Ideas...

So this morning, I called the company that handles my old 401(k) from back in Oregon. I talked to the guy there for a little longer than I had anticipated and got some good information from him. Part of the information was investment advice (diversify, and go into bonds), but the majority was just some of the information about what I need to do in order to access the money that's in there.

Unfortunately, what is involved is getting some forms from my old work, which I should already have but which I've probably thrown away, and getting them mailed back to my old work, then having the fund management company cut a check. So it's probably going to be something like two weeks before I can actually have the money, and I think I might be running out of cash by then, damn it. Linda, the HR manager at the old company, said that they management company might be able to send the forms via e-mail, so that would cut the time about in half. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I haven't seen anything just yet, and I called four or five hours ago...

After I made that call, I ran down to the storage unit to do a little organizing and pick some stuff up. I really need to take some photographs of stuff that I have and get to work trying to sell things. People certainly aren't going to beat a path to the door when they don't even know there's anything to be had inside. Sigh... I also paid the bill for the storage unit while I was there, racking up a little more on the credit cards, and I paid one of the credit card bills before I headed over there. But the cash is still getting mighty low...

I was thinking about a couple of things while I was driving to and from the storage unit. I would like to either go back to school or start a business of my own. I just don't know what I want to study or what kind of business I'd like to start. And those are pretty large problems, honestly. I would like to either start a bookstore or something to do with cooking, but I don't know what would make either of those businesses better than any of the ones already out there. And I think I'd need to differentiate myself from other businesses in order to make some kind of a serious go at it. Startups tend to go under if they don't have something that really sets them apart from the crowd.

As far as school, I'm thinking either an accounting or library science line of study. Of course, to get any kind of degree or anything like that in either of those fields is going to take a couple of years, at least, and that's time that I'm just not sure that I have to spare. I'm not getting any younger. Fuck, I've just pretty much wasted a lot of my life, and it sucks...

Oh, and the Rangers gave up a 4-run 10th inning yesterday. They put up a valiant effort with two runs of their own in the bottom of the 10th, but wound up losing the game anyway, 7-5. I got to see the end of that game on the tube. Toronto also lost in extra innings, losing 2-3 in Minnesota. And despite having given up three runs in the top of the first, the A's came back to beat the Red Sox 5-6 in Oakland. They took 12 innings to win, so pretty much every team I'm following this year went into extra innings.

AL West standings:
Seattle, 6-2 (.750 win %)
Oakland, 4-4 (.500 win %, 2 games behind)
LA Angels, 3-4 (.429 win %, 2.5 games behind)
Texas, 3-5 (.375 win %, 3 games behind)

More later...