What’s The Most Extravagent Purchase You’ve Made?
Something that I’ve been itching to buy is back in stock. A Kindle? Nope, not a Kindle (yet). It’s a new Nikon lens and it’s on the expensive side so I’m struggling with the idea of pulling the trigger. On the one hand I have the “Live for today!” mantra bouncing through my head, while one the other I have the “You must fix the house, buy a new air conditioner, save for the future, pay for a long summer vacation, yadda, yadda, yadda…” If I was a professional photographer I’d have no problem making the purchase, but it seems extravagant for what I do. What’s the most extravagant “off the cuff”, luxury purchase that you’ve ever made? Do you regret your purchase?
Read Along With Me
Today’s passage from Notes To Myself.
I won’t hold you to your words. Deep emotions are often expressed in irrational words.
To all who have helped me — Thanks.
Why Does Decluttering Make Me So Goddamn Happy?
Another of the extravagant purchases I’ve made recently was a $170 office cabinet in which I am storing a bunch of shit that’s been sitting on my den/office floor for way too long. “But Paulie, you are supposed to be getting rid of things not hiding them, right?” True that. But, the items stored in this cabinet are not on the “discard” list, so getting them organized and out of sight pleases me.
Next up, actually getting rid of stuff…
I Could Almost Feel The Pounds Melting Away
Running in the 6:30pm heat last night was not the brightest thing that I’ve done. It’s probably a good thing that there wasn’t a whole lot of “run” in either Martha (aka Laura) or me.
However, the slow pace caused Martha and me to hear, and then see the aftermath, of one of the worst residential car accidents I have ever witnessed. From three blocks away we heard the tire swerve noise, followed by a thump, followed by a series of thuds. When the two of us made it to the corner of Glenwood Av and Clifton Rd we saw the front two-thirds of a VW (Jetta/Rabbit/Passat) convertible on a lawn facing the road with its airbag deployed, and a van on its side blocking the right-hand land of Glenwood about twenty yards further down the street.
ITP Flickr Pic
Some random events are pleasurable. A few weeks back while strolling through Piedmont Park I came across this scattered set of cards.
This was exactly how I found the cards. I couldn’t help but play around with a little depth of field trickery.
If You Hear A Loud Explosion From The Marietta Area
Fear not, it’s just the sound of my belly exploding from eating too much Tasty China.
Digital Download Of The Week
Here is a list of the releases today. I can’t pick just one of these…
- The Briggs – “Come All You Madmen”
- Coldplay – “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends”
- Confide – “Shout The Truth”
- Anthony David – “Acey Deucey”
- Goo Goo Dolls – “Greatest Hits Volume 2″
- Ice Cube – “Raw Footage”
- MIGGS – “Unraveled”
- Judas Priest – “Nostradamus”
- The Notwist – “The Devil, You + Me”
- The Offspring -”Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace”
- Ride The Boogie – “Ride The Boogie”
- Silver Jews – “Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea”
- Tilly And The Wall – “O”
- Sister Hazel – “Before The Amplifiers, Live Acoustic”
- Wolf Parade – “At Mount Zoomer”
I will say that the ones that tickle my fancy the most are Tilly And The Wall and Wolf Parade, both of whom I will be seeing in concert at Variety Playhouse in July. I think that I’d also like the Silver Jews disc, and I have a longstanding soft spot in my heart for The Offspring.
And now for some ideas stolen from LiveJournal…
Current Mood – not bad
Current Music – Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 26 playing LCD Soundsystem — “Someone Great”
Website Of The Day – I keep chuckling at this one. Over at Color Wars 2008 they have a blog going called Young Me – Now Me where people recreate photos from their youth.
Exercise (b)Log – walking/running, 4 miles
Monthly Foot Mileage – 14 miles
Monthly Wheel Mileage – 38 miles
Mode Of Transportation To Work – My car
Monthly Marta Rides – 18
Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 75 (75)
Books To Read To Earn Kindle – 5
June Goals
1) Run no fewer than 75 miles
2) Ride no fewer than 100 road miles
3) Ride Marta no fewer than twenty times (ten round-trips)
4) Read at least one book
5) Make my bed every day
6) Eat out at a bar/restaurant no more than twice in one week
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Sweet Jesus, that website of the day is funny! Thanks for my giggles over coffee!
There’s a part of me that wants to submit my own version. This could be embarrassing.
The Sister Hazel album is definitely worth a listen, they do a fantastic acoustic show: http://free.napster.com/view/album/index.html?id=12848750
I pre-ordered it (on actual CD, one of the few bands I buy the CDs) and have been listening to it yesterday and today. Did you know it was recorded right there in Atlanta a couple months ago?
