Quirky thoughts from a simple mind

....are when you can be comfortable and happy. And it doesn't necessarily require lots of money and planning. In fact, I've had lots of great memories which were unplanned, spontaneous and only required a couple of bucks out of pocket.

Yesterday was a happy day. After waking up and cleaning a little around the house, I went over to Alvin's and Chris's for a nice Memorial weekend tradition........barbecue. Grilled vegetables, grilled brats, grilled steak, and beer. Mmmmmm. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

We sat around, watching Paycheck and making silly comments. And we sat around some more, watching Pistons basketball and cheering at the top of our lungs so they could all hear us in Indiana. And we sat some more, playing poker, getting slap happy at 6 in the morning. The whole time we laughed, high-fived and got to know each other the way friends do. Give me a day like that anytime and I'll be happy.

....was the sound of the ball flying away from the Pacers rim after Tayshaun Prince swatted an attempted Reggie Miller lay-up. The play of the game. Potentially, the play of the series. If ever you needed an illustration of hustle, that block was a great example. I must've watched the replay 30 times last night.

Series tied, 1-1. Coming back to the D. Gotta defend the home court.

GO PISTONS!!!!!!!

YEAH PISTONS!!!!!!! This series with the Nets was one of the most exciting series I've ever watched and I got to be at two of the games.....and it's even better now that the Pistons have emerged the victors. Up and down, two blowouts by Detroit, two by New Jersey and then a couple of tight games. Capped off by a clinching game of dominance by the Pistons. Gotta cheer 'em on as they go on against a tough Pacers team.

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So I can really tell I'm getting older now. On our way to the game, Alvin asked if I wanted to take a day trip to the Ikea near Chicago. If he had asked me that 5 years ago, I would have snorted and wondered why we would go to Ikea when Chicago is full of all kinds of real fun things to do. But last night, I responded as if I was a kid just being told that he was going to Disney World. The excitement surprised me. And thoughts of coffee tables and bookshelves and ottomans swirled through my head.

....to the east side. I came to an agreement on the price of my new place. Check it out by clicking on the link on the right.

The whole negotiation process was pretty exciting. My buying agent has been excellent and has made sure I've known everything I've needed to know. Stuff about negotiations, contracts, financing. And it seems like we got the place for a steal. I probably won't be able to move in until July or August, so maybe I'll have a little get-together in the fall for everyone to come by and check it out. Now, I just gotta find furniture to fill it up...

The best thing about it is that there isn't much improvement that needs to be done according to my tastes. With me being so busy during the first year of my residency, I don't think I could have lived at a place that I thought needed improvement and not have the time to make those improvements.

Speaking of not having time, I'm gonna try going my first year without cable. I'll still have a television set in my place to watch DVDs. I figure that I won't have much time to watch television with my schedule. And I guess I'll be saving a little bit of money.

So the community I'm buying into is a cooperative. It's similar to a condominium with a few important distinctions. First, I'm actually buying a share of a corporation. Once I close, I'm going to own a title to a share, not a deed. So, I have a say in what goes on within the community decisions. The major appliances (refrigerator, stove, oven, furnace, washer, dryer) are actually owned by the coop and so it is responsible for their upkeep, along with plumbing and electricity. My association fee is much higher than what I would pay in a condo, but that is because a portion of it goes towards my share of the property tax, which I can write off when I file my taxes. The coop takes care of landscaping, snow removal, roads and trash pick-up. Overall, it's a very convenient way to live. Another big plus is when I move to a house, at that time I will still be considered a first-time homebuyer and can get some of the benefits associated.

.....onto my colloquial soapbox for a little while. This is a little bit of sociological observation I've been tossing around in my head for about a week.

Before I start, I'm not a big fan of making sociological observations like the one I'm about to present for a few reasons. First, I've never taken a sociology class, so I do not resemble anyone knowledgable about making sociological observations. Second, many times, sociological observations that I have made have been previously observed by someone else and were presented much better. And third, these observations tend to come without practical solution and so generally are complaints with no other purpose.

With that said....

It seems to me that many of society's problems revolve around the need for immediate gratification. Credit card companies thrive on this. It's part of the problem leading to drug use and unplanned pregnancy. It's the reason why teenagers are spending time in gymnasiums trying to be the next 18-year-old #1 overall draft pick. Casinos are successful by enticing people with opportunity for immediate gratification.

I will admit that the chance for immediate gratification is a temptation to me, too. I get excited watching somebody push all their chips into the pot during the WPT. I've bought a couple of lottery tickets in my lifetime.

The fulfillment of immediate gratification is dramatized and promoted all the time on television. Ed McMahon made a living on it. It's seen on reality-based shows. It takes up huge segments on the news.

But most of life is not the realization of such opportunities. Most of life is lived as a series of miniscule steps. We try to move forward with these steps, though this is not always the case. These miniscule steps never make it on television. It's never hyped up in the news. You won't see pictures of it on billboards.

