Making Lemonade Out of Lemon Peels

My life can be seen as a collection of aphorisms.  Throughout my growing up years, my mom always said, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."  That was a family motto, and we've lived up to it.  Recently, I heard (or did I read?) about someone talk about the skill of making lemonade out of lemon peels--that resonates too.

The idea that one man's trash is another man's treasure was also one that we used a lot throughout my youth--when we'd get rid of stuff we no longer needed or when we stopped at a yard sale.  Yesterday I was reminded of that phrase when we got rid of our huge, orange sofa:

My spouse's brother and his wife wanted that sofa and a few other pieces that we've decided don't fit with our vision for the repaired and restored house.  Yesterday she mentioned how the whole family is looking forward to having a sofa to stretch out on.  It's 8 feet long, so they'll be able to do that.  The sofa is so long that my brother-in-law had to rent a trailer:

Once they headed back to their house, we had some down time. 

Since we first bought this house in 2013, I have wanted to sit in a chair by my front window, reading a book . So yesterday, I wheeled one of the chairs to the window to read this book:

It's hot off the press, just published this week, and it is FANTASTIC; it's the same author who wrote a compelling piece about the effects of climate change, published in New York magazine, and now it's expanded into a book. I sat and read and looked at the landscape that will surely be inundated by the seas in 100 years--maybe in 50.

I decided to put cheese on those crackers!

The original article is here:

http://nymag.com/…/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.…

The book is even better!  I rarely buy a book just as it's released.  I usually wait--and wait and wait--for it to come to the library.

When I bought that book, I also bought another hot-off-the-press book:

This review convinced me.

My reading pace has slowed down a bit in February, but I'm pleased that I'm still reading deeply compelling books.

I've been thinking about how I spend my money.  For awhile, I refused to buy books.  I felt like I already had too many.  I will always feel like I have too many.  I need to be better about buying books and letting them leave when I'm done with them. 

I will spend money on wine and food which are far more ephemeral than books--less of a storage problem, but ultimately less satisfying.  There are some books that I want to read sooner rather than later.

Yesterday afternoon, my brother-in-law and his wife came back and we ate at a great Mexican place (new to us) in downtown Hollywood. No pictures of that, but I did have 2 margaritas at half price happy hour prices--6 bucks for 2!

It was a great day--good to feel like we're making progress on home repair/restoration even though all of our new kitchen cabinets are still in boxes in the living room.  And time to read too!  A day of many treats!