Slowing down to the Speed of Fog

It was dark and foggy this morning. Visibility was limited. As I was driving down the highway at a sedate 100 km/h, I was amazed to see several vehicles pass me. How could they drive so quickly in the fog? After they had passed and were out of sight, I tried my high beam headlights. They actually made things worse. I had a nice view of all of the fog in front of me instead of the road. I turned the high beams off.

There is a driving tip that says you shouldn't overdrive your headlights. You overdrive your headlights when you go so fast that your stopping distance is farther than you can see with your headlights. So, if your headlights illuminate the road 100 feet in front of you, but you're driving so fast that you would need 150 feet to stop the car, you are overdriving your headlights.

Obviously, when it is dark AND foggy out, your headlights do not illuminate as far in front of you, which means that we should be driving slower. Which we obviously don't do... we tend to forget that the posted speed limit is the Maximum... and is posted for ideal driving conditions. When conditions are less than ideal, we should slow down.

Which made me realize that driving in fog is a metaphor for life. Sometimes our lives are clear. We know where we are going. We know how to get there. And we move full speed ahead. Whether it is in relationships, career or leisure. We can see clearly and we move fast. But there come times when things aren't so clear. We're not sure what to do about relationships... or career... or leisure... or home ownership. Our tendency can be to keep moving at the same fast clip to which we have become accustomed. We make mistakes. We get into relationships or jobs that are not ideal. We regret our decisions and have to backtrack. We overdrove our headlights.

Perhaps when our life is foggy, and things are not clear, instead of trying to move quickly, we should simply slow down and move at the pace of life. Rather than trying to speed through the foggy sections of life... we should slow down and stay within the range of our headlights. That might not be very far... and we might have to slow down quite a bit, but in the end, we'll end up choosing our path rather than rushing headlong into situations that we later regret.

DIY Starbucks Hot Chocolate

OK, I admit it... I am also a hot chocolate addict, at least when it comes to Starbucks hot chocolate. You can keep your Timmies hot chocolate. Ick. But Starbucks... mmm... the best hot chocolate!

Now, since the beginning of January, I have drastically cut my Starbucks time - no weekday visits. I still go on the weekends, because I do love the ambiance at Starbucks. Which is fine. But the weekdays are like a desert for me. Sooo... I've bought some boxes of Starbucks hot chocolate - 8 packets to a box. Yummy... but still a bit of the pricey side.

Last night, I had a bit of a brainwave. If I can make DIY peanut butter... surely it must be possible to make DIY Starbucks hot chocolate! A bit of searching on the internet and... I am not the only one to have this brainwave! Three different sites all gave the same recipe... so here it is:

2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

So simple. Combine water, sugar and cocoa in a 16 oz microwave-safe glass measuring cup. Zap it in the microwave for 30 seconds, or until hot (depends on your microwave). Mix it well - you now have a mocha syrup. Add the milk to the syrup and zap it again in the microwave for 1 to 1.5 minutes, or until hot. Add that splash of vanilla extract and... voila... Starbucks hot chocolate. Or so they say. Reviewers of this recipe suggest adding 1/8 tsp salt or perhaps a dash of cinnamon or peppermint.

I have yet to try this recipe - going grocery shopping tomorrow and will report back.

Releasing Balloons into the Air - The Vatican's new Symbol of Peace

Vatican dove being attacked by crow and seagull.
(From Today Online)

The Vatican used to release doves in St. Peter's Square as a symbol of peace. Until the doves were attacked by seagulls and crows. Not a very convincing symbol of peace. Plus the animal rights groups raised concerns.

But worry you not... the Vatican has come up with a solution. This year, a group of children released balloons into the air as a symbol of peace. Very colourful. Very bright. Are released balloons really a symbol of peace? That is debatable.

Vatican releases hundreds (thousands?) of balloons.
(From The Guardian)

All you have to do is type "balloons" and "environment" into a web search and, voila... you will find plenty of evidence to support what you probably already suspected. Balloons are not good for the environment.

On the first hand, all of those colourful balloons eventually come to earth as garbage, pollution, litter. They don't just evaporate in the atmosphere or rise indefinitely to heaven. Some are supposed to burst into tiny pieces at a certain altitude, but what about the ribbons?

