Right now I have CNBC on the tube and, if you’ve listened to it since the recent financial crisis began, you would take your money out of every investment you have and hide it in your mattress. The talking heads all seem to think that things are dismal and there’s nothing good in the markets to invest in. I know my retirement accounts went down 35% since the beginning of the year. But I don’t plan on using any of that money for five more years so, by then, I expect it will go back up. Maybe not to the levels they were before, but much better than they are now.

Real estate hasn’t fared any better and most of you know we own more real estate than most. But you can’t spend real estate anyway so, for us, it’s not that big a deal. I did get the cottage back from the renters, but I planned to do that anyway. I miss the cottage as a cottage and, right now, I don’t really care if it sells or not. I know it’s way bigger than we need for a “cottage”, and it’s at the end of the earth as far as Jean is concerned, but it’s only 14 miles away and I really like it there.

Besides, it’ll give me something to do this winter (wallpapering and painting) and summer (reclaiming the lawn from the moles and landscaping). On the negative side, since December 31st, when I got it back, I’ve shoveled 3 inches, 1 inch, 6 inches and 9 inches of snow out of the driveway. Am I estimating the number of inches? No! I always have something with me that’s 6 inches long, so I can accurately measure whenever I want.

Back to the financial crisis or lack thereof. Things haven’t changed much for Jean and me and, today, I got a raise of $18,744 a year. I got my first social security check. I don’t really need it, and I’ll probably put it in a money market account, but it’s money I put in and I want some of it back. Yeah, yeah! You employees know that you put in 50% and your employer puts in 50%, so only half of it’s actually your money. But I was self employed for most of my work years and I had to put in both halves. It’s all mine and I want it back before we use it to bomb some other poor hapless country.

I started running again for the first time since mid-November. I only ran once in Europe and, with the plantar fasciitis problem, I didn’t run much from early October until I stopped altogether to let my foot heal. Starting up again is really tough. I can’t swim in pools, I haven’t ridden the bike trainer much, and I haven’t run at all, so the only cardio I got was the elliptical, and that’s not very intense. After my first run of 3 miles, my quads were so sore I could hardly walk up and down stairs. I ran again Sunday at Martin’s Trilander run, brunch, snowshoe, cross-country ski, and ice fishing festival. About eight ice fished, but they must be new Trilanders ‘cuz I didn’t recognize any of them. Martin had the chain saw all set to cut a hole in the ice for the first annual Trilander Polar dip, but no one signed up.

My run consisted of a two mile struggle, a 100 meter walk, another mile struggle, and another 100 meter walk. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I ran outdoors yesterday. They talked a lot about the cold temperatures and colder wind chills, but the weather wasn’t all that bad. The run was! I felt nauseous before I went out and felt worse all through the run. I ran a mile before I had the choice of 1) continue running or 2) puke. I chose to walk. After a while, I started to run until I was right at the edge of barf, then walked again. Since some of you may be eating, I won’t go into my bathroom misadventures throughout the day. Suffice it to say, my digestive system must be empty…battered but empty.

I’ll ride the bike trainer again today and will keep the three runs (not the bathroom kind) and the three bike trainer rides in my weekly training schedule. I’ll add weights two days a week and an elliptical here and there until we can get outside in the spring. I did find an endless pool on E-Bay for $6,000 dollars but decided against it. I’m not sure I’d use it enough to make it worthwhile. It’s not a group swim type of pool and nobody would want to stand around and watch another person swim 30 minutes before it was their turn. I’ll save the money for something else. Besides, I’m not very competitive in my age group anyway and the “good geezers” aren’t dying off fast enough, so no need to lower my swim time by two minutes in a 6 hour race. I may be done racing anyway. I was first in my age group in my last race (I was the only one in my age group) so there’s nowhere to go but down. Quit while you’re ahead!

Just (Watching It Snow Again And Again And Again) Jack