Trimbathcreative's Blog (Tom Trimbath)

It is the first Friday in February, and I’m celebrating two beginnings while watching an old show. Julia Child is making a Cold Turkey Galantine. I made two new web sites. I think I had the easier job.

Flashbacks may happen. I’m watching the earliest Julia Child episodes, black and white; dining is more than eating; presentation and appears must be maintained, and be prepared for hours of preparation and hours of cleaning up. A maid may be required. She took a turkey, took all the bones out, added a meat filling (because more meat is almost as important as more wine and more butter), cook it, and then start making aspic and carving shapes and… That’s Julia Child, and that’s French cooking in the days before gluten sensitivities et al.

Tonight’s dinner happens to be taking just as long but that’s because I bought a roast out of the discount bin, and it’s been in the for hours. I’m letting it rest, and will have some after I type this. Minimal effort. That’s Tom Trimbath and whatever label you want to put on it.

In some ways, it has taken less time to start a new blog, (TomTheWriter.com), and a new podcast (IntuitiveCreativity.com) than it took for Julia to cook. That’s not a measure of Julia or me. That’s a measure of how far the internet has matured.

Starting web sites when web sites were a new idea took hours. Take classes. Learn a programming language called html. Deal with slow connections. Eventually launch something that will be public, but to a very small audience because so few were online.

Entrepreneurs relied on old-style advertising, waiting to get into the next edition of the Yellow Pages, and handing out lots of business cards, brochures, and postcards. It took a while and cost a lot.

Now, entrepreneurs can start an online presence using templates and some YouTube classes in the time it took Julia to cook a turkey.

Let me dial that back a bit. The brochures make it seem seamless and quick. For me, it takes a little longer than that. Reality intrudes when details about setting up accounts, adding users, etc. become necessary. But it can be as simple as the cooking equivalent of ‘put the beef in the pan, put the pan in the oven, turn on the oven, then eventually turn off the oven.’ Poke it with something to see if it is done. Dine.

Late last year, someone suggested I get the domain name, TomTheWriter. They may have thought it was a joke, or serious. I thought either and both were fine. I already had a WordPress account. No one else had the domain name. I checked a few boxes, picked a template, answered some typical questions, and now have a new blog (as if I needed another one.) The good news is that, aside for posts like this one, my writing adventures can live over there rather than here, which is about personal finance. It also makes sense because, in addition to 8 books and 10 photo books, I have one sequel and one screenplay in work, with an easy half-dozen more projects in line. They deserve a home of their own.

More recently, a friend and reader of this blog who had an excellent blog told me I should add a podcast to this blog. Thanks for the compliment, but feature creep accumulates and I had enough to do. But. I turned it back to him and said something like, “Fine. When do We start?” He’s a fascinating guy. Why should I podcast alone? Spread the work around. I learned a bit, realized setting up a podcast was easier than I thought, and started the process. It took us longer, weeks, to come up with a name. IntriguingCreativity.com After that the site was up within a day, just an hour or so. Welcome to the overlapping thoughts of a high-level international business consultant and an ex-aerospace engineer. We’re both writers and public speakers, and we enjoy talking about the overlap. Tune in. Episode 1 is up.

Both of these sites are live, and are barely past the ‘put the beef in the pan, put the pan in the oven, turn on the oven, then eventually turn off the oven.’ Some spices have been added. Both templates have been lightly modified, just like the recipes I no longer use, and have been served up without much fanfare. No business cards, Yellow Pages, or postcards.

The frugal side of me finds this fascinating. Our society needs more voices. We have more than enough problems and too many of the old ideas aren’t working. I play with ideas in my books. Steve and I play with ideas in our talks. And it doesn’t take much. Ask me that in the middle of untangling some pesky internet kerfuffle and I’ll disagree mightily, but compared with what something similar would’ve required last century this is nothing to complain about. (But why is that audio faded!?!?!?)

Steve and I are adding our voices to the conversation, though we’ve independently done that for decades and now get to do it on a podcast.