Razorbill bird killed by balloon ribbons
(From Balloons Blow)

Which brings us to the second point. Released balloons kill animals such as turtles, birds, seals, Bighorn Sheep. Some animals eat the ribbons, including the balloon fragment at the end of the ribbon. The balloon fragments block their digestive system and the animals starve to death. Other animals get tangled in the ribbons - around their necks or their legs.

Me thinks the Vatican missed the boat yet again on this "symbol of peace". In reality, it would seem that it is actually an act of harm - against the environment and our animal neighbours. Check out Balloons Blow or One Green Earth for more information on the insidious effects of released balloons.

Book-Bits - Money Rules by Gail Vaz-Oxlade

OK, I admit it, I'm a huge fan of Gail Vaz-Oxlade and her TV shows on Slice. Whether it's "Til Debt do us Part", "Princess" or "Money Moron" - I find them all extremely enlightening and, dare I say it, entertaining.

Part of the fascination comes from seeing what a train wreck people can make of their lives... and sitting fairly smug, knowing that we are not in that situation (knock on wood) and have no intention of going down that road.

I just finished reading Gail's book - Money Rules - and found it highly enjoyable and educational. Gail writes in the exactly the same voice that she uses on television, complete with the "potty mouth". It's sort of like having Gail in the room with you. The book is essentially 261 mini-essays on the rules of money. I learned something from every topic but four stood out as eye-opening.

Rule #207 - Write your Own Mortgage
What? Write my own mortgage? Eh??

It's called a Self-Directed Mortgage (SDM). Basically, if you have a significant RRSP (like over $100,000), you can set it up so that your RRSP acts as lender. You then get a mortgage loan from your RRSP and make your mortgage payments back to your RRSP. There are all sorts of hoops to jump through, and some significant fees at the start, but it can work for certain people.

Wow. I had never heard of this. And I rather doubt the banks are out there advertising this. They would much rather that you borrow from them and pay them the interest. (Gail is NOT a big fan of banks.)

Rule #236 - Watch your Variable Mortgage like a Hawk
We currently have a variable mortgage on our rental property. It was recommended to us by the bank and it made sense. We get a lower rate of interest than a fixed term mortgage. If mortgage rates go up, we can lock into a fixed term mortgage. But... and there's a big but... some people don't do that. Several interest rate hikes come along and they aren't watching their mortgage like a hawk. What happens when interest rates go up? Well... you would think that your mortgage payments would increase. Right?

Wrong. What really happens is that your mortgage payment stays exactly the same. Yup. Within that payment though, a greater percentage of your mortgage payment now goes towards interest, and a lesser percentage goes towards principal. Enough interest rate hikes and you could actually be paying nothing towards the principal... or worse... digging your mortgage into a deeper hole. As Gail says... watch your variable mortgage like a hawk! Because the bank won't do it for you.

Rule # 248 - Cross Cheques to Protect Yourself
This one was a huge surprise. I took Consumer Education in Grade 10 and I never heard about this... or if I did, it didn't stick.

So, let's say that you write a cheque to a contractor for work performed and a few weeks later, he comes back and he says he lost it. Ooops. No problemo, you just put a stop-payment on the cheque and write a replacement. Right?

Wrong. This guy could take both cheques (the "lost" one and the replacement) to MoneyMart (or any of those cash stores) and cash both of them. Yup. And then, when the first one comes back as cancelled, MoneyMart will come after you to honour the first cheque. And you have to! Sound scary? It is!! But there is a solution - cross your cheques.

Say what? I didn't quite get this, so I looked up a picture on the internet...

 

You basically draw too parallel lines across the cheque and can then add Not Negotiable between the lines (this example has a few other words as options - from different countries). Cheque crossing is quite common in other countries but virtually unknown in Canada. Cross a cheque and most people think it means it's been voided. Bank machines also have trouble reading the cheques so depositing them can be a hassle. But basically, the crossed cheque means that it can only be cashed at a financial institution (bank, credit union, trust company). It protects you, the cheque writer.

The other option, which Gail does not mention, is to write "For Deposit only by payee - Not Negotiable" on the front of the cheque, either in the Memo field, or along the top.

