In!

 

Howdy!

Yep, it's still cold where you are!

Apologies for the early flip, but I plan on sleeping pretty late tomorrow morning if I am able!


R

 

Was a long day but a nice adventure. Found a couple of nice things at the thrift store. Only low point was taking youngest to laundromat. But then picked up again in the evening. Had a nice dinner at Olive garden with Kim. Not my first choice but had a gift card. Now sitting at my desk doing some printing and design work.
So I will say goodnight and sandman time.
Goodnight Gigi, Sophia, Al, Rhody, Don, mdew, wook, blackwolfe, Alum, GF, Sail, TD, Szumi, COW, Wayne, Gobb, Ranger, Hawkeye, Atonic, W8LON, Darkest, pans, efly, Phil, TinCan, Greggie, Mike, Rock, dlong, Gerald, M92, AZ, Tricks, Brent, jnyork, OldDave, nfcracin, GP, JDWin, Whip, RichJ, squirrel, syfr, JVStalin, zenaca, 404, Wade, koonta, acheyj, vlnbyr, rosscoe, arjay, Flys, wr, labratt, RonL, 1917, Carrij, Mikey, JimWY, Johnny, rj, Rick, calibrian, Lt Crunch, LASTSHOT and all the rest.

Sleep tight :sleeping
Those no longer with us. Mayor, Ron, Dean, Marilyn, Noremf and David. We will meet again.

 

In, but turning in.

 

Holy Cow...

In..

I'm on the FIRST page!

:F

 

In.

 

In!

 

Earliest flip out.

 

In and watching Mixed Biathalon, tough course with high winds

 

Ate a large meal and was out like a light by 8:30.

Long day ahead. At least I should get to spend some of it with my daughter.

 

In for a slightly warmer week in Texas. Two days of winter is enough for me!

 

It was 33° out on the courtyard @ 3:42 A. Weasels are saying 29 for the low at dawn and up to 51 for the day's high, so the roads should be pretty good. Monthly club Trap shoot the other side of Ft Worth was cancelled yesterday and hopefully will be reset to another date soon. Club here opened at 1 P yesterday, but it was still plenty cold out & I didn't bother going to shoot as both shooting buds also opted out early. One is going over the other side of Ft. Worth this morning to shoot 200 sporty clays in an NSCA shoot at Defender, a club proximate to where the trap shoot was to be held. It should come off well enough, just being cold for the first event. I believe there are 5 dif. events being held; two 100 target sporty events plus 5-stand and a couple of small gauge events. He is on a mission, going hard and fast after his recent retirement and his enthusiasm is off the charts. Big fun, that. Hope he shoots well today.

Hope that you do as well, TD! :t

I've a coupla fellers that may be interested in some stuff at the W/H and am meeting them this morning and will see how it plays.

Hope yer day w/the daughter is a fun one, efly, w/zero issues.

Was going half stir crazy by yesterday afternoon being stuck inside, so trudged out and moved all but eight of the 39 & 59 gallon bags of yard junk & trimmings to the street out front for bulk pickup next week before becoming winded and worn from the effort and breathing the very cold air. City did not pick up/dump wheeled trash bin on Thursday. Don't blame them w/the roads as they were. Good decision on their part, AFAIC. They will get 'round tuit shortly. Mail was delivered yesterday, for the first time in two days.

New bottle shop called that they had five 1.75L bottles of Calvert on hand, so I drove over there to get them. Once out of the 'hood, the main surface roads were not that bad, but still required caution in some places. Get there to find it was Lord Calvert they had set aside for me and not CE. Honest enough mistake. They will hold a case of CE for me when it arrives and text me & I'll have a coupla days to pick it up. Plenty fair enough, that. Took time to peruse most of the store, since I was there. Ended up w/a coupla bottles of dif. Glyph molecular whiskeys to try [one 85h & one Royal], a half case of decent brut Cava [Spanish Champagne] for the bride and another half dz. bottles of vino tintos to share. Got out for under two hunnert, so it was fair enough. They had some Weller, but at $56 + tax for a 1.75L bottle(!), I passed. Have one open & two in reserve & intend to make them l-a-s-t as long as possible. Should get me thru next summer. Oh, have one at the cabin too.

