Home Remodeling and other creative endeavors
For the last few weeks I have been in the process of remodeling my parents home. Destroying walls and breaking things is good therapy, except for trying to remove stubborn toilets. We filled one dumpster to the brim and could possibly use another one. The to do list is very long and seems endless at times. The end is in sight now but I still have a ton of stuff to get rid of and contractors to hire to do the work I can not or do not wish to do. Of course we will be completing this project at the market low of the decade.
My daughter and son have shown their creative sides this month in preparing for their schools project “Reflections”. Connor took a great closeup of Emma with her new braces. Emma used a sun printing kit and made some beautiful cyanotypes for her entry. The Cyanotype is a beautiful prussian blue toned print that is created using 2 iron salts applied directly to the paper. When exposed to the sun dark areas or blocked areas turn white while other areas turn various shades of Blue. Cyanotype is one of the earliest forms of print making is one of the few permanent print mediums. I am sure we will be experimenting with it again one day.
Work has been extremely busy with a major project involving a huge database to be managed by 100’s of users. We are building the interface using Coldfusion/HTML, Javascript, CSS and SQL. The database is a mix of Oracle and MS SQL. It is one of those projects where initial design requested failed user scrutiny so the whole process is being redesigned. The tester group was supposedly the smart group so we have to trust their judgement. Simplifying the user interface makes the back end more complicated to manage. But the project must be completed within next 10 days. So work work work I must.
A note about the economy. I am officially debt free except for the mortgage. And while my retirement savings are diminished I am confident the market will return to its all time highs within a reasonable amount of time. In the mean time I have found new outlets for generating income such as selling books on Amazon and other items on CraigsList or Ebay. I know others who have lost large amounts because they were not diversified. I recently remapped my savings and retirement accounts to spread my risk and to acquire areas of the market which are bargain priced. If you can keep buying during this down turn you can profit later when the market returns to normal. My retirement is still 20 years away so I am hoping to see a long term return.
Thanks to all those who visit esearing.com and read my blog.