Both at the same time

Howdy, folks. I don’t have any personal-finance news for you today because my life continues to be in one of two states.

• I spend three or four nights at Duane’s house, helping to care for him. I buy him food. I prepare him food. I help him walk from room to room (because he cannot reliably do this himself anymore). I administer his drugs. I feed his fish. I take him on “field trips”. We watch the Aquarium Co-Op channel on YouTube. Or…
• I spend three or four nights at my house, mostly sleeping but also rushing to get as many household chores and errands done as possible. I buy groceries. I (slowly) work to build a fence. I water plants. I walk the dog.

This has been my life for the past six weeks, and will continue to be my life until the inevitable conclusion of this adventure. While I’m not looking forward to The End, I will say that I’ve learned a ton from this process. I’ve grown even closer to Duane (at least when he’s not in a narcotics-induced fog) and I’ve surprised myself with my ability to provide hospice care. Who knew?

So, that’s the life update.

I do have occasional snatches of free time, usually as I’m falling asleep at night. But rather than use those to read and write about personal finance, I use them to mindlessly watch YouTube videos. Here are a few recent favorites.

First, from the vlogbrothers, here’s a nice little four-minute mediation about seeing both sides at the same time. Like the narrator here, aging has led me to see the world as shades of grey rather than black and white. Things can be both good and bad at the same time.

Second, during a text conversation yesterday with Piggy and Kitty from Bitches Get Riches, I was introduced to the TierZoo channel on YouTube. Apparently this has been popular for five years, but I’d never heard of it. It’s incredible. At first, you think it’s funny — because it is funny — but you gradually realize it’s both interesting and educational. Here’s TierZoo ranking the best cats, for instance.

Lastly, here’s an hilarious three-minute video that substitutes Elmo for Paul Atreides in Dune. I was lukewarm on the recent Dune adaptation the first time I saw it. The second time, I liked it better. Recently, I watched it on my iPad while wearing high-quality headphones. Holy cats! I enjoyed it so much more. In fact, I’ve come to think it’s a masterpiece. And so is this little gem…

That’s it. Just a quick check-in. I’ve done zero work on Get Rich Slowly (or anything else) for the past six weeks, and there’s no work likely to happen for the foreseeable future. As I say, it’s 100% caring for Duane and time reclaiming sleep and mental energy so that I can go back and do it again.

I hope you all are doing well!

p.s. Okay, one more thing. This time off has given me a chance to think about a lot of things. Duane and I used to have long, deep discussions about Quality, for instance, inspired by Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. What I want for this site is a focus on Quality. I read this 1992 letter from producer Steve Albini to the band Nirvana and was impressed on how much Quality mattered to Albini. Well, it matters to me too, and I’ve been neglecting it for a while. Time to un-neglect it.

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