[Author's note 2016-01-18: here is a picture from 2007 from Wiki. Wow, it isn't an animal picture. It is Victoria Crater. On Mars. Yep, those are sand dunes in the middle of this 2,500 yard wide crater. You can't see it if you don't know where to look, but there is a Mars rover on the crater rim. So they say.
This is the crater with the "ripples" in the center, probably caused by wind. Alas, nothing much more was said about this discovery.]
If I was retired, this would have been a pretty damn good day. For those who just got here, I’ve had a unique opportunity over the past year or so to practice for retirement. By that, I mean I have had the time to find out how little and how much of each thing I’ll need so that there will be no surprises. I, too, hear those tales of incredible millions of dollars needed for “comfortable” retirement and had to see for myself.
There was also a curiosity about how much activity I would require to enjoy life. During this experiment, I found out a whole mess of other things. One of them is that I will never be bored if left alone and I wish I had known how little I required to be happy. Screw the big house and fancy car, unless you like pouring money away. So, without more lecturing, here’s the day.
[Author's note 2016-01-18: The above is turned out to be more significant than ever intended. There can be confusion over which date I claim to have retired, since that day depends on definition. The last day I worked "for a living" was actually in 1981. But I still worked. So the last day that I worked in that sense was in 1996. But I still had a job, which was a fun way to pass some time. I left that job in 2004.
The explanation for to day is that I realized I would never again be able to work for a living and there was no practical way to find out if retirement would leave me destitute. My income dropped to a quarter of what it was and I could no longer walk up the street. So the question was, could I buy a small place and find out once and for all what were the minimum requirements of my own retirement. Turns out yes. Once you quit working for a living, your costs drop to the point where almost anything is manageable--but you have to take care of that place to live first.
Since the next few years of this blog contain all manner of details and tidbits about how to retire, travel, and never again worry about money, I leave it to the reader to find them on their own. After all, I do want others reading this blog, right?]
I got to the shop just in time to see Dickens off to the Keys. This will be his first break since July last year when I took over for three weeks. The lack of customers till later gave me a chance to go over my plans for this blog again. They’ve been around long enough to see what works or not. I’ve noticed the blogs that fall out are the ones that do not get updated on a daily basis. Also, making money at it falls into a few categories of advertising tactics.
I measured out a few areas and did some thinking about vending machines. These bubble gum machines are getting so cheap on eBay I’m being tempted again. The product is virtually non-perishable. Somebody donated a brand new Ronco Rotisserie which (I think) retails for $130. A lady brought in a tuxedo saying she used to be a disk jockey. Even crazy Phyllis from the computer store came by and bought nothing.
It is too bad that place does not show enough of a profit to hire anyone, myself included. Thus, based on my projected retirement date, I have 16 years to put something together that works for me. How do you rate my chances? I tell you that any tiny bump in my income now will likely result in me never going back to work.
On the way home, before stopping to buy bananas, strawberries, potatoes, apples and onions, I checked in on the G. He was teaching a music lesson, so everything is fine. He just is not returned phone calls. Oh, I also bought some sugar-free candy, first making sure that the sugar had not been replaced by something even worse. It was my reward because I believe it is now something like five years since I’ve eaten beef at home. It has been at least three years for eggs and seven years for ham. Nor do I miss any of them. I wish I could cut out bread, but despite the warnings it is still a staple around here. That, and peanut butter.
Somebody in Ft. Lauderdale is looking for a proofreader. I replied to the ad, indicating a willingness to do the work by Internet. I quoted them my favorite recent blooper, “Ted and Mary were entertaining guests.” (Most people cannot see the error in that sentence.) Also, that Leo guy wrote back, and I suspect I’ve gotten him mixed up with another person. He does not play guitar at all, but is willing to learn. Sorry, I need somebody who can hit the ground running.
He (Leo) is the fourth vocalist who responded to an ad that clearly states that middle to mediocre guitar ability is an absolute requirement. I even logged back on and verified the wording. South Florida cannot afford to pay trios and both Brian and I balk at playing a gig for less than a guitarist makes. That, with my natural inclination to avoid relying on more people than I have to means Brian and I may go on stage with just the bass and drum machine.
I’ve been plugging away at the database system. Nothing to report yet, although I did get MySQL running. It has a strange installation pattern and even tries to log onto the Internet. It will not install if you choose the wrong option, but I got it in there. It has a shell for manipulating the records, which I’ll learn quickly. Everything is done by query and I’m glad to see a few software people have finally figured that out.
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