Journal Entries
In case anyone has noticed...
Posted Dec 21, 2011
I have stopped counting down the days until retirement. I'm not so sure now that I want to retire at the date I selected. Health insurance is so expensive that I figured I'd wait until I am 65 and qualify for Medicare. Between now and then, if I stop wasting money on nonessentials like books, clothes, DVDs, vacations, etc. I can pay off all my credit cards and my car. This will make it easier to live on a reduce income. But I'll still have a mortgage payment practically forever. 
A couple of days ago I had one of those 
moments. I can't collect my library pension and continue working, but I can start collecting social security and keep working. But you have to be full retirement age, which for me is 66, to earn as much as you want without a reduction in benefits. So, if I file at age 66 I can live off of my salary and put the entire SS check every month toward the principal on my mortgage. 
It would be wonderful to retire with the house completely paid for. I figure it will take 3-3.5 extra years. Then I can quit work and apply for my library pension and live quite comfortable and debt free. Sounds like a plan. Now I just have to stay healthy and keep my trustees happy enough not to fire me.
Since my mother is now 90 and I have many, many relatives who have lived into their 90s, I am hoping that I've inherited their longevity genes. By Lady C dying so young, it isn't a sure thing, though. I just hope I don't forgo the pleasures of retirement in order to get out of debt and then drop dead the next day. It's really hard to know what to do sometimes.
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Latest reply: Dec 21, 2011
What a Hoot!
Posted Dec 14, 2011
I have discovered the Billy Connolly travel series. 
I started with the Route 66 one, since you can see Route 66 from my kitchen window. I liked it so much that I ordered the box set of the World Tour series and the one where he crosses the Arctic Circle.
I've watched Scotland, Australia and the England, Ireland and Wales ones so far. Still have New Zealand and the Arctic one to go. The World Tour ones have a great format, cutting the concert clips into the travel bits. I love it! A good laugh is always appreciated, especially in December. 
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Latest reply: Dec 14, 2011
Fi nally finished
Posted Dec 9, 2011
I managed to finish all six seasons of Judge John Deed. As much as I like Martin Shaw, it is one of those series I wish I hadn't purchased. I'll certainly never watch it again. Since it is a Region 2 series, I can't donate it to the library, either.
I thought each episode would be a stand alone courtroom drama. I wanted to like it. Really. I enjoy books and films with legal themes and arguments about fine points of the law. I wasn't expecting a soap opera, a horn dog judge who put himself into compromising situations over and over or the ridiculous vendetta against him. I liked his PA or whatever her title was, Mrs Cooper, and the dogs. They were sensible. I liked an occassional victim. None of the main characters were people I'd invite to a barbecue, including Deed. A program is supposed to give you someone to root for.
Some good has come from it, though. I am now less dissatisfied with the American justice system.
Ex-wife, ex-father-in-law, mouthy daughter, string of women, everyone out to get him. It is Bergerac with a wig but minus the scenery.
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Latest reply: Dec 9, 2011
Bye Albert
Posted Dec 8, 2011
St. Louis Cardinal fans have been in an ever increasing state of angst for nearly two years over the probable departure of Albert Pujols when he qualified for free agency at the end of the 2011 season. We all knew it was coming, and that he is worth more money than we can afford to pay him. Well, those of us with functioning brains knew that.
What we feared has happened. Today Albert signed a very sweet contract with the Angels, a contract worth at least 30 million more than the Cards could offer. Truth is, I personally don't think they could afford the offer they made, let alone match the Angels. It would have seriously affected their ability to pay other players and improve the team when needed.
Here's the deal. Los Angeles is a massive market compared to St. Louis. The Angels are currently renegotiating a lucrative TV contract that could bring them an addtional $100 million a year. They can afford to pay Pujols and still have a ton left over.
The Cardinals aren't even in the top 10 teams when it comes to money available for players. Sure, we have a lot of loyal fans who keep the ballpark mostly full and buy the shirts. But there is never going to be enough money there for a 10 year, $250 million contract without totally hamstringing the team.
So, congratulations to Angel fans. You've gotten one of the best players in the history of the game. He's also a gentleman, won't embarrass the team with appearances in the tabloids, will do a good job in the community and should give you 5 or 6 good years before you have to turn him into a very highly paid DH.
And congratulations to Albert for getting a contract that reflects your status. You've earned it. I'll miss having you at first. I wish you as much success in your Angels uniform as you had wearing the birds on the bat.
What the Cardinals do have, something that has nothing to do with Pujols or any one player is a tradition of winning. During my lifetime I've seen lots of great players come and go. That is the nature of the game. Don't order our tombstone yet, just because we lost Albert.
I want to say one other thing while I'm on the subject. This is to all those Cardinals fans who are villifying Albert, burning your #5 jerseys, accusing him of being a traitor to the team and the fans -- put a sock in it. I know you think he should have taken less money and stayed in St. Louis. You need to get real. Baseball is a business. And for a player of his stature signing that enormous contract is similar to achieving any other baseball stat. Sure the guy has an ego. Why not? Which one of us would turn down a hefty raise if it was offered to us, especially if we knew we were worth the money? As to loyalty, Albert doesn't owe us anything. He produced amazing numbers for the team year after year. That's what he owed us, and that's what he delivered. Now, get off his back and wish him well instead of behaving like ill mannered children.
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Latest reply: Dec 8, 2011
Hypatia: NaJoPoMo 30/30
Posted Nov 30, 2011
Since this is the last of the November Challenge journal entries, I wanted it to be something actually interesting. Blast and alas, I have been under the weather since Thanksgiving evening and am so full of cold medication that my brain has turned to mush.
I realize that the purpose of writing challenges is to establish the habit of writing on a regular schedule, of which I approve. That old saying that 'writers write' is certainly true. Back in the day when I had illusions of being a writer, I became quite disciplined at it. The trouble was that sometimes life intervenes big time, plans have to be changed and dreams remain illusions, just out of reach.
I hope everyone who has participated in NaJoPoMo has enjoyed it and is encouraged to go forward and continue writing on a regular basis. I firmly believe that talent and ambition won't get you there without stubborn discipline and a certain amount of luck. When I read some of the absolute crap being published, I realize that talent certainly isn't the main ingredient in being published. 
I also think that we need to write to please ourselves, not to a formula that we hope will please a publisher or the great unwashed masses. That may be the way to break in, however, so if that's what it takes, do it. Just understand what it is you're doing.
One more observation before I stop pontificating. Get your novel or whatever actually written before you start worrying about an agent or a pen name or copywrite laws or whatever. Even in a place as small as Little DooDah, we have all sorts of people coming in here with plans to write who spend so much time on this sort of thing that they never get around to the writing. They'll check out the Writer's Market and pour over publishers, spend days researching titles and weeks discussing plots. What they don't do is write.
Writers write. 
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Latest reply: Nov 30, 2011
Hypatia
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