Well….damn, just can’t get started today…got up at 6:20 and it’s already 7 and I’m just getting to this…my brain is in neutral and wants to stay that way…but, I’ll give it a try….I did get lots of stuff done yesterday but I already wrote about that so I won’t do that again…there was some good news on the ground here yesterday when surveyors did the lot across the street and it looks like there is going to be a new house on it…and prep started on another lot just across 7th for another new house…I have never seen this much building in an established neighborhood in a city before and I wonder what is driving it….I did talk to my brother the realtor last night and he thinks that I may have made around 30K on this place since I bought it and that means I have around 70K in equity now…it looks like I bought this place at exactly the right time for both the investment and as a place to live….and that is pretty cool…and that makes it only 10K away from my goal of having 6 figures in assets and that should happen early next year…not bad for being broke and borrowing money from my daughter two years ago…I wonder if I should burn some cash on a nice dinner to celebrate? Yeah…that’s probably not going to happen but it is nice to have that option…not much to do today…it looks like it’s going to rain here in a few minutes so I’ll have to wait to get on the bike today and I’m okay with that….should probably get started on cleaning the windows for winter and I do need to order a window bird feeder so I can have bird tv this winter….but not right now…I need to have more coffee and read the news as I ease into the day…..more later….
Monthly Archives: October 2021
It’s official…
Well…I know there has been a lot of discussion about what the SS cost of living percentage for next year was going to be and I even wrote one of these about the speculation…as of today, it was announced that the raise is going to be 5.9%, higher than any raise in over 40 years and I am smiling about it…..that means almost 130 bucks a month extra for me and I can use the cash even though I’m already putting almost a grand a month in the bank from my check now…so, that means that this raise is going to buy me lots of stuff that I would have waited on…like my new snowies or a garage door opener or a weight machine…all three of them would only be around 750 bucks so that would leave almost half of the raise left over…I know I have to plan for higher food prices that I’m already seeing…there is no cheap protein any more so I’ll need to look at what is cheap….I did get some American and Swiss cheese singles that are 12ozs for only 1.35 at aldis so I am going to make some grilled cheeses with that stuff….I know they’re not good for you but they are cheap and I haven’t had one in years and years….and they’re only about 300 cals so that should help….
Eating helps…
Well…I guess eating enough helps…feel okay today even after working my butt off today…started off with doing the grocery runs and the on the bike for the first ride, back here for about 10 mins and then back on the bike for ride 2….they were both pretty good ones with much less wind than yesterday but the legs are still a bit flat…when I got back here, I put the rest of the seed in the bare spots and then put the mower back together and gave it a try…after adjusting it, the thing moves faster than I can walk so that is cool…it may have been broken from the start since it never went this fast before…just hope the jb weld holds until the end of fall and then I’ll take it apart and drill and tap the bracket mounting holes on the transmission and put bolts back in them…but there isn’t much meat around the current holes so I’ll have to be careful…but it the jb does hold, I may just leave it til it fails or I need a new belt…it felt pretty solid but we’ll see after I run it over my bumpy lawn a few times…so, it’s now time to take a break since it is 3 and I need to read the news for a while…another 7 hour work day….
We can’t afford it?
Well…the whiners on the right are trying to torpedo the infrastructure bill that the dems are negotiating with them for by saying that “we can’t afford it” and the 350 billion dollar a year pricetag is just too high….to put that in perspective, we just have to look at the amount of money that billionaires have made in the last two years of the pandemic. It was reported just yesterday that these folks net worth increased by almost 1.9 trillion dollars…yep, that’s trillion with a t and that is just sick….look, if we just taxed these people at the rate that regular people pay, around 20 percent, the whole bill would be paid for with an extra 30 billion left over…and that doesn’t even include what could be done if we finally has a minimum corporate tax rate of say 15% which would bring in another 100 billion a year at least…so, again, the repubs are lying when they say “we can’t afford it”…we CAN afford it, if they would just get out of the way and let government work for the people for a change….geez…
October 13th
Well…running really late today with just getting out of bed at 7:26 and I’m not sure why I’m so late…must have been exhaustion from being so burned out yesterday….but we’ll see as the day goes on….no dreams to speak of so I won’t…I did have a little weird thing happen last night when I had 4 chickens walk through my yard…have never had that happen before but I’ve heard them to the west of me since I moved in…I took a picture of them to post on facebook….strange….man, I felt lousy all day yesterday and I guess I can’t exist on 600 calories a day…I did get two meals in yesterday so I was close to 1200 so I hope that helps…I do need to get two rides in today along with doing the grocery run so I’ll need to get going soon…haven’t even had coffee yet so I probably should get a cup to get the caffeine flowing….I think I’ll be able to put the top down on the car for the errands this morning but it will probably be the last one…going to get cold later in the week and will probably stay that way til spring….closed up the basement yesterday and will probably have the heat on later in the week…darn….more later….
