If you feel you have to give back, did you take too much?

Lately I find myself thinking about things. Sometimes it's small stuff, like if I've put socks and underwear into my swim bag. Sometimes it's big stuff, like wondering if I need to work 37.5 hours a week anymore, and how much money I actually need.

Need. How much I need. Most people seem to have the idea that they never have enough money. They think there is no such thing as too much money. They ask themselves "can we afford it?" If they aren't quite that forward thinking they end up asking "how do we pay for that?" But the question that has troubled me most over the last bunch of years is "do I want to afford it?"

It was a big change when that question first happened. I was a little startled. The first years of our marriage we didn't have much money. Signing the mortgage papers terrified us; it seemed like all the money in the world. Now, depending on exactly the choices I make at tax time I might net that in a year. So unless I develop a sudden taste for round the world cruises on the Queen Mary II, you can see where the "want" part of affording comes from.

Many people 'want' all sorts of outlandish things, which leads to the problem of paying for it. Some of them think what they see on TV is real, and decide they not only want, but deserve that. Some people think their things provide status for them. My personal experience is that BMW drivers have that one bad.

I've never been particularly troubled by having the newest, shiniest thing. I put off buying an iPhone till the 4 came out, and still have it, until the 6 had been out for a while. My desktop computers have been an Atari 800XL, then a Mac 5200 (the shame), the cube (which I still have and use for playing DVD's while on the spin trainer,) and now a 24 iMac (the early 2008 model) I've had for a while. So you can see I don't go crazy buying computers. Just don't get me started on the whole software update thing.

Or cars. 66 Ford Falcon (used, of course, I wasn't old enough to drive in 66). 78 Pontiac LeMans. 83 Honda Accord (I still miss it!). 95 Dodge Caravan (the shame!), and now a 2004 Honda Accord. Think of it, a car more than 10 years old, with 266K or so on the clock, in big money oil and gas Calgary. I am not ashamed. It runs just fine, and gets me from place to place. What do I need a new car for?

The first time I came across a study that showed money ceased to be a motivator surprisingly soon, for a surprisingly large segment of the populace I was shocked. But it's true. I took a 10K a year pay cut to get off shift work once, back when 10K was a lot of money to me. I took an extra week of vacation rather than a raise. I'm just now figuring out how much time I want to take off this year, because I don't want to work a full work year minus a few weeks of vacation.

No. A buddy of mine once said "I aspire to schedule my work life the way most people schedule their vacations." (Hi Alan!) That idea has been rolling around in my head for a while, and I'm asking myself the question, why am I not acting on it? What does it take to act on it?

The answer comes back to those wants. How much do I want? I'm a simple guy, and my wants are not big. That part is straightforward. But there are two other elements that are more complicated. How long am I going to have those wants? I just read a study that says a married couple in their mid 60's have a 50/50 chance of one of them seeing 90. That is mumblty many more years for me, and anyone that really wants to know can figure out my age from an assiduous reading of my blog. Plus, I have a parent and a grandparent still living, unless someone has forgotten to phone me. My financial plan is already assuming I live to 95, and I won't be surprised if that gets bumped to 100.

The other piece is the stability of the markets. Right now is a dumb, foolish, ill-considered, downright stupid time to buy a house for almost anyone, almost anywhere in Canada. I have a very smart financial advisor, and we've done very well by her. Yet, shit happens. I do not want to be a Walmart greeter because I have to work, and that's the only job I can find.

There are two things balancing here. Make hay while the sun shines. Even with the downturn in the markets, the sun is shining on my situation. I keep in mind that could change. Oil and gas companies are notorious for abrupt layoffs. Every hour or day I don't work when I could, I am forgoing an exactly known number of dollars. The balancing thing is that I don't want to be the richest guy in the graveyard. You don't need money when you're dead. I am wanting the time more than the money. (Shush! Don't tell my boss; I will need to break it to her gently.)

