10:12 – Happy Labor Day.
The big news around here is that Barbara has finally awarded Colin the Best Dog Ever trophy. It took Colin five and a half years, but he finally got this coveted trophy. The previous BDE holder was Duncan, who was the first dog Barbara ever raised from a puppy. Colin is delighted that he’s finally won. For the last year or so, he’s been in a tie with Duncan, but this morning he finally made it over the top.
This is the last day of the Augason Farms Labor Day sale. They have about 20 items on sale, including egg powder and butter powder. Be careful, though. Some of the items, like cheese powder, are actually priced higher even with the sale than Walmart charges. Augason has a $200 minimum for free shipping, so if you need $200 worth of the items they have on sale, now is a good day to order them. Egg powder is now $17.49 per #10 can, which is what I paid for it when I last ordered it a couple or three years ago.
Back to work on science kits. I have several to get ready to ship tomorrow morning.
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What finally pushed Colin over the top?
He learned to do laundry?
n
Some doubleplusungoodbadthink stuff for Labor Day:
https://christianmerc.blogspot.com/2016/09/when-black-lives-dont-matter.html
Just more hypocrisy writ large, on all sides.
More hate and racism in Germany:
http://gatesofvienna.net/2016/09/dear-angela/#more-40772
Colin is now a retriever. He retrieves weapons from the bottoms of lakes, rivers, etc.
I spent some time yesterday trying out some sync/BU software on my Mac. I have a SpaceMonkey cloud enabled archive disk. It uses the SM network to save and recover your data, but the physical disk is attached to my network and networks with all SM drives in certain areas. I want to back it up for the backup to the backup to the backup. Most of the software I tried had problems since the SM is a NAS device. I ended up with the old reliable rsync. I just shove the commands in Apple’s Automator software and make a little app that sits on the desktop. That seemed to copy everything fine. I’ll do some file comparisons to make sure all was copied that I want.
I BU’d to a Samsung external 1T SSD for grins. That worked, too.
Congratulations Colin ! The field was tough but I knew that he could do it.
As to what put Colin over the top, he’s started to obey commands some of the time. He’s about the age when BC’s start to obey.
What I say: “Colin, COME!”
What a young BC hears: “Colin, if you’re finished with what you’re doing and don’t have anything else you’d rather be doing, would you mind joining me over here?”
Hell, I have the cats trained to come when I call them. All three of them, too. The dawg is actually less obedient with either of us humans.
Sunny w/blue skies today; doing a bit of outside work and then some office/computer stuff later.
My daughter and I took care of a kitten for a family that was going on vacation. In about two days we trained him to wake up and come running when we called “here, kitty”. A few months later, when he was seven or eight months old, we took care of him again. Again, we trained him to come — sauntering this time — in a couple days. All it took was teaching him that he’d get food or attention if he came when we called.
Application to training children and girlfriends is left as an exercise for the reader.
I used to have a well trained wife. But I slacked off and she sloughed all that training off. It used to be “what do you need”, now it is “you need to”.
I used to have a well trained wife.
I hope she doesn’t read your post, Mr. Lynn.
The only people who think black lives don’t matter are the black thugs who kill other blacks.
I just had a mid afternoon snack of ramen noodles. I added a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter. A way to get all the essential amino acids without meat, baking bread or soaking beans. I added a can of chicken and some fresh mushrooms, but those are optional.
Food storage for prepping doesn’t have to be expensive. You could stock up on ramen noodles and peanut butter from Sam’s club for cheap and you would be bored to death of ramen noodles before you starved to death.
I recall an article the un-recommended ramen noodles as a prepper food. The argument was they have almost no nutritional value, and are bulky, and tasteless.
Personally, I ate far too many in college and the smell makes me ill. Psychosomatic I’m sure, but nonetheless….
n
There are several kinds of oriental noodles, even if you limit yourself to the single serving packages with seasoning. The noodles can be made of wheat, rice, sorghum, seaweed, and probably other materials. Even if you got sick of ramen noodles (presumably Maruchan, a low-end brand), there might well be others that you like.
That said, yah, low nutrition. About the only good thing to be said about them is they’re cheap and can be used to alleviate food fatigue.
