With vacation and my approaching birthday, my personal expenses skyrocketed this month. When did the word birthday, previously associated with the word Happy, get to be expensive misery? Answer: The guv’ment! In this state you renew car tags by birthdates. So you must set aside time and money to pay that fee plus, in metro Atlanta counties , the cost of getting the car’s emission system (a good thing) tested. Did then came online to complete the transaction only to find the 24/7 site was unavailable. Why? The guv’ment. The Dept of Transportation in their zest to build another road, cut through the ATT cable.
Since my needs, but not my habits, are simple usually don’t pay attention to my spending. Instead of getting the shopping gene attributed to females I got the I hate shopping gene. The time was right for me to test my self-control. I decided after the luxuries of the beach I was not going to charge more to my card until the end of the billing cycle AND PROUDLY I STUCK TO IT! A bit taxing since by the last day I was down to essentials of 2 glasses of wine, 4 NOWs, enough food (if you count the end “heel” piece as a slice of bread) and coffee makings except milk. I found enough petty change (never keep money in the house) and using my last gallon of gas I drove to the store to pay cash for milk for my coffee. It was a great feeling though only a minor exercise in self-control. Went to bed pleased with myself that last night.
Woke up ready to gas the car, buy groceries and other “necessities” I’d rationed. With my morning coffee I checked my credit card balance online to see I’d really done it. I had not! The flipping cc company picked that night to add my annual fee. And I’d even used a can of chicken I found in the pantry to make my own Tarragon chicken salad without my preferred from the supermarket.
At the second store stopped to buy linseed oil (had been using olive oil to paint during my scrooge period) and a summer shower popped up. You know the kind that if you wait a bit, say 30 minutes tops, it will pass and you can safely go about your business. After two and a half hours, several losses of the store lights, several inches of horizontal rain and kicker lightning, things eased and I left. Normally a storm like that gets a name.
Prefer eggs that come in a heavy paper carton (not some mad scientist’s revenge on the earth, Styrofoam) and Wal-Mart is the only place that carries them. After going through about 20 cartons to find one without cracks I headed home for supper and to relax to my favorite TV, Ferguson. Barely settled into my PJs when another shocker hit. CBS, in their infinite wisdom, decided to show me some PGA golf tournament in Wisconsin. My two late brothers were Golf Pros and if they’d appeared on screen in that tournament I wouldn’t have been interested in watching it. (Oops, maybe a bit extreme)
When Ferguson finally did appear he set me straight. My day had been courtesy of Friday the 13th. The next one I wake up to, I’m going to roll over and go back to sleep.
