A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Where are you and where are you going?
thrifty++
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by thrifty++ »

IlliniDave wrote: Even after a year I'm still on the fence about dumping Verizon for Republic. I got my verizon whittled down to $44/mo (plenty of talk and text for my needs, no data). With a $200-250 up-front cost I can get a recurring bill somewhere between $10-$20 a month (with more functionality), but I've heard mixed reviews about Republics interaction with the Sprint network. So I won't make that changeover a goal. I don't use my cell for much, but I need it to work when I need it.
I have a prepay mobile plan and just pay as I need it and signed up for a prepay deal which is $9 per month. Gives me 30 minutes of free phone calls and unlimited text messaging but no free data. Works totally fine for me and costs peanuts. I almost never need to use additional credit. I don't care about data and just use my internet at home or free wi fi connections. I am not in USA but from what I understand most consumer goods in USA are cheaper than here. So I am sure there are some amazing similar or even cheaper pre pay plans which have no up front cost.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

The Great Burrito Experiment and Finalization of 2016 Goals (Plus Bonus Whining)

So I have a set of goals for the year, a subset of which seem somewhat relevant to this forum. Not all of them are going to make a huge difference in my life's trajectory, but I'm more satisfied than not with that at this stage.
  • 1. Cap core spending at $29K for the year. This target is a $1000ish reduction over 2015. Core spending in my system is all the spending that is easy to anticipate (food, taxes, utilities, gas, clothing, medical, entertainment, etc.) plus an allowance of a few thousand USD for a modest buffer against routine unplanned expenses (something(s) always breaks during the course of the year). What this really comes down to is being judicious in the areas where I make day-to-day choices like food, entertainment, clothing, household/personal items, etc.). If I get really unlucky and have a giant oh-shit expense then this one becomes a no-test, though I'll still track how I did excluding the highly anomalous item(s).

    2. Discard less than 10 lbs of food brought into the house during 2016 that was edible when it arrived. This will help some with food costs of course, but it's really frustrating to throw money into the garbage.

    3. Collect less than 30 plastic shopping bags (a number think I can reasonably re-purpose) during the year. This is mainly a feel-good goal. With the price of oil what it is, even "recycled" bags are ending up in landfills.

    4. Discontinue use of my space heater. In winters past I've kept my thermostats dialed down and used a small space heater in my bedroom while I'm in there. This winter I'm set at 58 in the living areas of the house and 55 in the sleeping areas. I've found a trick with arranging my bed covers and another with a fan that has allowed me to remain comfortable without the heater so far. It does wonders for my throat and sinuses as the air doesn't get as harshly dry.

    5. Get a date. Ha! J/k. Only four goals for the list this year (though I could potentially add to it later).
So that's what I have for this year. Consistency in focus is what it will take to be successful. For some reason I've started off the year with a lot of uncertainty regarding my overall plan. Twice now in the last two years I've eked over the threshold of FI by my mathematical assessment only to have a swoon in my assets follow immediately afterward and knock me below. An amount of volatility is something I should expect, but the timing of it is eroding my confidence. I've been trying to plan a window to get up to the cabin this summer but right now even that is looking like an insurmountable challenge. I've lost enough money this year to buy a very nice new vehicle, nicer than any I've ever owned. Right now I've half a mind that once things recover somewhat to just say screw it and go buy a a four wheeled midlife crisis salve.

That was the promised whining. Now for the Great Burrito Experiment.

On another forum I was reading a thread that discussed "extraordinary" frugality measures folks have undertaken to further their goals. For the most part they were not particularly noteworthy relative to ERE. One caught my attention though. A poster claimed he and his wife got by eating only homemade bean burritos for the last ~30 years. I don't expect he meant that literally, but I don't know. Nonetheless, I decided I'd spend 30 days on that regimen for giggles. I'll cheat a little because I've got a few things to consume pursuant to goal number 2 above, but I do need a drastic overhaul to how I load the trough to meet my food spending goals for the year. I picked $160/mo and once I laid in 2 weeks worth of beans and tortillas I'm up to $170 total for January already. If I'd have kept going per usual I would have probably blown through $250. We'll see how it goes.
Last edited by IlliniDave on Sun Jan 17, 2016 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

anomie
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by anomie »

Hope you added a few $ to your budget for beano to manage your new diet . :D :lol:

seriously, best of luck to you in all of goals for the new year. I greatly appreciate reading your blog , and wish you the best.

inchicago
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by inchicago »

