PrairieDog

Thanks! Yeah, I just put up an apology on my other long exchange questioning why I couldn’t find a decent 45 anywhere nearby 😄 Pics for sure, sounds are still coming in baby steps… I am still trying to figure out our recording set up.

Okay, so after all that, I got me a Hummingbird! AND I’m having it shipped 😆 PrairieDog apologizes for taking up the bandwidth with this goose chase. Pics to follow when it arrives intact and checks out, fingers crossed it lands okay.

😄 Ha! And well don’t hunts take us into wild places… I was at GC yesterday trying out yet again the mouldering 2023 J-45 that’s been hanging around there, resigned to just buying it. It wasn’t really “bad,” I just was hoping for something with a little more age on it. So there in the case next to it, was an Original Hummingbird. I figured why not try it just to compare and got my head completely turned around. I hadn’t even considered ‘Birds, they were just off my radar. I forgot they were Sitka/hog too. We spent an hour dueling the J-45 and the ‘bird back and forth. It just kept getting better. But I couldn’t justify popping a grand more. And now the long sought 45 was sounding kinda pinched and muddy in comparison. My J-45 lust kinda sputtered out right there. (Tbh, I was never in love with that particular one. I literally was just going to settle to sooth the itch because I kept missing the really good older ones. I just hoped it would eventually open up too.) Now with fresh GAS running the show, I started rummaging about for Hummingbirds to see if any were in reach, and 18 hours later, I’m waiting on a 2020 Original coming from NC. Between the used price, and 10% off used gear and double rewards this weekend, it netted out less than the J-45, or any bird comps out in wild. So, in this case I figured it was worth the shipping gamble. Fingers crossed it checks out when it gets here. At least I can return it here if it’s got issues.

You get the government you are educated for.

I never said you did, my shopping comment was responding to Larsongs. The question is, deciphering what are “wasted” tax dollars. Often times they actually go for good things that other people just resent or don’t understand why they are needed, but are important to the companies and jobs those dollars go to. Taxes don’t just vaporize when they are spent. They go back out into the economy and people’s pockets, mostly through construction jobs, highways, teacher salaries, social security, medicare (which you paid into) the military, police, fire, local governments… Those are all people doing jobs or receiving benefits paid by tax dollars. Sure you can think “that person doesn’t deserve my money” but seriously when you break down a trillion dollar budget it is a small fraction of a penny of your money going there. You couldn’t spend it if you wanted to. My business happens to be one of the ones often in the crosshairs. So I’m used to attacks. We do an obscure bit of required environmental testing for government and private companies. Our government contracts are funded with tax dollars. Because we are very aware those are tax dollars and we pay taxes too, so we make sure those dollars are not “wasted.” We work efficiently but precisely, often saving public projects millions of dollars with our recommendations. Our cost is a minute fraction of those savings. With those tax dollars we provide good 40 hour a week jobs with living wages and full benefits to attract folks who make sure we can keep doing good work. Those tax dollars go into our employees pockets who in turn spend them. The dollars flow back into the economy and other people’s pockets like the grocery store, used guitars, whatever they want to buy. We the owners take a salary, but we don’t take “profit.” We do real work for what we get paid. And then through our jobs and spending we all pay taxes back in and the cycle starts again. Taxes are really a closed loop system. They don’t get dumped off the pier to be eaten by fish. Sure there is waste in any inefficiency, but that is why oversight and prosecuting the bad guys is an important piece of the tax system. But those tax funded jobs got slashed first in the “reduce the size of government” move. Gee, I wonder why the nannies really got fired? Chuckle.

Okay, the analogy is not about eating, it’s about saying because he “paid for groceries before” he shouldn’t have to keep *paying* when he wants some more. That is the logic behind, “we’ve paid in plenty in taxes in the past” implying he shouldn’t be expected to keep paying, even while he still needs the groceries.

