I’ll describe hurricane stuff, but try to avoid what you’ll see on TV. For instance, did you know these storms are excellent chances to see what people won’t buy even in an emergency. “Lite” soy milk, peppermint toothpaste, lemon jello. The wind is circular, counter-clockwise, so theoretically you should be able to tell where you are by the wind direction. And I say the storm is due southeast of here because the wind in town is tangentially from the northeast. This wind and calm has been alternating all day, it is now 1:30 PM. Alternate hour long periods of wind and calm with rising humidity, which was already at least 90% when this all started. I took a glance at the little TV I keep in the counter, but honestly, the pictures looked the same as the ones when I left work at noon y’day.
Beware of the grocery cart, they can hit about thirty when the wind catches them just right. I am back home with a pot of coffee and some history books, paradise without a care in the world. I’m reading up on this felony “destroying evidence”. Law rarely uses ordinary words, but that charge seems contradictory. To me, your right to remain silent is all encompassing, and while I would never advocate destroying evidence that was someone else’s property, failing that it must belong to either nobody or you. And it is childish to consider evidence as either good or bad, for it is only the use of that evidence which is good or bad, and you would be preventing it from being used against you. To me, that is a constitutional right, and the founding fathers knew that. If I knew you intended to use something I owned against me, to force me to defend myself against accusations at my own expense, I would dispose of that property before letting you use it in such a sordid fashion. It goes without saying that I do not keep anything that could be used against me in your view, you would have to invade my privacy to get it in the first place.
For example, records are not evidence, but they are used as evidence. Have you ever been asked by a policeman if you’ve ever been arrested? That is none of their business. Your response creates a record, which is exactly what you probably don’t want if you are just passing through town. I am on your side, because I don’t think it is anyone’s business whether you pass through town or not – unless you break a law. Another point to ponder, is when you are acquitted of a crime, remember that they keep all the “evidence” on record for a potential new trial. That is one of the things wrong with America, and why we are no longer strictly a democracy.
Anyway, I’m looking it up, because I don’t buy the police stance that how do they know whether or not you’re in violation of the law if you won’t cooperate by answering questions. I mean, if you are innocent, what is wrong with answering a few simple questions? Like for instance, why you did not know it was illegal to tie your elephant to a parking meter in Miami. Answer that question wrong, and you go to jail. That’s what’s wrong with answering police questions, bub. It is, in fact, very illegal to tie your elephant as said, or to take a bath in the nude on Sundays. Unless police are obliged to warn you of their intentions before questioning, or to prove you intended to commit the crime (you would have to be aware it was illegal first), I would destroy any evidence I could, including yours if I thought I could get away with it, but certainly any that belonged strictly to me.
Am I just ranting to get away from reading that Access manual again? Shame on me. Well, it the dang hurricane would start, at least I’d get distracted for a spell. The power went out for a minute just now, but that could be the landlady screwing with the fuse panel again. She likes to check who is using their air conditioning or not and she has no concept of computers, “Just turn it back on, do I have to teach you everything? There, see, it’s working!” She is keeping the chihuahua inside. The jury is still out whether it is because I complained, or to keep it dry.
It is now 5:30 PM on Friday, normally I’d be getting off work. Hey, no hurricane, and according to Channel 33, I’ve been lulled into a false sense of security. That means I may go out for a cup of coffee this evening. The power has been erratic, I keep a candle on while I’m awake. There are plenty of warnings not to hook your power generator to the electric panel. It kills power workers. I’d ask who’d be so stupid in the first place, but I remembered I’m in Florida. There was one blast of wind around noon, and nothing since. The media has made mileage off standard shots of breakers at the shore, stop signs fluttering and palm trees but really, it wears off. I mean, the wind has been “really picking up” since noon Thursday and it is dead calm outside. No, not the eye, the eye is still 160 miles east of here.
I wonder if a lot of this isn’t sport. Places that have every good chance of surviving go into price gouge mode. How can it be that some people panic and move to shelters, while others go surfing? The warnings are so dire, but heeding them is plainly optional. Another storm, called Ivan, is moving in right behind and will be nearing this area on Monday. To far, the only damage has been to my September paychecks, and my expectations. The Red Cross is more concerned with making people comfortable than safe, and anyway, where are the husbands of all those “seven-month” pregnant women at the shelters? The wimp TV stations here are also scared to identify the people still on the beach after being warned. That would be lively news, to cover stupid people. I’d watch that. Follow Mr. Karate back to his car, back to his condo, show people where he lives, show which government department he works for. (But not one cent to rescue him afterward, by that I mean rescue him, then send him the bill.)
Oh, I heard the name of the “arm” that swept through here earlier. It is called a feeder band. What did I tell you about power? There has been no resemblance to a real storm, certainly nothing like a Pacific squall off the Oregon coast, but the power is already out. Some 31,000 people in Broward. It probably has more to do with the outdated infrastructure than dangerous winds. All that’s changed for me is I’ve been cooped up inside for a day. The hurricane coverage is on every channel, and so are those idiotic Bell South commercials for “this much” bandwidth, like people know what bandwidth is. Who trusts them on the “$24.95 a month” thing either. They lie.
