I woke late again. I could get used to this.
Mom came to pick me up after getting myself all cleaned up. We went down to her place, where I took the time to try and bring her computer up to snuff again. It seems that every time I’m out, I need to do something to her computer. Sometimes it’s something simple. Other times, I spend a couple of days trying to get it to cooperate with me. Such was the case this day.
Mom’s computer was having virus problems. She didn’t have a virus, thankfully, but needed the software set up. The previous virus software was either outdated or broken. Either way, it was of no use. I decided the best thing was to load in the full Norton Security suite, to prevent things like spam, pop-up ads, viruses, and intrusions onto her system. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
One thing about mom’s system, though — it’s Windows 98. It’s almost five years old. Installing new software into old operating systems is troublesome at best, disasterous at worst. Trying to install Norton Security onto Windows 98 tends more towards the latter.
Installation finished just as mom and I had to go out for errands. Mom had a pedicure appointment at 13:00, and I had a meeting with my financial advisor at 14:00.
Yes, I have a financial advisor. Why? Because I would like to be able to retire one day, and not worry about having enough money to live out to a very old age. And after my RRSPs took a serious hit when Telus nose-dived a couple years back, a professionally-managed system was of importance. This was a recommendation from my sister, who knows way more about this stuff than I do.
Now, I’ve never met my advisor in person. She’s the same person who manages my mom’s account, and was the logical suggestion. I handled all my communications with Pat through email and fax. Until today, I’d never even talked to her.
I was a little apprehensive when I got to the Assante offices. I wasn’t nervous to meet Pat, I just felt that perhaps the interior was a tad too flashy. The last thing I needed was for my money go to pay for a plush chair for someone else’s ass. Well, unless I bought it for them, anyway…
Meeting with Pat was immensely good. Not only do I have a face to go with the name, but I have a certain clarity that goes along with having talked about options and possibilities with the person who is effectively managing my rather meagre fortune. I’m a far cry from being independantly wealthy, but I’d like to think that it’s achieveable. Although I do have a $35,000 buffer space which I should be filling as much as possible. In due time, of course.
I left about 40 minutes later, feeling a lot better about being 65 many years down the road. In the more immediate future, though, I had to retrieve mom from her pedicure.
Stopping briefly at mom’s to check on her computer (it was still doing a system check), we headed back out in search of dinner. Cathy, mom, and I would eat at Cathy’s tonight (Craig had to work, so I would make sure there were leftovers), and I was making dinner. If Cathy was going to put me up in her home and supply me with beer, the least I could do was make dinner once.
Three racks of baby back ribs, some red potatoes, garlic, an onion, some asparagus, and a rather tasty whole wheat baguette (didn’t even know such a thing existed). Then it was off to Cathy and Craig’s to prepare the meal.
Craig was still there. He looked a little tired, either from only having wakened recently or from not having slept well enough from previous day’s work. I feel sorry for his situation. There’s a certain amount of hard work that is needed in Craig’s line of work, and I certainly respect it. At the same time, though, I worry about his quality of life. He sleeps poorly, rarely sees his wife or his friends — certainly in the situation I’ve gotten myself into recently, I can’t really see that working for long.
After dinner, mom headed home, and Cathy sat down to watch TV while I caught up on my Observer’s Logs. I probably would have ignored the TV were it not for the fact that it was the last episode of The Bachelorette.
On a whole, I don’t like reality TV. It’s not really my sort of thing. They generally play to human misery at some level to make everyone else feel better. It’s not exactly what I call entertaining. I guess I’m more of a fan of fairy tale endings.
Which brings me back to The Bachelorette. Every so often, I looked up, and watched a little bit of the show. It was down to two guys, neither of whom I remember the names of. All I know is that Cathy and probably most of the audience favoured one guy. Which of course meant that the girl had to choose the other (hey, you can’t have a perfect ending, y’know). So predictable, it was almost annoying.
