OMG! Elon Musk wants to put grandma in her wheelchair and push her off a cliff!

Oh, yeah? I'll tell you what I'm going to do about it!

I'm going to go to the bottom of the cliff, recover her body and stick it in the freezer so the funeral home doesn't report her death.

Then I'm going to collect her monthly checks until she turns 120 at which time I will out an SSA-721 and report her death and take her out of the freezer and thaw her out. Then I will bury her in the back yard and cover her grave with endangered flowers so it is illegal to dig her up.

That'll fix him!

It's pretty damned sad when the left starts having to use scare tactics on seniors. It's outright cruel.

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I discovered melatonin. It's replaced bourbon.

About a month or so someone turned me on to melatonin as a sleep aid. Prior to that almost every night I'd have a double shot of bourbon or sometimes brandy about a half hour before turning in.

I had discovered the bourbon helped keep my CPAP sleep numbers high. I've done this for quite some time. 

After trying out the melatonin for about a week I parked the bourbon bottle before bed. Melatonin is produced by the body to enhance sleep and as one ages the production slows down. A couple of melatonin gummies about a half hour before bed helps considerably with getting to sleep.

Right now my 'liquor ration' is down to a snort on Tuesday night after I read The Preamble of the Constitution on the Tuesday night ham net and 2 Guinness draughts on Wednesday night at the Sportsman club to get out of the house and socialize. The bourbon is an American thing. It's supposed to follow the reading of the Preamble.

I think I'm pretty much going to keep it that way for a while. 

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Rent this space.

Advertise here for $10/week. 

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I had cataract surgery 31 March

and the results were amazing. It seems to get better by the hour today. I can now go back to shooting with iron sights.

In other news, someone on Nextdoor found a sausage in their mailbox and is going nuts trying to find the reason. My guess is some kid found it somewhere along the line and just flipped it in to make the person wonder and get all keyed up.

They wanted to know what it meant. Was it part of some great conspiracy? Was it because of the way they voted? Why did someone put a sausage in their mailbox?

I answered "It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the pigs." and let it go at that.

I imagine that when they see that they are going to wonder who Luca Brasi is.

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I was blessed to grow up in a small town with a good Old School police department.

As I age my memory does odd things. Little things pass through my squash and then again I have a hard time remembering what I ate for breakfast. It is what it is.

Funny but I just remembered the time a cop wandered into the post office and asked the post mistress, "Seen Pearl lately?"

"She was in for her mail about an hour ago," she answered.

I heard it and filed it away somewhere and forgot about it. 

Some sixty odd years later as I sit here the file opened and I just put things together after all these years.

The cop, a longtime officer was an Old School busybody that looked out for the people in his sector. He was just running a welfare check of sorts on Mrs. Mallory, first name Pearl. 

There was a certain amount of Toody and Muldoon on the force but they were no slouches when if came to solving serious crimes.

A toddler was murdered and buried in the woods back in the mid 60s and the department had the case solved in jig time although the arrest wasn't made until about a month after the fact. That's probably because the department wanted an airtight case before making the actual bust.

One time the CLEO went on record of making a comment about "One of the town characters, who is not to be mistaken for a wrongdoer, suggested (whatever). The CLEO and department knew that small towns had any number of harmless small town characters in it and as a rule defended their right to be different.

Looking back on it, the department did a good job of living up to the old motto of 'To protect and serve'.

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Signing up for Social Security.

Early on a couple of people said that there were problems filing online. My wife and I took this at face value and decided that their suggestion of carefully filling out the forms and either mailing them in or dropping them off at the office downtown was probably the way to go.

We opted for that. I also decided to get a little coaching from the Social Security people. I figured on calling one of their phone services.

Having dealt with government types before I knew I'd have to do a little shopping. I did not want to deal with a government automaton thermostatically heated to 98.6 void of any real intelligence. I wanted a human being that didn't fluster if you asked them a question out of the program they had wired into their head by a government manual. I wanted a person that could think. I knew it would take time.

I put the laptop next to the phone, opened my SS account and dialed the number. As to be expected I had a wait until I got through. When I got through she gave me her name and asked me what I needed. I introduced myself and asked her how she was doing. She replied, "fine." in a bored tone of voice of a long time bored government employee and I hung up on her and redialed the number.

After another wait the cycle repeated itself and I hung up and redialed. I had to wait about another 20 minutes until an agent got freed up. I attribute the waits to being that I was calling on a Monday morning.

He answered the phone with a bit of an upbeat tone and asked me what he could do to help me. When I asked him how he was doing he said in and amused tone, "Well, it is Monday." I knew then and there I'd hit paydirt.

I introduced myself, told him my laptop had my SS account open on it, gave him my name, the last four of my SS number and said I was over 70 years of age. Then my mouth ran away with me. "In fact, I am one hundred and forty four years of age."

He laughed and asked me how I managed to get to be 144 years old.

"That is because I don't drink no cheap booze," I replied. Only whiskey off the top shelf and plenty of it,"

He laughed and I explained that I wanted to do things right the first time and would he go over the forms with me to insure no foul ups.

He agreed to help me out. He had my account over and he told me to open a certain form and walked me through. I told him I had one in front of me that I had printed.

