blog@richardcall.net

Back in September I took a trip to Fall Creek Falls State Park because I needed to get away. I had not been there in a long time and I knew Chloe would really enjoy it. Below are some pictures (was lazy till now):

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

On the hike we went on Chloe and I came a across a Yellow Jacket Nest in the ground which wasn’t a big deal till she stuffed her nose in to it. At which time all hell broke loose. I yelled to my friend that was with me the its time to go and took off running. I am not allergic to bees but I don’t react well to their stings. I know yellow jackets are relentless and have hears stories of them killing pets, livestock and sometimes people. I didn’t see but my friend ran past the nest and started to catch up with me. at which point she started screaming that she was getting stung and ran past me. I tole her they might be under her cloths, she stopped and start taking off her clothes. Well they caught up to her and started attacking her. She killed a few and I yelled to run. Chloe and i started to pick up her stuff and then i got stung. Yellow Jackets stings fucking hurt. So i quickly grabbed up the stuff on the ground, killed a yellow jacket on Chloe and ran .. and ran ..and ran .. i got stung again. while i was running. My fried was no where to be seen. I bet i ran a half a mile just to get away. Once I caught up to her I asked if she was allergic and thankfully she wasn’t.

Once we recovered my friend counted 12 stings on her and I had 2 and Chloe seemed to not have any. I think I killed the 2 I saw on her before they got through her fur.

So the lesson here is: Don’t let you dog stuff her nose in a Yellow Jacket nest and if she does.. run the fuck away.

The rest of the day was great as you can see in the pictures.

Back in August I  made a list of thing I wanted to gain control of my life. It has been a daunting task but let take a look at how I am doing (my comments in bold, strikethroughs are accomplished):

1)       I need to organized my life better

2)       I need to clean my apartment from top to bottom.(been lazy about this) 

3)       Run my finances a little better. (I am well on my way. payed off and Canceled a couple of high interest cards doing a low interest loan to cover the rest of my debt. Building a Budget to control my spending.) 

4)       Be better at my job (will happen since #5 is solved)

5)       Slow my head down some – I think way too fast and I noticed it is causing some problems in concentrating and personal relationships.

6)       Exercise more

·         Train for the half marathon in April then a marathon after that. (doing this but its slower that expected)

·         Do a 5K in the middle or end of October.(doing the frankline pumpkin fest 5K)

·         Run outside more

·         Ride my bike more (use it to get to store and weekend rides)

·         Hike more and plan for a through hike of the Appalachian Trail in the next few years.

7)       Buy a scooter this year.(pushed off a year)

8 )       Buy a smart car next year.(pushed off a year)

9)       Start recycling again. But try to adhere to the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse and then recycle).(slowly doing this)

10)    Reduce my food waste buy using everything I can.(learning How)

11)    Attempt to Compost my food waste in my apartment (vermicomposting)

12)    Eat out a whole lot less. 

13)    Dietary considerations

·         Slowly switch to as much organic foods as I can and in a way that is affordable.(ongoing)

·         Not go totally vegetarian or vegan but reduce my meat intake to 4-5oz per week and only use locally grown grass feed meats and cut back my dairy intake to only locally produced or organic dairy products.

·         Buy as much produce as I can from the farmers market and only in season

·         Reduce my caloric intake to between 1500 to 2000 calories a day and drop to under 220lbs (I’m down for 245 to 225 and dropping)

·         Drink Less alcohol.

·         Completely eliminate High Fructose Corn syrup from my diet

·         Learn to eat as fuel.  

·         Drink more water

·         Eat more seafood

·         Cook more (saving me money cause i have leftovers for lunch the next day)

14)    Dispose of my current household cleaners and transition to more envirofriendly cleaners.(slow change)

15)    Spend more time out side and with my dog

16)    Meet new people and rekindle old friendships (ongoing and actively working onold freindships)

17)    Go back to school for photography hone my skill and start a business (Get paying gigs soon, make cards, start up website, ect)

18)    Shoot more photographs and upgrade my equipment (flash, lens, grip, replace my XT with an XTI till I get a 40D or 20 D)(slow and difficul but happening non the less)

19)    Learn to meditate and look for a Buddhist teacher (number 5 was hindering that)

20)    Read more (now that number 5 is fixed i will read a lot more)

21)    Listen to Music more and get back to going to live shows again (Lollapalooza, my morning jacket, others have been hindered due to financial difficulties latly)

22)    Work on not getting angry anymore at little things (number 5 played a part in this) 

23)    Write more and work on typing and communicating, better formulating ideas.(will happen now that #5 is fixed)

24)    Look to move out west over the next few years (i am flying to Oregon to put this plan in motion)

25)    Pick up apart time job in the winter months DEC  to FEB to pad my savings up to a couple months of pay.

