The little costs.

A good friend is organizing a group of hikers for a trip to Tanzania Africa for the opportunity of hiking Mount Kilimanjaro. The trip will also include a six day safari in the Serengeti National Park. What an opportunity of a lifetime to participate in one of the adventures but to accomplish both in one trip. The cost of the trip is estimated at $5,000. The cost is significant especially for a person in school full time, but is manageable without going into debt.

The group of fourteen met for the first time this past weekend to discuss the details of the trip. The first item was the cost break down. The hike will cost $1,550 and the safari will cost $1820. The airline cost will range from $1,000 to $1,800 due to the option of flying into Kenya or Tanzania. Flying into Kenya is cheaper but requires a five hour bus ride. The bus ride could be a nice prelude to the safari and time to acclimate to the altitude. The travel visas will cost about $150. These cost were what was expected and came close to the $5,000 estimate but only covered the significant cost for the trip.

The presentation covered additional expenses associated with the trip and individually are not very much but combined represented an additional 30 percent to the cost. Traveling to undeveloped countries requires vaccinations to protect the traveler from diseases normally not exposed to. The vaccinations include yellow fever, tetanus booster, hepatitis A and B, malaria, and typhoid. The cost for the vaccines will be about $600 with the cost of the Doctor consultation included. Travel insurance at a cost of $160 is needed for hospital care in the possibility of injury or sickness while on the trip. The expenditure most surprising are the tips required to pay the guides, cooks, porters, and drivers who accompany us on the two trips. Maybe not required but highly suggested at $500 total between the two trips.

The last expenditures is on equipment needed but is considered a one time purchase. A zero degree sleeping bag is required, a day backpack and duffel bag, a good pair of hiking boots, hiking poles, dark sunglasses or glacier glasses, and clothing to keep warm and dry. The cost of the equipment varies from $300 to $500 but at least it will be used again. At what point does a trip become cost prohibitive? This trip is approaching that limit but I am still on the list to go.

Limited Adventures

I consider myself to be adventurous but not of the extreme nature. On vacation to Belize I took the opportunity to swim in sting ray alley. It was unique to swim with the rays and to touch them as they glided around. I have road my bicycle in the mountains of north Georgia near Dahlonega. I do not always ride to the top of Hog Pen Gap but on those occasions I am thrilled. The climb to the top is difficult as my bike creeps along at 3 miles per hour but knowing the descent will make the effort worth while. The descent started quickly as the road dropped to a twelve percent grade which pushed me to reach speeds of 60 miles per hour. The next adventure I will participate in is hiking or climbing a 19,000 foot mountain called Kilimanjaro.

An adventure I can never participate in would be sky diving. Climbing Everest is not on my list but for different reasons. The cost is very prohibitive and my physical abilities would not allow me to survive. Sky diving on the other hand I can do physically but it is the mental aspects of the sport I do not believe I can over come. Depending on someone to pack the parachute correctly would be the first obstacle to overcome. Loading into the airplane would not be an issue unless it is a tight fit then claustrophobia would overwhelm me and I would have to leave the airplane. If I manage to stay in the airplane the biggest obstacle to overcome would be next. I think of walking to the door for the jump as my death march. I recall the cliché ‘why do I want to jump out of a perfectly fine airplane’. If the equipment does not work properly once I am outside the airplane I have no options but to plummet to the earth at terminal velocity. I will not dwell on that aspect due to the mental issues I am having just contemplating falling. My lack of desire to sky dive is not due to physical issues but having to overcome the mental hang-up associated with falling.

I have three friends that have sky dived. One loves the thrill and has completed over 50 dives. Another was so fear struck on the way down that he screamed the entire time. The last friend had completed three dives successfully but the fourth dive his parachute partially opened only slightly slowing his descent. He spent 6 months in the hospital as his body healed. I do not like the odds of having a pleasant experience.

Computer Predicament

June 2008 I ordered a laptop computer from Dell computers. It was not the state of the art computer but the laptop was considered an advanced system. The top of the line computer in 2008 had a quad-core computer processing unit also known as the CPU. My understanding of a quad-core is each core is a CPU and the four together increases processing significantly. The memory installed into the top computer was four megabits of random access memory also known as RAM. The video card was two video cards stacked and operated as one card. The video card had its own memory of one meg of RAM to increase the speed of producing an image on the display without using the main memory. Dell offered one of the first blu-ray players on the high end systems at a substantial cost of 1,000 dollars. The blu-ray was not going to fit into my budget. Most systems had a DVD drive with the ability to write to and read from a disk and to use the lower standard compact disk. The power would be supplied from a nine cell battery providing longer use of the system before needing to recharge or plug into a standard outlet for power. The last significant component would be the display. A 17 inch display with a high resolution equal to the high definition television was standard. The top of the line computer was envious but with a price tag close to 5,000 dollars it was well above my budget.

