Marty-A Little before the End of the Day

It appears that I'm not very good at keeping up with this blog at the end of the day. Generally I'm just too tired. So now, I will work on this late in the day, say, about 7 PM. And from now on, that will Honesty and today.

It seems I really do not like the heat. I have felt, for at least the last 20 years, that ideal places to live our in the San Francisco Bay Area and Hawaii.So what am I doing in Phoenix, where it was 107° today and it will be 107° again tomorrow? Well, we came here in late 2006, so that I could work for Safeway. However, I was laid off in 2008 and have been unable to work since then. However, it's really not all bad. My wife is still happy here, and that counts a lot. And between one thing and another, we are able to Lee live reasonably well. (Although certainly not in the style we could when I had a six-figure income.)

So, I am even more conscious of electric use than I was when I was just doing it to be green. So our electric bills show even lower use in kilowatts then we experienced in our earliest days here. (Even then APS, our electric utility, showed our normal use all the way at the lowest end of their range of use scale.) I am not sure we are really any more green. Tracy's car still gets about 40 miles per gallon. However, I now drive an older van (as our road car) rather than the hybrid sedan we had a few years back.

On the other hand, I drive about half as many miles as I did as this. Tracy. So, on balance, I don't think where any less screen either.

Overall it's still a good life, though a little different than it was a few years back.

Good night!

Happy 235th Birthday

Today I recognized a lesson I learned in the Marines and at 12 step meetings. Its really quite simple, claim what you need and are for yourself... and give the same to others.

So, if you are an American, born here or newly minted, today was your 235th Birthday. I hope you enjoyed it and know you will have many more.

And know you are blessed of and by the Great Spirit, however you understand it to be.

Good night!

Another Day

I have spent over an hour trying to get Blogger to let me make a new post. Of course, the solution was simple. I needed to clear my cache...

Since I did not say much about Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University ( fpuonline.daveramsey.com ) yesterday, I'll write a quick blog about that and then go to bed.

My basic feelings about the series is somewhat like the feeling I had about something called "est" in the early 1970's, (the line came from my then roomate, Sherman Adams, but it was perfect), "Its a lot of bulls---, but it works." Before I get a lot of complaints from Ramsey fans, I should say that I spent something over 4 years volunteering over 40 hours a week at "est". But that did not change the accuracy of the statement. 

Much the same seems to be true of FPU and of the Ramsey books I've read so far. Its worth the time, money and effort to go through the program. And, from what I can tell at just past the halfway point, it will work. It will certainly make you think about how you manage your finances and life (rarely a bad thing, that). 

The "caveat" is also the same as "est". Use it as it applies and do not believe it. Dave says he is a salesperson and has been one for years. That is apparent, and it is part of why his information should be used, not believed. By all means, "Think" (as he says) before you make financial decisions. And, this thinking should include understanding what the results of your decisions will be. My lack of understanding of credit, how to use and not use it (by far the preferred option), is why I find the program of such value. However, Dave uses your emotions in his program, just as he points out sales and collection folks do. And, that old radio program where the host told you, "the rest of the story", would have a lot of material with this program. 

Having said all that, the program is worthwhile and worth participating in / with. My initial purposes in signing up were to improve the financial outlook for my wife and I (our net worth was reduced by over 80%), and to see if I wanted to pursue having it presented at my church. My inclination (again, not final as I have more to do) is that I probably will pursue that in a couple of months (when I have finished and had some time to both reflect on it, confirm that it continues to produce results, and pray some more about it).

Well that is it.

Good night!

Marty - At the End of the Day by Marty Stahl is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Now It Begins

For some time now friends and family have been encouraging me to write something. And I haven't done much. Then my wife was diagnosed with metastasized breast cancer. So, to keep people informed, I started writing an update note. And that seemed to work.

Earlier this week (I do not remember when exactly), I decided I would try blogging. And the title of the blog came to me ("Marty - At the End of the Day"). I only had to decide when and what. I thought I knew both earlier today. I knew that the when was today. I thought the what would be something about our, especially my, experience Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. I will likely do that sometime. Not tonight.

As we wrapped up for the evening, Tracy suggested we watch "De-Lovely" (about Cole Porter). Throughout the movie I was moved almost to, and sometimes to, tears. Being at home, and with a wife who puts up with my idiosyncrasies, I sang most of the songs. I was reminded once again of how much I do love musicals and many of the people involved. I was never in a professional production of one. However, the couple of amateur and community  productions had me hooked. (Probably having grown up in Brooklyn and in a family where one of our "very special" things to do was attend Broadway theater also had something to do with it).

So tonight I am feeling grateful to and for the artists involved. It occurs to me that a fair bit of my acceptance of others probably comes from theater and especially musicals. From "Showboat" through "My Fair Lady", "Rent" and others, these gave me something of an experience of discrimination and a sense of the beauty of allowing others to be as they are and are not. And a recognition of the heroism of the individual. Perhaps nothing special, but important to me nonetheless. Perhaps I will some day allow myself the same freedom.

Anyway, at the end of today, I am feeling thoughtful, introspective, inspired, and grateful to a myriad of people most of whose names I do not know. So, for right now, they are represented by Cole Porter.

Good night