I’m partly typing this to promote our podcast and my writing site (and Steve is excellent at coaching about marketing, which means I’m making him wince with my amateurish efforts); but my main goal is to tell folks that, rather than rant and rave on Facebook, or try to decide what Twitter/X is, give your voice the respect it deserves. The world is changing rapidly enough that we can’t wait until later, for whatever reason. What do you know that we don’t, but we should? We won’t know until you tell us, and by ‘us’ I mean all the people on this planet. It may be silly if we all talk at once, but it is better than only letting the gatekeepers talk and having to hear their party-lines echoed without thought.

Yeah. I started two new ventures. Yeah. I could’ve done it more efficiently. Yeah. Many people could make better looking sites. But I made mine. Please make yours, make it truly yours with your thoughts, not just echoes. We’re all in this together, and I certainly don’t know where we’re going. But I’m trying and having fun talking with people like Steve. I hope I, we, can help. And you can too.

15 years (16? 17?) and done – a ten year photo essay of Whidbey Island’s waterfront nature

“Whidbey Island is more than one place. It is more than one visit. Most tourists carry away a few photos. Few locals get to see the entire island. I hope I’ve made celebrating the island a little easier.”

It has been a long effort and I thank those who followed, encouraged, and even bought art as the project progressed. There can always be more to do (galleries, talks, maybe a compendium) but I declare this something to celebrate, as is Whidbey Island.

65 Years

January 14, 1959. (In no particular order:)

• Sputnik had launched and was cheered by some, scared many, and cheered and scared plenty. There was a call for aerospace engineers. I eventually became one.
• World War II was only fifteen years earlier, about as long ago now as the Great Recession.
• The Great Depression was only about twenty years earlier. 
• The Roaring Twenties were only thirty years earlier.
• TVs were black and white and novel, and there were fewer than a handful of channels, and they didn’t broadcast 24 hours a day.
• Slide rules ruled.
• Nuclear annihilation was imminent, and the Cuban Missile Crisis was years away.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower was US President and would be followed by John F. Kennedy.
• Boeing’s 707 was revolutionizing travel. The 727 was years away.
• The US Civil War was less than a hundred years ago.
• Most of my grandparents were immigrants, and the ones from Poland were discriminated against.
• Pittsburgh was a dirty city.
• Encyclopedias were books on bookshelves. I read my family’s even though it was years out of date because I was the youngest.
• Telephones were plugged into walls. There was one per house. Party lines were still common.
• McCarthyism was over and we had yet to see an assassination, Watergate, trickle-down economics, and politics over pragmatic management.

January 14, 2024

• I’m certainly not going to list current events, accomplishments, and concerns. That’s what the internet is for.
• I turn 65. Browse through my books, blogs, and social media posts for three million words describing a subset of my life.

January 14, 2089

Ha! Let’s see…

• I suspect the Earth will continue to orbit the Sun, and the Moon will orbit the Earth.
• Life will continue, despite what we do. That does not guarantee that humans will be involved or like it.
• Geology will continue.
• Climate and weather will continue.
• The solar system and the universe will continue. Universes, in the plural, will also continue, if they exist.

2089? I’m not even sure what will survive to 2044. 

Once upon a time, a nationwide radio program interviewed me about my decision to get a 40-year mortgage. I wrote a book about personal finance. Didn’t I understand that math? Sure, I did. I also understood some of the assumptions behind the system. What would the US be like in 40 years? Would there even be a United States of America? Would there even be a dollar? Would democracy or capitalism survive? 

Once upon a time, I was chastised by an engineering supervisor for believing that a computer would have more than one chip in it.

Once upon a time, I was chastised by another engineering supervisor because I preferred to type rather than write in longhand (a term becoming an anachronism) or print.

Once upon a time, I was told by another engineering supervisor that I was being repeatedly passed over for positions and promotions because I was “too comfortable with new ideas.” An interesting declaration considering that I was in research and development at an aerospace company.

