Almost A Week Off

Posted on October 28, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

Shh. I slept in. And then I did it again. It almost felt like the first time I retired. This year I’ve finished three books. I’ve also given presentations, helped people with their ideas and businesses, and basically been an active entrepreneur. Whew. What would I do with the extra time now that those projects were done? #NotRhetorical. Finding answers is not optional.

Are you getting ready to retire (or at least quit or take a sabbatical)? If you don’t have a plan for what to do next, give yourself the friendly task of talking to friends who have already done that. It is more complicated than ‘work hard then play hard’. That’s an momentary option, but not a sustainable lifestyle. 

I retired at 38 in 1998. Want the details? Friends encouraged me to write a book about it, and I did. Dream Invest Live (the basis of this blog). The short version was that I (and my now ex-wife) lived a simple life: “Spend less than you make. Invest the rest.” It worked. My path to being un-retired is possibly the subject of a sequel, and we’ll see if I remember to describe that later in this post.

There’s a saying, “Chop wood. Carry water. Reach enlightenment. Chop wood. Carry water.” Even something as phenomenal as enlightenment does not negate the need to do the basic chores.

Swap out enlightenment and replace it with retirement, modernize it and get my updated version, “Pay bills. Do laundry. Retire. Pay bills. Do laundry.” Some things never change.

For those who think that they’ll get someone else to pay the bills and do the laundry, keep in mind that you’ll then be managing the people doing your work, and having to step in to fix mistakes because it is still your life and you are ultimately responsible for it.

But retirement (or quitting or taking a sabbatical) can mean sleeping in a bit more often.

A guideline I heard when I retired was that it takes about a year to get past those long-neglected chores that you’ve just run out of excuses to ignore. Tend the garden. Clear out the pantry. Fix the fence. Finally learn your neighbors’ names.

Today’s world is hectic enough that you may find that you’re out of practice when it comes to fun. ‘Waste’ time watching a movie? ‘Impose’ yourself by calling friends you haven’t called in too long? Enjoy the view if you’ve got one, or take yourself to a good one and watch the world go by for a while. 

This is advice that I am giving myself.

Within the last ten years I’ve gone through periods when I usually worked 10 hours a day. For a while I only took off four days per year. I was exhausted, but desperate times happen.

Within the last few years my net worth has finally improved. That wasn’t because I worked so hard. The American Dream of work hard and find success is not a guarantee. I usually only made the equivalent of $15/hr annualized. Last year my work efforts resulted in less than $10,000. 

My net worth improved because my house’s value went up. Even if its market value falls, I now have an asset that is worth much more than my debt.

That net worth growth was enabled by friends who helped me keep my house. Thanks. Social Security and my pension eventually helped; but I no longer can spend less than I make. 

Personal finances are important, but being poor and working too hard have their costs. During the last two years (and possibly earlier) my exhaustion became undeniable. I don’t just need rest. I need, not just want but need, recuperation. I’ll spare you the details, but they have been significant enough that even I can take the hint.

So, I slept in; and slept in, again. And I’m not done.

The effect of decades of hard work are not dispelled with sleeping in on a weekend. I know that now. I lived it.

Except for dancing, of which there is too little of lately, I’ve gotten out of practice having fun. You, too, perhaps? 

So, while taking a short break now that those books are done, what came to mind? More work. Silly boy.

Except for a few smaller items I’ve at least decided to relax my schedule and slide work into 2023.

Twelve Months at Fort Ebey – This will be the tenth book in the ten book series of photo essays of Whidbey Island’s nature. (I finished book nine earlier this year, Twelve Months at Dugualla Bay.) It will be the last of the books, and the reason to produce an exhibit of all ten sets of photos. 

Dead Leaves Hot Water – If Kettle Pot Cup (the second book I finished this year) sells well enough then I may begin writing the sequel, Dead Leaves Hot Water, another series of casual essays about enjoying tea without stressing out over rituals.

Firewatcher‘s sequel – Firewatcher was the largest single project. My #apocaloptimic #SciFi novel about a bunch of Luddites escaping one set of problems on Earth to find a different set of problems. Those who’ve read it know that there can be much more. I’ve already identified two obvious sequels, which can lead to other sequels. I wrote it specifically so other authors can write sequels, too; which leads to one of this year’s tasks of writing the backstory and the beginning of that universe’s canon.

Sailing screenplay – Friends continue to encourage my writing. Those who’ve written screenplays got comically agitated with enthusiasm when I described a bit of my family’s history. I told them the story about an epic and true sailing adventure. They got agitated when I described it and said I’d work on the screenplay in a few years. If they had Nerf bats they probably would’ve used them to bop me on my head as they chanted, “Now! Now! Now! Not later!”

Whidbey Game – During the beginning of the pandemic I developed a game for the island’s tourists. A possible collaboration with a non-profit organization didn’t develop, so that’s something else for me to develop – and possibly extend to other tourist islands.

And more, of course.

Steve Smolinsky introduced me to the term “Clarity Break“. (My apologies for losing that link to his blog.) It is a good idea to take an break every day to consider yesterdays, today, and tomorrows. I have a backlog of postponed clarity breaks. 

The holiday season is here. I can’t completely take a break from everything because I must continue to fuel the feed that reminds people of my books and photos. But, I for a few weeks at least I am not writing books (except for that backstory book). And there is that request for the ebook version of Firewatcher. I must continue taking photos because Twelve Month studies require work every month. And of course, there is social media to feed, bookstores to stock, and plans to make for 2023.

