• Good News!

    With two October ticks left on the calendar I’m going to take a terrible chance. So far the month of October has been a budgetary success. It marks the first full month of fiscal restraint and we’ve done better than I expected. By all estimates we’re going to come in under budget, with a couple of key fixed expense categories under historical averages. The big one is groceries; our single biggest budget outlay. Using a combined approach: watching the extras, planning meals, eliminating prepared/frozen meals, and seeking less expensive alternatives (to name brands); it looks like we’re going to cut our grocery expenses for the month by a whopping thirty percent. I don’t mind singing my own praises… thirty percent is a pretty big number, in this context.

    Most importantly, we were able to save money without a single night where my wife and I refused to speak to each other. We came pretty close – like when I popped her for dropping a twenty on Busch Gardens’ food three weeks ago. Although in my defense Busch Gardens’ food is pretty lousy, especially when you consider the Golden Arches across the street at a quarter the price. Anytime Mickey D compares favorably to anyone’s food, you know there’s a good point just waiting to be made.

    In leisure news, this weekend past went pretty well… sports news not withstanding. With all of this cool weather I had the opportunity to vary my sitting around; alternating rooms and the outdoors. Adam was the biggest beneficiary, taking the opportunity to master his slide-climbing technique, brush up on his sidewalk chalking, and take up a new activity: citrus slinging. The limes on our tree out back were ripe for the picking and I had the kids out back for the semi-annual lime-aid event. Beth and I picked the prime candidates for a refreshing drink, while Adam claimed the low-hanging fruit purely for sport.

    The little guy had a ball (pun intended), and the rest of us learned that limes have surprising resiliency.

    My biggest mistake of the weekend was demonstrating the use of a big stick (recently liberated from a sizable tree limb) in the place of a three iron. Somebody had a lot of fun though.

  • Planned obsolescence

    In the halcyon days of the 109th Congress, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed. Believe it or not this bill does more than just cut taxes and increase federal spending. It also makes many of your appliances with a built-in clock obsolete.

    How does a Federal Energy bill accomplish this feat? Elementary dear reader… it changes the effective dates for daylight savings time starting in 2007. Specifically, if you don’t TURN OFF the option to automatically change the time for DST, you’re going to be changing your clock’s time FOUR times next year… first, when DST actually takes effect (the second Sunday in March); second, when your clock changes the time when IT THINKS DST begins (the first Sunday in April); third, when your clock thinks DST ends (the last Sunday in October); and fourth, when DST actually ends (the first Sunday in November).

    Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good case of jet lag as much as the next guy… but DST isn’t my cup of Joe. I’m already disappointed with my Joe this morning. I bought a bag of whole bean Folgers that’s supposed to be “select.” If by “select” they mean the beans were grown in the run-off from a chemical plant then they’ve hit the nail on the head. I love a cup of coffee that conjures the image of a peaceful morning on a plant floor at Dow/Corning.

    So I’m drinking a cup of coffee that tastes like an industrial adhesive smells, I’m waxing sentimental about my last old-school, DST time change, and I’m sitting at work on a Monday morning.

    Pardon me if I’m a little grumpy.

    **Author’s note: coffee beans ARE NOT a good place to save money on your grocery bill.

  • Stealing God’s word

    If Jesus were around today, do you suppose he would be a copyright lawyer? I hope not, because I’m engaged in a little project that I’m almost ashamed of… I’ve been copying the text of my preferred interpretation of the Bible from an online source… with the aim of converting the plain text into a formatted e-book on my Palm OS device. I’m only copying it for my own use, so I don’t plan to distribute, share, sell, or profit from this enterprise. However, I’m not sure the owners of the web site would consider this an example of authorized copying.

    This is where I apply a heaping helping of rationalization… my best friend.

    I could read this online Bible on my Palm, on the web, at home – anyway (even if I didn’t copy it to a durable source on my Palm). The problem is that my Palm uses more power when it’s connected to the internet, shortening it’s battery life. Who’s the victim if I save the text to my Palm so I don’t use so much power. It’s not like there are any ads on these pages that will miss some clicks (and the resulting revenue)… there are no ads. In fact, wasting Palm Power wastes energy, which means we have to produce more energy, which usually means drilling and burning more oil, which usually causes more pollution, which destroys a little more of God’s creation. So when you get right down to it, I’m doing everyone (not just myself) a favor by copying the Bible to my Palm.

    Yeah, that’s the ticket!