26)    Have at least 2 days of computer less and TV less days.(cancelled my cable and still working on not goign to the computer as much)

27)    Have 4 days a week where I do not spend any money unless completely necessary, one of which is a weekend day (working on that)

28)    Put 10 percent in savings. (5% via stock account 5% in easy to get bank account), put change jar  that gets put into  savings and drop ant 5 dollar bill in there whenever I receive one.

29)    Do Yoga for mental and physical health.(probaly going to stat going to 12 south yoga soon)

30)    Go places that I have never been or have been meaning to go to.(Check off Chicago, check off Seattle next week)

31)    Buy a Guitar and lean to play.

32)    Volunteer

33)    Be Happy all the time, No matter what.(I am doing well with my list and i thing #5 may be a prt of this.. now that its out of the way happiness will come) 

Nothing is easy but if life was easy I would be bored.  My life is entering a very good and exciting time which has been a long long  time coming. I leave you with this quote as I am off to enjoy my day:

When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trent over at The Simple Dollar has the following observations of the current financial crisis:

The panicked talk, the whispered statements about apocalypse – they’re fear. Nothing more, nothing less.

I don’t claim to know what the “best” plan for resolving the situation is. My level of information about the true nature of the economic situation is extremely limited – and so is yours.

I’ll tell you what I do see, though.

I look out my window here in Iowa and I see the ongoing harvest of one of the largest soybean and corn crops ever – not the cropless Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

I don’t see a single person with a bank account that has lost their deposits, like my grandfather’s family did circa 1932.

I see people going to work, working hard and producing value for their wage, coming home, and buying the things that they need to keep their family going, which puts money directly into the economy.

I see unemployment barely over six percent, not the 25% rate at the time of FDR’s address.

I see industrial production still rising – in 1932, it had fallen by more than half in just three years.

I see a dollar that’s actually strengthening, not weakening, while the price of oil is down sharply from its highs earlier this year.

In short, I see a lot of things that make me optimistic about our ecnomic situation, a pretty stark contrast from the fear being peddled by some. I’m actually much more reminded of 1987, when banks were failing thanks to the Savings and Loan crisis and Black Monday, when the Dow dropped 22% of its value in a single day. We haven’t yet seen anything as worrisome as that, in my opinion – and that was just a drop in the bucket compared to the 1930s.

To put it simply, I’m still not worried a bit, and when I see the fear being bandied about, I’m reminded of FDR’s words.

So what have I been doing with my money as of late?

First, I haven’t taken a dime out of any bank. I haven’t seen any FDIC-insured bank account fail, and none have in the history of the FDIC.

Second, I actually maxed out my Roth IRA contributions earlier this month. Almost all of that money went into broad based index funds – namely, Vanguard’s Target Retirement 2045 fund.

Third, I haven’t made a single change in any plans I’ve had for investing other than the early Roth IRA buy. I’m still following my own game plan.

Now, ask yourself this. If you make any irrational moves, like pulling all of your money out of stocks, does someone profit from it? Of course they do. Your brokerage will make a fee from the sale, and a happy buyer out there will be glad to buy that stock from you at a nice discount. Fear is the best salesman, after all.

My sole piece of advice to you is this: don’t panic. Don’t make any hasty decisions. Sit back and get informed$3 billion in General Electric stock and $5 billion in Goldman Sachs stock (an investment bank … weren’t we supposed to be afraid of those?) – he sees this current situation as an opportunity to buy, not sell. – and don’t just rely on one source for information, either. Get a bunch of different angles on what’s happening, from liberals and conservatives and moderates alike. If you’re worried about your money, do your own research and find out reasonable things to do with it. Take a serious look at what people who really know what they’re doing are doing with their money – in the last two weeks, Warren Buffett has invested

Fear …people feed on fear… the media produces fear.  Just look at the rush to the  gas tank here in Nashville due to the Hurricane Gustav. The media caused everyone to rush to the gas station and causing them to run dry for no reason.

So be smart and relax … the economy will right it self like it has.