A woman I work with and I had a great, three hour long conversation Friday night about random things, mostly about the ravens here in the AV, real estate, and her friend's predicament with a lousy husband.

Her friend, Lydia, is married to a wealthy but cheap and controlling man who charges his wife rent and makes sure that she pays her share of all utilities and other living expenses. The details were all pretty interesting, but It's not the point of the story here.

My friend and her husband have a good bit of money. Between California real estate and two incomes with no kids over probably 30 something years of marriage, they have cash reserves.

My friend was able to buy Lydia a house to get her away from her husband. Her analogy about money was great. "You know, I see money as just a tool, like a shovel. In this case, I was able to use my money to dig Lydia out of a hole. But her husband is into collecting and polishing shovels, never using them for anything."