I Bought a House for $40,000!!

I bought a house! Does that mean I'm a real grown up now?

I bought a house!

Yes, I did in fact buy a house for less than many of my co-workers buy a car or truck. Now, you're probably thinking, 'it must have be a run down, falling apart house, with terrible crime in the neighborhood, and on wheels.' However, that's because everywhere I have lived the last 12 years has a decent housing market where houses always cost well into six figures if it isn't falling apart, and it's not uncommon for houses to sell for more than the asking price. Rural America is different.

The Dining Room and Living Room

Independence, Kansas had 9483 people in the last census in 2010 and my guess is it will be under 9000 people for the next one in 2020 due to some recent business closures in the last few years. That will be the smallest population in the town since 1910. Montgomery County peaked at over 51,000 people in 1930 and has been on a slow and steady decline since then to an estimated only 33,000 now. A huge driver in housing costs are population growth, or decline. The house that you can get in this county for $300,000 is incredible! On the one hand you can get a nice sized three bed two bath house a little older on 80 acres, or a newer four bed four bath 3000 sq. ft. show home monster on a half acre, or what about this five bed five bath on 20 acres! Did you see the kitchen in that last one? It's incredible. Point being these houses were built and haven't really appreciated in value, many even depreciated, so your dollar goes a lot farther.

Master Bedroom

Point being, you can buy a house in move-in-ready condition for a fraction of what that same house would cost in other parts of the country. That doesn't mean everything is perfect, but it does mean that overall you can save lots of money versus housing in a more aggressive market.

Painting

I want to dispel a myth, that houses are investments. Investments are things expected to go up in value, preferably faster than the rate of inflation, such as owning stock in a company or a bond. Expenses on the other hand are the things paid for to sustain your standard of living, such as rent, or car payments. In between investments and expenses are something I like to call hedges, or insurance, and that's where a house falls in my opinion. You can't really look at a house as an investment because it could easily go down in value, and you may have to put a lot of time and effort into the house to keep it in decent shape. On the other hand, if you live in the Bay area, your house's price could double in less than a decade, like a very good investment. The biggest difference between rent and a mortgage is that if you fail to pay your rent you can be kicked out in a month, but in a bad situation you could use the equity in your house to enable you to stay in it longer without paying your mortgage. Certainly an undesirable situation, but owning a house is a nice hedge against that sort of bad situation.

Maybe I should say I Stole a House?

So there you go, my mortgage details. Can you believe I got a 2.5% interest rate? What about a mortgage of only $35,000? Something interesting I discovered, on a mortgage below $50,000 you can't get a fixed rate mortgage. Which initially I was a disapointed about, but my adjustable rate mortgage is so good, fixed rate of 2.5% for five years and max of 7.5%, and it's only a ten year loan. It's the lowest interest rate I've ever heard of someone having in person, although online people have had even lower interest rates. 

My mom came down to help paint and move my stuff in, which was great! There are some things I have to do, the detached garage is leaning and there is no dishwasher, so those are high on the to do list. It is a small house only 1000 square feet, two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a small basement for tornadoes, and with a 1.9 car detached garage. It's a nice little house.

The New Place Struggle

At a bar in Sheboygan in April 2011 I confessed to the bartender I was nervous about moving to Dubuque. She told me to stick it out for six months, because I could always move again. She also told me to take American Family for motorcycle insurance. 

Well, my water was turned off today. Ironically I got home about 5:05 PM today, so after government offices are closed, on the first business day I have actually inhabited my house. And my toilet would not flush, and my sink would not flow water. Mystified I sent an email to the foreman asking for water and how to pay my bill. Then I did a search of my 15,000 unread personal emails and found the one saying I needed to come into the office with my drivers license and social security card (which I have no idea where that is). So yes, the email was in my inbox, it's my fault the water is turned off, and the bigger question is why do I have to go to the office in person?

I struggled this summer running in the heat. It was demoralizing. It contributed to my poor performance at North Coast 2016. Small town life is not feeling as accommodating for me now as it did 12 years ago. They shut my water off!? Seriously?! No waiting until I was 30 days late for my payment, no letter, no phone call, and just 10 days after I close, and half of that time I was in Brazil and 40 percent of it was a weekend. Seriously!!

While I am venting, I don't know of any place other than McDonald's with WIFI after 5 PM. No place to go pound a keyboard, or socialize without alcohol. Similarly, when Wal-Mart has the best vegetables, and best selection of unprocessed foods, it's hard not to cry. 

The World Moves Fast

I'm in Brazil this week, returning to the USA soon. In my free moments, and before I go to bed I've been checking the news, and even watching part of the vice-presidential debate. Sometimes it seems like the world is just blazing by. Space has been all over the place the past two months, with rockets exploding and people declaring humans will go to Mars. The biggest hurricane in over a decade is beginning to strike Florida as I write and the medical field is seeing it's fair share of news.

