One year ago today: January 26, 2021, she feels your pain.
Five years ago today: January 26, 2017, my first screen door.
Nine years ago today: January 26, 2013, the mindless pursuit.
Random years ago today: January 26, 2014, we are now a 5-piece.
The truckers continue toward Ottawa, the Federal government says no concessions. One theory is the Ottawa will use taxpayer money to distribute goods, another says Ottawa has stolen all pension money and needs to kill off as many old people as fast as possible. Under the circumstances, the best option might be letting things get out of hand. It’s well before dawn here in Florida, in a few hours I’m taking the van in for new wires, plugs, and coils. If this works, we are taking some kind of holiday.
On the return leg, I stopped at Wal*mart and here is a rare find. A pair of 300W bulbs for the shed. I usually buy the whole carton when I can find them, so two was a good score at $4 each. Extrapolating the “new” mercury bulbs, if they made any that powerful, would be $18 each. I do not buy that tall tale that the mercury bulbs last longer. For openers, very few homeowners have the wherewithal to make that comparison. I say they don’t last, my budget indicates I’m replacing bulbs at the same frequency but at twice the price.
This morning’s rainstorm brought back the mild weather, but left everything too soggy to work at. You get small projects and such, I’m not working outside in that drizzle. The only appointment is picking up the scooter at 4:00PM. My alarm clock fell off the table. Now two things don’t work. The night light and the alarm. Who designs these things like that, anyway? I said small projects, and that means like replacing the steel screws in my coat rack with brass screws. I have a special drill that speeds that along, except every other year when the battery goes dead. It was dead this morning.
Last, due to vehicle repairs, we went over budget this month, and there is still nearly a week left. However, the gig on Saturday helps redress that, a reminder of how, years later, my budget is still so greatly affected by any music money. It’s like there are built-in influences from the band so many years ago when my “retirement” budget was laid out. Back then, I was living on what I made in the band.
Narrow San Remo street.
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Myself, I consider it lucky I manage to date women who, for the most part, are self-supporting in that they at least have jobs. That’s another story, but for any gigolo types out there, the pickin’s are mighty slim. Of the top ten rich women, roughly, the average age is just over 67 and the net worth is just under 22 billion. None achieved their wealth independently, so make sure you get along with their attorneys and accountants. Read today’s addendum for specifics.
I’d rate today as one where an abundance of things went wrong, leaving me caring less. This was also the day my scooter tire and rim were to be finished. After I drove out there on my bad pistons, the parts did not show up until an hour earlier. Tomorrow is out, so I’ll have to head back there Friday. This is symbolic of how the “American Way” has been diluted and corrupted. Back in the day, the shop would have absorbed the loss for the delay, but now, why you just come back Friday. To hell with the other plans you made. I don’t mean this shop, I mean as soon as one shop pulls that third world sequence, the others have to follow.
Due to rush hour, I took Hwy 60 via Bartow and stopped at the old club. It was dead, but somehow, a trivia question came up. Then, the barmaid began asking a couple of us more questions off her smart phone. Soon, the far end of the bar wanted in and it moved over there. However, I’m an old hand at what sells, and sure enough, over the ensuing hour, the rotten assholes began showing up. Eight people playing trivia, but he wants them to desist because there’s a tennis match on TV, which he cannot watch in silence. Or that skinny old prick who thinks him & I have so much in common, trying to expand on every answer, like he’s some kind of genius. Ha, he can’t do sweet eff all until I give the correct response.
The barkeep kept it going, to my surprise. She also noted the disrupters. To me, they were pretty predictable. I failed on the TV questions and the names. Ask me what Alexander Fleming discoveedr, and I’ll say penicillin, but don’t ask me the other way around. This easy time of it gave me the chance to tally other budget items. It’s a big picture view, for example, the way my books record total income and expenses, I’ve overspent $24,000 since 2017. The reality is that is the amount I would have fallen behind just staying alive had I taken any advice.
The Webb telescope has positioned itself correctly. The story is the next few months will be occupied calibrating the instruments, but I don’t buy that. Advances in sensor technology simply don’t require that much time, so there is some hidden agenda in operation. Maybe military, and there is always the chance, however slim, that alien technology has already been detected and bears some relationship to why this telescope cost $10 billion.
Speaking of sinister, remember that I warned you about Google Chrome almost the same day it was released. Mainly designed as a tracking device for tablets, a big item in 2008, my alert was based on the huge volume of background files that were not present in other Google products. It was nothing but spyware and I told you so.
ADDENDUM
Here’s America’s top ten richest women. Not one of them ever directly worked for a penny of it.
1. Alice Walton, 69. Sam Walton’s daughter. $46.2 billion.
2. Jaqueline Mars, 79. Granddaughter of Frank Mars. $40.1 billion.
3. MacKenzie Bezos, 49. Ex-wife of Jeff Bezos. $36.6 billion.
4. Laurene Jobs, 55. Widow of Steve Jobs. $20.9 billion.
5. Elaine Marshal, 76. Widow of Pierce Marshal (Koch). $15.3 billion
6. Abigail Johnson, 57. Granddaughter of Fidelity founder. $14.7 billion
7. Tied: Mari, Vicki, Pam, & Val Mars. Daughters of Frank. $9.9billion. Each.
8. Blair Perry-Okeden, 73. Granddaughter of James Cox. $8.69 billion.
9. Christie Walton, 74. Widow of Sam Walton’s son. $7.57 billion.
10. Katherine Raynor, 74. Granddaughter of James Cox. $5.77 billion.
[Author’s note: TMOR, Cox is the 13th largest cable TV and media giant. The company was started in 1898 by James Middleton Cox, who borrowed $26,000 from friends & family to buy a newspaper in Dayton, Ohio. Before you admire the feat, in today's money he "borrowed" around $85 million dollars. That we all had "friends & family" like that.]
Interesting how the Mars four daughters represent the failure of America to prevent the formation of wealth-based dynasties. It says something of their abilities when years after inheriting their wealth, they all have an identical net worth. They know nothing of business, their money is simply invested at the going rate. In America, theoretically a man is worth only what he achieves in his own lifetime, but that rule only applies to the working class.
I did not check, but I have no doubt these women all belong to “foundations” purportedly helping the less fortunate on one hand, but quashing any chance of rising competition on the other. Since they know nothing of creating wealth, to keep it they must thwart others from getting any. The pie is only so big.
