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Frugal birthday greeting to old Joyful

15 years ago

If my calculations are right, today is ole Joyful's birthday. Let's all save a lot of money on birthday cards and wish him a happy 80th here on this appropriate forum!

Happy Birthday kind sir, and may you have many more so we can all enjoy your postings!

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Comments (14)

seattlemike
15 years ago
Cheers, young man! I hope my brain cells work half as well as yours when I reach your age. I enjoy reading your posts.
western_pa_luann
15 years ago
Have a great day, Ed!
Happy Birthday.
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I'm 50 and grew up in the Chicago area. A few memories are: --making those endless gum chains, for no real purpose. Did we really chew that much gum?? --also making endless yarn-rope chains with that neat little contraption (a spool with four nails in it) and a hook. I guess we were supposed to then sew them into a round rug, but we only kept making colorful chains. --my mother sprinkling then rolling up my dad's white shirts and putting them in the refrigerator (?) until ironing them. --typical school box sandwiches were liverwurst or peanut butter. For both, my mother spread mayonaise on the other side of the bread. (Peanut butter and mayo? Amazing that I'm still alive). --my German/Czech grandparent spread lard on bread, then dipped it in chopped parsley for a sandwich. --that super thin onion-skin-like overseas letter paper. You wrote on every inch and then the recipient lost a lot of the message because it always tore when trying to open the sides and top. --some of my favorites memories were long, hot summer days with mom and grandma sitting outside on the porch swing and fanning themselves while we ran through the sprinkler. And warm nights with the windows open and the crickets' songs and fire flies everwhere. Where did all the fire flies go? I don't even think we had electric fans. --some luxuries in the house were the occasional magazine my mom bought, paper towels, any beauty product besides Johnson's baby shampoo, Tame cream rinse, Ponds' cream. --powdered milk. We hated the stuff, but went through several years of it. Had to make it freezing cold before we could drink it. Yuck!
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Greetings, everyone. I'd had no indication prior to that trip that something was wrong with the rad. I had a '90 Dodge "Colt" (also standard tranny) from about '97 to about '04 or '05. I used it to travel the 12 miles or so to Uncle's farm nearly daily after his death, to make it look lived in, until the farm was sold, and, as I was usually travelling at midnight or 2 a.m or so, when there was little traffic, found that I could coast over 16 of the 20 km. trip ... and if anyone had told me that they could coast 80% of the time, I'd have thought them to be lying. Didn't have any clutch or transmission troubles with it. When the mechanic said that, at about 200K miles, it was risky to put it on the road, donated it to a charitable agency for a charitable receipt. When I initiated a discussion here about coasting some time ago, some said that such is illegal in their state. I've asked several police people and have been told that it's my responsibility to be in charge of my vehicle, and to drive in a safe manner. I don't usually do it if someone is following me rather closely, as it is not fair to interfere with his/her progress. _____________________________ The lady in question called me the next evening, to ask whether I'd got home O.K., and I told her that I had, and of the issues that I'd had to deal with ... and asked her how she knew that I'd had any problems. She said that she hadn't seen me at the commital, or afterward at the luncheon, and that she had been pretty sure that I'd have been there, so thought that something probably went wrong. And, yes ... I've seen her again ... why not? Last evening, as a matter of fact ... for a short visit before coming to the library ... but hadn't time to make this post, then. Any other questions/comments/(advisories)? ole joyful
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Just spent part of the afternoon arranging with stockbroker to make a gift of stocks that have gone up in value to a major charity, to distribute to a number of others. When I cash the stock, put the proceeds in the bank and write cheques to the charities, come tax time I have to deduct the purchase price from the sale price and pay income tax at regular rate on half of the difference. But when I donate them to a charity, I avoid paying income tax on the capital gain. For the past couple of years I've been able to avoid federal income tax ... largely by gifts to charities, churches and making political contributions. We had both federal and provincial elections last year, so larger political contributions, and larger charitable contributions, helped avoid tax on an increase in income, last year. I like them apples better! ole joyful.
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Comments (12)
I told of some of mine over on the welcome to AMY365 thread. Not much of great moment on the Friday ... but son and partner took me to a country and western band on Sat night. They're cousins - John P. Allen is the M.C. and gets his body and movements into it, and his face moves a good deal related to what he's doing. He played fiddle with the "Prairie Oyster" band for several years and recently has done a number of his own gigs. His sister, a doc, plays string bass and brother, fiddle, mandolin and trumpet were involved, and the young ones of the first two: the main female singer is taking nursing and quite vivacious - adds a good deal to the presentation. They attend one church where I go - the one which I went to as a child. The men's group in the other church had a tour of Labatt's Brewery on Monday night, so it's been an interesting weekend. ole joyful
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budster
15 years ago
Happy Birthday, enjoy that sun! Budster
ma-bookreader
15 years ago
Happy Birthday!!
joyfulguy
15 years ago
This is a great idea ...

... add the price o' the card to the retirement portfolio!

If you kick the bucket before I do ...

... you can leave me the price of the card (with increments if the investment does well, stocks being on sale these days) ... since you'll very likely have an abbreviated retirement.

Thanks for the good wishes, folks.

Life is sort of fun, ain't it?

ole joyful ... thankful to be enjoying good health (our medical care system is thankful, too)
tishtoshnm Zone 6/NM
15 years ago
Happy Birthday OJ. Thank you for sharing the wisdom and experience gleaned from you life.
cynic
15 years ago

And a belated greeting to you from the warm midwest where it's currently 26Â°.

Well I was going to get a $20 card, put in a $100 bill so you could go to dinner on me and have it overnighted to you so you'd get it on time, so I suppose that would be about $150? Now let's see, $270 at the exchange rate on your birthday would make it $333.83 Canadian. (Aren't I a nice guy??) So thanks for the savings!

marlingardener, thanks for the heads up.
dilly_dally
15 years ago
â« âª Happy birthday âª â© â© â« to Yoouuu. â¬ â« âª â© âª â¬
joyfulguy
15 years ago
Thanks for the good wishes, folks - received with appreciation ... and a smile.

It was a joy to spend time with delightful daughter in her new (to her) home --- and to share the celebration with half a dozen other family members, unexpectedly.

Bound back to the chilly, snowy, blowy north later today.

ole joyful
joyfulguy
15 years ago
Included in my Sis's card was a button,

"I've survived damn near everything".

o j
calirose
15 years ago
Please accept my belated wishes for a joyful year!!
I always look forward to your wit and charm.
scarlett2001
15 years ago
Belated Happy Birthday and Happy Groundhog Day, as well!
joyfulguy
15 years ago
While I was rather loggy about sunup (and don't know how many groundhogs there are in the Phoenix area) ...

... later in the day, while I was aloft for about 4 hours, it was fairly sunny on much of the ground over which we travelled.

Some snow in Detroit just about dark, and about 32 degrees ...

... and some more snow as we came along the freeway ...

... with substantial banks along the road near the village where the shuttle bus dropped me just before 9.

It has been snowy ... and cold ... they report. High banks in the yard, ploughed by my landlord as he came to check the house and feed the cats (including the one that follows me around ... but swats me if I try to touch her).

ole joyful

P.S. More info over on Kitchen Table.

o j
gonativegal
15 years ago
Happy belated Birthday Ole Joyful

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