death to debt

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I feel better. I deposited a couple big checks today. And given that it’s also the first of the month, which is when I normally pay myself, I took the opportunity to pay off my credit card, which is the only real debt I have. For years I had kept the balance down to nothing, by paying it off every month. (And relatedly, never getting an increase in my credit limit). But early last year, I got hit with a series of expenses, such as needing to replace my old laptop earlier than expected. And while it never even reached $4,000 at it’s worst, it still bugged me knowing that it was there.
But now it’s gone.
I took that picture above while I was just walking home yesterday. I’ve been here so long I very easily forget how much there is to this place. Almost any kind of travel refreshes my vision of the city. And I try occasionally to take pictures of that ‘bigness’, because I know enough people who don’t see it every day.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!

Shopping

I’d like to thank Hecht’s for making my Saturday, by telling me, when my credit card wouldn’t swipe through the magnetic reader, that they’ll only manually punch in the cards for people with Hecht’s or Macy’s charge cards.
So after yesterday’s run-in with Hecht’s payment policies, I had an interesting, counter-example to the shopping experience. I found the ‘perfect gift’ at Eastern Market, but the vendor couldn’t take credit cards. I didn’t have cash or checks. So she handed it to me, and told me to mail her a check. It was the last one, and she was worried it would be gone if I came back some other time.
She had less reason to trust me, and more to proportionately lose. But she said I looked ‘nice and honest.’
These are the stories I think of when doing business.

Please keep in mind that this post is more than 6 years old. Who the hell knows what I was thinking back then?! Damn kids... get off my lawn!