Random gratitude

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

 
Truly I believe the last 2 weeks in this country have been the worst in its history since the Civil War.

And along those lines of being sad, I am starting this  gratitude post with something local I am sad about. My city's bookstore and vegetarian restaurant have closed. The first one I've known about for months, the second was more sudden. The veg restaurant was always busy anytime I was there, both with dine-in and takeout. I know rents in the downtown are crazy. The "upscale resale" clothing shop I liked closed over a year ago. I want reasons to go to the downtown and linger! And those reasons are kinda dwindling here. 

Well...that leads us into the gratitude list:

- There is a new bookstore coming to the downtown though. I went there today and saw its storefront. The sign is up and I see books in the window. But I don't know when they are opening. Also, on the same trip today I visited Crumb Crusher, a Black-owned cafe with vegan options. It was really good! So there are still signs of life in the downtown.

- I went to Postcards to Swing States twice in the past 8 days. Trying to do SOMETHING in this insanity. And my local Dems have a meeting in 1 week which I will attend no matter what. 

- I was in love with these peanut butter cookies I got once from my local food coop. But they never have them in stock! I checked so many times, like literally the last 8 times I looked, they didn't have them. At long last....they had them last time I was there!

- On my local "free" group on FB, someone offered a vegan cookbook. I got it and it's great!

- And speaking of most of the above items...someone posted on another local group that there was a dumpster FULL of books outside the bookstore, following its last day open. I raced over there, and so did others. We dumpster dived! Volunteers were able to rescue ALL of the books. When I got home, I picked out about 5 that look good, and the rest I'm donating. One woman already came by and took about half of them to The Economy Shop. The others I will take to Little Free Libraries.

- House-wise, it's been one thing after another. BUT good news...we don't need a new water heater! And Doris got a good price on a new fridge so that's coming.  And we had a shiton of rain yesterday but thank goddess none of it got into our basement

- I had a revelation about my weight. Kind of a "duh" moment but here it is. I don't need to worry about my weight. It's been basically the same for 20 years. If I eat too much, I get sick - so I basically have a built-in system to prevent me from overeating. (I didn't have that 10 or more years ago, not sure why the change. Maybe my body just got very used to whole foods plant based, so it rejects an excess of oil, sugar, etc).  

Comments

[rhoda_rants]

Dumpsters full of books are more common than you think. It's why I keep taking discarded items from the library. (Just got seasons 2 through 6 of "Once Upon A Time!") There's a sales window where you can have people come buy stuff, but once that window closes, you HAVE to remove them from the premises somehow. I guarantee you the bookstore staff tried to "save" as many as they could before they hit the dumpster.

I actually went to a new café in my neighborhood recently! It's a French bakery run by actual French people. More seating than I was expecting, and the tables are all small and cute. I will definitely be back there. And the local feminist book store knows me now, lol. (They're right below the coffee shop where I stop before work sometimes.)

[nytshd3]

I'm glad we got to have tea & scrabble, too bad we didn't have a bit more privacy. But it was good to see you and hang out!

Looking forward to trying Crumb Crusher! Are they a new place?

And yay for the peanut butter cookies! I've definitely done a happy dance when there was something I liked that they stopped carrying and then brought them back out of nowhere.

Way to go with the dumpster full of books! That's awesome!!

And great news that you don't need a new water heater! Woo! When does the fridge arrive?

Do you think you'll still feel the need to 'weigh in' now and then?

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

Just got the new fridge - woo! Now I still need to transfer stuff up from the basement fridge.

Crumb Crusher is new. Can't wait for you to see it!

That's a great question - if I'm not getting anything from a weekly weigh in and it's unlikely to ever change much, then why do it?