer thunderstorm. Exactly what I think of when I hear Vivaldi’s Summer. The thunder and lightening passed quickly and left us with a nice rain. I opened my windows upstairs and read in my library. It was perfect. I really hope the hot, hot days of summer are behind us. I’m ready for fall. Once again, I’m going to try and be present and live in the day and enjoy it. Time passes so quickly it will be gone before I know it.

I thought the drops on the window screen were cool in the light.

Theater

I spent a few days last week in Cedar City for the Utah Shakespeare Festival. This year I went with both my mom and my niece. We saw The Comedy of Errors and Pirates of Penzance. Both were excellent, although Errors might have been my favorite. I’ve seen Pirates twice before but decided if my niece is going to do theater, she needs some exposure to Gilbert and Sullivan. In the play orientation before Errors started, the guy had said something about you won’t have any problems understanding what’s going on because they speak English. He was correct. I didn’t have any problems understanding it at all although I feel that’s partly due to the great acting. I borrowed the ebook before we left but didn’t get past the first page. LOL I just wasn’t in the mood to fight my way through the text. It’s much more assessable in the spoken form for some reason. It was nice to get out and it was so nice to be back at the theater. I didn’t mind wearing the mask at all if it meant I was back.  We already plan to go back next year for sure.

A very old poster from the festival on display at SUMA. 

I’m super tired of the news and COVID and problems this morning. I guess that means I’m taking a break from some online stuff for at least today. I was listening to an online Sunday school lesson yesterday and the guy talked about how there were sunflowers everywhere he didn’t see, even in his own backyard. So this week I’m going to try and focus on how God is already in my life, I just have to see Him. I know that will help me get my balance back.

Olympics

I am not a sports fan at all. I hate watching on tv, although I have enjoyed live hockey games before. In most cases if you name a team, I can’t tell which sport they play and I’m perfectly happy this way. The exception to this is the olympics. When it comes to the olympics I will watch any sport. Needless to say, I’ve been glued to my computer for the last however many days watching all kinds of sports and crying with them over wins, losses, and upsets.  Yes, my favorite moments are always when the underdogs come up first. To me, that is the olympics, not the politics and other crap that is always there. I have to say some commentators can’t be bothered to report on the actual race, just the person they think is going to win. I mean they are right a lot of the time, but still. I can’t really complain since I’m not paying for any of it. Anyway, this is one of the few times where I am a sports fan. I’ll enjoy it for a few more days and then go back to my old ways. 

Out With the Old, In With the New

So a little over a month ago I made the decision to put a new fuel pump in my car because I didn’t want to buy a new one right now. Two weeks after that my check engine light came on while I was at Bear Lake with my family. Since the car was still running, I drove it home but I was a nervous mess driving it through the canyon. I don’t ever want to do that again. LOL my brother followed me home but he just said at least it was mostly downhill so I could coast if I needed too. Yeah, never again. By the time I got it to the mechanic the light had gone off and they couldn’t tell me what was wrong. So I kept driving it and the light came back on. And then it did this little stutter thing on the way home from my mom’s and I was done. Just done.  I didn’t care what was wrong or what it cost to fix it. I worked from home so I didn’t have to drive it much and did a lot of research and then last Saturday bought a new (to me) car. I got a 2019 Rav4. I was pretty excited on Saturday.

 

Then the anxiety kicked in. LOL I had done my homework and I knew what I could afford and while this is on the high end of it, it is by no means too much. I just haven’t had a car payment for over 10 years and I used my entire car savings account for the down payment. I mean that’s what it was for. But I’m used to having that cushion. Now I have to save up again. And I will. It’s totally fine. It wasn’t my only savings. Just with my brand of anxiety I have to get used to my new normal. I do really like what I got but getting used to it is a little harder that I thought it would be. I feel HUGE in it and I’m not used to driving something bigger yet. And I got rid of my old little Mazda yesterday. One last drive and it was gone. It was a good little car most of the time and now I’m in a monster. I remember when I got my new phone and I hated it at first because it was too big and now it’s just normal. That will happen again. Maybe when it's dirty and smeared with bugs it will feel like mine. :)

I Bought What?!

I was laughing with some coworkers over bad Covid decisions that we’ve made over the past year. I must admit that I’ve made a few, mostly in the form of purchases. LOL There were those scratch off travel maps that I thought would be fun and then they just took up space and were actually not easy to scratch and just annoyed me. The giant outdoor connect four game that was fun once or twice and now sits in my garage and takes up space.  The little shade tent that I absolutely didn’t need and will be lucky if I use once a year. The Hallmark movie channel. I hate Hallmark Christmas movies and Covid didn’t change that. I watched most of the good mystery movies the first week during the trial. It was a total waste. I could go on…

 

"plant animals" I didn't need

Not all of the purchases have been bad. Early on in the pandemic I decided I suddenly couldn’t live without a stand mixer and bought myself a compact Bosch mixer. Mostly, it takes up space on the counter (especially now when it’s too hot to bake), but I have used it and will use it in the future. I definitely didn’t need it but I’m glad I have it. I now have 4 air plants in my house. Didn’t need those either but they are kind of fun to have.

