A New Car!!!

Long time no write!!  Here I am about to  write about my latest investment.  I bought a new car - new only to me.  It is a 3 year old Honda CRV, silver colored.  It is quite nice with several amenities that
make it feel a bit like a luxury auto.  It drives nice and has a few onboard  tech items that are quite
useful.  For one thing it has a rear camera to guide me as I back up.  It takes a bit to become adept
 at useing that feature, but I'm getting there.  It also has an automatic feature for turning the lights
off after you turn the car off.  I like that but I tend to forget that it does that.  The only feature I'm
not so fond of is the rear window.  It is kind of small and limits one's view of the road behind the car.
The seats are fairly adjustable so as a rather short person I can fit in it, but still need a pillow to improve the view (accuracy that is).  I'm not thrilled about car payments, but there is no other way
to buy a new car.  I do usually pay any auto loan  more quickly by increasing the amountI send each month .  I use a complicated formula ie send a few extra dollars each month. Because the extra amount goes directly on the principal rather then devided up for both principal and interest as the monthly payments are.  I think that in the end one will save some money that would otherwise go to interest, and for me the good part is that if one month I have some extra expenses I need only pay the minimum without any penalty and then catch up later when things are ok. I may be wrong about how this works, but  I know is that it works for me.    Also my loan is from a credit union which usually
have better rates than banks.  I will admit that I didn't do as much research as I should have, but
this is my 3rd auto from Honda Motors and they have all been very reliable cars.  (You should
know that I'm not be compensated for my kind words about the Honda products).

On a different topic, I have just heard that meteorologists are predicting a difficult winter in the
northeast.  Apparently we're in for freezing weather and lots of snow (don't we always get that?).

Too Tired

July 6, 2012


Today I had an idea for a blog entry.  It had to do with defining "the good life" and thinking about what sort of advice one might give to relatives or off-spring about understanding what makes a good life, and how  one would  achieve this.  I want to remember this so I can write about it later, but right now I'm too tired. I have a busy 2 weeks coming up - family visiting, social gathering, and surgery pretty much in that order.  I hope I can address all of these issues.

Aug. 15, 2012

So my surgery is done, but I will be starting PT in a few weeks.  Not looking forward to that, but I have to if I want to get full mobility back and heal and experience less pain. So far there have been no complications.  It has been very warm - in the 90's for the last few weeks, cooling a little in the evening, but unpleasant, humid, and hot for the most part.  Which brings me to my topic i.e. The Good Life.  We all have a vision of what life might be like if we won the lottery or maybe most of us.  However, I've never thought of writing that dream down so maybe I'll do that now.  

First I'd have more money than I'd actually needed, nice home, maybe some house keeping help once or twice a week.  I'd have a good reliable auto not more than 2 years old and all paid for. In addition a second vehicle for recreation either a van or large suv  I'd have a savings account, with a good buffer, nice clothes,  and maybe a good job with a good salary and benefits.   That's sort of mundane, I know.  So what's more exciting - not sure.  I'd love to have AC and not be afraid to use it.  I'd love to have someone cook for me, but I'm not sure that's part of a "good life", but it might be nice.  But heat and AC are important and animals.  I want a house full with a nanny just for the animals so I can play and someone can clean the litter box, vacuum the rug, etc.  But if I had a dog I think I'd like to do the walking.  It would be good for both of us.  A yoga or exercise class and exercising 2-4 times a week would be good for me.  Then I'd like to write short stories about my cats and other animals and maybe a book.  I also want music in my house, CD's, radios, ipod, computers, and occ concerts away from home.  

Travel would be good, but I find it somewhat exhausting so maybe only one trip a year or every other year.  I'd also like to spend lots of fun time with my grandchildren.  I hope I live long enough to see what sort of life they each make for themselves.  Some good jewelry to leave to my grand kids and my daughter and something special to give my son-in-law or leave to him.  I might buy a car for Lily or give her my old one some time so she'd have one for school.   

