10:05 – It was 55.5F (13C) when I took Colin out around 0730 this morning. We have a nice, warm day forecast for today, followed by colder weather moving in again.
I’m pretty much fully recovered from the bug that bit me overnight Sunday. Yesterday was miserable, but I started feeling better by late afternoon. A good night’s sleep last night helped a lot. Anyway, as I’ve said before, any bug that bites me dies a horrible death.
Science kit sales are holding up surprisingly well for this time of year. As I told Barbara this morning, revenue for 1/1/17 through 3/15/17 exceeded that for 1/1/16 through 4/30/16 by more than $1,000 despite the period being only 74 days rather than 120 days. Also, sales haven’t slacked off since 3/15, when I increased prices across the board. That bodes well for the coming months.
In terms of prepping, we’re now in incremental mode, adding a case of Keystone meats here and a case of powdered milk there. Barbara is making a run down to Winston tomorrow afternoon, staying with Frances and Al overnight and returning Thursday afternoon. She’s making a stop at Costco on her way back up Thursday to stock up on meat, butter, and other stuff that goes in the freezer, as well as some dry goods. She’ll be away only 24 hours, so Colin and I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to organize wild women and parties while she’s gone.
Barbara has been devoting some time and effort to planning our garden for this year. Our normal last frost date is around the second or third week in May, so we need to get a lot of stuff started indoors for later transplanting. This year, we’re going to add a small potato patch, just to see how they do. We’re also planning to put in some hedges/shrubs along our south tree line rather than replacing the fence there. I’d also like to put in a dense row of them along the edge of our front yard as a hedge to put a barrier between us and the road. Barbara is thinking Forsythia, although I’d like something more substantial and with thorns out along the road.
* * * * *
“… Colin and I decided it wasn’t worth the effort to organize wild women and parties while she’s gone.”
Prepping fail? WW&P should be held in stock for emergencies!
“Barbara is thinking Forsythia, although I’d like something more substantial and with
thorns out along the road.”
Blackthorn/Sloe (Prunus Spinosa) bushes are hardy, prickly and attractive (provided you’re not the one doing the hedge trimming). The sloes are an added bonus. Put a few Prunus Cerasifera (cherry plum) trees into the hedge along with the P. Spinosa, and you’ll have a beautiful colourful display – flowers in spring, foliage in summer, and fruit in autumn/winter. Sloes and Cherry Plums are delicious preserved in alcohol syrup, and the Cherry plums can also be made into Tkemali savoury sauce (a bit like a cross between ketchup and BBQ sauce). We have one cherry plum tree in the garden and it produces – unattended and without effort on our part – more fruit than we can process in a good year. In weaker years, we leave the fruit to feed the birds and squirrels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_plum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tkemali
Yeah, I was actually thinking about blackthorn or one of the other traditional thorny hedges. Actually, trifoliate orange would be ideal, but I have the spousal factor to deal with.
Maybe I should give Barbara the choice between blackthorn and barbed/concertina wire. 😉
Get the concertina they use at prisons. You know, with blades the size of your thumb.
“Party in a box” should be available from Amazon. Same-day shipping only, as the wild women wouldn’t be so wild after being boxed up for more than a few hours.
To be honest, one of the downsides of a deplorable rural area like Sparta/Alleghany County is a distinct lack of wild women.
And even if I did find one, I’d have her unamused father, brothers, uncles, cousins, etc. to deal with. All of those, of course, pale in comparison to what Barbara would do to me.
Getting off to a slow start today. Body is beat up! Hands mostly, but arms are a bit shaky too. I’m just not used to shoveling and chopping, that’s for sure.
Currently 72F w/ ~80%RH, up from 65F earlier.
Nice day to work outside, except for the humidity. NOT a great day to be up in the attic pulling wire for additional cameras, and antenna lines. They are going the same direction, so I should run them all… Been putting it off, but if I wait too long, the heat will never abate long enough to get it done.
Very useful article at ITS if you are willing to act and have any training at all.
