denial fail

Hey Frank. Denial isn't working any more. Last night I got the first estimate for my foundation. $12,900. Yep that's right. And the foundation problems were exacerbated by tree roots so the tree clearing that's required before the foundation work is another $2,500. So we add this to the roof for $7,200 and I'm looking at over $22,000 bucks for a house I don't want, can't live in, and can't rent for enough to cover the basic insurance, taxes, and mortgage payments. Life is good.

I guess I can kiss the idea of ever retiring goodbye. No good dead ever goes unpunished.

stock scream

Been a few days Frank. Sunday things quieted down after the four wheeler action Saturday. I just took it easy. Even the dogs just laid around. It got up to 93 and I broke down and turned the A/C on.

Then Monday and today it's been great weather. The high was both days, with a nice breeze that almost feels chilly today. It was down to 51 last night. I actually slept under a throw for the first time since spring petered out.

The house in Plano is moving ahead. I have a lease I wrote, that the tenants approve. I have to move it to work and pretty it up now. They want a clause for their intent to purchase put in there. That's good news. I'm still waiting for an estimate on the foundation work though. That's the other shoe I'm waiting to drop.

Work is picking back up for Rick. I'm not sure if he was on vacation or just busy doing other stuff. He's back to the four or five emails in the morning and then nothing the rest of the day. At least he's communicating now. The website is pretty much done for this phase. I'm working bugs and features in the shipping program now.

I have to make a batch of tea this evening and then I have a dentist appointment to have my teeth cleaned tomorrow. Something I always look forward too. Not! I'll grab a few groceries and may be have a meal someplace. Since the dentist appointment is at 1:00 in the afternoon, it's going to be a late lunch.

I did go wading with a gar last night. I caught some nice fish but this three foot gar swam right up next to me. I had to poke it with the fishing pole to get it to leave. That was kind of a hoot.

The stock market continues to drop like a rock. Yesterday the DOW was down over 500 and today over 200. Today was particularly scary because it was up almost 400 at one point and then plunged toward the end of the session. I'm not planning to walk under any tall buildings on Wall Street soon. Falling stock brokers are a health hazard :)

weekend vindication

Hey Frank. It's the weekend again, and you know how I hate weekends. The four-wheelers were back this weekend.

I yelled at them once and then they just kept coming back and harassing me. This particular gentleman drove up, parked his ATV right below my trailer and tried taunting me on several occasions. More on him later.

According to Indiana Code - Section 14-16-1-23 it's illegal to drive an off-road vehicle down a stream. I tried to tell them that, but they didn't seem to care. One of them misrepresented himself as a sheriff. Turns out he has a relative who's a sheriff. Not quite the same thing.

I called the conservation officer who lives up the road. He came down and waited for them. The guy in the picture was arrested for public intoxication and driving an ATV while under the influence. He blew a 1.2. The limit is 0.8. He was kind of drunk.

I hope the four wheeler stuff stops now. I think being arrested is probably going to put a damper on their fun. Maybe they'll have it someplace else now.

Other than that it was a pretty nice day. The weather was good. I figured out how to do an inner join for one of Rick's projects. It's for a database audit. He still can't figure out how to get me permission to connect to the official system. Scary since he actually taught Linux administration at the college level :)

Later.

freaky friday

Well Frank the DOW is down 531 today. I know you prefer the S&P, so for comparison the DOW was down 3.12% and the S&P was down 3.18%. The DOW and S&P were down 5.82% and 5.76% for the last five days respectively, with the vast majority of it in the last three days. Thankfully I sold my stuff at the end of the day Tuesday and missed the worst of it. The trouble is I may have to sell more.

I talked with a foundation repair guy today and he said the foundation work will probably be $3,000 minimum. He's going to have to take a look to be sure. I'm still waiting for that tornado. You have any pull up there?

I do have some kind of good news today. I had a magazine universal loader/unloader that broke. I tried everything but tearing it apart to see what was wrong, but it was stuck shut. They had them on sale on amazon last week so I ordered a new one. I figured at least I'll have one that works, and maybe I can figure out what's wrong with the broken one. The new one came today and it works fine. In fact, since it's a newer model it has a label on this tab that I didn't even know was a tab that says "lock". Turns out the old one has the same tab, but it's not labeled. When I pulled on it the old one came unlocked and works just great now. Damn I hate it when that happens :)

I also got a new yard sign today. You know how non-political I try to be, but I had to get this 2016 election sign:

Hope that gives you a chuckle. The UPS guy came by today with the new loader/unloader and he almost fell down laughing.

