Pour Richard’s
Today I checked out Pour Richard's Coffee. It's part of my "I don't know, I'm bored and have done pretty much everything there is to do in this area" phase of my life.
I guess I am just kind of bored. I would move, and I will move, unless by some sort of miracle I end up meeting some girl and we end up happily ever after together living in this area raising a family and what not...
All that aside... I have to wait until after February of 2018. Otherwise, I EAT it in taxes selling my mom's house (Which is now my house).
My plan is to eventually continue to downsize, and mobilize. I guess ideally, I'd like to end up with just a smallish apartment and just move like once a year maybe?
Not sure yet.
What I do know is, I want lots of invested assets that produce income. So, even if I just sit at a coffee shop and read a book all day every day... should I choose not to work...
I can just know that all my bills will be paid for by my investment income.
That is the dream.
No stress. Just, sipping coffee... Preferably by a beach somewhere.
And maybe working on writing books... Or reading books. Or just playing my guitar and a drumset and recording music in an apartment somewhere. Preferably within walking distance to a main street with some bars and such that I can go have a drink and a good burger, and then head home and Netflix.
FOR NOW THOUGH...
I'm on my quest to visit new coffee shops that I've never visited before. It blows my mind that I still find new things to do in this area. I mean even in the last year I've been to beer festivals that I've never gone to, and coffee shops, and bars that I've never been at.
I took that acting class. That was new. I mean... the whole Science After Hours thing...
All new.
Crazy.
Like I said, I'd be more inclined to stay where I'm at if I could just meet someone...
But, I'm not having much luck in that department.
Oh well, it is what it is...
I'm still going on random dates from the dating site... None of them ever seem to pan out though.
I try to meet someone in real life but everyone I strike up a conversation with... Bar, coffee shops... Events... Festivals...
None of them are single. And it's not just like they are kind of sort of seeing someone... They all are like... married, or they live with the person.
Like I said, it is what it is.
The best I can hope for is that once I do sell this house and move... Dating prospects might be better somewhere new. I've been looking up potential new places to live... Seattle, Nashville... Boulder... Chicago... Somewhere in New England... Maybe San Diego...
Not sure yet. I'd love to find the best city for 30 somethings...
I guess for now it's just kind of... Waste time doing things like find new coffee shops... and strike up conversations with married people.
And then check my phone and reply to the latest dating site conversation until she decides to stop responding. Or we go on a date... It does happen from time to time.
Oh well... At least there's coffee right?
I go to the gym a lot lately too... Just stuff to pass the time.
I feel like love probably isn't going to happen for me. I'd definitely settle for just a kiss with someone new. I'd be up for that. Right now, that's probably my dating goal.
Just someone to kiss. I won't even bother thinking long range.
Just, a kiss would be cool.
Or, even just someone to have coffee with. Although not someone married... that be weird if I went on a coffee date with a married person.
I've kind of done that before. It's weird. To be fair though... I didn't know she was married. But that's a story for another time. That's like the time I went on a movie date with a girl, who I was setup with, who then brought along her new boyfriend.
Dating is such a train wreck to be honest. I'd rather just explore new coffee shops and sit there sipping down coffee and getting a good coffee buzz going and working on stuff on my laptop. Or reading. Or just people watching. Soo... That's my plan. Find as many new coffee shops as I can, and get all hopped up on caffeine.
Plus... The latest research indicates coffee is good for you in all capacities. So... I don't even have to feel bad sitting there slurping away!
My Friend Cab Franc
So, I'm drinking this cab franc wine. And... Well, I'm watching Netflix, and such. And I made dinner... and since I don't have anything to do tomorrow, I decided to have a little more... Like, I've had half a bottle.
Okay, for ME, that's a good amount. I know, some people can do a whole bottle in a night like it's nothing.
ANWAYS... I've had half a bottle.
Okay... So I decided between Netflix shows to read a little news. I read news pretty often. And, there's some specific news that I read. I mean, it's top news. It's hard to ignore. I actually heard it yesterday, but I was reading more on it.
