Heading to Atlanta and Phoenix.

I leave next week for FinCon (the artist formerly known as the Financial Bloggers Conference) in downtown Atlanta. From there I will swing through Phoenix to see my daughter. 

Anyone interested in a meetup in either place?

The conference takes place Wednesday, Oct. 23 through Saturday, Oct. 26. I’ll be in Phoenix from Monday, Oct. 28 until Thursday, Nov. 11. 

My usual MO is to find an easy-to-access fast food restaurant or mall food court and set up shop with my computer. I’ll stick around for a few hours, working if no one shows up and chatting if someone does.

We can chat about whatever you like, but my guess is that most of you want to talk about how frugality can make your life more affordable. More meaningful, too.

Read more

I’ll be in Phoenix next week.

It’s still snowing here in Seward’s Icebox, but I have an escape hatch: Phoenix, Arizona, where my daughter lives. At this time of year, Phoenix is a wondrous place, with sidewalks you can see and thus no need to wear cleats on your shoes. Also, you don’t have to shovel sunlight.

Which is why I’m heading there next week. Anyone interested in a meet-up?

I plan to take a walk every day to get out of my daughter’s hair, so would be glad to meet for coffee or a snack as long as it’s within walking distance. That pretty much limits us to Wendy’s, Barro’s Pizza or Lucky Doughnuts. I see no issue with that.

Those who don’t (or can’t) do junk food might manage with a lemonade or a fruit juice, plus maybe a baked potato to keep up their strength.

Read more

A long gap in writing.

It’s been almost two months since I posted, a fact that shocked me. The last few weeks of summer, such as it was, kept us fairly busy with gardening and preserving the harvest. Work also played a hand in the long gap in writing. So did physical therapy, followed by my joining a gym* to continue to build strength and relieve pain.

Time seemed to blur and days/weeks began to blend. Before I knew it, another week had gone by. And then another. Who let that happen?

Not writing begets more not-writing. I freeze up and don’t know what to write, and then work starts tapping on my shoulder, and it’s time to pick more berries or dehydrate more greens. I’m tired in the evenings and want only to sit in the rocker next to DF’s armchair and read. The fact that people are sending me notes asking if I’m okay made me feel guilty, which caused me to freeze up some more.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying: I apologize for disappearing without even a placeholder  “Still here!” kind of blog post.

Fact is, I’m slowly backing away from work. I’m no longer grabbing every available assignment, or constantly looking for ideas to pitch. Not quite ready to retire yet, but I’m realizing more and more that I want time more than I need money.

Read more

I’m in Phoenix – come say hi!

Recently I mentioned that I’d be in Phoenix to help out my daughter, who was due for cataract surgery. It took place yesterday; if you want to know how it went, check out her post, “Cyclopian, but still here.”

Her follow-up appointment took place earlier today and things are not quite normal (see her post for why) but the doc says it’s okay. So I feel confident saying that this Sunday, March 17, will be fine for a meet-up.

I went back and forth on the best day to schedule this. Ultimately my reasoning is that working people tend to use Saturday for errands, household chores or even just a little self-care. Working people who go to church on Sunday are generally done by lunchtime.

Thus I’ve planned to be at the usual spot – a Wendy’s restaurant near my daughter’s Phoenix home – from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday. We can talk about money, frugal hacks, writing or anything you like, really.

 

Read more

At FinCon – and this year it’s MY turn to be sick.

At last year’s FinCon, my daughter became seriously ill and wound up hospitalized. This year it’s my turn.

Not to be hospitalized, I hope, but to be sick. On Monday night I came down with the same bug that DF had just before it was time to leave for FinCon in Dallas. Spent a big chunk of Tuesday* at one of those doc-in-the-box places and then picking up three prescriptions and some food for the room.

Slept from about 4:30 to 11:30 p.m. yesterday, got up to take the last of the day’s meds and went right back under. Today I did something I haven’t done since, well, forever: I stayed in bed for the entire day. It felt weird, but I have to admit that it’s helping.

