I forgot I can math

When preparing a budget proposal for a client condo association, I have to propose an amount to contribute to reserves. If you want to be able to get a loan under Fannie and Freddie guidelines, the condo association for a long time had to contribute 10% of total condo fees to reserves (so if you have $9000 in expenses, $1000 to reserves, $1000 = 10% of $10,000).

This year it’s going up to 15%. I’d been guessing – $5,000? No, that’s 14.77%. $5100? That’s 15.36%. $5050? You get the idea. It’s annoying.

Then I remembered algebra. I literally majored in math in college. My favorite class was Fundamental Concepts of Algebra. So I got out a piece of paper (actually an envelope from a Verizon bill out of the recycle bin) and worked it out. It took a minute to shake the cobwebs off but I quickly determined that if you set the reserves at (3 * expenses)/17 gives you 15% of the total. This is amazingly simple and I can’t believe it took me this long to work it out.

Stay in school, kids.

Spectacularly unchanged in sixty years

The Spaniard in Kinsale. If you don’t see the giant colorful mural on the side, not pictured here, I bet a regular in 1966 could walk up in 2026 and not notice a difference, aside from local fashions and modern cars.

A building with dark shingles. The sign reads "The Spaniard" and features a man dressed in what one presumes is centuries old Spanish fashion

And here it is just a few weeks ago.

A building with dark shingles. The sign reads "The Spaniard" and features a man dressed in what one presumes is centuries old Spanish fashion

I kinda new this one would be my favorite as soon as I looked it up online and saw how little it had changed. My one regret is we were short on time and I didn’t have a chance to go inside. I wanted to hand the bartender the printed copy of my grandmother’s photo.

Previous in the series.

Ireland, 1966 to 2026 – this one HAS changed

This one took the help of the good people of Reddit, who found the spot within a few hours even though I think I posted in the middle of the night over in Ireland. Downtown Cork.

Butchered animal carcasses hang in the window of a place called "O'Flynn's". Next door is a clothing store called "Johns"

It has changed quite a bit. I leave the butcher-to-fashion-store jokes as an exercise for the reader.

A Tommy Hilfiger store next to a phone store

Previous post in the series.

Bowe’s – 1966 to 2026

Here is the second in the series of photos my grandmother took in 1966 that I have attempted to recreate on our trip in 2026.

A row of buildings. First is PJ Kilmartin, and I think the rest of the sign says "accountant" but not sure. Next is Bowes, #31 (the address). The next building's sign isn't legible
Bowes, Dublin, Ireland, 1966

This one has changed a bit over the years but is still quite recognizable.

A row of buildings. The first one is a bar painted bright red. Next is Bowe's. There is a man with his hand on his head in front of a roll up door beyond Bowe's
Bowes, Dublin, Ireland, 2026

The clock is a nice addition, but the small signs beneath it are not as cool as the old sign.

You grammar pedants can discuss how in both versions, “Bowe’s” is written with an apostrophe on the sign right above the windows but without on the signs higher up. This means something, I’m sure.

Previous post in this series

Ireland – 1966 and 2026

I recently digitized a roll of film my grandmother took on vacation in Ireland in 1966. I can tell she it was her roll and not my grandfather’s because every single one of the photos is shot horizontally EXCEPT a picture of her in front of a waterfall.

In anticipation of our trip to Ireland a few weeks ago, I printed copies of a few of her photos and tried to recreate them. The Where Was This Taken Reddit sub was enormously helpful.

First, this shot of downtown Dublin

Wasn’t too hard to recreate, and it hasn’t changed a lot.

Some new trees. The walkway extension over the water.

Next we have the famous O’Connell Monument in downtown Dublin.

A statue of a man on top of a large pedestal. A group of young men sit at the base
A statue of a man on top of a large pedestal. People sit at the base. He has a seagull sitting on his head

The seagull and the Burger King are new. Otherwise, sixty years hasn’t done much. Again, the trees are bigger.

Next post in the series.

Confusing Belgians on vacation

Facebook is reminding me of our trip, 7 years ago, to Europe for the Women’s World Cup plus some more. I had recently tracked down where my french last name came from (My grandfather was British as far back as anyone knew) and found that the first Renaut came to England from Dinant, Belgium, in the early 1600’s. I looked it up, and it’s a gorgeous little town on the Meuse River. So that’s one of the places we visited on our trip, along with some more common tourist spots (including watching a USWNT win from the front row).

A few years later, the wife and I were on a food tour in Copenhagen during my daughter’s soccer trip, and met a Belgian couple.

Making conversation, I said to them, “We were just in Belgium a few years ago!”

“Oh, where did you go?”, he asked.

“We went to Dinant…”, I said, doing my best to pronounce it properly (I don’t speak French but my wife lived in France for a while and I heard her pronounce it).

“That is… NOT what I was expecting you to say.” He said.

I explained the connection, which of course made it make sense. I love having that kind of interaction with strangers. That couple will likely remember the Americans with an unusual trip to Belgium, and I will always remember the look on his face.

Another reason to go on food tours when you travel. They’re a great way to meet people, plus you get to see parts of the city and stop in places you might have missed otherwise. The food is really just an extra bonus.

Good deeds for animals in need, Nantucket edition

A friend just posted pictures of sandpipers on Flickr and it made me think of walking on the beach on Nantucket with my grandmother. She had the technique for walking on soft sand down and when I was a teenager and she was in her 70’s I had to work to keep up

She would get up early every day to go walk on the beach. I am a morning person so I would often go with her. I loved the dew on the sand after a cool night.

My favorite story is one day walking by the ocean near Quidnet pond. A ray had beached itself – it was nearly four feet across, just lying by the edge of the ocean. Grandma walked past and without breaking stride she grabbed it and flipped it back into the water. It was so nonchalant, I couldn’t speak. She saw something that needed doing so she did it without interrupting her walk.

She passed away in 2011 at age 97, having been the first female GS-15 at the Department of the Treasury and meeting her first two great grandchildren.

Anniversary of an exacta

My father-in-law started going to the Preakness every year when his eldest daughter was in grad school at Hopkins (I’m pretty sure this is right. I don’t think anyone who reads this will be able to correct me if I’m wrong, but it ALSO doesn’t really matter for the story.) and continued for many years, eventually turning it into an annual family event.

One of these visits, May 15th, 2015, we were all excited to watch American Pharoah. He had won the Kentucky Derby already. He was a strong favorite to win the Preakness as well.

If you’ve never been to a horse race, this may be news – the featured race is usually not the only race of the day. It’s just the one everyone spent a lot of money on. The earlier races are often smaller fields, and there’s often a very heavy favorite. Let me tell you, it is super boring to bet on a horse running at 2:3 odds. Especially if you, like me, don’t bet large amounts. Winning a $2 bet and earning like $1.25 is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but it’s not exactly exciting. So I liked to bet exactas. This means you pick the horse to win AND you pick the horse to come in second (you can do up to five but the odds of that are so low it heads back into boring territory again).

In 2015, I bet the exacta on the Preakness. I picked American Pharoah to win and long shot Tale of Verve to finish second. I’ll save you looking it up – this is the order they finished. I won about $340 on a $5 bet. It’s my biggest win at the track ever, by a good bit. This is partly because I do not bet large amounts – betting is fun in moderation, but it gets problematic fast.

It took me four days to finish this post and it ended up not being that interesting but I’m going to publish it anyway and you can’t stop me.