I took advantage of a nice promo offer DSW was having today. One was advertised, the other was only advertised in the store. I went in with a $5 birthday discount coupon I got in the mail (you can sign up for this discount  on their website) just to browse, but then I saw lots of signs saying that if you bought a regularly priced pair of sneakers, you'd get a 6-pack of socks for free.

So that's what I did. They are crew socks, in case you're wondering, and you get your choice of black or white.

While I was there, I picked up a few things at Trader Joe's, since they're right in the same shopping plaza, then on the way home I filled up the gas tank at BJs and used another $5 birthday coupon at Kohl's and got a flannel shirt. I'm really looking forward to the cooler weather.

Tonight I'm attending a fundraiser hosted by our Senator Chris Murphy, who is an outspoken critic of Rumpie. It's about a half-mile from my house, so easy to get to. I like that he fundraises for many tight races throughout the country, not just those in my state, and so he funnels money to them as needed.

I'm embarrassed to report that I no longer have a perfect credit score of 850, due to a late payment to Bank of America. Yup, that's right, first time that's happened in decades. How did that happen? I usually pay any incoming emailed credit cards within a day or two of receiving them, just because I have a lot of credit cards and I don't want to miss them. Well, that's just what happened. I called BOA and they agreed to credit me the $29 late fee, although that was after I told them I wanted to cancel the card so this didn't happen again. I really have a surplus of cards anyway. Initially, I hadn't thought I had gotten the bill at all, but later I found it buried in with a bunch of other emails. 

So I need to be more careful. I know many people put their cards on auto pay, but I like retaining the control over how and when the card is paid, and I always review every purchase that's listed.  This is one reason why I've been trying to cut back on the number of news subscriptions I have or other things that land in my in-box, because I don't want so many emails that stuff gets overlooked.

And since I've been retired, there have been a number of times when I've felt the need to pay a card online but delay it to a later date instead of same day. I've done this because I've had home improvements or other big bills like car/home insurance that month, and so my usual monthly income isn't quite enough to cover things if I paid the credit cards all at once. I could of course make additional distributions from my brokerage account as needed, but i have already calculated what annual income to shoot for to pay less state and federal taxes, so veering from that would make it harder to meet my self-imposed annual income limits. 

Unfortunately, while the late payment fee was reversed, they could not undo the reporting of this to the credit reporting bureaus, so there will be a zing to my credit score, which bothers me just as much as the fee. Oh well.

I don't know if I mentioned it here, but I've planned a 5-day trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York this fall. I am meeting a friend who lives near Lake Erie there; I've known here since I was renting a room in her house on the Cape in my 20s, but I haven't seen her for probably 30 years, so it should be exciting. 

I hadn't thought to ask her to join me, but she sent me flowers for my birthday and I called to thank her, mentioning this trip I was thinking about doing. She immediately said she'd be up for joining me since it was roughly midway between us. And that's how that came about!

The focus of the trip will be waterfalls, as there are many spectacular ones in the area, but we'll also be spending time at the Corning Glass Musuem. There will also be time to take a scenic drive around Lake Seneca and hit the many farm stands, or if we like, doing a narrated boat cruise on the lake. And of course many good meals, I hope!

I think I got the waterfall bug when I visited that new state park in Vermont and saw a beautiful one in the town I used to live in.