Today was the Turkey Bowl. I am really glad that Jerimiah came. It was a lot of fun in total we had 21 people playing at one time. The field was a little small for that many people but it was still very enjoyable and actually made it possible to stay with some of the faster guys because it was easier to set back off them a ways and then pinch them out of bounds or into other defenders. The game wound up being mostly a defensive game with a winning score of 14-7 after about 2 hours of play. My favorite part of my play was that I was able to get in front of brother Tuia an ex defensive tackle for ISU and swat away what would have been the other teams winning touch down. I think I am going to miss brother Tuia more than anyone else in the ward. He is a really neat guy.
Jerimiah got a couple of really nice stops and a sack. He played line through the whole game. The blitzing part of the game I think made it really fun because it forced the quarterback to make quick and often errant decisions. Jerimiah was glad to go the time without an overwhelming desire to smoke and I was glad to go the distance with out an injury. We did wind up wrapping one guy’s knee but it wasn’t due to anything other than running. People played a generally injury conscious game.
We had our first garage sale possibly ever today. I found my emotions interesting. I am not sure if it Lexie or myself that is driving the “get rid of everything” idea, probably Lexie but I am very much bought into the idea. I believe material possessions are like the monkey trap in which a monkey sticks their hand into a hole just big enough for their hand and then grabs a nut or other object. The monkey gets caught because they won’t let go of the object behind the hole. Our things I believe are like the objects behind the hole. We spend so much time and effort acquiring things only to spend more time and effort storing and maintaining things. With that high mindedness I was shocked to find that Lexie had sold the helmet, goggles and face mask part of my snow board package for $10. Even though I probably would have only asked $30 for them I was amazed at how much charge I got off it. I wasn’t mad at Lexie because she was doing just what I asked her to do and what we agreed that we should do. It is just that we do have emotions tied to “stuff” and I know I was feeling some of those emotions. I am not certain that this trip will be a cure for the “stuff” disease in as much as I find myself obsessed with “gearing up” for the trip. I think about how nice it would be to have bikes for everyone including the adults and that would of course necessitate a bike trailer and the list goes on and on. I think one of the things I really need to learn is to do with out. Just like the snow board thing. I was upset because I realized that I would either miss snow boarding this year or wind up renting a helmet for the same price that I just had my perfectly good helmet sold for. The reality is that while I may miss these things I will be spending February time rock climbing in Joshua Tree which I prefer 2 to 1 over snowboarding anyway.
I oscillate between terror and excitement when I think about our trip. I am sure my largest stressor is not having our house under contract while at the same time I have a semi firm “end of paycheck” day of January 31, 2008. I worry about how fast the money is going to go if I am carrying a mortgage while I am traveling. Even though I have confidence that I will be able to sell my house by May or June it will be a long time until May or June if that time goes by with out it sold and I have spent $20,000 dollars I was planning to get from proceeds of the house sale. Something I hadn’t thought of until now as a way to offset the money would be to take a 401K dispersement and take a little bit of the credit line to clear the primary mortgage such that I would only have tiny payments until I got the house sold. The thing I hate about the idea of breaking the 401K piggy bank is that I know how quickly money can be spent when I am under stress and once the bottom of the money is hit it is the true bottom if the 401K is liquidated. Another thought that just came to me is that “I wonder how far we could go on the income of renting the 310 Henry house.”. If we rent the house and were able to clear $800/month that would be enough to pay for health insurance and food. If I were able to work just a little bit I may be able to come up with the balance for gas, parking spots, vehicle maintenance and other expenses. The upside of that is we could keep our investment in the house working for us. The downside is that we would still be land lords or at the mercy of the quality of service provided by the management company we chose. An upside is that we would have a way to return to Pocatello but the downside is that when I think of what my parents went through with the Layton house I don’t want to repeat that. I also find myself attracted to the idea of breaking ties with the past and moving forward. The less the reminds us of our old life the more flexibility we will have in moving toward an improved life. Back to the “what if”s … if we used 401K money to clear the house and I worked 20 hours a week for about $2K a month I think we could live a sustainable life style on the road. That might meet my retirement goals on its own. Especially getting started I think I could get some very good work done if I only had to devote 20 hours a week to a traditional job. I don’t think I am going to get that offer from CAD but I might explore around AMIS a bit to see if it isn’t available somewhere. Then again maybe I would be better off getting away from AMIS all together. The issue is that AMIS provides one of the most efficient outlets for my training right now.
