September 30, 2008
After a long time of being angry with myself for not playing the piano, I went back to playing the piano this week. It is a lot like being out of shape physically. My fingers lack the dexterity they once had and sometimes they do something different than what my brain tells them. So I dug out an old book of fingering and keyboarding exercises to get my hands back in shape.
I was classically trained on the piano, so classical pieces are about the only type of music I can play. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn, etc. I would like to pick up some modern songs, but I'm afraid I will get frustrated and quit, so I'll work on some new things once I have a set of classical pieces mastered. A good transition between the two will be to memorize some hymns from my Methodist hymnal. My family would appreciate that around the Christmas season.
It's amazing how quickly I am picking up the pieces I used to play nearly 12-15 years ago. If my dexterity would catch up, then my playing would be decent. For now, though, Ruby keeps hiding in her crate whenever I start playing the piano. Poor doggie ears!
Posted by megabeth at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)
September 29, 2008How long does it take for $100 to lose 50% of its value if it drops 10% per day? 7 days.
How long does it take for $100 to lose 75% of its value if it drops 10% per day? 13 days.
How long does it take for $100 to lose 90% of its value if it drops 10% per day? 22 days.
At least I don't feel pain anymore. After so many beatings, I am numb to financial loss.
Posted by megabeth at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2008I have been waiting in line to buy gasoline. Is this happening in other parts of the U.S. besides the Southeast? It isn't a terrible wait. Just a few minutes. In smaller towns, the wait can be worse, so when traveling I make sure to have a full tank when leaving a larger metropolis. Gas prices are all over the place; I have paid between 3.80 and 4.30 for a gallon of 87 octane in the last couple of weeks.
So last night I pull into a station with a quarter tank (no longer willing to let it get to empty) and don't have to wait. However, this is the only station I have passed on the way home from work that has gas, so it is busy. While filling up, a SUV pulls in behind me to wait. When I am done, I am blocked in. Can't get out. So I just sit there and wait for the person in front of me to finish. He is putting the hose back in its holder so he's almost done. Then the SUV behind me starts honking and yells at me to move. Where am I supposed to go? I retort, "I can't GO anywhere!!" This is not rocket science. If you block someone in, they can't get out. But we're talking about SUV drivers here... people who lose a lot of common sense and consideration for others as soon as they get behind the wheel of a large vehicle. The guy KEEPS HONKING. So maybe I DO live in a state full of backwoods yokels, I'll finally admit this. Then he backs up about 10 feet and honks again. He wants me to use this tiny space to somehow get my car out so he can buy some gas for his guzzler. There is nobody else in line and there are other pumps that he could wait for, by the way. Finally, the person in front of me leaves so that I can get out.
So I drive away wondering, how many people in this world have the consistency and odor of a cow turd?
Posted by megabeth at 08:26 AM | Comments (5)
September 23, 2008It seems like door to door soliciting would have gone the way of the do-do by now. I am saying that because I wish it would. The only thing that is more annoying than a telemarketing phone call is a telemarketing doorbell chime. I got rid of my land line, but I can't get rid of my door.
Maybe a "No Soliciting" sign would help.
Posted by megabeth at 06:09 PM | Comments (2)
September 14, 2008The completed sidewalk project. Hard work, but looks good and lasts (almost) forever. I want to re-do the steps also, but this work would be much more tolerable in the winter.
The obligatory Ruby photo. She is a good little baby.
I made pizza at home today. It was just as good, if not better than restaurant pizza. I baked it on a stone and made the dough from scratch, and used homemade spaghetti sauce. Also some of the toppings came from my garden. The turkey pepperoni is just as good as the regular kind and has much less fat. The dough freezes well, so next time I want a pizza, it will take about half an hour to make one. Yum.
Posted by megabeth at 07:10 PM | Comments (2)
September 11, 2008After not doing any races since July (except track racing), I am going to do one more criterium on Saturday, mainly because it is here in town. If I had to travel for it, I wouldn't bother. My goal is to have fun and relax. Ever since I stopped following a training plan in July, I've had more fun riding bicycles than ever before. Without a purpose in mind, just going out and getting some exercise, even when the intensity is hard, has brought me so much enjoyment. Regardless of my performance in a race this weekend, I feel that this season has been successful because I learned a lot about myself in the process. And I had a blast (especially during the last two months).