It did make me happy to see it included on your list of new releases
Shari
The old reporter in me can’t help but ask if there were any injuries/fatalities from that crash. As the old journalistic proverb goes, “If it bleeds, it leads!”
I want to do a submission, too, Paulie. Do I foresee a photo shoot in the future?
:runs off to dig up old childhood photos
Oh, and I forgot, the most extravagant purchase I’ve made in a while is the laptop I bought in March. My old laptop did still work, so I didn’t technically need a new one. But I had some money to spend, and I didn’t spend outrageously (got a Toshiba instead of an HP), but it’s sure made me happier since I’ve had such a spiffy laptop to work with.
I guess if you have a desktop computer, any laptop is an extravagance. But I lurve it. A lot.
@Shari: I had no idea. Sister Hazel has always interested me because one of my co-workers is childhood friends with the lead singer. I might have seen them play at the VaHi Summerfest if it wasn’t so hot, and wasn’t at VaHi Summerfest.
(don’t care for the parking fiasco that is the VaHi Summerfest).
@Brenan: Injuries? Definitely. Fatalities? Don’t know. I am extremely squeamish so I didn’t really stop to look. It’s the same reasoning I use to skip horror movies and justify not becoming a doctor.
@Stacy: A photoshoot could be fun. I’ll have to find a childhood photo of me where I am not nekkid however.
Extravagant purchase? Me, Mr. “squeaks when he walks”? Besides Just Enough Farm, Day Spa and Dude Ranch would be the tractor for same… not wanting to be the owner of “someone elses’ troubles” we bought Mahindra (the name and brand name of the tractor) brand new. No regrets…
Now I don’t know if the Beast qualifies, but flying to Detroit to buy a used dualy pickup off Ebay was probably our most outrageous purchase.
And we love them both dearly, don’t we honey?
-FP
HAHAHA! I was going to exclude the purchases of horses, farms, and the equipment necessary to maintain them, but then I questioned why you two should get a free pass.
At least you *live* at the farm, therefore it’s not as if you bought it as a vacation house or anything.
Paulie, I can promise you that if all you can find are nekkid photos, you’ll hear no complaints from me!
But, man, how fun an idea would this be anyway? I wonder if we could drag any other friends into it and make a day of it?
I can’t think of anything “extravagant” I ever purchased that wasn’t really NEEDED. But when I moved here, I did go out and treat myself to one of the best new mattresses ever (my “welcome to Atlanta” treat to myself). It was way better than I needed, but damn… I still have it today (I flip and turn religiously) and it’s still da bomb. DEFINITELY worth it. And if I had a glass of wine sitting on it, go ahead and drop all the bowling balls you want.
I used to be a religious turner and flipper of my mattress but got out of the habit when I started sleeping on the couch a lot. It’s much harder to turn a flip a couch.
Not that I’ve made a return to the bed I should start thinking about doing it again so that I don’t make a divot in the mattress.
Just heard that the driver of the VW was an aquantiance of ours/fellow cyclist.
I don’t know his condition but heard that his injuries were not life threatening.
Rumor has it he was hit by a drunk driver, who ran a red light after leaving the sceen of another accident.
Oh, that’s horrible! I hope that he will be alright.
We bought a sleep number matress, and it wasn’t the top of the line, but the next one below. It was pretty damn expensive in my opinion. Do bikes count? Maybe buying all Kohler special order fixtures for my bathroom? (they don’t look that expensive, but they do look nice)
Allan & I aren’t sure yet if we are stalking you at Tasty China tonight, I want to go out and do a bike ride, but who knows if I’ll still feel like it after work. We are supposed to go check on his parents house while they are in Europe, so if we have to drive to the other side of East Cobb, we might have to bring the bikes to ride down by the river.
I don’t think I have any childhood pictures here in GA, so I can’t play. I think they are all still at the parents house in Iowa. (and for those that are wondering, their house is fine, my brother’s house, not so much. Maybe by the weekend the water will be receded enough for them to go see if the water made it to the 2nd floor)
Barb, bikes count unless you are a professional cyclist.
If I see you, I see you. Of course if I *see* you then you are really doing a poor job of stalking.
Too bad about the photos, it would be fun. However I am glad to hear that your parents’ house is fine, but sad to hear about your brother’s.
