The Baboon Congress

Good to the Last Drop

94 Comments

Today’s guest post comes from Clyde of Mankato.

In an effort to save a couple bucks, I bought a can of Folgers Coffee. Not a can actually, a plastic. Can we call it a plastic? If the English can call a can a tin, I declare that we can. Usually I buy coffee in a bag, the better stuff.

Coffe Bag

 

As far as taste goes, it was an error to buy the plastic. As far as economics go, it was a wise decision, but barely. My mother would have been proud of me. Frugality, punctuality, individuality—the three virtues of Adeline Anne, bless her departed self.

As I opened the plastic, I wondered how farmers would have survived the last century without coffee cans. In our neck of the woods, Duluth’s own Arco brand was the most common. The one pound cans were particularly prized, but that caught my mother at odds–to pay more per ounce for her coffee to have the size of can she and my father wanted. Life is full of dilemmas.

They were everywhere on our farm. Grain scoops, chicken feed scoops, clothes pin holders, grease containers, egg baskets, retainers of nuts and bolts and screws and washers and cotter pins (wonderful word that–cotter pins). In the garden they were watering cans and baby plant protectors. In the house, holders of my mother’s mammoth assortment of buttons, crayon container, coin collector, shoe lace storage (odd ones left over when one broke because they could be used to tie plants to support sticks; my mother was cheap), sewing kit, flower pots, and many more uses. The wonder is that we had that many around, considering how weak my mother made their coffee—frugality again.

Now, of course, I have this plastic, which will be empty in a few weeks. However, I cannot think of a storage use for it. I could keep my cotter keys in it, except I gave up all my cotter keys three years ago. We live in a smallish apartment and have eliminated all the stuff we can, which means we have little to store, and no business keeping a plastic in which to store nothing.

I also have these perfect little tins, which I acquired by ordering an expensive tea. I say tins because tins of tea sounds much more elegant than cans of tea. (Do not, please, tell Adeline Anne I used to order expensive tea instead of buying Lipton’s.)

Tins for Blog

Are not these tins perfect for storing cotter keys or lots of other things? Well, if I stored cotter keys in them, then they would have to be cans. Nope, haven’t found a use yet. But I am keeping them, so help me. Maybe I will go out and buy some cotter keys.

The plastic, is of course, an environmental error as well, unless I can find a permanent use for it. Now that I think frugally about it: I am going to be cremated.

Coffe can

Maybe that’s the true meaning of good to the last drop.

 

What would Adeline Anne think of your spending habits?

 

94 thoughts on “Good to the Last Drop”

  1. Good morning. Very nice, Clyde. I very much like the writing as well as the drawings and the photo. Good to see you have returned in such outstanding form after telling us that you might not be able continue as a contributor to this blog.

    My parents were from rural Wisconsin and shared some of the thrifty approach to life that Adeline Anne practiced in rural Minnesota. I helped my Dad build his own home with a minimum of modern construction tools and a lot of hand labor. When I was very young I remember my mother making her own soap. Like you, Clyde, I would have trouble throwing away those nice tins that I would hope to use in some way and I would feel a little guilty about paying extra money for fancy tea.

    I try to be thrifty. However, our house is filled with too much stuff that I am sure Adeline Anne would think of as being signs that I am not thrifty. Like my Dad, I don’t have very many expensive power tools. I do have a large collection of less expensive tools, many of which I don’t need.

    I also seem to like to gather all kinds of odd office supplies. Some of these supplies are odds and ends that I saved because I am trying to be thrifty and can’t throw away anything I might use some day, but there is also some office stuff i thought would be nice to have and have never used. I could give more examples of collections of too much stuff that I have laying around, some due to trying to be thrifty and some due to wanting stuff I really don’t need.

