Are you a coupon clipper? Is there a God?

Chrisanthemum in ceramic pot, a gift of the departing Judy Diaz

Life is complicated enough, without having to worry about coupons.

Scott, who takes very good c/o me, went thru my junk mail, and clipped out a coupon from Giant - spend $50 and get 300 points. That comes to about 40-cents off a gallon of gas.

Since I Giant-shop four-five times a week, spending $22 each time, I pondered, "How can I spend a whole fifty bucks?"

It wasn't easy! At the self-checkout, I only spent $42 and had to go back for one more chrisanthemum and a carton of expensive organic tomatoes (w/o herbicides they spoil quickly, but then maybe I won't get cancer).

Don't tell my kids or Scott but people with diabetes have a 65 percent higher chance of getting dementia or Alzheimer's.

Who said Life was Fair.

But it's good right now, so let's celebrate!

One of the greatest gifts God gave me is my love of reading.

Quick aside about God: I don't really believe in God. But if I write something, like the above sentence, and it 'looks right,' then I let it stay. I'm on the fence about God but accede there definitely may be a higher power.

Friday night I went to a monthly Coffeehouse program at the nearby Willow Grove Bible Church.

This sign beckoned me last Friday nite b/c I thought it was a poetry reading. It was decidedly not. A discerning woman named Kim Ruby schedules guest entertainers.

She is a master. I asked her if she schedules poets and she said, "They don't hold people's interest."

While there, I met a host of fascinating people. Might I even say I had an intellectual discussion with a few? Especially when Kim Ruby and I shared our philosophies about shoes.

Burt Plaster is a family doctor and also a dedicated Christian missionary. His wife and four beautiful sons are also devout members of the church.

"The family that prays together, stays together." That was a sign I used to read when riding the CTS bus in Cleveland, Ohio. I looked up at those gentiles on the poster and thought, What a perfect family, like the Turnocks who lived next door.

So, Burt and I are talking, not easy to do in a room filled with 50 noisy people, and I mention What a wonderful room this is and a great idea to have the Coffeeshop, wholesome entertainment for the entire family.

How did you get the idea, I ask.

"We prayed about it," said Burt.

"How do you do that?" I inquired.

They all sat around and said a couple of prayers and then asked the Almighty for his help in deciding what to do with this space.

And he answered their prayers.

I was really impressed. It's sorta like a board meeting, I thought, and God has a place at the table.

Julie Worden, former lead dancer with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and Colin Firth, had a baby girl. I knew immediately what I wanted to buy for Kieran Ava.

Before I stopped to see Grace for lunch, I bought this hand-crocheted baby blankie from the guy I bought my carpets and floors from.

His wife Sandy showed me her storeroom, there on Easton Road. She has huge boxes of clear plastic where she stores her yarns, which she buys online.

She had me open the bag above and feel the soft material. She makes 8 blankets a month. She remembers her mother teaching her how while they were sitting on the beach. Her mom, in turn, was taught by her mother. Sandy has taught all the girls in her family to crochet, but she says they're more interested in doing sports.

Just wait until they get older.

This is the New Directions phone line, permanently off the hook so I don't hear it ring. It's in the family room. In case the electricity goes off, the phone still works.

Why am I in the family room?

I'm on my way out to my screened-in back porch to finish my book club book....

I wanted the perfect place to finish the book. I sat on the wicker furniture of my departing friend Judy Diaz who moved to Niwot, Colorado.

Just her luck that the week she gets there, the psychotic doctoral student James Holmes mows down people in the Aurora movie theater. Have you been reading about him? The Times had a good article on him and I was gonna leave a comment, but they weren't allowing comments.

The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard was quite good, a sweeping view of the entire world after World War Two. Took her 20 years to write. We'll discuss it at my library book club.

Hot today. Of course. Global warming and all that. I sit near my whirring fan and don't need the A/C. Power plants emit noxious carbon fumes into the air and in the summer months, a disproportionate amount of energy goes to cooling our air.

And ever notice how freezing-cold public places are?

Come to my house and pass out from heat exhaustion.