“The Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (C-TECC), which was developed to bring the TCCC level of care to civilian first responders, has now introduced guidelines for first responders that aren’t trained to the level of an EMS provider. ”
http://www.itstactical.com/medcom/tecc-medcom/dont-ems-training-good-news-theres-now-tccc-level-care-guidelines-first-responders/
There was some debate in our CERT class about whether, now that we are actually considered real first responders by Harris County (have ID badges), we have a ‘duty to act.’ While CERT response and mobilization is entirely voluntary, at least one of the trainers (upper mgmt in the fire service) said we absolutely had a ‘duty to act’ [term of art- ie. has a specific well understood meaning in a particular context] when faced with the opportunity.
It is one of the excuses people give for not getting training. They are afraid they’d be forced to do something they don’t want to do. Or maybe they’ll be rounded up and forced to work as med staff at a FEMA camp, I don’t know.
My feeling is ‘you can’t have too much training.’ The life you save might be your spouse, neighbor, child, or parent.
Don’t want to help Lavonda bleeding out in the street after the gang fight? Pick up the phone instead, but, like the ability to use deadly force, be prepared for mental/social/legal consequences for doing the opposite too.
nick
“Microsoft Finalizes Creators Update, Version for China’s Government”
https://www.petri.com/microsoft-finalizes-creators-update-version-chinas-government
“Facing a crackdown on using software from other countries, China demanded that Microsoft build a version of Windows 10 without the ‘backdoors’ for government use. According to the WSJ, that iteration is now complete and seeing as the Creators update is also in the final stages of completion, the two products were likely on a similar development path.”
How do I get a copy of Windows without “backdoors” ?
I think most human beans feel an obligation or duty to act when they see or hear another human bean in major distress. But having the actual training to do so is an excellent idea.
34 today and “hazardous,” thanks to continuing snow and rain showers and icy sections on the highways and byways. We’re evidently gonna bounce back and forth between the teens, twenties and forties this weeks.
I’ll be looking to add to our current rosebush config under our front windows and something else for the sides of the house. And as the overall atmosphere/zeitgeist gets spicier and sportier, some combination of more wire and barrier methodologies.
MrAtoz may be right in that various cans could keep getting kicked down the road until after most of us here are gone, but I wouldn’t count on it. The financial mess alone is a major threat, as is the vulnerability of the Grid. Either or both of those failures would constitute Havoc Writ Large.
We could just keep dawdling and muddling along for many years with a slow slide into inevitable dystopia through and on up to Gotterdammerung and Ragnarok.
You don’t.
and even if you got the chinese version, it would have all the chinese backdoors.
n
Phew, got kinda light headed in the garden and decided I better come in and cool off. Looking at the weather station, it’s up to 87F but the humidity dropped.
Beautiful day, clear blue sky, sunny and a light breeze. Still freaking hot in the sun.
My wheel barrow has rotted. I store it up on its nose, leaning against the back of the garage. This keeps water from accumulating, but also, as it turns out, keeps the nose in contact with the ground. So the wood at the nose has dry-rotted away. Guess I’ll have to get my OTHER wheelbarrow back from the neighbor. I cunningly loaned it to them and never asked for it back so I wouldn’t have to store it 🙂 I need to mix concrete for the generator pad eventually.
n
Hey, don’t check out on us, Mr. nick; take it EASY, amigo. What’s the deuced rush? Give yerself time to recuperate; you ain’t a spring chicken anymore. Takes longer, believe me.
I cleaned and repainted an old metal wheelbarrow left here but it’s pretty rickety and will only handle light loads. Got a heavier plastic rolling container but it’s awkward and our back yard is far from level when you get right down to it. I’ll be looking at heavier-duty wagons real soon now, that can also be easily pulled along from, say, the driveway to the rear area and studio. The days of us simply physically hauling bags of potting soil and compost and firewood around are over.
Gotta remind myself that I was sick with the flu just a few days ago.
Even if I feel pretty good, I’m still not 100%. And I really can’t take the sun like I used to.
