10:44 – Barbara is doing the white tornado thing cleaning house. The last couple of weekends she just did a quick pass through, cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming the middle of the floors. This morning, she’s vacuumed everything, moving furniture as she went. Right now, she’s damp mopping the tile floors in the bathrooms and the hardwood floors throughout the rest of the house.
As usual, I’m working on science kits. We should be in good shape for the next week or two, assuming no one drops a bulk order on us. Meanwhile, I’ll just keep building inventory.
Barbara mentioned last night that on her way home from work Friday she’d seen AT&T crews installing fiber along Reynolda Road, not far from Wake Forest University. That means it shouldn’t be much longer before they start installing it in our neighborhood. Meanwhile, I’m getting at least one or two spams per day, every day, from Time-Warner Cable, which seems desperate to get people to lock themselves into long-term contracts before AT&T introduces their fiber service locally. It’ll be interesting to see how long the AT&T contract is for. One year won’t be a problem. Two years I’d have to think about.
As of now, Barbara wants to continue working at the law firm for another couple years or so. Over that time, we’ll explore areas where we might want to move. As of now, Barbara is inclined toward the Pilot Mountain area, about halfway between Winston-Salem and Mt. Airy. That’s too close to Winston-Salem for my comfort. I’d prefer to be an hour or more from Winston-Salem in an area with municipal water, sewer, and trash collection, and with decent medical services available locally. I’d also prefer a more cosmopolitan area where fundamentalist Baptists aren’t overwhelmingly dominant. That’s why I’ve been lobbying Barbara in favor of the Boone, NC area. She did her undergrad degree there, and was initially in favor of relocating there, but she later decided it was too far from her sister and friends.
Wherever we eventually move, we’ll be looking to buy or build a home with everything on one floor and a full basement. Ideally, the property will already have a suitable outbuilding that I can use for lab space and manufacturing kits. If not, we can build that. Also, we want something that we can afford to pay cash for, which would greatly ease the move. We could take our time getting all our stuff moved to the new place and then clean up the current house and put it on the market.
Does Colin go nuts at the vacuum cleaner?
He ignores it when Barbara has the snout attachment connected, but when she connects the floor sweeping attachment he goes berserk. I think he thinks it’s attacking her.
The floor beater part of the vacuum cleaner vibrates the floor. It also makes a much different noise than just the motor and the rushing air. Either could explain the dog’s different responses.
Or just torch the place. Make sure the insurance is up-to-date, then get a disposable pre-pay phone and start calling in threats to yourself. Report the threats to the police, then torch the place when no one’s looking. Collect the insurance money and live large. No, no, you don’t need to thank me for this great plan.
Does Colin go nuts at the vacuum cleaner?
One of my dogs goes nuts as soon as I roll the vacuum out of the closet and attacks it. Not even on yet.
Paying cash for a house right now is not wise. Mortgages, provided one can qualify, are almost free after taxes, leaving free cash for better uses. I doubt that will be true in two years. Pity.
Until AT&T runs fiber to your house, resist the temptation to drop Time Warner for Uverse. The quality of video service delivered over DSL will drive you nuts.
The European central bank just dropped on of their key rates from 1/2% to 1/4%; another of their rates – what they will pay to banks who stash money in the central bank – is negative, as an incentive for banks to use their capital rather than stash it.
Current mortgage rates here are pretty crazy. For 10-years fixed, you pay just under 2% interest. If you will take a flexible interest rate, it’s not much more than 1%. Looks like the experts expect things to stay dicey for a long time to come…
Has DNA evidence unmasked Jack the Ripper?
Mortgages, provided one can qualify, are almost free after taxes, leaving free cash for better uses.
I could that now on my current home. I could get a mortgage for about 70% of the value which would give me about $150K to invest. Sounds good on the surface and my financial adviser keeps pushing for me to do so. He says if I ever need to get out from under the mortgage I can just withdraw the funds and pay it out.
However, I have been debt free for six years now and I really like the feeling. I owe no one any money. I still use credit cards but pay them off each month. My FICO score is above 800. I don’t want another debt. When I needed to purchase my new truck I could have gotten the loan for 1.9% which is less than what my funds are earning. I worked hard to become debt free and do not want become indebted to anyone again.
“…was initially in favor of relocating there, but she later decided it was too far from her sister and friends.”
