Preferred Shopping

As I’ve grown, it's becoming clear to me how much I dislike shopping for clothes. When I shop, I have a hard time picking out clothes that I like. Often the clothes in the store follow a fad much too closely. I prefer things that just look nice and continue to look nice. If I have to shop, I buy inexpensive clothes from Walmart. My preferred shopping is done at thrift stores, where I can buy quality clothes for very low prices.

My cherished clothes, since I was a child, came from others. My favorite winter gloves weren’t exactly a match. The left glove that was black and red and the right glove was blue and orange. I loved them so much because they were very warm and they came from my friend down the street. I also burst into tears when my brother, Fred gave me his used coat the winter I was laid off after 9-11 and we moved from Cedar City Utah back to Idaho.

From the time Fred got married, his wife, Cherilynn has kept him in great clothes. Through the years, some of my favorite clothes came from him. Sometimes he seemed to sort his clothes specifically for me. I’ve received hiking boots, shoes, church suits, dress clothes, casual clothes and everything in between.

Some clothes from Fred

Last week Fred let me know he had some clothes for me to look at. Today I picked them up and chose to keep 4 pair of pants, 3 shirts, and 2 suits. Believe it or not, this is truly my favorite shopping. All I had to do with each item was: decide if it was a style I like, try it on (not stress about price) determine if it fit and then put it in my closet. That is truly my favorite shopping. Why would I ever want to go to the mall (or other stores) and spend forever trying to find something I liked enough that I wanted to purchase.

Recently, as I was nailing up the casings for the doors we’d installed, our nail gun had problems. The gun typically has maybe one in five nails with a slight problem, but I was averaging more than one in two — and they had major problems. The problem nails were only beginning to penetrate the wood. I had to pull out 6-7 of ten nails. It was an ugly mess and a time-consuming pain. After finishing one board, I knew it was time for a new nail brad gun. The one I had was a gun that Clark had found at a garage sale over a decade earlier and it had worked well for me over the years, but it was truly deteriorating.

Which board used the new nail gun?

I couldn’t go to Idaho Falls to buy the gun that night. I waited until I was going there. In preparation, I cut out the rest of the casing for all the doors and got them ready to nail up. Then during a trip to Idaho Falls for Tanner’s orthodontist appointment, I got a new nail gun. When I tried it at home, I was able to nail up 17 boards in just a few minutes. I didn’t have to pull out a single nail and I only had to tap a few of them deeper into the wood. Oh the difference a good tool makes.

Saturday morning I hurried to get ready for a morning online meeting with the artists and others on the board for the new Bingham County Art Society. We began as artists who were putting up their art in the Candy Jar art gallery. Now, we’ve become more than that. This year we sponsored a high school art competition that turned out great (it ended just as Coronavirus began). We’re sponsoring a Plein Air Event that will happen next month. We’ll also have a open competition this fall.

As a child, I wanted to be an artist. Even in college I took some art classes, thinking I wanted to be an artist. That continued until I noticed the great talent of some of the artists at Ricks College and, as Leon Parson (my favorite art teacher) said, “Wayne you might be better as a draftsman.” My lines were too mechanical. I couldn’t seem to be a true free-hand artist.

Last year Tanner and I joined one of our Church’s self-reliance groups called Starting and Growing my Business. In that group I met Paul Loomis. He had the plan to open a candy store in Blackfoot and place an art gallery in part of the building. His intent with the gallery was to increase shoppers in the candy store, not to earn much money on the art. I tried to help him find someone to run the gallery and after hours of searching, I felt impressed that I’d save time by just setting up artists in the gallery myself. So I called Tim and asked him to tell me all the artists I should include. All of them were excited to have their work hung in the local gallery.

As expected, the gallery hasn’t sold much, but everyone’s excited to be a part of the effort and are glad to promote art in the community. I’ve considered this a chance for me to give back to the community. It’s a chance to provide some community service in a way that I enjoy.

Anyway, in Saturday’s meeting, the committee that has been planning the Plein Air Event suggested that because of the Coronavirus, perhaps we need to cancel the event. One of the board said, perhaps we could promote this event as a chance to get away from the Coronavirus and do some outdoor art at the Plein Air Event. We could do everything necessary to keep people at safe distances. Another said, even if we do the event with just us, let’s get it started this year. The board decided to continue. I’m excited because I believe this will bless the community and be fun for the artists on the board and help the board become stronger.

A few other things this week that I thought were fun:

1. This morning, when Tate woke, around 8 am, I was getting out of bed and Noell said, “Only Tate’s awake. He always wakes up at this time, just like clockwork.” 
2. Last night Tanner found an app that he and I are excited about. I like to listen to talks on YouTube and he enjoys listening to music. The free version of YouTube requires your phone video screen be on at all times. Tanner found an app called Musi, that lets you listen to YouTube without having to see the video. This saves a lot of battery power by being able to turn the phone off as the talk or music plays! 
3. Yesterday Noell, Tanner, Tate, Dawson, and I went on a motorcycle ride down the canal bank. Tanner’s dog, Mya also ran along side. 
4. This week, I’ve been placing a higher emphasis on maintaining health. I’ve tried to take regular walks and get more sleep. 
5. Friday night we spent time with the Goodrich family in a date night. We played Quiplash. It was a fun night and a change to our typical date. Although, I really enjoy the alone time that Noell and I get each week on our own date. Typically we eat, drive, and talk. That may sound boring, but I really enjoy it. 
6. Saturday I could tell that Noell was tired so I took care of the twins for several hours so Noell could get some rest. During that time, I called Jacob Arnold, my nephew, and we played CashFlow game. We went through the game quickly and I feel he learned a lot. The game has taught me a lot and I now am studying real estate much deeper than I have in the past. For some reason, I keep feeling a strong desire to increase the amount of money I receive from rental properties. There’s a lot more I need to know in order to do that. 
7. Sunday, Noell cooked a great dinner and the pumpkin desert that I love so much. Tanner and I visited Fred and Cherilynn and picked up some clothes that Fred was giving away. I then drove over and visited Clint and Kim. I took my lawn chair and sat out and visited with them. That was fun. I then took a couple titles to old motorcycles I’d sold, to my neighbors (Milton and Ted Beasley) who helped me sell them. I visited with them for a while also.

Leftover pumpkin desert

Some leftover dinner