It Looks Inviting Enough, But Beware !!!!!!!
It's been quite the non-political week again, as all our time has been focused on two things: Work and The House. Yes, just about everything is ready to go, with glaring exception - The Storm Door. I bought it in March during my last visit, and it STILL isn't on the house yet.... but that finally got resolved today. I think....
My good friend, Chris, tried twice to get this door on, but to no avail, which is surprising, because he's a pretty talented guy. We then called our AC guy, Chase, who volunteered to put it on himself. The problem is Chase is doing contract work in Maryland, and he's gone 8-10 days at a clip. I had an appointment to do it last week, but I think he forgot. No big deal - if I was busting my ass in this heat, I'd skip the side jobs too... So at the suggetsion of Bobbo, we called Lowe's to have them install their door...
Being in Yankeeville, they needed me to go to a Lowe's up here to sign the paperwork, so I did. The problem was, the first customer service person gave me a litany of reasons why SHE was uncomfortable with this. Faxed signatures, measurements, getting permits (YES, you need a permit in NY to put on a f**king storm door!!), etc.... Luckily her dumb ass went on break, and I went to the back, where Melissa (who has lived elsewhere, so she got it), called up the So Flo Lowe's and took care of everything. For her hard work, she got a $10 tip. Yes, I'm acclamating....
Aside from that, we have the usual observations for you. Yeah, it's kinda warm, but not as purgatorial as it is there. It got to the mid 90's yesterday, but today is about 90, and a nice rainstorm just cooled it off. My sinuses and a lack of sleep the past two days are killing me. I went out Friday night between work shifts to see some old friends from high school, and I got home at 330AM.. Needless to say, I was as useless as hen shit on a pump handle Saturday at work.. But, I found out that there were a lot of girls that had a crush on yours truly.... No, it doesn't help now, but it does massage the ego a bit.
It's a big weekend in baseball, as A-Rod is stuck on home run #599 the last couple days. Suddenly, he is the toast of the town again, which definitely was not the case 2 years ago, when we all called him A-Roid.. Winning titles does that. Andy Pettite is still down with a bad groin, but Carol (who thinks he is hot as hell) volunteered to work it out for him... Lucky bastard.
I bought a bag of SunChips today, in the 100% compostible bag, and I have one problem: I will not be able to sneak eating a few at night, because this is the NOISIEST chip bag I've ever heard..... I have no idea what this thing is made of, but it sounds like you're shaking a jar of nails.
The scuttlebutt around Florence GOP is that there will be a few major announcements coming up: one is a very high ranking South Carolina politician will visit the monthly meeting. The other is not as good... A long time member of the local party may be getting axed for - GULP!!! - endorsing a Democrat candidate. No, I don't think it is a mortal sin to support a Democrat - we do kinda need them to keep us in check sometimes too - but the rules are pretty rock solid on endorsements..... you do it, and they strip you of everything. No truth to the rumor that they then bury you shoulder-high in dirt, pour honey on your head, and throw Fire Ants on you - but that might be next.
I watched '500 Days of Summer' at 200AM last night, and I'm wondering why I am a bit fascinated with Zooey Deschanel. She's not hot, she's usually playing pissed off people, and her boobs are a bit small. Oh wait - she's NORMAL. Maybe it's just her name is Zooey. Is it Zo-E, or ZOO-E? P-Luv ??? As far as the movie, I thought it was decent, although I don't know why she married the other guy... OOPS, gave it away.
So, the Obama Administration and Congress bitchslapped the financial services industry this week. We have no opinion on the bill yet, because we haven't read it yet, but here is what we think about the topic. The point of finance is to be able to keep a customer paying, and to afoord to make payments. Yes, the industry set up programs and compensation plans for it sales force that completely contradicted that theory. How a bank can lose money sometimes is totally unbelieveable to me. You lend the money out at rates 3-7 times what you pay out for it. Simple enough, unless you fee and late charge the customer into default -then you're both fucked. At the same time, while restraints need to be in place, I worry that there are people in this administration who feel that the private sector is the bad guy. There are a long list of hits they've already put out, but business is what made ths country - and the government that ays those politicians. Care needs to be taken on both sides, we just hope they got it right..
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1 comment:
Mike--in checking out the business/news channels last week, I saw/heard one of the politico-talking heads make the comment that banks are not lending enough and need to be made to make loans. SAY WHAT??!! Isn't that was got us in this current depression?!
You've got the idea on how banks make their money, its on spreads between what we pay on savings instruments vs what we can charge on loans. There are problems though, first customer's have to cash flow enough to support the payments. As we all know people are not spending like they were pre-2007, what I have seen is cash flows that have decreased by 30-60%.
Second, values on collateral has also decreased. Homes values are down depending on the location and the size but for the most part the average is 25-30%. Cars are another bad spot. My daughter just bought a brand new Nissan at $9000 off the sticker ($14k for a car they wanted $21k for).
Further banks are being very conservative due to the write downs they had to take due to decreased property/collateral values and in turn the losses they have had to take on foreclosures, repossessions, charge offs of unsecured loans.
Keep in mind we are not talking about the Citi and Bank America's but the community banks that most average people, and small businesses use.
Obama and the democrats have developed a pretty nasty habit of trying to make this a us vs. them. The problem is that the them that they are attacking is the small businesses, the mom&pop family businesses; the average families of this country that are struggling to get by.
Until we get people in Washington who remember its all about the economy and getting people back to work;prioritizing the budget and cutting out waste, fraud and the unnecessary; reducing taxes so that people have money to spend, but most inportantly and most importantly giving the people of this country a reason to believe that tomorrow will be a better day,this depression is only going to get worse...teg
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