I do not like tax-free weekend. Being able to purchase something tax-free does not entice me to buy stuff, especially when items like cars, boats, and any single item costing more than $2,500 still have tax included. If I'm going to buy some clothes, shoes, or even a camera or a DVD player, I'm going to purchase it when I want to purchase it, not when there is tax-free weekend. For one thing, when it comes down to it, the sales tax on most of the items that I buy is not really all that much. And on this weekend especially, in this kind of an economic environment where we're at risk for a double-dip recession (as if we ever got out of the recession in the first place), I actually feel like we should pay tax on our purchases. Not to mention the fact that this kind of incentive is artificially stimulating our consumer economy. Once tax is back on receipts tomorrow, people are going to close their wallets again. So how is this really helping? It certainly didn't help me and Doug when we were out doing our errands today (which we would have done anyway, regardless of tax-free weekend). Parking lots were crazy-packed, shelves were pretty picked over, and there was a distinct feeling of Armageddon in the air. I can't say that I endorse the state's decision for tax-free weekend. I hope it achieved whatever the state was hoping for, but I hope they think twice before offering another of these gimmicks.
Rant over. Moving on. Things have been trucking along here at Dustbunny Central. I got so tired of the dust bunnies that we pretty regularly work to keep at bay that I was up and cleaning at 7:30 this morning. Sasha has been shedding something awful all summer (I've been plucking these little clumps of fur out of her flanks as if she were a rolly-polly (and sassy!) chicken), and that combined with Meg's hair combined with general dirt and debris makes my allergies a nightmare and my OCD kick into high gear. The bathroom and bedroom were thoroughly cleaned today, the mattress flipped, and the lampshades de-furred. We also tackled more of our clutter in the garage, so now it looks like this:
I'm so happy with our garage. I can walk into it without stepping on a pile of birdseed, without tripping over shovels and rakes and other tools, and I can even maneuver my bike out of the door. Let's see how long this lasts.And let's also see how long this lasts:
In case you can't tell what that is, because it's been so long since you've seen it, that's Doug without his beard. He shaved it off last weekend on a whim, and he's been keeping the stubble at bay. I predict that by Labor Day he'll be back to his old, bearded self, but I'm enjoying re-familiarizing myself with his face while I have this chance. When he first shaved his beard off I just stared and stared at him. I remembered his face, but it was so long since I had really seen it that I had to remind myself of its little features. Like the moles. And the chicken pox scars. And the chin. To me, Doug looks so much like his father without his beard. Those Sisko genes really dominate.Let's see, what else. It's been a while, so I want to make sure I cover all the most important things. We drove around Mini Red for a while this past week (faulty fuel sensors in Mini Gray).
We saw Brian Scalabrine in Dedham, 
which confirmed my view that basketball players are just unnaturally tall.I finished three strips on my quilt!
Only four more to go before I start work on the back piece. And we've been taking in a lot of culture lately - specifically art. Cinematic art, but also fine art. We saw I am Love and most recently The Expendables. How fitting - one really great movie and one really stinky one, just like our trip to the Museum of Bad Art
and the Mystic Outdoor Art Festival (which I'll post more about later, since that always deserves a post of its own). We like the really good and the really very bad around here. Nothing in between. Speaking of which - time for hot dogs and fresh, local sweet corn. I'll let you guess which is the really good and the really bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment