Here's Sarah Jane with her daddy patting her little head. Well, maybe not so little - she bumps it a couple of times a day when she tries to hide under the kitchen table.
I’ve been following a comic strip whose current topic is about what happens when someone wins the lottery and comes into more money than I’ll make in a lifetime, especially considering I’m on the downhill side of middle age.
The troubles are piling up for this brother-sister duo who argue over where to keep the winning ticket (sister’s purse, for now), who to tell, and what to buy and when. They don’t have their winnings yet, but their lives quickly become messy.
We don’t have that particular set of problems around our house. I have made an interesting observation about the frugal nature of each of us, however, and it made me stop and wonder: which one of us has gone off the deep end?
One of us will use the last possible drop or crumb of something before opening another bottle or package. I guess that’s not so bad, but the other one will squeeze plastic bottles until they make certain, um, noises and then he slips over to the sink, adds water to the remains of the ketchup, salad dressing or whatever he’s got in hand, then he shakes the bottle and returns to the table with a triumphant grin on his face. I can only shake my head and wonder.
If I make fun of this behavior too many times I am reminded of what I’ve done to save a few bucks. For instance, I’ll take used paper plates and napkins to use for dumping out coffee grounds and wiping the filter before washing it. Hey, it’s not good practice to throw coffee grounds down a sink with or without benefit of a garbage disposal.
The most memorable boo-boo I made is when we lived in Arizona and thought of a clever way to save some dough. Let’s say it involved cutting paper plates in half, thereby making them last twice as long. That idea lasted as long as one snack because the kids ratted me out to their dad when their sandwiches slid to the floor and the dogs ran off with them. Half a paper plate isn’t quite as sturdy as a whole one.
None of us have much good sense when it comes to bread products. One guy likes hamburger buns, another prefers healthy bread and I really couldn’t care less. That would explain why the other two get upset when they find a small hole in their bread items.
Here’s what often happens. Sarah Jane needs to take a pill twice a day to help prevent snapping episodes. After numerous vet visits and blood tests, we still don’t know why our pooch has this problem, though our doggie doc made a remark one time that went like this: “Does she hit her head much?” I told him she hit it on the kitchen table at least twice a day and he advised us to get her a helmet. But I digress.
I give Sarah her little white pill inside a teeny-tiny peanut butter sandwich. In order to make it, I have to pinch some soft bread, break it in two, dab peanut butter on it and press the two pieces together. For a while I was shoving the pill in a small piece of hot dog but she got clever and ate all around the pill before she shot it across the room.
For some reason the guys don’t want to eat bread or buns that have holes in them, and I guess I can’t blame them.
I’m not sure I want to win millions of dollars and create a whole new set of problems for us, but if we did come into some bucks I’ll bet we could stop adding water to nearly empty bottles, and I’d switch to paper coffee filters. Oh, and maybe I’d hunt for a small, padded helmet for a certain Lab who doesn’t have the sense to stop hitting her noggin.
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