I have doubts that the organizationally controlled aspects of civilization and society can continue because change is happening faster than they can change. I have no doubts that individuals will make the changes necessary. I don’t know which influence will be stronger. I don’t know if either will be in time to avoid massive disasters.

I suspect we will give artificial intelligence increasing control, and it will make tough choices that we decide to evade. We may not like the results. We may worse at it, but trusting AI anyway.

–

I am now officially old, or at least old enough to qualify for various senior discounts. I feel my age, but these aches seem like the ones my Dad had when he was 45. He lived to 89, and felt it was time to go. My Mom died at 72, and one of the doctors took my Dad aside to tell him it was because of a mis-diagnosis. Her doctor didn’t listen to her, nor review her decades-long health log. 

If my Dad was born now, he wouldn’t have spent all, all, of his educational years legally blind. He only learned he needed glasses after he graduated because he tried to get into the Ari Force. He went into the Merchant Marine instead. In almost every job and position, he ended up running things. If my Mom was born now, Wow. Even as is, she started and ran non-profits, including an ambulance service. She should’ve been in politics or diplomacy.

My finances are my biggest worry. I have many worries (a trait I learned from both of my parents, and that story was revealed to me by mental health professionals), and almost all of them trace back to not having enough money to sustain even a frugal lifestyle.

I am also an optimist and know that the work I’ve done, my professional and personal networks, and good luck, good fortune can change that in a moment, an email, a phone call, a social media post, a chance encounter.

I also reflect on a comment I recently heard. 

“The only thing sadder than a pessimistic and poor young person is an optimistic and poor old person.”

I don’t agree, but as I wrote, I reflect on a truth within there.

Change is the only constant. Within a Digital Singularity, as I believe we are, change isn’t constant because it is constantly accelerating. It isn’t a straight line of change. It is a curve that curves out of sight. We can’t see where these changes are taking us. 

That impossibility of a reliable vision makes planning almost a farce, and yet, we must, I must, plan. I think I filled out everything for Medicare and Social Security, and won’t be surprised if I made a mistake. I am human. My current financial position is uncomfortable, so I must plan to make more money or move or both; and I know that can change as I wrote above.

I envy those who have more comforts. I pity those who have had too many comforts. Too many are comfortable and clueless. I am clueless about many things, too; but, my journey has shown me some of the foundations, crumbling or not, at the base of society – and I feel sorriest for those who fell deeper into that basement.

I have a good idea of what is enough for me. I am glad to see it isn’t far from me. And I hope it gets closer and I regain that level of comfort. 

I’m sure by now you know it is my birthday. Actually, I am writing this one day early so I can spend my birthday relaxing untethered from a computer. Be amazed if I don’t log in, anyway.

It is January 2024 in Clinton, Washington on Whidbey Island. The temperature is in the teens. A friend’s pipes froze last night. Others have no heat. This is suburbia, and such things happen in middle-America. We’re due to thaw in two or three days. It is a good time to be thankful for enough food for a month, heat, electricity, health, good plumbing, – and I’ll stop there because, if I start counting my blessings you’ll get bored and I’ll get carpal tunnel. Not everything has to be typed to be respected.

To those who wish me Happy Birthday, thank you. To all of you who have been there to help, thank you. I think I’ll take the Universe’s hint to pause, rest, and relax for a day or so. Then, the future, oy, the future. Let’s see what’s next.

News

As has happened before, this blog has spun off another blog. My writing activities are getting busy enough to deserve their own space, and this blog deserves to concentrate on its original purpose, personal finance. This first post ties them together as they are about to go separate ways.

This blog will continue to publish writing blog posts as writing affects personal finance. That is one of my goals for writing. Frugality is about respecting resources, and my writing is a resource. Being compensated for it is a welcome, and currently necessary, bonus.

You, kind reader, will be spared descriptions of that process; and you, kind reader who doesn’t care about my finances can be freed from such pesky details.

Stay tuned, and sign up for the new blog, too.