I made another Ikea run yesterday to the store in the D.C. suburbs. I had an $80 coupon I’d earned from all my shopping to set up the house, and it was expiring this weekend. I also had a set of curtains to return, since I’d bought based on their estimates, but that was apparently for if you were pleating them, and I’m not trying to pleat them. I need to be able to pull them aside enough to open the sliding door to my deck, so one set of curtains was enough. That added up to being enough that it was worth making the trip.

Trying to spend $80 at Ikea without buying anything big (like furniture) was kind of like one of those shopping spree games, where you have a certain amount of time to get whatever you can fit in your cart, though without the speed element. The one big thing I got was a Roman shade for my front door. The front door is mostly glass. It’s a sort of bubbly glass that distorts the view inside, but when it’s dark outside and a light is on indoors, you can see pretty well. I haven’t been too worried about it because I live near the end of a dead-end street and there’s a row of trees and hedges across the front lawn, mostly blocking the view from the street, but I still would feel weird about coming down to breakfast in my pajamas when it’s still dark at breakfast time. Now I can have all the light and visibility through the door in daytime, but I can block it off by lowering the shade when I want to.

But I still had to come up with about $50 worth of stuff, so I got to go through the store just throwing things in the cart. I got some hand towels for the bathroom, a set of small plates (since the “small” plates that go with my dishes are too big for things like toast or a sandwich), a sifter, some food storage stuff, and lots of candles. The candles were on sale, so I couldn’t resist. I used to joke about my Strategic Candle Reserve, but it came in handy during that big power failure we had a few years back in Texas. I didn’t replace the ones I used up then, and I didn’t try to move most of what I had left. Now I have more than replaced them. I’m ready for cozy fall and winter evenings. I even like to light a candle on my desk while I’m writing on cloudy days when I can see the light. And if I lose power, I’ll have plenty of light, with a nice vanilla scent.

I ended up going a bit over the $80 I needed to use the coupon, but I still came out of Ikea with a ridiculously low total.

There’s a mall next to the Ikea, so I did some shopping there while waiting for the Ikea to open. I hadn’t been in a mall since before the pandemic started, so I haven’t done that level of shopping in ages. Wow, prices have really gone up. I did catch some good deals and got some shoes and some boots. Since I’m walking most places now, I needed some “nice” shoes I can still walk in. Even some of my flats aren’t really comfortable for walking a mile or so in. My dressy boots were all high-heeled. So now I have some cute boots that I should be able to walk in.

Then I took back roads back home, so I’ve seen more of Virginia. I still like my area the best. My soul sings at that first sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Ikea and mall are pretty close to Mount Vernon. A lot of it is currently closed for some restoration work, but when it’s open again I may make another trip to play tourist, with a little shopping along the way. I could also catch a commuter train from there to go into D.C. without having to drive inside the Beltway.

But now I have to recover before going out tonight, and I need to get to work on book revisions. I did a lot of thinking while I was driving and now I need to look at how my ideas fit into the book.