Hmmm the burrito experiment doesn't sounds all that bad if you add maybe some cheese or veggies or both along with the beans. Maybe even some different grains like quinoa versus the beans. You could actually make several cheap meals out of it, and it would be quite tasty. This sounds like a good, non-messy possibility for my work lunches.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

anomie, I think I have some peculiarity in my microbial community because I process beans with relatively little in the way of greenhouse gas emissions. Broccoli on the other hand is an entirely different story.

inchicago, yes, you can wrap just about anything in a burrito shell. I commonly use hummus, eggs, shrimp, fish, sausage, and cheese (not all at the same time). Once this experiment is over I might not be too keen on anything in a burrito shell for a while.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

3 Years of High Quality Data

I now have 3 full years of high quality spending data for myself in ER preparation mode. One of the reasons I keep the data is to use it to assess the realism of my retirement plan. In effect, I'm trying to adhere to my retirement lifestyle as much as possible now, or said a different way, I want to retire to an equivalent lifestyle to what I have today. When I say "lifestyle" here I am using the term as shorthand for "what I spend to achieve the balance of needs, comforts, and luxuries that leaves me content".

I've mentioned in prior entries that I have a spending plan (or budget if you prefer that term) for what I call core spending. It's what I expect to spend in a year assuming nothing unusual goes wrong. There's an allowance for everyday mishaps, but not something like the catastrophic breakdown of an auto requiring replacement years ahead of plan.

When I draw up my retirement plan I size my income needs for roughly $10,000/yr above that core spending level. In round number terms that puts me at about $40,000/yr net of taxes or maybe around $45,000 gross (there's a lot of oversimplification in that gross-up, but it's conservative until tax structures change dramatically). I don't plan to spend $40,000 post-tax every year, it's just what I "test" my readiness with.

It occurred to me to test the 36 monts of data I have against both the core spending profile and the test spending profile (which I consider somewhat of a worst-case condition, spending at that level for an extended time). What I found was.

-I stayed within my core spending during about 43% of the months, and
-I stayed within my test spending during about 78% of the months.

My average spending was about $714 above my core target, and about $139 below my test spending target.

I'm not quite sure exactly how to interpret those results other than I'm starting to think my plan is a little less conservative than I had let myself think. Now I must decide if it is best for me to look at making a commitment to find additional ways to lower ongoing expenses, delay my departure date until my financial position can cover more spending than what I've been asking of it, or just accept living with a little more risk.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

A Couple More Random Numbers

I'm jumping the gun a little bit because January isn't quite over, but I expect no more income this month, and probably won't spend any more money above possibly filling up my gas tank on Friday.

Savings rate. People often ask about/discuss this and usually I have to count on my fingers to come up with a SWAG. It was pretty easy to modify spreadsheet from you-know-where to keep a running tally for 2016.

I made two simplifying assumptions: 1) a dollar saved is a dollar saved irrespective of whether it is pre-tax or post-tax, and 2) to count as saved, the money must be depositied in either my 401k account, my Roth IRA account, my HSA account, or in my taxable investment account at Vanguard. I often run a small surplus in my regular bank accounts from having expenses come in below plan and/or my habit of using sinking fund-like approaches to cover irregular expenses (e.g., I set aside $84 each month to cover up to $1,000 in auto maintenance/repair expenses per year). I don't count these surpluses in my savings rate, I call them "soft savings" just to have a name for the number.

My calculations for 2016 so far are

YTD spending (excluding income tax) as a % of gross income: 13.7%
YTD spending (excluding income tax) as a % of after-tax income: 19.6%

YTD savings as a % of gross income: 51.4%
YTD savings as a % of after-tax income: 73.4%

The reason the after-tax numbers don't add up to 100% is the "soft savings" I mentioned above of about 7% of net income.

Those numbers aren't actionable that I can see, and I don't know what insight I can gain from them. I've seen enough of these ratioss shared to know I'm typical of an aggressive saver (by normal standards) with a moderately high income, but I knew that already. As I maintain my spreadsheet throughout the year the calculations will automatically update. So by the end of the year I'll be ready for any discussion threads I encounter about savings rates.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

Mulling Over Life in Front of a Fire

Last night I built a fire and spread a comforter on the carpet in front of the hearth and wrapped up in it while I split time between reading, dumbing out in front of Netflix, and eating. It was a very soothing experience—I've long believed I hold some ancient genetic memories in my DNA passed down from ancestors of high latitudes that huddled around fires to stay alive. It's an image I frequently associate with my vision of ER, symbolic I suppose of having made adequate provision against a harsh and unfriendly environment. In past days when I had more worries that would sometimes keep me up at night, I often used a trick to help myself fall asleep: I'd imagine myself snowed in a tiny cabin somewhere absolutely remote with a full pantry and a superabundance of wood for the stove. Nowhere I needed to be, no one to bother me, the only requirement being to stay warm, dry, and fed.

