Step One: Decide, Step Two: Take action...

It's time, finally... I think.  I've dreaded most aspects of my job everyday for the last 12 years.  Most days there are only a few things that get me up and off to work:  family, money, benefits, and retirement. 

Before I met Kimberly, i missed a lot of work.  Literally, i probably took almost a day a week off.  Looking back, it's surprising i was able to keep my job.  Still, after Kimberly and I got engaged, my attendance at work picked up quite a bit, and even moreso after we got married.  Since we've had Sophia, I almost never miss work, even when I am sick, or sore, or whatever.  It's not that i don't love being at home with my family, but that an innate sense of responsibility grows in a man with each step from marriage on.  At least, that's what I think. 

But, I hate going to work most days.  It's not terrible.  It's a very well paying job.  I got in with merely a high school diploma.  It's afforded us a move to Minnesota, food and clothing for 2 adults and 2 kids, 2 cars, and a townhome.  It's got some of the best medical benefits available, and good retirement.  It's pretty secure, too, so i don't have to worry too much as the job market fluctuates.  So, why would i be considering leaving? 

I've got no logical answer for this question, except this:  It's not my heart's desire.  It sounds stupid to some degree.  Who cares if your heart is in it, right?  The money is good.  But, as someone who's been doing this for 12 years, i can tell you with conviction that doing something you love goes much further than the money you make doing it. 

I've pondered a career change, returning to school, doing something i WANT to do for a long time.  The the ponderances usually result in the same thing.  I think of all the reasons why I can't do it, or why it doesn't make logical or financial sense.  Then, I decide to keep plugging away doing what I do. 

A lot of things have converged on me as of late.  This would be a mile long post if i detailed them all.  The short story is that I've felt led to choose to make some changes... NOW. The daily burden of doing work that doesn't float my boat has had it's effects felt in the rest of my personal and social life for too long. 

Step One:  Decide what to do.  I've had 3 things rolling around in my head and heart for years.  No matter the myriad of extraneous ideas i come up with, i always relegate myself back to these 3 things:  Computer Science, Meteorology, and Seminary.  For whatever reason, Seminary is at the bottom of that list.  I love Jesus and all, don't get me wrong.  It's just something i can't get to consistently right now in my heart.  On the other hand Meteorology and Computer Science are daily hobbies (read:  EVERY day).  Which to choose?????

If you know me, you know that this needing to decide has been cause for me to shrink back and continue in my daily mundane work far too many times.  I can't make a decision, and I get afraid to make the wrong one, so i just choose to forget about it... for a little while anyway.  Well, it was time to make a decision once and for all.  My first immediate gut response was to choose Computer Science.  So, without telling Kimberly I decided to look into things (I didn't want to get her excited if i was going to shirk the decision again).  I settled on the Minnesota School of Business.  I am going to finish an Associate of Applied Science in Information Technology, and then go from there. 

In retrospect, it's a sensical decision from a logistics perspective.  If i decide i want to do Meteorology later, I'm still in good shape.  All the good programs want a background in Computer Science, as most of todays forecasts are computer model generated.  If i decide to carry on with IT, I can get a bachelor's degree, and i would tentatively focus on Internet Security ( I want to hack hackers!!!). 

Kimberly is jazzed, not just that i decided i wanted to go back to school, but that i've begun to carry out Step Two:  Take action.  I met with an Admissions rep. on Tuesday.  Kimberly and I prayed and discussed on Tuesday night.  Both of us feeling a strong conviction to proceed, I applied to the private business university on Wednesday, filled out my Financial Aid packet from the government, and began studying for the assesment test.   I have appointments for financial aid and assesment testing next Tuesday, after the long weekend. 

So, the ball is rolling.  I am excited, and so is Kimberly.  But, it's scary too.  There are so many variables that are left to be figured out in the years to come.  All we can do is trust God to guide us as we do the hard work of obeying and trusting.  I guess it's advernture time again!!!  Now, on to Step Three:  Hope.  I always seem to have the hardest time with this one...