Does that sound busy? Sure. And yet to me, that looks almost relaxing in comparison. Maybe between Christmas and New Years I’ll actually take a week off. Sorry. I just laughed at myself. Let’s hope you can do better.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Nervous Time

Posted on October 20, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

The nervous time. I was going to start this post with an anecdote about various nervous times when a simple one showed up. The nervous time between launching a program, seeing it halt, and nervously wondering if it will ever load. These are nervous times from impatiently waiting for opaque software to load or not, for sales to lead to precious positive word-of-mouth, for decades of advocacy to go beyond slogans and become results, to maybe even common sense based on facts and logic instead of whims and wishes. We live in nervous times.

One of my nervous phases I am going through is that of an author. Get and idea. Write it up. Polish it a bit. Publish it, and wait for people to read it. And then wait to find out whether they think it is good enough to tell other people, or maybe even post a positive review online. Compliments are great, especially in the nervous time between declaring the book published and the first person finishing the book. Then there’s the next nervous time waiting to learn whether they tell their friends, or buy copies as gifts, or find gracious ways to point out typos. (Both Kettle Pot Cup and Firewatcher have far fewer than I expected. Whew.)

Book sales make for an odd industry. Even an official at Random House admitted that the publishing industry is random. Years ago I learned that 95% of book sales are based on the front cover. 3.5% are from the back cover. 1% is from the first page. Only 0.5% are from the main body of the book. Sort of.

J.K. Rowling did not sell millions of copies of Harry Potter by hand-delivering every book to readers or book stores. At some point word spread about her words and her sales tsunami began. It was no longer about the cover. Her words, her story, convinced others to tell others to do something like buy the book.

I’m glad that I’m getting compliments on my books’ covers and from the first folks to read them. Thanks.

We in one of our nervous phases. Most of us know we have to do something about pollution and resource depletion. More know it every day. Decades ago folks with insights saw what was happening and had to fight to get Earth Day recognized. That was like wrapping the various worries under one cover. Decades went by as progress was made, but it has been that nervous time while we wait to learn if others are learning about the worry, the threat. It seems that the word is spreading, but did it take too long? It may be that the climate had to break before enough people understood who else to tell and what to do.

Today I wrote a typically short post (yes, I can write concisely on occasion) on one of my other blogs; PretendingNotToPanic.com (news for people who are eager and anxious about the future). Carbon emissions (aka pollution when Earth Day began) are not down, but they’re finally up by less than 1%. (Global CO2 Emissions Shrink). It has taken decades but new ways of living and the advancement and adoption of renewable energies have begun to turn the curve. That is particularly impressive considering the population increase since Earth Day. (1970)

Much of the news is whether we can hit specific reduction targets and dates – as if that means we’ll be done. Sadly, at least to me, my basic understanding of systems suggests that it can take as long to turn something around as it did to get it into the situation. That assumes everything stays the same and very little is staying the same, but that’s not always a good thing. The Industrial Revolution has been going on for about 260 years. It took a large and long time to create this mess. We have better technologies, now, but we also have ten times the population.

I’m nervous because the climate is changing, that change is accelerating in places like the Arctic, and we have a lot to learn.

I am also encouraged because we have a lot more people working on solutions, too.

That’s why I consider myself an apocaloptimist, a term that confuses spell check and that I am getting better at typing right the first time. We’re heading for something that could be apocalyptic and there will be suffering, but eventually our civilization will succeed and find a better and sustainable way to live.

But about that suffering and this blog’s primary purpose: personal finance. My software eventually loaded. I am reasonably confident that my books will sell well. (Firewatcher is about a bunch of apocaloptimists finding a new way and place to live.) I am sure that eventually our species will figure things out. But in the meantime, technology runs faster than me; word-of-mouth advertising takes months or years while folks read the books, and my bills continue to arrive; and climate change is already affecting personal finances as the economy tries to respond to refugee crises, food and supply chain interruptions, and politicians responding on timelines based on election cycles, not human generations.

These are nervous times. Times for patience while being ready to move and act. Time to review history and consider the future while feeding and being fed by this economy.

In a more immediate situation, these are nervous times where I live. Our air is unhealthy because fifty miles away are forest fires in temperate rain forests, an occurrence that represents a changing climate. As one Ranger told me years ago while I was researching Twelve Months at Barclay Lake; “Rain forests like this one rarely catch fire, but when they do we have to wait for nature to put them out.” Old growth trees are too big, there’s too much fuel, and that terrain is aggressive. They’re managing the perimeter to lessen the impact on people; but for now we nervously wait for better weather. Rain is due.

Relief is due; but for now we wait, adjust, and look forward to rebuilding after the crises.

(Or taking off in a spaceship, but that option was only available to the characters in my sci-fi novel. The rest of us get to stay here, and perhaps have a cup of tea.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

SolarWindow – One Company One story

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

Welcome to another video in my One Company One Story series.

Pardon me as I paste in yet another disclosure disclaimer.

I am not a certified finance professional. But I can comment on my finances, and I can comment on stories. The SEC and maybe some other organization(s) require it.

This time is it about SolarWindow, a company that has the innovative idea of creating coatings that can turn a window into a transparent solar panel. That breaks a paradigm or two.

Within the previous few hundred years our civilization became aware of the utility of fossil fuels. (Hmm, did we realize the power of fossil fuels before we knew what fossils were?) I can recall the motto of Pittsburgh while growing up in the tail end of the dirty era; we were told to not complain because that was the “Smell of Progress.” (Side note: I hear similar mottos today for things like the “Price of Freedom.”)

