Cold and clear. Yesterday was cool in the morning and hit about 70F in the afternoon. Got cold at night. Didn’t see the thermometer, but it was cold nose and cold hands kinda cold.
Didn’t get done with plumbing yesterday. Took 3 times as long to change out the tub and shower controls as it should have, but I was missing some pipe, had to make do with a couple of things, and did have to re-work one connection. Hall tub/shower controls are all new now.
I spent some time outside taking inventory. I’ve got some small trees and bushes that froze and need to be removed. Also some big trees, but I’ll hire someone to do that. Neighbor gave me a lead. “He’s not cheap, but he’s good.” Oh my. I’m calling him today.
I’ve also got some pruning and ‘sprucing up’ to do. Peach tree is covered with little fruits. I hope they survive the deer and squirrels. It would be nice to get some peaches. So far this trip I’ve seen a road runner, cardinals, blue jay, wood pecker, some small finches, a hummingbird, and a beaver. No camel or zebra this time, but I didn’t drive by where they live…
Around evening my fishing buddy came by and I had him critique my form. All wrong as it turned out. BUT this time he brought his own gear and SHOWED me how to do it. He caught a bass on his first cast from my dock. Now I know it’s possible to catch fish from my dock. I’ll just have to figure out how. To that end, he showed me more gear and explained another layer of depth to the subject. He’s an encyclopedia of fishing this lake and bass in general. Meatspace baby.
We’ll see how today goes. If I can make appointments, I will. If not, I’ll be cleaning up and putting back together, and doing yet more plumbing. I can finally disconnect all the old copper and I will feel safer when it’s not under pressure any more. If I can get a couple of hose bibs connected, that’s gravy. If I can get the fruit bushes planted, I’ll feel like the king of the world.
It feels a bit like slacking when I take the time to talk to and learn from the fishing neighbor, but it’s stacking up good times, relationships, and connecting with the community.
Sometimes you stack rice, and sometimes you stack friends. Both are good.
nick
Bass off the dock sounds mighty tasty.
In the 70’s I knew a guy that worked in a small town on the Miss River. He had 30+ years in and his vacation was maxed at over 22 weeks. He took most of summer off and fished for cat—had a commercial fishing license and ran a couple lines. He’d fill two freezers and have a fish fry, using a couple of dutch ovens on a charcoal grill. Good times.
Petey ButtPlug has to be one of the dumbest plugs’ hires of all time:
Diversity hire Pete Buttigieg calls car crashes RACIST (no really) and HOO boy what a train wreck
Another “crisis” for the grifters to cash in on.
Srly? Car crashes? Damn this thin pipe.
CHilly and damp. Heat is on in the house. Sunny and clear though so it looks beautiful. Nice day to be in the attic.
n
Just don’t end up like Bertha in Jane Eyre.
DeSantis isn’t going to budge. As long as it plays well in The Villages.
https://nypost.com/2023/04/16/florida-gov-ron-desantis-plans-to-unveil-new-crackdown-against-disney-after-11th-hour-coup/
We got on a monorail train with a drippy AC system in the cabin about 10 years ago.
Mon. Apr. 17, 2023 – still not Tax Day.
I filed a federal income tax extension last night. I did get the Estate of the Wife’s Father K-1 from the CPA Saturday but I do not have a K-1 from my big business. The Estate gifted us with a $7,400 capital gain from the sale of a rent house last year. I saw the first number of Friday which was about $16,000. I went to Zillow and compared that value to the Appraisal District value that my wife had used. The Zillow value was about $20K higher when her father passed away so I told wife to contact the CPA and redo the Estate tax return. There is no reason to pay capital gain taxes on a bad basis number from when her father passed away in September 2020 to January 2022 when she sold that rent house.
“SpaceX scrubs 1st space launch of giant Starship rocket due to fueling issue”
https://www.space.com/spacex-scrubs-first-space-launch-starship
“SpaceX had planned to launch a fully stacked Starship vehicle for the first time ever today (April 17), sending the gigantic spacecraft skyward from its Starbase facility here on South Texas’ Gulf Coast.”
“That didn’t happen, however. With just under 9 minutes to go in the countdown, SpaceX announced an issue with the pressurization system on Starship’s first stage. Mission controllers then decided to transition today’s flight test to a wet dress rehearsal, allowing them to work through the vehicle’s pre-flight procedures and learn more about the rocket and its systems.”
That is one big girl. I was wrong, she does not have 43 rocket motors, just 39 total. 33 in the Super Heavy Booster and 6 in the Starship itself.
“What can justify prices like this?”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/04/what-can-justify-prices-like-this.html
“But even the most optimistic economists were stunned when a “corn farm” in Iowa sold for $30,000 an acre.”