Think I’ll put away the dishes, fold some laundry, and repack some hamburger. Those are all low impact, and inside, and need doing.
n
Well, there ya go. That’s the kinda chit I do after discovering, yet again, that OFD cain’t haul chit like he used to. Unload/reload dishwasher; fold laundry; clean the fridge and reorganize small chit around the house; dress up all that spaghetti electric cord and net wire with the tee-vee area and the computers upstairs. Amazing how it accumulates and conglomerates over the years. And the dust back down in there!
I submit to the group that if you wait until you are feeling lightheaded from the heat and work, you’ve waited too long.
I’m just now feeling normal.
getting old sucks, as does being sick.
n
“How do I get a copy of Windows without “backdoors” ?”
Will it work on Cankles’s private server?
But as we get older, we become wiser, hahahaha. And more tolerant, hahaha. I cannot lie; the aches and pains and run-down CV and flexibility do in fact suck, esp. if one’s memory vividly contains happier times of truly awesome physical prowess and abilities. Being sick likewise, as it takes longer and longer to recover, esp. if one is not careful and one thinks one is “all set now.” And there is “a lot to do and time’s a wasting.” Also I’ve noticed that scratches and bruises take longer to heal. Not a lot longer, but noticeably.
“Will it work on Cankles’s private server?”
I really wish I had not seen that juxtaposition of “backdoors” and “Cankles” and “private.”
OFD writes: “as we get older, we become wiser, hahahaha”
You know what they say: The benefit of experience is that you recognize your mistakes when you repeat them.
OFD also writes: “And more tolerant, hahaha”
Yep, sure do…um, what planet is this?
I grow less tolerant of those marginal humans (ie, 99.99999% of so-called humans) who fail to meet my standards. Countervailing that, I have come to realize that I can’t kill everyone who disappoints me. No, I’m not any happier about that than you are.
“The benefit of experience is that you recognize your mistakes when you repeat them.”
No life more illustrative of that than my own.
“Countervailing that, I have come to realize that I can’t kill everyone who disappoints me.”
What? What kind of sniveling inferiority complex is this? You’re a smart guy; you know some science and math and engineering; you can’t come up with something that whacks all who disappoint you or piss you off with no consequences for you?
But wait–you’re “Manifesta Dei, et fortis …”
Get crackin’, O Holy One!
Won’t take a bullet for tRump but what are the odds she’d fellate Obola or Larry Klinton?
http://www.guns.com/2017/03/21/secret-service-removes-agent-who-didnt-want-to-take-a-bullet-for-trump/?utm_source=Copy+of+MONDAY%2C+MARCH+20&utm_campaign=%3E%3E%3E%3E+GUNS.COM+newsletter+results+%3C%3C%3C&utm_medium=email
And the SS wasn’t gonna do anything until certain media got ahold of it.
Alas, I’m not an all-powerful god. I can grant the power of getting a good spot in a mall parking lot and I have one other power which I’m rather embarrassed to discuss. I can’t whack everyone who annoys me, I can only whack them off. And, well, ewww…
I can grant the power of getting a good spot in a mall parking lot
I haven’t been in a mall parking lot in maybe five years.
I’m guessing for me it’s half a dozen times in the 33 years I’ve been married.
And once again the conversation here goes downhill rapidly…
And do strip malls count? We don’t have an actual shopping mall here in Snarlbinz; there are several really basic strip malls, each with some kinda “anchor” store; a Hannaford’s, a Price Chopper, a Rite-Aid, etc. Nothing fancy, that’s for sure. I think of shopping malls per se as enclosed indoor spaces, maybe with a “food court.” Although those can be pretty dingy, too; a couple down in Woostah, MA come to mind.
And I guess in other parts of the country those sorts of malls have become the regular habitats of various young subhuman dirtbags from whatever race or ethnic group, almost always be-bopping through them in loud and obnoxious groups.
Oh, I wasn’t counting strip malls and big-box store lots. I’ve been in many of those and frequently.
And the SS wasn’t gonna do anything until certain media got ahold of it.
I’ve read she will not get a dock in pay grade, nor a dismissal. Full benefits and retirement. Full pay and benefits for months of investigation that should have taken a week. She should have been cashiered for conduct unbecoming. Also commie fukstik traitor.