OH – I almost forgot – I talked to Janie (Yeast Infection) yesterday, and she is thinking about reviving Muscle Mountain Mania. It has been a while so she thinks she can not have to worry or deal with Emory. Not sure if she will shoot for next spring, but just thought I’d let you kids know. Who wants to ride that damn Wolfpen Gap again? Maybe by next year I could ride it without stopping every 100 feet to rest.
and – I am going to Iowa in a month or so, maybe I’ll find some pictures.
I love that website of the day! My dad is coming up to see the baby next week, I’ll have him bring some old photos that I can recreate.
Laura has a picture of her wearing Wonder Woman underoos and a cape. Now THAT would be a good one to recreate.
There is a picture of me somewhere getting a bath in the kitchen sink… might be tough to recreate. And a pic of my brother and me in toy army helmets holding toy guns. That would be fun.
-FP
I bought the XSi kit instead of just the body as originally planned, at full price, and I don’t regret it for one second. I NEEDED it.
@Steve: You could “upsize” to a tub…. I just remembered that there are childhood photos of me in the NY Jets helmet that I currently have in my basement. *thinking*
@duane: ’twas a good purchase. And that’s coming from a Nikon user!
@Bob: Hey! Keep your Wonder Woman fantasies off my blog, pal!
Extravagant purchases? What’s this you are speaking of, I don’t understand? I’m just amazed that Steve didn’t start his list with the horses which are the root of all the things he did list. My work here is done! :-0
Martha, cnn.org has a headline about disappearing campers in Alaska, don’t make us come looking for you!
Martha- And we would too… just don’t go missing- go “missing”!!
Oohh… I never thought about horses!!! Of course I never bought a horse, I’m just an enabler!!! :-p
-FP
Yeah, thanks a lot, Bob! Now I’m having Wonder Woman fantasies about your wife, too….
Extravagent? A new house when I have a perfectly good one? does it count if it’s not under contract yet? E. Point here I come!
I have been, of necessity, good about throwing the tax refund at the bills when I get them… this year I threw part of it at a $400 RC plane and controller… the real bummer is I haven’t finished it yet, so it is a very expensive wall hanging currently… I’m guessing my still very tentative trip to Germany this fall would count. I know I need to be saving, but I want to visit my German host father as he was sick (cancer currently in remission, but you know how that goes)… if I didn’t have central air replaced, no WAY I would be spending any of the above.
Haven’t seen anything on the scale of the accident that you saw, but the big a** RAM truck throwing it’s drive axle then weaving all over 20W bound as his rear differential locked up (causing both rear tires to lock then POP) was quite the eye opener last week! Impressive driving as the dude manage to bring it to a safe stop!
I’m glad to learn I will be missed when I get eaten by a bear next month or suffer from some friendly fire while caribou hunting.
I’ve got both bikes…I don’t think they are too extravagant, less than a grand a piece.
We were discussing ‘buying’ a cabin…just what we need.
I told you last night I wanted to buy something (big) just can’t think of anything good right now.
I guess I should be happy with the fact that I haven’t done anything as extreme as Bob & Laura (Check My Bags & I Know That Trick). They went out and got a baby this year. They’ll be paying for that for at least the next eighteen years!
Dude, that colorwars website is killing me… love the family and “kids only” ones! Gonna have to ask my Mom for a funny pic… shouldn’t be too hard to find!
duh…almost $300 a month so I can sweat my ass off at 6 am 5 days a week.
Is that extravagent or just silly??
(And don’t say silly because I can kick some serious ass now
)
Bob and Laura BOUGHT that baby?? Don’t tell Debbie!!!
-FP
We didn’t buy the baby but when the daycare bills start next month I will be the one crying. Then there will be bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and the list goes on.
He better be good at something and get a sponsor.
Of course they bought the baby. It’s definitely not Bob’s, it doesn’t have a beard!
Dude, there was no cape in the underoos pic, but there were tube socks!
I guess it was my fantasy that involved a cape and the truth lasso.
Today might be the funniest, most random, thread of comments that this blog has ever seen!
LOL – it’s definitely Bob’s son. T-Rob grunts when he farts!
If you were a pro photographer, you couldn’t afford the lens. Look up the median salary sometime, I think you’ll be surprised.
Buy the lens, go broke, and then ask congress and the federal reserve for a bailout just like everyone else in this deadbeat country.
Acura TL. Next time, I’ll just get an Accord. It helps that the 2009 TL is butt ass fucking ugly.
I realize that photogs don’t make squat. It’s one of the many reasons I’d never consider it for a profession.
I will buy it, but I’ll have to wait until it is in stock again.