Musings

It's been a funny week. Some bad news from back home has left me a little melancholy. The snow, that went away for a week, is now back, though I am now prepared with a snow shovel and a bag of salt.

On the plus side, a quick look on rightmove.co.uk shows two houses roughly the same as my one in the UK have sold recently, and they were listed for 10k more than I paid for mine. What was *paid* I don't know, but the two facts - sold, listed for more than mine - are encouraging. Even if I don't actually want to sell my house right now, it's nice to have options.

I've been pondering investments quite a lot. Realising that I probably shouldn't be "investing" all that much as I simply don't need to take the risk. Buying stocks is a little too much like fun, like gambling. If one can remain entirely rational, mechanical it's ok - if you have a job with a steady wage, and plan to have for several years, it makes sense to set up a monthly purchase.

I don't. I have 2 or 3 months of contract work, and then, perhaps, some more "bits and pieces" but nothing firm. After that... some minimum wage work digging holes in fields, growing tasty and nutritious vegetables. Not enough will be left over from that to fully cover my living expenses, let alone invest!

Sadly, my wife and I have come to the conclusion we can get by with only one vehicle. That means I don't get to buy a beautiful Crown Victoria, but rather will walk to the supermarket except on the really snowy days, when I'll... delay walking to the supermarket until a less snowy day.

In fact we went in the car yesterday and spent about $76, including enough toilet roll and cans of tomatoes to last until the snow goes away. Plus the aforementioned salt so the nice postman doesn't break his neck when bringing me 28c dividend cheques (don't ask).

The last couple of days have been much nicer in that there have been blue skies. I walked to the end of the road and looked at the river, today - something I do surprisingly infrequently. The water was black, and the road icy. It gets properly cleared down to the last intersection, but after us? Not so well.

So I'm pretty much wrapping up til April.

Our gas bill is about $75 and our electricity $60 in these cold months. Not too bad, I think. We do need to draftproof the windows and doors better, though!

I'm on/off/on/off with coffee. Can't seem to settle. On: I feel "human" and useful, but terribly headachey and sometimes sore stomachey; off I'm dopey, sleepy, and perhaps bashful as well. But (after a few days to get rid of withdrawal!) less headachey. Sore stomachey.. in a different way. Coffee seems to soothe as well as irritate.

Anyway, that's quite enough musing for one day.

Happy end of the world!