And as retired LEO will be able to CHL everywhere in the US, and in places you and I can’t.
n
MrAtoz and Mr. nick are correct; she entirely skated on this chit and will have a cushy life hereafter and no money worries and CHL pretty anywhere she wants.
Now picture an SS guy saying that about Obola; he’d be out the door like a cool breeze with nothing and count himself lucky to have no jail time. And no retirement, either.
“Payless Is Said to Be Filing for Bankruptcy as Soon as Next Week”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-21/payless-is-said-to-be-filing-for-bankruptcy-as-soon-as-next-week
Wow. More brick and mortar stores dying off. Our kids wore Payless shoes until they were 14 ? 16 ?
And Sears may be going down also.
Off to CainTucky tomorrow with MrsAtoz on a gig. Back Saturday. lol! We have to lay over in Dallas all day tomorrow the flights are so packed. I fly free on the Southwest Companion Pass. We have points to stay free in Dallas. Looks like I’ll be going a several more trips in the near future. She’s got a gig at Disney World this Summer for four days, so I might hit Universal Studios whilst there. It’s going to be a bitch trying to stay in shape with so much travel. I’ll have to start Atkins like Mr. Nick to trim off some fat, too.
Is that anything like being a companion animal? Do they allow you to ride with the humans or do they stick you in cargo?
if you end up in cargo, bark like you’re being murdered by inches….
That’s what all the other big dogs will be doing.
n
Cargo is probably better than being in the “C” group. No storage left at all and we’re doing carryon. MrsAtoz is Business Select so always gets low A group.
Mrs. OFD uses points when she can to nail First Class, when she’s traveling with her mom, especially. Dunno if that’s what they got for today’s flight to Kalifornia, AGAIN. They’ve now spent more time with kids and grandkids out there in one year than they ever did when the kids and grandkids lived here in VT or down in MA.
She was also in KY last year and visited some of the genuine rural/remote holler areas nearby; said it was fucking eerie.
Next month it’s ten days in El Paso. Looking across at Juarez. And either next month or May it’s gonna be Johnson City, TN. Where she might stay an extra week to do a glass workshop over at the John C. Campbell Folk Center in the western tip of North Carolina.
Barbara did the glass workshop there last year and really liked it. I think she’s going again in May for another workshop. Let me know when Mrs. OFD’s plans are finalized and I’ll see if it’s when Barbara will be there.
Mrs. OFD does beach glass stuff, shells, driftwood, coral, all that kinda thing. She’s gotten pretty good at it and sold a few minor pieces; she wears it on gigs and peeps are always asking about it and the consensus is that she could charge a LOT more for it, via shows, Etsy, etc. I believe the gig is in May but will check with her via email and see if she plans to stay for whichever class.
And Sears may be going down also.
Sears/Kmart are almost out of choice real estate to sell/sublet.
We went in Kmart in Fort Lauderdale last week. Really nice location in a “lifestyle center” so, naturally, the store looked like it was prepped for closing at any moment.
She’s got a gig at Disney World this Summer for four days, so I might hit Universal Studios whilst there.
If you haven’t been in a while, head out to Kennedy Space Center. We went last week. NASA spent some serious money putting Atlantis on exhibit, and they have a really nice building for the Saturn V, much better protection for the hardware than the leaky shed out at Houston.
be prepared to surrender any and all weapons including knives.
Caught me off guard at JSC in Houston, where the hand written sign required me to not bring in my pocket knife. Guard couldn’t cite any policy, law, or reg, just “it’s always been like that.” Yeah, sure, that’s why in an age of desktop publishing, you have a hand written sign… Fuckers. IT’S MY FREAKING LAND THEY’RE STANDING ON. And sending me back to the parking lot for a pocket knife doesn’t protect anyone.
Oh, no refunds either if you’ve prepaid.
n
“Sears/Kmart are almost out of choice real estate to sell/sublet.”
