My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on March 18, 2021

Real estate has been on a tear in many markets as the coronavirus has people moving from cities to the suburbs and their own piece of land. In my opinion it is not just COVID19 related, but that fact that cities aren’t as secure or as tax friendly to live in, especially on the east and west coasts.

Since I have adult children in exactly the same shoes Brenda and I were decades ago, I also understand the remodeling, house hunting and desire to build your own home. As I recall, it was both a stressful and expensive endeavor when we moved from Hudson to Cincinnati … but paid off over time (something real estate and homes have done in previous generations). As my father-in-law would say about buying more land as he added to his property over the years in western NY, “they’re not making land anymore.”

Smiles and good memories aside, the cost of building (and homes) has definitely risen this past year and with stimulus dollars, the economy recovering and the cheap money in the form of low mortgage interest rates continuing, it will probably continue boost for real estate until the next crisis hits.

Commodities Boom Hits Home

Rock-bottom mortgage rates have made owning a house more affordable, while the Fed’s purchasing of mortgage-backed securities has spurred lending. Lower household spending during the lockdown and federal stimulus checks have helped people accumulate down payments. House hunters are bidding up properties alongside legions of investors who are buying and building a growing share of America’s houses and renting them out.

The competition for houses has lifted home prices in almost every part of the country …

Lumber and other wood products took off last summer and have remained aloft. Futures for delivery this month ran up to $1,040 per thousand board feet, nearly triple the typical price this time of year. The story is similar for oriented strand board, used for walls, floors and roofs. Many engineered wood products are in short supply and hard to find.

The National Association of Home Builders says that rising lumber prices have added $24,000 to the cost of building the average single-family home … MORE

Category: Business, Financial, News | No Comments »
Tags: building, commodities, coronavirus, covid19, economy, federal reserve, house, housing, inflation, interest rates, lumber, mortgages, real estate, wsj

Posted By RichC on March 17, 2021

At one time, I thought I was better at time management, but clearly after spending over an hour disassembling, de-rusting and polishing a folding IKEA stainless steel rack, I am not. In retrospect, buying a new one would have been a better way to use my time … but I found out they don’t carry this particular version (since it rusts, I know why). Still, it would have been nice to replace it with one mounted to the side wall like the Kungsfors and open up counterspace below it.

EDIT: After a trip to IKEA .. Brenda vetoed the idea. It wasn’t all that attractive or appropriate for the kitchen anyway.

Category: Ideas, Personal, Photos, Productivity, Shopping | No Comments »
Tags: dishes, drying, ikea, inefficient, polish, rack, rust, time managment

Posted By RichC on March 16, 2021

Support for socialism has been on the rise in America as I have previously noted and according to trend we have seen and the acceptable rhetoric/terms politicians have been willing to adopt this past decade. Liberals, who now prefer the “progressive” label, have decidedly shifted from resisting the status quo, traditional “right and wrong” norms, free markets, free trade, individual rights and freedom associated with the previous generations in America, to now becoming “woke” authoritarians demanding and now dictating their views on others.

These mostly younger Democrats are more receptive to government controlling what we do, say, think and who decides what is acceptable moment to moment. One by one, Constitutionally protected rights are being challenged … and this “we know better” socialist agenda is threatening our democracy from inside. For the most part, leftists control the education system (the radical 1960’s movement Bill Ayers plan) and now seem to have majority control in the  Federal government. This has enable even more nanny state policies and is growing a larger dependent class (the “here’s another check” and vote for us to keep UBI checks coming.).

According to Hillsdale College letter, a 2019 survey found that almost half of young people in American would “prefer living in a socialist country.” In another recent survey 56% of voters between the ages of 18 and 24, and 48% of voters between 25 and 34, favored a “mostly socialist” economic model for the United States.

While debating left-leaning friends, they point out that America has voted and accepted that government is responsible for taking care of citizens … both in 2020 and in the past for decades. We provide Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, EBT cards, set minimum wages and have established variety of welfare programs to assist both individuals and corporations (some as bailouts and others as incentives for desired behaviors). While I can’t argue with what to my eyes is bigger government and central planning dictating and controlling industries and businesses … they up to this point are still mostly privately owned and competing in semi-free markets … at least compared to a communist or socialist nation. It is also true, citizens and charities are no longer the backstop when it comes to caring for the hungry, handicapped and less fortunate … which is debatable issue from the Libertarian side. Small government conservatives and moderate Republicans have pretty much accepted our government has taken over that role … but aren’t willing to relinquish any further free-market intrusion. We have accepted that our predecessors chose to federalize (socialize) a variety of services, but that comes at a cost and loss of efficiency. You’d be hard pressed to find much that our government does more efficiently that competitive private businesses.

… capitalism is the best thing that has ever happened to the material condition of the human race. From the dawn of history until the 18th century, every society in the world was impoverished, with only the thinnest film of wealth on top. Then came capitalism and the Industrial Revolution.  Everywhere that capitalism subsequently took hold, national wealth began to increase and poverty began to fall. Everywhere that capitalism didn’t take hold, people remained impoverished. Everywhere that capitalism has been rejected since then, poverty has increased. LINK

The concern for me is that we are now politically closer than we have ever been to adding more to the list of government run programs, businesses and industry. Obviously health care is at the top of the list for Democrats who are receptive to the idea of more control and more power. It is the easy target since cost of insurance and care has sky rocketed … mostly due to government regulation. That debate aside, as the socialist movement grows, we’re likely to see their ambitions expand … ignoring that the history of socialism and communism has never proven beneficial or prosperous for everyday people or the overall society.

