I need to remember that I am a writer and not a math person. I am also not my father.

I sold four auctions on eBay, and I took in roughly $73, which included shipping costs. Or so I thought. I spent $76.48 to ship out the items.

See, when I estimated shipping charges I only considered shipping charges. I didn’t think about the cost of the packaging. And one of the items I sold was a large neon Marlboro sign, aka breakable. And so I wanted it to be professionally packaged. I hauled it into my local package place and they took it from me and began wrapping it in bubble wrap and measuring it and not saying anything to me.

When they finally took my information, they let me know the cost of the shipping and I was only a penny off. I had estimated $25 and the actual charge was $25.01. Good. And then they told me my total which included $11.45 for the box and $6.90 for the shipping peanuts and another $6.36 for the bubble wrap. Whoops. Keep in mind I sold the sign for $20 plus $25 shipping.

When I told hubby how much I spent in shipping, he told me I should have said no. Except it was too late because by the time I knew the cost, the items were already boxed. Let’s just consider it a lesson learned. From now on, I’ll stick to buying on eBay.

—-

I am driving around a car because my van is getting repaired from when the deer ran into me.

Keep in mind that my family vehicles are 1) a truck that you step UP into and 2) a minivan.

So, I got into the car and realized I had to sit DOWN to get into the vehicle. Cars are low. Did you know that? It’s so weird driving from such a low perspective.

Then I get to the college and I realize that the car doesn’t even have automatic locks. So I have to walk around to all four doors to make sure they are locked. Normally I just start walking away from my van and push the little key fob button to lock it when I’m several feet away. Walking all the way around the vehicle is a PITA.

Not to meniton, when I arrive somewhere I have to reach in to unlock the back door so I can get my stuff out. I have lots of stuff that I haul around with me: laptop, camera, bag, school books, and a milk crate full of assignments to grade, books to read, etc. It’s a lot of stuff.

So while I am grateful to have a vehicle to drive while my van is being fixed, I am also very grateful for the minivan I normally hate because of the many little perks that I have grown to love like the automatic door locks, power windows and the CD/tape player perfect for all types of audio books. Not to mention the sunglasses I left in it that I’ve needed for the past two days as Northern Michigan experiences beautiful sunny days.

I get the van back next Tuesday. Thankfully.

Remember I told you that I had to vote at 7:30 a.m. yesterday? And when I actually went to the polls, I stood at the little booth thing and had my winter coat on and was being blasted with hot air, and I was thinking I needed to get out of there before I got sick.

Then I saw the ballot and realized I didn’t know how to vote. It was not the chad-potential poker that I’m used to, nor was it the paper ballot that I’ve also done in the past. Instead it was this huge paper thing and I had to fill in the middle of the correct arrow.

I had researched the candidates and the issues. I had even looked up my particular ballot on Michigan.gov to make sure there would be no surprises in the voting booth, yet I was still surprised because of the stupid optiscan ballots.

And it wasn’t until 6 hours later as I was leaving Kirtland and saw a yard sign supporting a proposal that I realized my ballot didn’t have any proposal issues on it. That’s when I realized I never turned over that huge oversized ballot. Whoops.

And, I might add that the secrecy sleeve designed to hide your votes didn’t cover my entire ballot, revealing some of my votes. So what’s up with that?

I voted on most of it.

***

Brittany is divorcing Kevin and its all over the news this morning. So what does my husband ask me? "If we get divorced do you think it’ll be on the news?"

Probably not, but it might make a blog.

Today is voting day and in order to cast my vote, I am going to be ready and out of the house long before 8 a.m. With class and work, I only have time to vote this early. I invited my husband to come with me, but he declined. I guess he already has a date to go vote with his dad later and then feed the deer.

At least I feel a bit better than I did yesterday. I stayed home sick with the flu, I suspect. Today my throat still hurts, but I do feel better.

Later.

I woke up this morning and I had heard the rumors (weather forecasts) but I was hoping they were wrong. They weren’t. We have snow. Enough snow fell overnight that I didn’t see any ground patches poking through.

Last weekend it was 70 -75 F degrees here. Today, 35 F with snow. S-n-o-w!

I’m not sure I want to give up my camper for my snowmobile yet. I’ll let you know.

I am "camping" until Labor Day. I place camping in quotation marks because technically, I can’t be camping because school starts this week and I am working, etc.

So, in reality, my family (husband, kids, in-laws, out-laws, and even my mom last night) are camping. I’m just showing up once in a while as I go about my normal routine. The biggest problem is trying to carry on normal life without Internet service. Everything I do requires me to log on, and it gets hard to log on without even dial up service.

And for possible thieves looking for vacant homes…unlike Shelley, I really do have a great big dog and yes, he is home, along with three other ones including Stupid Dog. It also means we’re home a lot feeding them. So, technically, the house isn’t really vacant. Especially since the whole thing about me going on with my normal life requires frequent showers. ;0)

And this means I’ve been camping for something like four or five weekends in a row. Now you know why I haven’t been blogging.

I tried (lots and lots of times) to upload the video of Steve and I plunging to the Earth, but it will not work. I have given up. But if you see me, I have it on my laptop. Remind me and you too can be enthralled and awed. Thanks for playing.