Xmas

All I want for Christmas. I'll probably lose my two front teeth, so that's what I'll be asking for next year. Thanks Santa!

Slight Dilemma of the Burbs

Since the recent move, I now find myself in a situation where going to Wal-Mart for a needed item (say, a piece of rope) is a 1.5 mile round-trip drive (or scoot, or bike, or walk), while going to the nearest independent-ish hardware merchant for the same thing involves 10 miles round-trip. Which is the better choice?

Brrr

December 1st, and still no snow-- so still commuting by scooter from the New Suburban House to the office! Today was the first below-freezing commute (29º when I left) but it was sunny and fairly pleasant.

Here's a fabulous fact I learned recently: if you're using those disposable iron-filings-with-charcoal hand warmer packs, and you only need them for a short period (say, four miles of scootering), you can seal them up in a ziploc afterwards and they abort their heating process until you re-open! This is great. One set of hand warmers can last a week of commuting this way!

Deflation Warning

A medium latté downstairs from my office has been $3.00 since I moved my practice here two years ago. I liked the evenness of the price. I could go down with three one dollar bills and get a latté. No pesky change to deal with. I knew some day the price would increase, and I'd have to go down with four bills and come back with a quarter-pound of annoying coins.

But yesterday, they told me the price had dropped to $2.94. What the? For reals?

I suggest: Sell your stocks. Sell your gold. Sell your house. Sell every tangible thing you can. Put it all in cash. Housing prices dropping might've been an isolated event; but when coffee prices drop, too, you know deflation is coming.

Take The Quiz!

Take the I-Just-Moved Competition Quiz, and see how you rank against others!

[ ] All of my boxes are unpacked or moved in proper storage locations
[ ] I have cooked at home at least one of the past two nights
[ ] I know where my toothbrush is
[ ] The bank knows my new address
[ ] The DMV knows my new address
[ ] I am registered to vote in my new location
[ ] I have keys for all the locks on my house, and I know which lock every new key goes to.
[ ] I did not almost trip over an unknown object and nearly kill myself in the dark last night trying to get into bed.
[ ] I have finished enough of the items on the first back-of-an-envelope to-do list I made to warrant making a new list on the back of a new envelope.
[ ] I have actually calmed down enough to take a walk around my new neighborhood.
[ ] I know where the hot water heater, circuit breaker box, and furnace (if any) are.
[ ] The hot water heater, circuit breaker box, and furnace are all working fine.
[ ] If someone visits and needs a needle and thread, a band-aid, and a box of tissues, I could find these all within five minutes.

Now just add up the number of checked boxes. Add to that 1/2 point for each new neighbor you have met. Multiply by 10. Divide the result by the number of nights you have been at your new address. What is your score?!?

0-5: You are an utter failure! You should never move again. You should never have moved in the first place. Worse than amateur.
6-10: You are basically no good at this. You should consider living in an RV for the rest of your life.
11-15: You are below average, but you will probably live through it. Next time, make some sort of plan.
16-20: You are mediocre. No one will mistake you for a professional, but there will probably be no long-term psychological damage.
21-25: You are doing above-average. You might even fool someone, such as your dog, into thinking you have been at your place several days longer than your really have.
26-30: You are an excellent mover. In fact, it's kind of suspicious. Possibly, you were actually "moving" into a house you already sort of lived in, such as a boyfriend's or your own summer place.
30 and above: You didn't move. You just thought you did. You're really in the same place you were before.

Product

Moving to the quasi-suburbs next week. Will have a garage, soon. Need to fix the garage-door opener. Went to Sears website looking for the part. Found this, for $5.99, and started cracking up:What is it? It's an object on a string. You dangle it from the ceiling of your garage so it bumps on your windshield when your car is far enough in. A useful idea-- but do people actually buy these, rather than tie an object to a string and dangle it from the roof of the garage? Particularly amusing is that the product is advertised as being "completely automatic" (much in the way that, say, a coffee mug is "automatic") and that "complete installation instructions are included". (I am envisioning the "troubleshooting" section of the "instructions" as being especially potentially amusing.)

Sad story

A sad story from Boston today. Hard to know what to make of it, without more information. One thing, though-- you'll never read about this happening at Green Acres. Because the security guards there aren't allowed to put their hands on the patients, let alone carry weapons.