Make money: flee the moguls

I am delighted to announce that I have saved myself nearly $600 a year in my home insurance policy by switching from Farmers to Liberty Mutual. Plus I put my coverage into effect immediately, which means I might get a few dollars refund back from Farmers. Or I might not.

Some of the drop came from the offer by Todd Johnson, my new agent at  Liberty Mutual, to verify the total number of square feet in my house with the county. The county said 2,600 s.f.; Farmers said 3,000. Todd also said a good replacement amount for my house would be $203,000; Farmers insisted that I needed $240,000 coverage, and that they were forbidden by law to underinsure a client.

I am also saving $6,000 by switching from Countrywide to Idaho Independent Bank for my unwanted refinancing package. IIB wants $2,000 in closing fees; Countrywide wanted $8,000.

I am not pleased with being pushed into higher mortgage and insurance rates by big guys in three-piece suits in high-rise office buildings. I am delighted that there are reasonable companies offering reasonable products at, yes, reasonable rates.

A big 68

If you were nearby
I’d invite you by
for a piece of cake
I didn’t make.

It’s my birthday!

Number 68. My mother was Type AB, and I was Type O. But I was born alive and kicking and have been ever since! I’ve had a wonderful life so far and am looking forward to more adventures and fun around the corner.

Joyce

Shoshone Falls and splashes

I’ve visited Shoshone Falls in south central Idaho when it was a mere trickle over the rocks. The only relevant water was the Snake River shrinking in the dusty canyon below the falls.

But this year was different. I talked an 88-year-old friend of mine into going with me to Shoshone Falls last Wednesday, and we picked the right time! It was warm, a very light breeze, lots of sunshine, not very many visitors, and a dazzling display of water spilling over the dam and into the river bed below.

My camera is broken, but here’s a rough idea of what it looked like. The second picture shows some of the spray and foam from this beautiful, if man-made, display of the power of water:

This is the Snake River peacefully moving west from Shoshone Falls.

We’re marching to Zion! (national park)

Spring is leaping towards us, and Donna and I are doing more than daydreaming about our planned vacation next month.

Now we’re thinking about Zion National Park again.

I’m just a bit nervous about rocks called “the apostles” and the picture above of the “temple.” This is, after all, deep in Mormon country, and those folks have apparently matched all the symbols they could possibly relate to their religion to the marvelous formations this park.  I don’t want to spend five days immersed seeing and hearing praise of Joseph Smith, who, according to all the history I’ve been able to find, was a rogue from his toenails up. He died in a gunfight in the jail where he was being held awaiting trial for various crimes.  Read about it here.

Enough of that.

My buddy Donna from northern California and I are going to look at rock formations and try to figure out from our puny perspective how they were formed. I lose credibility with a lot of folks when I admit I’m a creationist, but I’m not in 100% agreement with everything creationists say any more than I believe the Mormons. We tend to see what we think we need to see.

I suspect that the rocks themselves have been around for a few million years, and even the Bible (Genesis 1) says that God divided the water that was already on earth, revealing the structure of earth’s surface. Our globe in those days was a lot like a few billion others whirling in space, mostly rock and frozen chemicals, totally devoid of all forms of life. Then came the Flood.

What an uproar that was! No wonder people can’t believe it happened. Rock formations from deep within the earth were stirred and tossed about. It’s a miracle that Noah and family weren’t hit by the raining down of heavy rocks tossed from beneath the surface of the earth into the sky.  Of course I don’t know exactly what happened. Even believers in the Bible account don’t know that. We weren’t there.

But we can see evidence all around the globe, and Zion Canyon along with the other great canyons of the southwest display that evidence in a beautiful setting.

That’s what I want to see. Just a month from now we’ll be on our way. Hip hip hooray!

JG

My family is growing

My computer family is growing.

Today I came across the laptop I used when I had an office in Boise in 2005 and 2006. Plugged it in, downloaded the latest free version of AVG, and set it up on my main desk where I can watch Old Faithful spout off while I’m doing real work. Seems there’s been a lot of rain over there, and some of it must have splashed on the camera lens.

Now I have four computers: identical HP desktop twins named “Old Faithful” and “Westward,” the Compaq Presario mentioned above, and an HP laptop that I keep upstairs.

I’ll take a family picture as soon as I find my camera. Where did I put that little toy?

Meet the cellist (ahem)

For quite a while I’ve been looking for a project that would involve my efforts for several years, something I would work to accomplish but would look back on the work it took as a good investment.

Well, here it is!