Stopped by the nearest WM on the return. Shelves were stripped of many things and the place was packed w/rude folks. No eggs, no bananas, no yard bird, dog or cat food was to be had, zip/nada! Veggies were also bare of many types. Did get some avocados, fresh baked French bread and a lone bag of white corn chips that had somehow been overlooked, because it was stuck way back on a high shelf. I needed some low dose aspirin, which they had and would have bought some other things mentioned that they did not. Found the experience 3rd world & would have preferred to not have had it.

US$ 3.189/gal. was the best price observed for low grade corn swill.

Who's hooping these targets anyway?? Well, Pard... that's just wrong.

 

Gotta stay up late for this crowd....:bthumb:

Memorial Service yesterday for my Aunt Ruby, missed her Funeral back in Oct. so was pleased to attend this service, lots of Cousins I'd not seen in 50 years plus the Daughters of my favorite Aunt on Dad's side, had seen them at her Funeral not too long ago. One Uncle left on that side of the Family and I'll be fresh out of Aunts and Uncles. Couple of Cousins are a bit confused about their preferences but basically good folks, that's their affair not mine and I'd not seen them in a long, long time, good to see they're doing okay fine.

 

In.

Back is still Keeling me.

Going to cook breakfast, shoot shotgun and come home.

Took an 800 mg Ibuprofen, but no love yet from it.

If I don't get some relief, I'll take something much stronger once I get home.

Can't drive on pain meds.


Y'all be gud.

 

Last!

In.

Back is still Keeling me.

Going to cook breakfast, shoot shotgun and come home.

Took an 800 mg Ibuprofen, but no love yet from it.

If I don't get some relief, I'll take something much stronger once I get home.

Can't drive on pain meds.

Y'all be gud.

Ice to reduce the swelling/inflammation Don. One doc suggested rotating ice n heat if all else failed after awhile. Never tried that one myself.

New Li CR 1/3 sumpin or tuther batt wouldn't work in the laser yesterday even after gently cleaning contacts and reinstalling 2X. I read the fine print on the back and its slightly different DR1/3 sumpin. Asterisks cause I bought a couple of em. Ah what the hell and I took it out and put it in upside down and it worked! This lil barrel batt has a wide + contact and it goes on the springy thingy Alexander Dumbass.

Grub run this am after cleaning 2" off the walk. Can't have any geezer olympix with grub bags on the snow pack eh?

16˚F way up north

 

Mornin',

Just dropped to 18 degrees. Expected to be sunny and up to 40 degrees.

We have been talking about moving for quite some time. Yesterday, we took a look at some houses in an almost completed neighborhood. Still in town, but on the very outskirts, would likely have some woods behind us instead of houses. Much less in the way of young kids. We may have to act fast if this is what we want - like Monday or Tuesday fast. Lots of pros and cons. Guess what I will be doing today? If you guessed studying and info gathering, you'd be correct.

Will still make a trip to the farm to check on things and have some alone time to think things through. And get some fresh air.

Have a good day.

 

The big question: how long would the woods stay woods behind you?

 

Thx, wook..

I carry every day but this place has me nervous.

If you've watched Walking Dead, well, this was a shoot location. Kewl, but sketchy.

 

Up! Was up way too late last night, hence the early appearance in this episode of TWH...

Range soon, with the new barrel on the existing Mk IV lower. Will be interesting to get it sighted in and then test out at longer ranges.

More later.

 

In.

How long will the woods be there, that is a great question to get an answer to.

Breakfast made, breakfast et. I may give myself a tip. The dishwashing guy is dragging his heels. Lazy bum.

Sinus drainage interrupted my sleep.

21°A, no new snow cover.

Need to find a czech list for things I have to do between 64 and 65.

 

IN


Rich

 

Today is lookin' like a day to further photograph swans in the park.

Nobody knows how long they'll stay. Interesting photo-op anyway :t

37 degrees here, dawn is still a good hour away.

Life in the great PNW...


:F

.

 

Nice looking day outside. Have a little cleaning up on the list today. Going to mow the lawn for the outdoor activity of the day. Had a nice dinner with the kids and all. One of their dogs has become familiar enough with me that he was chewing on my shirt sleeve. Have no idea what that's about, but apparently it's a thing the little doggie does when he's adopted you. Only casualties of the evening were a stack of Post-It notes and one of the front tires off my old AFX slot car. The grandson was the culprit on both but that's okay.