 

The thing I’ve probably spent the most money on is subscription boxes. I used to look at them and think they might be fun but included a lot of junk and were a waste of money. I wasn’t wrong but not exactly right either. There are pretty much subscription boxes for anything you can think of. I’m kind of amazed. I’ve come to realize that yes, they are a waste of money, but they are still fun, and I can usually give away any of the stuff I won’t actually use. The trick is to get a box that you like and will use.

 

My first and still my favorite is the quarterly box from Margot Elena. It’s full of bath and body items, make up, perfume, and candles. Yes, there is always something I probably won’t use at all, but for the most part I love it. The products are so much fun to try and I can usually give the few things I don’t want to my nieces and they are happy to have it.

 

My second favorite is probably the chocolate subscription box I got from Jackie’s Chocolate. I did 3 months of that one for a birthday present to myself. It was so much fun getting chocolates in the mail. They were tasty! I will probably do that one again for a few more months in the winter. They say they pack for every weather but I’m not going to find out how well they pack for the summer heat.

 

I finally broke down and did the famous FabFitFun box. I’ve only had 1 so far and I got the annual subscription so that I could customize everything. It turned out to be a fun box and because I could choose what I wanted, there was very little I got rid of or won’t use. I probably won’t continue it after my year, but it should be fun while it lasts.

 

Let’s see, I did one from Cloth & Paper and that was a bust. Mostly because of me. I love paper products/notebooks, etc. but don’t have their brand of planners or anything and the pens from foreign countries were just ok, nothing to get excited about. That was canceled early.

 

I did the Candy Club box for 3 months and overall, I’d say that was not worth it because I don’t enjoy the types of candy they sell. It’s mostly gummy types in both sweet and sour flavors. I hate sour candy and am not a fan of licorice laces. I shared this box with my family and it was fun to try everything and pass around the little containers, but not worth the money.

 

And finally, the last one is the TokyoTreat box and I have nothing to say about it because I haven’t received it yet. My nephew really wants to go to Japan and we sometimes go to the local Asian market to buy fun things so I thought this would be fun for the family to try for a couple months. We’ll see.

 

There are other boxes I’ve looked at and said no, but I’m sure I will find others I decide to try. Anyway, that’s what I’ve been spending money on over the past 12 months. 

Summer Odds and Ends

It's the hot, hot days of summer. Can’t say this is my favorite time of year, but I will say sometimes the evenings can be nice. I walked to get my mail the other evening and it was still warm, but a little breeze had the air smelling like the canyon and camping and that was nice. Trying to look on the bright side and not wish away my days to cooler weather. I have some time off this week so I’m going to take advantage of the cooler mornings to get outside a bit. I have vacation to use up so I don’t lose it so I’ve spread it out to use up over the rest of the year. 

Not much else going on. I’m still reading a bunch of web comics and my actual book count is probably going to end up low this year. I’ve finished 39 books so far, which is still more than 1 per week (so far) and the caveat applies that I’m doing a lot of re-reading that isn’t counted, which is normal. I’ve haven’t checked so I don’t know for sure, but I feel like my book buying has fallen drastically this year. I’ve still purchased half of the books I’ve read but most of those have been ebooks. I’ve read some good stuff this year, but it’s still a struggle to find books that really keep my interest so I usually fall back on web comics. I’m realizing that even my book reading goes in cycles though so I’m not worried about it. I still love to read and my home library still makes me happy.

 

I made myself finish up a bunch of perfume samples so I could buy more. LOL I’ve been gravitating towards more retro/cologne smelling things lately. That is strange for me. I still like the fresh/floral stuff, but the slightly spicy/woody is also appealing to me now. And I just found one that ends in a very pretty rose, and I’ve never really liked rose before. It felt old fashioned somehow but I’m really liking some old fashioned things now. I’m sure that will also change and next year I’ll be into something else. I still have way too much perfume (regular bottles and samples) but I don’t care. I can’t wear all of it in every season and I like having new stuff to try. 

I’ve been spending tons of money… too much, really, so I think I’ll stop for a while and start saving instead. I don’t need to buy things and probably need to talk myself into doing another purge of all kinds of things I’m not using or wearing any longer. So yeah, it’s just normal life. 

Cars and Decisions

I read this thing in a book, that said something like the coin toss doesn’t lie. Used to make decisions, you have a split second of either Yes! That’s what I want or Oh! I don’t think so types of feelings and then you know what to do.

I had one of those moments last week. I’ve been laughing for a year now that the next big thing to break would be the last straw and I’d be getting a new car. Then my car died on the way home from work. I realized right there that I absolutely did not want to make my car buying decision on the spur of the moment and I actually wasn’t ready to get a new car. My sis and bro-in-law helped me get it towed to a mechanic so they could tell me what was wrong. As I was waiting, the amount I was willing to spend to get it fixed kept increasing. Turns out, I needed a new fuel pump and $1297.00 later my car is up and running again with just the normal weird sounds its been making for a year. It’s not really a good time to buy a car right now; there are still problems lingering from the pandemic. Plus, I’d like to get one more year out of it if I can.  I have a plan in place now for when I do buy a new car. Hopefully, it doesn’t have to happen at a moment’s notice. I already have money saved up for a nice down payment on something fairly new, so that will keep increasing while I wait. I have a few ideas of what I want to test drive, and I have a payment calculator app on my phone. LOL I’m ready now. I still don’t want to do it yet, but this experience showed me how I really feel. That little Mazda and I have been through a lot over the years.