A (small) good deed
Jon and I went to the laundromat a couple of weeks ago. (Long story: we do have a washer and dryer at our house, but the washer is mediocre at best. It’s a Whirlpool Toploader, and we’ve tried different wash programs and different detergents, but the washer just doesn’t always do a good job. Jon, who does most of our laundry, is very frustrated by it. If you have any other tips we can try, I am all ears! So today, we went back to the laundromat that we used to frequent years ago when we lived in an apartment and didn’t have a washer and dryer at home.
As we were walking back to the car with our freshly washed clothes, a homeless man approached us and said he had lost his shoes and asked if we had a pair of socks he could have. At first, it didn’t really click for us (the request was so strange), and Jon brushed him off, but then I realized what he was asking. The reason he had asked for socks: he was walking around barefoot/with only one sock, and I realized that when it gets hot here during the day, the street asphalt gets super hot! It must be really uncomfortable to have to walk on it barefeet.
So Jon got a pair of socks from the laundry basket and gave it to him, and the guy was honestly so, so grateful! He thanked us profusely and as we were driving away in the car, Jon said: “I should just have given him my sneakers.” (It broke my heart.)
The best scone
On a different note: There is a great coffee shop next to the laundromat, where we used to sometimes get coffee or a baked item, and we decided to get some coffee and breakfast there today while waiting for our clothes. I ordered a coffee and a raisin scones and, omg, it was hands-down one of the best scones I ever had. I didn’t know raisin scones are even a thing. Fresh and crumbly, crispy outside and soft inside. Perfection.
AI THOUGhTS
I know people have very mixed feelings about AI (myself included) – ranging from excitement to skepticism. Have you noticed the AI-generated images that are taking over the Internet? I am not just talking about the clearly fake AI images that tR*mp posts of himself on his social media, but also AI images that appear much more “realistic” and hard to identify (unless you know better). I mean, you cannot convince me that the photo that was posted of M*tch McC*nnell from the hospital wasn’t AI-doctored (pun intended). He’s never looked that well in his life.
And then there are these images/graphics that pop on social media and Facebook. You’ve probably seen them. They all look kinda the same. Retro themed seems to be the hype right now. I get it: it’s easy to just throw some “instructions” at ChatGPT, or Gemini, or CoPilot (or what have you) and it puts together a graphic in minutes. And maybe for a Facebook post here and an Instagram post there, it’s fine. But is this what we will have to deal with going forward? Someone help us.
Happy Mail
In more exciting news, I got a postcard in the mail! From Birchie! From St. Louis! THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
Frugal Wins
I don’t cut coupons – is that still a thing? – unless they’re digital, but I will look for sales and take advantage of other ways to save at the store. Are you shopping at Target? (Yeah, I am shopping at Target again.) Are you a Circle Member (free) and do you take advantage of Circle Rewards? If you don’t, you really should. You just have to check weekly in the app and activate the reward(s), and they’ll be applied at checkout. On my last trip, I was able to snatch up not one, but two rewards ($25 and $20) for a total of $45 in rewards (for future use) during my last purchase of $110. That’s a payback of 40%. Oh, plus an extra 5% off for using my TargetCard.
photo credit: @gaellemarcel via Unsplash
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