Posted by megabeth at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)
My salsa review blog has seen some action lately. Two salsa manufacturers sent me samples for review, so I've been eating a lot of salsa lately. Yum.
Posted by megabeth at 09:27 AM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2008They are building a Bass Pro Shops near Birmingham and I am excited about it. Unfortunately, it is located in an area where cyclists enjoy riding due to low traffic volume. That luxury is about to end. If I had to choose, I'd rather leave the place as it was, without development and traffic. But I don't have that choice. So I am going to enjoy the Bass Pro Shops when it opens, and hopefully learn more about bass fishing and get some new lures to try out.
I'm sure all the Bubbas will be there too, who are mildly entertaining when I'm not riding a bike, and extremely scary and dangerous when I'm riding a bike. I need a redneck t-shirt, airbrushed preferably, that says, "Cyclists love bass fishing, too!"
Posted by megabeth at 10:04 AM | Comments (2)
September 08, 2008I borrowed a friend's mountain bike this weekend to ride the trails at a nearby state park and to see if I want to spend another wad of money on another bike. I haven't been mountain biking in a very long time, so I am definitely a beginner.
I wasn't sure it would appeal to me because I am a momentum rider on my road bike. If the pace slows down because of wind, bad pavement or hills, sometimes I lose motivation and stop putting power behind the pedals. In mountain biking, there are few smooth places to ride. But I did enjoy it, after three crashes in the first fifteen minutes or so. I figured a few things out and was able to stop falling down for the rest of the ride.
I like being in the woods. I used to be an avid hiker and enjoyed camping, so mountain biking is a good marriage of being in nature and being on two wheels. So I don't think I feel the need to go really fast if I can enjoy the ride and the scenery. Sometimes hiking on foot was tedious and exhausting, so mountain biking allows you to see the scenery without walking ten miles round trip.
The part I didn't like was going downhill on a path with loose rocks. I thought I might lose a few fillings and was very afraid of crashing at a speed that could possibly cause more injury than just bruises and scrapes.
Being on a bike is something I usually love to do, so whatever type of bike it is, I always have fun.
Here are two photos of me on my friend's mtn bike. In one of them I was chickening out at a rocky spot. That's how I avoided crashing after the first few times.
Posted by megabeth at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)
A few months ago I decided to buy a new lawnmower with better safety features than the old toe-eating lawnmower. The old mower was a Wizard brand with 3 HP sold by Western Auto Parts, and both brand and store are now extinct. I cleaned up the old toe-eater and decided to sell it for 25 dollars.
The first place I try to sell things is at work. We have an online classifieds board and the people who exchange items are trustworthy (since they can be tracked down) and the cost is free.
After a month of nothing and some d*cking around by people who sort of wanted the mower but sort of didn't, I listed it on craigslist. And got ZERO response for a while. Then some more d*cking around by people who sort of wanted it but sort of didn't. So I decided to list it in the free classifieds in the newspaper, and had to wait a few weeks for the ad to be published since it is free.
It was listed Saturday through today, and my phone has been ringing off the hook since then.
I had told some folks they could have it since they called me Tuesday from the Craigslist ad. But we couldn't get our schedules together and they decided to come get it on Sunday and would call me on Saturday to set up a time. So I call the next lady on the list as a back-up, who offers me $40 for the mower without asking what kind it was, how old it was, or even if it works. I told her that I had to wait until the next day because some other people called first, but if they did not call by the end of the day, the mower was hers.
On Sunday, being annoyed AND waiting until noon to hear from the other folks, I called that lady back, told her she could have it and she would pay me $25 NOT $40, because that is what I asked for it. And because the mower is worth $25, and I'm not selling it for more than it's worth.
As soon as I hung up the phone, the other people called and left me a message. Whatever happened to "call me on Saturday"? Sunday does not equal Saturday.
In half an hour, the lady came to get the mower. And this whole ordeal was over.
My phone still rings about twice an hour.
