Transitions
At a garage sale (I love them, but usually I resist the impulse to buy) I picked up a two cd set of Fleetwood Mac. I have all the albums at home, but for some reason I’ve not dusted them off in ages.
So I take this disk on a little road trip, intending to listen as I drive. THe good stuff is all there; Sara. Rhiannon. Gypsy. Landslide. Even an instrumental, slowed down version of “Go insane”. The disks set on the seat on the way down, I listened to the saturday morning financial shows and dreamed of actually having cash to invest in something.
I spent yesterday morning working, talking with a customer about some vision systems etc., and in the afternoon we went to the range, for several hundred rounds of explodey goodness. The day finished with a lakeside picnic with good friends.
Getting lost and wandering through central Indiana in search of an open gas station was a little frustrating, but I got’er done, and pulled out to do the last 60 miles home. I remembered the disk, and alone with my thoughts on dark indiana backroads, I remembered why I hadn’t dusted off those albums in ages.
Fleetwood Mac- or its’ various members- had been there through a lot of my personal transitions, acting as a sort of lyrical midwife between one portion of my life and another, and the Mac music that was popular at each transition was imprinted with those emotions. So whe I hear Rhiannon, it dredges up a memory of relationship gone horribly sour, and the violent effort required to extricate myself from it. Sara is another that calls to mind a situation in which I found myself unemployed and alone, without two pennies to rub together. Landslide- well, if I need to moisturize my contact lenses I can always dial THAT one up.
So I put the disks back in the case and drove the rest of the way home in silence.
This is gonna sound pretty dumb. Maybe it is.
But I have this theory that you haven’t lived until you have been unemployed, broke and on your own with your face flat on the mat. I don’t know why that is, just that I believe it to be true.
Ahh, yard sales.
Yard / garage / moving / estate sales are virtually a sport here in Clark County Nevada.
I’ve picked up vast quantities of books (including a lot of Science Fiction) at yard sales here.
Also bought a lot of tools for modest fractions of retail.
One even, on occasion, sees FIREARMS at yard sales.
In November I picked up an almost mint condition Ruger 10/22 with a Weaver steel-bodies scope. Rifle is vintage 1974 but was shot very little in all those years.
I ended up unemployed and my girlfriend broke up w me. I worked for PIRG (for 2 days) before I realized how effed up that was and quit. Shit got better. I even married the girl.
Sounds like you’re a little melancholy there Og. Must be the early summer heat, and the memories of summer vacation. Go work on fixing something, you’ll feel better.
I was working on the GT yesterday, haven’t done any mechanical work in years. Four O2 sensors and brake pads, the left rear was a bitch. Everything went ridiculously well and I felt good. Don’t know what it is about middle age, but I am a much better mechanic. I figure the best docs must be between 40 and 60. Old enough to finesse but not yet geezing.
Investing is discipline. Put away $100 a week, every week, as if your life depended on it. Once or twice a year transfer it to a mutual fund. Vanguard has the lowest overhead. In 20 years you’ll have a million bucks, and it probably won’t make you the least bit happier, but at least you’ll quit complaining about it.
Bone: Yep. Patience makes you a better mechanic. At 21, you want to rush everything.
I have a 401k, and I contribute the max. But I keep thinking I should have an investment account.
I also max my 401K, which is upped now that I’m over 50. Plus I save on top of that, but I don’t have kids.
If you are eligible, open up a Roth IRA. You can contribute up to 5K a year, that’s $100 a week. Your wife can have a separate one for a total of 10K. It is not tax deductible, but once the money is in there, the government can’t touch it and it grows tax free. At 59 1/2 you can do whatever you want with it.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that a Roth is a bad idea, that you pay taxes now, and by the time you use them, they’ll figure a way to tax them too. In the ObamaNation, I can believe it. I don’t know, myself.
No, a Roth is great deal. Although it offers you no immediate tax break, unless you are getting hammered, you probably don’t need it. The main thing is once the money is the Roth, it is completely shielded from the government. Make 2M in stock trades? No problem, no taxes.
Now the capital gains rate goes up and down, but any politician that touches the IRAs will have their ass handed to them and their party in the next election.
Early in my career I was on the road alot, but now I’m in the office most of the time. Twice a year, though, I’m back on the road for a couple of weeks each time. Freeways and back roads, I spend most of the time driving and that always leads to thoughts and memories coming out of storage. Like you, songs do this to me – but smells will also bring these images and feelings crashing back.
Sometimes, the memories are good and welcome. Sometimes not.
I spent this afternoon driving through some farmland – huge corporate farms that stretched as far as I could see. No one around, just crops and the road. Then, Al Green’s “Let’s Live Together” came wafting out of the truck’s speakers and I was instantly taken back to the high school dating scene. Some good things, some painful things; past images that I had not considered in years and years.
It was stunning how fresh those emotions felt driving down that lonely road. I’m glad that I was alone.