10 Dumb Things, continued

Last November I started a new list, 10 Dumb Things I Have Done Since My Husband Died. Response has not been overwhelming, but while I’m working on a more difficult post, I’ll put it out there again. 

#1 for me was that I stopped reading the mail from TIAA-CREF, my pension fund, because it made me nervous. 

I think I’m on the road to recovery here. The other day I opened half-a-dozen things I had received last year from TIAA-CREF. I set up a new filing system for all the paper they send me, and I filed the mail. 

There. 

Yes, they would love to send me everything electronically, but then I would never, ever, read it. 

#2. Buying 30 pounds of dry dog food for a basenji who eats half a cup of dry dog food each day. You do the math. 

Lulu was 11 when I bought that bag of food, and I had resisted such a dumb purchase for her entire lifetime because I knew 1) it didn’t make nutritional and financial sense and 2) I had nowhere to keep such a large bag of dog food. 

But  it was Lulu’s brand, it never goes on sale, and, a true American gal, I can be a sucker for a sale. At least I held off on “buy 5 pairs of cashmere socks and get one for free” because I realized that with shipping and tax I would be spending over $100 on six pairs of socks. 

Anyway, Lulu is 12 now. She has dogfully eaten her way through 29.5 pounds of dry dog food that went out of date a month after I bought it and she has lived to tell the tale. The rest goes in the garbage; she has a fresh five-pound bag of food. 

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You don’t have to be a widow to add to this list; there’s a lot of flexibility on 2becomes1. 

Here’s a more important dumb thing, from L, which many of us may recognize:  

Living in the country. Thought I'd spend all my winter days writing poetry in the a.m. and quilting in the p.m. and in the summer writing in the a.m. and gardening in the p.m. Forgot how much I need other people.