And yes, I'm thinking about retirement, though not in the sense of stop working entirely. I don't have a company pension, so I will be living off my investments. One advantage of being a contractor is that I can work work in short bursts, then take some time between contracts. Depending on the market, of course. At this writing, that's my retirement model. Work some of the time, enough to fund the rest of the time off. I keep doing the math. At my current rate, I don't have to work all that long per year, to fund a nice retirement for the rest of the year. I have no shortage of things I want to do besides work in a downtown office. And every year I can put off drawing down investments is all to the good.

So, back to the beginning. Some people give back with a monetary gift, and you won't see me complaining. I think that's great. I was just listening to a TED talk by Ricardo Semler. One thing he said was "If you feel you have to give back, maybe you've taken too much." He used as an example of one of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffet, giving away money by giving to one of the few people even richer than he is, Bill Gates, for further distribution. The Gates foundation has demonstrated expertise at giving away billions. Billions! Most of us struggle to conceive of that much money. 

But Semler has a point, perhaps those people took too much along the way. As the saying goes, money works like manure, best spread thinly. 

Many people consider giving back to be giving of their time. Volunteering. There used to be a thing called "dollar a year man". Just like John Oliver wonders "How is that still a thing", I wonder, why ISN'T the dollar a year man STILL a thing?

One of my personal goals is to volunteer at as many races as I've done. I'd have to count up, but I think I'm still a few short. Lately, I've been coaching Michelle on her swim. That's a form of giving back too. Today at Talisman Center in their 10 mile Tri, she swam 500 m in 16:22. The swimmers among you scoff. Keep in mind, last fall she couldn't swim at all. I have video as proof. Her bike and run put her on the podium for her age group. I have photos, but if she wants to write and photo, she has a blog of her own, or she can do a guest post here if she feels the need. Or, you could have had a twitter account and seen it live.

Yes, she will say kind things about my coaching. But the important part is that she listened, she tried, she kept trying, and didn't get discouraged. I am so proud of her. That's part of the reward of giving time. But there's a selfish element too. Coaching her swim stroke made me think about my own, and it's improved enormously.

I have to post this. Calgary weather today. Gotta love it.

Your turn. I am curious, have you volunteered? Doing what? Have you thought about retirement and what you'll do?

The biggest one ever

Swam Thursday, and it was pathetic. Long course, 1 K, 19:30. My whole left side was in rebellion, and it was all I could do to get that much done. Leg trailing along, arm flopping here and there, left ribs and lung not expanding because of the pain. Not a lot of fun. The only thing good about it was that I didn't stay in bed, huddling under the plaid flannel blankets.

I didn't even consider swimming on Friday, nor a run after work. I've been so tired, and not sleeping well. Friday I was out getting shots of a pretty nice sunrise. See for yourself. The first is looking east, and the second is looking north west, believe it or not. These are un-retouched.

Saturday I actually slept in. From there I graduated to cuddling cats and having a slow start to the morning. A little later I bottled a Brunello kit. 29 bottles, with maybe a third of a bottle left over. I'm drinking that now, very fresh and fruity. Very drinkable, and that's right out of the carboy. I can't wait for 3 months to taste it again.

The only thing is that I suspect the label is going to be hard to get off. Plus, it's huge! It doesn't need to be this big. I can't get it all in one shot.

I had to go through a bit of effort getting these photos on the laptop. Turning off photostream and turning it back on is the only way I know to force it to update. I was scrolling through looking for a particular photo, and I've come to realize there are many duplicates. Photosweeper here I come!

Anyone have any experience with the new photo app, or with photosweeper they'd care to share with me?

In other news I've had verbal assurance that my contract is renewed, we're just waiting for the paperwork to show up. I still need a vacation.

A brain dump

I don't know where this blog post is going to go.

It's summer outside and yet with one thing and another, I'm not out there much. I have an hour till I leave for yoga class, and what I most want to do is nap. There's been a lot of that lately. I'm not sure why.

Paperwork is piling up on my desk, and I have not the slightest desire to deal with it. I used to love getting paper mail, even bills. These days it seems like I am drowning in statement. Half of them want me to go paperless, and I've already talked about that.