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  2. clyde,
    nice to see your hands are working and your heart is back to its writing mode and all is well here on the trail.
    i love the drawings and see by the printing on the side of the bag nd the plastic that the pen is working well under your supervision and direction. good good good.
    i have a parallel story today that came up this week regarding the tomato cans the sell at the club stores or in the mega section of the cub food stores. those 1 gallon cans of tomato sause paste or pureed tomatoes for 2.47 a can. it is such a good price i can not bring myself to buy sizes used for normal human quantities. what does one do witht he left over tomato paste after opening the mega can? i have tried coming up with uses for tomato paste but i am not real good at it yet. (catsup comes form tomato paste but my family is real picky about the vinager to tomato paste ratio which i still get wrong and a mea can of catsup is only 1.99 so making 3 gallons out of the tomato paste may be frugal but….. well the paralell story goes with the cans. i buy these cans of tomato product and make mass quantities of chili, bar b que sauce pizza sauce, spaghettis sauce tomato juice salsa and if its around a dallop of straight pureed tomatos or tomato sauce is a good food item on its own, and when the can is empty i can not throw it away. i remember the 1 lb coffee cans you mention and the stuff that that size can lends itself to is remarkable. i have a garage full of stuff that could benefit from that size container, but the 1 gallon size is too big fro screws and too large for the counter top. only 8 of them would fill the area under the sink or in the closet. but i know i want them. i also bought some mother in laws tongues at ikea a while back, they had them on special for 69cents a plant if i remember correctly and with the little white porcelin flower pots taht fit perfectly for an additional 69 cents apiece i had a window accent for for under 10 dollars of marvelous cute little mother in law plants. my wife was not pleased. her window sill was taken over with these intruders and she resented it but the toleration was until the plants grew up to be to big to be considered cute littel plants at which time they were reported into a container about the size of the 1 lb can and now those larger pots are busting out at the seams. i have taken the serrated butcher knife to them and sawed them all into two or three of the mother in laws tongues which are now knee cap high or so and in about 15 pots. it is time to move them back indoors and it is time to get out the butcher knife and saw them into multiple plants again. i am feeling rather smug about the new collection of 20 or so plants i will have but my wife is feeling like her space is being taken over. the correct container to hold the plants are the 1 gallon tomato tins filled with those coffee can sized black plastic plant liners you get plants from home depot when you buy the garden center stuff in. when i went to get my black plastic liner cans they were gone. they had been thrown in my inattentive absence and when i went to find the 1 gallon cans they too had mysteriously disappeared too. no one around here ever takes responsibility for pitching anything but they are gone. my garbage cans go up sunday afternoon for the monday morning pick up and they are football field away form my garage when they hit their final destination before being dragged back down at the end of the work day on monday. i have found amazing things of value when i open the lid on monday morning occasions wen i throw something out myself at the last minute only to discover my wife waits until sunday at 5 oclock to load the space in the garbage with my treasures her rivals. bottom line is i have 15 monster plants busting out of their planters and with my stuff thrown out i will have to go to the store and pay money for the crappy replacement answers to the cans i thought i had ready and waiting. i have a tough time shaking the same mentaility that adeline anne preached. my son at college laughs when he sees the size most people buy stuff in. olives in a can the size of a coffee cup? green beans in the same size can? refrigerators without giant tupperware containers full of leftovers? not at my house but those cute little tins…. clyde did you know you can get a mongo bag of tea form amazon for 16 dollars deliverd? i buy the three flavors i use on a regular basis and now i am saving the mylar ziplock bags they come in. potato chip sized bags
    theyre great!!!

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    2. The tea from the tins is 500 Mile Chai, does not come in any mongo bags but I have given up on tea
      I have tried to give up all flavored drinks and just drink water. Have to have a flavor now and then
      coffee is all that works that way having given up tea

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      1. germany has a water with a cool bottle with a triangel on it. water is water but the bottle (i think it was with gas) was a killer. made it worth the stupid amount of money they charged. when i ge tto foreign places i always brush my teeth with tap water , drink the coffe have ice and fruit juice an innoculate myself to the water of the region in anticipation of being bulletproof on my next vist with the native toxind already introduced , kind of like flu shots. no matter what i drink it has to be a mix with good old water, i love water and if i had to choose 1 thing that would be it, i am a tea guy after kicking coffee. i can drink and appreciate coffee but its not calling out to me anymore

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    3. It seems almost everyone found uses for those large coffee cans. For much of my life 35 mm film was sold in flexible nylon containers that were watertight. People hated to throw those away, but nobody could find a good use for them. Too small. I knew photographers who had drawers filled with those plastic containers, holding them until they could figure out how to use them.

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      1. Dang, wish I’d known one of those photographers. The little film containers are good for beads and jewelry findings, and also work great for certain types of spells like freezer spells. Pill bottles are decent substitutes, but they aren’t as waterproof.