That mentality explains my approach to ER. At times I entertain other thoughts but when it comes right down to it I don't see myself going voluntarily until I reach a robust once-and-for-all FI. I continue to spend a lot of time with the numbers, but once you have them essentially correct the rate of change is slow.

Unfortunately the sense of urgency to pass on the the next phase of life is more dynamic, and amplified by my work situation degrading from generally positive to simply passable. I am a strong introvert and it takes me a while to get beyond the stressful aspect of being forced to interact with a completely new group of people on a day-to-day basis. I'm also not very well qualified for performing my new primary tasks. In time Ill learn the job and the people and things will settle out. But it is frustrating to know I could move on ow with a high probability of success, yet not have it in me to assume the risk. I have a former colleague I still communicate with regularly who is also trying to work out his ER date. We joke with each other that we both need to “grow a pair”. It's a crude way of putting it, but apt.

At the same time my somewhat deliberate and cautious nature has served me well. Among other things it left me in a position to readily change course to ER before I ever consciously thought about it. So there's another part of me that urges me to listen to my instincts and stay the course until 100% of me agrees it is time.

The thing about sitting in front of a fire is that if I allow yourself not to think and just experience it, I begin to have simultaneous awareness of both the warmth on my face and the cold at my back, and that gradient somehow makes me feel a bit more alive. It leaves me wondering whether it's better to leave a little doubt in my plan, whether I've been misinterpreting that image of the warm, provisioned cabin by only being aware of half the picture. I am beginning to consider whether waiting until I have achieved a robust once-and-for-all FI might not actually rob me of much of the "life" I'm hoping gain. Whenever the next time I wade into the numbers comes, I'll have to search to see if I can find a balance point rather than a clear indication of a finish line.

1taskaday
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by 1taskaday »

I think low job satisfaction is a major energy deplete-er in anyone's life.(especially in the US where time-off is so limited)
It has far greater ramifications than we often like to admit and can reach in to all parts of our psyche.

I know you say that your work situation is passable BUT the thing is you went from a job that you were very happy doing to the one you are now in.
I think that is where the pain/challenge for you comes in.

As you get older it is very hard to start learning things all over again,whether this is because of our ego or just lack of hunger/necessity,I don't know...

I changed my job about 16 months ago BUT for me it was easier as I switched from a hell hole that I truly hated,(the beginning of my journal is full of my misery) to a decent enough number.
The first few months are naturally the toughest,but I just kept saying to myself no matter what happens or what I have to do it can never be as bad as what I left...you don't have this reference point,in fact it is the opposite for you-you have lost out.

So you will just have to find some other mantra for the brain to latch on to,so that you can get through to your goal/end date or else it gets so sucky that it's just not worth the pain and you just pack it in.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

1taskaday wrote: ...
I know you say that your work situation is passable BUT the thing is you went from a job that you were very happy doing to the one you are now in.
I think that is where the pain/challenge for you comes in.

As you get older it is very hard to start learning things all over again,whether this is because of our ego or just lack of hunger/necessity,I don't know...

...

So you will just have to find some other mantra for the brain to latch on to,so that you can get through to your goal/end date or else it gets so sucky that it's just not worth the pain and you just pack it in.
It certainly is a challenge--the worst part maybe is being a very introvert-leaning person and moving from a comfortable group of coworkers to a new group of people who are nice enough, but still, well, new. There's some ego at play too. I used to be the expert everyone turned to when things got difficult, and now I'm the guy that can't even spell the acronyms. :) The worst of my angst at this time stems from having people back home (mom and sister both) gravely ill, which just makes me a little reluctant to throw 100% of myself into the transition. My job doesn't occupy the top rung in the scheme of things right now.

It is definitely harder adapting to the change as an older person. You are dead right there!

I'm searching for the right mantra/theme. "Patience, grasshopper," seems to fit pretty well.

wheatstate
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by wheatstate »

Quick note on cell phone plan: Have you had a chance to check out Page Plus? It might be a cheaper than Verizon option without the initial capital or reliability issues of Republic.

Pluses: PagePlus is on the Verizon network, so same great coverage.
Use same unlocked phone you currently have.
They have a $12/month plan that gets you 250 min, 250 texts per month.
They have a $30/month plan that gets you 1500 min, unlimited text and a 1gb of lte data.
https://www.pagepluscellular.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_vi ... k_operator

I used them, and was very happy.

...Great journal and awesome work!