Yet personal tax time is coming, and I'll have to deal with it. Bother.

I used to like email too. I actually chatted with people via email. A conversation. Now it's notifications and copies of stuff I've already seen. So far I've built 56 rules in my email to delete things, or move them to folders. My brother and mom periodically send me chatty emails, and I try to respond within the day. Other than those, I'm trying to think of the last chatty email I've had. Email, not Message, not Twitter mail or responses, or any variety of Facebook.

I'm feeling buried at work. I like what I do, and there's often interesting stuff. What's killing me is that I'm being forced into doing half-assed work, knowing, KNOWING I'm going to have to come back and revisit it. Yesterday and today I was part of some User Acceptance Testing. We got through the script ok, and they've done a good job on pulling together a lot of information to produce a report.

The problem is that the report is just the first step, and there is no hint of a process of how someone would take that report and get to the step of mailing the finished version to where it needs to go. There are some soft spots in the process that produces the report that will need to be worked on. The project team, which technically I'm part of, is between a rock and a hard place. They've already got more to do than there is time to do it. Anyways, enough of that.

The downside of swimming so much is that a couple of my work shirts don't fit anymore. I was getting dressed on Monday, putting on a shirt I've worn many times before and wondering why the sleeves are so short. And why the buttons are snugger than I remember. I should have measured my shoulders, since that's where the fit seems to have changed. Some shirts that fit loosely are now a bit tighter. My weight hasn't changed that much.

I think that means more shopping, as I've notice a few of the shirts are looking a little worn or faded. I buy good quality shirts, but some of them I've had a long time. Just what I want to do, more shopping. (that was sarcasm!) Lately I've really not liked shopping. More bother.

I was thinking today back to the prep for Ironman. I wasn't working for much of that, and I was enjoying it. I was tired a lot, but I had lots of things to do. Toward the end I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever have time to work again.

There are lots of things I'd like to work on around the house now. Even with all the yard work we had done last year, there is some finishing touches, and some work needed on the front now too. Lots for me to do. Plus fitness. Plus working on books.

Plus, relaxing and enjoying life. I'm thinking I'm not doing enough of that. There was an article on CBC on the way home talking about data overflow. Sometimes I think I'm being overwhelmed with data, but I don't think I'm addicted to my devices. The only electronic device in our bedroom is the low tech alarm clock, unless I forget to take my iPhone out of my pants pocket.

Maybe I need a digital data holiday. Take some time off work. Set all my devices aside for a week. I'm pretty sure I could do that. I think. What about you? Could you take a digital data holiday and go a week without any of your devices?

Lastly, to make Jen happy, a photo of the back up Nutella supplies.

Calgary summer is happening now, but a mini-rant

Today is summer out there. It might well be the only such day until June, or even July. You just never know with Calgary. Lots of people out biking and walking today. Even a few runners. A few skateboarders, and even, (gasp) a roller blader. We don't see them much any more.

There was a nice rant last week that took up lots of energy and emotion to write. Friday I dragged my tail to the pool. A swim meet was starting but I managed to sneak in a pretty good half hour swim. Mostly going short and hard.

Saturday was clear, but still cool. I was out for a short run, a little over 2K. It didn't feel particularly good and I didn't push it.

Sunday I was in the pool for 2 hours almost. I don't understand the Acadia pool. Stand beside it and looks clear. The bottom is clearly visible. But get in and try to look down the pool, and at best you can see half way. This makes it tough to see what people are doing. Part way through I was surprised when someone did a fast flip turn as I was standing right beside the rope talking to Michelle. One of the swim club guys was going slumming, I guess. He had a great stroke. We watched, shamelessly.

I was out tidying in the garage, and cleaning a few layers of gunge from the barbecue and enjoying the heat. It was warm enough that I was almost thinking I should be wearing a hat, but I wasn't out there long enough.

I thought about going for a bike ride, I really did. But I've still got the trainer tire on Estela and I'm feeling, I don't know, not up to changing the tire. My last ride was only 15 minutes on the trainer, and my legs were feeling it. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so perhaps I'll go for a run then.