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      2. perfect pot containers and i always kept a variety of 7 or 8 kids so the buzz didnt get old. if i had access i would keep 7 or 8 varieties of everything always. variety is the spice of life

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      1. I put little scoops of tomato paste on a plate in the freezer and once they are frozen I throw them in a plastic bag. Then whenever I need a tablespoon or two, I have it handy.

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      2. I’ve always frozen mine in an ice cube tray. Ditto pesto (one cube is never enough, but parcelling it out like that makes it last longer…ahhhh pesto).

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  3. my dad wanted to have his ashes dividied up into skippy peanut butter jars but the plastic ones feel like a less substantial. plastic tin can… plastic glass jars… im not sure the world is going in the right direction.

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    1. I’m thinking mason jars would be a nice idea. Right there next to the home canned tomatoes and peaches.

      There is a short story in that image somewhere…..

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    2. Speaking of parents’ ashes, my dad insisted that when he died, one of us must mix his and my mom’s ashes together. Well, the job somehow fell onto me. l didn’t know how to follow his wishes, so l took out a Hefty garbage bag, poured both sets of ashes into it, then vigorously shook it. Then, the problem appeared that the beautiful home made urn my son had made wasn’t large enough to contain both of my parents ashes. This left me with the dilemma of what to do with the leftovers.

      lt finally occurred to me that their love of Crystal Bay would be where the rest of them needed to be scattered from a boat while playing their favorite music. l did so on a lovely spring day. Too bad about the wind.

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  4. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    Clyde–welcome home and thank you for the post. It is wonderful to have you back.
    Which reminds me, Dale, I need to learn how to post myself and your instructions are long gone. Can you resend them to me?

    We are back from the memorial service in Iowa for Lou’s dad, and the “kids”–truly middle-aged adults–have returned to Phoenix. Remembering Lou’s dad is a similar experience to remembering Adeline Anne–he was also frugal and punctual. As his children started to pack up the house they found stuff–bolts, screws, nuts, nails, oil–stored in what else? Coffee cans.

    Adeline Anne would say about my spending habits–she used to be quite frugal like her grandmother taught her to be, but she has fallen apart with age creeping on. She would have loved Okie’s spending habits. He did not spend. He did not fix the house. He did not buy new clothing. He did not go anywhere. But he did buy stamps–we now have a large collection of those!

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    1. what is the one item you will cherish from okie? its interesting what that thing turns out to be when there is a no frills person who dies. the fancy things dont exist and the thing of value ends up taking on a different dimension. what do you have from adeline anne clyde?

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  5. Having been raised by people who were raised by an Adelaide Anne equivalent, I think she would be fine with my lack of spending habits to a point (I do write the big check for extra education type things without a second thought).

    She would, I am equally certain, despair of my housekeeping (but then, so do I).

    For the record I still have some of the wonderful 3# coffee cans (Folgers, without a doubt- back when 3# was actually 3#)- they make excellent table risers amongst other things. My mother packed her excellent chocolate chip cookies (the sturdy kind with oatmeal and walnuts) in those, lined with a plastic baggie. She has tried doing the same with the plastic jug things, but they are too convoluted to be much good in that line, so she has given that up in favor of Gladware.

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    1. I think mig spends less to heat her house than anyone else here. I used to compete with her on who could go deeper into winter before turning on the heat. She is bleepin’ unbeatable at that! I used to keep my house at 55 or so in winter, and she still spent less on warmth.

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  6. So good to have you back in the swing of things, Clyde. Love this post, both for its originality and your illustrations; good job. From yesterday’s post, I gather that you’re back to bicycling as well, and that’s wonderful news.

    I’m afraid Adeline Anne would not approve of my spending habits. Not that they are extravagant, but they are inconsistent at best. I do most of my shopping at thrift stores, and usually on Tuesdays when everything is 25% off. That’s when I get my haircuts too to take advantage of the senior discount. Then I’ll turn around and pay $125.00 for a pair of sandals. I’m picky about shoes because of a bunion on my right foot. Nothing worse than shoes and sandals that aren’t comfortable.

    Another thing I spend too much money on are spring bulbs. Just yesterday my last shipment of 200 tulip bulbs (Red Emperor and Pink Impression) arrived. I’m donating half of them to The Garden of Good Hearts, there has to be some redemption in that.