 

Article in The NY Times Real Estate section yesterday about buyers remorse. Many people are sorry for getting caught up in the real estate craziness. Perhaps over paying for homes over the past few years. I see what people were paying for homes around here and it’s just insane. This same thing happened years ago and lots of people ended up under water. Great time to sell your home, rent, then rebuy when the market tanks. Notice I said when and not if.

Another article about home owners insurance. Depending upon where you live, cost is skyrocketing. Especially in Florida. 20k a year is not uncommon if you are near water. Between property taxes and insurance, many people are being forced out.

Our apartment in Florida jumped 100k in a year. I have people calling me in NJ asking if I want to sell. I guess they get our number from the manager, which he should not be doing. I would be a great time to sell but we can add any more income this close to Medicare. Our monthly rate would increase quite a bit. Need to throttle back, not up.

 

Many people are sorry for getting caught up in the real estate craziness. Perhaps over paying for homes over the past few years.

:yeahthat:

About ten years ago there was a big land rush in this area, with people cashing out and putting their money into undeveloped land here. Big ranches sold to developers who subdivided into residential plots. None has yet to fully develop giving me the idea the plots were bought up as investments or with an eye to future retirement. Those who bought as investments lost out, having bought in a hot market and now having sat on it for ten years and still underwater on the purchase price as values plummeted, let alone consideration of the taxes they've been paying on it.

There are scads of small properties available from the state for the value of the taxes owed on them as the investors simply abandoned them. I've noticed a lot of them are now being bought up by a new round of investors who are getting them from the state via that tax foreclosure process. I've been working on a couple myself, roadblocked now by not being able to track down the legal owner and serve them with notice. Aside from that it's a simple process that shouldn't take much time or money. I'll end up having to publish notice in the newspaper of record for every place they've listed an address with the state -- more money and more time but that is the path forward.

In other financial news:

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/06/1072406109/digital-dollar-federal-reserve-apple-pay-venmo-cbdc

The U.S. is gingerly considering whether to adopt a digital version of its currency, one better suited for today's increasingly cashless world, ushering in what could be one of the dollar's most fundamental transformations.

In that scenario, the U.S. would not only mint the coins and print paper bills. It would also issue digital cash, or a central bank digital currency (CBDC), that would be stored in apps or "digital wallets" on our smartphones.

 

In again. 30°A with sun. Should have 2 or 3 days this week when the temps get above 32°A. with little snot replacement so say the weasels. It will be welcomed.

Today's task will be to finally dig the truck out, lots of snot on it and drifted snot around it, knee deep or better in places.

 

Le sigh.. spoke to my ex BIL.. daughter has agreed to be paid via PayPal for the shoot this afternoon.

I fear life lesson coming. Other than providing some security, I'm staying out of it.

 

In this state and suspect many others buying land to set on burns you at times of sale. Selling opens up Homestead Exemption taxation, if you didn’t live on property as a homestead you pay dearly at tax time. That increase in value soon disappears when they want to tax 1/3 of its value. The little bit of investment in plotting out subdivisions and running utilities building roads is the only write off. Builders did alright with it during the hot 90’s if they also got to build the homes but often were too busy to even take that on so just lots were sold. When that market crashed those land developers were burnt bad.

Those desperate times will again come with lenders willing to dole out mortgages to the people crazy enough to pay these inflated prices. How soon we forget…

 

In this state and suspect many others buying land to set on burns you at times of sale. Selling opens up Homestead Exemption taxation, if you didn't live on property as a homestead you pay dearly at tax time. That increase in value soon disappears when they want to tax 1/3 of its value. The little bit of investment in plotting out subdivisions and running utilities building roads is the only write off. Builders did alright with it during the hot 90's if they also got to build the homes but often were too busy to even take that on so just lots were sold. When that market crashed those land developers were burnt bad.

Those desperate times will again come with lenders willing to dole out mortgages to the people crazy enough to pay these inflated prices. How soon we forget…

Years ago I had a lot in lake havasu. My tax ID number had NR at the end which meant non resident which meant bend over. Paid 7k sold for 14k. It was a lose after paying taxes and the money I could have made in CD's at the time paying 16%. Never again would I buy vacant land. Not to say that you can make a killing on vacant land but it's like winning the lottery.