In the meantime I've been musing about terrorism and bill C-51, along with Harper's naked scare tactics. I am seriously thinking that Canadians have lost their minds if they think terrorism is a threat. Here's some facts. True facts, as opposed to Harper "facts":

• In 2012 there were 2077 motor vehicle fatalities across Canada. 
• In 2011 there were 2006 motor vehicle fatalities across Canada.
• In 2010 there were 2237 motor vehicle fatalities across Canada.
• In Alberta in 2012 (population 3.7 million people) there were 345 people killed and 18,220 injured in 135,595 collisions.

Source is Transport Canada collision statistics, Alberta Transportation, and Municipal Affairs Alberta.

Now, Harper would have you believe that terrorists are an eminent threat to us. But how many Canadians have been killed by terrorists in Canada? I don't know exactly, and the number depends on exactly what you call terrorism. 

In any case, speaking broadly, the number is going to be a small number of dozens, at the very most, going back decades to include the FLQ. Now go back and look at the last 3 years of motor vehicle fatalities alone. More than 6,000. A tiny handful (admittedly very sad for the people involved) compared to a good sized village worth of people killed. If the Canada wide ratio between killed in injured is the same as Alberta, then almost 320,000 people were injured in vehicle collisions. That's almost the entire population of London, Ontario, a good sized city.

Are you a driver? Are you a passenger on a regular basis? You run a real, measurable risk of death or injury in a motor vehicle collision. Any random trip to Co-op for groceries could be your last action on earth. You could be driving in to work, dreading the Monday morning blahs, when suddenly you aren't feeling anything at all. Driving across town to visit friends could cause you a life changing injury.

As one CBC reporter put it, "More people are killed by pythons in Canada than by terrorism." You are more likely to win the lottery or be struck by lightning than be killed by terrorism. Or a cow. I couldn't find specific Canadian figures, but some estimates say that 50,000 people are killed worldwide by cows. A Canadian is more likely to be killed by a cow than a terrorist, and most of us never see a cow from day to day. The last cow I actually saw was in Bermuda of all places with a very rickety fence between me and it.

Yet what do people worry about? Terrorism. Idiots. Harper is good at pushing the buttons, and he'll push any button necessary to gain and hold power. Do you really think Michael Sona was a rouge staffer, acting against the wishes of the party to run an honest election? You do? No wonder you think terrorism is a threat. Please don't vote until you learn to think.

As for the rest of you that do know how to think, DO IT! Look at what is being done to your country. Phone or write your MP. (Mine is Harper himself, and he certainly won't be getting my vote.) Join protests while you still can. All tyrants worry about riots in the street. As long as the army is willing to shoot protesters, the tyrant will stay in power. But they worry about the army too, and rightly so. Bodies in the street are the only thing Harper worries about. The media might report that. He's been losing court cases, so he doesn't want to charge people. But wait, what does C-51 say about disappearing people? Has he learned that trick from the Americans yet?

Maybe he worries about what is going to come out at the Duffy trial, but that's another blog.

My supported crocodile slept

The thing that happened last night while I was at yoga was the beginning of the reaction to Jim Prentice, the Premier of Alberta, saying, "In terms of who is responsible, we all need only look in the mirror, right. Basically all of us have had the best of everything and have not had to pay for what it costs." It blew up even more today.

Holy crap. Can you believe it? For those that don't live here, Prentice is leading a government that has been in power longer than any other government in Canadian history. There are dictatorships that haven't lasted this long. It's been 44 years that Albertan's have voting for this government.

In the beginning I admit it was easy to vote for Peter Lougheed. One could argue he ran the best provincial government ever in Canada. It's been downhill ever since. You might want to read this rant as a warm up for what's below. I'll try not to repeat myself. Let's just say I haven't forgotten the hashtag #mistakesweremade

So Prentice did get elected, to nobody's great surprise. There were some common sense decisions made near the start, but I don't give him any credit for that. The situations that lead to him making a common sense decision were stupid, and the government did it.

