https://www.fool.com/retirement/2018/02/04/3-reasons-to-retire-as-early-as-you-can.aspx After all the fear mongering articles urging everyone to work till they die, it was nice to see one with a different point of view. My point of view.
T -86 Days: Dunes in Michigan
I look out and see flurries of snow being whipped between the trees of my backyard in Iowa. The Michigan summer seems far away. But it is just around the corner.
T -87 Days: George Orwell
George Orwell wrote… The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to…
T -88 Days: Bold move
I told someone on the phone today of my plans. After a short silence he replied, “Wow, what a bold move!” I thought afterward… not so bold. What would be bold would be doing it at 30 years of age. Young married, with small children. That would be bold. But after further review, other words…
T -89 Days: Bruce Springsteen
Sometimes you have a day where you just leave work. Had enough. Jump in the car and fire up Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town”. Almost wishing the drive home was longer, but satisfied because “Badlands” hits the emotional spot. Then you can smile as you walk into the house, double tap the…
T -90 Days: Chiefs
After the Kansas City Chiefs ridiculous playoff loss, I had said I was done with them. Never again. Hard to get over that type of loss, especially built on top of the Chiefs history of losing playoff games they should have won. Now Alex Smith has been traded away. Suddenly the Chiefs look exciting and…
T -91 Days: No coat
Fifteen winter coats One line item from our charitable donations list. My wife cleaned out the closet of all unused coats. I now have no coat… not that I need one. For the last seven years, I have not worn a coat in the winter. Iowa winters. I made it through one winter not wearing…
T -92 Days: Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids One of the additional positives of our move to the beach is having Grand Rapids nearby. The Grand Rapids metropolitan area population is just over 1 million. Adding in the beach communities from Muskegon to Holland brings the total over 1.3 million. By comparison, the Kansas City metro area population is 2.2 million. No…
T -93 Days: Winter thaw
Weird to see Grand Haven hauling in snow, but the heat wave made it there too. Not a creative day for me, but a productive one. Spent a lot of the day filing taxes. Took me a couple of hours entering all the details for all the charitable deductions we took. But I realize the…
T -94 Days: Ice Rings
A new video from the Grand Haven beach…. Last night I woke up again at 3am, couldn’t sleep, but wasn’t fully awake. I took the opportunity to write a little from bed. Then this morning I read what I had written. Oops.