Whatever you do, don’t think while in the shower!
With all of the constant daily input from the television, the telephone, the children, noisy kids next door, the lawnmower across the street, the weed-eater down the street, and DH with whatever noises he is prone to make, my brain sometimes does not process thoughts as well as it should.
Recently, I realized that I had not taken time to think things through and that I was being coerced by outside elements to do something that I knew I might regret afterwards. Just a side note here…feeling regret afterwards is a common event for me. This past week, I have been impatiently waiting for the movie Sex and the City to come out. I was fearful that it would not make it to our small market theater located about 35 miles from us, but was ecstatic that it was indeed coming to our “local” movie theater. The very first showing was at 12:55 PM and I planned to be there….with a friend, with my husband….with myself…it didn’t matter…I was going to be there!
My DDH (dear, dear husband or darling, dear husband..whichever you prefer) took off from work, so that he could have me present at the very first showing and wanted us to get there early, so that I could buy the very first ticket. Is that not amazing? Friday morning, we sat on the sofa together sipping coffee…him watching television and me on the internet. For a few days now, I have wanted DH to watch the new Path to Freedom Sustainable Food UCLA Lecture videos on YouTube, so I plugged the stereo speakers in to share all three segments with him. (I suggest these videos for anyone who might be on the fence about the importance of growing your own food and saving your own seeds.) Anyhow, the two of us, together, and YouTube generally ends up being an all afternoon thing, but in this case it was an all morning deal with the hours passing quickly. While watching those videos, we shifted gears and began watching solar cooker videos. I am supposing the shift might have had something to do with Anais at PTF posting a photo of her solar cooker. For quite some time, I have been excited at the possibilities of building my own solar cooker or maybe even purchasing one from PTF, but DH is now on board with at least the option of building our own at first. What a great idea!
Well, before we knew it, we were at the point where I needed to jump in the shower to get ready for my movie date with DDH. Do you know that feeling in the shower, where you only hear the water and the thoughts in your own head? Well, there I was thinking…..and thinking…and thinking while I was in the shower. My thoughts wandered in and out of….MAN! I want a solar cooker! Geez..they’re a couple of hundred dollars…..well I could build one. How much would the lumber be? Paint? Could I use a Fresnel lens? …and then back to …geeeez…that’s a lot of money…and we’re about to go into town and drop a hundred bucks…you just watch. It never fails…
Movies~$14
Popcorn/Drinks~$8 (we share our drink)
Gasoline~$12
Bookstore, Wal-Mart, Meade Lumber, Dollar Store~$50
Thai Restaurant~$30
In my head it was all adding up and then I turned to, a whiny “Now, why do I want to go see this movie?” I mean..come on…it’s about 4 indulgent women who spend money as if it grew on trees and are so far removed from the lifestyle that I have chosen…for the life of me I could not give a good reason why I even wanted to go to the movie in the first place. While still standing in the shower, I shouted out at DH, asking if he really, no I mean REALLY, wanted to go to this movie or was he just doing it because he thought I wanted to go?
Me~Honey-I was thinking…if we go to Dodge…we will end up spending quite a bit of money.
DH~So? You want to go.
Me~but you know, $20 or $30 would go a lo-o-ong way towards the supplies to build a solar cooker
DH~Yep, but you want to go to the movie…yes, I want to go, so hurry up, get dressed…let’s go
Me~but I REEEALLLY want a solar cooker.
Well, the weekend has come and gone, and nope I didn’t go to the movies. DH and I hung around the house and enjoyed each others’ company the remainder of Friday. We wrote up some specs on our own home built solar cooker, worked in the yard a bit, and DH even constructed a make-shift, prototype solar cooker from a cardboard box, some weed barrier, meat thermometer, and a glass window. We found out that we could get the temperature up to 180 degrees, which meant we were on to something. With a little ingenuity, we could be solar cooking in the backyard in no time. Over the afternoon, on more than one occasion, I confessed to DH that I felt guilty going to the movie when I have been trying so hard to be more frugal, a bit greener, and less oil dependent. Going to watch that particular movie seemed to present too huge of an inner “responsible vs. frivolous” conflict. Now, if it had been a documentary from Path to Freedom, there would have been NO CONTEST!
