Wednesday, September 21, 2022

2941 Wednesday, September 21st - early morning

05:38… "the stress-free lifestyle" has been my baseline for the longest time.  In the hospital, I had a good number of nurses say how surprised they were at how old I actually was.  Who wants stress anyway?


Being a single man, it allows me a lot of freedom.  The cost of being single is far less than otherwise.  An efficient life is a stress-free life, which has likely been my mantra for the longest time and thinking about that now, I seem to remember that.


I remember way back when I was getting started in life, there was the issue of paying taxes.  When I had to pay income tax after making my first filing, I wasn't terribly happy with that situation.  Then I remember Randy G., an old friend of my uncle Dale, he showed me a line on the income tax form, back when I started at Aetna, where I could agree to have a certain amount taken off each cheque and then I would be guaranteed to get some money back when I filled my taxes.  I would never see that money, so I wouldn't miss it, and I had always put down $40 in that line.


I did that for every job I had in Canada and if I was to get money back, I felt that I didn't have to worry about my taxes and I was right.  Of course, Randy didn't recommend that course of action, it was something that I had come up with.  For an extra $40 a cheque, I didn't have to worry or stress.  The government didn't come knocking to give me money.


I would also overpay my bills, eliminating the stresses of owing money, because I am underpaying.  If I could afford it, why not?  It might help one day, if I was struggling for money.


I was fortunate to be a part of the white collar workforce for so long too.  It wasn't taxing physically and the mental stresses could be managed.  I didn't need to be overly successful, that line of work helped me to live comfortably and efficiently.  I had what I needed and I didn't want anymore than that.


I'm thinking about becoming a minimalist.  In some ways, I already am, but if I can be more efficient with it, why am I not doing that right now?  It's certainly going to be an idea moving forward, but it will face some difficulties, as people seem to enjoy giving me stuff.  I don't need decorations, as nice as some of them may be.


And then Christmas!  Besides being the religious holiday, which as you may have gathered, I could do without, the pseudo-commercial holiday is also a sore spot.  It's a designer stress-filled holiday about gift giving and receiving.  I can safely say that I don't need it, I can be nice to everyone all the time, I don't need to feel extra special about it.  If I need anything, I'll just go get it.


There's some early morning thoughts, as I lie here in bed.


06:28… it's time to get up and get going!


Saturday, September 3, 2022

2904 Saturday, September 3rd - afternoon

15:13… I had an interesting thought today…


"People love stories, they want to be in a good story and they’ll make up their own story for just about anything or anyone."


It explains a ton about pop culture, in general, not to mention the need for news stories, bedtime stories, rumours and the need to recycle memories.


Everyone's life is its own story, one that only a select few get to be a part of or experience, unless that person becomes famous, to which more than a few can experience.  Everyone lives to write their own story and they can associate what they believe to be a part of their own personal story, making every decision or adapting to every other decision made around them, which keeps the possibilities seemingly limitless.


There are some decisions that are stemmed from previous decisions, which are somewhat predictable, but there are the small little details that can be missed that can affect some of the greatest outcomes.


It's really amazing how some stories have been adopted to fill in the unknown blanks in human history.  The number of years before man really came to grips with its own existence, plus all of the times that we may guess what might have happened at a time when we weren't around or making up some stories to appease our children's curiosity, teach them important life lessons or inspire their creativity.  Stories are a handy tool, when used responsibly.


There are some general criticisms of stories in human history, as you may have gathered in some of my previous writings.  I just wanted to elaborate more on that thought, but it felt like there was going to be more.