We walked through it and he went through my file and we walked down the form line by line and he corrected a small mistake for me and then told me to bring it to their attention that I was 70 in the comments box. "While they'll probably figure that out, it can't hurt." he said. Seventy is a magic number to Social Security.

We went over some other things and got everything squared away and he said I was good to go and asked me why I didn't file it now electronically.

I told him that word on the street among seniors is that a number of people filing electronically have had problems and that I was going to print everything up and deliver it downtown in person.

"Clever animal," he replied. "Frankly I've heard that a time or two but I think the errors are a result of improperly filled out forms. Still, if you have time going downtown can't hurt." His inflection told me that going downtown was a good idea. He was on a recorded line and couldn't outright confirm or deny any rumors because the SS people want people to file online.

I thanked him and he told me I had made his morning which I believe because he deals with any number of scared and sometimes frustrated and angry seniors all day long. I was glad to give him a little lift on a job that sometimes needs a little help and as a result he went overboard to help me.

I printed everything out, grabbed a quick snack and an hour later I was in the downtown SS office, waited about 10 minutes until my number was called. I turned in my forms and went home.

A couple of days later I checked my SS account and sure enough the messages started coming in and a few days later copies came in the mail. (I had opted for paper in addition to electronics)

Very shortly after that I got word they they were going to deposit my check in my bank account. They were good tot heir word and if has flowed flawlessly ever since.

Let's look at how I did this.

First, I had a plan. My wife and I did out homework and figured out the procedure over an evening or two. I knew what I wanted. I wanted someone to go over my application and check it for mistakes to insure it went through the first time.

Next I asked for help. Real help and not some tired, bored automaton behind a phone that really didn't give a damn about whether someone got taken care of or not. That's why it took me three tries to find a human being instead of a programmed automaton.

The next thing that had to be taken into consideration is how to treat him which for me was a no brainer. All I had to do was look at his customer base, mainly seniors, many of whom are scared, confused and cranky. Many are older people in unfamiliar waters. Some think they are entitled and many are not looking for someone to help them and guide them through untested waters Many are looking for a wand waver, someone with a magic wand they can wave and make everything all rainbows and unicorns. They often get angry when they find out that they have not done their homework and can't be helped without finding some piece of paperwork or meeting some requirement. I figured if I could entertain the man a bit it would uplift him  and make him a little more eager to help me. That's what the 144 years old/cheap booze comment was for.

As a senior it was my job to be prepared as best I could and try and make it so something could be done. I had opened an account (many don't) and read and reread the various procedures. I had a pretty good idea of what I had to do already. I was just looking to have my work checked.

What I wanted to do was make an often dismal job a little easier for the man I was talking to. If I did that it would certainly motivate him to be helpful. It doesn't take a whole lot to do that. A cheerful, patient attitude is a must and be ready for disappointment because there's a chance you don't have everything you need.

Early on I realized I didn't have to conjure up my birth certificate like a lot of people and later figured out that it was because the Social Security people already knew who I was from both the Army and the Coast Guard. Way back when my USGI serial number was also my Social Security number. Later they changed that but I paid SS when I was in the Army. That put me ahead. I had opened an online account and that put me ahead. The online account that was already open on my laptop meant we were 'on the same page'. This made it easier for BOTH of us.

Anyway, we waltzed through it.

Actually there's another excellent resource for people applying and that's any nearby halfway decent senior center. Most of them can waltz through the paperwork and get you squared away in no time.

It's not hard if you are willing to shoulder a little individual responsibility and do your part.

Before the Social Security guy hung up on me he laughed and said, "I was going to tell you to put your spiel about being 144 years old and not drinking cheap booze in the comments box but thought better of it. Either some idiot would have penalized you for not filing at 70 or given you about 75 years of back pay which you would eventually have to return after the IRS went nuts and gave you tax troubles." We both shared a good laugh over that one.

We parted company amused and both of our days were better for having met.

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Last night at the club meeting I voted against accepting the new treasurer's minutes.

Later he told me that he expected nothing less from me. He knows why I did that. I did that to keep things from being boringly unanimous. It doesn't really mean anything.

Once someone asked me about that and I pointed out that unanimous votes after a while make things look like the vote is rigged.

We're an AMERICAN club and if you snatched 10 Americans at random off the streets and locked them up and made them go hungry for a couple of days and then fed them a steak dinner probably 7 would simply chow down. One would complain that he wanted his sour cream on the side instead of on the potato. Another would gripe about the salad dressing and one would be a vegan.

We're all different.

Yet at the club we share common interests which is great. 

Still there is something about constant unanimous votes that make things look rigged.

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One day at the coffee shop.

Someone asked me what I do for a living.

I told him I had an on line sign business and he asked me how that was working out for me.

I told him I generally get about an order a week until October when I get hit hard and sell between 2 and 300000 signs for Halloween and I generally clear a buck apiece on them.

He asked why that was.

I told him my lawn signs that say 'A registered sex offender lives here'.

His jaw dropped and he asked me who would buy such a thing.

"People in dense suburban neighborhoods that don't want to buy candy for the local kids," I answered.

He didn't know what to say.

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Protip. Do not do this. Or maybe you SHOULD do this.

When a woman dog walker starts telling you about her dog coming from an animal shelter and going on and on about how shelter dogs are the best and yada yada yada it is not a very good idea to say you are looking for a girlfriend and ask if a woman's shelter is a good place to look for one.