As an aside, in researching this topic, I learned that post-dated cheques can generally be cashed whenever. That's right. Bank machines don't pay attention to these things and once it goes through, it goes through. So... be careful of issuing post-dated cheques.

Rule #259 - You don't need a ton of cash to make a Principal Prepayment against your Mortgage
Every year you can pay down a certain percentage of the principal remaining on your mortgage. Gail says every little bit helps. If you can pay down $500 on your mortgage principal in a year... then do it! If you can pay down $2000, do it! Every little bit saves you interest payments down the road.

And if you're going to break your mortgage before the 5 year term is up, cause you sold your house... tell the bank to calculate the principal prepayment before they calculate the penalty. Yeah. I've sold two houses in the past where I broke both mortgage contracts and... no banker every let me know that I should ask them to do that.

There are a tonne of other helpful tips in this book and I highly recommend it. The basic gist of Gail's message boils down to this:

1. Spend less than you earn.
2. Don't go into consumer debt (credit cards, line of credit, etc.) - if you do, pay it off ASAP.
3. Save, Save, Save - for retirement, for emergencies, for home maintenance, for a trip.
4. Teach your kids about money - don't raise them to be money morons or Princesses.
5. Protect yourself and your loved ones - make a will, make a power of attorney, get insurance (home, life)

Read the book.

P.S. I borrowed it from the library - yes!

Ready, Set, Go!

"It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready.
I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything.
There’s almost no such thing as ready.
There’s only now.
And you may as well do it now.
I mean, I say that confidently as if I’m about to go bungee jumping or something — I’m not.
I’m not a crazed risk taker.
But I do think that, generally speaking, now is as good a time as any."
–Hugh Laurie (source)

What does it mean to be ready? Are we talking about time? Are we talking about preparation? Are we talking about skills?

What are we waiting for? Waiting to be ready.

As Hugh Laurie says... perhaps we are never fully ready. And if we are never ready, how many things in our life never get accomplished. How many songs never get sung, because we're not ready. Or the song's not ready. How many books don't get written, because we're not ready. Or the book's not ready.

I could wander through my life and convince myself that I am not ready to be a writer. That my book is not ready to see the light of day. That my musings are not ready to be posted on this blog.

The thing is... if all we do is dither around getting ready... but never approach the starting line, never get Set, and never Go... all that preparation is worse than useless. It's in the going that races are run. It's in the going that we have experiences.

To simply prepare and prepare, in order to get ready, but to never go... is as if we were always preparing for a trip, but never actually leaving the house. I'm not quite ready to go on that trip yet. I might be ready tomorrow... or maybe next week... or next month...

But next week doesn't exist. Nor does tomorrow. Nor does the next second. Until you experience it. And then it is gone. Each moment is a gift. It comes whether we are ready or not. The truth is... I am not the best judge of myself. I am in fact an extremely harsh critic of my myself and my writing. If I listened to myself, I'd never publish a single word. I'd probably never put a single word to paper.

Which is why these words gave me pause to think...

"It’s not your job to tell yourself no.
It’s not your job to reject yourself or grade yourself
or debate the value or worthiness of your ideas.
Your job is to create.
Your job is to share.
Your job is to overcome fear and run the race.

Yes, if you build something people might judge it or dislike it.
But if you don’t create and share the things that you have inside of you,
then you’ll commit the far worse crime of rejecting yourself.
You can either be judged because you created something
or ignored because you left your greatness inside of you."
–James Clear (source)

I suppose... in the light of that... I'd rather be judged than ignored. My job is to create, to write, to share. Because it lies within me and calls to be released and expressed.

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them.

–Oliver Wendell Holmes

Kicking the Book Buying Habit to the Curb

I have a confession to make. I am a book addict. There. I've said it. It's true. I've been a book addict since I was a little kid. I also have to admit, I've never seriously tried to kick the habit. I love books, and I don't think that is ever going to change. What may change is the method by which I procure my books.

When I was a kid, I borrowed most of my books from the local public library, and sometimes the school library. Scholastic Book Services kicked in at some point and I started to buy books. A love affair with the Hardy Boys led to more books. Over the years, I've bought 1000s of books and let go of many of them.

Last year, I spent about $500 on books, which isn't a ridiculous amount of money - $300 went to used books, and $100 each to new books and ebooks. I also borrowed a few books from the public library - like maybe one or two. I was very much on the instant gratification bandwagon. If I wanted to read a book... I wanted to read it now.

