A couple of months ago, Mr PoP was getting ready to leave on a work trip and I wanted to have his work clothes clean and ready to go. So I picked up all of the work clothes that we had worn so far that week (3 outfits each), and loaded them into the washer. But in my rush, I managed to miss the presence of a pen in one of Mr. PoP’s pockets.
Mind you, Mr. PoP doesn’t use just any pens. He likes using the Sharpie pens which are, of course, chock full of indelible ink.
The pen was only discovered when it began clattering around the dryer, so I pulled it out (cap intact) and hoped for the best with the clothes. Surely there was a chance I would get lucky and the ink hadn’t gotten out?
Like we mentioned recently, we recently finalized a settlement from a car accident and used a lawyer to do so. We didn’t start out thinking we would want or need a lawyer (you may remember that Mrs. PoP is kindof anti-lawyer), but in the end decided that we were much better off for having used auto accident injury lawyer.
Also, as we go along in this story, I’m going to define vocabulary that we learned as we went along, but were pretty essential in understanding all the moving parts of settling a case like this.
Immediately Following The Accident
Crash, bang, ouch. I was rear ended while stopped at a red light on my way to work. Nice way to start the day. From the Emergency Room, Mr. PoP called our insurance company to file a claim. This is where we started to learn some details…
This week ends the third week in a row that I’ve biked to work all 5 days. I’ve been thrilled to be participating in National Bike To Work Month, and wanted to share some information on logistics that make it MUCH easier to do. Helping out today is Mr. 1500 from the blog 1500 Days, who works from home now, but has done pretty epic bike commuting in the past.
Between the two of us, we’ve got hot weather and cold, a medium commute and a LONG one with some public transit thrown in for good measure, and both the male and female perspectives. Hopefully this helps cover the bases for most needs for anyone who needs help figuring out how to approach biking to work.
My lovely new helmet. Safety 1st!
Mrs. PoP’s Bike Commute
Length of Commute: 9 miles ~35-40 minutes
Gear & Accessories: Jamis commuter hybrid bike with a fab basket & (brand spankin’ new) helmet
Locale & Weather: South Florida. Hot and Humid by most standards. Occasional clouds of flying ants.
Today we’re bringing you another round of He Said/She Said. These posts are really your chance as readers to hear how discussions (and sometimes disagreements) play out when managing our lives with each other. For a look at some of the past He Said/She Said discussions – check ‘em out here.
Sitting on a pile of cash this big and knowing that Mr. PoP’s parents would be A-ok with us keeping the $50K we owe them for a couple more years (they like those interest payments!) instead of paying them back on August 1, has been making us even more aware than usual of possible investment opportunities.
We’re considering these investment opportunities carefully, but wanted to share some of the investments we’ve passed on recently and why.
We Won’t Buy this House
Regular readers probably remember that we bought an empty residential lot in 2011. As a quick recap, it’s on a saltwater canal in a growing area. Our goal is to flip it in 10 years (so by ~2021) for at least $200K, hopefully more, and hopefully sooner… but that’s the goal.
Well, recently a dumpy little foreclosed house in the same neighborhood came on the market at an asking price of ~$130K, so we just had to take a look at it.
Would it be possible for a renter to “buy” us another lot in this neighborhood where we think there will be decent mid-term growth opportunities?
There seems to be a false premise that many people in the United States operate under. It’s a dangerous one that when you construct your world view around it can lead to a very difficult and stressful lifestyle. What is this premise?
That most people care about the details of your life.
This isn’t a pessimistic statement. This isn’t an “oh my god i’m so alone in the world” idea. It’s good news. I swear!
This is what Mr. PoP thinks of anytime someone says, “Good News!”
Though the professor from Futurama is hilarious, there’s someone who communicated this point even better many many years ago, Eleanor Roosevelt, one of my favorite quotables of all.
“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt
Think About The Last Time You Reflected Negatively Upon Others
On last month’s income statement, I alluded to a couple of big checks that we were expecting to come in April, but didn’t quite make the cut. One of them dropped on May 1st. It’s a check for almost $7,000 from a car accident settlement that finally resolves a car accident that I was in about 2.5 years ago.
Recap On Accident And Injuries
Not the car that hit me, but I always thought these jaguars seemed about to pounce!
The accident was pretty straightforward. I stopped at a red light. The car behind me didn’t. It didn’t end particularly well. I had whiplash on the day of the accident, but have two lingering lower back issues that are going to stay with me for a very long time (perhaps indefinitely – which plays a roll in why I’m a bit afraid of the idea of pregnancy).
FWIW, we ended up using a personal injury lawyer to help settle the claim, despite our apprehensions about consulting a lawyer for real estate matters, and feel like we came out ahead for doing so.
We’re by no means home decorating pros, nor would you find our work on HGTV. But every once in a while, we complete a project in the house that despite its low budget, ends up having an outsized impact. We shared our cheap fix for ugly fluorescent lighting a few months ago, and today we want to share our most recent home improvement – our take on vertical gardening.
Gardenias are so gorgeous, but impossible to grow in our front yard!
Landscaping in our front yard has been a thorn in our side since buying our house nearly 4 years ago. “Normal” landscaping in our area looks nice, but isn’t designed to be low cost, or low maintenance. A typical household in our neighborhood pays about $150+ in water for landscaping every month, and pays a yard service another $100+ to mow the lawn and keep the bushes trimmed lest they grow out of control.
We’ve avoided spending that $250/month. And that’s great. But we also don’t want to spend a ton of time or energy on maintaining the landscaping ourselves, either. We’ve gone through a couple of designs with out landscaping, seeking out a combination of:
low water needs (our dry season lasts about 6 months and is quite dry and city water is NOT cheap!)
low sunlight needs (the front yard of our house is bathed in shade from our 50ft live oak, which we lovingly call The Tree)
colorful and floral scented (or at least 1 of these)
So the last few weeks have been rough in the PoP household. We were having problems with our internet connection, and went back and forth with our ISP multiple times because we kept losing our connection. (Tragedy! Absolute Tragedy!)
At one point, we had a nice repairman out to our house an he suggested trying out a new modem. Here’s how the interaction went:
Repairman: (trying to figure out if the replacement DSL modem in his truck would suit us) How many devices do you guys connect to your router with?
Me: Regularly? 8? 9 if you count the printer that’s connected to enable wireless printing.
Repairman: (eyes bogging out of head) What?
Me: We each have a work laptop, a personal laptop, a tablet, and a wifi enabled smartphone. This is normal right?
Repairman: (says with slight disgust while shaking his head) Young people. Jeez.
Someone tell me we’re totally normal for having that many devices. Right? Totally normal?
Anyhow, we’ve now had 48+ hours of solid connection, and are knocking on every piece of wood we pass to keep the connection lasting indefinitely.
My newfound love for bike riding is starting to compete with my love for adorable kittens. Luckily the internet has come through with just the solution.