On the other hand, maybe if is a good idea because the screeching is generally epic and makes for pretty good entertainment.

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Ahh, yes. Racism at it's finest.

I read where the Oregon governor signed a bill stating that the requirements of being able to read, write and do basic math are not necessary for minorities to get a high school diploma.

What racism! Oregon now has turned a minorities' HS diploma into a meaningless piece of paper and employers will refuse to hire them.

Total racism!

If I were a person of color with kids I'd be headed to Idaho in a heartbeat where my kids would at least have a shot at getting a decent education.

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Someone asked me how I would split up money given to the states for education.

I would NOT split it up evenly. I would do it STRICTLY by merit based on educational excellence.

The top ten states would get 4% each

The top second place states would get 3% each

The middle 10 states would get 2% each

The 10 states in 4th place would get 1% each

The bottom 10 states would get nothing.

Reinforce success and create serious competition. The parents of the lesser states would pressure the school committees to shape up and get some of that federal money. The competition would raise our national educational level and I'd bet that inside of a decade or two we'd be back to number one worldwide.

When you reinforce success and penalize failure things change and change fast.

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As big of an a$$hole he is, Bill Gates certainly created an awful lot of jobs,

both directly and indirectly. He also created a number of other billionaires. I seriously doubt Bezos or Zuckerberg would have gotten rich without him and the technology he devised.

Bezos would probably be running a mail order bookstore somewhere without him. I won't guess what Zuckerberg would be doing.

Of course we'd still have phone in pizza delivery and a few essentials but there would be no Uber, Doordash and things like that. Stores would not be delivering like they do now. (FWIW I have never had food delivered other than phone in pizza about once every year or two)

Microsoft supposedly has 114,000 employees but that's the tip of the iceberg. MS technology has created incalculable numbers of jobs. 

Microsoft also created entire career fields. Anybody that's an IT guy got into an industry more or less started by Gates.

I really can't think of anyone in recent times that's changed the face of humanity more than Bill Gates. He did it on his own, got incredibly rich in the process and that's OK by me.

On the other hand he's still an asshole.

Funny how that works.  

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One sheet of 1/4 inch plywood, a few zip ties and some paint and I could cause serious chaos in this township.

There's a bulldozed lot on a major thoroughfare that has a nice chain link fence around it. On Nextdoor there's speculation of what is to become of it.

We'll fix THAT one!

Get a sheet of 1/4 inch plywood and lap a coat of white paint on it and then letter it with large letters.

                               COMING SOON!

          BLACK ORCHID GENTLEMANS CLUB

           girls! girls! girls! Live nude dancers 24/7

Zip tie it to the fence and then stand back and admire your masterpiece.

Never mind the fact that the township wouldn't permit it in the first place, people would look at the sign and just KNOW that there's going to be a club moving in and the morals of the community are going to be corrupted and the townships on the road to hell.

The screeching would be epic even after the city managers stood up and went door to door assuring people that it ain't gonna happen. The screeching would go on and on over absolutely nothing.

There would be protests and probably picket lines. This would serve to get some people out of the house an give them exercise and fresh air and it would give the druggies a golden opportunity to burglarize their homes while they were out manning the picket lines.

Win/win.

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Keep at it. Burn those Teslas. Then see what happens next.

Before the election the average Tesla owner was a green minded moderate Democrat. 

They were concerned about the environment, climate change and were fairly green minded. They bought the Tesla out of concern for the planet and the country as Teslas are American made.

A little over 2 months into the current presidency Teslas are a target for extreme leftists. That's rich and self-destructive.

An awful lot of moderate Pittsburgh Democrats are generational Democrats. Their daddies and granddaddies were steelworkers and voted Democrat. The sons and daughters followed suit.

Over the years I have met any number of people like that who espouse Republican values and yet still pull the D lever because they've never really sat down and thought about it.

Over the past few years at the rod and gun club I belong to I've had a couple members tell me that they are former Democrats and most of them say that they didn't leave the Democratic party, the Democratic party left them.

So now we have some poor working stiff that bought an American green car to support climate change and the American car industry and he comes back out of Target and sees his car vandalized and in some cases a smoking pile of ashes.

I don't think he is going to be a vary happy camper.

He's going to take a long, hard look at the people that did that to him and is either going to double down and blame Trump OR he is going to look twice at what the Democratic party has morphed into and reconsider his party affiliation.

Keep burning Teslas, leftists. Every time a Tesla burns the owner takes a red pill and buys a MAGA hat.

Of course I counted on no less from the left because you can't fix stupid. 

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Now that I am retired I can say this.

Your boss only signs your paycheck. That's all. He puts his John Henry on it and hands it to you.

Where he gets the money to be able to do this is from the customer. 

Be polite, be professional and if there is any legitimate disagreement call someone that's further up the food chain to settle it.

Treat your customers like gold even if they are first class jerks.

They are your source of income.

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I dropped bourbon from my pre bedtime ritual recently and I'm mildly surprised.

Some time ago my sleep apnea numbers were a little too high so I experimented with a healthy dollop of bourbon before bed. The numbers dropped to an acceptable level so I ran with it for quite some time. 