Within the last few decades solar and wind power have gone from jokes to becoming a new paradigm, electricity without major installations, decentralized, and becoming ubiquitous. 

SolarWindow and their competitors are breaking that paradigm as they create solar panels either through solid panels or in the case of SolarWindow, window coatings. Now, instead of opaque, rigid, and acre-eating panels it is possible to integrate solar power units into our windows.

The paradigm shift to coating windows is more than simply replacing solid opaque panels. Look at modern architecture. Even houses are built with an increasing percentage of wall space devoted to windows instead of wood, stone, or steel. Greenhouses take that to an extreme. Farmers can make money from crops as well as from power.

That’s the general idea, but I am keeping in mind that, on a business level they have competitors and I suspect each competitor can tell you why they are better. 

Google Finance

The stock price suggests that SolarWindow’s stock, WNDW, is not in much demand. They had a phenomenal spike within the last few years. I look forward to finding out what that’s about.

It looks like a fascinating story. I hope it and I have a happy ending.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting Ready For Our October 15 Self-Publishing Workshop

Posted on October 6, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

The short version:

Getting Ready For Our October 15 Self-Publishing Workshop

The longer version:

Busy? Busy. But I see a break coming. (Whew.) But next is something I look forward to, conducting a workshop, this time one on self-publishing. October 15 Don Scoby (the co-host of the Writing On Whidbey Island, WOWI, podcast) and myself are conducting a one-day intensive workshop covering From Inspiration To Publication, which effectively means from taking ideas, turning them into words in a manuscript, cover design, book formatting, publication, and through to things like book events and sales (hopefully.) Ten hours between 9AM and 9PM. Somewhat intense? Yes, but far more comprehensive than previous attempts to cover all of that in an hour or two. (We tried for a more sedate two-day event but could only book the Coupeville Rec Hall for one day. Maybe next time. Maybe even another location if enough people request it.

Part of my busy life this year has been directed to finishing three projects, three books, in time for the event.

Twelve Months at Dugualla Bay

Part nine of a five part, er, ten part series of photos of Whidbey Island’s nature. Part ten is in work, with two months to go. As for publishing experience, these are small hardback books that are relatively easy to mail. The size was also a recommendation from local bookstore owners who wanted photo books that could fit on a shelf. The world has more shelves than coffee tables. Published on Blurb.com.

Kettle Pot Cup

A fundraiser I had fun with. Pardon the pun, but I enjoy tea but don’t take it as seriously as some – but then many in America don’t. Hot water, a tea bag, wait for the water to turn color, and call it done. That’s the American way. At the same time, we actually do have our rituals and I do honor the experts. The fundraiser part comes in because I also wanted to do more than honor the people who pick the leaves. Their working conditions are like migrant farm workers but without the ability to leave the farm much. Book proceeds do to charities that help the people on the farm. Because this is another book that’s good as a gift I made sure it is hardback, too. Published on Lulu.com.

Firewatcher

Welcome to my first sci-fi novel, which has already inspired thoughts of sequels. That’s part of next year’s busyness, but in the meantime I’ll be busy telling folks about the book, spreading the word, and listening to their feedback. One of my favorite bits of feedback has been;

“It’s great to read a sci fi with the humor in it.“

There’s even dancing, and some tears, and some – well, there’s a whole book of words. 

This one is paperback, because that just feels right for scifi.

Published on Amazon/Kindle in paperback. (Ebook to follow as time allows in this world of busyness.)

When I self-published my first book, Just Keep Pedaling in 2002 there were probably fewer than 100,000 books printed by the print-on-demand technique. Preliminary research suggests there may be more than 2,000,000 published this year. The idea caught on.

There are an overwhelming range of choices and decisions. I have used several publishers for myself and helped other authors, too. Don has published cookbooks, histories, music, and has mixed them up. We cover a lot of options. The more valuable information may be the descriptions of the ones we didn’t choose.

Is there more to say? Of course! But today’s busyness must progress. Another work item for the night, possibly coordinating with Don over the preparations, and – gasp – maybe reading a book. You see, when I write I don’t read as much. Three books in one year means a lot of other authors’ books have stacked up. So many stories. So much to read. So much to learn. So many new perspectives. Contact me if you want to attend. I’m looking forward to it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tea Charity Donations

Posted on October 1, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

It finally happened. The end of a quarter of the year. The first report of sales for Kettle Pot Cup are in. Nice to see. That also means the first donation is on its way. Donating money in an interconnected world is welcome, and necessary. Here’s a bit of what I learned, and here’s a bit of serendipity.

My post Kettle Pot Cup Launched introduced how this book happened, but the subsequent post Authors Always Have More Work To Do can be better because it includes the video of the talk I was able to give at Langley Library. And thank you to Friends Of Langley Library for the opportunity. 

For the short, but hopefully not too short description; thanks to the internet and social media, and to my time as a stockholder of Starbucks (SBUX) I became aware of the working conditions of the people who actually grow such simple luxuries as tea and coffee. Starbucks impressed me with what they initiated for coffee growers almost two decades ago. I lost track when I was no longer a stockholder (separate story). Tea pickers have a similar life, and yet not.

Tea production can be automated, but you can also get cheap coffee from a machine yet people pay a lot of money to get a barista to do their work. In short, tea is picked by hand. Imagine that. Imagine walking out into rows of bushes stretching across acres and daily picking fresh leaves from the plants. The highest end teas are even more restricted because, as I understand it, the leaves are only picked when the fluids in the plants have risen far enough after dawn and before they retreat (from the heat?). In some places the tea pickers are migrant farm workers without the ability to migrate, which also means that are somewhat trapped in their situation. From one report they are paid about a third of a living wage. 