Later.

crazy days

Frank it's been crazy lately. I did some fishing yesterday morning and it started raining while I was standing in the middle of the creek. I hightailed it back to the trailer, but Chili decided to go the other way.

When I got back I got cleaned up and left about 10:30 to meet Jessica at Sam's. I got there a little early, but we got some shopping done, and then had lunch at Famous Dave's. Nothing like a little BBQ to settle your tummy. Then I headed back towards home.

I stopped at Walmart in Aurora to get some of the little stuff that Sam's makes you buy a 55 gallon drum of. Then I headed to the vet to get stuff for the dogs. The debit card wouldn't clear at the vet because that would have put me over a $500 limit for the day, so I had to use my Discover. That tells you how expensive the day was.

Chili was waiting on the porch when I got home about 4:00. That was a relief. I got everything put away and kind of took it easy for the rest of the night.

Well, except for calling the contractor about the roof and settling on how to pay him. He wants half up front and the rest when I'm satisfied. Then I talked to a foundation guy. He's going to take a look at the place later this week. Probably tomorrow. That was all Wednesday.

This morning I got up and started trying to figure out where to move money to pay for the roof. The money from the funds I sold was there, but I couldn't transfer it out of the account. I got online with e*trade and they told me that a sale of funds takes three days to clear and that I can get at the money on Friday. Great. I'm sure glad I sold it Tuesday because the market was down 163 on Wednesday and 358 today. I dodged that bullet.

Then Rick emailed with an "emergency". The customer comparison program I did last winter to reconcile their shopping cart system with their shipping system was broken. Actually, we'd talked about this before and their system won't handle last names that have apostrophes in them. They said they never let that happen and change them before they get into the system. Well the order that broke the system was for a man named O'Brian. Duh!

So I had to turn on two of the computers I've had off since the big power outage this summer and get them working so I could test a fix. A fix I suggested to them last winter, but they never get names with apostrophes :) Anyway I got that done for them about 3:00 this afternoon. Of course Rick won't respond to any of the three or four emails I sent until sometime tomorrow.

Now I'm fixing to have something for supper. I had a bologna sandwich for lunch. Maybe I'll have some hotdogs for supper. I don't feel like a diet shake tonight. Actually, I never feel like a diet shake :)

Still waiting for a sign your getting this. If I bought lottery tickets I'd settle for a winner, but a tornado sucking up the house in Plano would be a Jim Dandy sign :)

Later.

creek therapy

I got the email that my sell order went through. Now I have to figure out what goes on taxes next year. Maybe Obama will redo the tax code and I won't have to worry about it? More likely he'll declare martial law and I still won't have to worry about it :)

I caught some nice fish tonight. One really nice crappie. I was going to do some shooting, but when the fish are biting you fish. I can shoot tomorrow.

I haven't heard back from any foundation people yet. Now that the sell order went through I'm going to call the roof contractor tomorrow and get that started.

I didn't go to town today. You probably know that since I didn't pretend to call you :) I was a little too distracted. I'll stop at Walmart after Sam's club and then head to the vet to get the dog food. I still had some to feed the dogs with, but it's getting down to the bottom of the bin.

Later

cracking up

Well Frank I sold some mutual funds from my retirement account and have the money ready to pay for the roof. I figure capital gains is the simplest to figure. This will be a long term capital gain, and it's not like a doubled my money or anything, so the gain isn't that big. Better than a loss.

Now I have some cracks in the foundation to deal with. I have calls in to three different places. I have no idea what this is going to cost. I hope I sold enough shares :)



I'm sure you know Melissa had her hip operated on and is doing pretty good. I hope this fixed her up all the way.

I got an email from Doug. He's living in Denver now. He's still doing the storm repairs scam/work but he's not sounding too happy about it. He's thinking of maybe going into rehab. He moved to Colorado because pot is legal there. How's that for a clear indication you have a drug problem? I hope he can get it worked out.

I have to head to town later to cash my pay check and pick up some dog food at the vet. I'm going to get a few groceries in Versailles before I come home. I'm completely out of vitamin C pills and cheese. Tomorrow I go to Sam's with Jessica so I'll get those then.

I skipped breakfast this morning because I was busy working with money and that took away my appetite :) I might eat at that Mexican place before I head home. Or maybe someplace else. Or maybe not bother. Who knows.

I'm rambling now so I'll quit. I'll pretend to talk to you on the phone while I'm driving later. Yes I'm pathetic :)

Later...Jerry

financial advice

I wish you were around to give me some financial advise. I got an estimate for the roof work tonight. $7,200 to tear the shingles and plywood off, replace the broken beams, replace the plywood and shingles, and redo the flashing around the chimney. I was worried it would be half that.

My options are:

• borrow the money from my home equity line of credit and owe even more on the house
  
• take the money from my retirement savings and pay income taxes on it for this year
  
• take the money from an investment account and pay some capital gains taxes for this year
  

None of these appeal to me, but since I haven't won the lottery ever, I have to do something. The life of a wealthy slum lord if full of decisions :)

Jerry

Plano

Actually talked to Jessica on the phone today. She's so busy I can understand. We're going to meet on Wednesday at Sam's and then go to lunch. I hope I can remember to take ice with me. All Sam's has is huge bags of ice and I don't need that much to get home with the food I buy.

I told you Marie and her family are working on the house in Plano. She sent me a picture of her kids cleaning on the apples in the back yard. That brings back memories. I used to pay the kids by the bucket to pick the apples up out of the yard. There were many years I felt like chopping that damn tree down, but I never did. It is the best shade back there. My grandson Curtis is the tall skinny kid in the middle.

Jessica is going to Plano this weekend to visit some friends and take a look at their house. They're in the same situation I am. They have to rent their house out in Somonauk. I hope it works out better for them than it is for me. She'd going to hook up with Marie and see if she can find some more yoga stuff in the basement.

No word on the roof repair estimate yet. It's probably going to be thousands instead of hundreds. I have suspended all buying of non-essentials until I get this taken care off.

It almost seems unfair for me to just tell you about what's going on in my life. I have all kinds of questions about what's going on where you are, but no way for you to let me know. I appreciate you hearing me out though.

Jerry

the money pit

That house in Plano is popping up again. The woman who had a signed and sealed rent-to-buy contract decided to bail with two weeks notice instead of 60 days. Last weekend was her final move out date, even though her lease ran to October 25th. I was so sure this was going to work out because she made a $4,000 deposit to the company who arranged the deal. To top it off she and her roommates trashed the place. They even had most of the chain link fence I put up torn down for some unknown reason. I will be getting a forwarding address and charging them for the cleanup and the fence. Not that I have a snowball's chance in hell of collecting. I ordered a dumpster today for $400+ so the house can be cleaned out, and that's just for starters.

I have someone looking at the house now and they brought in a contractor to take a look. Turns out when the chimney collapsed last spring, it broke four roof beams too. Why nobody noticed that while they were rebuilding the chimney or patching the roof around it, I don't know. Now the roof has to be partially torn open to get new beams in the attic to repair the structural part of the roof. I'm supposed to get an estimate on that today. And of course no rent coming in now to help pay for it.

The good news is the family looking at the house have agreed to rent it and do some of the cleanup work. They'll probably move in the first of October. They'll be filling the dumpster with the crap the old renters left. It turns out it's Marie and her new husband. You probably don't remember, but Marie is Doug's first ex-wife. She and Doug lived in the house with me back around 2000-2001. At least she knows what to expect and is still willing to rent the place.

That's the silver lining to the whole issue. I think I can trust Marie. My grandson Curtis is 15 now. I must be getting old since I have three that are older :)

You still there?

Hey Frank. It's been a little over six months since you died. February 12, 2015 will always be a dark day for me. Of course it was darker for you. Grief is selfish in a way. I feel bad for you dying, and for Melissa having to go on without you, but I feel sorry for not having you to talk to also.

I'm sure you're out there somewhere. I'm not big on religion, but what I have faith in is that there is a higher power out there, and the higher power is fair. You can call that karma if you like. What it means is you're in a better place. I'm going to assume you can tap into this blog. If I'm wrong I'll never know. At least not until I die too. Nobody gets out alive.

I'm going to start using you as my sounding board again. I've been floundering. That's my fault, but I'm going to see if you can help me out. Don't be surprised if I ask you dumb questions. I always did. I usually got some pretty good answers though. Now I'll have to figure it out for myself, but you and I both know we were never about getting help as much as we were about finding out if we were so far out in left field we'd never make it back to the dugout.

That's all for now. I'll keep in touch.

Jerry