Tons of reading today, despite keeping an eye on the eye, so to speak. Do you remember my 1977 statement after seeing Star Wars? I said 250 special effects are not the same as one special effect 250 times. If, like myself, you suspected everything in the film was just a little too familiar, it turns out that may be right. There is not one totally original character or scene, George Lucas borrowed heavily from everywhere. All were adaptations of existing material ranging from old Buck Rogers and WWII newsreels, to characters contrived to fit what Lucas thought were catchy names. R2-D2. Even the team with C-3PO was a take-off on Laurel and Hardy. I had a lot of original ideas back then, but location counts, and I was completely unaware that good producers were in short supply in 1977 Hollywood. I was busy piling lumber, and did not even make it to Hollywood until 1991. They make a big deal that Lucas spent as much as 40 hours a week writing, and I can easily say so what? I am always envious of those who have the ability to make money by copying others, something that never works for me.
ADDENDUM
Thank Frances for boring me enough to go through some real estate books. Since I first looked at property in 1975, I’ve been amused by the whole sales thing, how fake it is. Why do condo ads never state the monthly fee? Why do real estate saleswomen put posed photographs in their ads? It is probably because they are running at close to $250 monthly for ordinary places, which to me is an outrageous amount of money. It just does not cost that much to mow the lawn and heat the pool. Something stinks about the whole Florida condo situation.
I’m looking at two bedroom houses, and will consider an apartment condo with completely separate everything since I’ve seen a few, although rare. Dayami is taking a real estate course, so for all I know she sees me as a prime customer. There are some prices in Miramar, that, if they have not dropped, are certainly lower than anything advertised this time last year. I’ll have to reverse engineer the mortgages, but one place asking $179,000 says the monthly payment is $1232.34. In fact, hang on, let me run that one. Hi, I’m back. The only scenario that makes sense is a 30-year mortgage at 7.9%. You have to net about $3600 a month to ‘qualify’. I couldn’t but any reasonably employed couple should be able to manage that.
Mind you, that is one house way up in Miramar. Nobody in Florida has questioned the “hidden costs of sale” for so long, they don’t even issue a warning anymore. The ads say ‘low’ without defining the word. I think $30 is low to tank up my car, other people would balk. There are more ads appealing to teenagers as ‘investments’ but I just don’t know about that one. “Hi, mom, dad? Forget that sportscar I wanted for my birthday. There is a retirement home near Disneyworld that I pre-qualified for. I’ll be dropping out of college to make the payments.”
Many other ads are so worn out, like “won’t last” or sucker ads that don’t state the asking price. I won’t move on anything as long as my personal investments are climbing faster than real estate prices, something I’ve always been able to just manage. Mind you, I’m dealing with smaller total amounts of money, but that could be temporary since I’ve only recently seriously tackled the problem of renting. I was always content to rent and have the freedom to pick up and move whenever I felt like it. To a guy like me, buying cash is the only real way to justify owning real estate. I know people that rented expensive apartments because they thought other people rented expensive apartments, and I guess most of them still live there. I’ll rent the cheapest place that’s quiet and includes everything, as long as the neighborhood is decent. It took me three years to save up the first $10,000 for a down payment, but only 11 months to get the second $10,000. Now, you can figure for yourself whether I would pay inflated prices, or just wait for the inevitable bust. (The other problem is that my $19,997 is so well invested I wouldn’t touch it just to buy a house. I will re-look at a hotel condo with a rental program on a no-doc.)
Time to update JZ on a few things. He thinks I pay too much for rent. I picked up a copy of “Apartments for Rent” at Publix, partly because I wanted to examine the binding. The average monthly rent for a one bedroom is $794, the lowest is $595 and some of those places are quite a way out of town. I rent an efficiency, although there is nothing efficient about it. But I have far more privacy, fewer neighbors, no hallway fights, no sales calls, and parking at street level. For this, I pay $450 a month, and not a penny more. JZ seems to remember when rent was $300 on SOBE back in the 70s. The cheapest efficiency listed is (except for a $461 unit where you do not want to live) in Fort Lauderdale for $560 with a one year lease. I don’t like efficiencies in apartments, because they are really studios that are too damn small for two people to live in, while efficiencies in private houses at least used to be real bedrooms at some point. None of the property I looked at was in Miami or Miami Beach, where the rents are always over $1,000 for anything half decent. JZ’s only monthly payment is the $125 condo fee, which he squawks about at times.
On that happy note, I also point out that I think, although this is an unwarranted opinion, that, Tammi cannot get JZ much better than 6% on his investments of $16,000. This means about $80 a month before taxes, not even what I sock away extra just in my 401(k) in a week. I have tons more experience investing and an unbeatable lead in living below my income, so I think I’ll maintain a healthy lead for quite a while unless something goes haywire. My minimum investment weekly, not including employer contributions, is $157.50 per week (not per month) at this time. I’ve never met anyone else who did this ratio from scratch (big qualifiers, those words), but I recognize it is entirely possible.