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

January 2016 In Review

First and foremost, my mother had a CT scan last week to monitor the efficacy of the chemo. The results show she has responded wonderfully better than the doctors had led her to believe was possible. What this means in the big picture is still uncertain. This is Stage 4 so it's a delaying action, but if the intervention buys her a handful of decent quality years rather than a handful of poor quality months, it has to be scored as a victory.

My sister has just begun her treatments (I can't remember if I mentioned this here but she was diagnosed with uterine cancer 2 weeks before Christmas which was subsequently determined to be stage 3). It's very hard on Mom "bumping into" her daughter at the local cancer treatment center. Although unlike Mom her condition is causing her significant pain/discomfort, her prognosis is better and being younger her regimen is more aggressive (simultaneous chemo and radiation). But with cancer one never knows.

These things are a stark reminder that much of the stuff we dramatically wring our hands over day-to-day can be completely meaningless in the big picture.

Now, on to my path to ER.

In January total invested assets declined by $18,200 after contributions. I didn't take time to compute it, but net worth would show a similar decline as not much else would have changed except small fluctuations in my bank account balances. The decline is attributable to the vagaries of the investment markets.

Regarding the things I can control:

Savings. I've started tracking a pair of simplified savings rate calculations. I mentioned them in a prior post, but the simplification is not bothering to compute some sort of adjustment to find an equivalence between pretax and after tax savings dollars. I also have the analogous spending rates.

YTD spending (excluding income tax) as a % of gross income: 16.2%
YTD spending (excluding income tax) as a % of after-tax income: 23.1%

YTD savings as a % of gross income: 51.4%
YTD savings as a % of after-tax income: 73.4%

I don't know that these computations add much value, and I don't know that I'll keep reporting them for the entire year. For me they are not really actionable.

Spending. I was on track to have my second-best month on record for spending, but I had a last minute visit from my daughter and the grandkiddies last weekend, and if there's one thing that will pry open this cheapskate's wallet and cause him to throw $20-bills around like it's a ticker tape parade, it's the grandchildren. The final tally for January was $1,990. Despite the weak finish the month still ranks in the top quartile of months during the last 3+ years for low spending. My target for 2016 is to average $2416/mo or less. This month came in below that, which is good, but spending/month is never smooth for me.

I've struggled with finding a succinct metric to track my readiness for ER. The one I'm experimenting with currently is tracking what percentage of my financial assets would be depleted between today and age 70 if today was my first day of ER. I picked age 70 because for some time I've believed that once I hit that age and begin my deferred SS and hit RMDs (assuming I don't wipe out too much of my 401k getting there), I should pretty much be set. The ER problem for me has always been about a solution to bridge the gap between ER day and age 70. I have a nominal set of parameters (spending profile, inflation assumptions, tax assumptions, investment return assumptions, etc.). And the input variables are today's date and my current account balances.

Had 31 January been my first day of ER, I would expect to deplete 34.8% of my financial assets getting to my 70th birthday.

I haven't finalized thresholds for this metric yet. For now I'm going with intuition that says 25% depletion would be the low threshold and a 25% growth would be the high threshold that together would bookend the space between going too soon and waiting longer than is prudent.

With January in the books it's time to forget it and turn my attention to February.

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GandK
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by GandK »

I'm so sorry about your mother and sister, Dave.

We struggle to find the best ER progress bar for G as well. We've tentatively settled on having a specific dollar amount in non-retirement accounts to bridge that pre-SS-and-pensions age gap. But we think he will work extra time, banking that cash as an emergency fund and living off early retirement assets only, as a test run.

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jennypenny
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by jennypenny »

I'm sorry about your sister, Dave. Tough year.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

jennypenny and K,

Thanks, I've already sort of internalized the worst-case outcomes and so my mom's progress and my sister being pre-stage 4 rather than stage 4 I'm taking to be positive developments.

For a long time I was trying to use a total in the bridge fund, or some anticipated withdrawal rate from it, but the numbers would change a lot as a function of ER start date. I don't know how the percent thing will work out, maybe I'll go back to my old system. Or, it's getting to the point where tracking things is losing it's utility. Once I get to 55 (about 3.25 years) I'll have more than enough barring complete collapse of financial markets. Today I would more likely be okay than not, but it would be a brittle situation. It's a short window I'm working with.

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

This Week's Exercise in Humility

No, I'm not talking about the stock market. :)

I've mentioned before about having to scramble at the end of last year to find a new job assignment after my prior 17.5-year-long gig wound down. I think I also mentioned somewhere that so far I haven't found this new opportunity particularly amusing. Nice people and all, it just a mismatch between skill set required and what I'm good at. Learning new things in principle is good, but this isn't stuff I'd invest energy learning if someone wasn't dangling a paycheck in front of me.