Posted by megabeth at 11:12 AM | Comments (2)
September 05, 2008If the stock market continues to decrease at its current rate on a daily basis (the world market, not just the U.S.) then next year we could see every equity and commodity that ever existed worth zero dollars and zero cents.
I've learned different lessons this time around (as opposed to the internet bubble). The internet bubble in 2001 taught me not to have too much money invested in any one sector. The "Second Great Depression" this year has taught me not to have any money invested in anything but risk-free fixed rate money markets or CDs. However, it's too late to sell what I have now because equities are actually a good value right now. So if anyone's buying...
Anyone?
Is anyone there?
Even a cricket?
Nope.
Ok so nobody's buying. BUT if anyone decides to buy anything in the next few years - you might actually make money if the market ever turns back around! Or we may be in for another 25-30% drop over the next year or two.
When the market recovers it will be time for me to get out of investments that carry risk anyway. When I'm 75 or something like that.
I think Greenspan carries part of the blame for this mess. Cheap loans, bad. High risk borrowers, bad.
Posted by megabeth at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)
Both political parties are guilty of doing this. McCain is going to "fight for what's right" and Hillary Clinton was going to fight for everything but the kitchen sink. I don't like the word "fight". It implies a sense of entitlement, that whatever we don't have right now is something that we deserve to have as a basic right of living. And we should "fight" for it instead of finding some peaceful way to obtain it. I don't think politicians should perpetuate the image that whenever we want something, we'll come bombing forcefully into it and take it -- because it was OURS FIRST! And how is anyone going to FIGHT for a better stock market... punch Bernanke, beat up Greenspan, and use a battering ram to barge into the corporate offices of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns? The word "fight" also brings forth the image of a U.S. House and Senate literally in a brawl (think of Mexico) on the floor, papers flying and men in suits jumping over desks to wrestle with one another.
There is a better way to word these campaign promises. If I were to promise that every US citizen would get a free Snickers bar upon my election, then I would not say, "I am going to FIGHT for your RIGHT to PARRRRTTAY". Oops. That's a Beastie Boys song. I mean, "I am going to FIGHT for you to receive one free Snickers bar and I will FIGHT HARD against the Democrats for this!!!" No, just say, "I will promise you a free Snickers bar for each US citizen when I am elected President of the United States." It doesn't have to be a life or death struggle that involves walking 10 miles round trip uphill barefoot in the snow with a blizzard roaring overhead.
The melodrama in politics is just disgusting.
Posted by megabeth at 08:31 AM | Comments (2)
September 04, 2008I have been back to the velodrome in Atlanta twice for some track races. It is so much fun that I have justified the silly drive back and forth so that I can participate. The races are very short and fast, usually around two to ten minutes in length. I always thought that people with huge massive thighs and booties would be best at the sport, and that is more true at the elite level, but for an amateur with bird legs who is supposedly better at climbing, I am doing okay. I think I am not particularly strong at any one aspect of cycling, more of an all-arounder, with the exception of being a poor time trialer because I don't like it.
Most importantly, when I am sitting up on the boards waiting for the races to begin, I am not nervous. I get nervous and worked up at road races and criteriums, which results in crappy performance. The biggest frustration of my venture into bike racing has been that (a) I have trained diligently and suffered accordingly, then (b) I get nervous at the race and my performance sucks as a result. This makes me want to throw my bike in a ditch. How can my own mind be the biggest enemy in bike racing? Isn't defeat a job that should be executed by my competitors?
So I hope that track racing can teach me to stop being nervous at any kind of race. Since there are multiple races in one track event, I have to start a race several times. Maybe starting a hundred races will make it so commonplace that I can get into the habit of not being nervous at the starting line.
One of the reasons why I took a late season hiatus from bike racing was that I am burned out. What contributes to that burn-out is training and not seeing results. But I can train until the cows come home. I could quit my job and train 25 hours a week. But if my nerves get the best of me at a bike race, I might as well have been laying on the couch watching tv for three months. My current fix has been not to do any training, so that I do not feel any pressure to bring forth results since there were no sacrifices to begin with. But in the long term, I'd like to fix this problem the correct way, which would be to stop being nervous at races so that I can enjoy them and perform according to how I've trained for them.
Posted by megabeth at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)