One year ago today: December 25, 2017, Wow, $2,800!
Five years ago today: December 25, 2013, & that's just dessert.
Nine years ago today: December 25, 2009, living with stray cats.
Random years ago today: December 25, 2002, when Denny's was tradition.
I’ll tell you who is clever. Boss Hogg radio, 1360 AM. They decided to not play any Xmas music on either Xmas Eve or Xmas Day. Blasted their ratings into the exosphere. People can only take so much of them ancient carols and jazz remakes that start the day after Thanksgiving. I don’t know if this is something new. I only found it because that’s the station I set it on. Or as Fester Jenkins says, turn that volume all the way up and rip off the knob. Or Cowboy Rowdy, “Who says you can’t do that on the radio? Here hold my beer.”
Merry Xmas anyhow, it is 6:25AM and I can see Venus to the SE right out my office window. It’s due to be another work day, so I need that coffee I missed last evening. Will anything be open here, or do I drive to Winter Haven? Check back later for the answers. My morning mood won’t last. I got up with a sore throat and I stubbed my toe on the 21st, it went away, and now it’s back this morning. Got me limping. So throw in an extra ‘Bah Humbug’ for me. And another thing, despite the tunnels all over one corner of my front yard, that mole killer has not done a thing. I’ve moved it to several locations. Aren’t these moles mammals that need to feed every day? Or have I got some genetically altered sci-fi breed that’s using my place as home base? And they are, like, posting little mole detour signs around my traps.
Taking a work break at 11:00AM, I see that Agt. R seems back on schedule with his deposits. On that premise, I ran the spreadsheets with the actual numbers. If he continues with the plan, he’ll still be paying by 2035. If he makes 26 extra payments of 1,000 twice a year, he’ll be paid off by 2032. On the payment plan I have set up, he can begin making those extra payments this upcoming March (2019). Once he understood the money, when deposited, is already spent, his financial situation turned around. But just before I left, there was a credit card, which can spell trouble.
Time for another pep talk, to make sure he is clear that the payment he is making includes almost a third of the amount in escrow. But the total he’s paying still amounts to less than half what he would have to pay for even the cheapest rental within the city limits. And for the record, from the original guesses I had to take over the amounts involved, and this was over a year before the facts came out, I was less than $3 out per month.
The bolero.
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Up to the attic, and anyone who says they like that kind of work has not had to do it by themselves in Florida. It was mostly patching drywall, which was so brittle when I put the partition up, I got some big chunks working themselves loose. And, of course the electrical, which runs along that partition most of the time. One of the attic lights was out, and the pilot switch I installed to warn if those lights were left on, it burned out on the third use. I could have used a helper but then up and down the ladder around 15 times, often just to turn a breaker back on, was good exercise.
Four hours later, I’m calling it a day. I’m too tired to even get up there to take a picture. And I took my phone with me rather than risk missing a call. That’s my second to last dumb phone and I cracked the screen. Oh well, there’ll be more after the Xmas shopping is done. I had to lie prone to fix some of the drywall. I’m not built for such labor any more, but hey, I did it. It’s starting to look tidier in the front bedroom. I’m going to install a second 20 amp heater receptacle. The room shape means there should be two locations to run a heater, and we know how to deal with receptacles now.
Trump shut down the government, or more accurately, he let the bastards shut it down. Until he gets the wall. Is the next Liberal dirty trick to hold back funding? I don’t know, I don’t follow politics. My take on it is that the government is shut down and I never noticed. I stand by my contention that America should be the first nation in history to outlaw government. It is just no longer required. What we have is inefficient and represents the worst in America.
I went for another car drive. About sixty miles, stopping for coffee at Hardee’s in Mulberry. Coffee crops are finicky and we are in a poor stretch just now. Every brand seems off in some way. Even the K-cup maker brands, the dark roast barely rates medium. That’s my big Xmas 2018. That, plus there is a restored Mustang for sale, my kind of car. I’m going to take a look.
ADDENDUM
The Mustang and I go way back. It was the symbol of the generation before me. My first girlfriend’s older sister, Phyliss, had one, a candy yellow 1966. This was the car that symbolized the break with the past. A lot of us still associate it with The Beatles, the rejection of the old world, the old order, responsible for two World Wars and killing the best-looking president ever. The Mustang fad did not really hit out west until 1967, so Phyliss was one of the first. Soon, everybody was driving a muscle car. Barracudas, Firebirds, Cougars, but nothing could match the original Mustang with its totally impractical back seat.
It had everything, including an 8-track tape deck. My gal and I were too young to drive, but we used to sit in that car for hours listening to tapes. Those bulky tapes had drawbacks, such as fogging up the windows. It was unfortunate that I was caught in that last generation where adults “controlled” what their teens did. For example, we were told that if you were “caught” with a girl, you had to marry her. And none of us who did something to be caught about wanted anything to do with getting married. This explains the unrestrained shenanigans of first year college. It was the first time most of us were out from under the watchful eye.
Alas, it was a situation never to be duplicated again. My scoring average dropped to a fraction of my college days the instant it was real-world time. I longed to be back on campus, but that was just as expensive back then. I envied the people who parents kept them in school to keep them away from home, I was truly surprised by the numbers of them. Single men in their mid-thirties who had never held a job or run a business, but with massive opinions of what those were all about.
Later, I had to drive around to find WiFi and found a lounge in Winter Haven. I saw a couple of musician’s cars parked out front, but they were in their partying, no playing. Anyway, they are in their early twenties and their mother works there. I wisely checked my e-mail, that’s another story, but I have a situation that is dragging me into the wired world. For example, I have the minimum minutes plan on my phone, 400 per month. But I rarely used more than 192 minutes. Until this November, where that doubled and this month I’m already at 388.
Anyway, we got to talking music and the mother gives me the “howdy stranger” look. Then, she brings out her phone and shows me a string of pictures when she was twenty years younger. My jaw hit the floor. What a sexpot, you would not recognize the person without a second take. Nothing happened, but it is another vindication of dieting. What had happened is she had seen a promo shot of me at age 38 when I weighed in at 140 pounds. I’m still packing an extra 40 pounds, but the inches are melting away. I like the way I look and feel. And she implied that she would like to as well.
I am on day 386 of the diet. That’s 386 days since I ate enough food to fill up a plate. Since I felt full. Since I didn’t go to bed hungry most of the time. For anyone who asks, no it is not easy. There’s a factor they don’t tell you on the package, that the only time you are not hungry is when you are distracted. The moment you stand still, the pangs begin. You must get used to them or fail. To me this explains a lot of diets that flop. Show me the person who gained the weight back and I’ll show you a person with no hobbies or interests capable of distracting them. Because those are work, too. No, television does not qualify as a distraction, or all the viewers would be anemic.
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