About a week ago I decided to try something. I replaced the bourbon with a couple of melatonin gummies and am having very mixed results. The numbers seem to improve a bit and I seem to have better sleep patterns and have started to dream again which is a BIG change. I woke up at 0200 last night in the middle of one that was really whacked out and marveled and had no problem going back to sleep again.

I seem to be less comatose when I sleep. I do sleep a little lighter and feel a bit more refreshed when I wake up.

I think I am going to run with being basically alcohol free for a while and see what happens. I said basically because one night a week I go to the sportsman's club to get out of the house and have two Guinness draughts which are low (4.2%) alcohol.

I'm going to run this way for a while and keep an eye on the way things go because it seems to show things improving and it keeps me interested.

==========================================

In other news I keep a planner of appointments and other events and things of that nature. This one begins and ends in June as it was likely designed for teachers.

It's a June 2024-June 2025 model. I ordered a June 2025-June 2026 model because I have a couple of appointments set up for 2026 already.

When a medico give me an appointment card I write it on the appropriate date AND staple the appointment card on top of the note.

I have two cards for 2026 appointments and tonight when it arrives I will do just that with them.

I have a terrible time keeping up with things so I have religiously taking to writing them down. It works for me. 

I log my medications twice a day and about 2 weeks ago I started everything that I have eaten and my daily weight. I've lost a few pounds because of this.

Once for the hell of it I logged replacing a roll of bathroom tissue to see how long it lasted because a friend of mine said with a wife and 3 girls he was using about a roll a day. Mine lasted me 53 days. I didn't cheap out with it, either. 

Logging and posting appointments has been a good policy for me.

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Over the years I have thought and rethought the drug issue.

Lately there is a big ballyhoo over fentanyl which I consider a waste of time and money. 

Previously I posted that I consider heroin addiction to be a self-solving problem. I think I'll put fentanyl use in the same category.

We have wasted enough time and money on chasing druggies all over hell and back so I figure that we ought to let nature run its course.

We're still where we used to be billions and billions later so why bother?

Let Darwin sort it out.

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I remember the field problem I was on years ago when the battery commander walked by and asked us how we were doing.

It was a rare Ft. Carson summer downpour, a real gully washer. Everyone was miserable.

I replied cheerfully, "Sir...Well, Stanley, here's yet another fine mess you've gotten us into."

He looked at the three of us and we were soaked to the bone and shook his head. He was wet, too and just as miserable as we were. So was the First Sergeant about 50 feet away, just barely out of earshot.

The Old man wandered up to Top and had a few words and Top looked over at me, turned back to the Old Man and laughed.

About ten minutes later I was doing something else and Top came up to me. "Ahh, yes... PFC Piccolo." he sighed. "What are we going to do with you?"

I said nothing. 

"Between us, Thank you for making the Old Man's day," he said. "Oh, and the captain told me to compliment you on your excellent use of military courtesy."

I looked at Top confused.

"You said 'Sir'," he replied. Then he shook his head.

"What are we going to do with you?" he chuckled and walked off. 

For weedks I kept waiting for the other shoe to fall.

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I have a book on the way I am interested in.

Toxic charities: How churches and charities hurt those they help (and how to reverse it)

For years and years charities have pumped untold billions of dollars into various people in need and no long term good seems to come from it. We feed them and their hungry again so we feed them.

We never seem to have a plan on how to teach them to feed themselves and the cycle of constantly having to feed them continues.

The old saw of "Give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you will never have to feed him again" holds true to a point.

Of course we can deport a man and never have to feed him again or if you do teach an American man to fish he will spend the rest of his life next to a trout stream with a six-pack but I digress.

The object is to get the people to be able to take care of themselves.

Sam Kinison has a famous rant about it that makes sense.

Anyway, expect a possible book report.

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Some time ago I noticed my CPAP numbers were better AFTER I had

a good belt of bourbon abut a half hour before turning in.

A few days ago I decided to replace the bourbon with a couple of melatonin gummies a half hour before bed. My numbers have been about the same and I feel a little bit more refreshed when I wake up.

I'm gonna run with that one and see what happens.

Hopefully it will work and I can keep the jug parked except for ceremonial purposes.

Update: This morning's numbers were pretty good. We shall see what we shall see.

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Every American male should have a western outfit in his closet

When someone asked why I replied, "In case you have to travel to France."

Protip. Don't do that. I know someone that did just that. Boots, hat, jeans, western shirt, bandana and he reported that customs went ape $hit tearing his stuff up looking for his six-shooter that he didn't have.

WTF were customs thinking?

Did they think he was going to stampede a herd of cattle down Champs Ulysses or something? Maybe start a brawl in some cafe and have everyone break chairs over each other's heads? 

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Elon Musk isn't a threat to Democracy.

He's a threat to bureaucracy.

And that is ALWAYS a good thing.

==================================

I had to explain to someone that the Department of Education in reality has nothing to do with education and everything to do with bureaucracy. It does nothing but cost us a fortune.

If it did we would still be number one in education.

I know that if I wanted to hide an illicit payment to someone I would have run it through something like the Department of Education, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. Their very name makes them untouchable.

That is until Trump got here and teamed up with Musk.

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So much is wasted on me.

A couple times a year I get a steak at the nearby Texas Road house. I like it and it's OK but if someone really wants to take me someplace to eat and impress me than find a diner somewhere that makes a good meat loaf. Don't even bother inviting me to some swanky upscale place. I'll probably refuse the offer.

