Making Sense

It's possible that we will not be going to France this year. More likely that we will, but possibly we won't.

Two things factor into this. One is money (isn't it always?) and one is language.

We have a certain amount of money that we think of as 'The Magic Number' -- the value that we'd like not to drop below. (Translate that into French.) Right now, we're comfortably above that. If we go to France or replace our totaled van, we'll still be comfortably above it. If we do both, we'll still be above it, but not comfortably so. We'll be in the zone where a drop in the stock market could bring us below the MN, and that makes us uneasy. Note that this is mostly an emotional response. A forecast using my simple spreadsheet shows us being able to drop well below that, and still be okay. We just don't want to make that more likely to occur, and doing both of these in the same year could have that effect.

The other is, simply, that I would like to be able to have casual conversations when we go to France, and I'm not there yet. I doubt I will be there by the time our planned vacation comes around. Oddly, if we were not staying with that family, this would be less of an issue, as we'd be less likely to be casually talking with people. Doing the basics -- making reservations, ordering dinner, asking for directions -- I can almost do now, and I'm sure I'll be able to do it by the planned date. Asking how often Americans come to their town, where a good place is to buy peanut butter, or if they like taking picnics -- well, that, I'm not sure about. I'm not even sure about it for next year, for that matter.

I don't tend to be a risk-taker, as a rule. I live conservatively. (Live Conservatively, Vote Liberally. Maybe I should have that as a bumper sticker.) Not always, though. For example, I don't tend to like visiting someone -- even my own family -- for an extended period, yet I'm talking about visiting someone I don't even know? Speaking a language I don't even speak? . Yikes.

But money? Different story, I think.