My New Plan

I know . . you’re all going to think I’m a terrible wife. I probably am. But, I am a good cook! And I don’t pitch too much of a fit about having old, worn out vehicles. Y’all hear way more complaining about that than does Vince.

Several of you have written me telling me I just need to go to town with Vince every day. I do feel bad telling him no and that’s why I always end up going. We’re so different. I don’t mind going out to eat by myself. I don’t mind going shopping by myself. I never minded driving from Texas to Missouri by myself. If I wanted to go to the movie and no one wanted to go with me, I wouldn’t mind at all going by myself. Vince will not go eat by himself. He doesn’t want to go shopping by himself, though we always split up and go our separate ways in the store. Even if he’s going to the lawn mower shop for oil, he wants me to go. Almost no matter where I go, I’d rather go by myself.

Example: Today in Hobby Lobby, I was getting floss for 5 projects. I had a list. I had piles in my cart. Vince kept coming up to me and asking me questions.

• “I’m going to paint the bird bath. What color should I paint it?” I said “Can I finish picking up this floss and then we can talk about it?” OK . . he walked off.
• Two minutes later, he’s back with a set of 5 colors of acrylic that you pour – like in a table. He said “Do you think this would work for the bird bath?” I said “Can I finish picking up this floss and then we can talk about it?” He again walked off.
• Two minutes later . . he’s back. “If I’m going to use this aquamarine color, should I mix white in with it . . like swirls?” I said “Vince! When you’re trying concentrate on something and get it done, you get very frustrated with interruptions. It isn’t going to take me three minutes of uninterrupted time to finish picking up all this floss. Let me get it done!”

In Home Depot, he came and got me out of the garden area to come look at a sprayer and wanted to know if I thought it needed 10 volts or 40 volts (and it might not have been volts and surely those aren’t the numbers he said). I know NOTHING about that kind of stuff; I have no idea what he’s going to spray. Spray paint the car? Power wash the house? Clean the sidewalks? Spray for bugs?

So, really, when we go to town together, it’s just for him to ask me questions about things I know nothing about. If I drug him to the cross stitch shop (which we don’t have so he’s safe) and asked him what color linen should I use when he doesn’t even know what I’m stitching . . what would that accomplish?

Anyway . . when we lived in Kentucky, he wanted to go to town every day AFTER work! Finally, I decided . . if I’m going to town, I’m buying something every trip and I’m spending enough he’s going to figure out that leaving me at home is a good idea. He loved going in one of those shoe places where it was something like buy one/get one half off. I started buying two pairs of shoes every time we would go and sometimes it was two or three days a week. One day he said “Do you REALLY need more shoes?” I said NO! If you will just leave me at home, I’ll stop buying shoes. It worked for about a week.

So this morning when he said “Let’s go to town!” I said “I don’t really want to go but I don’t mind if you go without me.” He said “Why don’t we go to Home Depot, then I’ll take you to Hobby Lobby (like I can’t take myself!) and then we’ll go by Aldi and come home. Ding! Ding! Ding! The bell went off. If every time we go to town, I ask to go to Hobby Lobby and I spend too much, maybe he’ll stop asking me to go to town.

So, here’s my haul.

Stitchers are dismantling the inexpensive decorative clocks from Hobby Lobby and inserting cross stitch in them. I also got this one.

As we’re checking out, Vince looks over and we had this conversation:

Vince: Are those clocks?
Me: Yes
Vince: Why do you need clocks?
Me: I need to know what time it is!
Vince: I thought you used your phone for that.
Me: What if I lose my phone?

By now, Vince was in total disbelief that I was buying two clocks.

Stitchers are painting these kinds of beads and using them for decoration.

Vince: Is that a dog toy?
Me: No. I’m going to paint it and use it for decorating.

He’s starting to look like he wishes we hadn’t gone to Hobby Lobby.

I’ve seen these where the stitcher either spray painted them (black for Halloween or red for Christmas, etc.) or just left them as they are. They mount the cross stitch piece on a piece of foamboard, glue magnets to it and then put magnets on this basket and the cross stitch piece can be changed out. I could leave it the color it is and stitch some seasonal things and attach them with the magnets and change them out as needed. They fill the open area with either polyfil or the florist stuff and poke either flowers or decorations down in there. It doesn’t have gold wings . . I have it propped against the stitching stand.

Floss for 5 projects. The lady checking and I were talking and she said “Oh, you’re going to have fun!” Vince is on the verge of growling at me. He just wanted to get out of there.

On the way home, I said “Please let me know a day or so before you want to come back to town so I can make a list of the things I’ll need next time from Hobby Lobby.” My guess is that it may be a long time before my next trip with him to Joplin. He’s pretty safe taking me to Carthage. There is a pet supply store there so next time he wants to go to Carthage, I’m going to ask if we can go there and I’ll get stuff for Oscar – enough to make him wish he’d left me at home.

Speaking of Hobby Lobby, I’m almost sure when I first started stitching at the end of 2020, except for sales once or twice a year, their DMC floss was 60 cents per skein. The last three or four times I’ve been in there, it’s been 53 cents per skein like that’s the regular price. I’m not complaining but it seems odd. When you think how much floss stitchers buy, saving 7 cents per skein is a big savings