The Kmart down in South Burlap closed a couple of years ago and the building stands there, empty, shut up, abandoned. Empty parking lots, as busy Route 7 goes back and forth a couple of hundred yards away. The two Sears stores in this area, one here in Snarlbinz and one twelve or so miles south in Milton (don’t pronounce the “t”) never seem to do much, if any, business, and when I went inside one last year I was ignored while the one or two staff chatted with somebody else. I’m old enough to remember when Kmart sold guns and the Sears catalog was thicker and heavier than the giant-print edition (with Jesus’ words in red) family Bible.
As for Floriduh, I have no desire to ever go again (last time was in October of 1994 and my first wife dumped me right after that on Pearl Harbor Day, hahaha) but if my brother ends up moving to either county just north of the Tampa area, I might have to visit and time it with an ACA reunion caper at Fort Walton Beach or something.
Allergy bugging me for a couple of days now, not sure what it is, considering we still have a goodly amount of snow on the ground. So didn’t make it to the laundromat, but I did stock up on more pounds of rice, pasta and beans, and big cans of tomato puree, multi–packs of Ramen noodles, and three-packs of plastic gallon water bottles. I’ll keep doing this every week from now on, and once a month the cash skimming/saving and either food-and-water or ammo-and-training.
Will also get seeds started indoors this next week and work on cellar storage and exterior door security enhancements.
For some odd reason I’m finding myself doing more now that tRump is in there than I was before when we all thought the fugly pig was gonna get it. Who is now “coming out of the woods,” and apparently still unable to STFU. Question: Where’s Larry? And what’s Barack Hussein Soetero Subarka up to lately? Isn’t it freakishly amazing that the rulers picked that piece of shit for the face-time thing for eight fucking years, and before that Larry Klinton for eight years, too? How they must laugh at us.
My French gf looks to be kicking some major ass:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-20/french-presidential-race-marine-lepen-far-ahead-rivals-secret-polling
Viva Madame LePen!
Too bad about Brother Geert, though; maybe next time.
As for Floriduh, I have no desire to ever go again (last time was in October of 1994 and my first wife dumped me right after that on Pearl Harbor Day, hahaha) but if my brother ends up moving to either county just north of the Tampa area, I might have to visit and time it with an ACA reunion caper at Fort Walton Beach or something.
My wife keeps her Florida license current because, as the Vantucky experience taught us, you never know when something like that could come in handy.
Which zone of the Fort Orlampameyers Beach metroplex is your brother considering?
“Which zone of the Fort Orlampameyers Beach metroplex is your brother considering?”
Hernando and whichever the contiguous one is, I forget, north or south. He mentioned Springhill.
And from the Tempest in a Teapot Department:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/03/allan-davis/war-sci-fi-deplorables/
For me, anyway, except that the same sort of commie PC bullshit has apparently invaded this realm, too. IIRC, this was a topic here last year or the year before, and I didn’t have a particular dawg in the fight, but reading this piece clarified it for me. Same sort of assholes. We need to either dismantle the organizations they’ve taken over, or simply leave them and run our own. Fucking commie scum.
From the Definitive “Son of a Preacher Man” Department:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvkfyYoLjho&list=RDKvkfyYoLjho
Lord have mercy. Goodness gracious me.
I gotta read something boring real fast now so I can forget this and go to sleep.
Maybe some Middle Scottish poems…
Pax vobiscum, fratres et sorores, semper paratus, et tempus fugit
I forgot to mention that we had a small crisis at the McGuire house last night that turned out well. Lady, our 14 year old British Cocker Spaniel, was running past the deep end of the pool at full speed when she slipped and fell in. I was at the side of the house when I heard the wife screaming at Lady to paddle. I ran into the back yard and threw off my shirt and was taking off my shoes when I noticed that Lady was desperately dog paddling into the shallow end. She made it around the Polaris cleaner this time and up onto the steps. Last time she fell in, Lady got tangled up in the Polaris feed line and went down three times before wife got to her.
But, Lady could not get up the 10 inches from the first pool step to the flagstone decking. She was just standing there in about six inches of water. So, I reached down, picked her up and out of the water. The pool is back up to 73 F so it is not bitterly cold like it was in January.
