Currently 09/15/2020: Is This What A Goldfish Feels Like?

By now, the entire world has likely heard about the wildfires burning throughout the western United States. And while we have no wildfires burning here in Orange County currently, we are not getting off scot free as our air quality has been affected for days, with a couple more still to go. We are in the AQ zone designated as 'Unhealthy For Sensitive Groups,' which is neither my husband or myself, so we've been continuing to get out and be active, but primarily at the ocean where the breezes are constant and the air seems better.

This might be an illusion, by the way!

I grew up in Southern California, and my earliest memories are three fold- 1) I remember the heatwaves of our summers, during which we'd sleep under just a sheet with a plug in fan blowing in our face, 2) I remember the terrible smog and how it caused my lungs to burn when I'd breath in too deeply, and ) I remember the wildfires, and the gray skies and awful ashes that would cover our cars and yard during the very worst ones.

All three of these improved over my lifetime due to 1) Air conditioning, 2) Stricter standards on auto emissions among many other changes (Clean Air Act, etc.), and 3) I moved to a less wildfire-prone region.

So this week is the first time in several decades that we have felt the impact of our seasonal wildfires, and it has been a struggle to be sure. Clearly, much less of a struggle than for those people fleeing, evacuating, losing property, or being stuck in areas with truly awful air quality, but a struggle none the less.

Our solution/coping mechanism has been to spend as much time as we can near the ocean in the cooler daytime hours. We've been huddling in the house otherwise this week, with A/C on and windows closed, hence the cute little goldfish photo above. I desperately miss the fresh air flowing through the house that we've gotten used to since moving to our hilly coastal location some three years ago, but I know that this too shall pass, so instead I'm trying to focus on the little tasks I've been procrastinating in completing due to the call of the outdoors. 

'This to shall pass' is my mantra currently.

Otherwise, Currently I Am . . . 

Reading  My first science fiction novel ever, The Mote In God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I have read several Ray Bradbury books previously, but they are so exquisitely written it's hard for me to think of them as science fiction. This novel, however, is definitely straight up boiler plate science fiction. It's our current book club selection, and at 556 pages, it's loooong, so initially I was very grumpy about having to read. However . . . somewhere around page 100, I appear to have gotten hooked in spite of myself, and I am now finding myself unable to put it down.

I admit that, just possibly, I've been wrong about the genre of science fiction.

Cooking  Lots and lots this week, resulting in so many leftovers I may not end up having to cook much for the next few days. On the menu has been Greek salad, BLT & Avocado salad, grilled pork chops smothered in Balsamic sweet onions, pollo asada, and tonight, this King Ranch Chicken Casserole from Eating Well magazine.

Baking  A favorite brownie recipe that I make over and over again because I almost always have the needed ingredients on hand, it's super easy, and it freezes nicely. Because, sugar addict over here so all baked goods get frozen asap for my husband to then enjoy one by one at his leisure.

Planning  For several, yeah, trips. We are leaving at the end of the month for a 10 day RV'ing trip along California's Central Coast, where the air should be clean, the surf should be strong, and the wine harvest flowing. Seriously, we do this trip pretty much annually because the coastal hikes are simply sublime, and there are wineries literally everywhere. Even during COVID this trip works because we are generally on our own and isolated while hiking, and wineries tend to have beautifully uncrowded patios on which to enjoy wine tasting.

Then, pretty much immediately upon our return, we'll be getting on our first airplane since COVID arrived, flying to Metro DC to visit our youngest daughter and family. Upon arrival we will all head south to Richmond, Virginia to enjoy a VRBO stay while celebrating my oldest granddaughter's 6th birthday. 

We are much looking forward to both much-needed trips.

Looking Forward To  our bathrooms remodel kicking off soon right after we return from the above trips. They are going to be beautiful once finished, particularly as compared to how they look now. In fact, here is just one of the Before's for your viewing pleasure. The wallpaper has since been removed, but still, you get the idea . . . 

This is our upstairs guest bathroom, and I am very sure our guests will enjoy it
muuuuuch more once we are finished with the remodel.

