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Things To Do In The Fall

September 9th, 2010

I decided to create a ”Things to Do in the Fall” list much like I did with my summer list which was posted as: My Summer Fun Things To Do List.  The first day of Autumn/Fall officially starts on 9/22/2010, so it’s literally just a few weeks away!

As with my Summer list, if any readers care to enter things that are different from my “Things To Do In The Fall” list  in the comment section below, I’ll add them below my list in a different color and then add the blogger’s site somewhere near the end of this post, basically in a similar way I did with my summer list version.

List of Things to Do In the Fall:

  • Football Game Parties:  This year, my son and I are going to have a few family fall football parties to enjoy!
  • One Last Attempt to Camp:  We didn’t get camp out in summer because it was too hot.  It’s hard to go camping now because of all the activies the kids are in…
  • Campfires in our Backyard:  Yes, we’ll do this just like we did this past summer, but with sweaters on!
  • Soccer Games Galore:  With both kids in soccer, my wife and I get to enjoy a lot of games…  Recently, we attended a soccer tournament, that I enjoyed more than I thought I would.
  • Listening to Crinkly Leaves Blowing on Trees in the Wind:  This is something that I have grown to appreciate!  When it’s twilight or even a little past dusk, I like to sit out on our porch and listen and watch the leaves blowing in the cool Autumn wind.  Usually I’ll be drinking a brown bottled beverage, and just chilling with my dog (she’s a female chocolate lab).
  • Trick-or-Treat:  My son is starting to outgrow this event, but luckily, my daughter is still into it.
  • Halloween Parties: For the past view years my neighbor has hosted great Halloween parties (I called them the Joneses), but now since they have moved to a much bigger house, this will probably not happen this year.  But there are other people to party with, so we’ll see.
  • Haunted Hayrides:  I think my kids are old enough to try this now…  We’ll see if I can convince them to try this or not.
  • Leaf Collecting:  My daughter loves to collect colored leaves in the fall.  She is such an amazing kid!!!
  • Jumping in Big Piles of Leaves:  Not for me, I know that leaves on the ground are dirty, but my kids still enjoy it.  We make them take a bath afterwards…
  • Driving to See the Sites:  We like to drive out in the country when the leaves go through their stages of color change!  We also like to go out and check certain areas that are known for dressing up their house for Halloween.  It’s a great time, that hopefully the kids will appreciate the drive this year.
  • Fall Festivals:  Apple Cider and fun times!
  • Visit to a Winery:  Is there anything cooler than going to a winery sitting out on the deck with a sweater one, just chilling your significant other (and kids in our case)?

Reader Additional Tips:

  • Nicole:
    • Visting the cities, festivals and fairs
  • Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
    • Outdoor excercising
    • Long walks in the parks (and the check out the new dog park)
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving Feasts
  • Invest It Wisely
    • Apple picking
  • Wealth Informatics
    • Apple & pumpkin picking, pumpkin carving
    • Fall colors drive (especially in Vermont)
  • Barb Friedberg
    • Take some week-end business/pleasure trips
    • Enjoy the changing leaves-and that includes of course long walks
  • Sandy L
    • Driving around and hiking up a mountain is always at the top of the list.
    • Apple pies and hayrides are a close second!

 

What cool fun things this fall are you planning to do?  Any special traditions?

-MR

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Posted in Environment, lifestyle

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Golfing On The Cheap In Hilton Head, Our Caddyshack Adventure

August 18th, 2010

Golden Bear

Last year we found a golf course a good ways away from the core activities of the island, that was relatively cheap.  But this year we wanted to be on the island and golf at one of the better courses.

We choose “Golden Bear“!  It’s a golf course in a gated community in Hilton Head.  The course is a beautiful Nicklaus-designed course, with a fairly challenging layout.  We saw exotic (local to the area) birds in the water hazards, and even a few alligators basking in the sun.  The houses along the golf course were spectacular (at least million dollar homes)!  Needless to say, I was amazed by both the scenary and the beautiful homes along the course!

To save on cost, decided to book our tee time at discount hours (after 4:00pm).  So we had a tee time set for 4:32pm.  The deal we got was $31.00 (it’s regularly priced in the $70s) per person, and we got my son in for free (perhaps because he’s 10).

So it was a bit expensive for my taste, but a lot cheaper than it could have been!  As we played, we had a blast!  At some holes, we looked like we were living scenes from Caddyshack.  In particular, my dad was driving off of the tee, and when he hit the ball, it hit a tree and came flying back at him (really it came back 10 feet to the left of him, but it was close enough).  My brother-in-law and I were roaring in laughter!  Another Caddyshack scene was when my son hit a ball that almost hit a very large stork-like bird.  The ball land so close to the bird that the sand that kicked up from the ball landing, hit the bird and causing it to fly away to another water hazard on the course.

One final moment was when my dad hit the ball and it hit the water, yet somehow the ball managed to skip across the pond surface and landed high on the fairway on the other side.  Without skipping a beat, I said that somewhere in pond, there was a turtle swearing out loud at my dad.  It’s still a mystery how his ball bounced out of the water, after all he was over 100 yards away when he hit the ball.  That was a first for me!

After we finished the 15th hole, the sun got tired of waiting for us and decided to go down.  The lack of light and the voracious appetite of hungry mosquitoes caused us to decide to leave the last two holes unplayed. 

It was a great experience, and by far the most challenging course I ever played!  Hilton Head is definitely a place full of discounts and deals… if you look!

Do you have any great ways to get deals on entertainment while in vacation locations like Hilton Head Island?

-MR

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Posted in Environment, Vacation

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Comfy Time Out On The Deck

June 29th, 2010

Not my deck but close enough

 

Yesterday after work, I decided to go out on the deck to chill out.  So, I unplugged the laptop and away I went!  

