The Dragon Flies' Lair~Thread~XXXIV~March 10, 2007

Hello Meg, so lovely, thank you.

Did you take the picture?

841 posted on 03/22/2007 9:23:58 AM PDT by Soaring Feather (I Soar 'cause I can....)

To: Soaring Feather

No..It was a lucky find.

842 posted on 03/22/2007 9:32:42 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES.)

843 posted on 03/22/2007 9:34:20 AM PDT by Soaring Feather (I Soar 'cause I can....)

To: Soaring Feather

I love to just click on the two photos I saved and look at them.. I wish I had them copied and framed for a bookcase shelf!

844 posted on 03/22/2007 9:42:30 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES.)

Good project for next Winter. ;)

845 posted on 03/22/2007 9:44:14 AM PDT by Soaring Feather (I Soar 'cause I can....)

846 posted on 03/22/2007 9:49:18 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES.)

To: Soaring Feather

A "Merry Christmas to me" project!

847 posted on 03/22/2007 9:52:34 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES.)

To: Soaring Feather; MEG33

848 posted on 03/22/2007 10:02:21 AM PDT by Lady Jag (A positive attitude will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.)

What a lovely graphic and caption!

849 posted on 03/22/2007 10:23:34 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES.)

Oh, this is a lovely find. Thank You.

I have been outside raking dead leaves away from the Crocus and Snowdrops, both are blooming. Daughter dropped by for coffee and chat-always a treat.

It's beginning to rain now, Spring rain.

850 posted on 03/22/2007 12:58:10 PM PDT by Soaring Feather (I Soar 'cause I can....)

Great photos of the Cardinal and the poetry as great as well.

851 posted on 03/22/2007 2:22:45 PM PDT by NY Attitude (You are responsible for your safety until the arrival of Law Enforcement Officers!)

Good afternoon MEG33. The picture looks like it is in 3D format. Great photo.

852 posted on 03/22/2007 2:24:47 PM PDT by NY Attitude (You are responsible for your safety until the arrival of Law Enforcement Officers!)

Thank you, NYA..I think it and another taken at that time by the photographer are my favorite finds. I am not a photographer so I treasure the talent of others. She said it was too icy to get out and take pictures so she snapped that at the front door.

I was near Houston at that time and we had only one morning of icy branches. Most of the rest of Texas had a real ice storm.

853 posted on 03/22/2007 2:47:45 PM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES.)

Those ice storms are really something. I was driving across country and ran into one. When I finally got to stop at the first town in Texas, I could not get my car door open because the ice had put a thick glaze on it. I had to kick the car door from the inside to get out. What an ordeal.

854 posted on 03/22/2007 2:58:33 PM PDT by NY Attitude (You are responsible for your safety until the arrival of Law Enforcement Officers!)

I would hate to be driving in one! I also missed one in Central Texas several years ago that took months for the city to pick up all the downed tree limbs from..

They are beautiful to look at from a warm house..but destructive.!

855 posted on 03/22/2007 3:11:44 PM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES.)

To: Soaring Feather

Good afternoon Soaring Feather. I decided to start a new exercised program by bike riding for about 2 hours per day. There are plenty of seats.

856 posted on 03/22/2007 3:13:54 PM PDT by NY Attitude (You are responsible for your safety until the arrival of Law Enforcement Officers!)

You are so right that they are beautiful to look at.

857 posted on 03/22/2007 3:18:26 PM PDT by NY Attitude (You are responsible for your safety until the arrival of Law Enforcement Officers!)

Hi everyone! As I prepare to move back to Asia (and actually, there's lots of little things I'm looking forward to, shhhhh!), I made this post on a thread about real estate and debt free living as a sort of summary of what I have experienced recently. File it all under "Lessons Learned the Last Few Years"!:

///////////////////////////////////////////

I admire you greatly. I also had a 100k + job in technology, and bought a big house in an expensive area, and had an expensive car (that wasn't my fault, I was happy with my 7 year old Nissan until the engine burst into flames driving across Wyoming, I had to buy a pricey car to keep going to the new job offer that was waiting for me), and I generally threw money all around at pubs and restaurants like it was rags.

Well it finally became pretty unsatisfying, I basically sucked out all the enjoyment you can get living like that (and constantly stressed out about money, too, given the way I was abusing it!), so I sold the house and quit the high paying job, and moved to Asia where I've lived previously.

And I had a ball spending money, for a while, then ended up teaching English in Taiwan for a couple years. And during that time I too developed all these habits that you have, I saved, instead of judging the things I wanted to buy by how long it would take me to earn that much money (which is how I always did it before) I judged purchases by how I could avoid ever buying the same thing twice. So I bought much less and much smarter. I also decided that anytime I wanted anything I thought looked "cool", I would always wait three weeks, without exception.

Well, much to my surprise, after two weeks I usually didn't even want it anymore! I even hung a paper up on the wall and each month put one mark on it for each time I took $20 out of the ATM. I didn't set a limit, I just made marks, but I found I started competing with myself to have the fewest marks possible each month. Some weeks I spent my free time just reading and drinking tea at home because I didn't want to cause any more marks that month! And that was the whole point, saving money!

Then I left Taiwan, went back to India, came back to the US, and now am a little shocked at how outsourcing and illegal immigration has hollowed out a lot of the opportunities that were here just 3 years ago! I'm also over qualified for a lot of labor jobs, and disqualified for my computer jobs because there's a three year gap in my resume.

So it's back to Taiwan for me, where I already have a couple job offers. But none of the traveling around or ease of living would have been possible if I hadn't changed all my attitudes those two years in Taiwan.

I knew saving enough, so as to be way ahead of one's needs, would be relaxing, but I didn't realize the hundreds of little looks, moments, or unexplained comments that used to make me stress out, but now are easily ignored due to wise money management.

Honestly I was shocked at how my marketability has gone down since I've been away, but the lingering bit of money I'm spending to move back to where I have healthy job offers is still that money I socked away those two years ago. I'm a big convert to wise money handling, you don't know all the different rude surprises it can insulate you from, and the "easy living" on credit lifestyle is just so much dust in the wind.

//..end sermon..//

//////////////////////////////////

BTW that thread got real ugly at the end! A vicious cat fight between a house buyer and a financial adviser chased all participation off the thread, so I thought I'd repost my philosophical masterpiece here so someone would see it!

Cheers,

starbase

858 posted on 03/22/2007 3:55:35 PM PDT by starbase (Understanding Written Propaganda (click "starbase" to learn 22 manipulating tricks!!))

OMG ROTFLOL! Hilarious!

859 posted on 03/22/2007 5:17:00 PM PDT by Soaring Feather (I Soar 'cause I can....)

To: Lady Jag; NY Attitude; starbase; All

Andreas Vollenweider~Silver Wheel
Jump on the Silver Wheel for a ride in space.

860 posted on 03/22/2007 5:21:46 PM PDT by Soaring Feather (I Soar 'cause I can....)

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794