So, I guess it just, made me think about someone. Okay, yes, I mean, I think about her a lot ANYWAYS... I've still yet to figure out why that is... But now I'm just like... REALLY thinking about her.
So, I'm just thinking about this girl and thinking to myself... I wonder if she's, you know... okay. Odds are... She's fine.
I'm sure she's fine. But I can't help but think, you know... What's she thinking, or feeling right now. She lives near where things happened (the top news thing). And, so... I mean, hopefully she wasn't anywhere near it, and no one she knows was anywhere near it. But... I don't know, she's just on my mind.
You know what I mean?
I'm not going to check any of her stuff. The last time I checked it, like March or whatever, I got all upset... So I'm not going to check her stuff. And...
But...
Well anyways. I'm just thinking about her and hoping that she's okay. That's all.
Maybe it's this wine or something. But... hey I'm allowed to wonder.
So, anyways, that girl that last lived in this place that I've decided to code name "p-tation" to keep it all anonymous and what not... I just hope she's okay, more so than I normally do, given the news.
So, my cab franc and I just wanted to say that.
Snowy Day
Today was a snowy day... Not a snow day. Snow days are when I'm off work. So... today was just a snowy day. I mean, I was off work, that much is true, but I was off work no matter the weather conditions.
I shoveled some. Worked on a few things here and there around the house. Made a to-do list of things to do. I have to rewrite some checks to my sister that never made it to her house that I mailed before xmas. They fell into the US Postal Service mail abyss I guess.
I googled it out of curiosity. Apparently there's just a certain percentage of mail that gets lost every year.
I believe it. I mean, heck, I've received my neighbors mail like 2 times in the last couple months. So... I don't have much faith in the postal service. Also, one of my mom's friends used to work at a sorting facility and he said sometimes stuff just gets caught in the sorting machinery and if it tears too much, they just trash it. He told me he had seen that happen on numerous occasions.
I'm going to Fed Ex certified with tracking and delivery confirmation this time.
It's just 529 money for her kids for college.
I was thinking of putting a stop on the checks, but it's pointless, the checks are made out directly to the exact account number of the 529 with the kids name. So if anyone tries to deposit it or cash it, they can't. That's the only place that check can be deposited.
Plus if someone like, stole the mail, and tried to deposit the checks into their own account... My bank reimburses 100 percent for fraudulent activity.
I often wonder how much work is "redone work" because someone didn't do something right.
Like, so... Someone messed something up. Or they did something but delivered it to the wrong place. Or, they put the wrong thing on the wrong thing.
Like, how much work do people do because they have to fix a mistake. I feel like that happens from time to time. Especially in business.
So, then some intern did some work wrong, and then a person in charge of that department has to go back and re-do all that work that was done wrong.
That must suck.
Although, when you think about it... Most of life is correcting mistakes.
I mean, most of life is trying to make something right that has gone wrong.
A lot of businesses are based on that. Like, I'm at a Starbucks right now... They make their money off selling coffee. Why do we buy coffee? Because we're sleepy and we want to wake up.
Fixing a problem.
Sleepy.... Coffee! Awake!
Problem solved.
Well anyways, so... Snowy day. I'll probably go to the gym, grocery store, get some gas. My plan tonight is to watch some Netflix and make dinner and crack open this bottle of wine I got in the fall while at the PA Ren Faire.
It's a nice Cab Franc red wine. I feel like winter time is good for red wines. I'm down to 3 bottles at the moment. I generally alternate between white and red. My next bottle of wine is going to be this bottle of wine I bought back in 2011... Supposed to be a b-day present for Miss Daylight. Buuuuuuuut... Well... yeah. Hmmm...
So, that will be my next bottle of wine to drink. Then I've got another red after that. I'll have to do some more wine shopping in the near future.
Wine is a problem fixer too... Hard day at work? Wine! Problem solved.
Post office failed to deliver your letter with some checks in it? Drink some wine while you make a new letter and write new checks.
Problem solved.
Too much coffee during the day and can't sleep?
Wine! Now you're sleepy. Problem solved!
I guess in this case coffee is both a problem solver and a problem maker.