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        2. Still am, Steve, but that’s not out of a sense of being frugal. I just don’t like things going to waste. I can’t stand putting things in the trash that someone else can use. I still pinch myself over the beautiful dining table and chairs we got through Freecycle. I admit to rinsing out ziplock bags if they haven’t contained anything greasy or smelly, but I don’t wash plastic wrap. CG’s confession to doing that cracked me up.

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  7. I grew up in a house with a set of cubbies made from coffee cans. My mom somehow strung them together two wide and about 6 feet high, spray painted the outside black, so they could be Folgers, could be Maxwell House. Who knows? They were the 3 lb size, I’m guessing – a good size for tucking hats and mittens and such. The cans still exist in the front closet. And we were sent to “check the coffee cans” for mittens come winter – if you lost one in a pair, there was bound to be another orphaned mitten in there somewhere that you could use.

    Now as a grown-up, I find that I may not rise to Adeline Anne’s standards, but I do have bins of this and that about for future use (mostly hardware), I repair clothes (including small holes in favorite socks) if I can instead of just replacing, and I do my best to look for a good deal on larger purchases. I do not, however, skimp on my coffee. When Husband and I went through our period of first one then the other being laid off, we gave up most of the other extras and fancy things – but fresh ground coffee beans was the one extravagance we held onto. As an extravagance, it seems fairly easy on the pocket book (and certainly cheaper than a latte from Caribou every day).

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  8. Ah yes, the coffee tin. I still have a couple of those around, My mom used one of them to store partially-used bags of dry beans (I use the same one for pantry odds and ends like dried shiitakes). I still have her gallon glass jars, too–I think they were originally restaurant pickle jars or something like that, but she used one for flour, one for sugar and the other as a cookie jar.

    I’m trying to be frugal, but it’s not easy, especially when someone throws out the plastic wrap I washed for reuse because it doesn’t cling anymore (isn’t that what rubber bands are for?). I can’t skimp on certain things: coffee for obvious reasons, but also because I want recycled, or vegan, or organic, or fair trade, and unfortunately the less that’s in something the more it costs. I’m a mediocre cook, so I still spend too much on restaurants and prepared food because I get tired of the taste of my own cooking, or I’m just tired period.

    On the other hand, nearly all the books and DVDs I’ve bought in the last year have been second-hand, and I’ve rediscovered the fun of thrift-store shopping (while I was growing up, my aunt and uncle would come to the Cities every few months to shop the big Goodwill that used to be off 280. Great place, I miss it). My newest self-sufficiency project should make both Mom and Adeline Anne proud: once I finish off this bottle of shampoo, I’m going to try washing my hair with baking soda and cider vinegar. One of my very long-haired friends has been doing it for a while, and if it works for her it should work on my crewcut. I’ll report back if anyone’s interested.

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    1. Baking soda and vinegar, just plain white vinegar, is what I use to clean my bathtub. I’m sure it’ll do a good job of degreasing your crew cut. I’d be interested in how apple cider vinegar makes a difference. That stuff isn’t exactly cheap.

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      1. The last bottle of cider vinegar I got was given to me, so I don’t know how much the stuff is these days. Fortunately you don’t need much–a tablespoon for short and two tablespoons for long hair in either a cup or a pint of water. Probably cider vinegar just stinks a little less than white and that’s why Grist recommended it, but that’ll be something else to experiment with.

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  9. Welcome back, Clyde! It is so good to hear your unique voice again, and I agree with all those who mentioned loving your art style.

    My erstwife and I spent years trying to figure out why the coffee in restaurants tasted so much better than what we could make. Then came the big revelation that it was roasted beans that made some coffee so much tastier than Folgers from a fat red can. Gee, those cans were useful! Among other things, we kept our crayons in one of them. I’ve mentioned before that my St. Bernard puppy ate three pounds of crayons out of one of those cans one day. You can imagine what our backyard looked like a day later.

    My dad clawed his way up the ladder of middle class income until, rather to his surprise, he found himself at the top of that ladder, almost a rich man. He never got over being a man of simple tastes. He could have afforded fancy vacations and glamorous cars, but all he cared about was drinking Folgers and sharing life with his wife, my mother. They were both children of the Depression. As long as they had each other, they didn’t need anything else.

    Thus it wasn’t surprising when my dad expressed his disapproval of the “gourmet” coffee that my erstwife and I drank. I was embarrassed to be caught being indulgent, but on the other hand I really liked good coffee and suspected my dad couldn’t tell the difference between Caribou blend and his Folgers.