Why am I writing all this, because I think my desires are moderate and my dreams aren't a millionaire's life, but just a comfortable one.  I'd also like to be able to donate large sums to charities especially animal charities although there are so many needy causes from helping the elderly to college students to homeless kids and adults and veterans or kids in foster care.   If you give a dollar to 100 charities will it be of any use or is it better to give  $100 to just one charity or maybe $50 to 2 of them?  I don't know, but if I had millions I'd still have to decide which to support and which to ignore.  Or maybe I could rotate through several each year.  I can see where being wealthy or even just comfortable can force some difficult choices on one unless one gives it all away and is no longer wealthy.  I'd also like to do some volunteer work with animals or infants in the NICU of a hospital.  

So even being wealthy or comfortable wouldn't remove the difficult decisions I would have to make. In fact it might make it harder because I haven't even yet considered what I would do about relatives who are having problems since I do have several of them too.  Still if I won the lottery for a million or more I wouldn't
decline my winnings.

In the final analysis I believe that "the good life" means having friends, having
enough money to educate your children or at least help with the tuition, pay my
bills, buy things I need, live in a decent apartment or house, own a reliable car and have a substantial savings account.  Yes money is important as well as necessary. It would be frosting on the cake if I had a good job that I also liked and paid decent wages too allowing me to save part of it each week.  I guess part of it would include a child or 2 maybe.  I'll have to think about that one.  Adoption??
 

These are few of my favorite things.

 I'm passionate about a lot of things.  Maybe that makes me kind of intense and others kind of uncomfortable.  

Animals are my first passion (outside of all the people in my life).

Cats are next especially my own, but I love any cat I see.

I love dogs too, but especially the well behaved ones.  I enjoy the dog whisperer program because I learn so much.  But not having a dog means I can only practice on my cats.  They don't respond the same way as dogs.  They look at me like I'm crazy(they're not far off). 

I am very passionate about the color purple - not the movie the actual color.  I like lavender even more.  Orchid is lovely but a little to pinkish sometimes. 

I also adore shiny jewelry.  It doesn't have to be expensive such as diamonds. The only real diamond I ever had was my engagement ring and that is long gone now.  Crystal is beautiful, pearly things are also a favorite and things called "mother of pearl".

In the last few years I've really learned to love birds. I like to hear them chirp, even if they wake me up. I like to see them feed in my yard.  Today I had 11 squirrels and 10 birds - morning doves and some small grey bird that was very cute. Yesterday I had 4 crows, blue jays every day, and once in a while some seagulls visit.  One of them had an injured foot.  I didn't think any one would be able to catch him though (in order to help him)  because he could still fly quite well. 

Next it's clouds.  I wrote a whole journal entry about clouds once. I love fluffy white clouds on a blue sky, black clouds on a grey sky, big mountainous clouds and little wispy ones.  Sunny days with passing blackish clouds are interesting and not often seen so I do appreciate them when I see them.  

I can't go without mentioning mimosa trees (the drink isn't too bad either).  They are so beautiful, colorful and the bright pink to reddish flowers smell wonderful.  In fact I've looked for mimosa perfume for years (once I had some from Coty, but they no longer make it).  It is a very sweet sort of exotic smell that is hard to describe. I had one in my front yard, but something happened to it after a heavy rain and it began to split and eventually died.  I think we should have had it pruned at the right time to prevent the splitting, but I didn't know enough about it.

There are probably more things that I am passionate about, but I can't think of them right now.  But this was really fun to just write about what I love and feel passionate about.  

I did leave one thing out.  I love little babies and toddlers.  I love to talk to them and ask them silly questions to hear what they say. But one has to be careful about that sort of thing because if you don't know the mom she's likely to think you're dangerous and rush off with the baby.  And of course babies are another thing I love.  I don't see enough of them now that I'm not working in the hospital. Tiny babies and older ones - they're all great and sweet and just amazing. I often wish I'd had more of my own.  (during moments of insanity I guess).

And lastly, but as the saying goes not least my grandchildren are 3 of my favorite things. Wonderful, funny, sweet, and sometimes fresh, but always special to me.  I am passionate about their futures, passionate about their lives now, their schooling, their extra things IE music lessons, swimming, parties.  I want their lives to be perfect, better than mine, and better than their mom's and dad's lives.  I don't know how much of what I want will actually come to pass - but I want it desperately. Yet I know there is little perfection on this earth except things that man doesn't affect (what would that be???). . 

I also like snowflakes - not snow as in falling, but the single snowflake that looks like lace which I also love.

But this would be a good exercise for everyone and should make you smile while you write.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.