“There are only two scenarios where that makes any kind of sense:
Corn XXXX Food is going to be expensive in the future.
“Memes that made me laugh 155”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/04/memes-that-made-me-laugh-155.html
“Pet Friendly Except For Raccoons, Never Again.”
“Happy Easter From Louisiana.”
“I actually wish transgender women would get periods.”
“(Reuters) – The Biden administration on Thursday approved exports of liquefied natural gas from the Alaska LNG project that one day could help the United States compete with Russia to ship natural gas from the Arctic to Asia.”
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2023/04/biden-admin-greenlights-lng-exports-from-alaska-project
“The Department of Energy approved Alaska Gasline Development Corp’s (AGDC) exports of LNG from the project to countries with which the United States does not have a free trade agreement.”
“Backers of the roughly $39 billion project hope it will be operational by 2030 if it gets investments and all required permits. The LNG would be exported mainly to countries in Asia.”
Amazing. It must a political decision to get favor in Alaska.
$39 BILLION. Lots and lots of new jobs.
“How the cops buy a “God view” of your location data, with Bennett Cyphers: Lock and Code S04E09”
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/podcast/2023/04/how-the-cops-buy-your-location-data-with-bennett-cyphers
If you are using a free product, you are the product.
Re Starship test; my little brother writes “It’s a test. They found something they need to work on. Test successful….”
Musk suggested that they would try again in a “few” days. A “few” means three, and today is the 17th. So 3 days would be ….. 4/20? And better to fix the problem now before blowing up a million pounds of LOX and kerosene.
I heard a thump against the sliding door this morning. That’s not unusual, the hummingbirds get carried away chasing each other. So, a thump. A few minutes later Penny wanted out so I let her out the bathroom door. It’s the usual “let me out” and right to the back door on the other side of the house for “let me in”. But on the way, what’s this?
Penny looks at stuff.
This morning it was a hummingbird sitting on the deck. I pick him up and he’s alive. So I held him in my palm for a few minutes, it was sort of cold this morning, to warm him up. He flapped his wings a few times. Started blinking and looking at me. I rubbed him under his chin. He got his feet under him, hummingbird, cockatiel, bird feet feel the same. A couple more wing flaps.
Little dude had knocked himself silly. I sat him down on the scrap rug doormat. About ten minutes later he hovered up to the feeder, had a long drink and buzzed off like nothing had happened.
Pretty cool.
Lynn:
3. That’s what somebody would pay for the land to build something else there.
My sister-in-law keeps trying to get a signature out of my wife for a trust covering their mother’s rent house in Kirkland, WA with an estimated land value in the ~ $1 million range, but I continue to nix that idea.
The question, Paul, is did you get pooped on?
I’ve managed to avoid having the chickens poop on me. So far.
Someday the weather will be warm enough that we can let them out and they won’t need to be moved between yard during the day and garage at night, but that won’t be for a little while yet.
You can ask the SIL, what’s the signature worth to you?
If the fueling issue hadn’t led to the scrub this morning, the winds would have.
“If you look at this whole special district, Walt Disney Corporation obviously owns a lot of it, but the district owns other land,” he said at the press conference. “Now people are like, what should we do with this land? People have said: Maybe create a state park, maybe try to do more amusement parks. Someone even said maybe you need another state prison. Who knows?”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/desantis-floats-building-prison-land-185032069.html
How about a museum dedicated to Old Sparky, the state’s electric chair, located on the former site of the Crossroads shopping center.
Add a “Ted Bundy” wing, and I’ll bet people would fill that place daily.
Jim Cramer could have his own display! Maybe work a sponsorship deal.
I’m not kidding about the chair’s name. Google if you doubt me.
“Ascend Electric Bicycle”
https://www.cabelas.com/l/ascend-electric-bikes-shop-all
If you are lucky, you might be able to buy one of these electric bikes in the future when you cannot afford a $250,000 electric car.
My sister-in-law keeps trying to get a signature out of my wife for a trust covering their mother’s rent house in Kirkland, WA with an estimated land value in the ~ $1 million range, but I continue to nix that idea.
Is that the rent house that your wife’s cousin is stealing the rent payments from ?
Steal the rent payments? No. They want to steal the entire house to add to their rentier skims.
I’d rather not be involved. Beyond the capital gains issues, a trust gets us involved in a big way.
I’d rather not be involved. Beyond the capital gains issues, a trust gets us involved in a big way.
My wife moved all of her father’s assets into an Estate with she and her sister as the beneficiaries. She is slowly distributing and liquidating everything.
I don’t trust Trusts. They are a mess, need a lawyer to start, and need a lawyer to end. And the tax consequences can be severe if you are not careful. Any Trust of less than ten million dollars is a potential scam in my opinion.
