Early Retirement Extreme Forums

If you can move it back to 50/50, would that help? Maybe keep the sessions shorter/more targeted, or only meet at specific times such as in the evenings? Are you also speaking in Italian and getting that practice? (was that a goal?).

Is he tied into the local Italian community?

Good questions. Yeah, one of the goals was to learn Italian. We haven't done anything in that regard (other than him scolding me in Italian for the position of my hands), in part because I wanted to focus on getting the basics of violin down before introducing a possible monkeywrence. We've been meeting in the evenings but they seem to run on very late. I am a morning person so this has not worked well for me. He is up until 3am. I've tried to shorten the sessions but that resulted in zero violin for one of the sessions. He is not tied to the Italian community at all. I'm not sure why that is. He's not a loner, but I think he gets his "projects" into his head and works on them with maniacal focus.

@Ego Could you set him homework so that you set up what he is to learn? He expects you to practice and do things for yourself to learn the violin and so should you have expectations. That way he cannot simply ask you to do it because its so easy for you and it is literally teaching the man to fish. He needs to work on it when you are not there and you can 'mark' and comment on your tests easily (find XX sites that show YYY, take NN photos and upload one and send it by email, the sort of thing that its easy for you to comment on and teach but takes up time for him when you are not there. That might allow you both to 'examine/critique' the homework in your lessons and move onto the stuff that has to be done face to face when you are present in the room together. It makes it more predictable for you and pushes some of the work of discovering the internet onto him.

At least some of his assignments could focus on Italian websites (booking train tickets etc) and you could try and make those lessons about the Italian language as well, so that you are learning the language and discussing the way systems work in Italy?

Can you take a little control about the violin lesson also? Ask for him to teach you a specific (difficult) piece which challenges him as well as you?

Good luck. I have an on-going relationship since retirement with an 81 year old who is very knowledgeable about a textiles area I am learning in. She also is interested in the online world and we often have much longer meetings than I had planned that veer off into the internet and new tech. I have now registered to take a qualification in textiles and asked her to be my mentor. This is working quite well as it gives us a timescale and focus (I am going for effectiveness and not efficiency here). We do have a similar background (both some history of teaching) which makes things easier. We also meet roughly monthly (with some online and phone comms between). I find that she is in a hurry to learn new things (its a joy that she is wired that way and great that your violinist is too). This can come across as being quite greedy about having more time and more information, but she is also very generous and hugely knowledgeable.

You think you got it hard. Try teaching new sexual practices to men over 50. At least you don't have to worry about getting "dropped during the dip." Good thing I am so bouncy! I just tell myself "Patience. Relax. Smile. Resume the pose."

@saving-10-years, Thanks for the tips. I will give them a try. I like the homework idea. We'll see how well he reacts to it.

We had a pretty serious crash yesterday in the peloton. A big group went down in front of me and I went over the top, landing on my shoulder and back (as I should) but I stupidly straight-armed myself and wrenched my wrist pretty badly. Adrenaline allowed me to help a few of the guys until the ambulances got there. In the group we have a few medical people. One of them checked me out when I got back to the house where we all meet and she was fairly confident that it was soft tissue damage and will heal soon enough.

A few of the guys have cameras on their bikes and I tried to use the videos to do an after action review to determine how I could have avoided this.

https://youtu.be/l-Z8O8RUr38

I normally don't like riding in a group spread across the road like that. We generally ride in a paceline. When it breaks up into a bunch like this I usually try to get out in front or hang off the back. So I have a new cardinal rule. Lesson learned.

Also, I am going to add some tumbling into my workout to build in the automatic response to roll over rather than reach out with my arm.

Left wrist so no violin for at least a week. The Maestro was understanding. I helped him with a few details today.

In other news, I found a Mystery Ranch backpack the other day. I got it second hand (so not something from nothing) but I'll be able to mark it up significantly.

Red shirt. Red shirt got wobbly for no apparent reason. It's always the red shirts...

For me it looks like the blue shirt got startled when he looked left and saw the red shirt gaining.

Advocate wrist mirrors?

I'm going with the blue shirt too from the video evidence. But I could be wrong. Both of them are good guys. Accidents happen.

From what I can tell (the video is only 240p at the moment) looks like blue shirt guy crossed wheels with white shirt guy. Pretty negligent on his part. Red shirt guy could have possibly noticed (the sound of two wheels/tires rubbing together is distinctive.) and moved over to the left or braked so he wouldn't have gotten caught up in it. Assuming you were the third guy crashing in the light jersey, you were just fucked (unless maybe you noticed him crossing wheels?)

Yeah, that's what I thought. I was further back and came over the top unseen in the first vid. It is my 1970s steel rim and campy derailleur on top of the camera at the end.

Eight broken ribs for red. The guy in the light jersey who face planted only broke his clavicle. I got off easy. Several lessons learned.

That said, I had been gradually training up to 49 consecutive pullups for my 49th birthday. I was getting close with twice weekly sets of 36/30/25-20/20-15. With very little grip in my left hand that is out the window. Still swollen somewhat at 72 hours. We'll see how it heals.

One-handed pull ups for Ego for a while.

I've never biked in a group, never been interested. I don't like riding motorcycles in groups for the same reason, stupid pile ups. Maybe if I'm enough of an asshole in the triathlon in Sept. people will stay away from me or just pass me safely.

@Ego--if it's still swollen or painful, you might want to splint the wrist in case you have a buckle break

The wrist was broken but seems to be healing rather fast.

Yesterday Mrs. Ego found a bag full of textbooks in the trash. I sold the first one today for $60.

Ego you're amazing. I get a kick out of this journal.

Thanks Sclass. I have to admit, I feel a little bad about the books. They are for cosmetology school. In the bag with the books was an education contract. The person listed on the contract is not a tenant so I am not sure how they wound up in our trash. But this is what they charged her and presumably what the young woman who bought the book yesterday intends to use it for. Made me agree with jenny's point in the minimalism thread.

Tenant moved out and left a small sleep sofa and cubes. Listed them on craigslist for $35 to sell quickly. Sold within two hours to a dad and his hilarious four year old son for the son's playroom. The kid and I had a long talk about our recent bike accidents. Seems I have more in common with four year olds than I do with their parents. I'm sure some of you could have already told me that.

We received 2 tablets by 2 credit cards. Fee for 1st year for both creditcards was € 73,-. Credit cards will be cancelled after the first year.
Sold 1 tablet today for € 85,-.

Balance: 1 tablet for free + € 12

Two weeks ago I found a pair of dusty North Face gore-tex expedition pants with a trap door for $3 at the swap meet. Just sold them for $60 to a fairly famous climber (he holds speed records in Yosemite and twenty-some ascents of El Cap). He is going to Patagonia in January for an attempt on Fitz Roy and will use the pants there. This is why I sell stuff like this on craigslist rather than ebay. This afternoon I get to vicariously live his dirtbag lifestyle through youtube.

Ego wrote:Thanks Sclass. I have to admit, I feel a little bad about the books.

Yeah. That is sad. Especially the tuition.

I feel a little guilty about collecting textbooks in the big lecture halls in college to sell. My SO still complains that she may have been one of my victims. Quite possible since I focused on premed lectures with expensive books.

Well if people are dumb enough to leave their assets behind I guess they don't value them like we do.