Another view from the balcony drifting in time

Looking from the balcony to the right -- as was the view from the photograph in my last post -- brought forward an obvious question: What was the view from the balcony looking to the left? Well, here you can see for yourself. Pretty much the same in either direction. Perhaps, it is the "street of dreams" below -- an endless street with endless traffic. But, no, I do not think so. Whatever name you wish to assign to this street, the post today is little more than a look inside my thoughts at a given moment in time just as the photograph is a look inside the Parisian world as it existed for a moment in July 2004. As for the music, many bands tried to emulate the Beatles back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), hard rock, heavy metal Deep Purple was among them. I guess we are witnessing evolution in action. Anyway, here are the original members of Deep Purple performing "Help." Personally, I think it is better than the version by the Beatles. And, here is Dokken, too, with "Paris is Burning" .... I seem to have missed that party.

There always is the unexpected

Today began as yesterday ended.

I seem to have something cosmic on my mind, whether it is a whimper or a bang, I am not certain. 

It has been sort of a strange day for me. (How often do I write those words?) What seems strange about it is that I am preoccupied with thoughts of repairs and renovations to my house. Some of you -- most of you -- are not aware that a hail storm caused considerable damage to this house during the early evening of August 6.

These things (repairs and renovations) had never occurred to me before the hail storm. They form another unforeseen element which seemingly has fallen out of nowhere into my life and has, to a degree, taken control of my time and my thoughts.

The insurance company has agreed to cough up about $15,000 for damage. What should I do? Pocket the insurance money? Spend the insurance money on the repairs? Spend the insurance money plus a bunch of my own money and do a more substantial overhaul of the house since work will be going on anyway?

On the one hand, I do not feel like putting  much of my own money into the house because I really do not like being here and do not consider my residency here to be permanent; on the other hand, I have thoughts of dumping a lot of my money into it on the gamble the housing market will improve and I can sell it for a substantially greater profit later.

I might even go crazy and tear down the old patio and build a new and better version of it. I even am thinking of three sides of glass and heated for winter. It would be a fascinating place to lounge during a snowstorm or to sleep beneath a full moon. Well, that seems like a lot of expense for a place I do not actually want to be, but you see how my mind goes back and forth these days ....

Hmmmm .... hmmmm .... hmmmm ....

These are not thoughts I want to dwell upon right now, but I must because insurance money always has strings attached and winter is just around the corner. Winter is not a good time for repair and renovation work.

 

Then, too, I had to cash out a mutual fund account this week because it was losing money like a tree loses leaves in the autumn. This process began in May when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke announced that the U.S. central bank would begin reducing its bond purchase program late this year.

A mini-panic of sorts followed, and I decided after four months that it was time to cut and run myself. I have a few months to find a qualifying, alternative investment, or I will have to give a lot of the money to an irresponsible, wasteful and increasingly corrupt federal government in the form of taxes at the end of the year. Again, like the house, not thoughts I expected to be dwelling upon at this point in time.

Back in 2009, I frequently thought about and wrote of leaving the U.S. The possibility has never been far from my mind, and it is stronger again now than it has been for a few years.

 

Back to the present.

I have had a DVD of "The Eiger Sanction" playing in the background (three feet away and bit to my left) over and over most of the day. I suppose it is a sign of my mind drifting and turning to past dreams that never materialized, rather than focusing on houses and insurance money and mutual funds and places I do not wish to be ....

Enough chatter from me for tonight.