2018 Summer June 24 Sunday

72 degrees this morning.  Another thunderstorm, no walk.

Thunderstorm and rain this morning.  Heavy rain at times.  Fortunately the electricity stayed on (at least so far!)

Purchased a new pair of walking shoes yesterday, was looking forward to walking in them this morning, will have to wait!  

I use a new pair of shoes for walking only about 300 miles (although it can vary, my current shoes have about 400 miles on them), since they generally aren’t good for more than that for my regular walk.

I do keep them for general “walking around”, since while they may be worn out for exercise walking, they are still good for just everyday use.  They actually don’t recommend you continue to walk in them, but to me they are just in too good of shape not to continue using for just general use.  

I can tell then whey they are starting to wear out for exercise, although as I mentioned before, the deterioration  is so gradual, I don’t really realize how bad they are until I get a new paid of shoes and notice the difference!  Or, like this pair of shoes, my heels start hurting, which I notice real fast after a bout with Plantar Fasciitis some years ago that took me  a number of years to get over.

So, I have an embarrassing number of walking shoes that are too good to throw or give away, but not good enough to wear for walking!  

This is compounded by the fact that I normally wear sandals in summer and other “houseshoe” type foot wear around the house, so the shoes actually get very little wear after they compete their walking life!

I guess THAT is how “stuff” accumulates until you begin to wonder how you ever got so much stuff around that you aren’t using!  

We also have old printers, computers, phones etc. that we are repurposed or are just sitting away waiting to be repurposed!  At least I have gotten to the point where I toss a lot of stuff, but “stuff” still accumulates!

Back to the discussion on “Retirement”, I  read a story in the Wall Street Journal that, primarily due to the changes in the retirement system  to the “401K” model, at least 40% of the “baby boomers” will not have enough to retire and will need to continue working or significantly reduce their life style.

Of course the 401K model was designed to reward the executives etc., not be used by all the work force, which happened when businesses realized how they could get out of their pension obligations  and make the workers responsible for their retirement.  A real shame.  I am sure they savings went to “reward" the executives and owners who have lost their ethics and their obligations to their workers.  

As mentioned in the article, main problems are that many people aren’t advised how to handle their 401k balances and simply don’t invest it well and the capacity to “borrow” from the 401k which lead to decisions that are bad for retirement.  Of course, the main reason is just inadequate funding but the company. 

Several weird dreams lately, just snippets.  One was I dreamed I was walking in a meadow someplace and I saw an “alligator” in a mud pit.  I reported it (I assume to the Wildlife Department) and they advised me “this was only the second alligator ever seen this far north”.  I have no idea where I was, but I assumed I was somewhere in northern Kansas.  I have no idea if they have alligators there or not!

That’s it for now, Sunday, June 24, 2018.