Cars. One of the things I wished I had done

was keep better vehicle maintenance records so I could write something accurate about the pickups I have owned over the years.

I see a lot of people simply figure the costs as being the payment, insurance and the gas they use. There's more.

Back in Y2K I mentally pulled a figure out of my hat when I bought the Silver Bullet, a silver Tacoma NIB. I figured that it was going to cost me about $100/month over time to run it after payments, gas and insurance.

The $100 figure proved to be too high at the time because in 2009 Toyota bought it back when the frame rusted out and gave me almost $8K for it. Having spent $11K for it this became the best deal on reliable transportation I ever got. I think I had rolled 180K miles on it when they repurchased it from  me but I digress.

Still, even though I had estimated too high it gave me a nice slice for what to most people would have been the down payment. Instead it gave me a slice toward the total amount I paid for the truck because I paid in cash. Either way I was ahead. I bought another Tacoma which is clost to 18 years old and most likely will run to the end of my days because I have taken care of it.

You really can't go wrong overestimating an expense. You get the unspent money back, usually with interest.

Part of what keeps The Poors poor is they don't think about the total cost of something. All they seem to think is buying the biggest car they think they can afford. Payment and insurance and that's it. They forget that the car must be taken care of. 

Of course they cheap out on keeping up on maintenance  and the car wears out a lot faster and requires more repairs over time. I was a lot like this early on but I stopped acting poor and as a result I got 'rich', meaning life got a lot better for me.

The rich buy a solid product (of every kind), maintain it and keep it until it wears out. They don't follow fads. The follow quality. In the long run cheaping out is the most expensive way to go.

Better to buy a solid plain jane and take care of it than to buy something fancy and let it go.

I kind of wish I had kept careful records to prove my point.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

Ahh, yes. I added to the switchblade collection.

My collection of switchblade knives grew by one because I just bought another to add to it. There's now 16 in the drawer and a few more floating around the house in locations I am likely to be opening mail.

An Old School West Side Story switchblade makes a pretty good letter opener. 

This year's model is a Shark's model, Nando approved. Straight out of Hollywood.

PA legalized them a couple of years ago and when it hit Nextdoor and the Karens I predicted that there would not be a whole lot of young people dancing around to Leonard Bernstein music and carving each other up. 

So far I have not heard of a single case of this although I'd be surprised to hear it hasn't happened in Philly a time or two. But it was happening anyway, legal or not.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

Mamdani's amazing 30% off grocery store.

regular supermarkets run on a 1 to 3% profit margin.

Where's the money come from to make up got the 30% off? 

There's a subsidy of some sort to make it work and the taxpayer foots the bill. 

The end result is supposedly that it will save the average family about a grand. 

My guess is that the working stiffs will have taxes go up to compensate for this. As usual the unemployed, sick, lame and lazy will pay nothing (as usual) and that will be that.

Those that get higher taxes probably won't realize that they are paying for Mamdani's wonderful store.

Needless to say, they will have to shuffle unseen monies into it to compensate for theft, robberies and vandalism. Then again they may turn the NYPD loose on shoplifters unlike what they do to private enterprise stores.

Meanwhile private grocers will take a hit and some will fold.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

Here's what ya do over reariations for slavery. A trip to the men's room.

Offer $100K cash, payable at the American Embassy in Somalia upon turning in one's passport.

Needless to say, the recipient will be immediately mugged upon leaving the embassy because word will immediately get out to the locals.

Word will get back to the States that someone's Uncle Bob is stuck in Somalia penniless and can't get back to the States ever.

Then the rest of us can sit back and watch the outrage as the families screech that the government has to let Uncle Bob come back home again.

Uncle Sam could refuse until the money got paid back and the GoFundMe requests would pop up as people try to raise funds to pay the money back and have Uncle Bob's passport reissued. 

Betcha a lot of people will think twice about asking for reparations.

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

The other day I went to pee in a convenience store.

When I walked into the men's room there was an apparition of some sort, It appeared to be a guy that needed a shave wearing a skirt and woman's makeup.

I guess he saw the surprised WTF look on my face and braced for my reaction.

I walked over to the urinal and as I unzipped I said, "That's OK. I identify as a cat and I have to use the men's room because the store doesn't have a litterbox." Then I peed, zipped up and walked out shaking my head.

