The Flamingos

Actual (paraphrased) conversation from, I think, yesterday:

Himself: Should we just get rid of the flamingos?

Herself: Eventually, but not right now. It helps people find the house.

We were talking about our cheap plastic flamingos in front of our house. We do use them as a landmark when we want people to find the house. When it is for sale, though? No. They are out of here.

There will be no place in condo life for cheap plastic flamingos. Our high rise will have strict rules about what can be on the balconies for safety and aesthetics. Fine with me. Sadly I once had an extensive collection based on the pink birds.

It is much easier to hang on to digital photos. This one is from May 2006, our anniversary trip to Paris. I talked about this shop window before using a different shot.

I think I have five or ten cubic feet of actual prints of photos. I have discarded (or given to the art magnet school for collages) a lot of rejects and dups. But more reduction will be needed. Some I have in physical form that started out digital and some that started out as emulsion have been scanned. But mostly it was (1) develop film; (2) stick in boxes, drawers, albums; (3) sort later until nothing can really be located; (4) despair at the collection and what to do with it. I have tried to move most prints and slides to archival quality storage. Also a lot of my mom's collection. But some are still in boxes, envelopes and cheap albums. Sigh. Yeah, it's easier to keep thousands of digital prints. If, you know, you have backup!

Lots of Pink

First, I'm still sorting old photos in spare moments.

A little perspective on this one. The last job of my working life was at a company where I worked for over thirteen years. The last office I occupied was in a building that was newly built to be rented to our company's location in Austin. I chose a large but windowless office. I think we chose in seniority order and I had a lot of that.

The large size accommodated a lot of frivolity and collections and the blank walls made good places to park posters and prints that we didn't have room for at home any longer. A collection of flamingo stuff went on display. I have little of this stuff now. I saved a few things but mostly I gave it away. The neon light to a woman who worked there whose granddaugther wanted it to decorate her bedroom. A box full of the geegaws to the thrift store. When I left work I had to move home a ton of stuff and in an uncharacteristic fit of downsizing I did get rid of some of it.

While I worked there, however, I think people enjoyed the busy collection of pink flamingo stuff as well as various toys and globes and other things that decorated the place from time to time. I know it made me smile. Primarily I have photos to remember that. And that's good enough. And yeah it seems silly. Now that I'm all grown up and retired.

Financial Advice

Who am I to give financial advice? Nobody. I don't have a designation with a C in front of it like CPA or a Certified Financial Planner. Still, I have advice. Everybody does.

First there is my basic philosophy. It has a three-letter code like all those certifications. Only it begins with D. It is DDE. This is the DDE financial philosophy. Debt-free. Diversified. Enjoyable. You will be SO much better off if you pay off your debts, don't put all your eggs in one basket and make sure that you enjoy what you are spending your money on. (As far as possible. This doesn't mean you shouldn't pay your taxes or your utility bill.)

There are all kinds of caveats and corollaries to my advice. Things like budgeting and investing and creating options for your life. But that's the basic tenet. Maybe others have done better than I with fewer opportunities. But I've muddled through with this philosophy.

And what, you may reasonably ask, does a picture of a flamingo dressed up as Patsy Kline have to do with this philosophy? Maybe nothing. Maybe something. Patsy decorated our table at the Red, Hot and Soul benefit on Saturday night for the Zach Scott Theater here in Austin. The donation to the theater was wrapped in the enjoyment of the Keepin' Austin Weird decorations. I like spending money on charity and also have an abiding belief in decorated flamingos. (And naked ones, too.) Hey and you should have seen the Brokeback Mountain flamingos!