blogosphere

This, that and summer.

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Sorry to have maintained radio silence for so long. Not only have I been promoting “Your Playbook For Tough Times, Vol. 2: Needs And Wants Edition” and taking care of gigs for other sites, I’ve been slowed down by summer, in two ways:

Playing in the dirt, i.e., piddling around in the garden*. Although DF does the lion’s share of the work, I’ve still be spending less time at the computer and more time harassing chickweed.

Losing track of time due to the long, long summer** days.

About that last: On Thursday night I decided to try and finish “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” the second in the late Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander series (officially known as the Millennium Series, but I like the character so much it will always be the Lisbeth Salander series). It’s such a great read that I hated to quit, but my eyes grew heavy.

No wonder: It was 2:30 a.m.

 

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A sick-day roundup.

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Some people who visit Florida bring back postcards, or ashtrays made out of seashells. I brought a virus: sore throat, chest-tightening cough and general malaise. I’m achy and wheezy (two dwarfs whom Snow White never mentioned) and the switch in time zones messed with my sleep both there and back at home.

Worth it, though, because I got to see my father and stepmom plus my sister, brother great-nephew. I even met a reader named Cheryl, who lives in the area and met me and Dad at Dunkin Donuts for a stimulating discussion about money and life.

Finished the rough draft of the new Playbook For Tough Times while I was there, too. Now all I have to do is edit it, work with the formatter and the cover-design guy, write a press release and start in on promotion.

At that point my inability to take a deep breath will, with luck, be figurative rather than literal. However, if this crud is the same one everyone else has been talking about I could be stuck with it for weeks.

 

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Hypothermia of the budget.

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The concept of a “spending freeze” pops up every so often in the personal finance blogosphere. January is prime time for this tactic, given the joyful excesses of the holiday season.

Spending freezes have been announced at a couple of blogs I follow, Jana Says and The Frugalwoods. They’re slightly different: Mrs. Frugalwoods wants to help you “restructure your frugal mindset,” while Jana invites us to join her as she learns “to start paying attention again.”

While leaving a comment on Jana’s post I used the phrase “hypothermia of the budget.” That’s where DF and I are this January, and probably for the next six months. Or maybe longer.

 

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Reader meet-up: Starbucks. San Diego. Really soon!

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th-1So sorry for the late notice! I know I’d sworn to have the Wednesday meetup site posted as soon as possible.

Wednesday as in Wednesday, Sept. 21. As in “tomorrow.”

So here’s the scoop: At 5:30 p.m., one hour before the Money Meetup — a free event at the 2016 Financial Blogger Conference — I’ll be sitting in the Starbucks at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel/Marina. Y’all come!

 

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Meet your favorite PF bloggers at FinCon16 event.

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th-1Hey, San Diego-area readers: You’re invited to the Money Meetup on Wednesday, Sept. 21. The free FinCon16 event is sponsored by USAA and organized by Jason Vitug, founder of the Phroogal blog and author of “You Only Live Once: The Roadmap To Financial Wellness And A Purposeful Life.”

Here’s the beauty part: You don’t have to attend the Financial Blogger Conference to enjoy the meetup. It’s open to the public.

 

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Amazon cards and more at AGSL anniversary.

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thI’d like to introduce you to an interesting website called A Gai Shan Life, run by the pseudonymous Revanche (love that name). She’s been producing AGSL for 10 years.

Ten. Years. An entire decade. Do you know how many bloggers quit after a year, or even sooner than that? (Hint: Lots of them.)

As she puts it, her site is “a senior in dog years, starts fifth grade in kid years, or could retire as a centenarian in blog years.”

The blog defies easy description. It’s a thoughtful mix of topics, including but not limited to lifestyle, personal finance, working world, chronic-illness and, more recently, parenthood.

Revanche has a serious health condition and has spent the past 10 years finishing her education, supporting her parents and brother, paying off her family’s debts, starting her own career, getting married and having a child. Somehow she has also managed to keep a blog afloat.

You should go read her. And just in case you need more incentive than my recommendation, how about this: Her 10th blogoversary giveaway features a chance to win some pretty swell prizes.

 

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Taye Diggs is my bestie.

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Well, maybe not a true BFF. We don’t go to the movies or take turns hosting the holidays, and I’ve never once babysat his kid.

But he follows me on Twitter! Here’s the e-mail that proves it:

 

Screen Shot 2016-07-03 at 9.43.12 AM

 

This was the most exciting thing that’s happened to me since I got the e-mail saying “Marlo Thomas is now following you on Twitter.” Wish I’d saved that screen shot.

 

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A wildfire, the Plutus and some good reads.

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thOur house smells of smoke thanks to a wildfire just south of town. The recent unusually sunny and warm weather has left the area ready to burn.

The linked video above shows an uninhabited, mountainous area. Unfortunately the blaze is spreading toward a part of town with wonderful homes – and no utility infrastructure.

That’s the trouble with living in an isolated area: Even if fire trucks can get up there, they can use only the water they brought with them.

Residents are packing their bug-out bags and creating what the fire folks call “defensible spaces” around their homes (e.g., removing trees and mowing down brush) and everyone’s sort of on tenterhooks. I expect even the atheists are praying for a downpour right about now.

Down here on the flats I’m feeling sad for anyone in the fire’s path and also experiencing a bit of survivor’s guilt. Our house lot is mostly treeless; if fire broke out in tree-heavy areas nearby, we have two hose hookups that would let us squirt out any embers that blew our way.

Thanks to the city water system we’d have a steady supply. One of us could be on the ground watching for hot spots and the other on the roof to protect the shingles. Since this is a one-story house it would be a simple scramble up the ladder; DF does this every year when he sweeps the chimney.

Right now I’m praying (for real) for rain.

 

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The unfriendly skies.

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th-1Dreading being seated next to or near a baby on your next flight? You should probably be just as concerned about the adult passengers. Recently I’ve read two accounts of teen-aged girls (one of them an unaccompanied minor) being molested by adult men at 35,000 feet.

As we used to write from the city desk, “Police said alcohol was a factor.” Then again, plenty of people drink on planes and don’t grope strangers. Liquor may break the chain and free the beast, but only if the beast was already there.

The family of one girl (just 13 years old!) is suing American Airlines. The other, aged 16, kept pushing the guy away until another passenger intervened.

The moral of the story: Save the stinkeye for creepy drunken dudes and give parents of small children the benefit of the doubt.

 

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