One year ago today: July 30, 2019, playing plumber.
Five years ago today: July 30, 2015, puttering.
Nine years ago today: July 30, 2011, Young Circle revisited.
Random years ago today: July 30, 2012, on public records.
Six days after helping with the tree trimming and I’m not up to speed. Which is not to say nothing gets done. Here’s a good view of one of the shed workbench light boxes. Yep, it’s wired 20 amps. The premium paid for this wire eclipses the extra cost of trips to the store and keeping two gauges on inventory. Electrical work is becoming routine and with my background in this branch of accounting means I’m aware of costs even without thinking about them. I would have to charge $90 each for these four lights, so I’m a long way from a new career with this.
Much deep thought has been expended on what I’ve learned about renovating. It’s actually a lot but much of it due to the fact the promised help never arrived. I’ve learned to do some pretty impossible things by myself. So, I’ve begun putting some cash away for the expected next housing bubble. The way I got this place was influenced by the last bubble, but that’s not the whole picture. No bank would have lent such small money and the seller was undoubtedly fully aware of that. It was a combination of matters surrounding the fact I had the $18,000 in cash. Could it happen again?
Indeed it may have to. The fall-out from this Democrat-led shutdown is going to slam a lot of people mighty hard as soon as the rent and mortgage moratoriums cease. Like many, I now consider the virus as having nothing to do with the matter, it was just the excuse used to trigger their all-out anti-Trump coup attempt. The public has been hornswoggled by a band of radical left clowns and carnival barkers. This is not to say I pity the public. They needed a slap in the head enough to give them a nosebleed. I have no qualms over buying any of them out when they discover freedom in America requires real money. Some of them may even wake up to the whole credit card swindle.
Boston red ivy.
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How about a hand with the brush piles? Here is one in the front yard, awaiting the chain saw. I’m half resolved to invest in a top quality pole saw instead of buying a so-so regular model. Most of the really big limbs are down and the rest can be dealt with by my electric. The summer is back with a pre-hurricane calm in the air. And the Sun-Sentinal’s most-retarded hurricane map is still there. That’s the map that knows exactly where you live, but starts with a map of the entire world that zig-zags all over the place when you try to zoom in. Way to go there, millennials. May you do the same for the fire engine map of your neighborhood.
The potential for another [real estate] crash occupied most of the afternoon and I know why it took so long. Shania Twain. The fiddle riff from “Any Man of Mine”, I learned it on the bass and it became an earworm. Had a devil of a time concentrating. If I go for another house, I would need a real partner this time. Here I am, with a life expectancy already past and I’m planning to launch new ventures. There’ll be no surprise moves, as I’ve just recently replaced the cash for this place. Well okay, plus a little more. The cheapest property for sale in Hermitage is $140,000. It’s a townhouse with issues. I’ll peg that one for comparison and watch Zillow for a while.
TMOR readers, Zillow is an on-line real estate broker, but worth a look. While most of the world cannot afford a house in America, neither can most Americans. Of interest is the questions Zillow asks and the services they offer. This tells you how utterly ignorant most Americans are when it comes to buying a house. They don’t know a roof shingle from a door post. If they need the place inspected, they have to hire somebody. The purchasing process is pretty much focused on how much money they can afford to borrow when squeezed from every possible angle by the beejeesus nicest strangers they’ve ever met. I’m not making this up.
Here’s a bit more info to confuse the issue. The average house price in Lakeland is $170,000. Talking with my real estate lady, she explains the rising prices by lack of inventory. She has seven houses on file, and they will sell within a week she says. Most everything is snapped up and it is not institutional buyers this time, but long term speculators. And she reports they have cash. Hmmm, did I start a trend? Bank mortgage rates are running 1.5% and that’s who really controls the market. The catch is, you need a household income of only $26,000 to qualify these days. I like that term “qualify”. Zillow uses it a lot.
The median household income in this area is $51,000 and change, but allow me to elaborate. That’s median, not average. And for reasons unknown to me, Florida makes a distinction between household income and family income. The bank normally won’t let you spend more than 28% of your pre-tax income on a mortgage payment. Even I would have run out this month due to the shutdown and I’m one of the rare people who keeps a six-month buffer for housing. I’m that far ahead on my utility bill and the tax money is already set aside. My point isn’t bragging, it’s that I would be terrified to plunge $150k into debt while making only $26,000 per year.
ADDENDUM
Yep, Twitter is becoming America’s censor, wholesale banning of accounts under their “hateful conduct” policy which is unsurprisingly the same as their “we don’t like you” policy. Some say Facebook is the bad guy, but Facebook is such a disorganized mess that they are getting everything wrong these days. But Twitter goes after celebrities. Donald Trump, Katie Hopkins, and now David Duke. My position on this? That everybody is entitled to their opinion and outfits like Twitter are not qualified to determine which are good or bad. Overall, the left is far more violent and dangerous than the right, so Twitter is guilty of taking sides, and that gets them a fail.
Mind you, I do not believe that Freedom of Speech encompasses the right to say anything anytime, the old quip comes to mind about yelling “Fire” in a crowded movie theater. I believe things like advertising and proselytizing should be curbed. I don’t understand why people with Twitter accounts don’t just pack up and leave, taking their followers with them. Join BitChute. I further don’t know why anyone with a non-leftist view isn’t prepared for the day they will be gagged by the media.
