Weather

It is beautiful here in Oregon. Weather at about 85 degrees, a little warmer than what is truly comfortable, but really not that bad. However, my dining area is 78 degrees according to the thermostat, and upstairs it is even warmer, so it has to be in the 80s. Downstairs from where I am writing this it has to be a mere 73 degrees, cool, relatively.

Jeff is driving to Wyoming to pick up my stepkids and they will be here from Monday until probably Sunday the 17th. Since S sleeps in the room where my computer is, I anticipate a sparseness of posts.

I tried to take A to 2 different pools today. One was closed entirely, apparently the schedule I was looking at doesn't take effect until the 19th. And the other pool was so packed there was an hour long wait just to get in. We went to the park nearby in attempt to redeem the day, as she was pretty unhappy about getting in and out of the hot car.

J got a 2007 Jeep Liberty to drive to Wyoming (rental). I went out and opened the door just to take a big whiff of the new car smell. My car is a 1999 Subaru Legacy Brighton (read: the most stripped down model of this car shape) and his is a 98 Toyota pickup that recently hit a shopping cart that had found its way to the middle of the road one night. We drive junkers, ostensibly, by choice. But after driving the Jeep home, for the first time J commented that it sure would be nice to not have to drive a junker. I put in my plug again for a new hybrid for him, since it looks like his commute is just flat out permanent.

We have chosen to not make major car purchases because we don't want to live in debt. We do owe a small amount on my car, but it is negligible. We could pay it off, and would, but our interest rate is only 3 percent, so it hardly seems worth it. Our entire goal in life right now really boils down to making the right choices by the kids in our lives and avoiding debt/interest.

Pretty exciting, huh? But I have my 20s to look back on, and a future that I know will bring lots of more opportunities, so it isn't such a big deal. All I ask is a vacation (a cheap one) once a year. And if we want a big purchase, we just save up for it. It makes it that much more wonderful when we buy the thing (am thinking about my new Nikon here)

And in the small print here, I say this: My dad has told me 3 times now that he wants to pay off my student debt. He has the means to do it. I wonder if it will happen. If it does, we will be 90% of the way to being debt free.