It’s almost November. It’s sunny and 41 degrees and looks like we’ll hit the mid 50’s this afternoon. Pretty nice for New England.
The government shut down continues. This is significant and unfortunate on so many levels, but that’s all I have to say on that today.
Crazy shit is going on. I have a recent post about traffic cams in Cambridge. Check it out here.
Open up almost any media website. The headlines are all bad. Crime, deficit, and especially, whatever the other side is doing today.
Take a Breath
Headlines attract eyeballs. Eyeballs mean advertising dollars. Who looks at a story that says “Everything is Great!”
Take a breath. It ain’t all bad.
I remember my wife was pleasantly surprised on a recent trip to the Seaport in Boston. The area has been hugely built up over the last 10 years.
The seaport is the area in the front right. Years ago it was mostly (cheap) parking. Today it is restaurants, high rises and $50 per day parking garages.
But anyway, the news media would have you believe that Boston’s homeless problem is out of control – people sleeping everywhere and accosting tourists.
My wife was quite surprised that the seaport area was clean and safe.
Lunch
Yesterday was my regular (every 2 weeks or so…) lunch with Tony. Napoli Deli – fantastic food, so-so atmosphere and BYOB. We had a Vanilla Porter – excellent.
Lunch was close to 4 hours. Our usual is 3, but we had a lot to cover.
We covered food, restaurants, kids grand-kids, car seats, real estate, home projects, painting, medicare, social security, and probably lots of other stuff I can’t remember. What we didn’t cover was politics or anything even related. Not once in 4 hours.
I also learned that I don’t care for chicken marsala, but the pulled chicken salad was so good, it more than made up. And the chocolate chocolate chip and marshmallow homemade cookie afterwards was a nice touch. It paired nicely with the vanilla porter.
Home
I got home around 6, and it was starting to get dark. My wife was sitting under the gazebo out front of the house with a glass of wine and a fire going.
I sat down and we chatted for a while. No politics.
Finance
Finance discussions can be draining as well.
We should be saving more. Look at the price of bacon, or lumber. Asparagus was on sale this week. We had it for the first time in ages.
The S&P 500 has been up more than 20% in 2023 and 2024. It’s up over 13% already this year. This is good news for our finances, but regardless of how much we have (well most of us, not Musk, Gates and Bezos), we somehow never really feel secure.
So we’ve taken a break from finance as well.
Hearing
Here’s some good news. CVS is now selling over-the-counter hearing aids. They carry the fantastic Lexie B2 Plus powered by Bose. I liked these, but for me, they were not as solid as the Jabras.
CVS likely won’t have people to give us a hearing test or answer technical questions, but this is a great start and is helpful for anyone who is uncomfortable with online purchases.
Wrap Up
There’s a lot of news and most of it is alarming. But alarming is what catches eyeballs.
This is no different than 20 years ago. I can’t tell you if it’s worse or better, but 20 years ago, the newspaper came once a day. Today, the news is non-stop.
Take a break. Have a 4 hour lunch, go play nine holes. Maybe just a walk. Or some ball-hawking. It’s dark early, but sunny and 56 is a delight.
Swing by CVS and pick up a pair of Lexie B2 by Bose Hearing aids. If you don’t like them, return them for a full refund.
Take a vacation from serious topics. While it is important to know what’s going on and to have an opinion, it is also important to take a break.
Have a nice weekend. My wife and I are going to a farm for our grandson’s 4th birthday tomorrow. No politics or finance allowed.