Monday's Missives

Birthday boy has a surprise waiting for him.

• Unsolicited car and personal finance advice. No matter how poor or rich you are do what you can to save enough money for a new set of tires and enough to tow your car home from wherever you normally drive and leave that money alone- until you need it for the intended purposes. If you can do these things you will not hate yourself for it.
• I cannot remember the last time I went to a candy store.  The funny thing about that random memory: I remember how miserable it felt to go to the mall on field trips and not have money for candy like the other kids. Whenever I give my children money for a trip I sometimes challenge them to help other kids that may not have money (especially if I know the other kids by name).
  
• My bank is great- I mean I have been doing business with them under one iteration or another literally since I was 12 (it started as Olney Savings and Loan) but my branch is closing permanently and man they are really phoning it in. An odd, interesting connected thought that maybe only I would have taken note of: they don't remind me they are closing when we interact.
• My heart is gone. I've gone cold
• We bought a 1/16 of a cow. It is beautiful and delicious. The rib eyes are works of art and the hamburger is as good as any I've ever had in my life and better than most.
• I laugh at the things FG and I have done and accomplished together. Never in my life would I have guessed I would udder the phrase, "We bought a 1/16 of a cow."
• Get- it? Udder. Ha, I kill myself sometimes.
• My kids will soon be with me for a full month or so. I shudder.

• I am glad though I have the new truck- we have more room to get away from each other.
• It easy to see why the F150 is so popular. It rides as good as any car I've ever owned and the controls inside are intuitive, simple and uncluttered.
• A talking head on a news clip I just watched uttered the phrase, In response to armed fractions...
• There are just some little things that drive me nuts.
• Louis Zamparini has died. Watch for the biograpghy, Unbroken of his life and an upcoming movie. I only had to open the book two or threes times to read the entire thing.