Cost Of Living 2004
Average Cost of new house $274,500.00
Average Median Income $45,817.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas $2.10
Here is Wiki's Picture of the Day:
Author's Note 2014: Yeah, yeah, I know about location, location, but I think my trailer looks more comfortable than that joint.
Can anyone remember which 1944 penny is worth $10,000? The one that sticks to the magnet, or the one that doesn’t. I have one that doesn’t, and it is in pretty good shape. It must have been from that coffee shop yesterday morning. (Somebody ran short of cash when the ATMs emptied, and raided their coin collection.) Yea, I know about my luck, but it seems to me both pennies were worth good money. Or was that 1943? I’m reminded of the legend about the bank teller who had a fortune in rare coins when he died. The bank laid claim to it, even though it would have slipped through their hands otherwise. Proof again of my theory that you don’t tell anyone what you are doing.
Opportunity my eye, the only opportunity was the bank making the claim, which they could not have done if the teller had kept his mouth shut. The bank, who admitted that while they had not done anything to deserve reward, successfully argued that the coins were somehow their property.
I winked at the TV this morning for any hurricane news, and see a sales seminar being held at Don Shulas in Miami Lakes. Hmmm, that is something JZ might be interested in. I know that stock software is created by programmers, not by brokers, but I also know that any system works better than no system. JZ has no system.
I’m in a mood to look at it myself, next Tuesday. Part of the reason is a few of the testimonials said a few things just a little too sincere to be making it up. That is, a few things that would not appeal to the masses that I think slipped past the censor. For clarity, while making a different point, they mentioned about how they had originally worked hard for their money rather than the usual poor-me story. Most people, admittedly, are not like me, but a person like me would pick up that these people were not Amway-like losers. They obviously had some investment experience, but now wanted to take slightly bigger risks for a better return, and I noted, willing to take losses along the way to do it. That gets my attention even if they don’t exactly say it. (I also liked the guy who said he wants his own ship, even if it is just a rowboat.) I shall talk John into it.
The next infomercial was this strange word I’ve been seeing, Pilate. To me, that is the family that crucified Christ and now work for the US civil service. But it is an exercise regimen that uses no equipment, said “Peh-LAW-tay”. I’ve wondered what that was, having seen advertising. Probably just another diet/exercise plan that works decidedly best for people who had no plan before.
I wanted a few scenes of the storm, and finally made it over to Denny’s on 36th again. They are booming, lineups in the rain. What storm? Anyway, I now have enough canned goods to last until Christmas. One of the cans was tuna, but not Albacore, it was okay, but remind me not to do that again. Once I convinced the waitress that I would ask her for anything I wanted instead of her asking me every few minutes, I enjoyed my decaf. I ran some stats, and I do believe a cell phone and a laptop are nearing the point of justification for me. The point where, although they cost me, they cost me less than not having them. I ran out of 8mm tape and went all the way down 36th looking for anything open. Nada. So I got Frank up and we went for coffee at the Latin Café 2000, the place where I declined to date the lady lawyer that owned the place because she avoided the opportunity to tell me exactly where a 27 year old woman got $1.4 million dollars to lose.
Frank took my advice about cashing his check, you may recall. Get all the bank literature, read it carefully, and open an account that you will use exactly to spec. It was costing him up to $15 per week just to cash his paychecks. Now, he tells me he both has the account and over $500 there. Congratulations. We headed up to K-mart on Biscayne and I found video tape, of course, in packages of two only. We both seem in the market for a cell phone, and the bundled deals I’ve found so far are based on two phones. I’ll see what I can find for $20 each per month, about the equivalent of land lines. We’ll both need unlimited evenings for the internet service.
He also stated he got two tickets parking the truck, which he never told me about. These amounted to $150, so I’ll have to reimburse him soon. He explained the city threats on the tickets, that they would impound the truck, refuse to renew his license, and destroy his credit rating – over a parking ticket. But he learned a lot from me. The truck is in a wrecking yard in Tampa, help yourselves you assholes. What do I need a driver’s license for, I have no truck you assholes. And my credit, I don’t have any you assholes. It will be when a judge threatens me with prison that I will comply with such a system. I agree, people should pay their tickets, and in an honorable system, they probably would. But threatening to attack their credit rating is unconscionable.
Oh, remember my mention of the form-fitted canvas billboards? How I noted how well they were strapped in place? They were not strapped well enough. Half of them were torn, shredded and in one case blown down against the fence along the freeway. Traffic had increased today, so I did not snap a picture. All the trees along 41st were blown over last evening while I never heard a thing. A lot of debris from construction sites was all over the roads. Lots of fences and garbage cans were toppled, along with bus shelters and bus benches.