So far this year, I have spent $0 on books. I am however currently reading five books from the public library.

Yes, all at once. I skip from book to book depending on my mood. All of these books are non-fiction books - the topic du jour being minimalism and I suppose you could call it thriftiness. A few weeks ago, I let my fingers do the walking through the local library's online catalogue and requested holds on a variety of books. As they became available, I happily trotted down to the library to pick them up. I figure if I keep a steady stream of "holds" in the pipeline, I'll never be without something to read. I still have three books on hold. But it may be take a while before I get my hands on them - apparently there is a line-up for these particular books. But I can be patient. And as I come close to finishing the current crop of books, I'll just place holds on other ones.

All of this preamble is to say that one of my goals for this year is to read... oh, let's say... 60 books by the end of December. And spend not a single penny on them. Yup, I am going to feed my reading habit with library books. Can it be done? Can I resist the lure of Chapters and Amazon? I hope so.

If figure that if I find a book that I like in a bookstore or drugstore or grocery store, I will scan the barcode with my Goodreads App and add it to my "To Read" list. Then I'll request it from the library. Perfect. So far, I am right on track for making 2015 a book-ful year at a cost of $0.

Deja vu - A Winter Parka

I am sitting in my now-less-than-favourite Starbucks. It is Saturday morning and I have been idly watching an older gentleman sitting across the store in the comfy chairs (that don't have electrical outlet access).

I've seen him here before and he always struck me as being on the edge of homelessness. He has a backpack on the floor next to him and just sits there and stares out the window. He has a ball cap on his head and goes outside to smoke every once in a while.

This last time he went outside I noticed that his coat looked familiar. Very familiar. I sharpened my attention and realized with a start that he was wearing my old winter parka! The one that I donated to the Hospice Society Thirft Shoppe last week! It is a turqouise colour with a dark blue lining - rather noticeable. My goodness. The gentleman eventually came back into the coffee shop and I looked at the coat again - yup the toggles were the same. The same flap on the back. The same hood closure. It was my old coat.

I have been on a decluttering kick recently and the parka came under serious scrutiny. I had bought it back in the 90s when I lived up north and the temperature would drop to -30C. I wore it a few times after moving to Calgary but since moving to the balmy West Coast, have had no use for it. I pulled it out of the closet last week and stared at it. Did I really need it? I never wore it. It was still in impeccable shape. I would let it go and let someone else use it.

I never suspected that I would see it again so soon. I wonder how it ended up on the back of this gentleman? Did the Hospice Shoppe give it to the local "coat fund" which provides coats, scarves and gloves to low-income folks? Whatever its history might be, I'm glad that it has found a new lease on life and is keeping someone else toasty warm.

Moving Forward often means... You can't go Back

I thought I'd post an update on my progress so far this month.

I have actually done very well on kicking Starbucks to the curb!

I went once last weekend and once this weekend - I am sitting in one right now, in fact. I went to the nearest Starbucks, which used to be my favourite one. I walked in the door and... they had gotten rid of my favourite comfy chairs in the corner. Shoot.

It had been the perfect seating area - it had an electrical outlet for my battery-challenged laptop. It had two brown leather chairs. It wasn't near any of the speakers which could be too loud sometimes.

As I walked in, I debated walking right out again and going to the other Starbucks. But I pushed through that, and now here I sit on an upholstered banquette with a table that is too high for comfortable laptopping. So my laptop is... on my lap.

There are 4 comfy chairs across the store but they are nowhere near an electrical outlet and so... here I sit, a bit disgruntled. I should have expected this - stores are forever changing their layouts, and I haven't been to this one in eons. I had moved on from this Starbucks and... they have too. We are no longer a perfect fit, which is kind of sad.

I suppose that is what happens in life. With coffee shops. With former co-workers. With friends in distant cities. We move on, they move on, and slowly we drift apart. It takes effort to maintain the relationship, the connection. Without any connection, the relationship can move on, beyond our comfort zone. The Christmas cards get shorter. The emails get more infrequent. So it goes. When we move on... we need to move forward, not keep looking back and holding on to the things, or the people, who have also moved on. Our direction may not match their direction. It did at one point... but there is no guarantee that we will continue to move in the same direction in the future. Let it go.

