Landlord time

I spent the morning hauling garbage out of a house that had been destroyed (and I'm not using that term lightly) by the previous tenant. The house has a nice lawn shed in the back yard and evidently this clown never had garbage service the whole time he lived there. The garbage was bad, but not the worst. The inside of the house was trashed too, holes knocked in the walls, holes knocked in interior doors, all the screens slashed, one window completely smashed out, carpets in2 rooms ruined with cig burns, fingernail polish adn kool-aid spills, ceramic toilet broke, towel bars pulled off the walls, sinks clogged with mud and food mixed, all the window treatments ruined, excrement smeared on the walls, I could go on but why? I think you get the idea. It is without a doubt, the worst tenant I've ever had. He suckered me hook, line and sinker. Then he has the gall to pull the exact same scam on another landlord right here in town! This guy is a pro, no doubt about it. Insurance will pay for a small portion, the rest the adjustor called poor housekeeping and normal wear and tear, not vandalisim. Whatever. I'll make it right, make it nice again, watch closer next time. This guy might think he's seen the last of me, but small claims court is in his future! I will only be pushed so far.

oops

I'll admit I was in a hurry when I posted earlier today, so it wasn't very long OR well thought out. Not that any of them are but i don't like to be hurried. This is the pleasure of blogging. You can re-read to your hearts content until it says what you want it to. Now the reason I know I was hurried is that I forgot to put my little "quote" for the day. And I know you all like to read them. I know by all the comments you've been leaving. Now Wyatt has asked about where I got a particular quote, and I think we all know that I probably don't have an answer for that. I am what's commonly known as a vast storehouse of worthless knowledge. So rest assured that on the days when I am "full of the good ones", I'll leave a little of that knowledge here for you. On the days when I am feeling fat, sluggish, lazy and out of sorts, I won't. "We have enough youth. What we need now is a fountain of smart".

Timberrrrrrrr...........

The gigantic tree just outside my back door is gone. This tree was a disaster waiting to happen. Huge doesn't do this justice. I think it would've taken 3 people to put there arms around it. Problem was, it was 3/4 rotten and just waiting for a big storm so it could fall over on my house. The real reason I didn't like it was it was constantly dropping rotten branches on my deck and yard. So when I saw the tree man in town last week, the deal was sealed and yesterday he came and dropped it. That was the deal, just drop it and stack it and I'll do the rest. It still cost $500 and thank goodness for Lee's skid loader and dump truck. I figure there are at least 6 dumptruck loads to go to the dump. That was one big tree.

windy and such

Monday, 4-25-05. It was supposed to get to 59 today and sunny. They got the sunny part right but at 3pm the temp on the airport sign said 43F and the wind has to be blowing gust up to 45 mph. It is hard to keep the car on the road. Yesterday we got home from going to the Cities to help Kyla look for an apt. There are lots of places to live there, it's mind-boggleing, really. Just pick the spot you like, there will be an apt house right around the corner. We were supposed to leave on Wed. to go on vacation again. We were going to Branson, MO with Burggraff's and Schneiders but due to an unexpected outlay of cash, we have decided not to go. Plus I don't think those other guys REALLY wanted us to come along. It has been just those 2 couples in the past. All this time leading up to now, nobody has ever said anything to Jeannie about it, and only Lee has ever dicussed it with me, so I don't think we'll be terribly missed. Oh well, the weather is supposed to be cool and rainy so maybe we were meant to stay home.

More clouds

We've seen the nicest day of the week yesterday. Today dawns cloudy with an 80% chance of rain this afternoon. If everyday was nice we wouldn't appreciate them I guess. I had a meeting with my fiinancial planner this morning. It was really kind of a joke, I'm sure not to him, but to me. And he's really a very nice, earnest young man who I'm sure has my best interests at heart, but let's face it. Over the last 20 years of saving, I could've probably gotten as good a return by burying it in a cream can in the back yard. Still though, hope springs eternal and my goal at this point is preservation of capital. I've given up on the hope of ever actually making a return. My favorite investment vehicle is the Vangaard Fund group. I have a Vangaard S&P 500 Index fund. It exactly mirrors the S&P 500, so you can look in the paper everyday and see how your investment is doing. The really nice thing is the price. Since we are not paying some "guru" to try and outguess the market, the costs are low, I think .02%. Which is pretty cheap, compare that to the expenses charged by managed funds, sometimes 5-6 %. Now you got to make 13-14% to end up with 8%. It's all a shell game anyway, and at the rate I spend money, I've got enough saved right now to last me approx. 3 months of retirement. "Most of my money I spent on booze, women and motorcycles. The rest of it I wasted".

Yep, hi, it's me

I don't really know how to explain my absence for the last couple months so I won't try. Suffice it to say this- I always thought when I was younger that when I reached this certain point in my life, things would become easier. I don't exactly remember when I thought the point was going to be reached, just that all the things that were weighing me down, causing me grief, stopping me from realizing my full potential, ect. ect., would all pass by the wayside if I was just patient enough. I'll never see 49 again and I've come to the shocking (at least to me) truth that problems, trials and tribulations never go away, no matter what your age. They are just replaced by different problems. So, having said all that, here is my philosophy for today- "There is no such thing as a normal life. There is just life". Enjoy it then.