February 9, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 9, 2024, multi-personality votes.
Five years ago today: February 9, 2020, the peach tree.
Nine years ago today: February 9, 2016, $655.
Random years ago today: February 9, 2009, business is declining.

           I wonder if it is the ignition switch, or more likely, some sort of interlock between the switch and the steering or transmission. In the past, I’ve had to fiddle with it, sometimes the steering column, other times the brake pedal or shift lever. I was not surprised to learn some people these days don’t know how to drive a car with the gear shift on the steering column. I must get that vehicle running by tomorrow if I must tow it to the shop, but I’ll give Texas Rodge first option on that. You like that? Texas Rodge, unless I can think of a fancier way to spell it. Today we dig out the scooter and begin some clean up of that lean to for more productive uses.

           It’s too early to make work sounds, so I took an inventory of what is the best size small box I’ve built, based on a compromise of looks, compliments, and actual usage. Turns out to be this size, which is full of errors I no longer make. Sturdily overbuilt, the brass colored hardware is twice as valuable as the box. The decorative stripe was from cutting the wrong side of the wood. Those window pulls are popular and great for small components, which partially explains its frequent usage. Fewer things get misplaced in a box that looks valuable.

           A breakfast of French toast and coffee has me in the mood to play out a series of these boxes with more standard features and maximum use of lumber. I now know which hinges to buy and have decided to either fix my small Dremel tool or break it today. It has a bit seized in the jaws that defies repair, so it’s useless. I want to automate the cutting of the recesses for the hinges. Every box you’ve seen today has the hardware notches custom chiseled, a laborious process.

           Question, was there a runner-up box design? Yes, it was the “doll trunk” design named for plans from the Internet for a little girl’s doll dresses. Constructed for the Reb’s art supplies, she did not care for it (too large) so it’s back here. Only the interior was finished, my original “Elvis clock” stain. Not much trim or finish, as it was for storage only. Maybe we can look at it again, however the lumber size has to be glued up and clamped, which makes one box an inefficient production run.

           Any morning news? Trump has enabled Musk to hire new auditors specifically for the Pentagon, FBI, and CIA. There is talk of recovering some of the stolen $35 trillion. That has me curious what strategy they will use. If it is asset confiscation, who will get the money? Suppose they did recover $10 trillion. Who would get it? If it is the taxpayers:

1) Equally is unfair, I would get less than somebody who paid less.
2) Proportionally is not fair. Being single, I was disproportionately taxed.
3) Based on filing is not fair. I paid most of my taxes a long time ago.

           Again my proposed solution is to bring everybody up to the Social Security maximum monthly benefit and call it even. Another interesting circus could be these people Trump fired now suing him saying he did not have the authority, because even if they are right, well, take it from there. There is probably no other fair division for one simple reason--regardless of what they say, most people who had the highest incomes did not achieve it by work, but by privilege. What's more, that is the popular perception and these days, you'd best stay popular. Look at Trump's business. He started as vice-president and worked his way to the top. In the race for money, winners are rarely determined by distance run.

Picture of the day.
Amazon natives dislike airplanes.
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           I got the van running. The method simple, bypass all the “safety” shit. This particular model, and only this one, has an ignition switch with a sensor that won’t allow it to start unless the transmission is in P or N. I traced the diagram and among other things to replace the switch, it requires special tools and possibly removing the dash panel. The recommendation is to replace the entire assembly, which is $172. This won’t happen right away.

           Instead, I plan to rig up a bypass switch. This means to start the vehicle I will have to open the hood for now. Eventually I may have to drill through the firewall and install a switch inside the cab. But that will have to wait. I need wheels now. Take a break. Here’s an example of what is wrong with a post-industrial state. The staple gun has to be one of the least recyclable objects invented. The first photo shows the most easily lost part costs more than a whole new tool. And below is the only known photo the police have ever released of a .22 caliber staple gun pistol.

           To top off my day, I grabbed a late siesta and awoke with the worst tendonitis so far in my life, in the pointer finger of my right hand. I can only move the big knuckle. It is not related to the extra work on the van, it is from overplaying bass and typing. Since this blog began, I know I’ve spent over 11,000 hours typing on top of the regular amount I type every day. My finger is locked in a curved neutral position and I’d say 50% paralyzed.

           That puts me out of commission for labor so I spent some time on the books. I found the old notes I’d made in 1985 about how people around me who retired were mostly dead within six months. It would be decades later before the culprit was realized as stress, but I did notice something—age 58. That was the point people’s income was either maximized or began to fall to around 3/5ths by age 65, the normal retirement age of the time. This is what set me to work doing the [now semi-famous] “reverse calculation” of what I would need to replace that missing 2/5ths. Because I also had noticed whatever was causing the drop did not favor those who were industrious.
           All of tomorrow morning is slated to rigging up that ignition switch. I had been on my way to shopping when she quit on me.

ADDENDUM
           Here’s more detail on the Caltier REIT 1 reservation. To understand this, take a step back and look at the big market. The top 1% of investors have access to big ventures that you don’t, the normal minimum buy-in is around $5 million. Take away everything except real estate, that is the ONLY type of investment you should risk as a beginner. Normally these are locked in for ten years and illiquid, that is, you cannot withdraw your money until the end of the term or if the property gets sold, in which case you get a share of the capital gain or loss.
           Where Caltier fits into this picture is they lower the entry requirement to as little as $500. This makes sense to me, as I grew up in the era when these “Templeton” funds got their start. Plus, computers are what made such investments even possible. You will also run into a term that describes this type of business as “evergreen”.
           Evergreen means your money is not locked up, but you would still have to wait for a monthly or quarterly period to end to withdraw any money. These fund have no fixed life-span, but are on-going. I think of them as ten-year plans, but each new month is deemed to be the beginning of a new ten-year period. Also, you may find withdrawals must be in fixed amounts, it is not unusual to see that set at $25,000. Caltier tends to lower that amount as well. I’ve committed my usual “test the water” amount of $1,000. Account 1164.

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