I also have to admit, this hot chocolate tastes overly sweet to me - not like I remember it. Another sign that my love-affair with Starbucks hot chocolate may be a thing of the past. I think I am ready to let go of this Starbucks.

The Good Olde Days of Film

Back in the 80s and 90s, I was an avid film photographer. I used a lot of slide film because it fit in with my career at that point. Slides were good for giving presentations. They weren't however so great for sharing with friends and family. Slide projectors might be common in the corporate and academic worlds, but they were harder to find out in the "real" world.

For the last 25 years I have lugged binders full of slide sheets with me. One slide isn't heavy. Several thousand slides in archival plastic sheets, contained within binders... they are heavy. So this past year I looked into digital transfer options. It ain't cheap. I finally settled on an outfit called ScanCafe in California. Thirty cents a slide didn't sound too bad so I sent 100 slides down as a test. I wasn't impressed. By the time you added shipping, the American exchange rate and more shipping... well... it ended up being more like $1/slide. And the quality wasn't the greatest. So I shelved the idea of converting my slides to digital.

Until last week. My sister was here for a visit and we got to talking about our slide collections - she too had been an avid slide photographer back in the 80s and 90s. We talked about the possibility of buying a slide scanner and sharing the cost. After we had scanned all of our slides, we could sell the scanner again on Craigslist.

I looked into the cost of scanners. You could get a basic one for under $150 but... the quality wasn't the greatest. If you wanted good quality, you were looking at about $1000 for a scanner... and another $500 for a slide tray that could be fed through the scanner so you didn't have to spend hours feeding the thing a new slide every 5 or 10 minutes.

A bit more searching and I came across a Canadian company in Delta, BC. They charged $0.29/slide and there wouldn't be outrageous shipping fees or an American exchange rate. A 500 box of slides would cost $145. The quality was good - it should be with a $50,000 slide scanner! That sounded affordable and convenient!

So I just spent the last couple of hours doing a quick flip through my slide albums thinning them out. I did a pretty good job and have reduced the number of slides from about 2000 to a rough 1500. I might do another go-through at some point and see if I can get it down to 1000 slides.

I don't want to add up the cost of my love affair with slide film but...

• slide film cost
• slide film processing
• plastic slide sleeves
• binders
• moving (15 times)
• scanning to digital

I'm hoping that this will be it. I've wanted to do this for years, so it will be nice to clear some physical, as well as some psychic space with this project. Added bonus - I can share the digital images with friends and family and show them my life from 25 years ago!

Milking Inflation and Creeping Americanisation

When I was growing up, Canada was just making the switch from the Imperial to the Metric System. It was a bit of a struggle switching from pounds to kilograms, inches to centimetres, miles to kilometres and ounces to millilitres, but we made the shift. More or less. The shift was most noticeable in grocery stories and food products. No longer could you buy a gallon of milk, but rather you bought 4 litres of milk. It was something that I eventually took for granted, until yesterday.

I bought what I thought was a 500 ml container of milk at Superstore - you know, the little half litre carton that is perfect for whitening your coffee. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that half a litre was actually 473 ml. And that the 250 ml carton was actually 237 ml.

All of the smaller cartons were marked the same. 500 ml and 250 ml cartons were non-existent. Even though the price remained the same. What the heck?

I did a bit of research on the internet and discovered that a few other people had noticed this shift last year. But nary a news outlet had picked up on the story. What was going on? Why such a weird number?

A bit more research and I learned that a British pint is 568 ml and that a US pint is 473 ml. Ahhh... it all made sense now. We are slowly but surely being Americanized.

If ever you see the one litre carton magically turn into a 946 ml carton, you 'll know that the American quart has invaded our country. Oh... wait... it's too late. In some provinces, glass bottles of milk are 946 ml.

But was this just a Dairyland thing? Perhaps they were expanding into the US market and wanted to have use the product sizes with which Americans are familiar? So, I took a wander through the Island Farms website, a company that I thought was local to Vancouver Island. Alas, no. Island Farms is owned by Natrel, with head offices in Quebec. They too have switched to 473 and 237 ml cartons.




Actually, if you take a look around at other food products, you will see the 473 ml and 946 ml sizes everywhere.