The interesting thing about seeing USA news from another country is that is seems less pressing than it does when I am in the USA. It's like when I am home I expect us to change and grow, but from afar, it is just happening, not good or bad or even interesting, it just is. I'll get back, and nothing will have really changed, but for some strange reason it feels like I might have missed out. Although, don't fool yourself, I've had a great time here in Brazil!

Tired: Confirmed

Strange feeling today, my legs were tired. This has happened every three days or so since the North Coast 2016. The might not sound strange to you, but here is the rub, I haven't run in two weeks! Why are my legs still tired?

I'm left to the most logical conclusion, when I said I was tired, I wasn't kidding and it's taking some time for my legs to recover. I will always be a runner as long as I can, but is this perhaps my retirement from competitive running? I don't know. This is uncharted territory for me, I've never DNF'd two ultras and climbed Mt. Everest and moved to a hot climate all in six months before now. So we will see what happens.

Is it ending?

Is my blogging ending? With only three posts in September, and no recent weekly updates you have to wonder. Well, I don't know.

Over the last seven years I've endeavored to share the ups and the downs. The problem is, as the ups get higher, there end up being a lot of downs. After climbing Mt. Everest, this really big thing, even using bottled oxygen, it's hard to adjust to a normal life again. This summer... trying to do something in the world of ultra running... I know where I've been in terms of physical fitness, and when I'm pretty far away from that it's hard to accept, or take joy in.

There is a saying, "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything." At the end of the day, after work and running and making supper, I'll be honest, there have not been a lot of positive thoughts going through my head this summer. It's hard moving to a new place and figuring out my routine. It's hard taking a new job and understanding exactly where my responsibilities are or where I provide the most benefit. It's hard not being in great shape with an important race looming. It's hard adjusting to hot and humid weather. It's hard having a broken hand, and now a somewhat shortened third metacarpal on my left hand that leaves me fearing I will have permanent problems, specifically rock climbing, from breaking it.

So I spend a few sentences venting, and where does it get me? Nowhere. The things I whine about are insignificant to the real struggles of the world. I mean, this is our presidential election this year! 31 Lies in one week?! Best part is destroying phones with hammers...

So who knows?

I need a rest. I need a break.

If there is something I learned this weekend, it is that I am tired from the last six months. Right about mile 87, 14 hours into the race, as I was struggling there, running with a broken hand, I'm thinking that maybe I pushed myself too hard and this what I get. Of course in the same moment I'm also berating myself for being weak and trying to channel my inner "beyond running" (which is a Yiannis Kouros quote).

One of the inserting things about bones is they will steal calcium from other bones if needed. It has scared me for years how Bill Rogers broke his leg going from the asphalt to the grass, perhaps a small vertical step. Which kind of scared me when I broke my hand, falling off the bike at three miles an hour?!

I don't know how our bodies distribute minerals. I know that our body prioritizes oxygen at altitude to our brains, heart and lungs with our fingers and toes being last on the list. I assume that just about everything in our body is prioritized, from the oxygen to the calcium to the water. It's quite interesting, and because I don't understand it I probably don't learn as much from my injuries and set backs as I should.

As I started running this summer I found I was weaker than I expected, Everest took something out of me, including up to 10 pounds. And perhaps racing 50 miles the day before I flew out to Nepal wasn't the best idea.

With the weather clearing on Nolan's 14 this summer I called it quits because I was tired.

Struggling desperately on a 5.9 at 13,000 feet with a backpack, I again called it quits because I wasn't up to task.

Because I wasn't feeling excited by my training I did a triathlon. What could possibly go wrong?

So when the wheels started to come off in the second half of the 24 hour run this weekend, it really should not have been a surprise.

The point is, I've been asking a lot from my body for a long time and I sit here with sore legs, chaffed everything, and a broken hand. I need a break. I need to really truly recover and build up those mineral stores in my body, or I am bound to repeat the same mistakes.

Trust: A Bullet "Proof" Vest

Trust is like a bullet proof vest. It's expensive, it takes a long time to build and if you don't build it well it won't be nearly as strong as you thought it was. A bullet proof vest is big, like a whole organization.

In this metaphor a bullet is poor morals, untrustworthy, the cheap and short-cut path. A bullet is small, reckless and destructive, not just to itself.

The challenge is building the right bullet proof vest for the bullet that comes your way, because there is always a big enough projectile (an Enron sized scandal) that could take you down.

Point being: trust isn't a given, it's developed day after day after day so that when the [Takata airbag or VW emissions] mistake comes you don't go the way of Enron.