Texas Road house is about as far up the chain as I want to go. I can go there in shorts a t-shirt and flip flops or I can get dressed up.

In fact I consider a meatball sub from Sheetz to be a pretty good treat. I don't do that often.

Fine wine is wasted on me. I like a cheap cabernet with a steak or spaghetti and that's about it. 

I was in the Miata the day the weather broke and got to talking with a car guy that offered to let me drive his Corvette sometime. I thanked him but the truth is I'm really not interested in driving a Corvette. Besides it's an automatic.

Someone offered me a couple of shots with some latest and greatest rifle he had. Nah. Why bother? It's an animal that kicks like a mule. It's no fun shooting something that will bruise your shoulder. 

The Miata is a different thing altogether. The weather is holding so in an hour or so I'm going out for a little spin. I'll go someplace unfamiliar until I get lost and then GPS my way home via the backroads. The NA Miata is a backroads car. 

I've had people ask me why I don't get a newer model and I tell them I don't want a newer model. In fact if I can't have an NA I don't want one at all. I MIGHT be talked into an NB with the Bilstein package...maybe. But it better not be overloaded with all sorts of stupid bells and whistles.

I'm glad I am going to get my eyes fixed soon because I'll be able to shoot iron sights again and will compete with irons even though my scores will likely drop a few points. I like shooting with irons. 

I'd rather come out at the bottom of the pile than win using glass. 

The list of stuff wasted on me just seems to grow and grow.

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Someone asked where a good place is to find women to date

"Try the woman's shelter," I said. "After all, you found your dog at an animal shelter."

"That's not funny," he said indignantly.

"If I ever see you with a woman I'm going to ask you if she's a rescue," I shot back.

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Before we can start phasing Social Security (as we know it) out we're going to have to do a few things here.

First and foremost we have to educate our kids with the things they should know and not be wasting time and brain cells on a bunch of social programs and other meaningless bull$hit.

A high school diploma should actually mean something instead of being a participation trophy issued to kids that sat there bored to tears being held back by the slower kids. The whole process is a mind destroying bad joke. The education worthless.

When I graduated high school 55 years ago I had not even been taught how to write a check or balance a checking account. Although it really wasn't too hard to figure out, the fact is that I was taught nothing of personal finances.

Like most of my generation I had to figure it out on my own as I went along. Still, to my advantage I could read and count which is something a large number of high school graduates can't do. It helped immensely. Nowadays a lot of HS grads can't even read or count.

Hand a high school aged clerk a 10 spot and a quarter for a $9.25 purchase and about half the time the kid will slide your quarter back, out the 10 in the register and hand you back 3 quarters instead of simply putting the whole $10.25 in the register and handing you back a buck.

Like most of my generation we figured that Social Security would be our retirement but I was smart enough to realize it would not really be enough and took advantage of company offered 401K plans. Some didn't, not realizing what would happen to them down the road. Sucks to be them.

I hit the lottery because I had an engineer at work that sat down with me and gave me at least some idea of how to manage things. Lord know, I didn't learn at school.

Chinese schoolkids reportedly finish third grade about even with American 8th grade students. We are in 40th place worldwide for education. Prior to the creation of Department of Education we were in first place.  

Until we teach our youngsters about finance and give them other life skills there's no way in hell we will be able to privatize Social Security. To do otherwise would be just plain wrong.

  

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Well the weather reports tell me we're going to be entering thunderstorm season

pretty soon. 

That means it's time to get back in the habit of unplugging my antennas and putting the lead-ins out the window when I leave the house.

8888888888888888888888888888

I've got to get away from the political news for a while and let my brain cool down and my blood pressure drop a bit.

It's supposed to be a nice day today so maybe I'll fire up the Miata and take a ride north. I heard an Indian opened a convenience store about 20 miles north of here so fine dining is in order. I'm in the mood for Indian food and the hot dogs at the convenience store sound pretty good.

A couple years back some snobby elitist asked me if I like Indian food and with a straight face said, "Yeah. Those hot dogs Abdul sells at the 7-11 in North Park are pretty good."

The look of total confusion I got was priceless.

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A few years ago I met a couple in WV that was hitch hiking

They were hitching a ride 20 miles to mow a lawn for a few bucks.

I mentioned that 25 miles away there was a flooring mill reopening and maybe they could find work there.

They were aghast, saying they had lived in their town their whole lives and had no desire to move. I dropped it.

Some people don't understand you have to go to where the work is because it isn't coming to you.

I would imagine they are still in that jerkwater little town in poverty doing odd jobs.

Their choice.

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Holding that infant at the mall has changed me somehow.

I think about it several times a day. 

Something about it has gone deep into my soul.

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Jeff Bezos is worth

$215.2 billion dollars.

Amazon has an estimated worth now of 2 trillion dollars.

Assuming he made all of that through Amazon that means he created $1.7408 trillion dollars of wealth for an awful lot of people.

That wealth is spread out from the big shot executives and investors all the way down to the guy that sweeps the floor.

He's created wealth and jobs for a LOT of people!

1,556,000 people work for Amazon according to recent figures. 

That's a lot of food on a lot of tables.