V8 Splash Berry Blend - 473 ml.

Coffee Mate - 473 ml.

Almond milk in the tetrapaks - 946 ml.
 

Elmer's Glue (really?) - 473 ml

Rickard's Beer... not the regular cans, but the big ones - 473 ml.

Sunrype apple juice still has 1 litre tetrapaks... but their 4 gallon jug is 3.78 litres.


Which makes me wonder... is this a step backwards for Canadian independence? Or a step forward for Canadian marketing? Or both? Is one better than the other?

E-Books, New Books, Cheap Books, Free Books

My love affair with books started when I was a young child. I didn't have a lot of books, but the ones I did have, I loved... sometimes to death! As I grew older, I discovered the literary treasures within the local public library. There were so many books there! So much to read. So much to explore. Weekend trips to the library saw me stagger home with piles of books.

El Blanco - The Legend
of the White Stallion
(My favourite Scholastic
Book Services book!)

When I entered school, I was quickly seduced by the Scholastic Book Services. Twice a year, we would receive an order form and a paper catalogue with pictures and summaries of children's books. I happily chose book after book - within reason of course. My mother was quite happy to encourage my love of reading and so, over the years, my book collection grew.

The Hardy Boys. Science Fiction. Westerns. Historical Fiction. Mysteries. I loved them all. When I went to university, I could spend hours wandering the cramped stacks of the main library. All of my course textbooks I bought new at the university bookstore. I spent hundreds, probably thousands of dollars on textbooks. I could have bought used textbooks, as the bookstore had a buy-back program, but I always wanted new books. I loved that fresh, crisp "new book" smell... and the thought that no-one else had messed up the book with dog-ears, highlighter or pen marks.

As the years passed, moving became more and more cumbersome. I had a lot of books - both fiction and non-fiction. I also had a lot of bookshelves. Anyone who has packed and unpacked books, knows that they take up an inordinate number of boxes... and they are heavy! In the world of moving, weight = money. But I really didn't care.

Eventually, however, I outgrew some of my books and began to pare them down. I got rid of my university textbooks. I let go of paperback books that I knew I would never read again. Every year, I let go of a little bit more and it began to make a difference. Another big difference was the advent of e-books, an invention that I resisted for many years. I liked the feel of real paper in my hands. I liked being able to flip quickly through a book. I liked the tangibleness of a real book. But I also saw the benefits of an e-book reader, of having thousands of books at my fingertips.

Lawrence Books, Vancouver.
Best "haystack" in the West.

Fast-forward to today. Over the course of the past year, I have bought about two dozen books.

Most of them came from used bookstores. While I turned up my nose at used textbooks during university, I have since come to discover the joys of used bookstores. You never know what you might find! The books are cheap(er). And some used bookstores will even let you trade in your old books for credit towards their books. But good luck if you are looking for a specific book. That is rather akin to looking for a needle in a haystack... and you're not even sure the needle is in that particular haystack!

Luckily, there is something called AbeBooks, an online marketplace for used books. Used bookstores from around the world post their books online. You can search by title or author and within seconds you have access to the book you seek. You can find new books, old books and out-of-print books. Best of all, the prices are very reasonable, even with shipping and handling. AbeBooks is a great invention and has made it easy to find and buy a specific used book. The only problem with AbeBooks is that the book has to be shipped to you which can take a week or 6 weeks, depending on whether it is being shipped from Vancouver, BC or from Oxford, England.

I have also purchased several e-books and one new book from Chapters/Indigo/Kobo this year. I read the new book and then passed it along to my mother who I thought would enjoy it as well. That is one of the perks of real books, you can actually share them with others. I have often re-gifted books that I have bought in the past. As long as I'm not too hard on the books, they look as good as new and no-one needs to be the wiser.

The ebooks were judicious purchases. I have a rather limited library on my e-book reader and I wanted to buy some of my most favourite fiction books so that I could take them with me easily. It's a great system but I sometimes forget what books are actually on my e-book reader. It's much easier to scan a bookshelf and see what I have than it is to tab through various screens on the e-book reader.

The end result is that I am happy to report that I am paring down my book collection. The net flow of books into and out of the house is improving. While I bought several physical books this year, I let go of many more. I have a vision of a future in which packing up our house will not be an onerous process... and reducing the books is part of that.