Family Life

Hello All!Its the mama bear here for an addendum - if you will - to Jim's previously posted "sleep deprived" family life update from yesterday!  ;-) All-in-all, we really cannot complain.  We have two VERY beautiful girls in our little family!  Albeit one of the beautiful girls has more energy than a solar flare and the other beautiful little one has no sleep schedule to speak of... we'll let you guess who is who!  Fall is in the air literally just within the past two days!  There is this sudden transition you feel where the mornings and evennings feel very cool compared to the "dog days of summer".  School starts in two weeks. Oodles of school supplies line the aisles of our favorite stores!  The corn fields are ready for harvest (just about) and THAT is always a trademark sure to remind you that fall is on your doorstep!  At least, in the midwest it is!   This fall for us brings some obvious changes (a new baby).  But it also brings some other changes: Sophia starts preschool the first week of September (no, I cannot believe that myself!)  Jimbo is actually taking that next step for school himself and is amidst the registration process (WAY TO GO BABE!  I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!) Kimberly is learning to love being a mom all over again... and though she has many days where she feels "antsy" for more... she is learning that this time with little ones under her watch and care is a very precious time that goes all too quickly and then is gone before you know it!  Being a parent - mom OR dad - is truly a high and lofty life calling.  A mission like no other... and deserving of the best we can offer.  In the mean time, I have had MANY requests that we get some more photos of Miss Sadie Joy up on our blog... so here ya go!  ENJOY!  Love - Kjoy

Up to Speed

Its been a whirlwind last 4 weeks since i blogged up a storm after Sadie's birth.  It was a fun time, blessed, and calm.  The hospital staff couldn't have been better, and Sadie was healthy and happy.  Sophia took incredibly well to being a big sister (phew!), and we headed home with little complication. 

Some things have changed in the last month, and some hasn't.  Here is a short synopsis to bring everyone up to speed:

Sadie had a great first couple of nights home, with a couple of 3-4 hour sleeping stints during the night.  Kimberly and I were excstatic.  Could it be that we were going to have an easy child after so much difficulty with Sophia?  Sorry Charlie, not a chance.  God has seen fit to bless us with another fussy child.  But, the upside is that she isn't quite as bad as Sophia was.  After 3 different formulas, breastmilk from the tap and from the bottle, and a prescription for baby Prilosec, i think we are reserved to the fact that the only thing that will ease the fussiness will be time. So be it. 

 

Sophia is STILL a really great big sister!  She has, for the most part, become one of the most well behaved, respectful, and thoughtful children i know.  Is it possible we did something right?  She finished her first year of gymnastics class this last week, complete with their own Olympic style medal ceremony and podium.  And, she got a free little kid bike from her auntie Julie, who picked it up off the street from someone who was going to throw it away.  Thank God for secondhand stuff, huh?  She is, as always, eager to learn to ride it and doing a good job of it.  

 

  

Kimberly and Sophia are increasingly making forays out of the house as they get used to having a new member of the family to corral.  This week, they went with our neighbor from across the driveway, Auntie Lisa (as she's been deemed by Sophia), to the White Bear Lake farmers market.  They had a blast!  

 

As for me, I'm getting along.  Everyone here is sleep deprived, and we haven't been to church in a month.  But, we're adjusting.  We are going to church as a family for the first time tonight.  It's a new church we haven't been to before that is 5 minutes from our house.  Try that one on for size!  We haven't been to a church closer to home than 30 minutes in the last 3 years.  Other than that, I'm meeting with some admissions people at the Minnesota School of Business this week to look at going back to school to finish my Associates degree, for starters.  I'm looking at Computer Science. 

Lastly, life in Minnesota is moving forward.  Thursday was the opening of the State Fair.  It's a very big deal out here, and I happen to love it (read:  love eating my way through it).  In years past, it's been in the 90's and humid and stormy for the fair, but this year fall is already rearing its head.  Today it is 75 and breezy.  It was very cool this morning.  I love it.  This might be my favorite time of year, tied only with Winter, Spring, and Summer. 

Blessings!

Why is that #1: What is wrong with this picture?

So I've had a lot of questions rolling around my mind lately that I'd like to explore, like why you see the brakes of a car almost constantly, and not the spokes, when you are driving on the freeway. Why isn't it the other way around? I'm compiling a list like that, but that list starts out with 3 or 4 questions about gas, and it's price.

So I started looking today. Questions aside, i made a couple of observations, that while not surprising because we've all suspected it, are still startling and disgusting, really. Take a look at the chart above and notice a few things:

1. The last time oil was at or about $120 like it is now, was in April-May of this year. At the time, gas was selling here in the Twin Cities for an average of $3.45, not the average of $3.60 like it is now. 15 cents higher for gas when oil is the same price? What is the problem here?

