Month: October 2026

Daily Thoughts and Inactivity

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The freedom of procrastination

One of the best parts of retirement, perhaps the absolute best part of retirement is the freedom associated with procrastinating one’s day away with delaying “must be done” tasks until some future unknown time. This tactic is not part of my personality and I rarely delay personal tasks. Debbie’s presence changes this, however, and sometimes I forget to do things. It has become over time a relaxed existence with Debbie in my life.

A heart attack inspires me to relaxation. The cardio rehabilitation classes that I participated in for twelve weeks or so, those are now complete, emphasize relaxation techniques which centered on breathing and yoga-like mental control. I have come to recognize the value of having an external commitment to consistent exercise. Cardio rehab taught me this. Previously I did not see the value of a class-like exercise program. I am autonomous in nature and prefer to operate alone. Competition with others does is not interest me. I do, however, find that a little push does get me moving to exercise.

I have been and am procrastinating about finding another commitment to exercise such as the cardio rehab class made available as part of my heart attack recovery program. Health insurance paid for these exercise classes.

I thought I would be rigorous enough in my pursuit of bike riding. An attainable goal of mine is twenty miles in one ride. Persistence is necessary but elusive. I have discovered a little untruth within me, I tell myself I will ride more, maybe every day but sitting still is easier and some days more satisfying.

I am a member of a local YMCA. In the past Cheryl and I went there regularly to exercise. She to a deep water aerobics class that she selected as her own recovery program from an automobile accident which left her weakened on her left side. Me to the gym to pedal an upright stationary bike and lift a few random weights. I also took a Pilates class that required no special equipment. We did this rigorously for a decade or so. Life happens and she is gone now.

I will start by riding consistently five miles each day.

Maybe tomorrow.

Carpe Diem.

HOA – and other thoughts

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A home owners association is the lowest form of government. In our little group of condos, I accepted the task of president. A lofty sounding office with no pay and occasional grief and I should add a job, position, office and title one cannot get rid of without death or at a minimum sale of one’s own real estate. I wish to do neither.

Recently one of our residents began the process of making application for a home improvement loan from a local bank. The bank loan office is plowing through its own internal procedure for finding out if a condominium is of a certain value and more importantly if the loan goes south what other obligations it has after it takes the property in foreclosure.

Banks and their loan staff are masters at covering their asses. Two times in the form sent to me as President and chief executive officer of the Crestpointe Condominium Unit Homeowners Association Inc. (lofty), they asked the question – Is there a special assessment in place or will there be a special assessment coming soon? – twice.

I wonder why that is important to the loan? If I had a bank officer nearby, I would ask.

I pressed on in my head about other questions; the previous owners did an extensive rehab before selling, what needs fixing? And is there a mortgage? How much equity remains?

Debbie and I discuss often the rabbit holes I fall into as I think about nuances of the various properties we have looked at the past few weeks. She likes imagining a different house and refers to herself as a hobby realtor. (One day we may find a better living situation than the one we currently have but that is off in the future somewhere, hiding where the universe put it.) Those discussions sent me to the county auditor’s website which tells a story about previous ownership. Sometimes it leads me to imagine previous life histories, although the stories can be fictional.

There is no mortgage. The resident paid cash. The previous ownership page does tell a story. I merely have not sussed out the time line completely.

I am still wondering about the resident’s need for a loan to repair or rehab what was done previous to his purchase. The houses Debbie and I look at are often recently rehabbed perhaps to justify a bigger selling price. How much does a $40 can of paint add to the final selling price.

A question for another day.

Carpe Diem.

Gone – September is Gone

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I have been doing more reading than writing. I admit it. I have been remiss at posting my thoughts about life. But, it is not that I do not have thoughts. Debbie and I have been busy with other things.

Debbie and I have been doing lots and lots of stuff lately. We have been looking at houses and came very close to buying one about a week or so ago but that started us to think seriously about what that would actually mean. So I suspect, I don’t suspect I actually know that’s going to take a lot of thinking and concern and worry and time discerning and considering various things in our lives.

Today, I decided to take a walk. Cardio-rehab is over officially. Walking takes a lot of time and there’s hardly any way to write while I am walking, so today, I am walking and talking to my phone into the handy Notes app I have on my portable communication device we call a smart phone.

A distraction – ( Look this way, lady, thank you. ) People ride on flat park trails with battery bikes. Not too sure why they do that. Seems like especially a flat trail like this that I like to walk, they would be better off with a regular bike. I decided to walk today to get myself in winter mode and I think that means walking. So 2 miles at least today, and then a couple miles in a day or 2. If I keep on doing that, maybe I can get myself back up to the 5 miles I used to do.

This park is full of wildlife and natural plants (not gardens) that live in Ohio and a couple little places where you can veer off into the woods. It’s nice and shady. It’s about 85-88° out the day, so it is awfully warm for October 1st. But what the heck of a good day for a walk. In addition to wildlife, there’s people riding bikes. There’s people riding in line skates. There are couple of old men like me, just walking around. There are a couple other old men who are still or jogging around – they’re pretty gutsy people (wearing knee braces). I don’t think I would do that, but here and there are benches. Where I’m sitting, the river’s probably 50 yd away, it bends around this little slip of land sticking out here if I walk down through the woods. Sun would be shining in my face and it would be pretty crappy fishing, but who can tell. Maybe there are bass in there too.

Anyway , it’s a good day to be out.

This evening, Debbie and I are gonna meet up somewhere and have dinner. But we’re also going to look at a house in Pleasant Ridge. It seems to be our new form of entertainment. If we can find a open house, we go look at it. This particular house is pretty expensive for Pleasant Ridge.

But then I’m an old guy, so I can remember when the 2 houses I bought years ago were like; less than $20,000, ($20,000 in 1973 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $150,891.89 today) and then later on less than $60,000.($57,000 in 1980 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $231,721.60) it is hard to find a house anywhere priced below $300,000. So these days, less than half a million is a good deal. Demand is a remarkable inflater of prices not value.

I don’t know. I’m just not convinced that housing prices should be that high.

I spent a lot of time this morning listening to one of my favorite lecturers or maybe my new favorite lecturer, Robert Reich, he teaches it U C Berkeley campus. Anyway, he was talking about Wealth and Poverty. And that’s intermingled with a whole lot of people’s opinions or ideas about how to make it in the world these days, we’re still clinging to that that Idea that, if you work hard and keep your nose clean, you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and become rich. I have lived 77 years, I’m not, really not, convinced that’s true. I think you can do pretty well. I think it does make a big difference whether you have a college education or not. I think post secondary education always helps you.

I am writing this by talking to my phone. I have only one half a mile to go.

Carpe Diem