09:06 – Kit sales remain strong. As usual at this time of year, I’m worried about running out of stock.
Barbara is cleaning house and doing her ironing this morning. Other than that, she has the day off. She’s heading out this afternoon to play golf with Bonnie.
More science kit stuff for me today. I’m going to try to get everything done downstairs so that I can spend Monday through Saturday upstairs. Our regular mailman is on vacation until Monday the 17th, and replacements are notorious for showing up any time of day and ignoring the sign on the mailbox that asks them to please ring the doorbell because there are packages awaiting pickup inside. Twice now, they’ve actually carried off that sign along with outgoing envelopes without bothering to ring the bell.
I also need to apply for Obamacare to replace our current medical insurance coverage, which disappears as of Barbara’s last day of work on September 30th. I can’t tell you how much I hate applying for Obamacare, but thanks to that SOB there’s no practical alternative. On the other hand, it will be nice to have Barbara retire from her firm and be available to help a lot more with our own business. I’ll finally have time to get a lot of stuff done that’s been on my to-do list for literally years.
Two things, I would see if you can get a small business health plan for all the employees of your business. Second I would consider a very high deductible.
A few years ago, I played around with checking insurance quotes. For some reason I checked out the rates in New York City and found they were obscene. To buy health insurance for a 40 year old single male was $800 a month. To buy health insurance for a small business with one 40 year old single male employee was $400 per month.
More recently I compared prices for my family under the Unaffordable Care Act and found we could save over $6000 a year going with a high deductible. That combined with a HSA could make sense for a lot of people.
Finally if you want to avoid the official web site, you can look at https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/
@RBT, consider insurance thru a fraternal organization or association. NASE, the National Assn of Self Employed used to offer a couple of plans. You get the advantage of a bigger bargaining pool, for lower rates. Due to a quirk in the law, some assns existed JUST to provide insurance. I don’t know if or how much that changed under nolocare.
We were happy with an HSA and a high deductible ‘catastrophic’ plan, but don’t have that option anymore.
nick
I was quite happy with an HSA and a high deductible health plan when I was a single guy. I know people for whom the combination would not work.
Well, the bronze ACA plans are essentially catastrophic care. The ones I just looked at have deductibles of around $11K. The insurance pays nothing at all until you’re out of pocket that $11K. The thing is, the monthly premiums for us are about 10 times what they would be without Obamacare and subsidies for the “poor”.
RBT: Isn’t COBRA still in effect – you can extend her employer family health plan coverage after resignation for 18 months by paying the monthly premium the insurance company charges the employer. (I think there’s a 2% markup permitted as a handling fee, so the maximum charge would be 102% of the law firm’s charge by the insurance company.)
Whether this is economical is another question, of course.
Well, of course. Someone has to pay for the healthcare they want … and deserve.
It’s a disaster and getting worse. By design.
What do you mean by “them” Mr. SteveF. Sounds RAAACIIST!! to me.
Just a few more microaggressions…
…check yer privilege….
And I see Bernie’s little speech out in Seattle got disrupted by progs screaming about how black lives matter…he shoulda asked them about Reverend Fartinacans’s comments about exactly how white lives matter…i.e., not at all.
Let’s keep that polarization thing going…..the globalist elites love it.
Re: COBRA
I had Barbara talk to the benefits coordinator at work. She basically said that we’d be nuts to go COBRA instead of ACA. Her firm is changing over this year to what amounts to a corporate version of high-deductible Obamacare, and the monthly premiums would be even worse than ACA.
I’m going to go with the cheapest ACA policy we can get, which is basically catastrophic coverage. We’ll end up paying everything out of pocket until we get to the $11K/year deductible. But the good news is that those outrageously high monthly premia we’ll be paying for essentially nothing will go to subsidize those poor people who can’t afford to pay.
Whatever happened to the bedrock idea that if one can’t afford someone, one can’t have it? Back in more reasonable days, that applied to everything including food and shelter, let alone medical care. I suspect the day will come when we return to that. I’ll look forward to watching these worthless slugs starve to death or die from lack of medical treatment.
Oh, wait. Was that a micro-agression?
I counted about eight microaggressions in that post; I’m becoming an expert on this. Maybe I can gin up some consulting work for progs who have a burning need to ID this stuff when it comes up. Whoops, there I go again…
Whatever happened to the bedrock idea that if one can’t afford someone
What do you mean “afford someone” Dr. Bob? Sounds RAACIIST!! to me.
It is just unbelievable what Cops think they can get away with. What’s next, Imperial Storm Troopers.
