One year ago today: M arch 30, 2021, the van begins acting up.
Five years ago today: March 30, 2017, early Polk guitar hacks.
Nine years ago today: March 30, 2013, run behind the taxi.
Random years ago today: March 30, 2012, I read. A lot.
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Some blog stats. Over the past year, clicks down by just over 4,000. I’m up against the unknown but doing much better than CNN in the percentages. The link-back (Yesteryear) feature lets me review things I’ve long forgotten, one of the initial premises of this bog. There are a lot of errors but I have a defense. I do not have a computer literate crowd to run with. As far as I know I am the only person in my immediate group who does anything with a computer except games and social media. Thus, often when I say something wrong it is because I knew no better at the time. Like in 2008, what I thought about MP3. I can only say in most cases that it was new to me, that is, what I thought was independently derived. The birds got me up early today, with their new playground and soon to be nice mister array.
Taking advantage of the near-perfect weather, I got all manner of small chores done and made up a list of lumber supplies to complete the shelving on these walls. This involves long road trip to a Home Depot in a nice part of town because their cull cart always has better deals. The others, like the one near downtown, are picked over long before you get up in the morning. Yep, America, we had it all and you gave it away. I remember when America had 70% of the money in the world and life was great. My attitude is we bled Europe and the world dry during two world wars and that was our money—but any other country who adopted our ways can do the same any time they please. Not strictly true, but until they adopt, we could care less.
This short video shows the bird dripper. This is all it takes to turn the yard into a playground. I’ve decided to try repairing the lawn bench with 5/4” deck lumber as slats. Nothing else has lasted more than a couple years. Should I drive up to Jacksonville this weekend? Or do more finish work on the shed? I think the shed wins because of the great weather around here. Besides, you have not seen enough yard pictures yet.
Vitamin D foods.
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Later, I scored a whole van-load of excellent lumber for $72. There’s my shelves, new front stairs, and half my new kitchen floor. The floor will, at first, stand in for the roof of the laundry deck. On the way back, I saw the old Thrift has been taped up and spray-painted a bright white color. I suppose that means the end of it, the for sale sign is gone and Mulberry is the only logical direction that Lakeland can grow. East and West there are no arterial roads and the north is already a royal mess of good and bad neighborhoods.
And last gig, the drummer walked out the door and got lost for twenty minutes. Turns out he met a neighbor up the road, got into a convo, and lost track of time. I’ve mentioned I’ve got the band semi-able to play with a missing spot, but somehow, none of them can solo. The lead player refuses to strum or sing and the keyboardist simple won’t. So, I filled the twenty minutes with bass solos and got two reactions, half the crowd each. It split between not noticing anything to looks of disbelief.
The rest of the band could not join in because they did not learn my song list as promised. So when I played items like “Spiders & Snakes” and “Next Broken Heart”, there was not much they could do—and I only played when they said they could not without the drummer, which is not my doing and the crowd was waiting. But between each song, the lead player did a couple of those same riffs he always does. So next time I’ll have more material or I’ll be playing repeats.
ADDENDUM
It’s complex, but I have a formula for determining what is best to store in the silo. Other than if being what I could use myself for the most part, it has to do with value per volume. Choose only those things with the least space requirements and highest resale price. The formula keeps picking two items. Vodka and peanut butter. Should I trust the science? There are no shortages of anything in Florida. Some shelves are bare at the end of the day but we see that every hurricane. Next day, things are back. I’ll make a shopping list while I work in the yard today. Here’s a view of the upper shelf contents, the rice is now in a plastic container.
What’s this with fake face photos on social media. At first it did not make sense, using A.I. to generate phony images. But if you factor in the capability of facial recognition, it comes around. I thought they could just copy the images from any high-school year book, but the odds of somebody being spotted I guess are too great. Nonetheless, no pictures on the Internet can be trusted at all. Except this blog, of course, but I still would not advise it.
There is an advertising kick on about hiring a financial advisor for your retirement. For most people, it is probably a good idea. There is no safe and secure investment that you can chose and forget. Advisors pay off if only for the reason they are watching when the clients are not. On the inside, we call this, “the master’s touch”.
Well, I took those exact same courses these advisors did and I can tell you they are extremely channelized in their thinking. They don’t know how to bend the law (bend it to the limit, but never break it) and they are woefully untrained when it comes to that 10 or 15% of your cash that you should be risking for a big payoff. Investment strategies, all I’ve seen anyway, are based on you having a large pile of cash to begin, which means $100,000. If you try to invest less, you are competing with a class of others relegated by the system to screw each other.
This requirement for a lump of free cash predicates all their thinking. They are also trained to follow annual tax law more than long-term payoff, which can hamper startups because it is more of a brute force investment strategy. Hence the emphasis on starting while you are young and have the least money to spare. Another hitch is every investment they will ever recommend is registered with the government. It is only a matter of time until the regime attacks those trillions of untaxed dollars. Witness the Required Minimum Distribution law that has no other purpose. If you miss a withdrawal, the tax is 50% of the amount deemed.
The law will hit me though not badly, but that is not my issue, since I don’t mind spending money. My beef is that when I began that investment, I planned to live off my other income and leave the IRAs to grow forever, passing them on as my legacy. And the government moved those goalposts. Nor can you withdraw those funds and re-invest them in any other tax-shelter, nor can you will them to your offspring for the same purpose – they too have to make the taxable withdrawals. Now you know some reasons why I hate Democrats. There is a law that income should only ever be taxed once which they have never obeyed.
But I can tell you what not to do:
A) no reverse mortgage on your house. Once you own it, keep it that way.I’m also an opponent of land taxes and many states are toying with abolishing them. There can be no private land ownership as long as these taxes exist. It does prevent the establishment of land ownership dynasties, but only to a lesser extent. Before I forget, the tax-law requires you take out all remaining money at age 91—I think. Never have I planned to live that long, it is just my projections that go to my age 91. I do not know what really happens at that time.
B) if over 60, don’t take social security until as late as possible.
C) borrowing against any of your savings is the mark of being a total fuck-up.
D) don’t rely on anybody else’s situation, not even your spouse’s.
E) never count on anything government registered as safe.
Having said that, I’m looking at an isolated lot in the middle of Tennessee again. Cheap, and only yours if you pay the tax. But look at my cabin, the taxes will be paid up to six years after I’m gone if need be. As the interstate highways become commuting corridors, a piece of land up to 100 miles from a city will usually retain its value after inflation. Think of that vast space of forest to the west of Nashville while it is still cheap and out there.
Way down here, buried in the text, I have a tale from the trailer court. I mentioned the training courses and I have a confession of sorts. Once I had gotten to graduate year and spent tens of thousands, the university I attended began to change the rules. One was that to take financial law courses, you had to go to the registrar’s office and show current ID. I had never agreed tot that. You see, all financial advisors can easily tell you how to “cheat” and the school wanted all personal details file. The rule only says I can’t tell you how to do it, so I won't. I pulled a fast one. I went to the office, filled out the forms, but suddenly had an emergency and left the completed forms on the pile before showing ID.
Then I attended the courses anyway, I walked in and sat down at "my" desk, the instructors knew me and never thought to ask. I passed the exam, claimed the credits, and graduated without them ever having “current” information on me. As you know, my father and I were born on the same day in the same hospital exactly 40 years apart. It was not until 2003 that the school caught on and tried to revoke my degree (by claiming I had underpaid tuition). By then, I had been retired for years and graphically told them where to go.