Enjoying  Our daily walks at the beach. The one thing feeling like we are enclosed inside when at home has done is to motivate us to get outside each and every day. Yesterday we enjoyed a wonderful six mile walk along the bluffs of Crystal Cove in Newport Beach, today we are walking six miles through our harbor, then back via Doheny Beach. Tomorrow the plan is to walk the shorelines of San Clemente just a couple of miles to our south. We feel ridiculously fortunate to have so many options for getting outside given the current situation with our wildfires.

As much of this as we can get currently, please!

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That's it for me this week. What's going on Currently where you are?

Is Frugal A Positive Or A Negative?

 

We have a couple that we much enjoy, and have been spending time with on a regular basis during the pandemic. We kayak and paddleboard together, do socially distanced picnics together, and just generally hang. Often times on their spectacular outdoor balcony with sweeping views of the ocean. 

So, observing that they appear to be very comfortable financially - their home is worth considerably more than ours per their closer proximity to the ocean as just one example - I've been startled to hear them refer to my husband and I as being 'frugal' twice in the last week. In this instance, I am translating their usage of the word as meaning closer to cheap, which sincerely, sincerely puzzles me.

As a result, I came home last night and researched the meaning of frugal vs. cheap and came up with the following:

Being cheap is about spending less; being frugal is about prioritizing your spending so that you can have more of the things you really care about.

If this is the place they were coming from, than I am A-OK with that as a frugal definition, because we absolutely do prioritize where we spend our money. And something I keep in mind every single time we make a purchase, whether it be at the grocery store, a retail store, or a travel agency. I desire value for the money I spend, recognizing that what I deem as value may be completely different from what another individual might consider to be of value.

But the comment rankled, and I'm trying to determine exactly why. Yesterday's discussion was with regard to the size of our respective electric bills. The other couple has invested in solar, and wondered why we did not. I explained that our electric bills average just $50 a month, or $600 year, and thus, it did not make financial sense for us to do so at this time. The husband responded that we sure were frugal. They both then went on to ask if we were the kind of people who lived in the dark in order to save money. And just like that I felt like I'd been put on the defensive.

For the record, we do turn off lights when we are not in a room, however we turn lights on in the evening for security purposes. In addition, all of our lights, every single one, is a lower usage - but not lower costing! - LED. And, yes, during heat waves such as we've been having here this past week, we absolutely do keep our west-facing window coverings shut to minimize the heat that comes into the house. But only as a temporary measure.

Thus I'm trying to evaluate whether this was more about them than us, and, again, why I'm so rankled either way. A profound phrase I heard once is that whenever one is disturbed, it is because somewhere there is a small truth. 

A small truth? Yes, I do believe that could be so, and perhaps I need to evaluate.

Small things like refusing to pay for parking anywhere in our coastal towns because we know where we can find free parking, and we much enjoy the longer walk through charming seaside streets that generally results.

Small things like packing our own water because there are few things that annoy me more than paying for water.

Small things like confining our visits to a winery that all four of us belong to to Tuesdays, when food is half price for members.

Small things like, perhaps, sharing that we would likely never ever loan money to either of our children should they hit a financial hurdle, believing they need to find a way to climb out of a hole they most likely dug all by themselves, but we would always, always provide a safe haven for them in our home with which to recover and determine how best to forge ahead.

And, at the end of the day, I do believe it is this last point that has resulted in their new labeling of us as frugal. You see, they have continued to provide fairly significant sums to both of their adult children as they have gotten into circumstances of their own makings. And this has resulted in the deferring of some of their own retirement plans. Perhaps they were hoping to find like company in us, and hearing that our approach, while still loving, was different, has gotten under their skin.

Hmm. I just had an 'aha' moment. Perhaps that's what this really is all about. They are stressed, and possibly without realizing it, are taking a small amount of it out on us. And if that is the case? It's OK, because they are worth taking it just a little bit on the chin until the situation with their children straightens out.

Which is what I so appreciate about blogging. The process of committing my thoughts to electronic paper just now has allowed me to process my own irritation, remove it, and instead find a space for compassion on their behalf instead.