Life's simple pleasures

It's nice to sit back and enjoy the little things once and awhile and really appreciate them. Those things have really been on my mind a lot these past few days. I'm especially thinking about this after just having enjoyed a lemon creamslush from Sonic...mmmmmm. A Sonic recently opened in Streetsboro just a few weeks ago, so on my way back from the Cleveland area tonight, I stopped there. I have no idea where the closest Sonic had been before this one opened, but it isn't close wherever it is. I love Sonic...so many choices and the prices aren't bad, so it's definitely one of life's simple pleasures. We have had several other "little" things happen this week that I've been enjoying too.

First and foremost, we finally got the livingroom in a presentable manner, just in time to host some visitors from Idaho who were here to pick up their missionary who has just finished her mission. Now, since Dad has officially moved out, we suddenly have some extra space not only in what had been his room, but also in the basement. For anyone who has been to our house recently, you know that the livingroom was bordering on chaotic. Not only did we have furniture in there, but much of Mom's stuff was also in there since there wasn't anywhere else to put it, like some of her shelves and her computer desk among other things. With Dad moving most of his stuff out the last two weeks, we were able to move most of Mom's things into what had been his room and return the livingroom to something a little more like, well, a livingroom. It was getting to the point where there wasn't much room at all to do much of anything and it was certainly a place I didn't feel comfortable having guests over in. I spent much of the week slowly moving out Mom's things and organizing the various things left in there, and dusting and vacuuming of course too. I finished the main cleaning not too long before our guests arrived, but I still need to put some pictures on the wall for the finishing touches. It's nice to have it so clean and organized-- I've found myself just standing in there just admiring it-- but even clean, it still has some cosmetic problems. Our furniture is a nice sample of several decades, our two unmatching, hand-me-down couches in particular. One is a nice 1960's couchbed and the other is a dark, too-big-for-this-room sofa from the 1980's or 1990's that our cat had a nice time shredding. I've actually never had new couches in my life as we have always had someone else's cast-off, whether they be from friends or relatives. The couches go right along with our ancient piano (dates back to at least 1916) with a 1950's kitchen chair in place of the piano bench as well as our 1980's entertainment center in between two cheap particle board shelves, most likely from the late 1990's. Let's not forget our 1980's tuner and the paint job from the late 1990's! One day, once things stabilize with the house and me having a job, I really hope to be able to get nice furniture that not only matches, but is something we picked out ourselves and actually fits in the room! Despite that, right now just having it clean and respectable is a welcome change, though I remarked to Mom yesterday that it's funny how when we clean our house, it tends to still look awful! The floors need redone and pretty much every room except mine needs repainted (mine was painted in 2006) as most haven't been painted in well over 10-15 years. But first things first: get the house organized and make sure we are going to be staying here longer than just another year.

Of course the other simple pleasure has been watching the price of gas fall. Since gas has been as high as it has, I've basically been getting whatever $25 can get me. Last time I got gas, the $25 got my tank full. This time, I didn't even have to spend the full $25 and my tank was full! That's what happens when gas is $2.10/gallon. No sooner did I get gas then I went past another station where it was listed at $1.99/gallon and on the way to the Cleveland area I passed a station in Streetsboro where it was listed at $1.97/gallon. Yes! Having gas prices finally fall has been nice to see since rising gas prices, in my opinion, played a large role in bringing the economy down. Think about it: gas prices went up, so people had to spend more on filling their cars and heating their homes and then prices went up at the stores because things cost more to transport. What it resulted in has been people cutting back and spending less, which leads to a slowdown and/or recession. Gas prices going down so far (don't forget, just after Hurricane Ike hit in September, gas prices were over $4 here and even higher in other parts of the country) gives me hope that the economy will start to rebound soon as long as prices stay down. I know it's helping me be able to spend more on other things already!