Eh? Ramen is as nutritious as any pasta.
A propos of adding peanut butter, can anybody recommend a brand of PB that contains only peanuts and salt? The stuff we get in Europe seems to have had the peanut fat replaced with rapeseed oil and lots of sugar added… I am wondering whether I couldn’t /shouldn’t just make my own.
Costco has some powdered peanut butter that I have but didn’t get a chance to try yet.
Their Kirkland jars are just peanuts oil and salt, and I don’t care for them at all.
I buy from our big nice grocery chain a brand called “Nut N Better” organic, has sugar and palm oil, peanuts and salt. That’s about as close as I’ve been able to get to ‘pure’ and still have it be edible and non-separating..
n
Several brands of real peanut butter are on the shelves here, but I don’t know that any are available worldwide. “Nature’s Place” is the only brand in my cupboard at the moment. So far as I know, that brand is sold only in Hannaford grocery stores.
(Edit: re separating, that doesn’t bother me. After eating the real stuff for 20 years or so, I find the taste of peanut “spread” to be repulsive, and the chore of mixing the oil into the solids is a minor price to pay.)
re ramen noodles, not all noodles are the same. Aside from being made from different plants, they can have different binders. Italian-style noodles use egg and/or olive oil. Good Japanese wheat ramen doesn’t use a fat but instead uses alkaline water which breaks down the proteins in the wheat and makes it bind. I don’t know how rice and other noodle types are made. If you compare the nutritional breakdown of a package of ramen and a box of spaghetti, you’ll see that the ramen has calories and not much else. (That is, if the ramen is labeled. Legally, it’s supposed to be if it’s sold in the US, but in practice it often isn’t.)
I’d rather add stuff to rice and beans than noodles, but Mrs. OFD loves pasta.
As for peanut butter, I’m sticking with Skippy Creamy, a lifelong thing with me; it’s not like I eat tons of it; maybe two or three times a month. I also eat other nuts anyway, and raisins. And I’m semi-addicted to Peanut M&Ms.
On the pooter front; after minor tinkering I got the new power supply in OK and then some more dicking around got me the Nvidia Geforce 730 graphics card up and running. Now we’ll see tomorrow if Mint will recognize and use it. Also cleaned out more dust and hopefully that will keep things cool and fans running OK. There was no option in the HP Pavilion BIOS to disable the on-board graphics chip, so I disabled it beforehand in Windows Device Manager and then just slapped the card in and hooked the monitor to it and used the DVD to load the drivers and Bob’s my uncle.
Got zip done in the yard today; too much time blown on the computers; had to install Microsoft Office on my wife’s laptop, and found that a Thinkpad laptop display had somehow crapped out. So I now have two dead laptops with nothing worth saving on them. Leaving us with wife’s Windows 7 Acer machine and my HP Workstation 17″ laptop running OpenBSD.
Tomorrow I’ll put Mint on this one and CentOS 7.2 on a new/refurbished desktop after I double its RAM from 16GB to 32GB. And do some damn yard work, and call the VA primary care doc about my ongoing back/sciatica issues. It sucks when you actually have gotten used to being in more or less constant pain during your waking hours.
[snip] The only people who think black lives don’t matter are the black thugs who kill other blacks. [snip]
You & I must live in different places. There are lots of ofays around here who think just that, in any & all circumstances. They are, however, much less likely to say in public that Bull Conner didn’t crack down hard enough than once they were. Some of them are part of the gendarmerie, alas.
I just looked on the nutrition label of a typical ramen noodle package. They’ve got all the nutrition I would have expected: carbohydrates, fat, and proteins. Oh, and salt. What else could you expect?
I’ll stick with rice and beans.
As for the BLM stuff, many peeps out here are sick and tired of hearing about it, and by now recognize that cops blow away far more white peeps than black, while also recognizing that too many blacks are their own worst enemies and won’t acknowledge any responsibility whatsoever for their action and inaction, this on top of however many hundreds of billions spent on them since the 1960s.
And for every Bull Connor with fire hoses and dogs, there have been hundreds of thousands of inner city gangstas murdering each other by the hour.
Once again:
https://christianmerc.blogspot.com/2016/09/when-black-lives-dont-matter.html
And any of several essays by Jim Goad over at Taki’s site.
I used to have a well trained wife.
I hope she doesn’t read your post, Mr. Lynn.
Dude, if she was reading my posts here then she would have kicked my ass a long time ago. And she does not weigh that much less than me nowadays.
I’m at 245; wife at 180; daughter at 205; son at 270+; DIL also at 270++.
Mine would have kicked my ass a long time ago if she read even one-one-hundredth of the stuff I’ve posted here.
“Why Trump Doesn’t Scare Me”
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/149983115751/why-trump-doesnt-scare-me
“Donald Trump scares a lot of people. They worry that he is a crazy racist who can’t be trusted with the nuclear codes. They worry that he will needlessly insult foreign leaders. They worry that he isn’t sufficiently knowledgeable to do the job. And so on.”
“But unlike the frightened masses, I perceive Trump to be safer than the average candidate for president. You might wonder what-the-hell I’m seeing that you are not seeing. That’s worth detailing because it is always fascinating when people look at the same situation and have wildly different interpretations. With that setup, here are my reasons why Donald Trump does not scare me.”
The local branch of the megachain Kroger sells a natural peanut butter, my wife thinks it’s weird and doesn’t like the fact it separates, so I’m the only one who will eat it. The only drawback I’ve found is that it’s only available in a smaller jar, so I can’t take advantage of economies of scale and buy a larger jar.
Also there is evidently a so called healthier food store called Fresh Thyme where they have a machine which will make peanut butter from peanuts while you watch.
From my cursory investigation, converting peanut butter to powder doesn’t seem to reduce the volume or weight much.
Yeah, Cheeto-Head scares the wife and the other fem relatives and cousins up here. Amazing. But the blood-on-her-claws Creature does not. Truly amazing.
Look at it this way: if she gets in, she really can’t do much of anything right away, even with Obola being the lame duck on her side, and that gives us another eight or nine weeks to get ready. If Cheeto-Head gets in, yeah, there might be riots and mayhem, but it will be in the cities. Not in Franklin County, Vermont or Sparta, NC. So figure on adding eight more weeks to the eight leading up to the so-called election.
Four months.
Assuming no black swan or black flag events, of course, or a comet smacking the earth like a bullet hitting an apple.
And here is some funny stuff:
http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2016/09/05/because-famous-liberal-women-are-special-you-peasants-n2213868
Shockingly, neither Lena nor Cankles seem to be getting laid. At least not by anything human, that is….
I guess I should have said that yes, the people who care the least about black lives are those blacks thugs who kill other blacks. Yes, there are white people who think almost as little about black lives, and yes, sadly some are police.
I think the criticism was regarding the lack of vitamins and minerals, which is something that all white rice and pasta made with white flour shares.
My own preps are rice heavy. I’m looking for something that isn’t rice that the whole family will eat for variety. Also something that can be cooked quickly. Also, I’m looking to have something hot and fast to warm up with. We don’t routinely drink coffee or tea, and one of us is weird and wouldn’t drink hot chocolate.
Macaroni and cheese would probably go over better than ramen, and at the moment we have more macaroni and cheese than ramen.
My wife feels the same way about Spam and I have never liked tuna in a can. So when it comes to meat I’ll stock up on canned chicken from Costco first. Then maybe move on to canned salmon or canned beef. But I might stock some Spam for me and canned tuna for my wife.
More on the scary and evil Cheeto-Head:
http://takimag.com/article/dangerous_don_and_his_dangerous_detractors_jim_goad/print#axzz4JRMBf2nr
Run for your lives!
Actually, no. Ima gon sit rat cheer an’ hab me some Moxie and pretzels and watch the cities blow up again. Lessee if they blow up like they was in the late 1960s….
But if Coughing Cankles gets in, I won’t hab no time fo’ no Moxie; I be stackin’ and packin’ like a mofo up here.
So which is worse, Dangerous Donald or Crooked Hillary ? I’ll take Dangerous Don for $500 please.
Depression? What Depression???
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-04/greater-depression-part-1
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-05/greater-depression-part-2-cinderella-man
Some interesting reading but I could do without the pseudo-mythology and “cycles-of-history” cowflop. It’s bad enough already without those distractions.
“I’ll take Dangerous Don for $500 please.”
+1,000
Just pulled a 453g jar of Krema brand peanut butter out of the pantry, half-eaten, purchased June 2015 and “expired” May 2016. Heavy concrete bottom third, liquid top third… hard to stir. Ingredient: peanuts only. Seems like it was expensive.
Stirred it (incompletely) and it tasted good enough; needed salt.
I’m not a big peanut or p. butter fan, but I would not have to be extremely hungry…
Label suggests worththestir.com and crazyrichards.com but those sites have too too many scripts and secondary sites for me to want any more info.
What if we took whatever amount of (shelled) peanuts and ran them in a food processor until pretty dahn smooth and dribbled in some coconut oil or peanut oil and a bit of sea salt; would that do the trick?
I may try it.
Keep It Simple, Stupid, amirite?
It also bears mentioning that other “nut butters” can be bought or made,
notably almond butter!
There’s a simple machine at our grocery store. As fast as a coffee bean grinder it grinds just peanuts into a pretty tasty peanut butter. Next to it is the same machine with a hopper of chopped almonds.
Both are delicious.
I’d give it a shot Dave. Try it pure peanuts before adding oils. What’s the worse that could happen (other than perhaps an unholy mess in your food processor).
We go thru a lot of Adams smooth no stirring required. I prefer chunky but husband doesn’t care for it I suppose I could keep his and hers pub but that seems silly.
I understand some peanut butters contain xylitol which I have read is lethal to dogs. Perhaps something to investigate if you have dogs.
I have seen it but I have not checked out the grinder at local grocery…
True, dat!
And now, from the History Not Taught in Western Schools Department:
http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-house-is-on-fire–8466
This is the system that beat us without really firing a shot, other than in the seemingly endless “proxy” wars around the world. We see it here in this country daily, if not hourly, the uber-PC thoughtcrime stuff, the MSM’s total abdication of any responsible journalism or simple reporting of facts, and the surveillance and repressive power of the State. The commies won, simple as that.
And they’ve opened the gates for our ancient musloid enemies, too. Both enemies are allied now to defeat us, and when that’s done they’ll turn on each other. Hobbes’s state of nature, the war of all against all, where the hand of every man is raised against every other man.
“I’d give it a shot Dave. Try it pure peanuts before adding oils. What’s the worse that could happen (other than perhaps an unholy mess in your food processor).”
Roger that, will do. And will report back here accordingly.
Sweet Lady and I walked our two miles tonight in 40 minutes. Pretty good for two old geezers, me with two heart attacks and her turning 14 in a couple of months. Especially in 82 F, 80% humidity. We are ready for a big cold front.
I fixed up the old 1997 Honda Civic EX today for sale. Exchanged the non charge holding battery for a new battery at Advanced Auto Parts. The old battery was just 23 months old so they gave me 100% free swap. And installed it to boot.
I also put on new windshield wipers, pumped up the tires, and filled the tank. The hot Texas summers are tough on cars that just sit around. You really need to drive a car every two weeks around here to keep the battery up or else put a trickle charger on it. Hopefully I will sell the car tomorrow.
The wife took off today for that 300 mile trip to Carrollton. She is going to try to get her Dad’s finances settled out and do a 100% takeover from his 92 year old girlfriend. They want to stage the takeover but she feels that is a mistake. And she wants to close several of his bank accounts (8 accounts at 4 banks). At least get him down to 3 or 4 accounts.
[snip] Yes, there are white people who think almost as little about black lives, and yes, sadly some are police. [snip]
Don’t forget the prosecutors. Anyone else see the (re-run) piece on 60 Minutes last night? Does anyone out there doubt for a second those blue eyed devils in suits would have treated a white man differently? Or that those assholes think their job is to put {negroes} in jail rather than to do justice? Why aren’t THEY on Death Row in Angola??
In my high school and college towns, there were very few black people.
They paid a very disproportionate price in the power trips of police and
prosecutors.
Note, too, that us young white guys with a little longer hair, for example,
also paid a heavy price.