The laptop I ordered from Dell computers was an XPS model meant for high end computing processing and gaming. My laptop had a duel-core CPU and was considered a step down from the quad-core but still providing a great processing speed. The memory was two megs of RAM with an option of one additional meg for a total of three megs. The video card was a single card with 512 kilobits memory and produced a high quality image. A DVD drive was part of the package. The battery was six cells which did not provide more than two hours of operation. The laptop did have a 17 inch display with the high resolution. The price tag for my system from Dell was 1,700 dollars and was more reasonable cost then the high end machine.

In December my laptop quit working three months after the warranty expired. I spent 600 dollars to repair and was working fine. Friday the computer quit working again but this time a loud pop emanated from the back and the computer turned off. It will not turn back on so I feel the power supply had shorted out and is now defunct. I am in a quandary as to repair the computer or go and purchase another laptop. A new computer will cost about 800 dollars where the repair could cost between 200 and 400 dollars. I find it difficult to toss out a system costing 1,700 dollars but knowing I can buy a similar computer for the price of repair.

Last Will

Having a will prepared is not a strait forward process. My experience in the past with going to a lawyer’s office to have the legal document prepared had not been very positive. A form is provided to take home for completion. Return the form at a later date and wait a week for the will to be drawn up. On returning to the office the lawyer sits down and goes over the document to ensure the information is correct and states the desired information. The cost for the document is 400 dollars but at lest the state does not decided the disposition of assets upon my demise.

I prepared a will this week using an online legal company and surprisingly the process was not overly complicated. The information that is asked for begins with my name and the city I am a resident of. Other information was about children and if I wanted to provide for children hereafter. What are the desires for my remains? Is my body to be buried or cremated or donated to science? The idea of donating to science is an interesting concept but it is hard for me to think that someone will be poking and prodding or other uncomfortable procedures to my body after I depart this realm.

I appoint a personal representative to be the Executor of the will. Someone whom I feel confident will carry out my desires. An alternate Executor was chosen incase the original person dies before me. A few items collected over the years should go to friends or relatives like a sports car, jewelry, stamp collection, and the rock collection. Yes, there is a rock collection and it is extensive. May be I will write about the collection in another blog adventure.

I am intrigued by the ability to specify gifts of cash to people and the money comes off the top of my estate value before the estate is divided with other people. I needed to think about whom to give cash to and how much. I have people in my life that have made a difference to the enjoyment I have experienced. What about my brother and sister receiving cash? I contemplate these questions for a time and decide what I would do.

The last part of information needed was the disposition of my estate. I could give the remainder to one person or split it among numerous people and specify the percentage the individual would receive from one percent to one hundred percent. More thought needed to go into whom to provide for and to whom to just make their day. I had to dig for a few names but I think it is well worth the effort. It has been a few days and I have thought about changes already. A will seems like an easy process but it is not.

Spring is for biking

I am looking forward to the season of spring. Having the warm days so I can go outside to ride my bike or run five miles without wearing six layers of clothing for warmth. I also like the cool evening so I can sleep with a thick blanket on the bed and not over heat. I do not particularly care for the rain that comes with spring. The saying I heard from my mom and others is “April showers bring May flowers” just not as much rain this year as last years near record level down pours.

This past winter has been very hard on my physical and spiritual well-being.
My first mountain bike race this year was January 2 in the mountains of Dalton Georgia. It was not a good day to start due to the snow falling as I was driving from Atlanta to Dalton. I was fine with riding in snow but the temperature outside at the base of the mountain was 18 degrees Fahrenheit. Standing outside preparing my bike for the 6 hour ride in the current conditions I become colder and started shivering. I looked in the gear bag for more clothing to put on but I had everything on, I became demoralized. I decided to sit in my truck to try and warm up and think about the situation. At the registration office the staff was offering trash bags to wear over our feet and legs to stay dry while crossing the creek. The creek had 16 inches of water and was not going to be fun to walk across and there is no way to ride the bike across with the water at that depth without causing mechanical problems. This revelation about the creek played into my next decision not to ride this race. When I made the decision not to race the snow started coming down heavier. At that moment I knew the right decision was reached.

When the buses and trucks departed I tossed my bike into the back of my truck and started the trek back to Atlanta. The next day I heard from several friends about the conditions that they faced. The most prevalent issue was the water freezing cables which caused an inability to shift gears especially when starting to climb and needing an easier gear. Another problem was the cold and the inability to warm up. Jim told me about having to sit in front of a heater for an hour to warm his feet to regain feeling in them. I know I made the right decision not to race that day, but I would have liked the 6 hour ride to clear my mind of the winter doldrums. Maybe in February the race will have better conditions?

Spring brings the renewal of life and I will be outside taking advantage of the warm days as the trees start to bud and the flowers bloom.