October 4, 2019

Yesteryear
One year ago today: October 4, 2018, Winter Haven, FL
Five years ago today: October 4, 2014, top level announcements . . .
Nine years ago today: October 4, 2010, bingo shopping.
Random years ago today: October 4, 2007, she had blue eyes.

           Any trip to Punta Gorda and I’m jinxed. This morning I left with nearly two hours to make that 71 mile car ride. Ten miles south of town I hit a fog bank. I would still have made the ceremony except according to GPS, there is no such church in the city. I even drove to Sacred Heart in case that was the mixup. Nope. I finally drove to the south end and found a Dunkin, which says the church is across the river in a different city called Port Charlotte. I’ve encountered this mixup before. Even the locals will tell you that Punta Gorda is across the river.

           In the coffee shop was a group of men, one of whom said he worked at City Hall. He stated that the city has been aware of this confusion for years. And local businesses lose millions. Why? Because old timers and old maps do show the cities as the same. He further reports there are 920+ duplicate addresses in both towns. Every attempt to get the muddle sorted out is shot down by citizen’s committees who want the other side to change their addresses. GPS and Mapquest are no help on this one. They both show the address as in Punta Gorda, which is completely wrong. I rolled up 40 minutes late, just as the ceremony was ending.

           Why didn’t I call ahead? First of all, very millennial of anyone who thinks that is a novel suggestion. Because Alaine leaves her cell phone at home when she has a big responsibility like this. The net result is she knew I was coming, so she kept a vial of Holy Water and a copy of the official blessing. It was a quiet ceremony in the courtyard. Shown here are the accoutrements, including pictures of the animals. I doubt the Reb would care, but the service, for the record, is non-denominational. Some would say there is no such thing. It was a touching ceremony.

           Relating back to y’day, I see several people I know have become Trump supporters. Or at least have adopted my position of letting a non-lawyer non-Establishment people’s choice have a kick at the can. The leftists thought they had a shoo-in for 2016 and had attained immunity by declaring all criticism to be politically incorrect. They got their asses handed to them and it looks like 2020 could be their Custer’s Last Stand. If he landslides, it could mean the opposition would need to form a whole new party—or join the media as the opposition. Nobody trusts liberals or their reporters any more except a small core of head-case extremists still wailing over their loss.
           Unlike cookie-cutter liberals, Trump supporters are a varied lot. What’s unifying them is the all-too-obvious insane ranting of the leftists and their propaganda. Every other news report seems to cluck that there is some massive anti-Trump movement, this old trick. Quick, you better join so you’ll be on the winning side sort of nonsense. They field candidates that say idiotic things like Trump says embarrassing things to foreign heads of state. Like it is supposed to break our hearts if Trump “snubs” some boring European. Americans are weary of treating everybody like a champ even if they are a chump.
           Most Americans could not find Finland on a map, but they do recall it was not one of the countries that rushed to our aid after the last hundred or so hurricanes.

Picture of the day.
Log cabin, Alaska.
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           Of course we stopped at the church Thrift. Sadly, they no longer offer books and the tools had been picked over. But I got a couple nice working gadgets, including a travel alarm for $1. The bill of sale was in the package, purchased at the Houston airport, just this May. Thanks to me, we are running late, so we opted for a nearby brunch. The golf course, and I can recommend it. It’s the retirement community on Rampart Blvd. There might be a food photo nearby.

           These are memorable times and JZ didn’t arrive. If this was an advice blog on the mechanics of getting older, I would tell people that it is the memories that happen to you after 50 that are the important ones. Yes, fond as the earlier ones seem, they will fade. I wonder if it has to do with the fact if you don’t pursue you dreams by this age, you likely will not get there. Earlier memories are attractive but they will not have the same depth as the home stretch.

           Not that my way is right either, for you see, Alaine can easily remember times I could not possibly recall. The time I replaced the outlets in Quiznos’, the ceiling fan install, and the time I helped them move. My only defense is that I have this blog and could potentially look these up. Or stand by my usual excuse that people who remember what they did long ago are not leading my life.
           It was brunch and my first meal in 15 years without diet restrictions. I had the fish and chips, which was excellent but not spectacular. Alain had the corned beef sandwich and it was touching on terrific. I had a sample, so I’ve finally officially eaten beef again. I have no plans to materially alter my now-established long term diet goals. It was just nice to dig in again. They have a famous Friday fish fry for which I might just find a weakness.

