One year ago today: November 10, 2014, Pastorius “floors” the crowd.
Five years ago today: November 10, 2010, farmer jeans?
Six years ago today: November 10, 2009, is content important?
Nine years ago today: November 10, 2006, bass “root pumps”
Here’s a day for you to decide on your own how things are going. Kind of lets you know what can constitute an average day is like around here. For once, and this is a first, JZ showed up on time. This caught me at coffee over in the bakery. The trailer court has finally (after at least twenty years) installed a new fence. That means those driving by way over on Federal, including JZ, can no longer rubberneck to see if I am at home. Gee, I like it already. Even if I am kind of paying for it myself.
The significance of this “emergency” meeting is easy to follow. JZ went to the bank to make an ordinary withdrawal, albeit somewhat larger than usual, but well less than the Federal limit of $10,000. The point here is that we do not have any loans or debts at this branch or bank and the amount tendered was handily covered by the balance—and the bank knows it.
JZ has, in former years, learned from me what to watch for and sure enough. Without any reason to do so, the bank got on the computer and checked for, among other things that are none of the bank’s business, outstanding traffic fines, court awards, liens, judgments, and credit card balances. While I have none of these, a lot of people do. What's next, checking if you paid your electric bill? The bank made JZ stand there and wait 25 minutes after they “bloody well” knew there was enough money in the account to cover the withdrawal.
First the teller went through these “checks”, when she should only have been looking to see if there was enough money. Then a bank senior came over and ran the checks again. JZ, trained to watch for such things by me, said they tried to engage him in distracting conversation and more than once tilted the screen away from his line of vision. But he confirms they were definitely on-line, that is, searching outside instead of inside. This marks the first time a bank [for us] has blatantly checked beyond their jurisdiction and concerned themselves with non-banking activities. Be very afraid.
This dead tree picture is not relevant to the post. It was the famed tallest palm in the county, it is now dead. I say it was struck by lightning, JZ says it was insects. We agreed it was both. Um, but it was struck by lightning first, you know.
It was in response to this sordid banking policy that I called this meeting. It pretty much means the door for buying a home without a bank loan or creating a bank file is rapidly closing. Gee, why would anyone want to do such a thing? (Because a bank loan is the first thing you check to see what people own? And why would anyone be checking to see what you own?) This is where the lack of sophistication of my buddy comes into play—owner financing can easily get turned into a bank loan without your consent. You have to prevent the owner from discounting the outstanding balance at some bank. JZ had no idea what I was talking about.
Hence, I sent him back to Miami and took the long way home. Yeah, it was raining and I could have taken the bus or the taxi or bought an umbrella. Instead, I walked it. First stop was for a café con leche, no sugar, then just like Venezuela in the 90s, I walked the rest of the way in the rain. Soaked to the underwear, stopping every few blocks at the bus shelter, taking the lid off my coffee and watching the steam. It has now come to the situation where one cannot even safely put money in a bank any more. And that is disgusting and pathetic.
Don’t get me wrong, people should pay their fines and bills. But is it the business of the bank if they do not? (I say absolutely no way. I’d be okay with personal debt (why should somebody who owes you fifty bucks be able to hide it in a bank in the next town), but I draw the line when it comes to the “system” routinely checking your legal or social status before giving you back your own money.
Another irrev-u-lent photo, this one the bar in Naples where at least some of our plans have been made. I’ll repeat my saying that what this country needs is a real bank. Where they put your money in a box and charge you a storage fee. They lend out only 10% of the money for their profit. But the Feds would shut that down in a hurry. The next move is getting rid of cash entirely.
The word is that although it is rural, there is a huge “meth lab” problem in the area as well as other drug-related scenarios. No thank you. I can see it, there is not much to do in the boonies except get into trouble. The outcome of this is that if I buy anything now, I am entirely constricted to what I can commit to, which is not that much. That means anything I buy will be far less than optimal and off the beaten tract. Or is that beaten “track”? Palatka is also the town where (if memory serves) that little girl (Haleigh Cummings) disappeared ten years ago and the two suspects married so they could not be compelled to testify against each other.
This hands me plenty to mull over. If I’m left to my own resources, whatever I buy will be far from ideal. All I want is indoor plumbing and seclusion, but I’d hate to have that as my only criteria.
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