One of my friends wants me to put a fence around that deep end of the pool. But, there is only three foot between the pool and the new addition of the house and I hate to close that in with a fence. Plus drilling holes in my flagstones is dicey. You can see the short distance between the pool and the house at:
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.550645,-95.6596709,33m/data=!3m1!1e3
I guess that I could put a fence on both sides of the deep end and just totally block it off from the patio. I do need to do something, this is the third time that Lady has fallen in the deep end while racing around the edge.
Science kit sales are holding up surprisingly well for this time of year. As I told Barbara this morning, revenue for 1/1/17 through 3/15/17 exceeded that for 1/1/16 through 4/30/16 by more than $1,000 despite the period being only 74 days rather than 120 days. Also, sales haven’t slacked off since 3/15, when I increased prices across the board. That bodes well for the coming months.
BTW, congratulations ! I am so pleased to hear that someone is doing well. I know that you and Barbara have put a tremendous amount of work into your business and continue to do daily. Me, we are striking a lot of dry holes lately. So far, 2017 has been a bust compared to 2016. And the slow payers and the no payers have got our A/R to the highest that it has ever been.
Lynn, would it do any good to put something down so Cujo has better traction and won’t slip and fall in?
“I gotta read something boring real fast now so I can forget this and go to sleep”
I’ve been reading my Amateur Extra Exam Study Guide to fall asleep. I don’t usually have trouble, but the last week or two have been difficult. It is a guaranteed snoozefest. I rarely get more than a couple of pages before my eyes get heavy.
It’s brilliant as a soporific, less so as a study guide.
n
@lynn, put one of those plastic ramps in the shallow end so she can climb out…
Or even a board with carpet on it.
n
WRT scifi or speculative fiction as it has been broadened…
Yes, traditional publishing if full of lefties pushing their SJW agenda. The Sad Puppies campaign proved conclusively that a small cabal of industry insiders determine who gets published and awarded.
The article asks “if an organization such as the Bay Area Science Fiction Convention doesn’t stand for Bay Area authors, and doesn’t care about Science Fiction first and foremost, what is the point of the organization? ”
The answer is that progs will take over ANY organization and bend it to their will.
If you used to like scifi but found yourself reading less and less, as it moved further left, further gay, further into deviance, I can recommend a couple of authors that write old school, good guys win stories.
For a much deeper look into what the Sad Puppies uncovered, I can recommend a couple of things too, but a lot of it is very “inside baseball.” Just know that there are people publishing that are not leftie queer studies self hating SJWs out there.
nick
Manufacturers and retailers are getting a bit manic with overstocks on guns.
Cheaper than Dirt, usually a pretty good low price leader, is selling a DelTon AR15 “kit” which is everything but the lower receiver [the “lower” is the part that ATF considers to be the “gun”] for $440. Add a lower for $40 -> much more. And assemble yourself.
That’s a pretty good deal for the parts, and if you’ve put away a bunch of unregistered 80% lowers, it is a great way to build out your rifles.
BUT! https://www.mgewholesale.com/ had whole assembled Del Ton rifles for $380!
And a bunch of retailers are selling the DelTons for ~$400. Taxes and transfer fees will add $30-100 though.
Name brand ARs from Ruger and S&W are not much more either.
All in all, a great time to stock up if you have some extra budget, as the manfs and retailers unload their excess inventory.
nick
“BTW, congratulations ! I am so pleased to hear that someone is doing well.”
Thanks, and I’m sorry that things are rough for you guys at the moment.
We’re running well ahead of 2016 YTD and a bit ahead of 2015 YTD, but still 20% or so behind 2014 YTD. Still, after two years of year-on-year declines, it’s nice to see a bit of growth.
Here is a beautiful off grid retreat for sale:
http://www.rockspringshouse.com/ 4 minute commercial, very well done.
Interesting for several reasons. Look at the systems. Look at why he says they built it.
Then look at why they are selling “We’re just getting too damn old.”
Didn’t see any mention of gardens either. Did see the refrigerated trailer, and the SNOW CAT.
n
Off grid ranching/farming/homesteading/retreat takes a LOT of physical work. Wadda ya do when you get old?