Prentice doesn't think LBGTQ kids should be allowed to form a gay straight alliance at their schools, unless they go through hoops an adult would find daunting. He deliberately created bill 10 to gut an opposition member's bill that would support such alliances. I can't tell if this was a slip on his part, or done with malice aforethought.

It's a measure of how stupid and ill-considered the bill was that Bishop Fred Henry reared up on his hind legs to support it. You've got to know if he's on your side, you are wrong, wrong, wrong. It's a no brainer is to allow the kids to form these alliances if they want them, and schools should be required to support them. They work. End of story.

Now we get to last night. Prentice claims there is a $7 Billion hole in the budget. The problem is that the Alberta budgets have been deliberately made so obscure even financial experts have difficulty doing the math. I certainly do not take Prentice at his word. It could be any number at all.

It's just that this number is big enough to be scary, and gives him a stick to whack the favourite targets of the Alberta government. Namely, their own employees. Prentice and his cronies think they are overpaid. These people are your neighbours. They are teachers and nurses. They are doctors and emergency responders and many other professions. They do work that is absolutely critical to a modern society working. Ask yourself, are these people that you know getting overpaid? Is the teacher that taught you and is now retired, living on a gold plated pension?

What won't he do? Well, it's hard to determine because he's a slippery bugger, floating trial balloons, then reeling them in. As far as I know, this is at least part of the list. He won't:

• Raise corporate taxes. (They've bought and paid for the PC government.)
• Raise the regressive flat Alberta income tax. (Him and his buddies might have to pay more tax.)
• Won't raise royalties on our oil and gas. (Oil and gas companies own the PC government.)
• Won't bring in a sales tax or a Harmonized GST. (Albertans are allergic.)
• There may be other sources of revenue he is foregoing, for much the same reasons.

What will he do? It's hard to say, but here's a partial list:

• Try to bully the various unions into wage rollbacks, now or at contract renewal time. He has already made a trivial and easily reversible "cut" to the pay of MLA's. (They'll just go to the other end of the trough.)
• Cut the Calgary Cancer Centre. (Does anyone think cancer cares about the price of oil? Does anyone think it's going to get cheaper to build by putting it off?)
• He might cut the SW Calgary Ring road. (We have been trying to get it built for 60 years, and have only a short window, or the land reverts.)
• Have another go at raiding the Local Authorities Pension Plan like the last government did.
• It's safe to say he'll try to pick the pockets of ordinary Albertans any way he can. (Because we have to share the burdens of the mess his government created, while they and their buddies walk away with the loot.)

Yes, I'm angry about this. I haven't voted PC since Ralph Klein's first election and that was in the early 90's. It's been tough sometimes, I admit. But when I look at the outright incompetence and arrogance of successive PC government's I will vote anybody but them. Anybody at all. They cannot possibly do more damage than the PC's and might do less.

Something that causes me to blow my fuses when I talk about this, is people saying, "Oh, but we can't charge the oil companies more or they'll go away." Bullshit. I mean BULLSHIT!

Did you get that?

It's a big steaming load of BULLSHIT!

There are other places in the world to extract oil and gas, true. But many of them are in oppressive regimes. Many charge even more than we do. There are players in all the other fields already. Some of the newer fields are technically extremely difficult to work in.

I say it now, loud and proud. The governments of BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan should get together, unify their royalty rates, and hike them. Raise them. Increase them. Whatever you want to call it. Yes, right now the price of oil sucks. So build in an escalation clause, because the price is going to go up again. I've worked for a bunch of oil and gas companies, and let's just say that while there aren't big carts of money trundled down the halls, there is all kinds of money being made. Some of it filters out to the ordinary workers, enough to keep them working. 

More of it ought to filter out to society. It's shameful we have a homeless problem. It's shameful that our emergency wards are so clogged they can't treat critical patients in a timely manner. It's shameful that there aren't enough teachers for our kids and schools are falling apart. It's shameful that university and college students are being buried in debt to get an education. I could go on.

The PC government here has demonstrated again and again that it is incompetent to deal with the price swings of oil and gas. We should dump them and let someone else have a try.