The biggest part of the job now is turning a recently emptied room into what you might call a "lab facility" (that term makes it sound sexier than it actually is). As often happens, the effort has not been smooth and the workload for me ebbs at times. This week is one of those times. Yesterday the only thing for me to do was to sweep the ~5,000 sq ft floor with an undersized broom in preparation for some VP that's supposed to walk through the area next week. I discovered there are many spiders lurking in the shadowy places, and a few looked like the variety of spiders one does not want to get bitten by. I did not hesitate to employ the broom a little more vigorously around those guys.

Part of me wanted to be indignant. When I joked about this to the manager of the group I was loaned from, she felt sorry for me. I have my annual performance review later this week, and I can just imagine telling my official boss that the highlights of my accomplishments in my new capacity have been tearing apart wooden shipping crates (only one small splinter!), carrying/pushing heavy things around the room, hauling a small mountain of trash and discarded packing materials from inside to outside for pick up, and sweeping the floor. Maybe I can lobby to get the company to train me on advanced modern vacuum cleaner operation (they have a Dyson in the custodial supply room) and so expand my opportunities in this new-found career.

That last paragraph was meant to be humorous. The sweeping was actually a reasonably pleasant experience. The first official job I ever had was as a janitor after school at the high school I attended during my freshman year. Being an introvert, that first year in so large a school (~1,500 students) was stressful, but being around the school after the cacophony died in a sense allowed me to make peace with the whole situation. If you let yourself, you can fall into a rhythm with any simple repetitive activity ("Wax on. Wax Off"). I learned that first shoveling snow as a kid, but I think sweeping classrooms and hallways, washing blackboards, and emptying trash after school is what really imprinted it on me.

There's a Zen saying: when you sweep, sweep. I suppose it's an exhortation to being completely mindful and present with what you are doing. When I got bored sweeping, which took about ten minutes, I began repeating that silently to myself. Sounds corny, but it did make the time pass with less internal resistance on my part. It also brought me back in time to a more carefree version of myself.

Reflecting on the day made me think I'll do pretty good as an early retiree. In the meantime I'll keep my fingers crossed that my spider body count will get me a bit sweeter of a raise, if not this time round, then next.

1taskaday
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by 1taskaday »

I can relate so much to your story from when I first switched my job.

I also fill in for absent lower level staff to keep the "ship sailing" and because nobody else will...and the ship may sink.
The curse of being an INTJ and needing to keep the system running smoothly at all costs..

But it is so good for my ego .... and ashamed though I am of it,I often get moments of deep satisfaction and a giggle when the high heeled amongst us (who would never do what I would) are shown up for their lack of team work or dare I say it "selfishness".

At the end of the day I keep thinking I am getting paid this much per hour for doing this...and more importantly getting nearer my goal.

saving-10-years
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by saving-10-years »

@IlliniDave it does sound sort of restful. Walking the isles of students writing exams is the same sort of mindless job (I sometimes compose poetry or do 'surveys' - how many students with glasses, long hair, etc.). I cannot imagine that after your performance meeting they keep on using you in these jobs - what are they thinking?? (not a sign of a healthy well-managed organisation).

When I read your post my mind zapped to a noted sweeper in The Thief of Time by Terry Prachett described thus on a Discworld wiki: 'Lu-Tze found out that nobody worries about a sweeper. Sweeping practically makes people invisible, and certainly anonymous. And a sweeper can get into the most restricted places, because even those places need to be cleaned. On occasion, however, he finds the anonymity undesirable .... While he claims the position of a sweeper, he is widely respected by many who know him, and feared by some. He is something of a legendary hero among the pupils and is the only known master of the art of Déjà Fu.' (That may be something to do with spider extermination?)

IlliniDave
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by IlliniDave »

It's been a long time since I read anything by Terry Pratchett!

My review went pretty well. Luckily the focus was on last year, haha. Many of us well up the ladder position wise were fully expecting no raises thins year. But I got enough of one to fully fund my new HSA at the family plan level with some left, so I'm pretty pleased. Much better than what happened to people on SS year over last.

1taskaday, I have the same satisfaction. It's a point of pride being the most humble guy on the team! :)

7Wannabe5
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Re: A Journey of Mindfulness--the Remaking of Life in Midstream.

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

How about we trade? I'll come sweep your workspace, and you can come exert authority over inner-city 6th grade boys intent on acting out a scene from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" rather than learning how to multiply fractions.

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