That's like how snow is, it makes thing look pretty, or gets you off of work... But on the flip side, it makes things slippery... and causes problems.
Well, anyways... That's been my snowy day so far.
On second thought, I'll probably put a stop on those checks anyways. It's the responsible thing to do. Speaking of responsible things... I'm off to get gas, then go to the gym...
Then it will be dinner, Netflix and wine time while I unwind on this Saturday night and enjoy my weekend. Nothing like cozying up with a glass of red wine and a good TV show or movie while covered up on a blanket on the couch on a cold snowy night.
When I was Two I Fell In Our Backyard Pool
This poor realtor.
He's probably thinking all these hits he got all of a sudden came from prospective buyers.
Legit though, who has a cool 6.5 million sitting around to drop on a house?
Not I.
Although I WISH I did. Anyways, my sister posted it after I posted it, on her Facebook... and from all of her friends and our extended family watching the video... It's racked up over 100 views.
So, this was my grandparents house growing up. we'd go for dinner pretty much every Sunday.
My grandfather would wrap the seats in plastic wrap. And we would sit on phone books because we were too short to reach the table.
My aunt seems to think it's a little over the top. I say... If I had 6.5 million, I'd put the money down without even a second thought.
So, whoever owned it last added a second floor and redid the entire house.
My grandparents owned it from 1971 to 1991... They sold it in 1991 for about 1.5 mil to move up the coast to live in Montecito. They actually had a house built to spec. That house was sold for about 3.6 mil and put into the trust when my grandfather passed.
Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll be able to buy Mom and Pop Pop's house back. I personally LOVE the house.
Plus it has a lot of fond memories from when we were kids.
My goal is to maybe work it in the music industry, or get my book published and then make that into a movie and then make enough to buy the house.
I don't know. Some how, some way. I want to buy that house back.
Oh, so... Mom is my grandmom, and Pop Pop is my grandfather. Just to clear things up. See, my mom we called her mommy. So... we called my grandmom mom.
Although, my grandparents used to call one another yum. I'm not sure where that came from. My grandmom actually at one point had AOL Instant Messenger. Her screen name was yum191.
191 was the address of their house in Montecito.
ANYWAYS...
I love that house. I mean the Montecito house was pretty awesome too. But that house? It's in the Pacific Palisades. The thing is... One day I'd love to be someone in the music or movie industries...
So, I feel like that house would be super fitting to own. There's family history with it. And additionally... It would be only a short drive from Hollywood/Beverly Hills.
The trust is still in Beverly Hills. So, I mean... there's just lots of nostalgia happening all over with this whole setup.
We'll see.
Right now I just live here in Philly. But, I'm hoping in a maximum of 5 years time to be owner of that house and somehow/someway involved in Hollywood.
I actually have two new tunes that are on the precipice of being completed. One is basically, for all intents and purposes, finished. The other still has a ways to go.
I'm about halfway done the cover art for the song that's pretty much finished.
SO, that's rolling on.
As far as some kind of legit way to get back to LA?
My year end investment income was more than last year. So, if nothing else, my own personal investments are on track to help me make money.... Even if I just slept all day every day.
What's awesome is that some of the investments I own have increased their quarterly dividends. So, I've done ABSOLUTELY nothing but sit here and hold the shares in these companies... And now in 2017, I'm going to make more money than I did in 2016.
One of the stocks I own is called CoreSite Realty Corp. I've had this one for a couple years now. They basically run data warehouses for cloud storage. The previous quarterly divvy was 53 cents a share in 2016... This year though? I'm at 80 cents a share for 2017.
So, if you had owned 10 shares... your quarterly dividend salary every 3 months would have been $5.30 in 2016...
But you would have gotten a raise of $2.70 cents per quarter.
So, your new quarterly salary is now $8 dollars a quarter.
If you own 100 shares, you get 80 dollars a quarter.
If you own 1000 shares it's 800 every 3 months.
And so on and so forth.
This is why I own dividend growth stocks. I could literally sit around with my thumb up my butt and NOT ONLY make money but, I would still get a raise every year.