2. Comparing the charts is troubling. You'll notice that the red line (oil prices) rises AND falls quite rapidly. There are quick spikes, and quick falls. On the other hand, look at the blue line (gas prices). Notice that the spikes upward are very quick, corresponding with the spike in the oil price. But, the drop in gas prices is much, much more gradual.

For instance, look at the period 12/24/07- 01/31/08.
On 12/24/07, oil was at about $92.50 and gas was at about $2.80. Notice that the price of oil spikes up to about $99 over the next week. Gas prices rise accordingly, to about$3.00-$3.05.

Right about 1/11/08, oil drops back down to about $92. But, the graph shows that gas came down much slower. On 1/11/08, when oil was back at $92, gas was still selling for around $2.95. That's 15 cents higher than it had been selling 3 weeks earlier at the same oil price.

Analyzing the chart quickly shows very quick spikes in the price of gas that accompany spikes in oil prices, but very gradual and slow decreases in the price of gas.

What is going on here?

As the skeptical consumer I am, I can only assume 3 things.

1. This gap in the dropping price of gas is where oil companies make the most money. Think about it. When gas prices go up $.20 over night, what do you do? If you are like me, you wait as long as possible to fill up to see if prices will come down, or you keep you eye open for that gas station that is $.05 cheaper than everyone else. And when you find that station, how do you feel? Like you found a deal, probably. For those who are holding out for the prices to drop, the oil companies keep the prices higher as long as possible so that you will have to fill up at least once at the higher price. If everyone stopped filling up for a couple days every time the price of gas went up, causing the demand for supply to go down, bringing the price of oil back down, the oil companies wouldn't make ridiculous profit on the higher price, because everyone would be able to wait a couple of days for the prices to come back down. This way, they make huge profits for weeks to come after a spike in the price of oil.

2. The "2 steps forward, 1 step back" principal. Kimberly and I talk about this a lot with our own finances. We pay off a big chunk of debt, then something breaks and we have to buy something we weren't planning on. Our solace is that while we've taken a step backward with the unexpected expenses, we are still taking positive steps toward getting out of debt.

This principle plays well for the oil companies on the flip side as well. Every time oil prices go up, the price of gas goes right up with it. But, if gas came right back down with the price of oil (like it should), then oil company profits would never change. They'd be up with the price of oil, and down with the price of oil. By staggering the drop in gas prices, they take 2 steps forward and one step back with their profits.

How? Look at what I already mentioned. When oil prices go up, so do gas prices. But when they go down, gas takes longer to fall, such that, as shown above, gas actually sells for $.10 to $.20 more than it did the last time oil was at that price.

There's money to be made there, but it's a two-fer because we are programmed to expect gas to go up with the price of oil. So, if in theory, oil companies raised the price of gas, let's say, $.20 for every $5 increase in oil, they'd be making an extra $.30 the next time oil went up another 5 dollars. They would raise the price of gas $.20. But, the price of gas is still selling for $.15 higher than it should be because the prices are coming down much slower. And the next time oil drops down to the original price, the gas price only drops $.05. This means that they are now making $.30 more than they should be if gas were responding directly to oil ($.15 from the oil cycle, and $.15 from the second one). You can see the ladder effect here. The oil companies make an escalating profit margin with each oil price cycle.

Most consumers are none the wiser because we are programmed at this point to expect gas to go up with oil, and oil is so volatile, none of us have the energy to keep up with the ups and downs. Besides, by the time gas prices come down, we've forgotten what they were before they went up.

3. The psychological factor. Obviously, there has been some psychological manipulation in every factor thus far, but this one is the most obvious: Every time prices come down, we feel a sense of relief. I've heard people talking this week about how exciting it is that gas is down to $3.50. Really? While that is nice, it's not nearly enough. It's already way overpriced. When Kimberly and I moved to the Twin Cities in July of '05, gas here was $1.95. And, it had been hovering around the $1.50 mark for the 2 previous years. Remember that? But, by bringing down the price, the oil companies give consumers a false sense of relief while they continue to take ever larger amounts of their money.

How's that for a positive spin on things?