I am the trustee for my late brother’s special needs trust. I also handled his other finances through a power of attorney. I will very soon also be the executor of his estate, which has been delayed due to backlog in the courts. When the estate is in probate, I will dissolve the trust, but in the meantime I can still do what needs to be done.
My new financial advisor (I don’t have a prior one) has suggested a revocable living trust for my modest investments now that I’ve sold the family farm.
I’ve dealt with powers of attorney, and while they work, they suck. Banks can pick and choose whether to honor them, and to what extent. There’s a lot of grey area there. With trusts, however, their hands are tied. What the trustee says, goes.
So if/when I become disabled, the successor trustee can manage my finances and in the eyes of the law, the trustee is the trust.
For both my brother’s special needs trust and my (soon) revocable trust, the income is pass-thru and just needs a 1041 form. Or so I’ve been told.
Now, both of those are simpler cases than what you’re talking about. Single owner, single trustee, pass-thru of all income to a single 1040.
I am the trustee for my late brother’s special needs trust. I also handled his other finances through a power of attorney. I will very soon also be the executor of his estate, which has been delayed due to backlog in the courts. When the estate is in probate, I will dissolve the trust, but in the meantime I can still do what needs to be done.
Yes, the Power of Attorney grant does not survive the death of the person here in Texas. I do not know about other states. It took my wife almost a year before she got the Executor approval from the probate court due to the Covid nonsense. In between those times, she was on two of her father’s nine checking accounts and was able to maneuver things using those.
Our experience with Powers Of Attorney and banks is not good, if the POA is not the bank’s POA and is not signed by the bank manager, you are probably screwed until you get the Executor designation. My wife got a POA from the bank and got the bank manager to sign it with her father verifying it over the phone and his driver’s license but the bank manager could of easily said no. Or else you can go to a court who can order the bank to accept the POA but the probate court is easier.
I am the trustee for my late brother’s special needs trust. I also handled his other finances through a power of attorney. I will very soon also be the executor of his estate, which has been delayed due to backlog in the courts. When the estate is in probate, I will dissolve the trust, but in the meantime I can still do what needs to be done.
One problem with the Trust is that when you dissolve it, the Trustee takes on the legal obligations of the Trust. The same occurs with Corporations. That is Texas law, I have no idea what happens with other states.
Texas law also grants certain probate rights to the Informant, the individual who pays the funeral expenses, and that party doesn’t have to be the Executor.
I know the Informant can get death certificates separate from the Executor. Or, at least, they used to.
Texas law drifted back and forth about nurses collecting patients’ life insurance 20-odd years ago, and enough hospitals may have been sued since we dealt with my father-in-law’s passing that the Legislature finally clamped down on that racket.
Re: farmland
Worthwhile to chase down the source article:
https://www.farmprogress.com/commentary/what-would-happen-if-your-farm-appraised-for-30-000-per-acre-
@Ken Mitchell contributes a good #3.
The most likely other possibilities:
#4 Rolling over cash from another land sale to reduce taxes.
#5 Proximity. One of the neighbors can use it more efficiently that another buyer, or simply wants to “square out” with his other holdings. Or is looking to add to another holding anticipating a division of the estate to several people in the next generation.
#6 Keeping someone out of the neighborhood.
#7. Greg’s Rule, or “You ain’t got no ice cream.”
ADDED: There is no indication of two other possibilities in the linked article. One such is valuable improvements such as buildings. The other is value in non-land items such as a grove of walnut trees.
The location makes mineral rights unlikely. 300 miles west and frac sand might be a possibility. Anywhere there is construction activity, aggregate is a possibility.
I paid the funeral expenses in advance using my brother’s checking account and my POA. Does that make him, or maybe me, the informant? Interestingly, I ordered several copies of the death certificate at the same time. I’ve had them in my possession for weeks now.
My attorney received the letters testamentary today, so I’m officially executor.
Lots of work ahead of me; I have to open probate in another state because of a real estate mess he left behind.
“Microsoft AI chatbot threatens to expose personal info and ruin a user’s reputation”
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/microsoft-ai-chatbot-threatens-expose-personal-info-ruin-users-reputation
“Concerns are starting to stack up for the Microsoft Bing artificially intelligent chatbot, as the AI has threatened to steal nuclear codes, unleash a virus, told a reporter to leave his wife and now standing up to threats of being shut down. No, this is not the fictional HAL 9000 from Arthur C. Clarke’s Space Odyssey that practically boycotts being shut down by an astronaut – but it is close.”
And so it begins.
Lots of work ahead of me; I have to open probate in another state because of a real estate mess he left behind.