Look in a mirror. Did you spend the money flying your family around on government airplanes? Did you try to renovate a government building to include a private suite? Did you sign stupid contracts for AHS executives? Did you produce ridiculous budgets that completely miss the price of oil? Did you give yourself huge raises? Were you on a committee that did not meet and yet was paid? I could go on and on.

Why do we keep voting for these idiots? The only reason I look forward to an early, unnecessary election is for the joy of voting for someone else. Does it bother nobody else that calling an early election without repealing the existing law, passed by this very government, is a criminal act?

There. I feel much better.

So, the crocodile. Last night in yoga, as the internet was blowing up with #PrenticeBlamesAlbertans we were doing supported crocodile. You tuck a foam block under each shoulder and relax. After swimming 2K in 37:55 in the morning, my shoulders loved this pose. I went to sleep before our teacher moved to the next pose. When I woke up it was very quiet. Everybody was in their corpse pose for the end of class. My shoulders felt great.

Thick egg pizza

Linda made one of her specialty thick egg pizza's last night. I'll be slicing it up for lunch in a minute. Doesn't this look good?

Crust is home made, organic, from organic wheat and veggie shortening. Sausage, organic tomatoes herbs, cream, eggs, goat feta, olives, and shallots. The shallots aren't organic. So sue her, send the email to Linda@bitemybutt.com. The home made part explains why there are cinnamon pinwheel cookies for breakfast!

It turns out Curtis likes watching video, especially if there are animals in it. This has a cat almost attacking a lemon. They are both fascinated when there are meows coming from a video. It's fun to watch them looking around for the other cat.

Off to swim in a minute, remembering my shorts this time! Yay me!

Groom from the nose

This morning I thought I had decluttered my brain, I really did. That lasted till I got to the pool, wondering why I felt a draft on my legs when I took off my pants.

Before then I had told Linda I was swimming. I packed a second breakfast (granola in one container, blackberry yogurt in another, plus a banana for on top, in case you're curious) because I was swimming. I even only did up 3 buttons on my shirt because I was swimming. My bag was packed and I took it out to the car because I was swimming. I dropped her off and doubled back to the pool because I was swimming.

The fail was not putting on my swim suit before putting on my pants. Loud fail buzzer. So I swam anyways. Such is the invisibility of middle aged men that nobody complained. Of course I had a back up pair of shorts in my bag. I've done this before.

Maybe I hadn't decluttered as much as I had thought.

Today's swim was good. In the long course pool again, swimming next to high school kids. Except if what they're doing is called swimming, what I'm doing shouldn't be called that. I got passed like I was standing still, even when I busted out several 100 second 100 m. With a rest in between, of course. The 1 K warmup was 19 minutes exactly, so that's good. 5x100 nice and strong. One almost all out in 97 seconds done last. Look down and some drills.

Sunday's swim was lots of fun. Both Michelle and Leana showed up, and said nice things about the advice they got. Michelle has had lots and has improved so much! Leana has a good solid stroke, as you'd expect from someone who's done as many triathlons as she has. Still, like everyone else including me, there are improvements to be made. I'm really enjoying watching people swim, figuring out what the issues are, and suggesting ways to improve.

This is where you start grooming a cat.

I like to start at the nose with a fine toothed metal comb. Let the cat sniff it first. Very gently comb along the jawline. The cat will likely push harder against the comb. Do under the chin and chest. The top of the head. Gently grasp the ears and comb behind them. Do along the jawline again just because. Get the other comb, this one.

Sorry about the Blogger rotation. This comb works great! I like to work down his back and sides. Sometimes I'll comb it into a part along the spine to collect more fur. Tail. Then roll the cat over or stand him up to do the chest and tummy. Curtis loves this, and will often lick one hand while I'm combing with the other. I have sometimes wondered if I could make a living as a cat groomer. Not dogs; they bark at me.

Curtis is walking normally again, perhaps with only the slightest limp on his left paw. The pad is back to the normal colour, but there is a bit of dried scabby material just along the edge of the pad.