A standard show-stopper for all four of my siblings, who live within 40 miles of Boston. What’s interesting is that if it’s only the husband’s siblings and friends who are gonna be too far away, no problemo. But if it’s the wife’s? Fuggetaboutit!
“Collect the insurance money and live large.”
Not a bad plan, per se. One possible drawback is someone being injured or killed by the event, and I’m thinking of firefighters and/or other emergency response personnel, although someone could just be walking by, inhale the toxic smoke from Dr. Bob’s secret underground lab and croak on the spot. Also Dr. Bob’s activities with chemicals and other things there over the years may raise questions if the place suddenly goes up in flames.
“I worked hard to become debt free and do not want become indebted to anyone again.”
I doubt we’ll ever reach that stage, being the age we are now, and the continued depredations and hassles from the IRS Gestapo. But even if tempted to work out a Mr. SteveF insurance scam, I wouldn’t have the haht to do it to the nearly 200-year-old house here.
In other dumbkopf luser nooz, meaning me this time, my Dell Latitude laptop at work rebooted itself after a WinBlows update this afternoon while I was in another building fixing something and now the Dell Security Manager wants the pre-boot password, which I don’t have (dunno when that machine was last rebooted, and the previous IT kids are gone, gone, gone, now). Looks like I either gotta call Dell tech support and be a dumbkopf luser, or pull the CMOS battery for a few minutes and then put it back or sumthin.
Until I fix it, I’ll be working off my phone, LOL, or until they get me a new machine, which they gotta do anyway.
Dell Security Manager wants the pre-boot password, which I don’t have
Any decent IT person would have records of all passwords stored on paper in a secure location. You should have been given the passwords. I do have such a list at my location.
Don’t know how you reset CMOS on a laptop. Let us know after you call Dell.
The one wrinkle in Bob’s plan may be high speed internet. At our current location in Smallville we have a choice between AT&T and Comcast. One of the wife’s friends lives a couple of miles away and has a choice between wireless which would require tree removal or dialup. I saw a house online which would be interesting, except it is a little farther out of town the other way. Which almost certainly puts it outside the range of either Internet provider.
Don’t know how you reset CMOS on a laptop. Let us know after you call Dell.
I had to do this about three years ago to a Dell laptop an employee f’d up. Once I proved it was ours, Dell told me how to reset it. Wish I could remember, even if I did, Dell probably changed how it’s done. We changed to Macbooks around that time, so I didn’t care. The Dell was given away during one of my wife’s school leadership programs.
Supposedly Dell tech support will ask for the numbers off the bottom of the laptop, one called a “service express code” and the other some other damn thang. Failing that, I’d have to open the bugger up and either futz with jumpers on the mobo or pull the “reserve” or CMOS battery for a coupla minutes and then put it back, etc.
It’s one of the ways an IT drone learns how to do stuff, i.e., by things breaking or not working and then having to fix them. Just wish it wasn’t the laptop I have to use to connect to the servers, but they’re in the next room so I can just hook up a monitor, keyboard, etc. to them anyway. And I can get to them from home for anything not actually requiring a button being pushed.
It was a gorgeous day in northern Vermont today, blue skies, sunshine, white puffy cumulus clouds, and temps in the high 60s. Leaves starting to turn in more places, mostly gold and red so fah. And of course we have two more weeks of summuh.
The Saint Albans Raid anniversary and festivities will be getting underway this month, including re-enactments of the raid itself, the northern-most land action of the War Between the States, and a bunch of music, dancing, lectures, etc., etc.
http://www.stalbansraid.com/
http://vermontcivilwar.org/staraid/crockett.php
Not sure if I’ll be able to make any of the events but will give it a try, and bring along my Kindle Fire to take pics and vids for the upcoming OFD website. The content of which I have been debating with myself about, but I figure most of it will deal with the local historical landscape and current manifestations of the national malaise in and around it (thanx, and a tip o’ the hat to Jimmuh Carter for dat word!). Rather than “malaise,” I’d say more like “putrefaction.”
Don’t know how you reset CMOS on a laptop. Let us know after you call Dell.
Two pound hammer.
Ray, obviously you are too close to Brentwood, TN. That Dave Ramsey guy must be starting to rub off on you.
I agree with Ray. I hate having debt hanging over my head and work very hard not to have any, and in fact make “suboptimal” economic choices to avoid acquiring debt.