What could I do?

Contrary to the stereotype, being a realtor is not a guaranteed path to impressive income. If my clients are out-bid they don’t get the house and I don’t get paid. It has been lean. (Required Disclosure: I’m a broker at Dalton Realty, Inc. http://whidbeyrealtor.com/). I could buy tea because tea can be a frugal person’s friend, but little of that money could get to the growers. 

What could I do?

I can write. It is up to you to decide if I write well enough or not, but I know I can produce a book that some will find enjoyable; and I can do so rather expediently. So, I decided to write a book, have fun with it, and seriously donate the book proceeds to charities that support tea growers and pickers.

Kettle Pot Cup was born.

In early 2022 Kettle Pot Cup was also published, printed, put online for sale, and made available across much of the glove. Really rather cool when you think about it. (BTW I’ll be co-hosting a self-publishing workshop with Don Scoby on October 15, 2022.)

The end of September was a convenient time to write the first check. Great. Sounds easy, right? Well…

Tea may be more popular than coffee (really, it is, globally) but there are fewer charities than I expected. The majority request payment in Pounds, not Dollars. A vestige of the British Empire. Many of them are directed at government and corporate donations, possibly because that’s where the money is. As a result, the web sites are more likely to be informative than to provide information about how to donate. It gets tricky. 

But, after opening dozens of browser tabs, steering around ads, cookie windows, and intriguing web navigations, I finally found an appropriate site.

Thanks to everyone who purchased a book and therefore made a donation. Let’s give more.

And then the serendipity kicks in. 

After giving my computer time enough to open those tabs I returned to open my email. There was a long-anticipated and finally-received email inviting me to hold a talk in an energetic bookstore. Stay tuned. I’m looking forward to it and will pass along details when available. (Check @tetrimbath on Twitter.)

And then, while in my living room I noticed the mail truck backing up my driveway. Today’s delivery? The next batch of copies of Kettle Pot Cup, just in time as if timed.

Just a few days ago I was thanking a friend who helps me get through some of the toughest days. No obligation. No thank-you gifts means No Thank You Gifts, because frugal folks don’t like waste and clutter; and heart-felt thanks are rarer and more valuable. Anyway, we talked about how sometimes we help others with obvious acts (thanks for the ride to the doctor’s office, et al), and we sometimes help without knowing it because we smiled or encouraged someone or gave away some excess harvest that wasn’t even zucchini.

I try to help, but it is hard to know, especially in today’s frantic work world. I hope I help, and I do what I can. So, here’s yet another link to Kettle Pot Cup. Note that, if you buy it through Lulu.com it results in a roughly $15 donation, but bought through Amazon results in a $1 donation. Where those $14 go I do not know.

The book is hardback, purposely so it make a nicer gift, and also makes it easier to ship.

Now to see what serendipity it provides to any of us who become associated with it. Maybe just a gift. Maybe some awareness. Maybe someone can nominate an appropriate charity and decide to skip the book and donate much more than $15. Who knows? I certainly don’t. All I know is that I wrote a book – and enjoy tea.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

TAKE A VACATION

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

Ah. Finally, a proper cup of tea, well, an infusion of herbs plus a few spices plus some honey. (The honey is the decadent part.) Decadence? Why, of course! I took a vacation – which would be hard to notice for anyone who wasn’t watching my house and picking up my mail. (Thanks, Susan.) Such is the nature of work, and also why pure vacations are harder to take, now. Even without a wi-fi signal it is possible to check voice mail and email. And if there is an internet connection, disconnecting takes personal resolve. But then there is synchronicity and balancing acts and listening to hints from the universe.

While my tea is hot I want to remind myself to write another chapter of the sequel to Kettle Pot Cup, my first book about tea. I just spent most of a week (hey, it was only five days, but that’s the longest vacation I’ve had since walking across Scotland in 2010 – Walking Thinking Drinking Across Scotland) – starting over. I spent five days in a neighboring tourist town, La Conner. Seeing $50 menu items I was reminded of how many high-end meals are accompanied by a tea bag in a tiny metal tea pot. Come on, fancy restaurants, up your game and provide loose leaf tea, a french press or even just a strainer as if flavor mattered throughout the meal. Whew. Rant over. Hello, loose leaf tea I can enjoy because I am home, again.

I wasn’t planning on playing tourist. Sitting in my tiny breakfast nook is a pile of gear for a long-anticipated overnight backpacking trip. Exertion for an afternoon, then days of relaxing out of range of cell-phones. But, that part of the world caught fire (#BoltCreekFire) on the day before I was ready to go. The Bolt Creek Fire wrapped around the site of my destination and the site of one of my books, Twelve Months at Barclay Lake. That closed the highway. As it burned I recalled a ranger’s comment from when I was researching the book. Evidently, the area is almost temperate rain forest (119 inches of rain per year), which means it rarely burns. But, when it burns the trees are so large, the undergrowth too thick, and the terrain is so extreme that they decided the best way to put out the fire is to wait for rain. And so they have. They’ve been busy containing the fire, and protecting the residents and their houses. And we’re in a record dry spell. So now, enormous trees are burning then falling hundreds of feet to land in the highway. Yep. That closed the highway. Detour!

Detour? No. My backup plan was to hike at another lake along that road, Twelve Months at Lake Valhalla. 