“Wadda ya do when you get old?”
As usual, soldier on!
And the slow payers and the no payers have got our A/R to the highest that it has ever been.
Ditto.
I gave up on the Hugo’s just like the Oscars, Emmys, etc. A comic said the awards are “a bunch of people giving each other another blow job award.”
My unpaid invoices in 2016 were higher than ever before, probably even with inflation factored in. It could just be a run of having dealt with writers and businessmen of dubious ethics, but I suspect the economy is not quite as roaring as the Obama bureaucrats had been telling us. -shrug- As the saying goes, the plural of “anecdote” is not “data”. However, the anecdotes seem to be overwhelmingly on one side.
Times are not good. What surprises me is when the business press, esp. on the investment side, and even pro investors, treat the numbers as if they were real.
I suppose when you are actively trading, you are working inside a zeitgeist anyway, so if others are treating them as true, you can make rational decisions based on that belief.
The problem comes when the kid says the emperor is naked, and everyone suddenly has to face the reality. Then comes the rush to the exits…
To anyone still invested in the stock and bond
marketcasino, WHY? How much higher do you think it can go? Show your work…n
ADDED – spent some of my morning sit down time reading thru my quarterly report for the fund family that I still own (because it’s locked up in a retirement account and I can’t get it out.) EVERY FUND underperformed their benchmark. These are name brand funds, from a name brand company. No matter what their approach, they all performed worse than others.
If the pro’s can’t do it, what makes you think you can?
You gotta know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em.
I have an investment pro in San Antonio who handles my investments. The fund is up $20k over last year. I switched years ago from managed mutual funds to this guy (known him for 15 years). He invests in everything based on professional input from several advisory groups. He keeps active and sells/buys constantly.
BTW, he was always a term life insurance guy, but now says whole life policies have had the best return for decades.
@nick said: ” …EVERY FUND underperformed their benchmark. “
But “they” got their “maintenance fees” which was probably more than any gain.
Yep, they make money no matter which way stuff moves.
n
“The fund is up $20k over last year.”
Time to take the profit and lock in your gain.
n
The cool thing about Scottrade is you can cash your positions and sweep into a cash account. No interest, but no penalties. Then reinvest when appropriate.
“BTW, congratulations ! I am so pleased to hear that someone is doing well.”
Thanks, and I’m sorry that things are rough for you guys at the moment.
We’re running well ahead of 2016 YTD and a bit ahead of 2015 YTD, but still 20% or so behind 2014 YTD. Still, after two years of year-on-year declines, it’s nice to see a bit of growth.
Thanks. I felt like a hero in 2016 since our sales were 10% over 2015. Little did I realize that several of our old long term contracts were not going to pay so we had a differential of $90K between our invoices and payments.
Now in 2017, I realize that I am total idiot. My son has suggested that I take some finance classes. I am not going to but, no one else here realized that our invoices to payments ratio had dropped to a new low and that our A/R was growing rapidly. In this case, it is not nice to have company.
Living in the oil patch is always feast or famine. And, technology is rapidly changing since anyone with an H2S problem is turning off their amine plant and moving to the new H2S adsorbants if the H2S is 1% or less of the natural gas. And you can just landfill the sulfur saturated adsorbants, you don’t need a well to compress the H2S and Co2 into. That means that our customers don’t need our software anymore to tell them how much amine(s) are needed for treating their natural gas.
Get the “30-Day MBA” and such from Amazon for a good overview of biz finances and analysis.
It wasn’t me, it was the dog.
And it wasn’t me bringing the level of discourse down, it was Lynn.
Aside from that, though, MrAtoz is correct about 30 Day MBA being good.
I may check that out myself if my own biz here gets rolling good this year. Thanks for the tip, MrAtoz and the rec, Mr. SteveF.
Plus we can always consult Dr. Bob ’cause he got a real one.
Lynn, would it do any good to put something down so Cujo has better traction and won’t slip and fall in?
