Category: Money

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Nearly 16 months of historical statistics reveals that Tuesday is by far the busiest day here on the big green blog. I think that we all know why that is so:

1.  We may actually receive some significant rainfall here in America’s Rivera between tonight and Sunday as a couple of old cold fronts from the north ease closer to us. Don’t expect a flood or anything close to that, but don’t be surprised if we manage to receive up to an inch of the much needed rain that we so desperately need. There’s also a very remote possibility that I may actually issue a late-season ‘Homestead Cold Weather Alert’ for both Saturday and Sunday mornings as wind chill temperatures may approach the upper-40s for a brief period of time.

2.  I’m not exaggerating here when I state that most motorists here in America’s Riviera totally ignore the green traffic light arrow that points to the left that states that you have a protected path to make a left-hand turn. I guess they don’t teach that in traffic school down here. GREEN = GO !

3.  Weight Check – I’m slowly easing down into the lower-170s. I just weighed in at 172.5. My goal is to get back into the more comfortable upper-160s. Yes I can !

4.  We probably won’t find out that the recession has ended until at least six to nine months after it has actually ended. It may have ended already, but we won’t really know for sure until perhaps Thanksgiving or Christmas. Politics and policies aside I’m rooting for a strong and robust economy in 2009 and beyond. How can you not root for that ?

5.  It’s St. Patrick’s Day in 2009, and I wore virtually all green today. I’m proud of my Irish heritage. My ancestors on the paternal side had a last name of ‘O’Day’. The ‘O’ was dropped when they emigrated from Ireland to The U.S. back in the late-19TH Century. For over 17 years our beloved cat Fluffy – a Manx – was an integral part of our family. The Manx breed originated from The Isle Of Man in the Irish Sea. I lived in the U.K. for exactly two years from 1985 to 1987, and I did quite a bit of traveling during that time. But one regret is that I never got to visit either Northern Ireland (part of the U.K.) or The Republic Of Ireland. Some day I hope to visit both countries. While living in the U.K. two Irish bands – The Pogues and The Dubliners – joined forces to become one, as they performed a traditional Irish song about a MASSIVE ship in the sea. Check out this 1987 performance of “The Irish Rover”. It was a U.K. TOP 10 pop smash back then, and I present it to you as a very special St. Patrick’s Day edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’.

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Blogging Career Driving Internet Money Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s do this thing – in 15 words or less.
– This is the express version of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’.
– It’s sort of like the VH1 ‘Pop-Up Video’ of my blog.
– My buddy Phil also posts ‘Thoughts’ on a Thursday.
– This week he discusses guns and food.
– I last shot a gun in 1992.
– I had to shoot an M16 annually while in the Air Force.
– I never quite understood why.
– Today was a crazy day at work – in a good way.
– I could not have planned the events of the day as they occurred.
– I prefer carefully-scheduled days rather than chaos galore.
– It’s really arid extra dry outside.
– There’s no end in sight.
– We’ve only had about two inches of rain over the past five months.
– We need another Tropical Storm Fay.
– She gave us four-and-a-half inches of rain in two days last August.
– She single-handedly ended our last drought.
– My dear friend Ela thought I actually wrote yesterday’s ‘Bible Stories’.
– It was a copy and paste job.
– A friend sent it to me via E-Mail.
– It’s been widely circulated on the Internet for awhile now.
– Here’s one version of it here.
– Tomorrow is Friday.
– I totally dig Friday.
– The weekend starts for me on Friday (afternoon).
– This Saturday morning me and some friends are riding to Key West.
– Once there we’re gonna so be tourists on bikes.
– I last drove down there at the end of December 2006.
– I’ve been there via cruise ship more so than via car.
– I’ll be back there again via cruise ship this September.
– I wouldn’t turn down this fun day with my friends for anything !
– I filed my income tax return online last Saturday afternoon.
– I’m getting back the biggest refund in history !
– Thank You President George W. Bush !

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Driving Food Money Television

Monday Night Countdown

I’ve had the same checking account ever since the 2ND day that I’ve lived here in America’s Riviera – way back in December of 1987. Later this year I’ll write Check # 3,000. I may throw a ‘checkwarming’ party to celebrate the momentous occasion. 😀

This week on your ‘Monday Night Countdown’ I’ve got the TOP 5 most intriguing checks that I wrote exactly 20 years ago this month in March of 1989.

CHECK it out in chronological order:

– Check # 376 – 07 March 1989 – $52.20 – VISA
I didn’t make a lot of money back then. A $52.20 VISA bill makes me LOL today !

– Check # 377 – 07 March 1989 – $37.47 – International Cable
I actually had cable TV in my dorm room at the air base. We had to pay for it ourselves. I had Showtime as a premium channel back then. I enjoyed watching “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” every week.

– Check # 379 – 16 March 1989 – $9.50 – Little Caesar’s Pizza
Once upon a time just outside of the north (hospital) gate of the old air base there lived Little Caesar’s Pizza. They delivered constantly to the dorms on base from lunchtime clear through late at night. My old checkbook registers from back then are totally littered with evidence of Little Caesar’s Pizza meals. PIZZA !  PIZZA !

– Check # 381 – 22 March 1989 – $97.12 – Southern Bell
YES – I had my own telephone in my dorm room, and I had to pay for my own service. I still have that original telephone today, but I don’t use it anymore. The sound quality is shot on it. That was incidentally a payment for two months of service because apparently the check that I had sent for the previous month’s bill was lost in the mail. (I keep meticulous records.)

– Check # 382 – 22 March 1989 – $326.40 – Allstate Indemnity Co.
As a 21-year-old ‘kid’ I paid over $1,100 for 6 months of automobile insurance back in 1989. I pay less than half that amount today in 2009. I’m a mature driver today. The fact of the matter is that I was back then as well.

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Humor Money Politics

Sunday Night Funnies

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago, another is from Tennessee, and the third is from Minnesota.

All three go with a White House official to examine the fence.

The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. “Well,” he says, “I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”

The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, “I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”

The Chicago contractor doesn’t measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, “$2,700.”

The official, incredulous, says, “You didn’t even measure like the other guys!  How did you come up with such a high figure?”

The Chicago contractor whispers back, “$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy #2 from Tennessee to fix the fence.”

“Done!” replies the government official.

And that, my friends, is how the new stimulus plan will work.