T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 75
Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #75!
Here are some things I really like and that you might too.
Financial Independence/Retirement Articles
Recession Or Not? (Early Retirement Now) – “Last week we got the Q2 GDP numbers and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) confirmed that GDP has now declined for two consecutive quarters. What do I make of that?“
Choosing Quality Over Quantity (One Frugal Girl) – “If given the option, would you choose quality over quantity?“
Video
The “Freight Train” wave breaks on the south side of Maui. It recently came in in historic proportions and surfer Ian Walsh captured this phenomenal first person view of what it’s like to ride in a barrel. Man I wish I could surf.
Who’s Inspired Me
Annemiek van Vleuten.
Besides having a name that’s just fun to say, Van Vleuten is one of the most decorated professional female cyclists in history with 95 professional wins to her name. And she recently added the Tour De France Femmes to her list of palmarès, at the age of 39. Most people don’t know that a woman’s version of the Tour De France was first tried in 1955. They shelved it until the 1980’s and tried again from 1984 – 1989. After shelving it again they tried on and off in the 1990’s and even up to 2009. It never stuck. Now in 2022 the “Tour De France Femmes” was reintroduced, and I’ll go out on a limb and predict that it will stick this time. Woman’s cycling is amazing and has more financial backing than ever.
Annemiek van Vleuten recently won the inaugural Tour De France Femmes by going on a historic bender on the steep roads of the French Alps and destroying her competition. Her rides in both stage 7 and 8 will go down in history and all I can say is that I was watching it live and inspired beyond belief. Chapeau Annemiek!
What I’m Grateful For
Air conditioning. I’m not kidding, I grew up without it and how the hell did we ever sleep in July and August?
Lyrically Speaking
Well there’s no chance for him
The future’s looking mighty slim
Born without a Daddy
He can’t turn to the family
He cuddles now with danger
While racing to the edge
And his cards they lie face up
Like a drunk upon the ledge
And I wonder, Oh Lord, how I wonder
What a world it would be
Without, without poverty
From “Poverty” by The Subdudes
The Subdudes’ 1994 release Annunciation was literally one of the first CD’s I ever owned. By 1994 I had a cassette tape collection that was well over 500 and counting, but I finally broke down and bought a CD player. I had just discovered the New Orleans-based Subdudes from WRNR which was the cool indie radio station out of Annapolis MD back when such things existed. I loved their gumbo mix of cajun/bayou sounds sprinkled with alt-country and straight up soul.
The Subdudes vocalist Tommy Malone might just be the best singer you never heard of. He can channel Motown and soul with an emotional intensity from another world. Listen to his vocal on “Sugar Pie” from the same album. It’s phenomenal. The Subdudes have 12 studio releases spanning from 1989, but to me none compare to 1994’s Annunciation.
As for the lyrics above, having grown up in Baltimore it’s as if they were describing what I saw every day. And lucky for me what I barely escaped.
Miscellaneous
Why a meaningful life is impossible without suffering – “Pain makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. What’s puzzling is why so many of us choose to seek out painful experiences.”
Breakthrough Research Finds Meal Timing Is Key To Longevity – “A new study published in the journal Science reveals the promising potential of strategic meal timing to promote anti-aging effects.”
Big Tech Has a Patent Violation Problem – “Rampant IP infringement poses a major threat, not just to small startups, but to the U.S. economy as a whole.”
I also wish I could surf. Great video! Enjoyed the link to quality>quantity, a concept I’m always thinking about… definitely a skill these days to pick the quality route.
So. Many. Choices. I agree 🙂
Annemiek van Vleuten is a legend!
She SLAYED that race, like a boss!
i still listen to nola radio almost every day in the form or wwoz.org. so many great artists who play/sing.write tremendous songs never get that international or national acclaim they deserve. but… they carry on and you may end up at a gig where your mind is blown. like, who the hell would do a total brass band set of led zeppelin?
I thought you might know of the Subdudes being they’re New Orleans legends. Better Than Ezra, another New Orleans band, has a great song called WWOZ
Insane video. I’ve surfed only a handful of times and each time I’ve had waves swallow me up and I come out feeling like a dump truck hit me. And those were tiny baby waves. Much respect to dudes who can do things like that
Being in the part of country where I am, I’m on the cusp of not needing an AC, so I don’t have one. There’s only one or two weeks a year where I’m wishing I had an AC. But man does not having one keep my utility bill down. My friends talk of paying $400 a month for electricity where I’m only a quarter of that. I’m grateful for that haha
If I attempted to keep my house at a “room temp” of 72 in summer my bills in July and Aug would probably be in the mid to high $300 range. But I don’t. I didn’t achieve FI without being smart. I keep it higher during the day and a little cooler at night and do it strategically based on if it’s sunny or cloudy which matters. So my bills in high season are usually $150 – $200, and occasionally go a bit over $200 in really bad heat waves.
Funny…I just wrote in my journal how grateful I was for my ECOBEE, optimizing outside of peak demand energy use, and AC in summer after not even turning the AC on for over 20+ years. I sleep very well now in the summer. $60 for electricity and $20 for gas in July. I have it on 77-78 during the day. After 9pm, I turned AC off if weather outside has cooled down and open most windows in the house. Crazy that I’m still cheap about somethings when I don’t have to be. Just curious, what temp do you set AC on during day and at night?
Good question, not a simple answer. My house was built in 1951 and is three stories, so AC wasn’t even added until the late 1990’s and the house just isn’t optimized for it. One major problem, the AC vents are the same as the heat vents and near the floor. Cold air goes down and modern houses put AC vents up high. So the cold air comes out at floor level and stays low. Most egregious is our climate here. We routinely get mid to high 90 degree days but with humidity that is usually over 70%. Our nights in summer rarely go below 75 degrees, unlike Denver which gets into the low 60s or even high 50s at night. It’s brutal here. All that said, my AC can’t keep up. In other words, no matter what I set the temperature for in July and Aug it will just stay on and the temp will generally reach the high 70s or even 80 on my top floor. That’s the best I can do. On the worst nights I sleep in my basement where I keep a nice futon and that stays in the low 70s or even high 60s. Eventually my unit will give out and I will try to replace with a a stronger unit that hopefully can do better.