Author: janeslessonslearned

National Cash Mob Day is Saturday March 24 / Concord NH 2 PM

I learned, from NHPR’s Word of Mouth, that there will be a Cash Mob in Concord on Saturday at 2 PM.  And that is just when I’ll be in downtown Concord!

I learned that a Cash Mob is an event organized via social media in which shoppers descend on one area with cash in hand.  The Cash Mob blog says: “The general idea is to encourage people to go into small, local businesses and spend their money, en masse, to give the business owner a little bit of economic stimulus.”

You can learn more about the Concord event and the overall movement, here: Concord to Welcome a Cash Mob.

Keep on Truckin’….

I learned all these things about renting a truck.

You may remember that I learned last year that a U-Haul guaranteed reservation means nothing.  Specifically, it means that they guarantee that they won’t raise the rate when you pick up the truck, but it in no way implies that there will be a truck to pick up!   It turns out that Budget has the same system.  I asked Budget “Then what’s the difference?”.  “The price”,  Zach the Budget Guy told me.  And boy, what a difference!

So I learned:

  • Ryder trucks are only local, so it’s just U-Haul and Budget
  • Budget rental trucks are roughly half the price of U-Haul, for the same thing!
  • You can request features (a third seat, for example), but you won’t know if you get it until the truck arrives at the pickup spot, usually a day before your reservation
  • Even if you think you know what you are getting (a newish truck with an input jack for mp3/iPod), there may be a last minute switch to “or not”.  Ours was due to a Check Engine light.  The next truck was older and had no such gadgetry.
  • Bring your own padlock.  If you are like us, you have a stack of them.  Why buy yet another?
  • Bring your own GPS (but you already figured that out)

Steve is the one who drove the whole Eastern Seaboard in 2.5 days – Steve, what did I forget?

Bedtime Stories

I have learned that it’s always a bad idea, but it’s a particularly bad idea when in a lonely place, for me to read depressing books at bedtime.  Death? Check.  (actual) Dismemberment?  Check.  Dead and/or missing children? Check!  What was I thinking?????

So one yard sale ($1 a bag) and one consignment shop later, I have a  nice pile of books from which to choose something much better suited for reading before sleeping and dreaming.  A Wodehouse, a Westlake, and a whole bunch of Chick Lit.   Sweet dreams!

Home Sweet Home

Now that I have been Far From Home for Way Too Long , I have learned what I miss the most and it is this:

1. Steve

2. Being close at hand when my daughters need me

3. My house /my kitchen/ my bed

4. Wearing a variety of clothing

5. Spending time with my friends in person, including walking with Gale and having dinner with Michelle

6. Steve

7. Seeing my co-workers, work friends, and customers in person

8. My commute (!)

9. My espresso machine

10. Land lines

11. Sleeping in a room that is cold due to winter

12. Composting

13. My home office with its ergonomic setup

14. Steve

 

That Next Step is a Doozy

So I used a lot of minutes this month.  So what?  I know what you do when you go over your minutes.  You just call Verizon and say whoops I went over my minutes.  Then you pay $10 and they give you a whole bunch more minutes for the rest of the month and later you just call them again and set it back to the lower rate.  Easy peasy.  Done this before.

Wait – what?  What’s that you say, Verizon?   It costs $20 to go from 700 to 1400 minutes.  OK.  And $10 more to go from 1400 to 2000.  Cool.  And now I’m over 2000.  OK whatever.  I just want to sign up to pay the whatever few dollars and you just give me the next step up.  WHAT?  The next step up is to Unlimited minute and it costs A HUNDRED DOLLARS more??

I learned that I really should have bothered to get the static-y land line in this temporary home of mine fixed  rather than think that I could just easily bank on my cell phone and buy more minutes!

Oh well.  Lesson learned! Now my family has unlimited minutes for the next two weeks, so feel free to give me a call on my cell!

Unplugged

I love my books from Audible and I love to listen while I run on the (very few) sidewalks of my sweet home town.   But I learned that my headphones don’t belong in the scene when I’m running by the ocean.  I have a new soundtrack there: one of the waves and the wind and the birds.

Years ago, Geoff taught me the word “ideaphoric” and told me that it describes both of us.  I have learned that it describes many people, if the circumstances are right.   When I took off the headphones and ran by the ocean, the ideas came flooding in like the tide.  So many things to think about!

 

Where there’s smoke…

there is not enough fire: that’s what I learned!

Steve gave me a beautiful fire in the fireplace for Christmas.  But first he found out how to do it smoke-free.

Somehow he got our neighbor, Bob, to climb up on the roof and check out the chimney, which Bob then declared to be clean and perfect.  So what’s with the smoke when we make  fires?  Bob told Steve that smoke comes from little fires, ones that don’t create enough heat to get the updraft going.

Here is the big roaring smoke-free fire that Steve made: