yesterday at the Sasquatch, there were two children at the table waiting for snow cones. The young man was playing with the umbrella, raising and lowering it and spinning it around. They young lady was asking him for a turn to play. He continued to antagonize her by turning the umbrella not letting her have a turn. She got madder and madder and stood on top of the table and started kicking the boy as he violently shook the umbrella.
At this point I raised my voice and said "I am going to ask you two to stop playing like that. You need to stop that behavior". They did stop.
The mother was about three feet away from the table waiting for the snow cones. She was very upset that I would discipline her children in this way. That they had special needs. She said she would have paid for the umbrella if they would have broken it. I did not have a right to intervene in the situation.
I do feel like it is my duty to try to intervene in behaviors of others that is not appropriate. We have a social contract on behavior. It takes a village is one of the sayings that was very popular not long ago.
Friday, June 12, 2020
Saturday, May 30, 2020
time and space
Time and space are. Everything happens all at once.
Wondering if those visits we get seeing someone in the pariffery, angels, spirit,
Those are us. When we remember when we cast back. We are there. We return to that place and our presence becomes known. Do we provide a nudge, change an decision or outcome, bring comfort in moment.
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
Dad
Mom called last night. They went to the doctor last week as my dad was feeling low energy. His blood pressure was low so they adjusted some medication. They went to the heart doctor on Monday and his injection projection is low, around 25 whereas 50 is normal. About 25 years ago he had cardio myopithi. At the time there was nothing much that could be done. A new experimental pacemaker was in development, a biventenicular device. He had it installed and made good recovery. My friend Billy always tells the story about going to the hospital and visiting back then. They gave him six months at that time. Billy tells it better.
So we will have to see what happens. There is a new medication that is supposed to help.
So we will have to see what happens. There is a new medication that is supposed to help.
Monday, February 10, 2020
Retirement Planning
It is difficult to forsee the future. I think that is one of the things that holds me back a bit. What is the future going to look like? Who knows. Writing this now to get down and share my thoughts and plan.
I have been saving in earnest towards retirement for a while, maybe the past ten years. At 52, it is not a very long while to have been saving for retirement. I did have a IRA account through my school but rules changed and I could no longer contribute to that account so it has sat dormant since. I was not happy with the high percentage cost IRA's they offered after that so stopped contributions in that way. I do have a pension through the teachers retirement system. It is a good program if one continues to teach for the full thirty years on the rule of 90. Retiring from teaching after twenty years, not so much.
I read a bit. The Mr. Money Mustache , I just found Get Rich Slowly, The Dave Ramsey fellow. It is all a bit overwhelming and too much. Today, I found a good article on $1000 a month in retirement, basically it is necessary to have $240,000 in an account earning at least 5% return in order to pull out $1000 a month. For every $1000 a month desired, one needs $240,000 in a "retirement" account.
In many ways retirement wise I am fortunate. I am basically single with no children. I have a good job that pays slightly less than the median household income in Oklahoma. I bought a house about 10 years ago in a rough part of town for abut $50,000 and got it paid off. My truck has 250,000 miles on it. Dining out is my biggest expense. Things are changing in my girlfriend just got a new house. We will be fixing it up and using the current house as a short term rental or an AirB&B.
I have a glass studio that breaks even on expenses and earnings each year. I do pay myself $1000 a month from the studio and put $800 (with a $24 match) a month into a Vanguard Simple IRA account. I do have a CPA for taxes and keeping everything in good order from a legal standpoint.
I have several savings accounts earmarked for purpose. I have an HSBC travel account. This account is funding through a couple of modest oil royalty checks from wells my father has given my brother and me. The HSBC card can be used outside of the US without fees. We have been to Tulum Mexico a couple of times and it is a great place to visit. I opened the HSBC account with Tulum in mind as they have a branch so getting cash is easy. I have a summer travel account that pulls automatically from checking every month. I have a house and truck savings accounts where I funnel left over funds from checking at the end of each month. I did open a Money Market Mutual Fund account with the truck fund and put money in each month as if I were making a payment on a new vehicle so I am saving now for a new truck. It is not really recommended to save for short term in a fund like that but with so little interest paid on a standard bank account or even a CD it is a risk I was willing to take.
So with all of that as to where I am. I plan on teaching for at least eight more years to make it to 30 years teaching and retirement. I am unsure of health insurance at this point but I expect to be able to maintain membership in the health system provided by the state for teachers. I have a lot of little bits of saving in retirement accounts which should add up to a little bit of supplemental income in the future. It really seems okay but is a constant fear. I think more people fear over a zombie apocalypse then they fear over saving enough for retirement and they are probably hoping for the zombie apocalypse because they do not have anything saved for retirement.
There are lots of people out there who are experienced in the ways of retirement. Folks who are experts with advice. What is the best approach? Read and read some more. Talk to folks, meet with financial planners. I have a difficult time giving money to someone for taking care of my retirement. I met with a group a few years ago and they wanted me to transfer all of my accounts into their plan and they would take care of everything for a fee. I could not see a benefit. I met with my local recommended financial adviser to get an idea of if I am going in the right direction. Things look good but yes, they want me to move my accounts over to their program and they can get a percentage of my investments. I think a good financial planner would be one willing to work together to provide the best direction. Sign posts and goals to follow, not charging a toll every year or quarter. I think that is about it. If this helps you in anyway let me know.
I have been saving in earnest towards retirement for a while, maybe the past ten years. At 52, it is not a very long while to have been saving for retirement. I did have a IRA account through my school but rules changed and I could no longer contribute to that account so it has sat dormant since. I was not happy with the high percentage cost IRA's they offered after that so stopped contributions in that way. I do have a pension through the teachers retirement system. It is a good program if one continues to teach for the full thirty years on the rule of 90. Retiring from teaching after twenty years, not so much.
I read a bit. The Mr. Money Mustache , I just found Get Rich Slowly, The Dave Ramsey fellow. It is all a bit overwhelming and too much. Today, I found a good article on $1000 a month in retirement, basically it is necessary to have $240,000 in an account earning at least 5% return in order to pull out $1000 a month. For every $1000 a month desired, one needs $240,000 in a "retirement" account.
In many ways retirement wise I am fortunate. I am basically single with no children. I have a good job that pays slightly less than the median household income in Oklahoma. I bought a house about 10 years ago in a rough part of town for abut $50,000 and got it paid off. My truck has 250,000 miles on it. Dining out is my biggest expense. Things are changing in my girlfriend just got a new house. We will be fixing it up and using the current house as a short term rental or an AirB&B.
I have a glass studio that breaks even on expenses and earnings each year. I do pay myself $1000 a month from the studio and put $800 (with a $24 match) a month into a Vanguard Simple IRA account. I do have a CPA for taxes and keeping everything in good order from a legal standpoint.
I have several savings accounts earmarked for purpose. I have an HSBC travel account. This account is funding through a couple of modest oil royalty checks from wells my father has given my brother and me. The HSBC card can be used outside of the US without fees. We have been to Tulum Mexico a couple of times and it is a great place to visit. I opened the HSBC account with Tulum in mind as they have a branch so getting cash is easy. I have a summer travel account that pulls automatically from checking every month. I have a house and truck savings accounts where I funnel left over funds from checking at the end of each month. I did open a Money Market Mutual Fund account with the truck fund and put money in each month as if I were making a payment on a new vehicle so I am saving now for a new truck. It is not really recommended to save for short term in a fund like that but with so little interest paid on a standard bank account or even a CD it is a risk I was willing to take.
So with all of that as to where I am. I plan on teaching for at least eight more years to make it to 30 years teaching and retirement. I am unsure of health insurance at this point but I expect to be able to maintain membership in the health system provided by the state for teachers. I have a lot of little bits of saving in retirement accounts which should add up to a little bit of supplemental income in the future. It really seems okay but is a constant fear. I think more people fear over a zombie apocalypse then they fear over saving enough for retirement and they are probably hoping for the zombie apocalypse because they do not have anything saved for retirement.
There are lots of people out there who are experienced in the ways of retirement. Folks who are experts with advice. What is the best approach? Read and read some more. Talk to folks, meet with financial planners. I have a difficult time giving money to someone for taking care of my retirement. I met with a group a few years ago and they wanted me to transfer all of my accounts into their plan and they would take care of everything for a fee. I could not see a benefit. I met with my local recommended financial adviser to get an idea of if I am going in the right direction. Things look good but yes, they want me to move my accounts over to their program and they can get a percentage of my investments. I think a good financial planner would be one willing to work together to provide the best direction. Sign posts and goals to follow, not charging a toll every year or quarter. I think that is about it. If this helps you in anyway let me know.
Tuesday, February 04, 2020
Curry Noodle Soup
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQN6utAdmaHnGjFqNbjGSANI7-H4bjqxeKrLAVmRB3v7lWKjhm_uTN0umtPhZEPqTPqQ_cX6DpFWa-t/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000&slide=id.p
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gxuILX1LAdXh6kbF_dKLSBqWlfnDl4iVNHuA23P9yYs/edit?usp=sharing
Recipe for Curry Noodle Soup
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gxuILX1LAdXh6kbF_dKLSBqWlfnDl4iVNHuA23P9yYs/edit?usp=sharing
Recipe for Curry Noodle Soup
Monday, February 03, 2020
Expenditures
I have been looking at my finances again. Wondering if I am doing the right things and if I am on the right track.
It is difficult to know where to start and if the 10,000 foot view is enough. I remain confused most of the time and reading from others I wonder sometimes. Many of the saving money blogs repeat the same information and appear to do very well. Making money doing what they love. Traveling. Residual income. Where do I fit into all of this?
Goals -
Daily Living -
Hopes and Dreams -
Fears -
seriously in the blogging field. Why would anyone want to read read what I have to say, and then why would anyone give me money for doing it too? And then how much work is it to keep it going?
Look at my blogging progress to start. I used to blog a lot. Then just stopped. Now just now and again. Wondering about my voice, authentic voice.
Goals -
8 more years of teaching to reach retirement. With the teacher retirement system it is really necessary to get in 30 years. The difference in monthly pension is huge between 20 years ($700 a month) and 30 years ($2300 a month).
The studio - it is good. It is difficult to project into the future with the studio. Many factors contribute to the whole success of the studio. It is in a good place and is still fulfilling.
Daily Living - the monotony of daily life continues for everyone. Cook, Clean, eat, sleep, work, play, exercise, Balance.
Hopes and Dreams - A lot of what if's.
Fears - many are not founded in experience or reality.
Take stock of the whole gets to be overwhelming.
What am I going to do today in order to make the dream for tomorrow possible?
It is difficult to know where to start and if the 10,000 foot view is enough. I remain confused most of the time and reading from others I wonder sometimes. Many of the saving money blogs repeat the same information and appear to do very well. Making money doing what they love. Traveling. Residual income. Where do I fit into all of this?
Goals -
Daily Living -
Hopes and Dreams -
Fears -
seriously in the blogging field. Why would anyone want to read read what I have to say, and then why would anyone give me money for doing it too? And then how much work is it to keep it going?
Look at my blogging progress to start. I used to blog a lot. Then just stopped. Now just now and again. Wondering about my voice, authentic voice.
Goals -
8 more years of teaching to reach retirement. With the teacher retirement system it is really necessary to get in 30 years. The difference in monthly pension is huge between 20 years ($700 a month) and 30 years ($2300 a month).
The studio - it is good. It is difficult to project into the future with the studio. Many factors contribute to the whole success of the studio. It is in a good place and is still fulfilling.
Daily Living - the monotony of daily life continues for everyone. Cook, Clean, eat, sleep, work, play, exercise, Balance.
Hopes and Dreams - A lot of what if's.
Fears - many are not founded in experience or reality.
Take stock of the whole gets to be overwhelming.
What am I going to do today in order to make the dream for tomorrow possible?
Friday, January 31, 2020
Five More Seconds
Reading online today (https://www.getrichslowly.org/early-retirement-extreme/#more-237770) this quote jumped out at me, "It also resists incremental learning because it doesn't make sense or flow until all of the ingredients are known and snap together. (Much like the ERE philosophy!)"
I have been trying to sum up learning the process of glass blowing. It is very much a step by step process but the mastery of craft comes with the flow of each of the steps and being able to adjust when necessary.
We were working recently and discussing the nuances of the glass. Knowing the steps and what to do next is great. It leads to the creation of beautiful things. Knowing why it is what you are doing is key. Learning to put pressure of different levels in different places to shape the glass leads to better design and better results. This is teachable and learn-able but only once a certain level of competence is reached.
Heat is glass is key. Getting enough heat throughout to have the substance move to where you want it to go with ease and efficiency. The hotter the glass gets, the more difficult it is to control. Being on the edge of losing control. Once one becomes comfortable at the control at a certain heat, it is time to get more heat. Once you have the heat that is needed stay in for five more seconds. Learn to master the glass at that next higher level. It is amazing the difference that makes in the process.
I have been trying to sum up learning the process of glass blowing. It is very much a step by step process but the mastery of craft comes with the flow of each of the steps and being able to adjust when necessary.
We were working recently and discussing the nuances of the glass. Knowing the steps and what to do next is great. It leads to the creation of beautiful things. Knowing why it is what you are doing is key. Learning to put pressure of different levels in different places to shape the glass leads to better design and better results. This is teachable and learn-able but only once a certain level of competence is reached.
Heat is glass is key. Getting enough heat throughout to have the substance move to where you want it to go with ease and efficiency. The hotter the glass gets, the more difficult it is to control. Being on the edge of losing control. Once one becomes comfortable at the control at a certain heat, it is time to get more heat. Once you have the heat that is needed stay in for five more seconds. Learn to master the glass at that next higher level. It is amazing the difference that makes in the process.
Wednesday, January 08, 2020
move up
I keep going back to someone said about 30 years ago... "You are not there yet.". Sort of like the oracle in the Matrix when she tells Neo he is not ready, he is waiting for something. It was in regard to enlightenment and rebirth.. maybe in the next lifetime.
It seems to me now I just stopped. Why pursue higher thinking, why seek enlightenment when we are simply not going to achieve it?
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Friday, October 26, 2018
Fear of Economic Insecurity
So the big book has a promise that fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. This would lead one to think that otherwise normal people do not have this fear. They are secure with what they have and what will come. But listening to podcasts and reading blogs there are a great many people who live with this fear. Many taking effective action to combat it and still others doing nothing to prepare for the future.
In his latest podcast Dax Shepard said something about the holiday and Snickers Bars, the Snickers tree produces so many Snickers and in my mind I must consume all the Snickers because I do not know when I will get so many Snickers again. Even though there are Snickers everywhere and I can get one anytime. Scarcity. Listening on to Brene Brown it stems from shame.
So the truck broke down last month. The head gasket blew and radiator fluid was leaking into the spark plugs and fouling the system. The dealer said $4000 to replace the head gasket. The truck is not worth fixing for $4000, or why put $4000 into a vehicle worth maybe $6000. I started looking for new trucks. I have been saving about $200 a month for a new truck for a while. I have $26000 saved, not enough for a new Tacoma. I started calling around and found a great dude at JJ’s that could fix it for $2000. The water pump was leaking so the bill came to $2700.
Anyway, this triggers me into worry about finances and saving and having enough. Obsession of the mind for the past month or so about money.
The house is paid for. It is a nice little house. It is in a rough neighborhood. It is a $50,000 house. I was able to pay it off in about seven years. It has one bathroom. Will need a new roof, new siding, and a new detached garage in the near future. Beginning to look for a new place with some land and space.
The glass studio needs a makeover. New shelves, a new glory hole, rebuild of equipment. It is doing well on the month to month but tight. There is always what we need, when we need it.
Accounts are in good order. Retirement is building, slowly but surely. With stock market up and down it does not pay to check balances but trust in the process. With retirement from teaching in nine years or so there is not a lot of time to save, purchase, and secure the future.
How to invest? Find a professional. Check out the FINRA analyzer to see true cost of funds. Open a Roth IRA ($5000) a year. Save every month. Open savings accounts to squirrel away money for various objectives (house repair, new truck, travel account...)
So I think the prospect of having to purchase a new truck set things in motion, along with needing a new house or update the current one triggered a new wave of questioning if I am doing the right things. So process, what I am doing? Where is income going? What are the monthly bills?
Monday, June 11, 2018
Late to the Party
Friday brought news of the passing of Anthony Bourdain (https://twitter.com/bourdain) Truth be told I have not read any of his books, I have not watched his shows on television. I wonder why, I love to eat, I love to travel. Commonalities exist and I never explored his being.
I listen to Marc Maron podcast and Mr. Maron reposted an interview with Bourdain from 2011. (http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/repost-anthony-bourdain-from-2011) I have been listening to it in the truck over the weekend. It has been impactful. I sought out Bourdain's blog on Tumblr (http://anthonybourdain.tumblr.com/) although it has not been updated in I would assume a couple of years it is tremendous reading.
I started my college career wanting to be in the restaurant business. Eighteen at OSU, I was in the hotel/restaurant management program. It was great. I had a cooking class but did not know anything about cooking and did not do well in that class, never able to make a basic hollendaise sauce. When I moved to Cape Cod I got a job washing dishes in a great little Italian place, Lo Cicero's. I learned to cook there. Basic, rich, good, food. That time of life for me was simply fantastic. But, as it does life took turns and led in different directions. I think about my old buddy Scott. He was a chef. Tremendous talent in the kitchen. A wizard. In love with food and with life.
I would love to be a writer. I am not good at it. I do not have the time or the discipline. I do not really have anything to say. I try on occasion and compose a sentence in my head. wishing it was more than just a sentence.
I would love to travel more. But time and money and fear and life are constraints. To just get up and go. Find little hidden gems in cities around the world. No matter where you go there you are, or you always take yourself with you; so I am still me even though travelling and that is not always pleasant.
Is that the purpose? Reminding us to live fully. To take each day and be whole.
I listen to Marc Maron podcast and Mr. Maron reposted an interview with Bourdain from 2011. (http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/repost-anthony-bourdain-from-2011) I have been listening to it in the truck over the weekend. It has been impactful. I sought out Bourdain's blog on Tumblr (http://anthonybourdain.tumblr.com/) although it has not been updated in I would assume a couple of years it is tremendous reading.
I started my college career wanting to be in the restaurant business. Eighteen at OSU, I was in the hotel/restaurant management program. It was great. I had a cooking class but did not know anything about cooking and did not do well in that class, never able to make a basic hollendaise sauce. When I moved to Cape Cod I got a job washing dishes in a great little Italian place, Lo Cicero's. I learned to cook there. Basic, rich, good, food. That time of life for me was simply fantastic. But, as it does life took turns and led in different directions. I think about my old buddy Scott. He was a chef. Tremendous talent in the kitchen. A wizard. In love with food and with life.
I would love to be a writer. I am not good at it. I do not have the time or the discipline. I do not really have anything to say. I try on occasion and compose a sentence in my head. wishing it was more than just a sentence.
I would love to travel more. But time and money and fear and life are constraints. To just get up and go. Find little hidden gems in cities around the world. No matter where you go there you are, or you always take yourself with you; so I am still me even though travelling and that is not always pleasant.
Is that the purpose? Reminding us to live fully. To take each day and be whole.
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