The only problem with this lovely scenario is that e-books, new books and even cheap books all cost money. And there are many, many books out there that I want to read. I have a rather substantial "to-read" list of books from all sorts of genres. My original idea was that I would buy them in the not-so-distant future... but now I am not so sure. You see... I have decided to rediscover the joys of my local public library.

Things are very different in public libraries nowadays. You can search their entire catalogue online, place a hold on a book, or request one via inter-library loan, all with the click of a few buttons. Today I spent a happy 30 minutes going through my "to-read" list and placing holds on several of the books. The rest went onto a virtual bookshelf in my library account. When I am ready, I can revisit them and request them as well. And all of this is free. Well... not really free... I do pay property taxes which means that my tax dollars are funding the library. But... I pay these tax dollars whether I use the library or not. And there is no limit, at least not one that I know of, to the number of books that I can request or borrow from the library. It's really a win-win situation. I get to read the books that I want... and spend $0.

The only problem with the library... and with AbeBooks for that matter is this... I have to wait for the book(s). Putting a hold on a book or requesting a book from another branch means that I have to wait several days, sometimes weeks for the book to arrive. And in some cases, the book is sooooo popular at that particular moment that the library doesn't have enough copies to go around. For example, the local library has 5 copies of Marie Kondo's book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up" - the hottest decluttering book of 2014. I had read several news articles which offered glowing reviews of the book and decided that I would read it. I thought I might buy it... but then decided to borrow it from the library. I placed a hold on the book and I am #90 in line... that is correct - ninety... nine zero. People have a week to pick up a book that is on hold for them. They can borrow the book for three weeks. A few calculations... 5 copies... 90th in line... the earliest I might get it is 20 weeks from now... the latest I might get it is 72 weeks from now. At this rate, I will probably end up reading the book in 2016. I'll let you know how it goes.

All of this has made me realize that the main benefit of buying e-books and new books is the delightful feeling of instant gratification. If I want the book NOW... I can have it now... or within an hour if I drive to the bookstore. If I order a used book or request a book through the library, I will have to wait and counsel myself on the joys of delayed gratification. All of which makes me think that my book dilemma is really just a symptom of society at-large. We have become used to the idea of instant gratification. I can check my email on my smartphone, instantly. I can pick up the phone and talk to my relatives in Europe, instantly. I can book my own flights on line, instantly. I can take pictures on my camera, load them into my computer and view them, all in a flash. I can email them to my mother and even print them out on photo paper.

If we want something NOW... we can generally have it now. Gone are the days when you would ship away a roll of film to the Kodak lab and wait for a week until the photographs came back. Gone are the days even of one-hour photo-developing labs. Gone are the days when you would write weekly letters back home and consign them to Canada Post. Now, you can text, email, Skype... instantly. Some say that Canada Post is dying. Will libraries soon follow? There has been some angst around that in recent years and libraries are trying to re-invent themselves as community hubs, learning spaces or learning commons. They have jumped on the e-book bandwagon and you can now borrow e-books and even e-magazines through your local library.

Perhaps the real benefit for me in frequenting my local library is not saving of money... but rather rediscovering the self-discipline of delayed gratification. According to research at Stanford, children who could delay gratification grew into adults who scored higher on SAT tests, handled stress better, were less likely to be obese and generally had better life skills. Which begs the question... if we train our children to expect instant gratification, are we actually doing them a favour?

An Excuse for Extravagance - "Utilities Included"

In the course of my life as an independent person (i.e. not living at home), I have lived in apartments, condos and houses. I have been a tenant and a home-owner. As a tenant, it was always a bonus to pay rent which included utilities, things like heat, hot water and electricity. The apartment building that I used to live in had a boiler system and the rent included heat (radiators) and hot water. I could take as many hot showers as I wanted! Electricity was usually extra but when it didn't include heat and/or hot water, it was really a minor thing. Or so I thought.

The tables have turned. I am now a landlord with three rental units. All of them have electric baseboard heaters. All of them have electric hot water tanks. I had no idea how expensive a BC Hydro bill could be!