Debt is just a means to an end. I always advocate having a very positive net worth first, then enjoy stuff while paying back with worth-less paper dollars. If it is good enough for our pols and businesses, then we little guys should take advantage, too. Just keep it under control.
I’ll see your Dave Ramsey and raise you Ric Edelman.
you are too close to Brentwood, TN
About three hours away. I know of him but consider some of his advice rather stupid.
That Dave Ramsey guy must be starting to rub off on you.
No, I learned a hard lesson when I got laid off and did not find work for 6 months. The stress of bills, possibility of losing my home and my car, horrible credit card debt. It was really hard on my health and relationship with my wife. I never want to go through that again.
Now as long as I pay my taxes I could live in my home for very little. What I don’t know is if the city would allow me to live in my house without water and electricity. They may consider it a health hazard and condemn the house and take it over through eminent domain so they could put up a 7-11. Would not put such beyond our current government.
“The stress of bills, possibility of losing my home and my car, horrible credit card debt. It was really hard on my health and relationship with my wife. I never want to go through that again.”
Ditto. Unemployed for seven of the past fourteen years, during my fifties, with a wife and two kids. While also drinking like a fish, a really bad call on my paht. Brutal wake-up call, the climax of which was passing out from an alcohol withdrawal seizure at the VA Med Center two hours southeast of here and almost dying. And not caring much about dying before and up until that point. We’re slowly working at getting out from under criminally applied tax debt and we’ve kept up OK with everything else; be nice to pay off the house but we shall see after the Gestapo is done with us, if they ever are done with us.
“Now as long as I pay my taxes I could live in my home for very little. What I don’t know is if the city would allow me to live in my house without water and electricity.”
Ditto. We could get by on very little if the house was paid for and we could keep paying our taxes. Even without the juice. But yeah, some suit in a state or Fed office could decide it warn’t healthy for us old fahts and condemn it and replace it with another gas station or leave it a vacant overgrown lot like so much property has become up here in the Northeast.
We’d resist, of course, and be shot down like dogs or tased into a coma and carted off to the contemporary Murkan equivalent of the old Soviet psychiatric wards. For our own good and the good of the Community.
Here is some nice bedtime reading for y’all; see what ya think, and remember, even a stopped clock is right twice a day:
http://kunstler.com/writings/clusterfuck-nation/
Neat story re Jack the Ripper. I’d love to see photos of the shawl itself because one can date and place them fairly accurately just by means of pattern, size, width of hem, etc. Eastern European would mean Bohemia, but I don’t have my reference books to investigate further. 🙁
Part of my fascination with India began with the discovery of an old Kashmiri shawl I found buried in my mother’s cedar chest after she died. You would not believe the thousands and thousands of man-hours that went into embroidering that thing! No wonder the Jacquard loom was such a boon. The backside is just as fun as the front, and the front is full of patterns and symbols, some of which I still haven’t deciphered.
We’re slowly working at getting out from under criminally applied tax debt and we’ve kept up OK with everything else;
Got a gift from the IRS via snail mail on Sat. The wife lost a winnings W2G for several thousand dollars in 2011. Reported to the IRS by the casino. They are just letting us know, but have happily charged interst from April 2011. I scan all receipts and have enough to cover it, but my CPA says we’ll still get stuck paying the interest. A couple of hundred not worth the time to fight. I feel for you Mr. OFD. No wonder the Treasury is reporting record tax. Took them almost three years to tell us and too fucking bad PAY UP CITIZEN OR WE’LL TAKE EVERYTHING YOU OWN for a couple hundred dollars.
They are RUTHLESS when it comes to small potatoes citizens owing a few hundred or a few thousand, but guys like Treasury Secretary Geithner and his ilk get away with zillions, not to even mention the scandal of corporate non-taxation. And we have found that any errors made in their favor are pounced on instantly but those in our favor we have to research on our own and fight for every step of the way for months or years. In our case it’s also been a double whammy; we have the state on our case, too; get one entity paid up somewhat and then the other one starts with the bills and threats. Pay on a monthly installment plan and the money goes entirely for interest and penalties while the principal gets bigger; how is that different from any urban storefront Shylock?
I scan all receipts and have enough to cover it, but my CPA says we’ll still get stuck paying the interest.
File an amended return for 2011, include the W2G and the receipts to offset the winnings. You should not be charged any interest as no money was owed for the time frame.