Boats are disappearing..
Well….I very seldom turn around when I go out on the bike but today I just had to with how hard the wind was blowing…18-20 steady with gusts of 35 or so right into my face…was all the way down to 2nd on the rear sprocket and got hit by a gust that stopped me dead…too damn much work…as I get used to the rhythm of this place as I go through every new season for the first time, I noticed something pretty funny as it moves on to fall…boats are disappearing…every time I ride past the marinas, a few more boats are gone…but I never see them leave…it’s like one of those time lapse movies where a car or building is there and then just disappears….I wonder when they will all be gone? Just kinda funny…
Weird elections out here…
Well…with the rain continuing, I have a morning to fill so I thought I’d come here and do one of these after fixing the mower…as I get ready to fill in my absentee ballot for the election next month and read about the candidates who are running for city commission and mayor, I find it odd that the entire election is supposed to be non-partisan…which means none of the candidates can say whether they are a dem or repub…so that makes it a little more difficult for me to make sure I don’t vote for a repub…but, luckily, some of the candidates have gotten pretty clever in listing their endorsements that send a clear message of what party they belong to….and I have mailers for every one of them laying on my coffee table to read and their websites, too, I mean would a repub ever be endorsed by the dem progressive caucus? Pretty sure they wouldn’t and there are others who want to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard…and others who are “business” minded…and you can pretty well guess what party he belongs to…it’s a little odd to have to do this deep dive to figure out who to vote for…but, I have the time and I know who I want to work with to continue the progress up here…now I just need to drop the ballot off this week….
October 12th
Well…not sure how I’m running this morning with not getting up til 6:45…feel pretty crappy and I’m pretty sure that it is from only eating one meal of about 600 calories yesterday….I know that is pretty stupid but I just didn’t feel like eating for some reason…and with doing two rides and mowing the lawn yesterday, I know I’m going to feel this way most of the day and it will probably get worse as the day goes on…so, maybe just one ride today since I have to go out and get the jb weld to fix the mower and then fix it…and it’s raining right now so maybe that’s a good excuse to ease into the day…I do need to get the yard waste out to the curb to get it out of the garage but I’m not ready to get cold and wet yet….need more coffee before that…and I only have one more cup since I didn’t make coffee yesterday…just using up the leftovers from two days ago and I need to stop doing that…I can afford to make coffee every other day to make sure I have enough to wake me up in the morning…not much to do today…need to run that errand and fix the mower and I may make some lasagna again since I only have one chicken thigh left over to eat and I know I can’t do two days in a row of not eating….more later…
The lawnmower broke…
Well…damn, when I was mowing the lawn today the drive on the lawnmower broke…or the control for the drive broke…it is attached to the top of the transmission by three screws and two of them were gone, letting the bracket bend instead of adjusting the drive…went out to the hardware store and got screws but one hole had a broken screw in it, and the other one had most of the threads stripped…so I put a bunch of loctite on it and screwed one of the new ones in the hole but it’s not going to hold so I am going to get some JB weld and glue it on…the only problem with that is that you have to remove the bracket to put a new drive belt on it but the belt looks good and I can probably get a few more years out of it and I guess I can chip the JB off when it needs one….at least I can fix it…doing the lawn with a mower without drive is like driving a power steering car without the power working….way too damn much work….will get that done wed so it will have time to harden before I need the mower again…
They lied about unemployment, too….
Well…I’m sure you’ve heard all of the stories pushed by the repubs in the spring and summer the the “generous” unemployment benefits of 300 dollars a week were keeping the lazy workers from looking for work and there was a “labor shortage” because of it…never mind that employers that started caring about their workers and raised what they paid were swamped with applicants…the only shortage appears to be with employers who want cheap labor for their jobs that doesn’t pay enough to live on. With the reporting on the jobs reports that repubs said would be enormous after cutting of the unemployment benefits, and it wasn’t, we really do see that they were lying about why people weren’t going back to the crappy jobs with low pay and benefits….and that cutting unemployment was no incentive to work when people are still worried about the pandemic or child care, or the health problems that makes it dangerous for some unemployed to go back to work for employers who do nothing to protect them. Just like everything in economics, the repubs don’t care about facts, especially when it gets in the way of their preferred lies that they use to hurt people every day….so I wonder what the new lie is going to be? We’ll see tomorrow….geez…