Favorites

What do you do when the dog bites? You simply remember your favorite things. During the month of February, nicknamed the “month of mud” and “cabbage month”, my blog focused on Joys. I shared my perfect day, favorite foodies, and Technicolor travel moments and now, we begin the long March with a look at the zanier side of my life.

When my husband and I retired, we looked for smile moments and ways to bond. My husband’s principal hobby is golf and my main pursuit is reading. These bring us joy, but they are our individual passions.  We want each other to be happy, but we don’t want to grow apart. At first we schemed to find activities we would both enjoy and we tried dance lessons, yoga, and cooking classes. Ho hum.

My spouse kept on golfing and I kept on reading. As the months passed, it was natural for us to share the household chores and projects, and we had more time to keep up with our family. These activities were enjoyable and helped us to discover additional shared joys organically. What are we doing that sparks our joy?

Digital apps moneysavers! 

We began by following a few specials at our local fast food chains. Then we started to use their apps to increase our savings: 2 for 1 burgers, free fries! We now have a collection of these apps and we have fun planning lunch-time excursions. We also use Open Table, Mileage Plus Dining and Landry’s dining card to discover new dining experiences and collect points and savings. My hubby is now exploring Groupon. We laugh that we need to set up a spread sheet to plot how to use several apps at once to maximize our profit. For us, it’s not so much the savings as it is is the thrill of scoring a bargain.

Living like a business! 

This encompasses several passions and challenges for us. I like to practice Just in Time inventory.  It breaks my heart to discover a lovely roast wedged in the back of the fridge, spoiled. Also, how many cans of creamed succotash can we use in our lifetime?! Now, we plan and stock what we need for a few days. Nothing gives us more pleasure than to use the last of the still-fresh hamburger buns at dinner and then buy a new package the next day.

To accomplish this, we have also become zealots at scheduling our errands. We strive to plan the shortest routes to all our destinations. “Yay, we went to the dry cleaners, grocery, hardware store, dropped off prescriptions and drove by to see if that house was still for sale, in less than an hour!”

Yes I know we sound like crazy old people, and to top it off, we also like to clean out the basement and tidy our closets!

Planning Trips We Never Take

This is also known as day-dreaming, but isn’t it delightful to have a little happy hour together and envision a European trip on a river boat? We hunch over our tablet and plan trips to Japan, “Let’s stop over in Hawaii!” or Marbella- “Let’s fly to Amsterdam and drive to Spain!” My spouse suggested Australia again- “No, one 24-hour travel day is enough in a lifetime!” and I came up with Antarctica (that only received an eye-roll response).

One trip we do love to take is to the new carwash in town, them park thrills! The expansive glass and chrome building with oversized blue molded waves out front rivals any major ride attraction. We bought the equivalent of a fast pass, a code on our windshield that allows us to bypass the cash customers and ride as many times a week we like. It’s exhilarating- blue, purple and yellow foam, pulsating brushes, a speedy track- wait for me, I’ll go with you!

Life is good!

(The businesses I mentioned are my choice- no compensation received!)