Bah Humbug/Merry Christmas!

This morning found my Man and me cooling our heels at the post office in possession of a little orange slip informing us that we had something to pick up at the window. The line was long and slow, affording lots of time for endless speculation, but the little paper gave us not a clue, and we could not imagine what it might be or whom it might be from.

We eventually were next, and we handed it over to our Favorite Postal Clerk who scurried off to look for it. He was back right away with the news that we had a postage-due letter.

Did we want it? he inquired.

Well, we don't know...Who is it from? we asked.

He showed it to us, and we were no better off than we were before. There was no return address, but it was quite obviously a Xmas card. Having received only a dozen or so cards so far this season, and since my Man (quite out of the ordinary) had a $ in his pocket, we decided to spring for another one. AHA! Light bulb moment!

Xmas cards are/is? one of my favorite traditions of the season. They are sometimes our only communication all year with a faraway loved one, so I love getting and sending them, but the price of postage, higher every year, is frankly starting to suck the joy out of it. I hate spending untold $$$ on postage, but I also hate not sending the cards, so in recent years I have resorted to cost-saving measures such as spending a few cents less to mail postcards instead of regular cards with envelopes.

But this!!!! This is waaaaay better! If you send the cards with no return address, the post office cannot return them to you, and if you send them with no stamp, your victims friends will have to pay to get them! How can you beat that? Well, I do have one other idea for you: instead of spending $ to buy postcards, cut the fronts off the cards you receive and use those for postcards. Voila'!!! Free cards, free postage. Now, that you can't beat!!!

My Man forked over the $, and we were on our way. Back in the car we could not wait to see who it was from, so we opened it right away, and TA-DA! Nobel Prize for Economics, Holiday Hints Division, goes to none other than T&E!!!! T&E are two of our very favorite friends, so we were just the happier.

Bah Humbug no more! Given the state of the economy, in any economy at all, 44c for good wishes from good friends is a bargain indeed, and a tip like that...PRICELESS! Merry Christmas!

52 WHATTS?!!

I bought some light bulbs today.

In place of the high-$, energy-saving, long-living neon light bulbs currently in vogue, I opted for the old-fashioned ones. I'm not exactly against the currently fashionable "green" revolution, it's just that I've already tried those new-fangled light bulbs. They certainly are high-$, costing many times what a regular light bulb costs, and it seems reasonable that they save energy, being that they are only a fraction as bright. But they do not last the promised five years. They don't even last as long as the dependable old low-tech standbys. So as my current supply of these modern marvels dwindles, thank goodness, I am replacing them with the old kind. At least that is my desire.

But I made a sad discovery this afternoon: It appears that while I was getting up to speed with the realm of techno-lighting, something disturbing was happening in the world of the humble incandescent light bulb. My first clue of incandescence's imminent ixtinction was in the "Lighting" department at MoreMart which is no longer overflowing with every variety of incandescent light bulb. Nope. It is now overloaded with over-priced high-tech light bulbs of every sort: sunlight ones, daylight ones, blue light ones, coil shapes, spirals, U-shapes, long ones, short ones. I have tried them all, and guess what none of them measures up to the good old plain vanilla light bulb.

After a thorough search, I was thrilled to stumble across a section of incandescent bulbs, but it was very small, and as I searched for the 60-watts I got my second shock: the 60-watt is no longer. In its place we now have the new, improved...52-watt light bulb. 52? And then I noticed the formerly-known-as-75-watt bulb is now...67 watts.

Lighting. The next economic battle the consumer is bound to lose. It's the 21st Century incarnation of the shell game that I remember from the 1970's. In that version, the standard 5-lb sack of sugar was quietly down-sized 20% while the price increased 20%. Gotta make up that 20% somewhere, you know.

So I wonder. What comes next? What will be the next battleground? It could be anything at all, but good, bad, or indifferent, you can be absolutely certain of one thing: whatever it may be, you will pay. So hang on to your wallet. If you can. It's a conspiracy.