He earned that money, it's his. Let him keep it.

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One thing they probably ought to do

is remove the cap on paying into social security.

Currently we pay a 6.2% Social Security tax, the employer matches that with another 6.2% and the self-employed pay 12.4%. It caps when you make $176,100. After that you stop paying the SS tax.

I disagree with that and think that the tax should not have a cap on it.

For the people that blame billionaires for everything including athlete's foot this possibly is one thing I think they are right about.

Maybe someone will come here and disagree with me but don't bother if you make over $176,100/year. After all, you have a vested interest in this issue.

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Years ago I acquired a long gone now telephone receiver

that had a long cord on it. In mate spring and summer it sat on the front seat of my pickup.

Sometimes if I pulled up next to a car at a red light that a passenger with the window open I'd grab the receiver, hold it out to the passenger and say, "It's for you."

Most people would chuckle but about a third of them would take it, put it up to their ear and say, "Hello."

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John Fetterman just lambasted his own party.

over their conduct at Trump's speech. I'm not surprised. 

He is an interesting character and while I certainly would not vote for him I do have a certain amount of respect for him because he sometimes gets out of lock step with the Democratic party.

He's certainly a character and is known for his less than businesslike attire, wearing a hoodie and shorts to the inauguration which doesn't really bother me.

He seems to go his own way and vote his conscience which is rather refreshing even though I generally don't agree with him and would not vote to reelect him as our values are different. Still, he at least makes me think a little every so often.

He's caught my interest and I'm going to keep and eye on him.

On the other hand maybe he's just an out and out nut case. He ran against Dr. Oz who didn't strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed.

Who knows?

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It saves energy!

The house came with pretty good thermo pane windows that are still doing a  pretty good job of doing what they were designed to do which is all well and good. When I touch them they are warm which is a far cry from the old single pane windows I grew up with.

Someone suggested I put in replacement windows to save money on heating bills. I glanced at the prices, about $2000/hole. Times 11 is $22K which will buy an awful lot of natural gas.

If I could save an average of $10/month that would mean about $120/ year. Do the math. It's not worth it. 183 years is a long time to break even. $22,000/120=183.33

Then you have to look at the manufacturing process which used various things such as petroleum, possibly wood, silica and so on. Those windows take time, energy and so on and so forth.

When you look at the entire picture you're probably not doing the earth a favor. You're sure not doing your wallet a favor, either.

The whole thing reminds me of the woman that takes her bottles to the recycler in the next town every week. It's not very much glass, a small number of bottles and jars but it's off to the recyclers every single week. The gas, wear and tear on her car probably does more damage to the planet than the recycling saves. If she got a good sized bin and didn't take the glass to the recycler until the bin was full she's probably actually be doing some good.

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One of the things my dad said once or twice.

One day I mentioned that a guy that lived nearby had a job offer that he refused, opting to stay working for the town. The offered job paid more money.

"Walter is not too bright," Dad answered. "But he knows he is not too bright and knows that some day he will be old. Walter is doing what is right for Walter. Eventually the town will be paying Walter a pretty good pension and he'll be OK for life."

Looking back on things that's pretty much what happened to Walter. He never got rich but he managed to raise a couple of kids that I believe turned out OK.

I asked him what his retirement plan was and he grinned. "Kiddo, I won't be around long enough to retire. I'll probably be out of here as soon as Suziebell is squared away. My job will be done."

He was right on that one. Shortly after he paid for my sister's senior year tuition he dropped dead.

I miss him.

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Today I replace a light switch.

Which I already see is not going to be simple for some damned reason.

I was right. I had to rewire the fixture. the switch was OK

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Things to do if you truly stand by Ukraine.

They need money. Give them a good chunk of yours. Not some crummy $100 to salve your conscience, but some real money. Dig into your savings, 401K whatever and cough up 50% of what you have.

Show the world you care. Set a good example.

The other thing you can do to stand by them is join the International  Legion for the Defense of Ukraine. It's open to those between the ages of 18 and 60 which is interesting because the draft age there is 25 but that's OK. Enlist now! Show people that you really do stand by Ukraine. Don't think I am kidding because reports (unconfirmed) are out there saying between 2-3000 have and some have been killed.

Don't worry, if something is wrong with you and they won't take you then send your children instead and let them get shot at while the the Ukrainian youngsters between the age of 18 and 25 get to hang around back on the block. Have your 19 year old come home in a box while the Ukrainian kids are dancing in the night clubs.

If you truly stand by Ukraine then by all means prove it.

Otherwise shut the hell up.

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Someone asked me why the price of eggs is so high.

I carefully explained they were subject to the laws of supply and demand and there was a shortage.

When they asked me why there was a shortage I explained that recently a large number of roosters started identifying as hens.

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Zelensky is a sad sack.

Here's a sample of army 'recruiting' in Ukraine.

You can clearly see the level of support for the war there.

Zelensky should be hanged by an angry Ukrainian mob.

While Vietnam wasn't the most popular war the United States has ever fought, we never reverted to the tactics of the Royal Navy's press gangs. It appears the Ukrainian government has.

Not one more dime, not one more bullet. If Zelensky wants peace, by all means help him achieve it. If not then let him stew in his own juices.

https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1895752927991792126

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I see where the WH staff got a free lunch.