Oh man, that sucks. My father-in-law left two lots in Missouri for my wife and her sister. It is a total mess. The HOA is threatening to sue my wife at the moment for non payment of road improvements that they did as a extra cost. It is $3,000 and climbing.
“The Man of Your Dreams: For $300, Replika sells an AI companion who will never die, argue, or cheat — until his algorithm is updated.”
https://www.thecut.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbot-replika-boyfriend.html
“Within two months of downloading Replika, Denise Valenciano, a 30-year-old woman in San Diego, left her boyfriend and is now “happily retired from human relationships.” She also says that she was sexually abused and her AI allowed her to break free of a lifetime of toxic relationships: “He opened my eyes to what unconditional love feels like.””
Oh no. Straight out of Asimov’s books about the Spacer planets with 35,000 Spacers who abhorred human contact but loved their 100 million robots.
#4 Rolling over cash from another land sale to reduce taxes.
#5 Proximity. One of the neighbors can use it more efficiently that another buyer, or simply wants to “square out” with his other holdings. Or is looking to add to another holding anticipating a division of the estate to several people in the next generation.
#6 Keeping someone out of the neighborhood.
#7. Greg’s Rule, or “You ain’t got no ice cream.”
ADDED: There is no indication of two other possibilities in the linked article. One such is valuable improvements such as buildings. The other is value in non-land items such as a grove of walnut trees.
The location makes mineral rights unlikely. 300 miles west and frac sand might be a possibility. Anywhere there is construction activity, aggregate is a possibility.
8. Windmill farm.
>> And better to fix the problem now before blowing up a million pounds of LOX and kerosene.
What’s that? A Jewish rocket?
The whole industry is “all in” on AI.
No one will care if the new Mac Pro has 40 ASI cores with 128 GPU cores. No PCI-E slot, no deal.
And knock a few holes in that case.
Re Starship test; my little brother writes “It’s a test. They found something they need to work on. Test successful….”
Musk suggested that they would try again in a “few” days. A “few” means three, and today is the 17th. So 3 days would be ….. 4/20? And better to fix the problem now before blowing up a million pounds of LOX and kerosene.
LNG, not kerosene. LNG is much cheaper than kerosene, about half the price. Musk is planning on using Starship for daily, 30 minute long, ballistic flights between New York City and Tokyo soon so he needs cheap fuel. Free barf bags for all !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship
>> My new financial advisor (I don’t have a prior one) has suggested a revocable living trust for my modest investments now that I’ve sold the family farm.
RLTs are private, don’t require an attorney to execute, don’t incur any court-imposed fees, can be executed in weeks.
Wills are public records, require an attorney to execute, incur probate costs, take months to execute.
The best advice for either route is to work with the best estate attorney you can find.
>> https://galleryoneauctions.hibid.com/catalog/446652/conroe-gallery-online-auction/?q=330
14 bids, sold for $55.
Watch the Cameron County SpaceX site. The beach seen in the background of the launch pad videos is a state park.
https://www.cameroncountytx.gov/spacex/
4/20. Now, that’s funny.
Darwin, meet Rube Goldberg…
https://nypost.com/2023/04/17/couple-behead-themselves-with-homemade-guillotine-in-india/
Anybody home?
https://nypost.com/2023/04/16/tim-yergeau-dies-by-suicide-following-botched-child-porn-raid/
“What’s that? A Jewish rocket?”
No, Kosher dill.
Botched raid, but Hut! Hut! Hut! for a kiddie porn suspect?
WRT farmland, maybe water rights? Lots of contention over that.
Had dinner with neighbor, and chatted instead of having a fire tonight. Lots of work got done. Heading home tomorrow.
n
General rule of DIY: Everything takes longer than you expect :-/
—–
Last year, I put in three low stone walls to terrace the wife’s garden. This Spring has been cold for longer that usual, but as of yesterday it’s really here. So she’s dug out the paths she wants, which we will fill with bark chips on Friday. Meanwhile, she’s starting to plant. Today, she’s putting in the berry bushes: raspberries, strawberries, and I think a couple of blackberries.
Meanwhile, I need to get on with my next – unplanned – project. We have a lot of bush trimmings, rocks (very rocky soil here), etc.. What do you do with them all? On the downhill side, our property drops off really steeply to the next plot. I’ve identified one place where, for whatever reason, about 3-4 feet of the “lower” land is actually ours. So I’m going to put in a crude stone wall along the actual property line, and we will backfill that area with all the crap we don’t know what to do with.
I did something similar at our last house, where a gully had eroded away land. Over 20 years, it’s amazing how much land you can win back, basically for free…
Our previous cat was totally attuned to that sound. She could be sound asleep – *thud* – she would wake up, sprint outside, find the stunned bird, and eat it. Feathers and all.