The month has turned over and the temperature is dropping. It's cool enough outside that I'm starting to keep the sliding door open in the evening.
I'm expecting a new collection of games to come in sometime late this week or early next week. I think it will be a good change of pace for Daniel and me. I also have some plans for our weekly games on campus. I'll have the full list of games whenever I get them in.
I'm thinking of playing a couple times at a backgammon club in town. Jason has been playing there for a while and I can use some experience playing against people I don't know. Jason thinks I should be competitive against them, and I'm trusting his judgment on the matter (mostly because I don't have any other reference).
We played some frisbee on Friday, and it has dawned on me that not getting much exercise is catching up with me. It was funny that as I was chasing after the disc, I would feel myself leaning forward to run a little faster but discover that my legs couldn't keep up. In other words, I'm getting old and slow. I'm going to try to make some adjustments to my routine to try to get back some level of fitness, but new habits are hard and we'll see what happens.
Politics this last week has been funny. From the bailout not passing, to passing, to the VP debate, it's all been such a crazy mess. In the end, I don't think anyone wins the week. When all the stuff hits the fan, it goes everywhere, and takes a while to clean up. I do agree with most of the analysts out there that this is the start of a long and perhaps deep recession. I'm not buying the doom and gloom depression predictions, but rather a recession that is perhaps "due" as a result of the number of people who had overextended their credit and were living essentially in a downward debt cycle for the last 3-7 years.
However, that's a little bit good for me in terms of buying a house 8 months from now. A downward economy means that house prices will continue to fall, which means that when I'm actually looking to buy a house things will be cheaper. Also, because I do have some cash stored up, my downpayment will be proportionally higher which should free me up for a lower interest rate and a higher chance of obtaining a mortgage in a time when mortgages are going to be harder to get.
