First Steps

It’s been over a week since my first post, and I’m far from making significant progress.  Still, I’m encouraged by where my mind has taken me since I committed to begin this journey.  Four days ago, the transmission went out on my car.  It ended up not being a huge deal.  My dad was able to get a friend to fix it, and it actually didn’t cost me anything.  Still, in those few days without a car, those days where walking wasn’t a choice, I had to consider a lot of things.  Could I survive without a car?  I live a mile from where I work.  That one is easy, but I live about 12 miles from where I go to school.  I'm currently working with some people to try to get public transportation connected to my school, but there is no guarantee that it’s going to happen.  I’ve also considered purchasing a bicycle.  I figure I could save $1,200 or so and buy a really crappy car or a really nice bike.  It would only take me about an hour to bike to school from here.  I’m surprised that I am even considering this, but, according to Google maps, it would only take me 6 hours and 19 minutes to bike to my parents house in Zanesville.  Now, I don’t plan on making a ride like that in the immediate, but it’s a good long term goal to shoot for.

The car problems also brought my another aspect of my reality into sharp focus, my finances.  I got lucky this time.  The car was able to be fixed, and it wasn’t a major inconvenience.  I’m not going to be so lucky forever.  I need to come up with a financial plan for that.  The first place that I’ve decided to go for that is a writer that I love for all things organizational, Regina Leeds.  I think she’s great.  My problem is that I’m better at reading her books than taking her advice.  I recently purchased her book, ‘One Year to an Organized Financial Life.’  I think that this will be a good book for me to start with because, before I can begin to move forward, I need to get a clear picture of where I am and understand my financial situation.  I believe her this book will do that for me.  So far, I’ve read the introduction.  Now, it’s time for me to dive in and begin to do that actual work.  I will share some of my victories and defeats as I go.  Of course, I won’t go into great detail in the interest of preserving Ms. Leeds’ future book sales.  As someone who considers themselves to be a writer, I take that somewhat seriously.

In terms of my fitness, I’m still walking to work every day.  My weight seems to be holding at 257 lbs for the last few days.  I’d like to see it fall even more, but, for now, I’m just glad that it’s below the 260 lbs that I began this journey at.  I’m feeling better and more energetic.  I still haven’t gotten anyone to help me understand the results of my last bloodworm.  I feel like I’m making some progress though, and that is a good thing.  Well, with that, I will wrap this up, and I hope to provide you all with more frequent updates from here on out.

-Culbs

joshua.culbertson@gmail.com

© Joshua Culbertson 2014