My new cello! (Looks just like it anyway…)

I saw a little note in the newspaper about a violin and cello class starting for adult beginners, and that’s when the lights went on. The class didn’t cost that much for 12 classes, and I could rent-to-buy a cello for a few dollars a month. I signed up, and it was challenging but just the level of difficulty I needed. There are two beginning cellists and two beginning violinists in our class, all gals. What fun.

I had to own one. Three cellos later I am happy with my new solid spruce top model and the British-style hard-cover case that goes with it.

After six weeks of class I’m still struggling with reading the bass clef! I know those notes. I’ve played the piano since I was eight years old and learned to read music early on. Both bass and treble. But when I see a line of music, it just “looks” like treble clef.

“No!” I scold myself. “That is not an F. It’s an A!” There isn’t time for misreading the note, scolding myself, correcting myself, and getting the right note in time to go on to the next one.

I realize it will take an enormous amount of perseverance and patience on my part to learn those notes and where they match on the cello–much less how to draw a beautiful tone from the bow and strings. But I’m in for the long haul. Giving myself two years to qualify for playing in a school or community orchestra and four years to be able to play easy music in public.

JG

The capricious and malicous flu bug

The flu bug can’t get me, nah!
The flu bug can’t get me!

It can flutter its wings
And flash its toes
It can split my head in two
And buzz up my nose
It can do all the tricks that flu bugs do

But
The flu bug can’t get me, nah!
The flu bug can’t get me!

Joyce Griffith
My Home Page

Learning to draw–what?

I’d share my drawings with you, but I’m not sure my scanner works. I think I’m making a teeny bit of progress, but I’m not anywhere close to my goal of being able to draw human faces, bodies in motion, and other living objects to my satisfaction. I’ve been working on thumbs for weeks.

But whaddya know? The city’s recreation department has decided to offer a six-week free-hand drawing class starting February 4, and I intend to take it. I’m trying to persuade my bro Dave to take it as well. It’s for brush-up folks as well as beginners.

(That’s not me…)

Another cloudy day. I decided to find out how much water is in clouds and was shocked to learn that we don’t really know how raindrops manage to land on earth.  I thought even farmers knew how much water was up there whether it was raining or not, but this geology professor says that’s not so.

He says the average “cloud droplet” (a raindrop in the making) is less than 0.02 millimeters in diameter and would need 48 hours to fall from the cloud to earth. By then it would evaporate. Some scientists think that the drops bump into each other and form larger drops on their way down. Others think that the ice that forms on top of a rain cloud in a huge ice crystal melts to make rain. This is pretty technical, but here’s the explanation.

And all this time I thought we knew what causes the rain to fall from the clouds.

The day after and the day before

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, but since our family is celebrating tomorrow, it’s also the day before Thanksgiving!

I came home from a trip to Boise the other day to see a large box on my sidewalk. Sure enough. Inside the box was my new wood stove. My bro Dave had told me it weighed 350 pounds and that he’d pick it up for me at Lowe’s in Nampa.

“Hmm,” I thought. “That is more than I weigh!”

A lot more, I might add.

I have learned from many years of making it solo that almost anything can be moved if you take it slow enough and if it doesn’t fall on you.

The box had already been cut open and was just sitting on top of the stove. I pulled if off and began working. Very carefully I jiggled it just a bit. Nope. No progress.

So I tried pushing and twisting and got it to budge about a quarter of an inch. Repeat. This time almost an inch. Then a tiny part of a quarter of an inch.

By the time I got the stove moved a foot and a half down the sidewalk closer to my front door I realized that even if I got it to the door I’d never get it across the door frame, and after that it was ceramic tile. So I quit working on it.

My bro showed up without prompting a bit later, and we maneuvered the stove onto a hand truck and got it inside. Sometime next week we’ll take the old stove out and install this one.

I’m aching for the warm fire from that stove. The sun has been shining, but I know it will be cold before long. And there’s nothing like fire from a wood stove to make one feel warm and cozy.

A stove–just in time for winter!

Sometime tomorrow or Tuesday my bro Dave is going to pick up a brand-new wood stove for me at Lowe’s. It is supposed to cover 1,000 s.f. and take logs up to 16 inches wide. I also bought a chain saw so I can turn my furniture into firewood if things really get tough.

It’s nice to have a piece of security! I love wood stoves and fireplaces and campfires. I’ve got a wood stove in the place where my new one will go, but it’s very old and doesn’t have a door to keep the wood inside.

It may look a lot like this: (sort of ugly but if it’s warm, that’s what counts)

I’ll post a picture of it when I get it installed and fired up.

JG