One year ago today: May 14, 2024, it is not perfect.
Five years ago today: May 14, 2020, half what I pay for.
Nine years ago today: May 14, 2016, WIP
Random years ago today: May 14, 2013, silver drops below $13.
The new bird pegs? Instant success. I will try for some photos but the game camera will not be unloaded until after sunup later today. The birds are also feasting after the storm and the pegs allow the more social birds to share, making for some antics. However, the new peanut feeder isn’t that popular. The woodpeckers visit, but the orange-flavored birdseed must have them spoiled. Maybe I’ll move it under the kitchen window canopy. The front yard is totally shaded, where the back maybe 40%. The back also as the birdbath, by the way, leaving it dry just three days got rid of the bees.
We had news from Pennsylvania. The rainstorm followed the characteristic path up along the mountains and has been dumping there steadily since the weekend. The Prez reports this has made unpacking a tough task that is nowhere near complete yet. And neither is my floor, so wet or not, I’m getting some of the wiring done today. Expect photos. I reset the camera to catch any animals that use this same path in daylight. Let’s see what wwe get.
I don’t trust the winters north of Tennessee, or even in eastern Tennessee. I remember one time in North Carolina it rained hard 19 of the 21 days I was there. It says here the Menzie brothers want out, that’s the two who murdered their parents, then asked for clemency because they were orphans. There was a new version of the Kursk battle I’d not seen, so I took an hour hoping for something different. No, more hashing through the same, no new information. The largest tank battle in history remains shrouded in propaganda. One of the worst is the insistence the Soviet solder fought for love of Motherland. If the Germans did the same, they are labeled fanatics. Otherwise, there is a slight overall improvement in these documentaries.
Last this morning, I got an e-mail from a place that has some interesting investment news. It follows up on patterns I’ve noticed. While overall investment is sluggish enough to cause most new ideas to excessive risk, that is not always the case. For example, Caltier, which is still paused without explanation, did accurately identify a good apartment market. This new offering is similar, but what got me was the logic leading up to it.
The authors were aware of what I just said, which is itself rare, but they also presented a lot of evidence as to why their approach was better. My success to date, long and grinding as it was, is not just because I’m a survivor, they said. Okay, now I’m interested. They provided plenty of data that said those who succeed in this fashion are favored in the long run by the way they research and make rational decisions. Hmmm, that could very well be, but I still would have liked to have had a little luck along the way. While I’m not an exact match, I agree with them about the elements that cause failure because other people don’t have them.
So, I’m not giving away the source or the offer, but they have stated they are seeking a core of investors who have personally experience the chain of events that led up to their circumstances. That is where the match happens, I’m like that and they put it into excellent perspective. Now I would still have to apply my own tests to any investments and they are not saying what gives. But they sure as hell know what they are talking about. I estimate there are around 80 weird personality quirks that, if present a few at a time, guarantee failure to most people. This is different to blanket statements that people are poor for larger reasons.
No, I don’t have a list of those 80 reasons. They are too mercurial. I know some of the patterns, but only some of the reasons. I could not tell you why I would never invest with somebody who buys a new car every three years, even if they can afford it. Or why I would not invest with sports fans or those who read escape literature exclusively.
English shops permanently closing.
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There are another three crews working on the nearby renovation. There are around 8 men on the job any given day except Sunday. I don’t know what they’ve run into with the City, but I’m guessing about now they wish they’d bulldozed the joint and started over. City Hall treats any contractors not licensed in this county with disdain and I see the trucks are mostly from Pinellas. They could have built the place mostly new by now.
I got to work, a good six hours, and for my grandchildren if I ever have any, here is what got done. The hole the rat from the video gnawed is plugged, and since I had to string out the cables, I connected the small compressor and got all the van tires to spec. Pausing to fix my sandals, my best work shoes when it’s over 90°F I threw on a load of laundry and got to work on the wire for that hot water tank. Up came a floor panel in the front bedroom and I finally dragged it under the house all the way to the main panel.
Here the tale diverts a bit. This is that expensive 3-wire cable. I bought a roll of 2- wire on sale and I need to know if they are long enough. Why not just measure. Because every time it was measured, it came out wrong—I even tried feeding rigid pipe, but when you go to run the cable it is too short. The plan today was to run the cable diagonally and I do believe both cables are long enough. If so, I will use the 2-wire, even if it means ripping out all the wiring I did last day.
Additionally, I crawled under the kitchen a reconnected the mystery wire. There were eight possible combinations and I got it on the second try. It is one odd circuit, not part of the original wiring, the cable was much cheaper and older. It runs my hallway light, it’s nice to have that back and the back bedroom overhead. That is a small chandelier that, if you use all five bulbs, lights the room up nice and bright—the reason I have my small work bench in there.
As I wrapped up the tools and cables, I rounded the building to see the mother raccoon and three babies. So, it’s at least triplets and they are living under the neighbor’s living room. I’ll mention it but I’ve not seen him in weeks. It’s the time of year for that Revival. That is one big an popular event, where they all live like in the 1800s. But too close to my upbringing to get me enthused about well water, lye soap, and chopping wood.
Rather than wrestle with the existing wires, I’m installing four new junction boxes along the kitchen south wall. The everything runs off those and hopefully that finishes any wiring I have to do for life (ha-ha). Soon as the electrical works the priority is a new kitchen stove and just for the hell of it, I’m going to make a five course meal one day and spend the next baking. I’ve been living of a hot plate like a college kid again. Yet, I don’t mind it at all, it beats a campfire and I’ve been able to throw together some pretty fancy grub with just that.
ADDENDUM
Now, I cannot give away too much, but one of the sites I use for material has a comment section. The snag is that a posted articlee can generate mulitple, so the string quickly gets lost. To prevent this, I post a title with my replies and I wanted to make sure my work stood out. Not so easy, the site does not allow font changes except bold, italics, or underscore and these are already heavily over-used. So I got to tinkering.
I noticed a certain attribute that had not been disabled would take, but to make it tricky to copy, I first applied some experience. Behold, the first instruction overrides the underscore, but only between quotation marks—and the effect does not appear on-screen until after the string is posted. You cannot make it look like my work directly, you must open two copies of the site, post on one and see the font changes in the other.
It makes my replies stand out and it appears some of the competition does not like that very much. The connection here is that I can see dozens of attempts to duplicate this success, but no one has figured it out. I estimate 60 of these GenX types have tried and none have come close. And you wonder why I do not believe there are such things as computer wizards. There are some talented people out there, but they are rare.
