A moment in time

Wow! I just paid off my mortgage and home equity loan and am momentarily debt free! I felt the need to announce it somewhere. I was afraid if I put it on Facebook the ads and spam would start to roll in telling me the thousands of ways I could fix that un-American first-world problem.

It does seem very strange. I feel myself reaching for a credit card or wanting to go shop for something or other. I will resist and see how long I can stay here. I did commission a giant pile of locally made bags yesterday so that does constitute a debt of sorts, but it won't come due until they are cut and sewn and pressed and I go pick them up, so it just feels like a little weight. I could get used to this giddy weightless feeling if I wasn't sure that it is only a short moment in my life, a tiny step between one promenade and another waltz that is sure to sound its opening notes at any time.

Okay, to be more realistic, I will still have all of the usual bills and things that must be paid for, property taxes, health costs, dental bills, oh! It's getting heavy again. Not as heavy. It will be a little easier to face each month without that old deduction from my balance that I wrote into my check register for so many years. Decades. I won't miss it after the first month or two. I do feel like I should celebrate.

Since it's sunny I think I'll go out into the garden and cultivate something. I'll see if my asparagus is emerging yet. I'll check the fruit trees and try one more time to reach those apple branches that the pole pruner can't get to. Maybe I should buy a new pole pruner. The rope on mine finally parted so I shortened it and that is why it doesn't reach now. Not likely that I will hire someone to get those branches, though. I've been in the simplification mode for some years now and I'm getting rid of bills, not adding more.

So that's it for today! No long ruminations on the future of OCF or no typing of the many minutes on my list. I'll come back later and do some work, update the Jell-O Show script, do the dishes, work on props. Right now I owe it to myself to be happy with what I have accomplished. Tra-la!