Schools have been seriously defunded since the 60s/70s. Voters routinely deny needed levy increases (yes you vote on your school taxes). Just here a major school district tried to pass a levy saying the shortfall funding from the slashed fed and state budgets is so great we will have to close schools if it fails. The levy didn’t pass, “oh the horrors, no taxes!” and now everyone is up in arms because schools are being closed. Hey, not like they weren’t were warned. School is nothing like back in the 20th century when most of us were being taught. Kids don’t get offered half the classes we were. A high school diploma used to prepare you to be an adult. If you weren’t going to college, you could learn skills that could get you a fair wage paying job and/or manage a home. Now those classes like shop, home-ec, music, art, typing, are history, most places. Slashed as too expensive. One of the most consequential scraps, Civics, was a requirement through the 1960s, it hasn’t even been a elective in most schools since the 1980s. Seriously, knowing how to be and what the responsibilities of being a citizen in our democracy was deemed “irrelevant.” This was the class that taught kids about the role and practice of government, how the different bodies are supposed to work together, and the importance of being involved and importantly voting. So, where do kids learn that now? Youtube? As a result, whole generations are now easily duped by politicians, and led by special interests to misunderstand and thus mistrust how it works and what our government is meant for. Exactly what the Founding Fathers feared. Less than half of voters now even bother to vote, and winners are decided by about 25% the people. The rest of the 75% who sat on their butts while their lives were being decided for them, complain about the consequences. Schools and education are one of the best examples of, “You get what you pay for.”

Hey, Willies has an original owner ‘56 Black LP case queen for the bargain price of $55,000! What an opportunity! 😎

It sounds from both parts of your comment you read in a lot of tone where none is intended. If you’re always looking for a fight, you often will see one where there is none. Sorry you misread me. I was just being colorful in my analogies. And I’ve seen those apologies from the feds. I guess I find nothing intentionally snide in the words “We apologize for…”

Not exactly, you are in fact biologically forced to eat. If you fast completely, you end up dead. I think perhaps you missed the analogy he is implying he should *never* have to pay for groceries again because he paid enough for them before. And you do have some self-determination over taxes too. Work less, pay less. You only pay income tax on what your earn. If you don’t want to pay any tax, quit your job, and go off-grid camping and eat off the land. (Just make sure you aren’t somewhere you’d get shot for trespassing or poaching.) No one is really forcing you to have a job (slavery was outlawed sometime ago), or live in a house, or pay rent, or buy stuff. And you can draw your cash out of the bank so it doesn’t earn any taxable interest, and give away all your investments to charity so you have zero taxable capital gains. Or, hey, maybe you could become wealthy and arrange enough write-offs that you net out to zero, like the uber-rich do. Oh, but you’d have to pay the wealth management firm that gets you there, and I think that service might be taxable… so yeah, there you might be caught.

The Founding Fathers who mandated public school be available, understood that a well educated population would benefit everyone, whether they have children or not. They understood the role of public school was to create citizens who would know at least basic math and reading so that they could take care of themselves through work and be able to manage their finances and households, without being a burden on other citizens, or the government. And finally, they reasoned an educated population would be able to understand the issues related to government and taxation, and so make wise choices for their representatives. They recognized that it was in the best interest of the nation to make sure children were educated.

Uh, so by that logic, you feel because paid for groceries last week, you shouldn’t have to pay for them this week? How does that work? Just because you “feel” like you paid enough doesn’t mean anything to the cost of running the system. You are still using and benefitting from the services that tax dollars provide. It’s the cost of doing business. What if your clients just decided they paid you enough, but expected you to keep working for them? Would that be reasonable? You couldn’t keep your doors open very long, could you? Yes, government sets the taxes, but the “government” is just the people we voted in exactly to set the taxes. That is their main job. Congress and legislatures make the budgets to run things, and that means setting the tax rates that will pay for it all. It’s not some shadowy force beyond our control. And seriously, dude, if you are paying more than you owe, you really need a new accountant.

Taxes are not debts… You are buying things and services with your taxes. Besides things like police and fire protection, and roads that go places, in your case you get the County property records office that makes it possible to run your real estate business. Imagine if there wasn’t a recorder, building permit clerk, or inspector at those desks in the courthouse. It would be kinda hard to know if you can legally sell or buy that house, or if that shopping mall is up to code and the roof won’t collapse once you close on it. Your taxes are paying for those services. God forbid those services were privatized, and your competitor was in charge and the goal is to make a profit doing it. You think they’d clear your deals, or would they just use the opportunity to sweep up all the cherries and stymie your business. Not to mention how much fees would get jacked up, or services cut, even if they were legit to make sure the investors get their money off your work. Besides the actual services, paying the government to do these chores means having a system that ensures everyone is playing by the same rules and treated fairly so they can do business efficiently.

I suppose if you like it, but if the goal is frugality, that is actually the very most expensive way to prepare those dishes… You are paying over 7.00 a pound for that chicken. You can buy 3 pounds in rotisserie bird at the grocery for a couple dollars more and get 6-8-10 meals out of it. Costco, if you have one, sells giant birds for 5 bucks. You can easily freeze what you can’t use right away into pre-measured packets for future meals. With what you are saving you can buy fresh, healthier button mushrooms for about the same price. The ramen price is hard to beat, but there are better and more nutritious versions of plain ramen in the spaghetti aisle in 1-2 pound packages that aren’t that much more. And you can control the salt, and switch up the flavors. Might be a little more standing at the stove, and using a knife to cut things up but cave men were doing that in caves. 😁

Well that’s a fuzzy new one!