The three police officers trying to quash the tape contend the recording was illegal because, under California law, all parties to a confidential communication must consent to the recording.
Pappas said there are signs throughout the store notifying patrons that they were being monitored on video.
“This is outrageous,” he said.
No wonder people don’t trust Cops these days.
You mean “less-fortunate individuals who were not born with silver spoons in their mouths”.
“No wonder people don’t trust Cops these days.”
Thin line all too often between police officers and criminals, long been the case, going back to the days of Sir Robert Peel, when they were often interchangeable. And now their shenanigans show up on cell phone recordings and their own surveillance cameras and they whine about it.
As I’ve said before, if you’re accosted by one of the government’s costumed thugs, say nothing beyond the bare minimum required and produce your paperwork and do not crack wise or otherwise mouth off, let alone make any sudden or furtive moves. Too many of them are hyped up and have bad training these days and greasy trigger fingers.
Maybe Farrakhan has a point. Some people would compare this story:
http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2015/08/arlington-police-officer-fatally-shot-a-man-early-friday-at-car-dealership.html/
to this one:
http://www.newsherald.com/article/20150807/NEWS/150809524
And ask exactly what a white boy had to do to get killed by the police.
(Oh, and thank you, Ms. Kwolek.)
Maybe I’m dense but I’m not getting the correlation here:
1.) Minister Fartinacan tells fellow black people that it’s time to start killing white people.
2.) A white rookie trainee cop at age 49? shoots an unarmed black kid inside a car dealer showroom, no idea exactly what transpired to bring that on.
3.) A Fish & Game guy gets into a gun battle on the water down in Florida and barely escapes with his life, thanks to ballistic armor and his wits, I guess. Was he in position in the water to blow those white guys away, I dunno.
COBRA might be the best option for the rest of the calendar year. Obamacare insurance goes up in price if you don’t buy it during open enrollment in December. (My daughter will be getting married in the eyes of the the state in December to get a couples policy, then getting a religious ceremony in January for just this reason.)
Bob, your PPACA policy cost is not jacked up in price due to the poor as the subsidy comes from taxes. In fact, it is lower in price than it would be on the open market – there is a cap on the spread from lowest (young, healthy) to highest (old with risk factors like tobacco use) policy premium prices such that the young subsidize the old. IIRC, the cap is a factor of 3 from low to high.
Good nooz, Trumpeters!
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/video-black-women-defend-donald-trump-shred-megyn-kelly/
It’s not that you’re dense, OFD, it’s that you’ve lived in such a privileged status for your entire life that you can’t see the racism all around you. Most of us here suffer from that same handicap.
In fact… it is a handicap. White men, especially straight, self-supporting white men, are unable to understand the trials, travails, and tribulations of all other groups in the US. In today’s culture, in which empathy and caring and understanding are more important than anything else — notably including effort and ability and good decision making — this is indeed a handicap and white men, especially straight, self-supporting white men, should get some kind of official consideration when it comes to enforcement of today’s expectations. Or money. Money works, too. A moderate monthly stipend to help us deal with our handicap would be acceptable.
Wouldn’t Trumpeteers be better? Members could wear silly hairpieces whether or not they needed them.
I like the article’s headline
but I was waiting for it to finish “… with his penis!”
Hmm. Or maybe that would apply more to Bubba Clinton. Has anyone looked into whether any of the supporters he raped changed political affiliation as a result?
Just wanted to share that it is currently 111deg at my weather station, with misery index of 118.
In the shade on my patio it is 106deg.
The wife and kids are AT THE BEACH! Hopefully the Gulf breeze is cooling them down. I stayed home. Finished my antibiotics yesterday, but still don’t feel normal. Could not imagine being at the beach.
WRT prepping, esp in this climate. I spent a number of years in Phoenix so I’m no stranger to heat, but I’ve found I no longer have any tolerance for it. So how to deal when there is no AC?
I have been trying the ‘cool’ towels from Costco. You soak them, put them around your neck, and evaporation keeps you cooler. They work, but your shirt gets soaked.
I got a couple dozen of some bandana style, gel filled cooler towels at a sale, so I’ve been trying those out. They are flat when dry but puff up like a sausage when soaked in water. Again, you wrap them around your head or neck. They stay pretty cool too.
It DOES help, and either product lasts longer than a normal wet towel. Neither works as well as it should given our high RH here. In AZ, they’d probably feel too cool!
I have several floppy ‘boonie’ style hats. The best is the one that has mesh all the way around it, a solid crown and brim. It is the best for keeping my head cool with a breeze but my neck shaded. The classic boonie traps heat at the top of my head, and my leather and mesh Aussie hat is a little too heavy and stiff.