OK. How about the next and only highway north of there that crosses the mountains? Nope. Landslide.

Hint. Hint. Hint. Maybe my sore knee Really Did Not Want To Go Hiking!

Capitulate. Surrender. Start checking lodgings in natural settings, like Kalaloch in Olympic National Park. Beach walks from a small cabin with a kitchen and a pile of books, ah. Ah, no. No rooms available. No rooms available throughout the park. Nor any rooms that I’d like to relax in outside the park. Ah, the San Juan islands, a fave. Nope. East of the mountains? Road closures, silly boy. At least get off my island and stay just across the water in La Conner, a sweet tourist town that I’ve visited frequently but never stayed in. A room!? Yes! Waterfront, even.

So that’s what the hints were leading me to.

Remember, I was trying to rest and recuperate. My recent doctor’s note was TAKE A VACATION. (All caps in original message) OK. OK. Hint. HINT. La Conner’s tourist area is basically one long street with shops, galleries, restaurants, and such. I envisioned unwinding in some brewpub, maybe reading, maybe some introspection; but not much writing. This year I’ve self-published three books (Twelve Months at Dugualla Bay, Kettle Pot Cup, and Firewatcher.) Oh yeah, and work in real estate. (Required disclosure: I’m a broker at Dalton Realty, Inc. http://whidbeyrealtor.com/). Rest without writing (much.) I’d even get some easy exercise by walking around town and its marina.

Mistake #1) Have a beer. This would not become apparent until…

Mistake #2) Walk across the Rainbow Bridge. 

While walking across the very high Rainbow Bridge (which is not painted in rainbow colors, and it is really only 75 feet of clearance), the gluten in the beer kicked in as I was mid-span. Anxiety attack. Over a long drop. Beside a railing that looked like it was below my center of gravity. Eep.

Grumble. Gripe. 

Some anxiety attacks and some gluten reactions pass within half a day. Nope. More like three days. The beer was good, but that price was too high. Hence the comment about tea, hence the sudden shrinking of culinary options, hence the incentive to lounge while looking contemplative.

But then, serendipity. My knee hurt, so I strolled slower. I strolled more slowly so I was more likely to chat with store owners. By the end of a day or two of hobbling around, three of my books were for sale in a local book store (three of my Twelve Months books are in SeaportBooks.com), I met with an entrepreneurial couple, found a venue for our self-publishing workshop (but first comes Coupeville), and found a lead on a realtor to coordinate with.

Evidently it is relatively easy for me to drop into business mode.

I also noticed that the business cards I’ve been giving out for over a year had the wrong web address (.com instead of .net). Aargh! It is a good thing that I usually carry more than one kind (see the opening scene for Dolly in Hello Dolly).

So, maybe I didn’t end up where I wanted to go but ended up where I needed to be. (paraphrasing Dirk Gently)

The biochemicals left my system the evening before I had to check out. I’m now back home with my familiar mix of shelter, entertainment, dining and drinking, working (naturally), and generally living. 

While in La Conner I read their newspaper (La Conner Weekly News) which had two articles out Langley, the closest tourist town to my house. Similarities and differences to contemplate. The kelp is always greener in the neighbor’s waterways. That was a bonus.

The highway is still closed. The ferry that was part of the transit plan was running at half-schedule. Little encouragement, there.

One of the reasons for the timing of the vacation was the successful conclusion to one real estate transaction and having to wait for the bulk book buy order to arrive. Ta da! A big box of books stamped HEAVY arrived as I was unpacking.

A medical test came back looking good, and the report came in soon after I got home. Nice timing.

La Conner bears no fault for my sad days. My episode was a reminder of my preference for lodging that has at least a small kitchen. The room may be more expensive, but the food is cheaper, the food is more likely to be healthier for me, and there’s a lot less guessing about the menu or interrogating the restaurant staff. Frugal doesn’t always mean cheapest.

The bed was soft. The view was of the channel off my private deck. The shower had more hot water than mine at home. I didn’t have to set up a tent, pump water, eat cold meals, or dig a latrine. 

And despite those hints, I also look forward to finding the right campsite, in good weather, with good water, and a view, and maybe even a backcountry outhouse. There won’t be a wi-fi signal, so maybe I’d do an even better job of resting and recuperating. That’s one way to TAKE A VACATION.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

One Company One Story – Lineage Cell Therapeutics

Posted on September 13, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

Welcome to the third video in my One Company One Story series.

Pardon me as I paste in yet another disclosure disclaimer.
I am not a certified finance professional. But I can comment on my finances, and I can comment on stories. I the SEC and maybe some other organization(s) require it.

This time, Lineage Cell Therapeutics, a company with a long name, a long history, but not much to sell, yet. The simple version of some of their proposed treatments is that they’re using stem cells (pluripotent cells?) to regrow tissues in the eye to treat Dry Eye Macular Degeneration (another long word) and regrow nerves in accident victims. Stem cells were massively controversial, and may still be, but there are so many other things to worry about and stem cells look more promising now. The company is still years away from a hoped-for FDA approval, but the treatment has been being developed for decades, so maybe they’re making enough progress. That’s the encouraging part. Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed the FDA becoming very conservative with innovative treatments, which may be prudent, but it can also mean people are denied the possibility of that very treatment. As with many biotechs, the race is between the development of the treatment, the FDA approval process, and the company’s finances.

Because I own stock in the company there is also a personal history with it that can be somewhat tracked by reading my posts about the company (Lineage Cell Therapeutics) and the stock (LCTX), particularly my Semi-Annual reviews. Some of the history of the original company is covered in a previous post. (One Company One Story – Geron) If you are unfamiliar with the company, here’s a video where I basically toured their web site and commented on the parts that interest me the most. I won’t say ‘enjoy’ but I hope it is useful despite being a bit rough because I was a bit rushed. (Regular readers know how busy I’ve been. That’s also why I left in one gaffe in the video. Just being human.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Firewatcher Launched

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

Let me start with an irony or a coincidence. Whenever I finish writing or producing a book and it becomes available for sale I consider it “launched”. Maybe that has something to do with being trained as an aerospace engineer. My most recent book and my first science fiction novel is launched! And it is called Firewatcher. It is a science fiction novel so it isn’t much of a surprise that it starts with a space ship that was launched. Now the book is launched, too. 

Original Painting by Rob Schouten / Cover design by me and Joe Menth

At a quick read it is a story about pioneers who worked hard at escaping Earth because they fear an artificial intelligence that has become dangerously powerful; but if they act quickly they can escape. They don’t know where they will go, but they will go. That also can describe any book. An author writes it, launches it, has hopes, but doesn’t actually know the kind of journey it will have.

After a deeper read there are ideas to play with like what is truly alien, what old habits must be abandoned and what new habits must be formed. There’s also the very human story of what happens when colonists leave Earth to settle a new planet, hoping to find one that is unpopulated but livable, and then populate it. We carry our soap operas and gossip mills with us.

But is that what readers will get out of it? Authors never know for sure. It is launched. You get to help decide how far it will go.

This is my eighth book, but my first bit of fiction. I think I startled a fellow writer when I pointed out that I designed it for sequels and already have about six in mind. Firewatcher may be the biggest because it establishes the world and the characters that will live (well, most of them will live) in the sequels. 

The most common question has been (Hey, I already have a FAQ!), “How long did it take you to write it?” Sorry, I didn’t take notes. The simple answer is that it took about three years, starting before the pandemic. The truer and deeper answer is more like nine years because it took about six years to invent the maths, physics, biology, culture, physiology, botany, etc. that would enable a ship to transit dimensional space and encounter a suitable planet. Aside from the technical aspects, how could they organize such an escape? What would they be able to carry without knowing the planet’s or the moon’s or the asteroid’s features and challenges? 

And then there were the aliens, but to describe them would take a book – which is called Firewatcher. (Available on Amazon)

It was a balancing act to create aliens that are more than people in costumes without being so alien that we couldn’t make sense of them. I hope I succeeded.

As for what happens on Earth, the colonists purposely decide to lose contact so they can’t be followed. (That also allows a sequel(s) about what happens after they leave. Dystopia? Revelation? Singularity?)

I won’t relay the entire story about how I decided to write the novel, at least yet. I’ll save that for public readings and such; but I can reveal that the universe gave me a couple of HINTS that I was sure I shouldn’t ignore.

One sign that I was enjoying the process was that I found myself more drawn to the story about Ari and Cho than to watching shows at night. It turned me from being a spectator to being a participant in the scifi genre. They helped me get through the pandemic.

I started with an image, expected it to become a hard science fiction story, and found that my characters had challenges but also had a sense of humor. Hard science fiction, as I interpret it, is a story where there should be a reason why the science could work. One way I look at it is, Star Trek is science fiction because there’s usually an engineer fixing problems while Star Wars started with explanations and philosophies. Eventually Star Wars described more details about The Force and the Kessel Run, but that came later. I think I needed a bit of humor and some mental exercises over the previous few years.

I’ve probably gone on more than enough but as most writers know; “If I Had More Time I Could Have Made It Shorter – #IIHMTICHMIS”.

Before I finish making dinner I want to pass along some thanks that I’ll lift from the book.

acknowledgements

Thanks to Rob Schouten for allowing the use of the image of his original painting, Fire, for the cover art. Also, thanks to Joe Menth for his assistance with the cover design.

Thanks to Don Scoby for an early review of the concept.

Thanks as well to Brian Kern and Richard Pelletier for support and holding onto backup covers of various drafts as the work developed.

Thanks to mathematics for the inspiration from a simple, elegant, and deep equation. eiπ+1=0

back cover

Escaping a digital dystopia
Too little time to safely plan and prepare
Can they survive?

In a world where people trust computers 
more than people, power shifts.

A resistance movement finds a way to flee
while in plain sight.

No one is perfect, not even the aliens,
and who is really alien?

For anyone who has a story and wants to learn more about the process, Don Scoby and I will be teaching a workshop on self-publishing, “From Inspiration To Publication”, on Saturday, October 15 in Coupeville, WA. Contact me for details.

Thanks for reading along. I hope you enjoy the story and want to hear more. I am also a fan of the idea that everyone has a story to tell, and I hope I can help.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Positive Pent-up Progress Released

Posted on September 1, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

You know how it goes. The bumped pebble that hits a stone that dislodges a boulder that means a major portion of a mountain can become a flow that can reach the sea. Geologically speaking, landslides reaching the sea don’t have to be imagined around the Salish Sea. Our volcanoes have histories of landslides. For me, one event has released plenty of positive pent-up energies in many aspects of my life. Prepare for a series of events that start with real estate and visit imaginary space, and further proof that personal finance plans must be fluid or get run over.

Near the end of July I wrote a post called, Good News Is Swirling. Lots of good things were happening. The most obvious one was the release of my book about tea, Kettle Pot Cup. It is a fundraiser, so I don’t expect to make money from it, but it was an accomplishment and something fun to do.

