There are some benefits of getting older. You have enough money to live without borrowing. Not to say you couldn't live that way when you were younger, you just wouldn't have much of anything, not even name brand soup! Our Christmas present to each other is Tivo. Carter and Kent came by for a few hours yesterday for a birthday meal and Kent got busy and installed it for us and re-routed all our devices. Now miraculously DVD, VHS, Cable TV all play through surround sound speakers, and Tivo tells us what is playing on any channel on cable on any day. And if you have to take a phone call, you pause the TV. Furthermore, you fast forward through commercials if you want, or watch them twice if they were funny or interesting. I had no hope that I could get it hooked up by Christmas, so thanks a million Kent. My TV remote control has become obsolete and now the Tivo remote rules the electronic kingdom. I don't know how this is going to affect my TV viewing. I don't think I'll watch more TV. I do think I won't watch boring TV anymore. And I won't be staying up all hours to watch a ball game or the end of law and order!

When I look at what I have, moving into my mid-fifties, it is amazing. Fortunate to have good health, I work long hours and feel good. We bought an expensive mattress recently, a pillowtop contraption. It is wonderful. Should have had one of these long ago. But how would you know? I have fluffy towels hanging in the bathroom that no one uses and two rooms of beautiful furniture in bedrooms where no one ever goes. (Okay, someone goes in there 10 days a year.) There are things wrong with my house, and little by little, I can afford to fix them. My wife insisted that I buy a new car last year because the deals were so good. It's a Saturn VUE, you know, a small SUV. It is about the size of a Jeep Cherokee. It's the nicest car I've ever had. It may not go as far as my Volvo did, but hey, it's only half as expensive, so when it wears out I can get a new one and still be within my Volvo budget. Only thing is, I drive such short distances now that I might not be able to wear it out. We are thinking about moving into a more expensive home as an investment: larger deductions for interest, more appreciation on property values. Since we live in a Republican world now (which means that my investments are now less safe than gold coins in the back yard. Seriously folks, four years have passed and I have contributed to retirement funds the whole time and we have less money than we did four years ago, no appreciation, all monies contributed are lost. Don't you love that? Someone has my money and won't give it back.) we have got to find some way of protecting our "wealth" so we can retire and live out our days. How much longer can I do what I am doing? I'll tell you. Not that much longer.

I have a giant high definition TV and a surround sound system. Who needs the movie theaters!? I bought most of this year's Christmas gifts at after Christmas sales last year. This has resulted in nicer gifts at considerably less cost, but you have to be able to finance it don't you? We have purchased expensive things along the way and they have lasted so we have accumulated nice things, furniture, art, and instruments. I have an overwhelming sense that I have too much stuff and need to simplify. Stuff must diminish so I can find what stuff remains. I'm thinking of having a garage sale where everything is a quarter. I mean the object is to get rid of the stuff right? Who cares if you make $20 or $200 if you clean out the basement!? If stuff remains, the basement IS NOT CLEANED OUT.

Our holiday concert was so good that it has inspired new ideas for next year. We are not only a high school program. We are indeed, entertainment. Hmm. We are evolving into something different from high school programs and we have a unique character.

I'm putting a Tivo sticker on the window of my VUE.