We don’t get a lot of colorful flowers here in December but this miniature Santana hibiscus is the color centerpiece in the patio garden this week. Click on the image to enlarge.
California
Christmas Decorations
One of the first things we get for the Christmas Holiday is a poinsettia or two in pots. This one is currently on the coffee table in the living room of the California residence. Click on the image to enlarge.
The U-Haul® Migration Theorem
Damsel and I are expecting some fixtures we ordered to be delivered to our California residence. Since the fixtures need to go to the Arizona residence for installation, we will need a way to transport them when they get here.
I looked into renting a trailer from U-Haul for a one-way trip. We only need a single day rental, but they say all rates are for up to three days of use. U-Haul quoted an on-line rate of $101 for their smallest cargo trailer one-way from the L.A. area to Wickenburg.
Image: 4′ x 8′ Cargo Trailer – courtesy U-Haul®
We’re not yet convinced that renting a trailer is the most inexpensive way to get the packages to the new house. We’re considering alternatives such as hauling the packages on the SUV’s cargo rack under a tarp and secured with bungee cords.
I remember someone blogging about U-Haul being a good indicator for migratory trends. Because of the law of supply and demand, it should be less expensive to rent a one-way trailer (or truck) in the direction that is less popular. Sure enough, when I reversed the route on the website, the rate dropped from $101 to $67 for the three day period to go from Wickenburg to the L.A. area.
I didn’t test the U-Haul migration theorem any further than this one comparison, but the results told me what I expected – people are leaving more than they are arriving. After the recent election results in California, who could blame us?
Weekend AND Thanksgiving Grocery Shopping
We usually do our grocery shopping on Thursdays. Before we retired, we went shopping on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. We changed to Thursday because there is less traffic in the store unless they have one of their weird 6-hour sales or something.
We decided that today we would combine the weekend shopping and pick up the things we’re going to need for our Thanksgiving dinner. As usual, the store wasn’t too crowded today. We shopped for the weekend faire, got some household supplies. got a few pantry items and also got everything we needed for our holiday celebration.
We redeemed a bunch of coupons and walked out of the store having saved over seventy dollars on the total. We’re looking forward to our weekend cooking and the Thanksgiving Holiday with eager anticipation.
Pumpkins
These three tiny pumpkins are growing on our vine in the California garden. They aren’t going to grow to be the huge pumpkins that you see around this time of the year, but rather into some of the small ones often used for table decorations and such. Click on the image to enlarge.
Fall Cactus Flower
We drove from Arizona to our California house today. I went out on the patio to find that the plumerias, the Kaffir lily, the Devil’s Tongue barrel cactus and an opuntia vulgaris cactus in bloom. The spikes on the cactus might be threatening, but there’s nothing ‘vulgaris’ about the flower. Click on the image to enlarge.