I also scored an evaporative cooler vest at a thrift store. I haven’t tried it yet, preferring to avoid the heat. I might give it a try tomorrow just to test it if this heat continues as forecast.
In the past year I’ve changed almost everything I wear in an attempt to deal with heat. I now exclusively wear high tech fabrics, in t shirts and golf shirts. Stuff like clima-cool, under armour’s CoolGear, and nike DriFit cool. They really do make a difference. They wick tremendously. They are generally a thin mesh you can almost see thru when held up in front of a light, and they let every scrap of wind thru to cool you. It feels like you aren’t wearing anything when the wind blows. They are pricy so it takes me some smart shopping to justify buying them. I wait for the clearance sale at my sporting goods store, and I hit the thrift stores. Golf shirts with company logos are often in the thrifts, having never been worn, or worn on the one golf outing. My favorite local store has them for $6. Without embroidered logos, they are $7 or $8. If you’ve never tried one, give an adidas ClimaCool a try.
I switched from ragg wool socks to a merino wool/spandex blend technical sock. (Kirkland brand). They are nice enough to be dress socks, thinner and sleeker than the ragg wool, but thick enough to wear with boots, and they keep your feet much cooler and drier than cotton. If you wear cotton socks in the heat you need to give these a try. They are cheapest from Costco, but are out of season and you have to go on ebay. Hiking, sports and outdoor stores carry similar products. I know that wearing wool socks sounds like it would be hotter, but because they wick and breath, they are actually cooler. Your feet won’t get gummy and white either. And your calluses will improve (reduce.)
The reality for postSHTF is that I’d have to work in this heat. And that means risking heat injuries, needing much more potable water, and electrolyte replacements, and working MUCH slower. Even if you work at the same pace, you need more and longer cool down periods. Working earlier or later gets problematic if you don’t have the light. And light in the dark draws attention.
Having this heat post SHTF would purely suck.
“A moderate monthly stipend to help us deal with our handicap would be acceptable.”
Yo, homes, I’m down widdat. And by moderate, I assume it means to continue living in the style to which we’ve become accustomed? Or maybe a step or two up from our current dreary circumstances?
“Members could wear silly hairpieces whether or not they needed them.”
The two black females in the clip were already wearing kinda silly hairdos…but I dug their rap anyway.
“Has anyone looked into whether any of the supporters he raped changed political affiliation as a result?”
Doubtful. Plus the hordes of womyn who affected to believe none of those rapes and assaults really mattered all that much, and furthermore, it was a reich-wingnut conspiracy to bring him down. Because I’m old enough to remember; at the time, all we heard was crickets from the fembats on that stuff, just like crickets again on their “sisters” being raped, imprisoned, tortured and murdered by hadji scum in the Sandbox shit-holes. Hell, we don’t even anything but crickets from the homosexual agitprop specialists on the horrors inflicted on homosexuals by the hadjis. Why is that, one wonders?
“Having this heat post SHTF would purely suck.”
+1,000
Move to Vermont. Rarely gets to 90. And cold can be dealt with. If one heats with wood, for example, one gets warmed up more than once; cutting/chopping, stacking, and hauling into the house. Rest of the time we just dress for it, which means tee shirts down to the 30s, or lower if we’re working outside at stuff. It’s not unusual at all to see guys shoveling snow in shorts and nothing else.
Oh there are compensations.
Almost all the jobs that were added to the economy in the last few years were added in TX…
We barely noticed the recession from 2008 to now. Only with the drop in oil are we starting to see economic slowdown.
Based on what I saw at their annual sales meeting, a huge international electrical manufacturer would have had NO profits at all if not for TX. Almost all of their top performers were from TX.
We really are the most vibrant economy in the US. We’ve got a really busy port, we export food and energy, we’ve got high tech and smokestack industry, cost of living is low, housing is affordable, no state income tax, etc.
On the down side, we’re a border state, it’s a swamp here and a desert elsewhere, we’re in a hurricane zone, our education system is as bad as most, better than some.
Tradeoffs are the name of the game, and right now, economically, I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
nick
We’re not the most vibrant economy here and though I live in a former port, its halcyon days were about 200 years ago. We export food such as apples, cheese and ice cream. Not much high tech or smokestack; and the high tech wants either Murkan infants from their cradles already freshly minted somehow with an alphabet soup of IT acronyms or slave labor from south Asia and Africa. Cost of living is average, or would be, if not for ObummerCARE, and rural housing is affordable. It’s tied with Arizona as the most gun-friendly state in the country and will soon take the Number One spot, we hope. A mix of prime farmland, forests, mountains, lakes and streams; it’s not called the Green Mountain State for nothing. The publik education system blows like everyplace else and our major threats from nature are blizzards and ice storms that knock out the Grid power.