I'm pretty much just a buy and hold investor. Right now the stocks are own are the ones I own. But I'll definitely be buying more over the course of the next year. Each one I buy is pretty much... Buy, and done. Hold forever. Collect an ever increasing dividend income salary.
A lot of my stocks have been bumping their dividends up. So, I'm definitely going to make a significantly higher dividend salary this year than I am last year.
I currently own 50 different stocks... But I've got cash yet to be invested.
So, obviously my dividend income stream is just going to continue to go up.
This doesn't count the trust. The trust is sitting there being managed by a professional on our behalf.
So, no matter what, even if I screw up my own investments and mange to completely lose my shirt... I've still got friends at that bank in Beverly Hills, a portfolio manager, and a team of analysts, who's entire job it is to figure out how to make this trust grow as much as possible before me, my brother, and my sis turn 50 and the trust is cashed out.
At that point, I'm going to still have them, or some major bank/investment firm manage the pot of money, I just want the dividend income stream coming off it.
Anyways... The plan is to one day figure out how to A) become a famous musician/author/Hollywood actor... OR B) hopefully I'm able to become a super savvy investor or the trust is invested SO well, that it balloons in size enough for me to be able to...
Buy back that house.
That's one of my dreams.
Get back to those Sundays by the pool.
Although, minus my mom, and my grandparents. But... Still. I think that would be cool.
True story though, our other house had a pool growing up... and apparently at 2 years old I fell in, and someone had to dive in and rescue me.
My mom literally told me a thousand times who it was.... and now, I wish I had paid more attention. I THINK she said it was this one girl Tiffany that dove in after me. I could be wrong. Tiffany is who I THINK it is.
Tiffany is now married to the VP of a past US Prezy. But at the time her family lived down the street from us in Southern California.
So... if it WAS her... Basically the only reason I'm still living and breathing at this very moment and didn't drown in our backyard pool when I was 2 years old... Is because the current daughter in-law of a previous Vice President of the United States of America jumped into a pool and saved my ass in 1984.
To be fair though, almost every house in Southern California has a pool. I imagine there's a LOT of 2 year olds falling into backyard pools and having whoever was nearby jump in after them to save them. It's probably a fairly common thing in Southern California.
Coffeemaker
The other day I decided to pull out my mom's coffeemaker. It's just your standard run of the mill Mr. Coffee brand coffeemaker. One of those drip brew ones. Nothing fancy. It turns on, and off.
I ran some water through it to see if it even worked. it seemed to work. I then cleaned it out using vinegar, and then ran water through it again.
Then I made a cup of coffee this morning with it instead of my usual French press. It's a totally different taste. Way smoother. I like French press a lot... But this was good too. I'll probably end up switching up my mornings.
Sometimes I go with tea as well. I mean, it all depends on the day.
The thing about French pressing though, is that I don't use specifically course coffee like you're supposed to use. I use a regular fine grind. Then I wrap a filter around the mesh plunger part and slowly press down with that. It does eventually press. You just have to keep at it and do it slowly over the course of a minute or two. When you just use the wire mesh part, you can just push down.
It makes for a STRONG brew though. When you use a fine drip brew blend in a French press... Be ready for it. It's pretty strong. I'll then sip that at work pretty much all day.
What's interesting about the drip brew was, I really drank it fast. I was done that by about lunch time. I then switched to tea. I guess because it was much smoother and a way more mellow flavor than the usual french press steep, I just kind of drank it much faster.
I think overall, I prefer French press. The thing about using the coffeemaker though is, it's just quicker. It's a lot easier to just toss a coffee filter than it is to clean out a French press. Even though I use a filter on the press too, I still have to clean it out after the brew.
I might just end up switching to drip brew and then maybe save French press time for the weekend or when I really want a slowly steeped enjoyable cup.
I was considering going and getting some kind of fancy coffeemaker, but the thing about this one, even though it's just your bottom of the line Walmart coffeemaker, is that my mom used to use it to make her coffee. So, it just has that connection to her. Which is much more meaningful to me than some kind of super fancy coffeemaker.