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Lazy Photo Edition

December 9, 2019 by Mr. 1500 Days 14 Comments

Writing is at its easiest for me when I have mental bandwidth. I need time to observe, listen, absorb, and think. Quiet walking is usually the best way for me to come up with some material.

Now that I’m not formally employed, my brain should be spewing a geyser of words. Without a job, the day is mine to do as I please. I have hours to sit around and think if I want to. Not so fast. I have a bad habit of overbooking myself. Boredom is terror, so I overcompensate by overbooking. But I digress.

Sometimes, you have an idea for a post. It sounds great in your head, but then it doesn’t pan out once you hit the keyboard. I started 4 different posts in the past 7 days, but each flamed out. Often, I’ll revisit an old draft (sometimes years later), figure out the missing pieces, and complete it. Most of the time, the drafts just sit there. I looked at my dashboard today and noticed that I have over 400 posts in draft (!) and the oldest one is 7 years old. Yikes:

The problem is that there’s been a lot going on in the 1500 household. It’s all good, but I just haven’t had time to think.

At the same time, I don’t want the blog to get stale. As a result, you get the Lazy Photo Edition.

Lazy Photo Edition

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. For the occasion, my lovely wife persuaded Mr. SSC to carve a wooden dinosaur with a chainsaw for me!

Home improvement projects have been keeping me busy. I’m working on a bathroom right now:

So long 1970s McDonald’s tile.
Bye-bye water waster!
I hurt myself often. When life gives you blood, turn that frown upside-down!

Meanwhile, MMM HQ has been lively:

HQ Member Chris recently put together an awesome Turkish Breakfast.
On Saturday, the awesome Matt Giovanisci helped us brew up some Stash’ Yo’ Hops Ale!

Over Thanksgiving, we went to San Diego.

Low and slow.

Life near the water is always good.

With any luck, I’ll get some good sleep soon and my creativity will return. In the meantime, enjoy one last gratuitous sunset pic, this time with dinosaurs.

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Filed Under: Early Retirement Tagged With: photos, San Diego

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joe says

    December 9, 2019 at 5:33 am

    Great pictures! I’ll have to steal this idea. We just got back from Thailand and I’m having a hard time getting back into the groove. Oh well, I’ll work more after New Year. For now, just enjoy the holiday season. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Reply
  2. Liz says

    December 9, 2019 at 11:30 am

    Ha! I spy San Diego in a few of those pics. ๐Ÿ™‚ I, too, come up with my best ideas when I’m walking. My walks home from school after dropping off the kiddo were some of my best idea generating moments. Alas, we drive to school this year since it’s no longer .8 miles away, and I miss that time though I guess I could go for a walk on my own. I have been using my walking time as socializing time lately… good excuse to hang out with friends and get exercise done at the same time.

    I hear you with the overbooking of activities vs having too much time. In my 2 1/2 yrs of retirement, I’ve had a rough go of finding the happy medium and recently decided I need a bit more forced structure in my life to help give me a better sense of purpose. Just filled out the volunteer application and hopefully I get accepted to what seems a good fit for me which also happens to be walking distance away. ๐Ÿ™‚ It’s funny how having an overly structured and scheduled life for 20 plus years pushed me too far in the other direction and now I need to move back in that direction, but not too far.

    Reply
  3. Deb says

    December 9, 2019 at 11:52 am

    I figured you have been really busy working on the “new” house – that’s why your blog posts are fewer. So, when will you post a new YouTube video? Love the dinosaur sunset photo, you must be laying on the ground to get that angle! I hope you enjoyed the sunshine in Cali.

    Reply
    • Mr. 1500 Days says

      December 9, 2019 at 2:34 pm

      The Mrs. and I recorded like 10 hours of video! New lighting (including running new wiring), installing ceiling fans, and now, this bathroom gut. I’ll probably put out the next video in about 2 weeks. Brace yourself…

      Reply
  4. BC | FrugalWheels says

    December 9, 2019 at 2:27 pm

    You really can’t go wrong with dino photos – love that dino carving! I’ll have to show that to my friend who runs a dinosaur museum.

