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Showing posts from May, 2013

for sale

Last night before I fell asleep I was seriously contemplating selling my bass guitar and my violin. I own a 1974 Fender MusicMaster bass that I used in several punk-rock bands in the 1990s. I also own a 1902 Stradivarius copy that I have never really played. A few years ago I took it in for repairs and was told that if I played for 20 minutes each day that the violin would repair itself. I never did it. I could probably get $600 for the bass and maybe $50 for the violin, so it might not be worth it. That amount would be spent pretty quickly with nothing to show for it. I still owe $2900 to my debt. $650 would barely make a dent. Yet I don't intend to play either instrument any time soon so I would do it for two other reasons: 1) to de-clutter a bit 2) to break from my past. I played the violin in public school from grades 6-9. I went to music camp for a couple of weeks for two summers. I was actually pretty good by the time I quit. I was supposed to audition for a sch

money mistakes part two

The other day I was standing in our "back backyard," a large lot behind our backyard that we share with several other houses in the area, watching my son kick his soccer ball again and again into the net that someone had set up there. Parked nearby was a red SUV, and the appearance of the driver reminded me of one of the "stupid money mistakes" that I referred to in my last post. I think I posted over and over about my problematic previous vehicle, the red Ford. I had just put out another large sum to keep it on the road in July 2011. About two weeks later, one of the graduate students was in my office, and she mentioned that she had to sell her Toyota in two days before she left the province for good. I asked her about it, and she mentioned it was a 2005 Echo with 72 000 kms on it. I asked her how much and she said $5000, to which I replied, "Sold!" Then she told me that it was a standard, and I decided then that it was time to learn how to drive manual