I stumbled onto this quote last week from a man for whom I have little admiration.  I’m not making a specific application of the quote, but I couldn’t resist posting it.

I love to play with matches.

I love to:
    1.    light one match (preferably wooden “light anywhere”), and with that flame light a second match;    
    2.    blow the first one out (watch the smoke curlicue), light it with the second’s flame;
    3.   blow the second one out (fascinated by the smoke curlicue), light it with the first’s flame;
    4.   repeat 2. and 3. until the only place left to hold the match is the previously burned part.

The whole point about creating a lot a curlicue smoke is to cover, ahem, unpleasant odors. 

One day, years ago, our middle son casually announced at the dinner table that he discovered that Lysol is flammable.  On a visit to my sister’s house he was playing with matches, experimenting by extinguishing a match with Lysol.  To his surprise and delight, the flame flared.  He dropped the match in the toilet, filed the new fact about flammability in his head, and forgot it for a few months until it surfaced while we ate dinner.  My sister’s house never burned down. The mercy of the Lord never ceases…

After that revelation, we replaced all the matches in our bathrooms with air freshener.

Now that the same pyromaniac son has been gone from our home for five years, and we are looking for economy in every corner, the matches have re-appeared.  And I have re-discovered the simple (no longer) secret joy of playing with matches.   

Last weekend we had a last hurrah with our dear friends Jack and Lisa.  They moved to North Carolina last summer, but didn’t sell their house in the Northwest until recently.  They were back to pack; we went up to send them off. 

Lisa is a master of organization.  Normally, her refrigerator has charts, lists and menus on the sides which are beautiful in their order.  This trip I had to be content with reading all the notes to the movers and watching her execute her moving plan. 

The last battle to conquer was the garage.  One section had empty boxes which had been reserved for potential use, but not needed after all.  We got to work breaking them down for the recycle center. 

Now boxes are boxes, right?  Empty containers to be re-used.

Ah, my friend; so many boxes held a story in the empty spaces. 

Lisa held up a box that had my brother Danny’s return address.  She remembered what was sent in the box, a gift for the girls (obviously my sister-in-law Valeri was behind that). 

The one that delighted me was a box which had contained a case of baby formula.  The box had my name on the top right hand corner, with a notation “No Charge” on the side.  Fourteen years ago, Safeway had a drawing for a case of baby formula.  I phoned Lisa and asked which brand she preferred for her two  newly adopted daughters.  I entered the drawing and won! 

A bucket of matches from various restaurants (do they still give those away?) took us back to our college days.

Isn’t it amazing how a bit of cardboard glued together can evoke such memories? 

I used to love shoe boxes, but they’ve flimsified.

Boot boxes make great mailing containers at Christmas.

I love Amazon.com boxes.

I really like Lang note card boxes – strong and pretty for small gifts.

Paper boxes are wonderful: uniform, nice lids, great containers.

What are your favorite boxes to save?

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want for good stuff to listen to.  There are sermons online (does anyone else like to listen to sermons in their free time?), Librivox for free audio books in the public domain, conference CDs, audio books from the library… 

But!  I discovered a new source and I am delighting in it!  I just drove three hours to pick up my friend at the airport and realized at the last minute that I didn’t have an audio book available.  In with my bills to pay was a handbill for Library2Go (an Oregon system) from our library’s circulation desk.  Library2Go uses the services of OverDrive.   I include this link because you may be able to find your library within the system.  Click on Find Free Downloads button and search for your library by country or by state. 

Without leaving your home, you can download professionally read audio books for a ten-day checkout period.  If a book isn’t available at the moment, you can place a hold on that book, and receive an email when it is available. 

I downloaded The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope, burned it to CDs and have been happily caught up in the drama of Lily Dale and Johnny Eames while driving, deep-cleaning my bedroom, making meals, etc.

It’s a wonderful opportunity that is probably available to most of you.

I have a deep-cleaning question for you. 

What do you intend to do with obsolete media? 

I’m speaking, of course, of VHS videos and cassette tapes.   I (uh) am (er) thinking of (clearing throat) pitching, as in throwing away, all the boxes of tapes I have.  (gasp)  A shelf in our closet is occupied with boxes of cassettes: sermons, conferences, homeschooling.  Stuff we listened to once or twice, appreciated it, but doubt we will go back to again.  The medium does make a difference.  All the minimum, we will cull our collection.  Perhaps offer it tapes for free at a garage sale. 

What about you?  What will you do?

I have a confession to make.  I get expensive haircuts.  It kills me to admit it, Miss Frugality who refills water bottles, grinds her own wheat, wraps presents from wallpaper sample books, and washes generic Ziplock bags for reuse.  But there it is. 

For twelve years I paid eight dollars ($5 for husband and sons) for a good haircut from a stylist who loved our family and never raised her rates for us.  It was a sad day when she moved away.  When money was tight, I bought a razor and learned how to give the guys haircuts.  My husband was the first to escape that tyranny; one son still insists I cut his hair. 

I’ve done the beauty college ($ 9), the no-appointment, leave with a wet head, walk-in shops ($12), the blue-haired, weekly wash-and-set shop for grandmas ($16), and eventually went to a good stylist who waxed eyebrows for free with her $22 haircut.  Then I was given a gift certificate to the most expensive, la-di-dah shop in town.  It was The Best Cut I’ve ever had.  I went back, on my own volition, naively assuming it wouldn’t be too much more than the $22 range. Soo-prahse, soo-prahse!  $35.   Prices have increased, and I now pay $42 for a cut and style.  Never In My Days, would I have believed that I would pay that much for A Haircut. 

My only consolation is that the cut is good for five to six months.  And it is still the best cut I’ve ever had for my thick, curly mop.

I live in the country.  I know prices can be higher in the city. 

How much do you pay for your haircut? 

Dana of hiddenart.  My son picked the number 2 out of a hat and she was the second comment. She wins On Writing Well and Writing to Learn.  I was supposed to pick a winner on Friday, but I left for our son’s graduation and didn’t get the job done.  Congratulations Dana.  Enjoy the books.