    I’ll be doing some bathroom remodeling over the winter break too – got a couple of weeks off to pretend I am FIRE’d. Some tile started coming loose in the shower and so it seemed like a good candidate for an upgrade.. Thank the DIY gods for handy neighbors who work for beer.
    BC | FrugalWheels recently posted…Financial independence and the specter of U.S. health careMy Profile

    Reply
    • Mr. 1500 Days says

      December 9, 2019 at 2:33 pm

      Neighbors who work for beer? I’m moving to your ‘hood tomorrow.

      Reply
      • BC | FrugalWheels says

        December 12, 2019 at 8:07 pm

        It’s a good neighborhood! I have FIRE friends right down the road and a couple others a mile away, plus neighborhood parties. It’s like Longmont at half the price!

        Plus, working for beer – it’s a Wisconsin thing!
        BC | FrugalWheels recently posted…Financial independence and the specter of U.S. health careMy Profile

        Reply
        • Mr. 1500 Days says

          December 13, 2019 at 9:52 am

          You mention Icetown on the blog. Are you in Green Bay?

          Reply
  5. Scattered Mom says

    December 9, 2019 at 4:41 pm

    I had a good chuckIe when I saw this post thinking, “Why didn’t I think of that?” I believe you may have started a trend. We will now see more of this within the blogging community. It’s a great way to lighten your readers moods. Thanks so much for sharing! I enjoyed it! ~ M

    Reply
    • Mr. 1500 Days says

      December 9, 2019 at 5:45 pm

      Haha, run with it!

      Reply
  6. ajeet yadav says

    December 10, 2019 at 5:25 am

    Nice phots some photos look like a stock image because all are very good especially the dinosaurs one.
    ajeet yadav recently posted…12 Best Premium Credit Card in India (2019 Review)My Profile

    Reply
  7. Cathleen Cooks Stuff says

    December 10, 2019 at 11:04 am

    I hope you were wearing eye protection for the demolishing of the tile! Also, how are you uploading your photos? I’ve tried the “google photo” feature, and the damn things don’t load on anyone else’s browsers, and I’ve tried cut and paste, but same problem. Only when I upload it to wordpress do the photos show up. That’s too many damn steps.

    Reply
    • Mr. 1500 Days says

      December 10, 2019 at 9:19 pm

      I had eye, ear and breathing protection!

      For photos, I download, edit/resize, and upload them back to WordPress. It’s laborious.

      Reply
      • Cathletes cooks stuff says

        December 13, 2019 at 5:23 pm

        Whew, I’m glad about the PPE. As for the pics, yeah I’ve noticed downloading, saving, and then uploading on wordpress works best. When I cut and paste the dumb things never show up right.

        Reply

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My goal was to build a portfolio of $1,000,000 by February of 2017; 1500 days from the birth of this blog (January 1, 2013). And hey look, I’ve since retired!

Investments only
1/1/13 (The Start): $586,043
1/1/14 (1 Yr Later): $869,635
1/1/15 (2 Yrs Later): $987,351
1/1/16 (3 Yrs Later): $1,057,961
1/1/17 (4 Yrs Later): $1,257,128
1/1/18 (5 Yrs Later): $1,527,701
1/1/19 (6 Yrs Later): $1,549,440
1/1/20 (7 Yrs Later): $2,035,040*
1/1/21 (8 Yrs Later): $3,223,173**

2021: Investments only
1/1: $3,223,173

Overall
2021 investment gains: $0
Investment gains since 1/1/2013: $2,793,703
Net worth***: $3,519,746

* The big jump between 2019 and 2020 was partly because we bought another home, but kept the previous (much more expensive) one as a rental, so now count it as an investment.

** Tesla.

*** Includes our primary home equity in addition to our investment portfolio.

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