T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 113

Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #113!

Here are some things I really like and that you might too.

Financial Independence/Work Life/Retirement Articles

Americans Are Better Off Than You Think (A Wealth Of Common Sense) – “Things aren’t as bad as many people make them out to be.“

Is your stuff holding you back? (Early Retirement Extreme) – “The money to buy something is not nearly as much an issue as the “ghost-costs” of storage and maintenance that comes along.“

Video

You Tube… one minute you’re watching a cycling race and 7 clicks later you’re getting mesmerized by pole vaulting.  Or is that me?  Watch Armand Duplantis set the world record pole vault last year at 6.21 meters.  That’s about 20.4 feet.  What’s just as impressive is the front-flip he does in celebration afterwards.

What I’m Grateful For

Being able to ice climb in Virginia, a southern state. To be clear numerous waterfalls in Shenandoah National Park have historically frozen every year, but things have changed.  Over the last decade our winters have been so mild it’s been an anomaly to have climbable ice here.  Thankfully we had a stretch or real winter weather recently and I was able to get a day of ice climbing in. Conditions still weren’t great, but they were good enough.

Lyrically Speaking

You want so much and then you want some more
Somehow your appetite grows
You’d just love what you can’t possess
You know it’s out there somewhere

From “So Much” by The Sundays

The Sundays first single from their first album was released in January 1990.  I vividly recall hearing “Here’s Where The Story Ends” and it just seemed to brush aside the hair metal crap of the late 80’s and declare a new sound for the 1990’s.  It’s 4 minutes of dreamy, jangly pop-rock perfection.  But it was the singer who had the world’s attention, and mine.  Harriet Wheeler’s voice is disarming and vulnerable, and unmistakably unique.  I’ve declared my weak spot for great female voices on this blog before and Wheeler’s is among my favorites.  I have a never-ending crush on her voice.  Songs like 1992’s “Love” put me in a great mood because Wheeler sounds angelic. She could sing the ingredient list of a bag of Doritos and I’d be enthralled, though it would take a while to get through it, haha.

The Sundays released only three albums, with 1997’s Static & Silence their last.  By then Wheeler and her bandmate/guitarist husband David Gavurin had their second child and they just vanished from the public eye.  They wanted to raise their kids, and there’s something to be said about that.  Maybe they didn’t like the spotlight anyway, and they were indeed pretty famous.  But for three glorious albums the Sundays recorded some of the best happy/sad dream-rock ever.  I can’t recommend their records enough. 

As for the lyrics above, perhaps they were writing about the hedonic treadmill, where happiness is always one more purchase away. 

Miscellaneous

New research finds half-cardio, half-strength training reduces cardiovascular disease risks – “Splitting the recommended amount of physical activity between aerobic and resistance exercise reduces cardiovascular disease risks as much as aerobic-only regimens.”

Higher vehicle hoods significantly increase pedestrian deaths, study finds – “Single-vehicle, single-pedestrian crash data for 2016-2021 finds hoods a problem.”

Researchers Discover Four New Species of Octopus – “One of the primary difficulties in protecting deep-sea ecosystems is our lack of knowledge.“