January 3, 2020

Yesteryear
One year ago today: January 3, 2019, 5-string annual coincidence.
Five years ago today: January 3, 2015, furious tenants.
Nine years ago today: January 3, 2011, except the radios won’t work.
Random years ago today: January 3, 2009, minister/doctor/credit repair. WIP

           First weekend of the year and it’s rainy. Here’s some trivia concerning the weigh scale at Publix market. Publix is a chain of Florida supermarkets, now expanded elsewhere. This blog dares to discuss weigh scales. It the Toledo model 2830, which is not longer manufactured. Scales were originally outdoors and charged a penny. Publix put one inside their store in Lakeland, Florida. It brought people inside and the scales were often strategically placed near the bakery for the aromas. The first scale was placed in the then-new Store in Winter Haven in 1940.

           Many of the original scales still work, they were only 1/4 the size of today’s type. Only the stores in Florida have them, but not all as we found out. The scales are rotated between stores. They probably have a deterrent effect on the fatso population these days. There is a rumor one fat lady stands on the scale backwards and has a family member read it (for her doctor). Don’t try buying one, Publix scooped most of the remaining units and they are in a warehouse somewhere. If you find this interesting, you must watch this video, which includes this Mr. Peanut scale.

           The video has some amazing facts. Most people did not have bathrooms scales and only got weighed when going to the doctor. The scales kept pennies in circulation according to the unique collector of these devices. Once considered “sidewalk architecture”, these days we’ve become so diversified that somebody would steal them. Watch the video, you’ll be glad you did.
           There are still many for sale averaging oer $1,200 each. At a penny per weigh, you’d need 125,000 people to stand on it to break even on just the purchase price. I dunno, considering how many super-size types we have in Florida, there is some question as to whether the scales would last that long.

           I’m doing my darndest to not talk about the monotonous weather, so let’s talk lasagna. The aroma is wonderful, it’s cooling on the rack. The recipe called for bechemal sauce, which contains two no-no ingredients, that is milk and fwheat flour. The substitutes were oat milk and buckwheat flour. The sauce turned out a greyish color, but samples okay. Forty minutes and seven fence pickets later, we scoop out a serving. The verdict? Delicious, but. Not cheesy enough. Next time the eggplant and zucchini get sliced much thinner. The noodles didn’t get soft enough, and as the pic shows, curled up in the oven. Wrong type of noodles? Oven rack to high? Beyond that, it is definitely lasagna. A dish for people who really love to cook all day long. And run back to the store four or five times. I’ve written to Alaine for expert advice on the noodles.

           While waiting for the dish to cool, I cut the pieces for the picket gate. I’m not going to worry about making the pickets pointy until I have a chop saw. Actually, I cut nine of the ten pieces. I’ve learned, and one thing is for the diagonals, don’t measure where you can mark. Drat, another item that has doubled in price is used paint. That’s my term for the returned or ungood paint usually on sale at the lumber yard. It’s now $9.00 a gallon.

           And again, I measured wrong. It’s clear in my head you need a certain number of pickets plus one. I even diagrammed it out, but the rails came out both one picket-width short. This means another trip to the store, but I regularly drive past that place on the way to the bank. I double-checked my sketch and it still seems right. Instead of figuring it out, lets chalk this one up to experience. Next time, cut the pickets first, then place them in a temporary pattern, and make your measurements there. There must be a trick to it, I should have made a scale model. Ah, it’s Friday, let me sleep on it. .

Picture of the day.
Stunning, or just stunned?
(Lady Di’s Niece.)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           This blog was right about telemarketers. They’ve ramped up to full blast now that their competition has effectively been eliminated. Today I got the phony call from the Broward Police “service department”, whom I promptly told off. This is one of the vast industry for “charity” telemarketers and they are not the drop-outs and deplorables hired by regular scammers. These are often highly trained telethon-grade professionals working under the table. That’s America, you get rid of the top layer of slime and the next layer floats to the top.

           The proposed legislation on spoofing will only partially address the problem. The proposed law will prevent the caller from using fake caller ID. But they will just use restricted numbers. Mr. Trump, it would be easy to outlaw the whole bunch if you only have the will to do it. I’m still wondering what the robo-callers will come up with to get around the TRACED law. The FCC is saying that it cannot do anything about the calls that originate overseas. I don’t believe a word of it. Also, the proposed changes work only with cell phones, not land lines. In other words, they are feeding us shit. The answer remains, “Follow the money."

           How about health care? Expenses have risen 11% in the past year. The average 65-year-old retiring today has to spend over $180,000 in prescription and medical expenses. There’s your proof, as this blog pointed out, that the system is going to get back all that Yuppie tax-sheltered money if they have to wring it out of you. I’m still wondering how the banks have kept silver prices down for ten years. If it ever hits $500 per ounce, no at all unthinkable, we can really retire in style—but no thanks to any government plan. Most people don’t have anything put away, and the few that do average only $20,000.
           And this has nothing to do with retirement, but I live 3,200 miles from where the Internet says I live. Did you know the word 'happiness' has 257 antonyms?

ADDENDUM
           Cross-categories. The new budget element, and why it reveals a potentially distrurbing trend. I used to carry the budget results around in my head. Now, I will print reports and likely file them. That’s where cross-categories enter the situation. Some expenses, like gasoline, can affect several categories. For example, gas could be a car, scooter, or travel expense. While such associations are normal in relational databases, it’s not something you care to see in flat-file models. It reflects a growing complexity of spending (in this case). Travel expenses have loomed large, so to see gas expenses at a glance, a report that references several spreadsheets becomes important.
           Why is the change important? It reflects the growing complexity of my retirement. Because I’ve maxed out my annuities and private funds, plus applied for all government benefits, I now fit squarely into what economists call the “fixed income” bunch. For now, that could change any time but I foresee the day when I will have to depende solely on that source. Up to now, I’ve kept a bare-bones running total of travel costs because that total was less than the average amount I spent at home. This harks back to my quip years back that I could permanently travel cheaper than living at a fixed base. But I’m not ready to sit down yet.

           The spreadsheets will be complicated but I want to avoid using a formal database, where it is difficult to get at the workings. Plus, I don’t trust database formulas any more than I would trust the people who wrote them. That reminds me, did you hear the commotion over TurboTax? That’s the Intuit software people I warned about nearly twenty years ago—I didn’t like the way they do business. I was unaware of their collaboration with the tax department when I pointed out my main objection. Their software followed tax rules instead of accounting rules. Well, that has come to a head.
           It turns out Intuit had an agreement. They would provide a free version of their software to the public specifically designed to file taxes, and in return, the tax department would not develop and present its own version in competition. There you go. By 1999 or so, I knew something was fishy, just not what. Here’s what went sour. That free version was being suppressed by Intuit. Search engines steered people away from free toward paid versions. Over time it became increasingly hard to find the free on-line site. Don’t ask me how difficult or how the site was advertised because I would never file such a document on-line unless there was no other choice. Oh, and don’t piss on my leg and tell me Google wasn’t involved.

Last Laugh