The three prescriptions probably also had a hand in my improvement. The fever and pounding headache are gone, I haven’t retched in 24 hours, and while I’m still barking like a seal the cough is what my physician terms “productive.” (Eeewww.)

All of which is a roundabout way of saying: I really, really hope to be well enough – and non-contagious enough – to do a Dallas reader meet-up.

 

Read more

Coffee and doughnuts in Tarpon Springs, anyone?

As we neared my dad’s place yesterday I noticed a Dunkin Donuts. It’s been ages since I had a sugar-raised sinker from DD, which operated in Anchorage when I arrived back in 1984 but has long since decamped.

Then Cheryl, a reader from Tarpon Springs, left a comment suggesting a meet-up at a local Wendy’s. She didn’t just pull that locale out of thin air; when I visit my daughter* in Phoenix I always have reader events at Wendy’s.

But…doughnuts. And it’s within walking distance of where I’m staying.

Anyone else interested in coffee and crullers? Cheryl and I will make room for you at the table.

Read more

See you at a pair of Phoenix meet-ups.

thI’m heading to Phoenix for the holidays. Wanna have coffee?

Usually I try to organize a meet-up whenever I visit my daughter. This time around I plan two such get-togethers:

Wednesday, Dec. 28, from 9:30 a.m. to noon

Saturday, Dec. 31, from noon to 3 p.m.

(Note: Originally I’d said “9 a.m. to noon.” But that was before I realized/remembered that the restaurant doesn’t open until half an hour after that. D’oh!)

Yep, both times can be awkward: the Wednesday one because working folk may not be able to make it, and the Saturday one because New Year’s Eve. Still, I can offer two good reasons to be there.

 

Read more

Sunday: Meet us at Smashburger.

thSan Diego-area readers: Any chance you can have lunch on Sunday?

I’ll be at the Smashburger on Laning Road starting at about noon. My daughter, Abigail Perry, will be with me.

And if you’ve already eaten? Stop by anyway, have a cold drink and money-nerd-out with the two of us.

If you’re looking to do some early Christmas shopping, we’ll both have our books there:

Frugality For Depressives: Money-Saving Tips For Those Who Find Life A Little Harder” (hers)

Your Playbook For Tough Times: Living Large On Small Change, For The Short Term Or The Long Haul”  (mine).

Best of all: The FinCon16 discount will apply.

 

Read more

Phoenix: Still hot.

th-2My trip to Phoenix went as smoothly as a red-eye can, for which I am grateful. Both flights were completely full but no one was a pig about overhead bin space and thus the planes left on time.

No crying babies, either, although several of them were nearby. I even slept for the entire flight – thanks, generic Benadryl* caplet!

The winds were with us from Anchorage to Seattle, and we made it in about three hours. As I walked into the terminal I checked a monitor and realized my next flight was leaving from the same gate. Easy enough.

I ate the breakfast I’d packed** (buttered roll, apple), walked around for a while to get my legs working, and then got back on the plane and went back to sleep. About two and a half hours later I was on the ground in Phoenix.

The captain announced the temperature at 79 degrees. Manageable, I thought. But by mid-afternoon, when my daughter and I went out in search of FinCon16 clothing, it had got a lot hotter.

Hot enough that I thought, “This is definitely warmer than 79.” But since desert heat is a tricky animal, I had no way of knowing it was 102 degrees. That is, until my daughter checked the weather.

Just as northerners chuckle at those who find 30 degrees so cold, no doubt Phoenix residents would snicker at my discomfort. “Oh, this isn’t hot. Wait until it hits 112!”

 

Read more

See you at North Point Mall tomorrow.

th-1Feels like I just got here. Where has the week gone?

Tomorrow (Saturday, Feb. 27) is the Surviving and Thriving meet-up at the North Point Mall food court in Alpharetta, Ga. I’ll be hanging out there with my laptop from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.

But I’ll definitely put it aside if you drop by — and since I don’t have a smartphone to stare at  you’ll have my undivided attention. No checking e-mail or tweeting about the soft pretzels. I promise.

What will we talk about? That’s up to you.

 

Read more