Looking back on it I suppose it was a good thing he used the men's room because if he was going into the ladies room when someone's daughter or granddaughter was in it he probably would have gotten his ass kicked.

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

As I write this I recall that in Tony's Bar in Kodiak the lady's room would occasionally become unusable for one reason or another and they simply wandered into the men's room and nobody batted an eyelash. 

The women would just walk past the row of urinals and use one of the stalls. 

No biggie.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

I will be busy today.

I have things to do for a change.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

So and so, American Socialite.

What does a socialite actually do?

Where does one go to school to become a socialite? Can you go to socialite school on a GI Bill? 

What's the job pay? 

From what I can see it's a good gig if you can get the job.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

I just saw another one of those provide drinking water to an African village dealiebobbers.

which sounds like the right thing to do for our fellow man. 

Giving a village a good water supply can transform and even save lives. It doesn't take much, either. Just a simple well and a hand pump.

The problem is what happens after the pump gets installed.

The jungle telegraph will put the word out that so and so village has clean water and immediately someone from the village next door will show up with an empty bucket asking for water. If he's lucky he will simply be sent home empty handed. Most likely he will be roughed up and sent packing. The concept of sharing is often pretty alien to a lot of those people.

The other village will retaliate by coming back in force and there will be fights. If the other village loses (which is likely) they will send a nocturnal raiding party over to poison the well.

Then the now useless pump and wellhead will be torn up and sold for scrap and that will be the end of that.

Africa wins.

The other thing that often happens is that a widget factory may open there and will bring in outside leadership and do well. Then they make a mistake. The hire a local to a position of responsibility.

Take the department that makes the frammus, a part of the widget. The frammus department is doing well. They are easily keeping up with widget production. The workers are all carefully selected locals. One of them appears t be a bright star. Some suit near the top thinks it would be a good idea to promote him to department head of the frammus department. Bad move. The newly hired frammus department leader hires his brother-in-law to be his replacement. Inside a year all of the talent in the department has been replaced by the new department heads friends and relatives and the frammus department turns into a bottleneck because of incompetence, goofing off and absenteeism. The onetime leader of the entire widget factory is now the biggest bottleneck of the whole shebang.

With the frammus production so low total widget output is now in the dumps taking revenues with it. The whole place collapses and Africa wins again.

I do not know why but from what I have read this is the cycle of Africa. It's a shame, too because they have a tremendous amount of ressources that could easily be exploited and the place could easily become the breadbasket or even paradise of the world.

 

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

Off to Goodwill.

It seems that every time I buy a pair of docksiders from a store they fall apart quickly. It doesn't matter if it's Walmart, Dick's, L.L. Bean, Sperry, Timberlander or whoever. They just seem to fall apart quickly and have to be replaced.

It always seems that if I buy a pair of 'only worn once to a party' pair of docksiders from Goodwill they either fall apart instantly (Happens about 25% of the time) or they last forever.

The pair next to me has finally come close to giving up the ghost. I bought it at a Goodwill before I retired and has served as my primary footwear since before November, 2022. They are now well beyond ratty and well past replacement time. I'm going to miss them as they are incredibly comfortable.

It's off to Goodwill later this afternoon.

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

Struck out at Goodwill. No problem. I'm not in a hurry.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY

It was a matter of time before

someone tried to use the visual calling app for a spam call. 

I think Samsung downloaded it when I was asleep although the way I pay attention to things like that it may have very well come with my phone.

Anyway I heard a strange ringing and answered it out of curiosity and bam! A spam call. 

I blew up and quickly told him I was born to missionaries in New Guinea and my parents were killed in a plane crash of which I was the sole survivor and was rescued and raised by a tribe of cannibals and if he ever called me again I was going to send for my family so my step brother could cut his head off and shrink it and we'd use the rest of him for a nice long pork barbecue in my backyard.

Needless to say he hung up and that was that. 

Then I uninstalled the app so it can't happen again. I don't need it.

I like that answer. Last night I mentioned it to the guys and they thought the answwer was pretty good and I got extra points for dragging cannibalism into it. 

Like all technology something that can be used can be abused.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY