Good morning!!!!

[ronjhall]

RNG, I am just as opinionated as some others. But do my best to keep it to myself on this thread. When you have deep opinions it is hard to make moderating decisions.

 

[Looking4new]

Buppies, aren't you retired? If yes, then whatever you had in mind to do will still be there when you get a round tuit. If it is snow you are worried about, it will be gone by June, with no help from you.

 

[Looking4new]

Note to self...Tractor is 12 years old this coming July. Time to change top and bottom rad hoses AND the heater hose, install new long life antifreeze. Chase an electrical short in roof and maybe some circuit breakers, too. Change oil and filter, too.

 

[Popgadget]

RNG, I am just as opinionated as some others.

I am far more opinionated than most. I also agree with David Brinkley when he said “Everyone is entitled to my opinion”.
But I also agree with Daniel Patrick Moynihan, that while everyone is entitled to their own opinion, they are not entitled to their own facts.

With all that in mind, I make a much better citizen here if I keep my opinions to my myself, and try my best to ignore those who don’t.
We all have something to offer regardless of our differences.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning! Low of 2°....brrrrr! Going up to 40°. Sunny but windy at 20-25, gusts to 35 mph.

Ron, glad to see you posting. Opinions are just that....an opinion. Sometimes people like to hear them, sometimes not.

Drew, also agree with your philosophy. A lot of immigrants will learn the language, a lot don't. Not sure of the reasoning, but it definitely makes it harder for both parties involved.

RNG, have a safe trip back to the south. The temps there are probably nice.

Don, glad the weather didn't cause too many problems. Yes, it seems that snow here evaporates faster than melting.... especially when the winds are blowing.

I hope to get the layout done for the shelves today and get the brackets installed. I noticed that I didn't count my pieces parts correctly..... needed a top and back for each corbel.... apparently I had 2 corbels missing those parts..... I guess I ran out of fingers!
No big deal -- cut the 4 pieces and got them stained last evening.

Everyone have a great day!

 

[sodamo]

67°F and no rain
Forecast says a pretty day ahead.

Successful trip to town yesterday, all diesel cans refilled. Nice Happy Hour gathering. Mal, who just finished radiation treatment for thyroid cancer checked in.

Should get this round of mowing finished up today.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[Buppies]

No not yet L4N do not know if could stand it

 

[sodamo]

Budget tracking

I’ve mentioned on here before that for years I have done my budget tracking using a file of many spreadsheets, many links between them. Manually intensive. At the start of a new year I start a new file, zero out previous entries, and start with the end of year balances. Time consuming and of course subject to fat finger errors. No links to outside resources such as bank accounts or credit cards. It has served me well over the years. I often make changes, even if temporary. But the reality is in event of my demise, no way Sophie would keep it up. When we do sit down and go over it, she always remarks that she’s going first so doesn’t need to learn. back when we met, her budget was write a check, enter number rounded up to next dollar. Don’t write check if no money. Very effective, but those were simpler days.

And this past year+ I’ve been working with the kids with a much simpler file to guide them out of debt. Now we are about to transition to a new phase which requires a different tracking approach. One that weans me away from the mechanics.

Given these 2 scenarios, I’m thinking maybe I should transition to a commercial budget system, something that once setup is easily maintained, ideally just add new transactions.

Any feedback from anyone here using a program/app would be appreciated, both the good and not so good. I’ve just started researching and boy the landscape sure has changed since my Quicken days. At first glance, free apps have restricted functionality until you convert to paid. Something with a free trial period would be nice, but prefer not to have to setup and abandon multiple systems until finding the right one.

Appreciate your input.

 

[sodamo]

Locally, I’ve seen a number of parking structures using PV as a roof. While these aren’t massive, they do seem to fit in.

 

[sodamo]

Drew, I have similar feeling re English vs Spanish (whatever).
Grandparents were Polish and French. My mother grew up in a town where French was spoken as much as English, my great grandmother spoke very little English, but I hardly remember my Mom speaking French outside of family, we always suspected it was something we kids weren’t supposed to be involved. We kids only learned English (sadly). Sophie’s Mom was born in Japan, could carry in conversation with her Japanese friends, but she also became fluent enough in English that non of her kids speak Japanese. Pretty sure her citizenship test was in English.

I find it somewhat offensive that much signage here in USA is mandated both English and Spanish. To me that means no incentive to assimilate, too easy not to assimilate. Here in Hawaii, I’d find it much more reasonable for the second language be Hawaiian, not Spanish. And then there is this thing where official documents (license exams for ex) have to be available in 50 languages or they find an interpreter for you. Total BS to me. Come to USA (legally). Learn English. When I was stationed in a foreign county, I considered it my responsibility to get comfortable with their language, even if I had to carry a pocket dictionary. Never felt anyone gave me a hard time for trying, neither would I give someone a hard time for trying. Of course today there is an app.
And please, do not read this to think I’m against anyone speaking their family language, just assimilate and we can all be richer from our multi facetted culture.

 

[scott_vt]

Good Afternoon Guys,
Well I went down to my youngest sons house, plowed him out, then plowed our DW and finally plowed ther older sons DW. Also shoveled his walkway to the front door. He comes out to tell me that a 72 yo shouldnt be shoveling, but did thank me for doing it ! He said he would have done it, and my reply eh ! For you Bill !

Returned my other sons truck and also shoveled his walkway also !What a good guy I am !!

One of the worst things that has been told and accepted by much of the motoring public was/is the fallacy that all season radials are as good as snow tires. What a bunch of bull. And of course now days every vehicle has to have these super wide low profile tires that are only good on smooth dry pavement. It's even hard to find a narrower tall tire to fit many vehicles.

Lou, agreed, I have the BF Goodrich tires on my truck, great tires and great tread design ! Need real good tires to get up the Vt DW when its bad out ! All season radials, are ok but not the real deal; when you need them !

Buppies, glad to hear your stuffiness is clearing up! I got lucky and things cleared up before this cold snap. Don't like feeling bad in cold weather.

TBS, you are my new primary care physician ! I have had the cough and chest congestion for about 3 weeks, and just like you said it would go away ! Well its pretty well gone along with the chest congestion ! Thanks for the accurate prognosis !


Hope all have a good afternoon !

 

[sodamo]

Glad to see Ron still here. Would definitely miss his pics and posts.

I like reading everyone here, enjoy the different perspectives, challenges, solutions. I often learn something, quite a benefit.

 

[kenmbz]

We should keep this out of GM I think, unless we throw Puerto Rico out of the US territories.

But people from 3rd world countries (and some 1st world) who come here, bathing would be nice

 

[sodamo]

I remember snow tires. Had several sets of the studded one too. Can’t say I miss them.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Budget tracking

I’ve mentioned on here before that for years I have done my budget tracking using a file of many spreadsheets, many links between them. Manually intensive. At the start of a new year I start a new file, zero out previous entries, and start with the end of year balances. Time consuming and of course subject to fat finger errors. No links to outside resources such as bank accounts or credit cards. It has served me well over the years. I often make changes, even if temporary. But the reality is in event of my demise, no way Sophie would keep it up. When we do sit down and go over it, she always remarks that she’s going first so doesn’t need to learn. back when we met, her budget was write a check, enter number rounded up to next dollar. Don’t write check if no money. Very effective, but those were simpler days.

And this past year+ I’ve been working with the kids with a much simpler file to guide them out of debt. Now we are about to transition to a new phase which requires a different tracking approach. One that weans me away from the mechanics.

Given these 2 scenarios, I’m thinking maybe I should transition to a commercial budget system, something that once setup is easily maintained, ideally just add new transactions.

Any feedback from anyone here using a program/app would be appreciated, both the good and not so good. I’ve just started researching and boy the landscape sure has changed since my Quicken days. At first glance, free apps have restricted functionality until you convert to paid. Something with a free trial period would be nice, but prefer not to have to setup and abandon multiple systems until finding the right one.

Appreciate your input.

I use quicken 2013 However, quicken has adopted the subscription model, and I won’t do that. I also do not link to any external sources like credit card. If there’s a mistake on my credit card, you won’t catch it using their wrong data.
I redid a lot of my categories last year, and now have it in a pretty good state. I have major categories, then sub categories.
I did have to fudge a couple things, like car loans, because quicken doesn’t show a loan payment as an expense, and I want Income vs Expenses to show all money in vs all money out.
But I won’t upgrade to current quicken.

 

[ronjhall]

I live in Michigan. We have snow. When working I drove drove 100k mile about every 18 months. All the vehicles had M&S tires. Never had 4wd. Never got stuck in 40 years. My area of coverage was Chicago to Western PA. Bay City, MI to Indianapolis, IN. Plus Southern Ontario, Canada. When I did driver training we were taught how to drive in winter conditions. Today I still pump the brakes when stopping in slippery conditions. Even though traction control is working. Best words of advise I can give is slow down.

 

[daugen]

and slow down I did this afternoon creeping down steep hills to get in town.
thankfully not much traffic out, roads are icy and slushy and would not be hard to slide on off.

good visit to eye doc, yes I have a common floater, a small detachment, she said to come back in 6 weeks and likely it would
be gone. But if I see flashing lights, to come in right away. Ok.

my walkway had iced over again and it's going down to 15 tonight.
Will throw some more ice melt out there tonight.
was pretty crazy trying to walk out to car in supermarket lot that was a glaze of ice.
I reminded the ladies in the eyeglass place to lift their wipers before they went home.
I explained to them their cars were sheet ice outside, and they were, little icicles hanging down.
when I told them this was to prevent breaking their wiper motors, their eyes got big and they all thanked me.

the big challenge is making sure wipers aren't on when you start up car, if wipers were running when you turned engine off last.
boy I sure miss a garage...this is when not having one really sucks.

time to chill out

 

[two_bit_score]

TBS, you are my new primary care physician ! I have had the cough and chest congestion for about 3 weeks, and just like you said it would go away ! Well its pretty well gone along with the chest congestion ! Thanks for the accurate prognosis !

I am always accepting new patients but I tell everyone up front, I carry no malpractice ins nor do I have any attachable assets but my advice is worth what it costs you.

Glad you have beat the game and cheated death for another day!

 

[two_bit_score]

Best words of advise I can give is slow down.

Those are very wise words!

 

[m7040]

good afternoon,

Lots of snow for our area. Spent some time plowing and scraping. Colder weather on the way so started up the basement oil furnace on low to help out.

I sure learned how stressful a chart can be to some and to not cause any more discomfort have deleted two months of posts. Hope that will help get this issue behind us.
The intent was not to create a discussion of for or against but to help Helo make his point that his small country is punching above its weight class. But learned that is a no no. Appreciated Kyle also posting a chart showing total contributions to make it more clear. Is that chart OK to post or are there unwritten rules of what can be posted.

So no charts can be expected from here in the future and only text and pictures will be posted. Appreciate that there are other places where folks can post about subjects that may be contentious