My Mad December
December was another month of full-speed-ahead, bookended with two trips to Baltimore to meet and work with board members and senior executives of the business that’s been my primary source of income and satisfaction for the last 35 years.
In between were yearly board meetings with two of the family’s nonprofits: FunLimón, a community development center in Nicaragua, and Paradise Palms Botanical & Sculpture Gardens in Delray Beach… two development meetings with the CEO of Rancho Santana… an advisory board meeting with the English Department of a local university… a meeting with SS and Number Three Son to review the status of our collection of Central American art… a yearly review and planning session led by Number Two Son on the family’s business and real estate assets… a very encouraging marketing meeting with the creative team that publishes my books and courses in Japan… a meeting with Palm Beach County about zoning issues for our property in West Delray Beach… a Zoom meeting with a nonprofit that is working to support entrepreneurial ventures for veterans and ex-Peace Corps volunteers… an introductory meeting with RR about working with him on his business mentorship nonprofit… and a happily productive meeting with MC, the agent heading the six-year audit the IRS hit me with last year.
Not to mention the always engaging discussion/argument about a book selected by the Mules, the book club I belong to… the Monday afternoon lecture/discussions on political and economic freedom hosted by a secret cabal of writers, professors, and economists I was recently honored to join… two doctor appointments… three breakfast meetings… and my meager efforts to assist K in her month-long preparation for the last two weeks of the year when our house is happily filled with our kids and their wives and kids and at least a dozen friends and additional family members that drop by to celebrate the holidays.
Mad. And that’s how December has been for K and me and for the Ford/Fitzgerald clan for the 30+ years that we’ve been living in Florida, and I hope it continues until K and I drop dead from exhaustion!
Working with Your Hands, Tipping with Your Heart
There are people in my circle of family and friends that occasionally accuse me of being overgenerous in how much I pay and/or tip manual laborers. Their attitude seems to be: “What’s wrong with you? Are you feeling guilty about or trying to compensate for something?”
I find these interactions puzzling. These are people who know me as someone who once cut grass, shoveled snow, washed cars, built pools, painted houses, tarred roofs, worked in warehouses, bartended, babysat, and cleaned toilets pretty much non-stop from the age of 12 until I was old enough to draw a paycheck. Don’t they trust my judgment about how I should pay the people that do these sorts of jobs for me now?
Have you noticed that…
* People that have worked as servers are generally better tippers than those that haven’t?
* Managers that have never done manual labor tend to be the most demanding of laborers?
* Kids that never had to shovel snow or mow lawns or babysit grow up to be adults that are stingy when it comes to paying kids to mow their lawns, shovel their driveways, and babysit their kids?
And tell me this…
* On a restaurant bill, what percent do you normally pay?
* Do you base the tip on the entire amount or just on the food?
* Do you tip when you order food from a counter?
* Have you ever stiffed a server? If so, why?
* What was the biggest tip you ever gave and why?
How I Lost My Self-Esteem to ChatGPT
In response to reader questions, I’ve been making notes for a longish essay on the technology of robotics and AI and how it will impact the job market. My general view is that (A) the effect will be massive, and (B) it will come much faster than nearly everyone expects.
As you’ll see when I publish this piece (soon!), I’m predicting that we’ll see huge changes in the next three to five years. My advice for dealing with it will be my go-to position for all possible future upheavals: “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst!”
I should have followed my own advice. Because just before Christmas, I discovered that AI had replaced me in doing a job that wasn’t even on my radar screen. I’m thinking of my role as chief card and letter writer for K.
It happened quite suddenly and unexpectedly. K had mentioned when I left for work that she was counting on me to write the note to our nieces and nephews that would be attached to their Christmas presents.
So that evening, I sat down and began writing while she was dishing out our dinner.
“Oh, you don’t have to bother with that,” she said. “It’s done.”
“What? How could…?”
“I asked ChatBox to write it for me this afternoon.”
“You did? And you were happy with the result?”
She handed it to me. I was, I’m embarrassed to admit, quite good. Perhaps not as good as the best ones I’ve written. But as good as most, and better than a few.
A bittersweet moment, to be sure. Something won in terms of time. Something lost in terms of pride.
Semaglutide Experiment Update
I’m down to 196 pounds – 30 pounds from my peak.
My strength is down, too. Mostly, I think, due to a significant loss in fast-twitch muscle fiber. I’m working on reclaiming some of that by eating more protein (shooting for 100+ grams daily), resistance exercises, and five-minute sprints two or three times a day, trying to get my heart rate to its max. (It was up to 178. Now it’s about 20 beats less.)
My blood pressure is back to very good. It’s been at about 110/70 for the past 30 days. I’ve stopped taking the medication my VIP doctor prescribed. I’m awaiting blood test results to see what other old-man drugs I can trash.
According to the medical literature I’ve dug into the past month (NIH, the Mayo Clinic), the drug poses a small risk of three potentially serious negative side effects – pancreatitis, thyroid tumors, and kidney injury – although “the risk of these complications is considered low and primarily arises in individuals with pre-existing conditions or family history of these issues.”
On the positive side, I found a report on a large (86,000 subjects) study that found that participants taking semaglutide had more than a 50% lower risk of abusing alcohol – a benefit that people taking other weight-loss drugs, such as naltrexone or topiramate, didn’t experience.
I have noticed that since I’ve been on the juice, I rarely drink more than a single glass of wine or beer. That’s a third of what I commonly drank. So that’s good. But my capacity for tequila – which is almost unlimited – remains the same. I presume it’s a matter of viscosity – that wine and beer take up more space in the digestive system. But I’ve not found any research to support that.