The PTF Groupie in me would have insisted we camp out in the mall parking lot the night before to ensure tickets.
The remainder of the Friday afternoon, I researched garden totems, and frugal decoration ideas, which resulted in me running to the hardware store at five minutes to closing to spend $5. When I returned, DH remarked, “Well, we almost made it through the day without spending any money.”
Saturday came and I awoke to find my usual morning cup with cream, sugar, and spoon waiting for the coffee to be poured. DH had to be at work before sunrise, so I would be pouring my own coffee. No one makes a better pot of coffee or mixes the cream and sugar in a cup better than DH.
We planned to attend the local farmer’s market in Greensburg around 9:00 AM and so off to the shower I went. There I was again..thinking…hm…I sure liked some of those garden totems; I wonder if the thrift shop would have some inexpensive items that I could use for my own totems and birdfeeders? Hmmmm…after Greensburg, I wonder if DH will want to head over to Pratt? We could go to the farmer’s market there also. Well, DH arrived home and away we went…yesterday’s frugal homebodies-today’s consumers. We did attend the Greensburg farmer’s market, and were very pleasantly surprised to see Anita from Prairie Dreams and her family arrive shortly after we did. (I recognized her and Rick from her online photos.) We visited for a short bit before each of headed off in our own directions.
Greensburg turned into Pratt, which turned into hitting the garage sales, almost every thrift shop in Pratt, a flea market junk shop in Cullison, and an antique shop in Belvidere. My car was filled to capacity with plants and junk. On the way home, we stopped in Greensburg to buy fuel ($35 for 9 gallons thank you very much), milk and bread. While waiting in line to pay, who do you suppose walked in? Rick and Isaiah! What are the chances that on two occasions in the same day we would show up at the same location at the same time? Wow! Anita wasn’t with them, but we did get to visit for a bit while the cashiers were dealing with computer issues and the registers not working.
For our only plans being to visit the farmer’s market, we sure covered a lot of ground that day. I told DH that I felt like it was my birthday or something because of how he accommodated my every whim…well, almost..there was a brief moment of disappointment over a wonderfully vintage garden gate that I wanted to buy. It was a joyous day spent talking, dining, *shopping* in a greener fashion, seeing some countryside that I had not seen in a long while with the one I love!
So now that I am at the end of my blog post, I am wondering about the original premise for my writing. Sunday, for a brief moment, I took a look at the SATC reviews hoping to find out whether Carrie and Mr. Big actually tie the knot. , I thought….”what the heck have I done?” I wanted to see SATC! I wanted to know the end!! Was I crazy? Then my thoughts turned to …what would DH say if I told him that I really did want to go? All day as I dug in the garden, washed clothes, dishes and cleaned, all I could think about was..why in the world would I have said no, I don’t want to go? At the end of the day, I had just about decided that I would sneak away on planned “in town”, during the day, by myself (no witnesses). Being grungy from my chores, I decided to take an early shower before settling down to my writings.
The faucet was turned on full blast (no this was not a “green” shower….I was covered in dirt) and my thoughts began to wonder, yet again. Why am I going back and forth about a silly movie? Geez…it isn’t like I have watched every episode or anything…and besides it will eventually be out on DVD or better yet…free on television. So my thoughts kept wonderin’ in and out, back and forth, and then my brain jumped track and reviewed my day’s successes and failures..like my first solar cooking attempt (to be reported upon later) and then it came to me….my desire to see the movie again came from outside input (internet/television) and had nothing to do with anything but that… and ….because of my thoughts wanderin’ over to the review of my solar lunch challenge I knew that I wanted a better built solar cooker more than I wanted to watch those four perfectly coiffed women extravagantly sip Cosmopolitans for two and a half hours.
So now, I say to you…while in the shower….turn off the outside yammer….be one with the water (okay I know a little hokey, but you know what I mean!) and …Whatever you do…THINK while in the shower!