When we moved into our current house, we asked BC Hydro to put us on the Equal Payment Plan. Over the course of a year, we would pay a fixed amount every month. Since we had just moved in, BC Hydro used the previous owner's electricity consumption as their baseline. Our monthly payments were $250. Gulp.

We set about tightening our belts by spending money on energy efficiency upgrades. We put extra insulation in the ceiling, installed programmable thermostats and replaced most of the GU 10 halogen spot bulbs with LED versions. We made sure that all of our other light bulbs were curly CFLs. We turned down the heat to a cozy 18 degrees Celsius in the living areas and kept our bedroom at a brisk 15 degrees. We wore sweaters and wooly socks. We washed our clothes in cold water. We dried our clothes on the clothesline outside or on clothing racks inside.

It made a difference. Over the course of the next year, we watched as the discrepancy between our Equal Payment Plan and our actual electricity usage grew wider and wider. After twelve months, BC Hydro owed us almost $1100. Bonus! We received a nice fat cheque in the mail from BC Hydro and our monthly payment plan dropped from $250/month to $155/month. But could we continue the trend? Five months into our second year, we are about 20% below last year's usage. And BC Hydro is taking notice. They are set to reduce our monthly payment to $143. That is good news for us!

You see, electricity rates are always rising. The infrastructure of BC Hydro (dams, hydro-electric plants, transmission lines) is aging and needs to be updated. Demand for electricity is rising. As a landlord, I am concerned about the electricity consumption of tenants whose rent includes utilities. Not just my tenants. All tenants.

Every household, every person can make a difference when it comes to conserving electricity. If everyone in British Columbia conserved electricity, demand would not be so high, rates would not rise so sharply. It's pretty obvious. Ultimately, conserving electricity is not only good for us, it is also good for the environment. In BC, we are lucky to have access to hydro-electric power, one of the cleaner formers of electricity generation. Not so for Alberta which relies on coal-fired power plants to generate its electricity.

Still... I have visited folks whose rent includes utilities. Lights are left burning all day, regardless of whether anyone is home or not. Baseboard heaters are cranked to 25 degrees Celsius while windows are left wide open. Space heaters run day and night. These tenants have no incentive to save electricity.

Despite the fact that their extravagance directly impacts hydro rates and therefore directly impacts me.

Despite the fact that their extravagance increases the demand for more electricity which means more dams, more power plants, more transmission lines, more environmental damage.

We all pay for increased electricity consumption - in the short term and the long term. Some costs are far-removed from us, like the flooding of rivers in the north-eastern corner of the province. Other costs are nearer and dearer to our hearts. Perhaps the truth is that we are only motivated to change our habits when something affects us directly. Directly in the pocketbook. And the sad truth is... if we don't pay for something... we aren't hit in the pocket book, at least not directly... and we are less motivated to make a difference.

The Never-ending Cost of Stuff

Stuff. It's such a catch-all word. It can mean many things in many contexts. "Did you get that stuff, I sent you?" "Did you see that stuff on the floor" "When are you going to get rid of that stuff". The word "stuff" can mean anything from virtual documents or photos to the concrete objects of our world.

Today, I'm looking at "stuff" in the sense of the things that we buy - concrete physical objects that inhabit our home or yard. We all buy stuff at some point in our lives. We pay good money for our stuff. But the truth is, we don't just pay for it once... we pay for it over and over and over again.

Kicking Starbucks to the Curb

I like going to Starbucks at 5:30 a.m. I like the ambiance. The music. The comfy chairs. The decor. I like the fact that very few people are around at that hour of the morning. I can sit down in a quiet corner, plug my laptop into a wall outlet, connect to the free wifi and work away contentedly for several hours. My morning Starbucks visits are very soothing... but also fairly expensive.

Kicking Sugar to the Curb

Yup, it's early January and 'tis the season when New Year's Resolutions pop up like daffodils in the minds of millions of well-intentioned folks. The most common resolution is to "lose weight", which is usually a combination of "eat less" and "move more". Some people want to quit smoking. Others want to drink more water or spend more time with family.

All of these are praise-worthy resolutions and almost everyone starts off with the best of intentions. Yet only 5% of people succeed in their resolutions, which is a pretty sad figure. Yet every year, despite the failure rate, scores of people make more well-intentioned resolutions. "This year it will be different". For some it is... for many it is not.