Lady gets in a hurry and her rear end does not work very well nowadays. So, she drops a leg over the side while running around the pool. She tries to recover and usually does. But that odd time that she does not recover, she just rolls over into the concrete pond into six foot of water. We all will get old and 14 years of age for a dog is like 88 years for human.
@lynn, put one of those plastic ramps in the shallow end so she can climb out…
Or even a board with carpet on it.
I put two 4 inch tall by 10 inch wide by 6 inch deep concrete blocks on the top step of the pool this morning. I hope that she can step up from those. Us humans are just going to have to watch out for those blocks as they are four inches below the water level.
I need to have some way of blocking the east end of the pool decking from Lady. The priority on this is rapidly increasing.
@Mr. Lynn;
What about those wireless pet control devices? Could one of those be set up to cover the area involved, and thus negate the need for minor construction and concrete blocks?
Paint them orange? I don’t know if any paint will stay on submerged concrete.
Us humans are just going to have to watch out for those blocks as they are four inches below the water level.
Paint them orange? I don’t know if any paint will stay on submerged concrete.
The funny thing is that both blocks started bubbling when I put them on the top step the pool. They obviously had some voids which started off-gassing immediately.
The bottom of the pool, and the steps, is a blue epoxy. So the offwhite blocks are very visible. If one is looking.
Get the “30-Day MBA” and such from Amazon for a good overview of biz finances and analysis.
I will get it. Do I have to read it ? I read to relax and escape nowadays.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0749475005/
Naaah. Just put it under your pillow when you sleep. If it works for college textbooks, it’ll work for this.
I will get it. Do I have to read it ?
Naaah. Just put it under your pillow when you sleep. If it works for college textbooks, it’ll work for this.
I tried that in college. The wife would wake up and find me asleep with my head down on the book at my desk. Never worked.
What about those wireless pet control devices? Could one of those be set up to cover the area involved, and thus negate the need for minor construction and concrete blocks?
You want me to shock my 14 year dog ? I doubt that she would survive the first experience. Her entire head is almost white now.
I am expecting to find her passed away in her sleep some morning. The fems (and I) will not take this very well. I even had to carry her about a 1/4 mile last night on our two mile walk. She is back up to 34 lbs after we have been giving her lots of beef sticks and gravy on her kibble.
Plus, I don’t think that those wireless pet control devices have very fine tuning.
It’s a bit late to try training her to avoid the end of the pool, which is all the shock collar would really do.
You could wrap the concrete blocks in fabric, even a pillowcase. You really need them to be super visible or a human will get hurt.
Our little mutt is grayer every day, and although he lost some weight when he tore his MCL, he’s putting it back on. He has to squeeze thru the doggy door. We adjust his food, but on a little dog, even very small changes make for big changes.
n
I was under the, probably mistaken, impression that one could adjust the shock levels; as mean a bastard as I am, I would not care to shock a dog to the point it was writhing on the ground and howling.
Plenty of human beans I wouldn’t mind seeing in that state, though.
as mean a bastard as I am, I would not care to shock a dog to the point it was writhing on the ground and howling
My uncle basically did that to me. We had electric fences, pulsed high voltage and low current thus not fatal, running around many of the fences. Anyway while working on one one of the wires came loose and being what once was coiled wired (copper plated steel) the wire reverted to it’s original coil and subsequently wrapped around me. Every second when the wire was pulsed it would violently convulse my body. My uncle stood there for almost a minute laughing his head off while I endured about 60 shocks. When he finally cut the wire I collapsed because my muscles were so exhausted, which then triggered another round of laughter. He, and his wife, were mean and cruel assholes.
Holy crap, I just got the cautionary tale about not pissing on the cow fence.
That’s brutal.
n
Jesus, Mr. Ray, what the fuck was wrong with those people?
Despite all that shit, you seem to have turned out pretty decently.
I am proud of my fellow U.S. Air Force vet, who stands tall down there in the great state of Tennessee. Hats off!
I got a shock off one of them fences a long time ago and it jolted me pretty good, at 260 pounds.
Which also reminds me of that Darwin Awards guy who was working up in some trees for whatever reason, and stopped to drink a six of beer, and then pissed on the high-tension lines. All they found was his boots.