Black Oak's Daughter

I had a conversation with my chiropractor on Friday when I was there for my treatment. I told him about the new bed that I’d been saving for. We talked about the style (waterbed/foam) and the price (anything less than $2k is really a good price). I also mentioned that I was looking for a decent treadmill sale this weekend. I really miss the one that my ex took when we split, and I really need to start using one again. My chiropractor looked at me and told me flat out that he’s really proud of me for doing these things for myself. That made me smile. Of course Roomie thinks I’m an idiot for spending money on a treadmill when there’s a perfectly good sidewalk right out the front door, but I’m not good in heat, or rain, or snow, or with strangers, so to get rid of all of those possibilities/excuses I’ll go for a 2 mile walk in my office every day and get some quality TV watching in too. Now if there were just some quality TV to watch….

So, this weekend I got really lucky, and very, very, spendy. The treadmill that I ended up buying is a $1700 machine. It was on their website on sale for Memorial Dayfor $799. I got it for $749 ($50 off coupon code) + $30ish for the care kit for it & free shipping. It comes with a wireless heart rate monitor, a memory card loaded with “wellness workouts” and apparently it’s got decent speakers and a port for my iPhone/iPod, along with all that other stuff that good treadmills have.

I also bit the bullet and got the bed that I’ve been saving for since my last bonus check got spent on cat surgery. I shopped around, and got it for considerably less than $2k, and then I went to overstock.com, got a 2″ good quality foam topper, deep pocket Sealy mattress pad, and new set of deep pocket flannel sheets for less than the price that they wanted for the mattress pad on the mattress website. New bed, and all that extra stuff, still less than $2k! Go Me. Oh, and free shipping on the bed, and $2.95 for shipping and a 10% off coupon code on the rest of the stuff, at Overstock.

Momma didn’t raise no fools. Well, no female one’s anyway

This weekend was also good for my car.
I took it to the dealership where my brother works, and paid him for the 1/2 hour of labor that it took to replace the leaky vacuum hose. Car repair, anywhere else $100+. Old Bro fixing it at his dealership $46, and he did that 23 point inspection thing (plug in the diagnostic computer) for free.

I also got new brakes on my car. The old ones were getting pretty bad. Grabby, grindy, squeaky noises were making me nervous. The last time I had Midas do them was over $600. This time my neighbor did them for $75 plus parts, most of which I got at Chrysler wholesale from my family connection, so I figure I saved 50% over the half baked jerks at Midas and Neighbor Guy does it right. He bleeds the lines and everything, which Midas doesn’t do unless you ask, and then they charge another $70 for it. Jerks.

So, the only thing left that I need is new tires (and Prince Charming to help me break in the new bed, but that’s a whole other story). I saw some tires on sale at TireRack.com that I’ll look into soon. Now that my car’s all fixed and I’ve invested in brakes, I’ll do my best to keep the thing running through at least one more winter. My current tires are marginally unsafe even if the pavement’s a little wet, so I’m not going to dare to do another winter on them. I’ve made a goal to get 4 decent quality tires installed for less than $550. It can be done, I just have to shop around. I’ll have the transmission serviced soon too. It’s been a bit jumpy lately. The car’s ugly, and totally not my style anymore, but it’s paid for and it runs, so it stays for a while.

I feel a bit whoreish for spending Memorial Day weekend in shopping mode, but by taking advantage of sales, and doing my research, I saved quite a bit.

I took my car for a drive today to test the brakes, and mostly just get out of the house. I ended up at the cemetery where most of my immediate relatives are buried. My parents, my mom’s parents, and a couple of aunts and uncles are there. That place is one of my sacred places. I go there when life gets hard and I need to heal my heart. I also go there when I need a reality check. There’s nothing like seeing your dead parent’s graves to give life a little perspective.

Today was neither. I didn’t go there because it’s Memorial Day either. I’ve never done that before. Memorial Day is about Soldiers and war dead. None of my family members that died at war are at this particular cemetery. I was just out for a drive, and I haven’t been there in a while, so what the heck, I went.

The cemetery was the most crowded that I’ve seen it. Flowers everywhere, people everywhere. There were a couple of entire families gathering at their loved ones graves. I find it interesting culturally that the two families that I saw from a reasonably close distance were Hispanic. Different cultures honor their dead in different ways. These people were gathered, talking and smiling with each other, like it was just a walk through a park, or something equally peaceful. It was nice. That’s how I feel when I go visit my parents there. The love, the faith, the energy that they put into life and living; that’s what I feel there. Yes, there’s a little sadness too, but mostly there’s gratitude that I was entirely blessed as a child to be part of these people’s lives.

It was a good Memorial Day weekend.

It should only take me three or four months to pay it off.. Oy. (but go me!)

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