No inspiring photo. I can explain. The new band has me shut in until we gig. I haven’t been more than 500 yards from home most days. Predictably, I learned the easiest songs first. Now I am learning styles of music I have never played before to bring the count up to fifty or so. Things are in the home stretch, with practice number five tomorrow afternoon. At that point, we are ready to play out.
The reason they need so many songs where I only require 32 is they play medleys. That is another 1960 thing where I have zero experience. Then again, nor did I ever play Elvis or Chuck and their production line of three-chord specials in A. The sacrifices I make, it brings a tear to my eye. No, no, the other eye. You want a true confession? I now play the one song that I once swore would not happen. “Mustang Sally”. Gag me with a spoon.
How’s my on-line dating coming? I’m a member of what I had hoped to be a more cerebral type of meet-up. So far, my diagnosis “moderately disappointing”. The women (not as individuals but as a group) can certainly talk the talk and punctuate better than the London Times. But it stops there. You see, the primary contact in every instance has been e-mail. I’ve detected a disparity between their expertly composed profiles and the caliber of their correspondence. Gals, I know when I am reading material from two different authors.
These ladies are certainly clever enough to engage a ghost writer for their bios, but that raises the question of ethics. I’m naturally drawn to the better-written material so discrepancies in style hit me with a double whammy when I get e-mail that reads like it was written in crayon. Now, with some months experience on the site, I can confirm that even among women who have plenty to offer, there is still a tendency to line up like school-girls and wait to be asked.
Out of place as it would seem in academic circles, these women are still immensely hung up on the age issue. This age-category thing is a European misconception that explains the stockpiles of old ladies who live with cats. And smell of foot powder. One need not join clubs to find spinsters who refused to date anyone whose birth date was not within 24 months of their own some forty plus years ago. It is insanity one step removed. Women insecure over trivia like age would not last a month in my world.
For the record, yes, I would date a woman over 50 if she had something to offer. By that age, I expect a lot more than from the same woman at say 20 or 30, but yes, I would date. So don’t try to tangle the issue up.
I stopped at Dekka after coffee at the bakery. They have closed the café and are halving the size of the boutique in order to rent space for commercial events. Too bad, they had a nice setup for showcasing local talent. In the one sense, this community is no different than the rest of the country. There is more local talent than there are local people who would appreciate it enough to become the audience. I’m not surprised, as we live in a society bombarded by claims to be the best of everything.
That reminds me of the time back in the 70s when my music friends all told me the best band ever with the world’s best guitar player had released a new song. I had to hear it, they said. So I listened to it around ten times wondering when I’d hear something great. Was I missing something? Was my stereo broken? Did I have the wrong song? No, it is as boring to me today as it was the first time: “Sultans of Swing”. Pure crap in my opinion. If you disagree, let me read about it in your blog. There are only two sides in the really big game.
Bingo was so-so, but enough to make the grade. I stopped at Karaoke and finally admit that the last good Karaoke show has left town. The few people still doing it have limited music selections. Most do not know basics like how to queue the songs up or change the pitch. And none seem able to work a crowd of strangers. Anybody can front a room full of friends and acquaintances. But strangers are a job for professionals.
Finally, the backlog of mobile homes comes onto the market. But I’d hardly say the dam has burst. There are some trailer courts (West Lakes) in evident trouble. The tip-off is when seven units go for sale on one street. The prices are drifting around the $80K mark (still out of my range). Rents for a two bedroom are around $890 per month. Once again, slimy real estate ads neglect to post the pad rental. They refuse to mention occupancy costs and won't to give information until they dig enough information out of you to do a credit check.
If I was willing to go twenty minutes further north, I’d have found my place. Three bed, three bath, completely redone inside with real drywall, laminate flooring by a craftsman and it looks it. It has everything. Dishwasher, power garage door, auto-sprinkler with private well, huge air-conditioned workshed, rentable on approval, 1,300 square feet, anchored to force 3 winds, hot tub, fenced back yard. I’d own the land, so occupancy is the $120 HOA (Home Owner’s Association) fee—which cannot be raised more than 1% per year.
Come on prices. Just a little bit further south and I’m ready to move. This is the back yard of a property in said West Lakes, which I won’t touch until I get the story. Still, it is a two bed, two bath for $25,000 which includes the land. One property priced like that in an entire city is enough to bring everything else into line.At this point I’d like to jolt a few brain cells in some folks. I, too, once had a negative opinion about mobile home parks. Like neighborhoods, there are certain types of those parks that you avoid. But at the other extreme, others are gated communities with their own movie theaters. There are sound reasons why in Florida it is preferable to live in a “trailer”. The major incentive is that people leave you alone. Buy a house in Florida and you are the natural first target of every shyster, burglar, and tax collector, but I repeat myself.
There was a noisy lady at the coffee place who made the odd snarky comment until I pulled her off to one side and explained the rationale of not tying your life’s earnings up in a house. She saw the light and now touts how much she learned about the topic since she talked to me. Yes, I live in a “trailer”. So how come nobody is calling me stupid or trashy? Have I got them all fooled? Or maybe they are content to live in Mortgage Land and wave as I drive past on my next holiday.
ADDENDUM
Most pensions that have a cost of living adjustment use the consumer price index as a basis. Yet the CPI does not include the price of houses, [which are] the most expensive things most people buy. Well why not? Why don’t they include it? I found out it is because rising house prices do not create value. There is no net gain over time because it forces your children, when their turn arrives, to pay the higher prices that result.
Once more, I wrack my brain over what to invest in. There is no more silver, gold is too expensive for transactions, and real estate is too vulnerable. I have no experience speculating in anything else. Nor any storage space, transportation, or distribution capability. The old European maxim applies as well. What? Okay, I’ll tell you again. It goes, “The fortunes that survive are those which can be carried across the border at midnight in a suitcase.”
As a demonstration of how shallow the Internet is in its global vastness, try to find the origin of that last quote. I know I read it more than half a lifetime ago. I certainly did not author it. But try to find it anywhere on-line. Impossible. And why not? My opinion is because it is good advice that has nothing to do with porno, politics, and games. Therefore it has no appeal to the most ardent users of the Internet and never got published. That’s your daily dose of controversy which may or may not coincide with reality.
Oh the other hand, the qualities of what I seek to invest in are not blurry at all. No inventory. No employees. Transportable. Cash only. Non-regulated. And nothing that requires a business license. I hear some question what would America be like if everyone did that? Much better off, thank you for asking.
For me, these qualities spell computer. How else could it be done?
My 16 page booklet on resistors is some 75% complete, but in a pinch I could throw it out there right now and make money. If I was desperate, I would . . . hold on. I almost started thinking like a MicroSoft manual writer or an electronics author. Whew, thank goodness I caught myself in time. Unlike some salesmen I know, it would bother me to go down in history as a crook.
[Author's note 2018: this booklet, like hundred I've written only to find out too late in the game the ground has been covered, went on th back burner and it is still there. But did I mention, I have a hundred of them . . .]
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