It rained earlier that day, washing away the hot muggy humidity that was lingering in the air making it hard to breathe!  These last few days have been more like a sauna, keeping me indoors instead of outside enjoying in the sun!  

Now, since the humidity is gone, I decided to go out and soak up the perfect environment.  The song birds are going crazy this evening, creating their frantic songs!  The clouds are slowly floating by, looking more like some grey ghost floats from a Macy’s parade than the soft billowy white clouds I’d rather see…  

My dog, while initially sniffing at the air, had settled down in her typical laying down position, looking like she doesn’t have a care in the world.  Occasionally, she’ll perk up at the sound of kids playing off in the distant.  Perhaps she thinks they are her kids (since my son and daughter are sleeping over at the grandparents).  

I decide to go into the fridge and grab the relaxing cool beverage in the usual brown bottle ;)   It’s a rare time alone, so I decide to blog about the experience, just to give a sense of what my life is like when I’m at my most relaxed time, batteries recharging so to speak.  And to read about some day, just so I remember how great it is here, right now, when everything is quiet and peaceful.  

I think how lucky I am to live in a clean, green world… and that minus the occasional distant kids playing, is very quiet and relaxing.   

As I turn slightly to my right, I see two rabbits jumping lazily in the neighbor’s yard.  I live in a 10 year old allotment, so many of the houses are newer and closer than where I grew up.  Seeing the rabbits aren’t that common, although one lived beside our chimney in the flowers a few years ago…  

In many ways, with the houses equally spaced, it kind of reminds me of a row of plants in a garden, although the trees have grown large enough now to break that feeling up a bit.  

In this type of setting, I do my best thinking and creating!  

I don’t get many days like this, but it’s part of living a frugal life, stopping to listen to the song birds and smell the freshness in the air after the down pour of a humidity freeing rain from earlier in the day…   

Life is good, and the evening is beautiful!  Soon the clouds will turn that reddish pink color as the sun starts to set.   

If you made it this far, thanks for listen to me ramble!  Some days like today are worth writing about alone!  

Have you stopped and enjoy any days recently, especially when it’s perfect outside?  I think it’s good medicine for a stressful life!  

-MR

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Posted in Environment

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The Invisible War Against the Oceans

June 17th, 2010

The more I see the spread of the oil spill, the more I think it looks like we set off a oil bomb that is equivalent to an explosion of a nuclear bomb’s mushroom cloud in the ocean!

Then I started thinking about other ways that we are causing damage to our oceans and the corresponding sea life.

This BP oil spill has the potential to kill thousands of sea creatures in addition to making the beaches unappealing to tourist.  It’s interesting that we really don’t seem to care about all the dolphins, fish, birds, etc that will be killed in this Oil spill disaster!

So what else are we doing to make our oceans a cesspool?  Well, we all know that the United States, Russian and other countries have dumped nuclear waste from their nuclear reactors into the ocean.  The United States has stopped that, but I bet some countries still does this (even if it is under the covers).  

Garbage also has been dumped into the ocean directly (New York use to do this), but I can guarantee that their are definitely some other countries that are going this still today.  Cruise ships still dump their garbage into the ocean when they are out at sea.

Next we have the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a slow churning of plastic waste products swirling in the ocean between Hawaii and Japan.  It’s size is hard to estimate, some say it’s ranges between the size of Texas to the size of the entire U.S.!  The bad thing is that fish are eating the smaller pieces of plastic and then we eventually eat the fish, or other animals eat the fish.

I really have to wonder how much damage we (all countries, not just the U.S.) are doing to the ocean and in the end to ourselves?

-MR

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Posted in Environment, Problems

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Is It Easier To Be Financially Successful In California?

June 11th, 2010

While reading a post called “East Coast Living – Is It Really That Bad?” at the ever popular pf (personal finance) blog site: Financial Samurai, Sam pretends to try and justify the reasons that people would choose to live on the East Coast instead of the West Coast (and in particular San Fran), all the while really identifying why the West Coast is a superior place to live.

Like most articles Sam writes, it was a cleverly controversial piece and is designed to make you think hard about the reasons you do live anywhere else other than California (or the West Coast).  While reading it, my mind wandered like it sometimes does… and I started thinking perhaps the Sunshine state really does have a financial advantage over the other states on the East Coast (and the midwestern states too for that matter).

Advantages of the perfect weather in California (in particular San Francisco):

  • More sunlight during winter months which may induce a more pleasant state of being.  There has been studies that promote the idea that winter blahs are caused by the reduced sunlight, which leads to a form of temporary depression.
  • They have less rainy days, so the residents can be more active and get more done.
  • Reduced heating and cooling utility bills, since they have perfect weather.
  • A consistent temperature!  Since San Francisco has the optimal weather, logic would dictate that the people living there would also be operating optimally.

Or maybe I’m wrong, perhaps this environment is so pleasant that the perfect state of being is a distraction with all of the great things to be done in such a perfect, consistent climate?  Perhaps it’s easy to forgo doing work and instead go out and enjoy the endless supply of perfect days?

Since California has the most millionaires of all the states, I’d would say that the theory that the perfect weather aids in your financial success might be plausible!  Or is it a spurious correlation?

Without the seasons, I wonder if time seems to slip by more quickly for those living in a perfect climate?  I hope it’s not like you move to Cali when you are in your 20s, and then the next day your are in your 60s and retired?  Maybe life isn’t as fulfilling without a bit of hardships (or nasty weather) to overcome?  Or perhaps people work harder to create their own challenges?

Does this make sense or am I way out in left field?

-MR

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