           We stopped at the animal shelter, Alaine found some stuffed toys for props. They are showcasing the Bahamian dogs mentioned last day, but I did not view them. Still in quarantine, they will go fast. We arrived at feeding time and the noise, the confusion. Keep an eye for any gifs in the short while, since I took videos of the cuter mugs. They’ve got some fairly creative people naming the pets, but I don’t know about a cat called “Pink-toes”.
           That’s a day for me. I headed home by the scenic route, through the metropolis of Ona, then over to an new route for me. Highway 39. A nice drive, which took me past Pierce. That’s the town I always forget where the two ladies at the Thrift gave me the best deals. Alas, I can confirm it is shut down. Great concept, poor location. A mile to far east. There was a time that road was the artery, but the newer spur up to Highway 60 eventually strangled it. Yep, a full day. I dunno, how was your Friday?

ADDENDUM
           Closing the books for my year shows a number of changes I had not provided for. This is the year I had planned on owning and operating a car, that is, about now. Instead, I have spent over $6,000 on the car, over $2,000 for insurance, and $3,600 in gasoline. And visiting in Tennessee has cut my entertainment budget in half. If I seem less than inclined to worry about expenses, it is not lack of concern. Of course I’m concerned or I would not have a budget.

           It’s more that since I’m spending real money instead of the kind I have to pay back, I don’t operate under the same pressure. We’ve gone over this before, that a person without a budget who borrows money has to have around five times my income to live the same. Think of it as the old story about the guy who lived his life like a millionaire and when he died, they found he had nothing. I’m not that guy, since I have at least some net worth but yes, attitude has plenty to do with it.

           [Author’s note: I’ll not be famous for it, but my message is that most people do not realize how little it takes of a surplus. The actual amount is different per individual and it takes an enormous act of faith to find out. The faith is that the rest of the country will continue to wallow in debt, creating the situation that buoys up the man with a little liquid cash.
           This is one economic theory that is scalable. Unlike savings, it would work if everybody did it. And, it would shake up the entire payscale of the workforce with a return to supply and demand. Best of all, you would then see for sure what most people are truly worth. Before I figured this out, I used to chuckle when I got into a taxi in South America to discover it was being driven by a doctor working overtime.]

           JZ was taken aback that silver reserves still exist. On paper, he says it lost money. That is all attitude, since it was never an investment. It was speculation, and nobody will lose or gain a thing until it is sold. He’s not alone in seeing money as absolute value, as in you either have five bucks or you don’t. Like most, he has never studied money enough to know that you never reach a point of total understanding. Lots of people regard silver as better money than paper but in the end, it doesn’t matter what it is printed on. Money only has value when other people think it does. Chew on that and watch this gif of Roxy, then continue.

           That’s where lifestyle comes in. Benjamin Franklin and others recognized that in the long run, those who borrow can never become as wealthy as those who lend. It’s complicated. Having money is not the same as being rich. To be rich, you must conspire to stay rich and prevent others from getting rich—the best way is to trick them into thinking it can be done by hard work and long hours, then tax them. The point is, spending borrowed money on a daily basis requires a certain but ill-defined attitude toward money. Remove that attitude, and suddenly Ben Franklin makes sense: spend less than you make. The millions who tried and failed forgot to change their attitude.

           To be clear on a related point, part of the attitude to which I refer would outrage the socialists. It isn’t really, but they will scream so anyway. It shifts the responsibility for those who do not work, for any reason, away from the taxpayer on to those who feel sorry for them. Those who won’t work will feel the effects of gut-stretching hunger, those who can’t work will seek solace in religion, which is a business operation that would be under scrutiny if they dare abuse their tax-free privilege. Feed your flock.
           This may seem harsh, but it is historically the only way to deal with free-loaders. The past fifty years was the American experiment of giving them free money and access to anything they want. It caused their numbers to increase. Worse, those numbers show some alarming ethnic patterns. What’s harsh was the way I was taxed as a lad to support welfare. Over 30% of my overtime dollar for people who disagreed with me at every turn. Mercy is a two-way street and I don’t remember receiving any from their side of it. In dumb people’s eyes, two wrongs don’t make a right. But in this case, at least stopping the traffic would be an improvement.
           If you’d like to reinforce the wrong idea about owning money, there is a PBS series on “The Ascent of Money”. A slanted view that seeks to justify the more sordid aspects of usury. How slanted? Well, one tip-off the video manages to depict entire scenes with the narrator walking through Italian palaces full of naked statues. And not one of those is of a woman. If you get my drift.

Last Laugh