    I have such fond memories of those big red cans. I used to get a Folger’s can filled with chocolate chip cookies every other week when I was away at my undergraduate school. For a day I would be a popular guy with all the fellows in my dorm!

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  10. She’d have mixed feeling, Clyde. I can squeeze a dollar to the choking point with the best of them, but I always look for the highest quality for the lowest price for certain items that aren’t worth putting up with mediocrity for as I get older.

    As a result, I clip coupons to save five bucks at the grocery store, but I like wine with my dinner, so those food savings are more than a wash. We rarely eat out, but when we do, It’s not fast food or the local pizza joint. I’ll go to places like Sontes`in Rochester to get an outstanding meal that always tops $100 including wine and usually dessert and coffee.

    But then again, I drive a 23-year-old car (MIles– see my latest guest post) that got about 36 mpg up to the BWCAW and back last month. We haven’t had a car payment since 2004, and even that was a 0% interest loan on our “new” car, the 2001 Toyota Solara.

    We don’t carry a balance on our credit cards, I have shoes and clothing that are decades old, we keep our thermostat set at a mac of 67 degrees in winter (and it sets back to 61 overnight). But then again, golf is one of my passions and last year I paid more than $200 per round for 4 rounds of golf at Bandon Dunes in Oregon (one of my bucket list golf courses).

    Adeline Anne would probably shake her head and tsk me to death, but also say something like “He’s not so frugal, but a heckuva lot better than some of those fools think money’ll burn a hole in your pocket if you don’t spend it fast.”

    Chris in Owatonna

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  11. Thanks for compliments. In a huge pain flare-up today and have to drive Sandy up to Chaska to see dr. My hands barely work today.No doubt from doing that limited bit of cartooning. (My dr. thinks I have the Guiness record for most pain and control issues in one pair of hands.) Typing does not hurt beyond the norm during and after, just bad it. But doing art:Ouch, especially doing a lot at once, like for this. I had to come up with images because use of trademark material can get one in trouble.
    I do bike but very soon I am going to do a one-way bike ride to the thrift shop a block away, and walk home. Rule with exercise with fm is push it as long as you can but one day your body will tell you to stop. My body is giving very broad (and broadening) hints to stop.
    I still do some pastel work but I can pick at it: work for ten minutes then go do some housework, read, do ten minutes of pastel, etc. If things go as projected, which is about 100% likely, my hands wiil start curling up in the next year.

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    1. Deep sympathies for the pain and the limitations, Clyde. I know quite a few people with chronic pain and degenerative diseases in fandom, and I’ve seen how frustrating it can be when things a person used to love doing become next to impossible. It sucks. It just plain sucks, there’s no two ways about it.

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    2. fingerpaints clyde. i am serious
      i saw the wonderful in paris movie with the boig nosed guy about his evening cajoling with hemmingway and fitzgeralsd. when they visited the monet waterlilies all i could think of was clyde has to do this.
      i think life has a way of telling us when its time to stop. you should listen to life not me.
      maybe its time for me to get to work on my headmotion paint brush modeled after the paralyzed guys eyes moving to type on the keyboard.
      i have a vision of paintng on the canvas from across the room by directing the paint applicator with your eye movement. work on the size of the brushstroke and the texture later.
      i know it would be wonderful (would be… will be)

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  12. Point of information: Costco sells its Kirkland brand coffee in 3-lb tin cans. It’s good coffee (as per Consumer Reports) and a better deal than brands such as Folgers or Maxwell House. If you’re not a member of Costco ($55/per year for the basic membership) I suggest making friends with someone who is and asking them to buy a can or two for you on their next trip.
    C in O-town

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  13. Morning all. I’m not sure what AA would make of my spending. I don’t think of myself as frugal, but the standards against which I measure myself don’t come under the heading of normal. LIke Chris, my wasbund could squeeze tears from a nickel, but his was almost always, as opposed to Chris’ sometimes. And my mother is very very frugal. I do remember the big tins of coffee when I was a kid, but the empty tins were never saved, just tossed. I did wait an indecent amount of time before I finally purchased a new fridge recently, and I drive my cars until they practically rust apart on me. But I cough up cash every month for cable and cell phone and internet….. what would AA think???