This is a shame. Putting forth effort and moving forward slowly but surely is not something to be taken lightly. It requires a great deal of energy and perseverence to work towards a far off goal in small increments. Most people live their lives this way. It is an honorable way to live. And it hardly gets any press.

Some would say that reality based competitions such as Survivor and American Idol are a microcosm of endurance and perseverance. And I would say that is a load of crap. Those shows are taped over a few weeks and focus on the gratification portion. Their goals are realized in a very short time span. The larger goals of most of society are set in timeframes of months to years. And the work towards those goals has yet to be televised.

So what is my point here? I don't know. Like I said before, I'm not very eloquent when it comes to making sociological observation. But these are some of the quirky thoughts which have been sloshing around in my head for a little while.

....and it's not even noon. This morning there was the smell of freshly cut grass, the sight of blooming flowers and the feel of soft spikes scraping against the gravel cart path. Yes, I went out and golfed this morning. A tremendous way to relax. 9 holes of morning golf with no group behind to hurry me along. I teed off 4 balls on every hole. One of the greatest lessons golf teaches you is how to be humble. It may be the sport which can teach you this the best. I had been playing ok by my standards for 3 holes (meaning I hadn't yet lost a ball in the woods) when I crushed 4 beautiful drives on the 4th hole. All in the fairway, consistent distance, within about 15 yards of each other, about a pitching wedge from the green. I looked over my accomplishment and smiled. I stepped over the first one with a feeling of immense pride, swung and proceeded to duff the ball about 20 yards. The next I sent left towards a tree and it came careening off the side into the rough. The third went high into the air the perfect distance only to land in a sand trap. And the fourth was a repeat of the first. Humbled from my high perch. But I was still out on a beautiful morning golfing. So it's still a good day.

I am now realizing one of my regrets from my undergraduate education. I never took an economics class. The closest I came to economics was the plethora of math classes I had to take for my biophysics degree. I wouldn't even know where on campus the classes would be held. And it's biting me in the butt right now. All kinds of terms of financing which I'm hearing which are as good as Greek to me at this point. PMI, ARM, points, blah, blah, blah. And the numbers floating around are larger than any numbers I've personally had to deal with. The most I've ever had to pay for has been for a computer. And now the numbers are almost 100 times bigger than that. This growing up thing is going way too fast for me right now.

And yet, the growing up thing seems to be going so much smoother for others. Some of my friends are already purchasing houses. I can't even imagine having to take care of a house. The community I'm looking at takes care of maintenance of plumbing, most of your major appliances, landscaping, trash and snow removal. I can't trust myself to mow a lawn regularly. I'm hoping that I can have my mothly payments directly taken out of my checking account because I can't trust myself to remember to mail out checks at the beginning of every month.

I'm sure my patients would be pleasantly pleased to hear about all this responsibility I can't handle. Yet the medical system can trust me with taking care of some of the sickest of the sick. Just remember: if you need to go to a teaching hospital, don't get sick in July.

Have you ever had a great idea that you never carried out?

About 5 or 6 years ago, I had an idea of opening up a slushie shop. Kind of like an ice cream parlor except with different flavors of slushies. I wanted to call it "A World of Slush" and each slushie flavor would represent a different country. And for filling up a cup on a particular flavor, you would get a stamp in your slushie passport the way you get visa stamps when going through customs. Each flavor would have a different stamp. And you could turn in your passport after getting visas from 10 countries in return for one free slushie. Or you could get one stamp from all the different countries for an "Around the Slushie World" prize. I told various people different parts of this idea, but never seriously thought of opening such a place.

So I was walking through town one day on my way to get a haircut when I pass a new shop. I stop in to check and inside, the wall is lined with the distinctive slushie machines, about 8 of them with sixteen flavors churning around. And it's got some tropical theme to the store. The first thought through my mind was, "Did this guy steal my idea?" I couldn't believe it. One important part of my idea, though, which was not reflected in the location of this new shop was that I would put a liquor store right next door to my slushie shop. I figured that some people would get the bright idea of buying a slushie and then going next door to buy some rum or vodka and have themselves a little happy drink to walk down the street with.

So, I got another bright idea today and I wanted to document it. And if I see this idea get developed, I'm hoping to snag some royalties down the road.....though I think this idea might be in the works already.

Since I'm moving into a condo, I was thinking that I would not want to have a land line because I already have a cell phone and don't feel the need to have a separate land line phone. But one thing I would hate would be to be at home doing some work in the basement and leaving my phone on the 2nd floor. So my bright idea today would be to have a system where once you're home, you can plug your cell phone into a central station that would charge the phone as well as detect incoming calls. Once a call comes into your cell phone, if it is plugged into the central station, satellite stations that you can place throughout the house would also become activated and could be picked up to answer the call. And, as long as the cell phone was plugged into the central station, then you could even make outgoing calls at a satellite station that would channel through the cell phone connection. One problem with this is the situation where you forget to plug the cell phone into the central station and you attempt to make or take calls at a satellite station. I'd really appreciate some feedback about this little idea.