I think that the truly evil power players are not particularly racist, they
are merely opportunistic in choosing the victims they use to build their
power structure (or just for their sick fun).
@Denis: Peanut butter in Europe? I just checked the jar in the kitchen, which is our local supermarket brand. It’s not too awful: “92% peanuts, peanut oil, cane sugar, palm oil, salt”. So palm oil is there, but pretty far down the list.
Making peanut butter from peanuts is actually pretty easy: basically blend the darned things for ages, maybe with a seed quantity of peanut oil to get things started. Certainly, in Africa, I saw peanut butter being produced by hand in the markets: just peanuts, a grinding surface, and a rock. Note: I haven’t tried this myself. Another note: I expect a warm temperature is useful to keep things liquid.
That is never fun. My mother got CDs at whichever bank had the best rate at the time, and when she opened the CD, she always got a checking account. She had accounts at six or more banks. I still have a paper grocery sack full of checkbooks that I need to toss.
Figuring all this out was a pain in the backside. Complicated by the fact that she had 20 years of checkbooks, and almost every bank had gone through at least one merger. Conveniently she forgot about one checking account at a bank fairly local to me. She told me to take the money from a CD at that bank and do whatever I wanted with it. So I paid the first and last month’s rent at an assisted living facility and paid to furnish it.
The other trick was taking over doing her taxes which was a pain in the butt. She finally realized she needed a little help. So I provided a little help. I filled out her tax returns for her and brought them over for her signature.
That pesky PITA OFD used to blather about our joke of a southern border and even wax hateful and rayciss about the probability of musloid sleeper agents and operators swarming across it, amid the hordes of Hispanics.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/defenseandsecurity/a/otmaliens.htm
I’m looking at YOU, Texans….
“While most illegal immigrants of all nationalities are apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Tucson sector of Arizona, the vast majority of OTM and “Special Interest Alien” apprehensions take place along the Texas border – specifically in the McAllen sector. “Since September 11, 2001, DHS has reported a 41percent increase in arrests along the Texas/Mexico border of Special Interest Aliens,” states the report. “From FY2001 to March 2005, 88 percent of Special Interest Alien apprehensions for both the Southwest and Northern borders occurred in Texas.””
And then we have the terrorism tax, who’d a thunk it?
http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2016/09/the-terrorism-tax-hits-europe.html
Truly shocking that waves of scattered terrorist events in a region would tend to depress economic activities….as is the intent. These fuckers are evil, not stupid. And I’m talking about the “masterminds” running the show, not the deluded foot soldier slaves.
She is going to try to get her Dad’s finances settled out and do a 100% takeover from his 92 year old girlfriend.
Having been through some of this (not the takeover part) I can tell you it is not easy. The most difficult was getting my aunt to sign a power of attorney. Never paid a lawyer just wrote my own document that said I can do everything for her same as if she was doing it. Had it notarized and registered in the county courthouse where she lived and where we moved her here in TN. Never had a problem using the document.
Social security was another issue. A POA is not valid for the SS. I needed to have her direct deposit moved to another account. The only way that I could get SS to allow me to make the change was to have her declared incompetent. I needed her doctor to sign a form. But SS had to mail the form to the doctor, doctor sign it, then mail it back. No hand delivery was allowed. Once that was done I had her deposit change. But I also got audited by the SS administration once a year as I had to account for where the money was spent. So keep receipts if you get in the same situation.
Then there was the IRS, bastards. A POA of course is not valid for the IRS. It was necessary to get an IRS POA. Had her accountant do that so not sure entirely what is involved. I wanted her accountant removed from doing her taxes. That jerk charged her $1100 a year to do what was basically simple taxes taxes. Also charged me $250 to do the IRS POA. Glad to get that leach out of the system. I did get audited a couple of times by the IRS and just had to provide some documentation.
The VA was fairly easy and accepted the POA that I had accomplished. However because I was in charge of her funds I got audited by the VA every year. An agent would make an appointment to meet at the assisted living facility and I had to provide all kinds of receipts and documentation.
The real problem came in when I moved my aunt to a nursing home. According to TN state rules it was necessary to have a guardianship account that would be used to pay the nursing home what she owed because Medicaid was involved. State law. No account, no pay. So I set up the account after finding a bank that had such an account. Changed her VA payments (now reduced to $90 a month), SS payments, and retirement payments.
What was left in her checking account was transferred by writing a check. A couple of months later got the VA audit. VA asked what I did with the money and I told them I transferred the money to the guardianship account and showed the agent the check. I was then informed by the VA agent that what I did was illegal and I could be facing 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine. I informed the agent that without the guardianship account the state would not pay. I then asked the agent what I was supposed to do. If I did not get the account and transfer the money I would be in violation of state law. But by not violating state law I was in violation of federal law. No matter what I did I was breaking the law.
The agent just sat there for a couple of minutes with this dumb look on her face. She had no answer. She eventually said that she understood what I did was in the best interest of my aunt even though it was illegal. Thus she would let it go THIS TIME. Really? How many other times will be involved. Basically did not want to admit the system was flawed and covered her ass.
So get your ducks in a row. POA is the most important document you can have. With that you can shut anyone else out of the accounts and there is not thing one they can do about it.
“But by not violating state law I was in violation of federal law. No matter what I did I was breaking the law.”
There it is. This is an example/illustration of where State incompetence and stupidity rather than malice aforethought serve to screw up someone’s life and make them a criminal. Somebody or other, I forget who and where, put out an estimate recently that we Murkan derps probably technically commit three felonies a DAY. The State can grab up any one of us now and find SOMETHING to charge us with; this is a couple of levels and pay grades up from when I was a street cop and we all knew we could ALWAYS find something to nail somebody, usually applied to motor vehicle stops.
So technically and legally speaking, Mr. Ray should be serving a prison sentence right now and paying a hefty fine.
“Thus she would let it go THIS TIME. Really? How many other times will be involved.”
No smartass backtalk, serf; you have been shown mercy (by a low-level bureaucrat with, nevertheless the power to ruin your life forever) so hit the bricks and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. And let that be a lesson to you!
The person in question is Harvey Silverglate, the co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and author of Three Felonies A Day. Interestingly enough, the foreward to the book was written by Alan Dershowitz.
Everyone should think about buying the book. I have a copy on my tablet. Also think about donating to FIRE as it sounds to me like a worthwhile cause. I haven’t donated yet.
Along with that book, I can heartily recommend several other titles you see on that Amazon page, the ones by Whitehead, Radley Balko, and Paul Craig Roberts.
After reading all that contemporary stuff I went back and re-read Solzhenitsyn’s 3-volume “Gulag” series and got a whole bunch of new insights. We don’t live in his hellish nightmare in Siberia or up by the Arctic Circle, but ours is becoming a sort of virtual gulag, where, if they deem it necessary, the rulers can make us disappear, murder us outright, throw us in a cell for the rest of our lives, or simply wreck our lives by seizing bank and credit card accounts, other property, and shutting off utilities and stealing vehicles. All on the basis of what some faceless low-level bureaucrat might decide, like Mr. Ray’s, described above, or a local “law enforcement” agency that needs to buy new toyz or pay more overtime.
As it is, I challenge absolutely ANYONE to tell me that our free speech has not become increasingly circumscribed and we are more and more watchful about what we even THINK. Orwell was only about thirty years off with his book title year.
And we have our sort of One-Minute Hate every night when the MSM nooz informs us who this month’s enemies are, who weren’t our enemies before and probably won’t be again. Meanwhile Orwell’s “Newspeak” is the de facto language of politics, academia and the media.
How did we all end up this way? The information is and has been available, and was available before the innernet tubes got all fired up with pixels. It’s in….wait for it…BOOKS. Read or bleed.
She is going to try to get her Dad’s finances settled out and do a 100% takeover from his 92 year old girlfriend.
Having been through some of this (not the takeover part) I can tell you it is not easy. The most difficult was getting my aunt to sign a power of attorney. Never paid a lawyer just wrote my own document that said I can do everything for her same as if she was doing it. Had it notarized and registered in the county courthouse where she lived and where we moved her here in TN. Never had a problem using the document.