    Clyde, I also have a green plastic that I bought once when I was in a rush and not in the mood to contemplate the 106 varieties of coffee on the grocery shelves. I still have it… I pour the bags of coffee that I prefer into it… it’s easier to get in and out of the bags every time I want to make a cup. I have a good friend who is mortified that I drink “xxx” brand; I just smile… I figure maybe some day I’ll tell her.

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  14. She sounds very much like my grandfolks and, to a certain degree, my own folks. As such, she would most assuredly NOT approve of my spending habits. Case in point: Last night, at an auction, I bought a 1950’s telephone operator switchboard workstation that I’m going to use as my new writing desk. My folks will probably be horrified at such a “waste of money” but I think it’s amazingly cool! We’ll see if that feeling lasts when I try to get it up the stairs tonight…it weighs about a metric ton…

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    1. I LOVE those old switchboard workstations. I actually worked on one for a couple of years early in my career; very fun. You really had the feeling of connecting people through a wire. You don’t get that feeling through the electronic magic of modern switchboards. Hope you have a strong friend or two who can help you get it up the stairs.

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  15. Hi Clyde!
    Nice story–

    You send me your address and I’ll mail you a couple cotter pins.
    Of course they’ll be the tiny teeny ones because that’s all that’s ever in my ‘bucket of cotter pins’ when I need one. All the regular size, useful ones are gone and just the teeny ones are left.

    My dad stored things in the flat, gallon, anti-freeze jugs with the side cut out. I found some metal boxes open on one side up in the rafters and I use some of those. Plus some of the left over jugs. And a few of the newer plastic actual ‘bins’.
    Mom always saved bread sacks and washed out the zip lock bags. I feel guilt every time I throw away a zip lock bag.

    I use a lot of left over food containers for painting at the college.
    The 3lb coffee cans are valuable for painting too!

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    1. dog food bags. man have you ever looked at dog food bags? my god….. they are the size of a small car and made out of plastc a fat man could use as a hammock.
      if you had to buy the bags they would be 5 dollars each.
      the dog food almost comes free if you can justify the bags. my wife gets sooooo pissed that i save dog food bags and i just dont care. they are the best … absolutely the best bags in the world

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      3. Husband uses our dog food bags to collect…um…that which the cat leaves behind downstairs. They are great for that use, though – sturdy and can certainly handle the weight of the litter.

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    2. One good thing to come out of the increase in plastic lidded containers is more sizes for mixing and carrying around paint. I will freely admit to buying the large containers of yogurt and cottage cheese so I could have the tubs for mixing/storing paint when I was doing set construction and design. Now I need ’em for passing along friendship bread starter. 🙂

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  16. I’ll have to read comments later. Wonderful to read your thoughts again, Clyde – brought up memories of old coffee cans holding nails, etc. in my dad’s garage, and I still have a couple 1-#ers that I use to make Boston brown bread.

    I think Adeline Ann would approve of SOME of my habits – I re-use and recycle a lot, but I spend too much for some things. I hear you about coffee coming in a plastic, Clyde – the best you can do with a plastic is recycle it, IF your area does that type of plastic. And another thing: the cotter keys have a fine clinky sound when you store them in a tin, but in a plastic – sadly lacking

    I’ve found Trader Joe’s Green Tea Mints (a luxury) come in a see through tin that is greatly reusable, since you don’t have to open it to see what’s there!

    p.s. What are cotter pins?

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  17. Baby food jars with their lids nailed to a board hanging above the workbench to store oddments of hardware….

    I think I need to do something like that in my workspace.

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  18. Clyde – l’ve never been so impressed and heart-warmed by an illustration before! You’re an amazing artist, my friend, and your contributions to this forum are priceless.

    My parents, typical of the depression-related PTSD, saved nearly every dollar they could for decades. Numerous times, they made it clear to us that what drove such frugality was their desire to leave as much money to my brother and me as possible. Although l’m terribly grateful that they had such a goal, especially since we hadn’t done so well financially, l decided years ago that my own goal would be to spend down any savings rather than go without rather than saving money to leave to my own kids. Both of my sons made it into the 1% club some years back, so they really don’t need a big inheritance anyway. On the other hand, my financially-strapped daughter could drain my entire reverse mortgage funds and still be in debt a month later. With the fairness doctrine of dividing my estate 3 ways, it’s already bothering me that she needs it all and my sons need none of it. One of them would gladly give her his entire share, but the other (a lawyer) would not.