I think your links might be set to private. Can you upload them to a site like Imgur?

Congratulations! It’s a wonderful feeling! We theoretically are at the point where we could pay off the house in a lump, but our advisor said, because we have a such a low interest rate on the mortgage, we’d lose more interest now than we would save paying it off. Plus, thanks to inflation, the payment is costing less in today’s dollars than when we took it out. I just said this morning, when we took it out our payment could buy a “good” new guitar every month. Now it will only buy a fair used one. Still, it’s hard not just ripping the bandage off and having the security. I can’t get there fast enough. I really don’t want to go into retirement with a mortgage. And credit card debt is the devils score! Oh I had trouble when I was young. Vowed never again. I use my cards to keep my credit score up, and to get the cash back perks, but never more than I can comfortably cover when the bill comes. I will occasionally use those 0% promotions for big ticket items, but then yeah, like Rob, I always pay off faster way faster than the plan would let me.

Oh and we were woken up at 4 this morning by two bear cubs having a party on our second story deck. They knocked down a couple of bird feeders and even got into the metal bird seed can. The thing has a link chain on it to thwart the squirrels. They just undid the clasp 😆 I gotta say, they were mighty cute, but It was hard to watch them panic trying to figure out how to climb back down when we busted them. They made it okay, but we felt bad they got so scared. We could hear momma grunting below.

We have coyotes around us too, but there is enough space and they are pretty people shy. We leave each other alone. But we can hear them often, usually in the back fields. One night, they were chorusing exceptionally close, sounding like they were in the field right next to us. Our dog was going ape**** inside. During these years, before it got buttoned up, we had occasional feral momma cats take up housekeeping in our barn. This particular spring, there was only one little black kitten left out of the litter (mom and the others had disappeared a few days before) and he was kinda a dummy. So, of course I worried he was being stupid, outside attracted by the ruckus instead of hunkered down safely in the barn. So I threw on some clothes, grabbed my flashlight and headed down. Sure enough, there he was sitting smack dab in the middle of the parking area, with coyotes baying and singing in the field, just looking around like, “hey, what’s going on?” I swooped him up and headed into the office side of the barn where he’d be safely locked in. Just as the screen was closing behind my foot I heard hysterical barking behind me coming down the drive. Thinking it was my spouse with the dog to “help,” I expected them to come right through the door. But the barking ran right by. Panicked, I called up to the house terrified the dog had gotten loose and was chasing the intruders. I was very relieved to hear, “No, she’s right here with me on the couch. But just a second ago we heard a coyote running down the drive.” Seems I wasn’t far off what the party was about, and apparently I got shagged for bogarting somebody’s snack. After I got him settled in his safe place, I went back up to the house armed with a heavy garden shovel. The next day, his brother showed back up, but still not mom or the others. Fearing the worst, we said nope, that’s it, you’re both condemned to an indoor life with catered kibble and soft cushions.

I agree about hating traps. We work in deep forests, and one thing we have to worry about are stumbling into lost or unflagged trap lines. In fact our neighbor across the road one year warned us he was letting a trapper on his land to deal with some coyotes, and told us not to go walk in one part of his woods. In the olden days, trappers at least actively tended their lines and dispatched and collected the victims quickly. If they didn’t, they’d lose the catch to other critters who were happy enough to take advantage of the buffet. Horrible to think about in any case.

Huh, in my daily constitutional around the web, I just came across someone offering a “recent gibson” (probably a j-45? Might have been ‘bird) but the pic of the neck was gruesome: bare wood. So I snorted about how much/hard you’d have to play a newer guitar to do that kind of damage, and scrolled on by. Now I’m second guessing. I don’t recall they were pitching it as an ML, and it must have been in the 2k range since I clicked in. Wonder if I can reconstruct that particular search…

Ouch! 😆 touché

Oh, that’s good looking! Glad you scored. I agree with the wide *padded* strap. It’ll make a world of difference. Congrats!

So glad to hear you, and that you have good helpers coming in. Take care and listen to your caregivers, they will get you through this.

Chuckle. I know how it is. No worries at you! And, an excellent deployment of “democrat” within its historic etymology 🤓