However, you will piss someone off at the IRS. I know because I proved one of their agents wrong. After that I got audited multiple times, basically just asking for proof of deductions. One audit was a “come in the office with a large jar of lubricant” type of audit where everything was gone over with a fine tooth comb by a less than friendly agent who probably got a job at the IRS because he could find no other work with his humanities degree.
That audit went well as they could find nothing wrong in spite of trying really hard. I got the impression of the audit was not to make certain I did my taxes correctly but to find somewhere that the IRS could find something wrong, in their favor, so I could be punished with more taxes, interest and possible penalties. Little attempt was made to find out if I missed a deduction or anything that would have been in my favor.
The IRS is an evil organization.
The only good part is the IRS does fewer audits than they used to. Likely to get even fewer now that they also have healthcare to oversee. Their hiring is falling behind their needs. That will be fixed. Bet on it.
File an amended return for 2011
Exactly what will happen. I’ll post what they end up saying.
Good point, Jim B! Yup, they’re now tasked with the monstrous mess of the “healthcare” system on top of their other stuff and not enough staff to handle it all; audits will now only be done on the poorest members of society so the staff can jack up their numbers on the quota spreadsheets.
On the laptop password issue here; I called Dell tech support first thing this morning and it took well over an hour with a guy speaking accented English, probably Spanish originally. He was polite and friendly but it took quite a while to generate a replacement password, email it to me, and then I had to punch it in there and hit first the Control key and then the Enter key, twice for the latter. This was for a Dell Latitude and it finally booted up the Windows 8 o.s. Also ordered a new Dell laptop with 8GB RAM which I will then double, and a 256GB SSD. Might have to also order docking station hw or sumthin for the two monitors currently running on my desk here. And I’ll hook up a sound system, mainly for IT-related Tube vids, any conferencing or Skype stuff, and movies for those times I may get stuck here this coming wintuh.
Another gorgeous late summuh day here in northern Vermont; I feel bad and kinda guilty about Kalifornia and the great Lone Star State.
File an amended return for 2011, include the W2G and the receipts to offset the winnings. You should not be charged any interest as no money was owed for the time frame.
Well, the problem is that unless you are a professional gambler, gambling winnings go into income and losses (only up to declared winnings) go into itemized deductions and are subject to various phaseouts. It’s possible to lose money gambling in a year, and still have to pay taxes on W2-G winnings. There are some ways around it on the margins, but you would need to keep very detailed written records. And doing anything fancy will probably get you audited. If you do anything fancy you need a pro to help you, one that knows gambling tax law. (I have a friend that does taxes for a living and specializes in gambling pros.)
I wonder how much the James and Younger gangs owe now, calculated with compound interest since their days of jacking up their winnings from railroads and banks, at least until that totally dumbass move of hitting the bank in Minnesota. I am filing a complaint note with the IRS about this; why bother squeezing the remaining juices out of us old farts here when they can send in SWAT to the surviving family households of the James and Younger clans. Even better; dig up those thieving bastards and sweat ’em until they damn well pay up!
Well, the problem is that unless you are a professional gambler, gambling winnings go into income and losses (only up to declared winnings) go into itemized deductions and are subject to various phaseouts.
Fortunately, this is pre loss of Tax Payer Relief Act (thanks Obuttwad). My CPA does happen to know gambling tax law. We shouldn’t owe anything, but it does increase chance of an audit.
Another gorgeous late summuh day here in northern Vermont; I feel bad and kinda guilty about Kalifornia and the great Lone Star State.
Yeah, well we will return hose guilty feelings in November through next May when it is freaking awesome here in the Land of Sugar. No shoveling solids falling from the sky!
Not sure that would help. Many homeowner’s insurance plans come with an obligation to rebuild. That is, when it burns to the ground and they give you a check you’re required to build a new residence of at least similar value. I think the point of the obligation to rebuild is to reduce the incentive to do as you suggest. 🙂
Auto insurance is getting similar. Especially if the car is under a loan or lease. They insurance company will only issue a check for the repairs made payable to both the driver AND the auto body shop. They got tired of people using the insurance money to get a fancy new flat screen TV, but leaving the car duct taped together. This isn’t too widespread yet, but is growing. Depends on where you live and depends on your insurance company.
“No shoveling solids falling from the sky!”
None of that here, either; I’m getting a snowblower this wintuh!
Any recommendations from the northerners here, if any?