FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER!

Maybe it’s a senior-citizen thing. Maybe it’s because I’ve lost three neighbors in the last 14 months. Whatever it is, it’s my new mantra: use the good stuff in my day-to-day living.

What am I saving it for? My life is more than half over. No one lives into their one hundred and twenties. I’ve used the cheap stuff long enough. Now it’s time to use the things I cherish. And if they break or get damaged, at least I get to enjoy them for now.

I have a ceramic bird bath sitting outside on a wooden table. It’s a bird bath, and yes, a tree branch could come down and break it. Oh, well.

I have my grandmother’s quilt. It used to be on my bed until I got a crazy dog six years ago. It’s time to put the quilt back on the bed.

I have some lovely clothes that I am saving for what? Time to wear them and wear them out. I’ll never forget that when my mother’s mother passed away, we found pillowcases still in the package, a new robe with the tags on it. A product of the Great Depression, Grandma was saving them and never got to use them. That’s sad.

I have beautiful Navajo rugs that might be fading in the sunlight that comes into my west-facing living room. Too bad. I’m not going to pack them away. I’m going to enjoy them.

I have great new socks that cost a few bucks. I’m wearing them and enjoying them. Today I did some gardening in a pale corduroy shirt that I love. It got dirty. Them’s the breaks, folks.

My new leather boots got the toes scuffed up when I stopped to help a pedestrian when a car ran over his feet. It was cold. I knelt behind him as we waited for the paramedics. If I had it to do over, I might think twice, but you know what? Those new boots kept me warm while I helped convince the man that he needed to let the paramedics take him to the hospital. Broken bones in both feet. Shoe polish is relatively cheap.

I found some lovely English dishes in blue to match the blue tile counters in my beach house. As I cut up the apple today, I decided to use the pretty bowl instead of a Corelle bowl. Why not? The apples looked better in the antique bowl, anyway.

When the kids were little, we were all about plastic and thrift store stuff. Guess what? Those lovely blue antique bowls also came from a thrift store. Now I’m shopping in the dishes section instead of the plastic section. No packaging, I am re-using, keeping stuff out of the landfill and still getting my shopping on, only it’s not Nordstrom or Pottery Barn. It’s Saver’s, Second Chance, Goodwill, Discovery Shop, and Animal Rescue shop.

Some food for thought.