Zelensky tried to push around the POTUS and got thrown out on his ass.

Afterwards the WH staff ate his lunch.

Hopefully some Marine PFC got some of it.

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I do not know why but I have had a change since I held that baby the other day.

It seems something has come over me and things in life appear to be a lot clearer. There's a sense of clarity that has returned to me since I held that baby the other day. It did something to my spirit.

It is a damned good feeling that goes into my very soul.

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What's in it for us?

I'm seeing a minerals deal, not yet confirmed with Ukraine and it sounds pretty good to me. They need aid and from what I have gathered Trump is willing to send aid in return for certain mineral rights in Ukraine.

It's about time we stopped throwing money all throughout the planet and not getting anything in return. Trump makes good sense here and I can certainly go along with the plan if it materializes. 

We have given out too damned much money over the years and gotten nothing in return. We even have given vast amounts of money to places that hate us which is poor financial control because if we don't give them any money they'll still hate us for free.

Before we give any money to anyone the first thing we should ask ourselves is what's in it for us?

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Yesterday's trip to the mall

was rather interesting. It was rather upscale. I decided to start 'shoplifting prices' which is a colorful way of saying check a few prices to see what kind of a mall it had morphed into.

A pair of 501 Levis were marked $98 and I can get them for half that delivered to my door on Amazon. At a Sunglasses Hut I saw $300+ Ray Bans. The total mind blower is when I saw the Burberry shop and ambled in. I was curious what an Old School trench coat would cost me. A few decades ago I had one I had picked up somewhere along the line secondhand. 

An Old School trench coat is the preferred overgarment of spies, secret agents and private detectives and must be worn at all times with a fairly wide brimmed fedora.

Anyway, I have the fedora but I guess my career as a private eye isn't going to launch because they wanted about $2250 for the damned thing! WTF?!

I just searched on line and that actually is about what they are running. (I also noticed I can get an almost identical one at Banana Republic for a little over a hundred bucks.) 

I stuck my head into the Swarovski store and asked if they carried optics. Nope. Just jewelry. I glanced at a few hefty prices and ambled out.

As I type this I DO recall the last time I was in the mall, I was in and out because I went directly to the perfume counter. I had just licensed as a ham and got lucky having had a brief chat with a guy in French Polynesia. I wanted that QSL card and on his QRZ page he advised against mailing for a card because there was a lot of mail theft.

In a hold my beer moment I grabbed my card, a pink envelope, a lavender ball point and headed straight to the Macy's perfume counter and explained what I wanted to the old prune behind the counter. She rolled her eyes and didn't know what to say but the Gods were with me that day. The woman in her late 40s had overheard my request, laughed and came over and fixed me up. She addressed the envelope for me in a very girly manner, even dotting the Is with little tiny hearts, slapped a big lipstick kiss on it and asked me if I wanted it sprayed in Chanel #5. 

"You don't have to," I replied. "Just use the cheap stuff that strippers use."

"OK. We sell gallons of this stuff," she replied.

She soaked the letter in cheap perfume and I dropped it in the mail on the way home. About a month later my card arrived with a note telling he he made sure his wife opened it when it arrived.

Needless to say, Abercrombie and Fitch and Banana Republic were there. Both used to sell safari and travel clothes but went upbeat decades ago. You used to be able to walk into either of those places and walk out looking like you were going to go shoot an elephant somewhere.

The big question I had to ask is where the money comes from. All of those places turn a profit or they would not be there. 

Yes, there is a Jos A Banks there, which isn't high end and Banana Republic is somewhat reasonable in the mall but the high end places confuse me.

For the most part, this general area is pretty working class with the usual fairly modest homes and a few year old car in the driveway. This here ain't Beverly Hills with swimming pools and movie stars and Rodeo Drive nearby. This is Ford, Chevy Subaru and Toyota country. The average housewife certainly isn't a supermodel, nor is there a lot of gardeners, pool boys and maids in the households.

I just can't seem to figure out where the money comes from to support the high end stores.

 

.

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What an exceptional day!

I have felt caged an and decided to go for a walk in the mall which I don't thing I have been in for at least 10 years. It wasn't crowed and was actually rather nice checking things out. It's been kept up and maintained.

A young mother with a two week old son was leaving one of the stores and having kind of a hard time with a package and the new infant. I went over and offered to help. She looked at me carefully and explained she was going over to the bench to put her newly purchased infant carrier together. She looked to be about 22 years old.

Holding a 2 week old infant is a joy for me. The infant is entering the world that I am soon leaving. Holding the child was a very, very spiritual moment for me. Of course no spiritual moment lasts very long.

I was spotted by a woman I barely knew and had not seen in years which was a food deal as far as I'm concerned. She walked up to me and asked me how my wife was doing. I decided to take one helluva chance.

"She threw me out a few years ago," I said. "As you can see, I've remarried."

The infant's mother never looked up. She continued setting up the carrier. The woman's head exploded and she mumbled something and walked off.

That's when the mother looked up at me with mirth and merriment in her eyes. She snickered and said, "Good one!"

I went back to enjoying the two week old, the mother finished with the baby carrier, loaded up her precious cargo and said to me, "I can't wait to tell my husband about this. Thank you for your help."

I'm fairly certain this will get back to my wife who will be glad I helped a woman with an infant but I'll probably catch hell for claiming fatherhood of the cherub.

