One year ago today: March 21, 2015, the Miami towtruck swindle.
Five years ago today: March 21, 2011, The other Hollywood, 1991.
Nine years ago today: March 21, 2007, Jeff goes religious on me.
Random years ago today: March 21, 2014, Isandlwana, baseless Hollywood lies.
MORNING
Of all the books I own, which one is least likely to go missing? Right, my celestial navigation Almanac. Even if it was 2014, I still used the tables for constant practice. It’s a distinctive bright blue color and even if I left it at a coffee shop, somebody there would know it belongs to me. Methinks this is my prod to quit being such a cheapskate and go buy the 2016 version. How could I lose one of the few books I buy retail?
Yeah, I’d prefer something closer to 150,000 miles between replacements. I’ve instructed him to get the best quality non-Honda wire available and expressed the urgency of this repair. I need to be in Bartow. By the way, the town in California is not Bartow, it is Barstow. And I was there two years ago. Cruisin’ the Mojave. That’s where I saw that monster train and the world’s largest windmill farm. And now I am forestalled by a $10 cable?
Next, after comparison shopping on these band saw blades, I think the best plan may be to just absorb the $22.07 every month in broken blades as an operating expense. That’s more than I spend on bread. And the papers are saying house sales have fallen. That’s not the same as saying prices have dropped. When both situations occur, you have a slump, but not before. Still, I welcome the news because the lower sales generally indicates an overheated market and prices have to drop before it moves again.
And, I’d like to point out, the average drop in prices before things turnaround has lately been 24% in the market I’m looking at. It will also hurt whoever is buying up all the Lakeland properties. I’ve noticed a few coming back on the market after two years with nothing but a paint job and twice the price. The underlying brake on housing prices in Florida is the inescapable fact that there are no jobs that pay enough for a working couple to buy at median prices.
One of the places I’m putting in a low-ball is the turf of the blonde lady from our first auction. She has not returned my calls, but I’m not the only one who notices she not only has seven times as many sales as the second place agent in her office, but she also has the same last name as the owner. I’m not suggesting anything except that in my experience people with 12-letter last names rarely show up at the same office by happenstance.
The Eden Project.
NOON
”If you’re brainwashed and you know it clap your hands.” – Hillary supporters everywhere.
The area is empty again, the last Canuck is leaving this Saturday. They got eight or nine nice days this season, and fewer return each year. What an unwelcome chill in the air all day as I had to put 18 miles on the scooter to get some chasing around done. That includes some small pieces of lumber, you know I’m getting better at that. Now I recognize at least two kinds of wood. Good wood that doesn’t crack on you and the other kind. Pretty sophisticated for me.
Bird or business? Example, I took one look at the lineup at the post office and kept going. So I don’t have stamps left to write my snail mail. What, you didn’t know I also keep up with regular correspondence? Well, I do and it is not a dying art over here. An overseas letter costs $1.10 these days, which I’m sure so many of you already knew. If you are so smart, how about telling me where my Nautical Almanac has got to. I’ll be grouchy till it is found.
I’m further missing my 9/16th drill bit. But that one is my fault and I’m close enough to the new Harbor Freight to not worry about the small stuff. I’ll tell you isn’t small stuff anymore. Airbnb. They just announced a net worth of $25 billion. I’m cheerful with that, as I’m the worst enemy the Hotel/Motel gang in America ever had. There is no such thing as a hotel worth what those Mafia bastards charge. I’m convinced if fair competition was allowed, America would soon have top-notch hotels for $50 a night.
Overcharge the customer for the extras, but not the room if that is all he wants. Change the law to absolutely prevent hotels from tracking personal information about guests.once the bill is settled. I’ve heard the argument that the customer is renting your room. Yes, but he is also renting privacy. Time to root out those who can’t supply it. They ain’t never gonna improve on their own. Another argument is they have to protect themselves. Yes, and as long as they can do so by abusing privacy, they will never seek a better solution.
NIGHT
I regularly review the ways people are making money over the Internet. The major obstacle is the all-or-nothing aspect of spending even a penny on-line. The man who wants to spend $50 has to sign up for the same service as the drug baron laundering millions—and potentially be subject to the same scrutiny when the authorities enact new laws that were not there when he started.
In all, the most successful ads for Internet “home business” seem to stress the aspect of doing nothing. You set up some of their software on your computer, then sit around in your bathrobe drinking hot liquids as the money rolls in. And they desperately want to help you achieve this. My question is what is with the “do nothing” aspect?
This intrigued me in that it is opposite to the Horatio Alger attitude prevalent when America was a great land of opportunity. That is, before 1970 or so when government began to replace incentive. I mean, if you really want to sit around collecting a paycheck, you have to get in with the DMV. While I agree that working for a living is a formula for failure, neither can you do nothing. Why? Because, although a minority, the world is full of people like me.
Like me? Yes, in that to live well, I don’t have to work. I merely have to create or support a system that protects what I already have from arbitrary distribution. No, I’m not the rich kid who inherited anything, but the system that shelters him from work applies equally well to me. Mind you, I had to accumulate what I have, so I don’t have his same fear of losing it. That’s simply because, unlike him, I obviously had the skills to get things together in my own lifetime.
So yes, it is amusing to see these scams make the rounds every generation. I wonder how these get passed along. In my day, it was through comic books. “Would you pay a quarter to be 2” taller?” and “X-ray glasses”. Is there like a school or some underground network that all these scam artists attend? I often wondered about that. And yes, if I ever wanted to, I could easily steal a lot of money from stupid people.
But why risk jail when there are plenty of legit ways to make a few dollars? They all take work, however, and that seems to bother the Millennials. By the way, I watched a show on the “stars” of their generation, Megan Fox, Jessica Biel, Natalie Portman. God, that generation must be infatuated with the non-blonde “single-mother” look. I did not recognize even one of these “stars” (which simply means they must be involved with television) and the only one I’d tap is that Rachel Macadams. I would shudder to see any of those stars without their makeup. The natural beauty of the farm girls I grew up with is just not there. Poor, poor America.
Back to making money, if I had my health, things would be very different. For instance, I know one guy who makes a good living cutting up IKEA furniture and making useful things. He makes only one of each and then sells the plans on the Internet. Got that, he sells the plans only. His overhead is one IKEA kit per month, but he is known to scrounge.
ADDENDUM
What gives? Another week sails by and that property that got me whisking the batbike back to town [from Bartow] in 4.5 hours is still listed for sale in all four major sites. You remember, the one supposedly sold to the cash offer that was so much greater than mine. Well, this is the third Monday it has reappeared on the market. I’ll send a note to the real estate lady reminding of her what I said about cash offers in this day and age, she seems so forgetful on that point. And I’m really sitting on the real money.
Last Laugh
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