    Maybe my will should read; “Although my estate should be divided three ways, if you can find it in your hearts to fork your share over to your sister, l’d be really, really appreciative (if l were here, that is)”

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    1. i feel like that bible story of the talents should be in there somewhere. the one who had one and stashed it brcause hed lose it had it taken away and give tho the one who spent it and duobled it because to bury it is a waste.
      have the resourceful ones look after the lost one instead of giving the lost one enough rope to hang herself.
      or is that a mixture of isms

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  19. AA would be appalled by my spending habits, particularly this past week at the play therapy conference. The vendors at the conference sell tons of toys and therapy books and such. In addition to sand tray miniatures (bride and groom, 2 plastic turds, a wooden coffin, tomb stones, skeletons, trees, a genie lamp), and figurines (horrified people, Wonder Woman, professional helper people, toy soldiers), I now have several new puppets- 4 tropical fish, a kangaroo with joey, a raccoon, an alligator, a police officer, a crab, two goofy monsters), many new therapeutic books on childhood ocd, grief, divorce, loss, Autism, and therapeutic games. It is a good thing I don’t go to this conference all that often.

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      1. Well, plastic turds are important when working with children who have issues soiling and/or voiding appropriately. I can’t imagine what the TSA baggage checkers thought about them and all the other things I purchased, given that my suitcase was chosen at random to be opened and searched.

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  20. I forgot to mention that my garage is lines with those red plastic coffee containers, all full of nuts, bolts, screws, washers and other workbench articles well sorted and labeled by my father.

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    1. you will remember him forever. what a wonderful tribute.
      my kids have cardboard boxes full of a mixture of stuff that goes form my front seat to my back seat to my trunk to a box to be sorted later to the storage space in the attic of my garage to a pallet on the pallet racking at my warehouse. its all sorted exactly in the same tim style of sorting i will be remembered for long after im gone. i imagine the other name for plastic turds will be heard often when looking through those boxes.

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  22. Hey all – Blevins Book Club Change (I”ll post tomorrow as well). Since things are still a little discombobulated at Jacque and Lou’s, we’re moving book club this Sunday to MY HOUSE. Still 2 p.m. If you don’t have my address, let me know – shelikins at Hotmail.com.

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  24. I am going to brag a bout a grandchild: my nine-year old grandson–Mr Tuxedo–laughed uproariously at “Night at the Opera.” I told his mother that it’s in his genes.

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    3. i live that movie too. my 27 year old came home to find me laughing uproariously at the scene where harpo drinks the water while he being interviewed on the live radio show when the beard disguises are in place. he asked if i didnt want to watch whatever night football was on. and i said not with the greatest movie in the history of the universe on. he didnt know the movie.
      those youngsters are in for a hoot when they discover all the treasures they have bee dismissing because they are in black and white.

      how about the scene where…….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8kaFi3_PWI

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  26. I have a long history of frugality. If I didn’t I would be poor as a churchmouse. I’m getting more lax as the years go on, though. Coffee, wine, good quality chocolate, and the extra extra sharp cheddar cheese will convince me to open the purse strings. Sometimes I buy goods that I don’t really need at art fairs out of a desire to enable an artist to make a living.

    Still don’t have cable, though, or a cell phone, either.

    The effect of frugality is magnified if you practice it when you’re young. A couple of hundred bucks squirreled away when you’re twenty can grow substantially over the decades. Conversely, a couple of hundred bucks of debt acquired at that age can spiral out of control.

    I was frugal at the right end of the age spectrum.

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  28. Is it too late to add my comment? I haven’t been on the Trail much this week and am catching up tonight.

    Welcome back, Clyde. You always have good posts and I love your artwork. I keep seeing more funny things in your drawings each time I look.

    Adeline Anne would not approve of my spending habits, although I like to think I’ve become more frugal over the past few years, mainly by buying less books and being conscious of what I need vs. what I want. I know that having too much stuff around does not give me pleasure, so I’m not only getting rid of a lot of my stuff, but buying less. I tend to buy secondhand, when I can, but only if it’s something I will need or use immediately or very soon. And buying quality stuff may cost more initially, but is usually worth it. With the good recycling program in Mpls, I feel that I don’t need to save stuff, like plastics or tins for future use, only if I know what I will store in it.

    Looking back at what I wrote, I sound pretty smug and I realize that I am making myself sound better than I am in real life. Time to sort through some junk…

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