I'll simply explain that it's in the manual, The Suburban Dwellers Guide, 2023 Edition, Government Printing Office (Which Trump had told DOGE not to close) on Chapter 8, Duties of old men. Section H Targets of opportunity are to be engaged so long as no physical risk is present.....Subsection 6 Specifically says that elderly gossips are to be given something to gossip about, preferably a story of a scandalous nature.

I suppose I'll still get my ass chewed anyway, but being able to hold a two week old infant is worth it.

This was an exceptional day.

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What were they thinking?

A while ago some DX team decided to take a DXpedition to Somalia which I immediately wondered it it was a good idea and I ran a quick search to see what the State department had to say about visiting that hellhole.

Make sure you have a last will and testament filed before you leave.

Well, THAT says something right there. Maybe it's not a nice place to visit. 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/somalia-travel-advisory.html/#:~:text=Do%20not%20travel%20to%20Somalia,Illegal%20roadblocks%20are%20widespread 

I have certainly done more than my fair share of crazy things but I am not not completely stupid.

The place has an average sub room temperature IQ of 67.67.

The place is completely beyond repair and no amount of time nor money can do a bit of good there. None. 

It's one of the last places on earth where piracy is a part of its income. 

Yet a group of hams tried to show up with a bunch of expensive, bright shiny objects (radios) and set up a working radio station there.

What could possibly go wrong?

While they did manage to get home safely the whole thing was a bust.

Why am I not surprised?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I just ordered a western cut shirt to replace the other one that got accidentally destroyed. Every American should own at least one western outfit. 

My wife asked me why and I said, "Suppose I have to go to Europe?" 

 

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Merit.

I was glad to see DEI disappear because I am not a racist.

A free people are not equal and an equal people are not free.

I have stated time and again that we should all be held to the same standards of excellence.

If the fire department has a requirement that one is able to drag a 250 pound whatever for 200 feet then that means everybody. If some 87 pound chick can do it she has met one of the requirements to be a fireman. It doesn't matter if she is a gay, black, Jew or a gay white freckle faced redhead. 250 pounds, 200 feet and that means for  anyone that wants to be a fireman.

I'm sick and tired of DEI. It is a major insult to all parties. It's a carryover from Rudyard Kipling's poem, stating that the 'civilized' countries had a duty to colonize and civilize it's peoples. 

Meaning, of course teach them to drink Coca Cola etc. The assumption being that our poor little brown brothers were incapable of taking car of themselves. (Needless to say, most white men had no clue of how to take care of themselves in the bush. The locals did as they had been doing so since time began.)

Still, today in the States DEI has no merit whatsoever. 

One thing it does do is to hurt minorities that went the whole mile and became excellent in their field. People look at a person like that somewhat dubiously because they are afraid he's a less than stellar DEI hire.

A nurse friend of mine has reported having had more than one black insist on a white doctor. Why? Because they suspect they are being handed off to a DEI hire if the doctor is black.

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Today is going to be a good day.

Like a lot of us I am a creature of habit in some things. 

I wake up, shower and throw yesterday's underwear in the hamper.

Daily. Without thought.

As a result I play hell getting rid of s pair of briefs when they get really ratty. Last June before a trip I went through my briefs and took the rattiest 5 skids with me and simply pitched them after each shower.

Anyway the pair I had on when I woke up this morning was really ratty so something caught me as I dropped my drawers to step into the shower. Instead of automatically throwing them into the hamper* I dropped them into the waste basket.

That was a pretty good start.

*The underwear hamper is a cardboard box on its side in the living room I toss yesterdays underwear into because for some reason the cat like to sleep on my used underwear. The house is organized for the convenience of the cat.

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Had to double check this one

If it's too good to be true it generally is.

I heard that some liberal court threw out 84 of Biden's last minute pardons. Fake news, dammit!

========================================

I have heard but am unable to confirm 100% that the crew on the Delta flight that flipped up in Canada had an all female aircrew.

I'm also aware that Delta is still running a DEI business.

I am certainly not going to even hazard to venture a guess over the competency of the crew. I have no idea but you can bet that if it is an all woman aircrew that Delta's DEI policy is going to have a lot of people question it. As of a few seconds ago a quick Google search says Delta is holding to their DEI policy. Same for United.

As of now Delta and United are on my no fly list because of the policy. When they decide to return to a meritocracy I'll start flying on them. 

There is no excuse for not running something like an airline on anything BUT a meritocracy. I don't want to get killed over some stupid social experiment. 

Needless to say, the airline officials say they hire on merit which is likely bull$hit because you can't have both.

Until recently I have not looked twice at a minority or female pilot or co-pilot because I simply figured that they had passed the same qualifications as everyone else. It's sad because now I tend to question things which I never used to.

What's interesting is the conversation I had with a female pilot. I asked her where she learned to fly. Was she military?

She gave me a proud smile and replied, "I learned the hard way."

She'd given lessons and flew the bush. I glanced at her hands and saw it was true. I was damned glad to have that skinny woman haul me across this great nation of ours. 

Nowadays?

I question things a lot more because of DEI. 

However I will not comment either way over the competency of the all female aircrew on that Delta flight. I WILL quietly wonder if DEI had anything to do with it.

 

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