Our freedom and democracy cost our forefathers dearly … let’s not give it up because we’re too indolent to keep it.

Category: Education, History, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: capitalism, commentary, conservatives, debate, democracy, democrats, Education, freedom, hillsdale, liberalism, opinion, Politics, progressives, Republicans, socialism

Posted By RichC on March 15, 2021

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Category: Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: american woman, canada, canadian, chad allan, manitoba, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, psychedelic, rock, siriusxm, the guess who, vh1, winnipeg

Posted By RichC on March 14, 2021

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Category: Advice, Archive, Personal, Photos, Shopping | No Comments »
Tags: aluminum, annalyn, archive, betterbox, cement, family, haircut, katelyn, mailbox, perrysburg, quikcrete, repair, replace

Posted By RichC on March 13, 2021

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Category: Archive, Gadget, Personal, Photos, Tools, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, christmas, Computer, drew, ellerie, family, gift, granddaughers, ifixit, katelyn, outside, Photos, repair, small, spring, taylor, tools

Posted By RichC on March 12, 2021

Back in January I switched my “off contract” iPhone7 Plus over to Mint Mobile and a month later switched over Brenda’s iPhone7. The transition was smooth and pretty much glitchless. Service from our previous Virgin Mobile then Boost Mobile plan is basically the same, although initially restricted me to 3GB of data per month (now the company has increase it to 4GB for no additional charge). Surprisingly for me, that ONE additional gigabyte makes a difference especially when traveling away from my home/office “secure” WiFi. About the only negative so far is that you need to be committed to your hardware and not wanting the latest and greatest upgrades … aka: a new phone every year or so.

In order to lock in the lowest monthly price, it also requires prepaying initially 3 months ($15/mo) and thereafter paying for 1-year at a time. This could be an issues going forward IF we contemplate upgrading our phones and getting a carrier subsidy. Personally I’d prefer going to the Apple Store and buying an unlocked iPhone .. but then again, iPhones are no longer reasonably priced???

For now, I’ve set my autorenewal to one full years prepaid and will use my referral dollars to save even a couple more bucks. At a time we’re seeing so many prices rise, it is nice to see cellphone service prices come down as coverage and speeds rise. (I can remember when our family plan PER MONTH was higher than I’m paying for a full year!)

Category: Cellphone, Financial, Gadget, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: apple, boost, carrier, Cellphone, contract, iphone, iphone7, mint mobile, plans, review, sprint, switching, t-mobile, tech friday, techfriday, virgin

Posted By RichC on March 11, 2021

My generation grew up with a handful of odd, yet popular with kids, television shows, none more endearing that Gilligan’s Island … which shockingly is still loved by almost everyone in reruns still today. After mentioning the passing of Dawn Wells, who play castaway Mary Ann, I realized that only Tina Louise (Ginger) is still with us in 2021. It definitely makes me feel old.

After only three seasons (99 shows which seems short by today’s standards) ended in the 1967, after starting in black and white in 1964.  The cast, Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Bachus, Natalie Schafer, Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells along with the shows writer and producer Sherwood Schwartz, were able to reunite fora TV sequel in 1978 and some of them again in 1979 and 1981 … all without Tina Louise who “had disputes with the producers.” I was never a fan of the reunion shows … BUT did enjoy seeing the cast all together one last time with Ross Shafer who was hosting The Late Show in 1988. So for Throwback Thursday #TBT here’s it is.

Category: Entertainment, Memories, TBT, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: 1960s, gilligan's island, late show, mp4, reunion, ross shafer, series, TBT, television, throwback, thursday, tv, video

Posted By RichC on March 10, 2021

After having a server glitch and failed update this morning, it seemed like a good time to backup, updated Linux and test  WordPress 5.7 “Esperanza” with a post today.

For the most part everything has been running fine since setting up SWAP space, but any issue triggering a crash makes me question what I’m missing?

For now, WordPress and the Linux install on three of the five servers have been updated and are running.

On a completely different topic (prepping for tomorrow) … here’s a fun Gilligan’s Island video highlighting a couple favorite TV characters from my childhood … and if you enjoy this one, you’ll like tomorrow’s post.

Category: Computer, Humor, Software, Technology, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: childhood, crash, crossed-fingers, favorite, gilligan's island, linux, mp4, server, swap, television, tv, update, video, wordpress

Posted By RichC on March 10, 2021

After cleaning out my email in-box and “attempting” to unsubscribe to a bunch of marketing oriented email lists, it became clear that I chose to remain subscribed to the lists that do more than plug their products or repeat sales again and again.

A couple “subscribed-to” lists stood out because they were informative and were not just pushing product. The best example of doing it right is from Ranger Point Precision, which is the company that I used for parts to repair AND improve my old Marlin 1894 lever action rifle. Instead of just sending a sales flyer, they email a bit of informative history … and I actually enjoyed reading it.

It’s rare to find someone who hasn’t heard of Wild Bill Hickok. His life is legendary. His character appears in many movies set in the frontier west.

Wild Bill helped bring order to the frontier West. His gunfighting skills inspired many of our wild west tales and legends as one of our earliest “heroes of the west.”

Hickok’s family farm in Illinois was one of the stops on the Underground Railroad. He left the farm at the age of 17, ending up in Kansas, where he joined the antislavery Free State Army of Jayhawkers.

(more…)

Category: Advice, Business, History, Marketing, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: bill hickok, email, firearms, History, Marketing, marlin, ranger point precision, rifle, selling