Two days later I received an unsolicited phone call from folks who wanted to move to Whidbey Island. Yesterday the deal was recorded at the County and they officially own it. Yay! And I got paid. Yay!

Getting paid wasn’t much of an issue prior to the pandemic, but helping these people ended a dry spell in my business. I hadn’t been paid in real estate for almost 18 months. Prices were up. Clients were bidding. But the people I was working with were being outbid, out-priced, or deciding to buy outside Washington State. I was busy, but I wasn’t paid. 

Unsolicited phone calls are hard to plan for. Year-long dry spells aren’t easy either.

So, am I taking my doctor’s advice to TAKE A VACATION? Nope, at least not yet, or in the way most folks might expect.

I bought a bit of THC as TLC. But the larger purchase was repacking my pantry. Food shopping as retail therapy, and also expanding my menu selections. Hello, salmon. Welcome back.

But take a vacation? Ha! I have to and get to get ready to give a real estate presentation at one of the local libraries. Every few months I compile some data about the real estate and affordability trends on Whidbey Island, where I live. (Which is also why the state requires the following disclosure: I’m a broker at Dalton Realty, Inc. http://whidbeyrealtor.com/.) The next one is scheduled for September 8th. The freshest data are delivered on the first working day of the month, so I have a lot of work to do that I couldn’t start doing until today. So, yeah, I’ve got that to get done, soon. Fortunately, I’m comfortable with data.

(Freeland Library Thursday, Sept. 8, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
https://sno-isle.bibliocommons.com/events/62eab44b76d1822900625047)

Segue

Data? Math? I’m finally to the point in publishing my sci-fi novel that I’m creating title pages, character descriptions, and acknowledgements. I had fun adding thanks to a simple yet insightful equation that inspired some of the story. 

eiπ+1=0

It was a very geeky moment. The book should be ready for sale within weeks.

But first, that check provided the cash I needed to restock my inventory of the books I’ve already written and produced. The costs weren’t much when seen from this side of a deposit slip, but from the other side I had to dole out examples gingerly. It is hard to have a marketing campaign when the inventory is described by waving my arms. Within a week or two they’ll be back in stock.

That timing works out well because shortly after that I’ll be co-hosting a workshop/seminar about self-publishing, From Inspiration To Publication. Fresh examples and anecdotes added to my twenty years of self-publishing. That’s another presentation to prepare, but maybe not until after the 8th of September.

How does all of that work its way into my personal finance plan? I can anticipate some costs but can’t predict any sales. Most books do not make enough to cover the author’s costs; but books are also like odd lottery tickets. As one publishing executive pronounced before a governmental panel, the publishing industry is mostly random. They rarely know if a book is going to sell well or if an author is going to succeed. Celebrities are celebrated, but most authors have to work harder to spark their applause.

And then there was the call from Kingfisher Bookstore in Coupeville as they decided to join the other island bookstores that are selling my book about tea. Unexpected but appreciated. It was also an excuse for a drive up the island.

Life is not spelled w-o-r-k. They both use four letters, but remember my recent post about splitting my pants? (I Split My Pants) Well, now I can afford a new pair.

I can also afford to visit people who help me work on various ailments and injuries. There’s a long list of home maintenance items for various contractors. Remodel and renovation will continue to wait. Repair and replace come first. Planning for those costs are guesses, too. My house was built in 1964. Fix one small thing and it may uncover something else. Which to fix, first?

My check was deposited yesterday. I’ve spent the day unleashing pent-up projects, mostly with bits of cash that weren’t even large enough to pay for a new pair of pants. (I’m surprised at the cost of hiking pants. The last ones I bought were at least a decade ago.)

For the price of a pair of pants I:

  • began refilling my pantry
  • began restocking my book inventory from one publisher (KDP)
  • began restocking my book inventory from one publisher (iUniverse)
  • began restocking my book inventory from one publisher (blurb)
  • began restocking my book inventory from one publisher (Lulu)

For a little bit more I hope to:

  • buy new pants
  • see a physical therapist
  • see an eye doctor
  • see my regular naturopath

The total will add up (that is the way math works), but from this side of that deposit it seems simple, easy, and something that could’ve been done earlier. From that side of the deposit, each one had to be evaluated, compared, and if possible delayed because each item may be worth a day’s living expenses. 

I’ve mentioned #ALAYCPYB before (As Long As You Can Pay Your Bills) because advice that seems simple and logical frequently has the implicit assumption that all bills can be paid. Even before the deposit my situation had improved to where I could pay my bills, but only by going into debt by borrowing against my house’s equity. This deposit roughly equally a year’s frugal living expenses. Another such deposit would largely go to taxes. Another such deposit would just start to paying down debt, especially after my truck broke down. (A Jeep Dancing And Credit)

Personal finance plans sound deterministic, a way to control a life. Personal finance plans can seem silly, because life is too capricious. My life has been chaotic enough that I have more of a strategy than a plan. As I described in my book, Dream. Invest. Live., my frugal approach is basically, 

“Spend less than you make. Invest the rest.” 

As a member of the Gig Economy, I still have to adhere to a prelude which is, “It takes money to make money.”

It really doesn’t take much to create a great impact. It all starts with a pebble, right? But it is too easy in this economic system to get into a situation where even moving a procedural pebble can be a monumental task. Thankfully, my business’ dry spell is over and I can move more and get more done. Imagine the energies that can be unleashed that are bound up in people who could use help moving a pebble or two.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I Split My Pants

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Tom Trimbath

Some days it is hard to do anything the normal way. I split my pants. That’s common enough; but I split these pants down the front, not in the most embarrassing way, but from waist to knee. I think that takes a special talent, or is a good example of finding the limits of frugality.

