November means the end of colored leaves. The promise of spring in a few months will keep me from descending into the Slough of Despondence, as will the fun of learning new things, completing commissions, working on a mural, and resuming drawing lessons in January.
1. There is lots of disrespect on the road when driving an old vehicle. While I was on the freeway getting to the mechanic, people tailgated and roared past, without regard to the fact that I was keeping up with traffic. And yet, when I got to town, everyone I interacted with expressed great interest in and respect for the Botmobile. A bonus thing learned is that our Botmobile is the same model featured in the movie Back to the Future.
2. It matters who you get at the post office counter. It cost $4.50 to send 2 packages of notecards to Northern California, and then it cost $2.44 to send the same thing to Southern California. This is the result how the postal worker interprets the contents, and how he/she labels it – media mail? large envelope? small package? So, while I am always happy to see all the employees in my PO, I do tend to favor some over others.
3. Mystery writer Robert B. Parker died in 2010. His books had an appealing offbeat sense of humor, but I’ve long since stopped reading murder mysteries. I was puzzled to see three different authors’ books in the library titled “Robert B. Parker’s [title specific word]. Apparently Parker’s estate has granted permission to multiple authors to continue his various series. They even copy the same typestyle that Parker used on his books.
4. This Evergreen Home is a thoughtful blog that I’ve mentioned here before. A recent post, Save Your Money—26 things to stop buying in 2026, caused me to almost break my arm patting myself on the back. This is the way I have lived for decades. Gold star, please!
5. I mowed the lawn. Well, I started with some careful instruction, but Trail Guy took over. I only allow one mowing on our little lawn per year in an ongoing attempt to get it fuller, via self-seeding and roots (no idea how it actually works) and transplanting clumps from the back of the house which was lawn a quarter of a century ago and still produces a few clumps a year. So, the annual mowing is a bit of a project.
6. I learned (AGAIN!) that participation in small bazaars and arts/craft shows is probably more trouble than it is worth. However, with low attendance, there was abundant time to visit with each person who came into my space.
7. This personalized license plate caught my attention.
8. Through another blog (Hi Elisabeth!) I found a wonderful recipe for Lasagne Soup. As someone who views recipes as just suggestions and guidelines, this one seems to turn out great no matter how many things I just substituted or tossed in or did without.
9. Two great new words: pecksniffian and snollygoster. Look them up!
Okay, one last hurrah for fall color!
6 Comments
Your cats are beautiful! I do online surveys for a little extra money. I do not qualify for many of them because I am frugal but I take that as a sign of frugal success!! I’m gonna try the soup recipe..sounds wonderful.
Thanks for complementing my cats, Kathy! Fat boy Jackson is beautiful, but I forget to notice because “pretty is as pretty does”, and he is kind of a jerk.
If you can recommend any surveys for money, I might be interested. But like you, my frugality probably disqualifies me from most!
That soup recipe is very forgiving. I got it from Elisabeth, who I met through the Frugal Girl. I’m enjoying her blog as much as Kristen’s.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup. I thought it was delicious (and got better as leftovers). I have it on my meal plan for next week!
I just popped over to Evergreen Home (I’ve read some of their posts before), and I am patting along with you. I got a bit worried thinking maybe they are things I do “wrong” but almost across the board I tick all the boxes. Except on the fitness subscriptions. I bought a gym membership last year and after about 3 months fell off the proverbial wagon. Oops.
Elisabeth, once again we are operating like one mind in two bodies!! Gyms, meh. Who wants to exercise on a machine that is next to someone else exercising on a machine, all indoors? Not this little gray duck.
1. That’s impressive! I thought I did good when I crossed the 100k mark.
3a. That bank has excellent taste in wall art!
4. Thanks for the recommendation. I will check out the blogpost since my paltry raise in SS will not cover the raises in utilities and insurance next year!
6. I suppose it all about the networking these days–getting your name “out there.”
7. Forget the “orange grower” — how about that license plate frame! Go Ducks!
Sharon, I thought that was an interesting combination of IDs on the license. . . my mom was an orange grower and she now lives in Oregon. And your car at 100,000 is just now getting warmed up.