We drove all the way up to Hollywood, and even swung past Space Hippies old place just in case for some reason he was still living there. I think he went back to Michigan. Or was it Minnesota? You need to make at least $20,000 a year to live in Miami, and I don’t think he was averaging near that much. The storm passed north of us and really hit Vero Beach, though it was only a Category 2 or 1 when it went overland. I had Frank video out trip back south and around Young Circle. On the way through North Miami we stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts and we talked about the toothpicks for a while. I would need a truck before I’ll ever sell the Taurus. Now, while Frank has no financial interest in the toothpicks any more, he is still the only other counting expert alive, and I’ll see him done right. He told me out of the blue that he almost did not come back from Texas. See, I knew something was up last year.
I don’t blame him because people are friendlier in Texas. I sort of knew he took the north route through Sweetwater when he stopped checking in every second morning. What? I am reminded that the readers don’t have any idea what I am talking about. Hang on. Okay, on July 10th, 2003, for reasons you’ll have to guess for now, Frank started driving the Taurus station wagon from San Diego, California, toward Miami. He had six or seven hundred dollars and up to two weeks to make the trip. From things he’s mentioned, I always knew he was too familiar with Texas for someone who just lived there a while, plus I’d guessed his ex-wife was in the area. So in early August, I got a message to call him in Richardson [a suburb of Dallas] that he was stranded and broke. Weeks behind schedule and hundreds of miles off course. You might pause to ask what on earth was he doing in California with one million toothpicks in my car, and all I can say is shut up and mind your own business. I wired him $300 and sweated for another week until he showed up.
So the tally on the truck, with those tickets, edges up to the $3,000 mark. All a loss for me, and it is truly Florida to fine somebody who parks a truck in that part of town. If you drive a beat-up old car, they leave you alone, but watch out for any sign of trying to get ahead. Frank noted that the gangster Lanski, when asked what he would change if he had his life to live over again, replied, “Yeah, next time, I’ll buy the permit”.
The Sunbird will be sold soon, I need the toothpick revenue. Another reason I reconnected with Frank over the toothpicks is that I don’t exactly appreciate the very short hours the last few weeks, whatever the reason. Most hourly employee plans, such as my life, are based on a 40-hour week, and three short weeks in a row make for tight living. It is my fault I don’t have the toothpicks up and running by now, or I would have had something ready for just such an occasion. Anyone who pays me less than a full workday loses all recourse when I start something else on the side, folks. Frank, like myself, will still help the next guy as long as he ain’t beggin’ or demandin’. I explained how I just never got back my second wind and doubt I ever will.
On the way back, I bumped into Barb. The lady who married Gerhardt for his money, then blackmailed him with the immigration. Hey, I met them both independently and never took sides. He was dumb to get mixed up with her on that level. She has cancer and will be needing chemo. Goodbye all that lovely red hair. The government sent her some forms that she could get thousands of dollars of taxes back because she had this expensive illness. Of course, the vultures swooped in and want half just to fill out the forms, so she had been looking for me. She offered me $500, but I think our standard arrangement will take care of everything, in fact she said she was looking forward to it.
I mentioned options. My research since then (hey, it was over 14 hours ago) shows many things. One, I don’t follow any of the recommendations for choosing a stockbroker. I hear that is because after first meeting me, they learn never step out of line. My last broker I fired at FMS, we never met, rather he took over from Tammy Faye. Options are very affordable to me, and I only have to make the tiniest profits to beat the crowd – I’m tired of earnings statements because the real tax rate of any company is hard to calculate, and that figure is left out of the retained earnings statement. I can’t find my book on options, I think I lent it out, so I read up on the market in general and find the conclusions the same as I did in 1975.
In any order, this is my views of the stock market options game. Don’t worry about calls and puts, the names are confusing. Remember this, that all stocks go up and down over time, and they go up and down about the same dollar amount. (This is the strategy I used to make $40,000 off a $2,000 investment in the 80s, but it took ten years to do it and I have not a thing to show for the effort.) The point of options is that when prices fall, they fall twice as fast as they rise. You have to find a stock that has a nice regular rhythm to the price fluctuations. If the stock just climbed $20 a share in the last period, it will fall $20 a share in the next half period. One great stock I picked also followed the traditional “buy in October, sell in May” pattern that also matched my annual vacations. I could hardly turn around without making money on that company, an obscure shell mining stock on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. They finally sold out for $8 million to an internet outfit who wanted the name Investors.com, the suckers. I made about $12,000 on that one, but had to pay Canadian taxes. Never invested in Canada again after that.
So anyway, like most investors I have a little mental score card about when to buy and sell, and the options I want are the ones where I make money guessing when the stock is about to fall. It could be a call, it could be a put. I’ll bother to look it up later. The difference is this time I will learn all the proper terms and mechanics myself rather than calling my broker, so that I gain some useful knowledge for a change. I hate being as dumb at dusk as I was at dawn.
