Yeti ‘Nother Entry

Y’all know by now that I am a Cheapskate. C-H-E-A-P are my unofficial initials.

But my spousal unit, G, out-cheaps me. Which is awesome. I don’t have to apologize either to him or for him. We’re on the same wrinkled, worm-eaten page.

He’s been stashing away cash to pay for movers because we are old farts and can barely walk, much less move ourselves. That’s what he said, anywho. Oh, the money is there, several hundred bucks’ worth plus a few hundred more in cushion. But when he was quoted 600 from a moving company (which is frankly reasonable for a 50-mile move, and within our budget), he noped out of it immediately, decreeing we were back to Plan A, moving ourselves. Which means he loads the truck and I drive. Yippee-ki-yi-yay, friends.

The U-Haul was reserved today, for the big move on Monday. Hubby did concede to hiring help at this end of of the move, to load up what’s left here at the tin box. I think the only reason he went that far is because my evil eye was threatening to gouge out his liver before he finished telling me we were moving ourselves – again.

Just so you know, the photo above, the horseback rider in line at the drive-through coffee line? Not staged. Really happened at the Dutch Brothers down the road from us. The only mind-boggling part of it was somebody was willing to sit in the sun, in 100+ degrees, to get hot coffee. You don’t have to be certifiable to live here – but if you are, you can see why nobody will notice.

I used to have one of those mug-warmer disks for my desk. You know what I’m talking about – plug it in, and the flat Teflon disk keeps a hot beverage stale and slightly warmer than tepid for hours on end. I don’t have any idea what happened to that thing but I admit to missing it during our two minutes of winter every year.

For the rest of the year I use an insulated cup to keep stuff cold. I’ve gone through several of the plastic cups, which invariably landed on cement and shattered. So a while back I bought a Yeti travel tumbler at a yard sale, for $2 US. It had a cracked lid. And lo, it was fugly. I mean, pink camo fugly. Here, see for yourself:

I replaced the lid, paying several times more for the lid on Amazon than I paid for the cup. I’ve had it for a couple of years now – at least – and it’s still ugly as sin. And I freaking LOVE IT. Because if I put ice and tea in it and fall asleep, it’s still half-full of ice the next morning. In summer in Arizona. I can leave it in the car while doing grocery shopping, get back into a car hot enough to bake cookies, and there’s still ice in my water or tea. And because it’s made of whatever they use to build tanks, it doesn’t break or dent. Trust me, I’ve tried. Several times.

I tried to convince myself that with an indestructible cup, the plastic straw would be protected too. Er… fallacious argument, it turned out. I killed umpteen “unbreakable” straws before finding a package of steel straws a couple of weeks ago, the tip wrapped in silicone so I’m less at risk of busting a tooth on it, with backups in case of loss. So I’m good for cold beverages for the next few years. Though I might buy a less-fugly Yeti one of these days, if I can find one cheap at a yard sale.