It's all good so far

A gray rainy Thursday morning, definitely a Houston February. Thinking about the things I need to when I retreat to the office.

There is one opening that I have seen that I will respond to. Even though the new search agents are so much better than waiting until the afternoon paper made its appearance with the help wanted ads, there are days when there are no openings that I find interesting.

I am at that point that I have some time to wait and be sure that I am pursuing the right career options. I have enough reserve set aside to do this waiting game. However, there are costs.

The refinancing drug along to the point that the bank managed to confirm the layoff so we cancelled the refinancing. I made the application in November while employed. It seems that even with a 19 year history of making payments, and having enough capital from my 401k to pay the balance off, I am eligible to reset the loan. The whole goal of the project was to reduce the term and keep the same payment. It was not a first, second, or third order derivative to be covered by the taxpayers. I probably even could qualify under the partnership income but we need to get data to taxman first.

So we will continue to make the same payment on the house. We will continue to reduce the loan balance and continue to make improvements which will increase the value.

I wasn’t sure if I was a going to get a post in today. It has been busy. We were able to get a lot of furniture out of the in-laws house and on to her care giver. Still some work to do.

I also spent some quality time doing tech support only to have the installation fail repeatedly. It was not a good day on the IT front. We did get the 401k rolled order into a self directed account so I can do trades and see if I can lose money on this side as well as I do on the other IRA at has a Couch Potato split. This one is in Exxon, Amazon, Whole Foods and Apple.

But now it is date night with the sweet wife. Off to dinner.

It is President’s Day so it is time to replace the dishwasher. That was the message I received from my wife upon walking into the kitchen this morning. Some of the spray parts are broken and we are at that point where the repair is half the cost of replacement on a 18 year old unit. So it is off to Sears later this morning. Fortunately we have savings set aside and can handle this.

One of those timing things. This morning I received my copy of Caesura Letters – a daily blog that I subscribe to. The topic was on moods. I found it fitting especially with my own Lenten reflections on dealing with the third party support.

The blog contained a quote from a Buddhist text written in the 7th century as part of the instructions for enlightenment.

“If it can be remedied, Why get into a foul mood over something?
And if it can’t be remedies, What help is it to get into a foul mood over it?”

I have a finite amount of time left in my life, why should I spent any of it in a foul mood. Yes there will be dragons to fight, but those fights need to be fair assertions of my rights, and I can structure them to where the third party tries to help find the solutions instead of giving stock answers. And if they can’t do anything – it is probably better to write a review than to leave a message that won’t get past the first gatekeeper.

It will be another challenge on my journey. It will keep things interesting.

Sunday morning underway. Breakfast done, the paper read, the dogs walked, and now I have the chance to complete the second cup of coffee and gather my thoughts.

I have to get a piece of software shipped to Dad this morning. Hopefully we will have better luck than we did with the other items that went to his house by UPS and bounced. I will then have to get the uniform on and drive up to camp for a meeting. It will be perfect weather for the drive and I should be well away from the All Star traffic.

We are closer to closing on the re-financing on the house (a project started in November) and I have two oil company positions to apply for. The insurance dragon is mostly done in. We are waiting for confirmation of the new coverage and then we will file claims.

We are also waiting for the 401k roll over to finish. The self-directed IRA has been established and the former company stock sold – (taking a typical tumble just prior to trade). The new strategy will be split across some solid companies (Disney, Whole Foods, Exxon Mobil, Apple). I can’t wait to hear the chorus of recommended alternatives and strategies that I should take.

So it should be a pretty good week ahead. We have some furniture still to move. Jesse needs to dismantle his unused computer desk so we can move the writing desk into the room. Sandra will be doing some more picture and treasure wrapping this week. All in all it looks like things are happening the way they need to.