Also not much in the way of teeming masses struggling to breathe free from south of the Rio Grande or points further south and east.
Right now it’s green everywhere, about 75, and a light breeze coming off the lake, which stretches 130 miles from north to south and is at least 400 feet deep in some places and teems with all kinds of fish and monsters.
Also a border state, with New Hampshuh, Maffachufetts, the Vampire State and Quebec. Our biggest minority are Franco-Murkans/Quebecois. Followed by Western Abenaki.
Only places we can imagine living someplace else are just further to our north and east, such as the Canadian Maritimes, Newfoundland and Labrador.
I spent a few weeks in St Johns. It was summer, so very nice. Strange to me I had trouble processing the age of the houses. Since they are built on bedrock they don’t sag and lean, so a 400 yo house looks pretty plumb and square.
Been a while since fire ravaged the bowl of St Johns.
Not much food self sufficiency, and pretty hard to get to.
A local called NFL the “Mississippi of Canada.”
Lots of legacy from their settlement pattern and isolation.
LOVED cod tongues.
nick
“Skipping the natural gas bridge”
http://www.chron.com/opinion/article/Skipping-the-natural-gas-bridge-6432021.php
“Under these new standards, states that replace coal with natural gas will have to do so by increasing the output of currently existing gas plants, instead of building new ones. The EPA estimates that this new rule means that gas power plant construction drops by somewhere between 39 percent to 68 percent from where it otherwise might have been. ”
This article proves that Obola is a fool and is wanting to leave a legacy of one of the greatest mass murderers in history. As people in the South get older, they are more and more dependent upon air conditioning for respiratory problems. It is no coincidence that the life expectancy has almost doubled with the rise in air conditioning.
I do not understand Obola. Having lived in the lap of luxury for at least half of his life, he wants to deny the convenience of electric power to the rest of us peons. What a tool! I would expect him more to offer free electricity to the masses.
We really are the most vibrant economy in the US. We’ve got a really busy port, we export food and energy, we’ve got high tech and smokestack industry, cost of living is low, housing is affordable, no state income tax, etc.
According to the Houston Chronicle today, over 400,000 new jobs have been created in the Houston metroplex in the last five years.
Of course, Obola wants to shut it all down.
“…they are more and more dependent upon air conditioning for respiratory problems.”
i.e., electricity. If the Grid goes down….
Back in colonial times the folks who lived in the hot southern climates dropped like flies, whereas here in wunnerful Nova Anglia they routinely lived (the ones that survived the first winters) into their 80s and 90s. Mrs. OFD has traveled extensively in the southern and western states in summer and has noted that w/o A-C, it’s nearly impossible to live there. At least not contemporary fat dumb and happy Murkan derps; maybe Anasazi cliff dwellers and migrant farm workers…
“Of course, Obola wants to shut it all down.”
Naturally. He and his cadre are all about destroying the economy and the country, just as the Euro overlords have been doing across the Atlantic. Swarms of Afrikans now poised to overwhelm the continent and U.K., crashing fences in the port of Calais while French nabobs lecture the Brits that it’s a “human right” to migrate for a better life so why don’t the Brits take them in?
“Camp of the Saints” is coming to life now just like “1984.” Both about thirty or forty years late.
That’s one of the reasons we’re going to move up the mountains. It was no accident that Vanderbilt built his summer “cottage” Biltmore in Asheville.
I’ve been checking the Weather Channel periodically to compare temperatures. When it’s sweltering in Winston-Salem, it’s usually 10 to 15 degrees F cooler in Jefferson. Winters up there aren’t too bad, but of course I grew up in the NW Pennsylvania snow belt. They get more snow up there, and temperatures are below freezing more often and for longer, but we can deal with that.
Obola won’t be happy until government and UN officials are using our backs for leg rests. I don’t even want to think about the toe sucking.
Prince George: How are you, sir?
Lord Buxomly: Heartily well, Your Highness.
I dined hugely off a servant before coming to town.
Prince George: You eat your servants?
Lord Buxomly:No, sir, I eat “off” them. Why should I spend good money on tables when I have men standing idle? Why, indeed!
–Blackadder, Dish and Dishonesty
\nick
Two words about eating off those male servants: back hair.
Tables, not plates, EWWWWW.
nick