And so I did. Went to Denny's that is.  It was the only meal of the day, I am sure.  I won't be hungry again until this evening, but I am going with George and his girlfriend to see the new Star Trek movie at the Imax theater at 5 something.  I doubt I will eat any theater food, not a big fan of it.  I was going to go with my son, but he wants to see it next weekend, so .......  I'll go twice, lol.

Denny's was packed with people and the kitchen was having a lot of trouble. I know this because I always sit at the counter.  You get much faster service and they keep your coffee refilled as often as you wish.  I got out my computer and started reading the news, got completely lost in a world of all kinds of stuff going on, including a jetliner that had to do a belly landing.  I've actually seen that happen up close and in person.  A twin-engine Piper Comanche.  The training instructor raised the landing gear just before touch down, intending to force the student to abort the landing, but.......it didn't quite work out that way.

I was treated to a very loud, exaggerated screeching noise and looked up in time to see the thing sliding on the ground.  Extensive damage, of course, including trashed engines by virtue of props that were still spinning on touchdown (and, of course, immediately stopped spinning as soon as the blades hit tarmac and did a lot of damage to that plane!).

Anyway, left there and went and looking at some more plants.  The stuff that died out last year in my front yard has left that entire side of the yard looking quite - barren.  I planted a yellow bell a couple of months ago, but I wanted more.  I finally found out what the tree is called that is growing on my property that wasn't planted, there are now 3 of them.  They're a version of an Acacia tree, desert version.  I asked the lady that was showing me around at the nursery who found the only one that they have.  She at first stated that they don't do well in Arizona.  I didn't buy that story but said nothing to her.  These trees are growing wild on my property, I didn't plant them and the tallest one is around 25 feet tall now.  The one that they had was in a 25 gallon box, but it was a scraggly looking thing and it wasn't even 7 feet tall.  $199 for it.  

Just saying, my wild growing trees are worth something, lol  I found a yellow bell plant - they are nice looking plants with yellow flowers - and I am going to plant it on the east side of my property.  I have enough of those kinds of plants growing over there now that eventually, the view of my neighbor's trashed property will disappear in a see of green and yellow. I wouldn't mind having a tree growing at the northeast end of the property, but I have the brakes on on that until I figure out what I want there.  I would, really, like one of those Acacia's, but I am not paying 200 for a scraggly looking thing. They have other versions of Acacia there, but they don't look as good and I simply don't like them.  So there.

Meanwhile, the feeling of having that car paid off and no more monthly payments is extremely good. It runs quite well, still looks good, has low mileage for a car that's 9 years old - 79,000 - and I don't see the need to have to buy another car for quite a while.  Hopefully.  I have upped my savings quotient - I have automatic transfers from checking to savings once a week - and am also doing a once monthly transfer.  No need to think about it, just done automatically.  This is to take most of that money towards the car payment and save it instead of finding new ways to stupidly spend money.  

Well, time to take a nap.  I don't want to be falling asleep in the theater, though I suspect this movie will have enough action in it to keep me from doing so anyway.  

ben