My wife does have a General Power of Attorney for her father from over ten years ago. She is also on his Fidelity savings account and IRA. And she is on one of his bank accounts with TOD status.
The problem is that the girlfriend wants to continue paying some bills for a while and control his big bank accounts where he has $150K in cash. My wife has told her father all or nothing. If he wants to dictate any of it then he needs to get an accountant.
And some weird stuff is going on. His Discover bill last month was $23K. Yes, $23K.
My offhand assessment of his assets three year ago was right at a million dollars. That number is down by at least $200K. Maybe $400K.
And he has complicated assets. Two rental properties, one of which is a duplex. A lot of stock in at least ten companies. Two of which have gone bankrupt in the last five years. A townhome that he bought new in 2003 (next to his girlfriend’s townhome) that he has mortgaged to the hilt with a VA loan.
This is a mess.
And the wife found her father’s living will yesterday. We grabbed all of the important looking documents on the last trip and she has been going slowly through them. Her father told her on the last trip that he did not have a living will. He is obviously no longer competent.
When it’s all that complicated, Mr. Lynn, I would guess that you need a very good tax lawyer/accountant to go through all that stuff with you and Mrs. Lynn. Also, find out if he has any firearms or licenses thereof, as if he’s not competent to handle his own finances, the VA or ATF or somebody is gonna show up to grab them at some point, the way things are going. If there are any, you’d better grab ’em first.
When it’s all that complicated, Mr. Lynn, I would guess that you need a very good tax lawyer/accountant to go through all that stuff with you and Mrs. Lynn. Also, find out if he has any firearms or licenses thereof, as if he’s not competent to handle his own finances, the VA or ATF or somebody is gonna show up to grab them at some point, the way things are going. If there are any, you’d better grab ’em first.
He used to have an old S&W .38 revolver. I have looked for it but cannot find it. I suspect that he sold it.
I am a fairly good tax person. I could do his taxes (and probably will) when the wife starts having the hebe jeebies.
If someone is draining his accounts, time is of the essence. If you find concrete proof ($23k on a monthly bill – what kind of credit limit does he have?!?!), don’t shy away from prosecution. Or, at least, threatening prosecution, if the scum doesn’t pay the money back.
I had a cousin who preyed on any sucker he could find, including my grandmother, who was living hand-to-mouth off of social security. He somehow got her to give him $10k cash off of her credit cards. Some other fine upstanding citizen shot the bastard, else we cousins might have had a little “chat” with him. I hate people like that…
The problem is that the girlfriend wants to continue paying some bills for a while
With the POA your wife can have the girlfriend removed from all the accounts and any access to the accounts. Do it immediately. Remove the girlfriend from the credit card or close the credit card. Tell the girlfriend that you are now monitoring all account activity and that anything that does not look right will be investigated and charges filed if there was fraud. Be firm, firm, firm. Don’t let her talk. Just tell the girlfriend this is the way it is and that she has been alerted.
This is a mess.
Hire a firm that specializes in auditing. Also inform the girlfriend that audits are being performed. If theft is suspected all the information will be turned over to the district attorney.
With the POA your wife can have the girlfriend removed from all the accounts and any access to the accounts. Do it immediately. Remove the girlfriend from the credit card or close the credit card. Tell the girlfriend that you are now monitoring all account activity and that anything that does not look right will be investigated and charges filed if there was fraud. Be firm, firm, firm. Don’t let her talk. Just tell the girlfriend this is the way it is and that she has been alerted.
The one disaster that we do not want to spark is converting the girlfriend into wife 3.0. She could easily drag her preacher of 30 years into the nursing home and get the two of them married in a heartbeat. She has already agreed to marry him and backed out a decade ago. She says that she does not want to nurse another old man through his deathbed like she did her husband. But, she is doing that anyway as she visits and sits with him daily. BTW, her husband was a B-17 WW II pilot and captain who managed to survive over 30 missions over Germany.
Besides that, the girlfriend still works 20 to 30 hours per week at Dillards (she is 92 !). Plus she has her American Airlines pension and retirement benefits from her husband who was a captain for AA. If she gets remarried, she loses those. She has her own money and does not need to take my FILs.