There’s always a story behind the story, but this is only a blog post so I’ll simply say that my plans for an overnight backpacking visit to the site of my third book, Twelve Months at Lake Valhalla, were diverted by a long ferry line and a bout of impatience. I needed a vacation and sitting in a ferry line for hours wasn’t the way to start. Instead, I turned around and decided to visit the site of my next photo series, Twelve Months at Fort Ebey. I even had everything I needed for an overnight in the backcountry. Why not stay in Ebey’s campground and get sunset and sunrise photos (assuming I didn’t sleep in.)

Get lucky. Get a campsite beside the trail to the tall bluff overlooking Admiralty Inlet (hmm, just realized I can also mention an earlier book, Twelve Months at Admiralty Head), and begin setting up the most minimalist setup. RVs were there. People using truck dollies to cart in supplies. Cars sprouting bicycles and stuff. I had a tent and luxuriously used one corner of the picnic as I sorted out tent poles. Minimalism.

That’s when I noticed the rip. It felt airy, which is fine in the heat, but my pant leg had split as high as my waist, which meant other people could see my underwear. Alas, but I carry spares for many things, including clothes. Doh! I did have another pair of cargo hiking pants with the zip-off legs, but to save weight I left behind half, the wrong half. I had spare leggings. The shorts portion was back home, safe from my mishaps. Sigh. OK. Well, I carry a sewing kit so get to stitching, and I did, and I only had enough to stitch up about half the rip. 

Walking around the park with half-ripped pants is not an appealing image. I did enough to get my photos, but mostly I hung around my campsite. If I desperately needed pants I could drive home and back in a couple of hours, but that just seemed silly. Half-ripped pants seemed silly too (but evidently fashionable?), so I opened a book and a backpackable bottle of wine and relaxed.

No problem, really.

Actually a bit of a celebration.

The pants that ripped were at least twenty years old, maybe thirty. That’s an accomplishment. They were more barely threads than threadbare, but for decades they’d traveled with me on hikes, bikes, and international trips. They had history. They also represented frugality. 

They were middle-range pants, not cheap, but not superlative. Cargo shorts with zip-off leggings that were excellent for those trips. Amortize it out and their usage was pennies per trip. Lately my jeans barely last a few years, and they don’t get that same level of abuse. Jeans are heavier while also being less reliable. Jeans are also less accommodating to the weather. Those hiking pants had been through heat, rain, snow, you know – real weather. I’d clambered across fallen trees and one time was straddling a snow bridge while my feet dangled over a bunch of empty.

I didn’t conduct a memorial service for them. They’ll be thrown into the trash soon because they aren’t good for turning into cleaning rags. They have, however, brought to mind those trips. Many memories from an accidentally interesting life.

And then I looked around at many of the things I bought when I was hiking almost every weekend. I’ve worn through boots at a rate of about one pair per decade. My sleeping bag is thirty years old. I cold-camp, which means I no longer cook my food. There’s no real need. Water filters get clogged, but not as often as I expected. Water bottles rarely break, anymore. Headlamps are getting better, LEDs in incandescents out. My favorite foam cushion broke (another story), but they don’t make them anymore (something the Help Desk agreed as a bad idea.) My compass is the same. Same for my pocket monocular.

Hiking and camping look expensive when the pieces are totalled up, but like with most things, divide the cost by the number of times it is used, or the years it survives and the effective cost comes down – IF you can afford it in the first place. #NotAGiven

Things that last can be expensive, but just because something is expensive does not mean it is going to last. There’s that tricky balance. I’m glad it has worked as well as it has for me.

Hiking is not just about the cost.

Cost benefit analyses use both words: cost, benefit.

I just wrote hundreds of words about the costs of hiking, but I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words about the benefits. Almost all of my books (so far) involve hiking, skiing, bicycling, and basically moving across the planet by moving my legs. (Check out my Amazon and Fine Art America online stores for the results.) I suspect many of my health issues are because my finances have been so difficult for the last few years that I haven’t had the time nor the money to hike, ski, and bicycle. I look forward to getting back into something like that shape, not to reclaim youth but to at least reclaim my access to nature.

A friend on Twitter said; “Adventure sure seems to follow you around, Tom.” – Adel Brown; to whom I replied; “I also think that everyone leads interesting lives,…” For some reason I’ve just been fortunate enough to notice it. And as my split pair of pants shows, it doesn’t take much. Of course, I can’t recall an entire episode of Friends or Frazier. I barely know the names of Seattle’s professional sports teams. It is possible to live life as a spectator, but why do that when it doesn’t cost much to live your own life, ad-free? Bonus: you get livelier stories to tell.

Here’s a short panorama that was this trip’s benefit.

Gotta do some shopping sometime soon, or lose another inch or two of waistline. There’s an entire wardrobe of gear just waiting for me to get rid of the weight I’ve gained as a realtor and from dodging the pandemic’s bugs.

Escape To Reality – A reminder of that era

And since I mentioned being a realtor; gotta say because the state says so;
Disclosure: I’m a broker at Dalton Realty, Inc. http://whidbeyrealtor.com/.

And if I am going to mention that I might as well mention this:

Come on by to see the data behind the stories, and maybe share your stories, too.
Freeland Library Thursday, Sept. 8, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
https://sno-isle.bibliocommons.com/events/62eab44b76d1822900625047

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment