2/27/2009

Life 101

Have I just gone brain dead? We got a credit card application in the mail and it offered us the great deal of 18.8% with only a 20 day turn around a minimum interest payment of $1.00 and a great rate of 25% if we were late a day. WTF? I have a nice 12% rate from the local credit union with a 30 day no late payment fee and no minimum interest. With the interest rate so low, how come a guy like me (who pays all his bills, or at least Barb does) doesn't get requests for cards at 8%? All those non payers out there just keep those that can pay, paying through the nose. Well, screw you Master Card. Just so you will know, this credit card was from Sam's club and was a Master Card. Oh sure, I could get 2% of my total Sam's Club purchases back if I paid all year and on time.

There was an article in the local paper about the value of real estate in Shawnee County holding its value for tax purposes. Duh! Just how the heck would you think that the County would lower the value of our property? In fact, it isn't the appraised property value that raises or lowers the taxes, it is the proposed spending in the budget that sets the amount of money they will get and the appraised value just determines how much of that pot you have to pay. If all the values go down and the pot amount stays the same, the mill levy on your house will go up. With a straight face, the county Commissioners will tell us that they didn't rise the mill levy for a year and the county appraiser just raises the value of our houses by the 3 or 4% additional money they want. (Notice I didn't say need) If you really want to have fun, try to sell a house for the appraised value that the County Appraiser gives it. The Real Estate people have come up with some formula that gives your house "comparables" and adjusts the value based on what they sold for. Yes, I know it is all paper money.

It is a sign that spring is almost sprung when the first of the finches at the feeder shows in a coat turning yellow. I notice the red cardinal also is sporting his bright red coat also. Even the giant flicker on the suet block looks pretty good in the early light. I am not sure what he is doing besides throwing chunks of far and corn on the ground for the juncos. He seems to tear up the block more than eat the contents. That is probably more based on the fact that I bought those blocks of suet for a buck each rather than a real observation. Cheap bastard that I am...

Drove the 53 pickup to Lawrence yesterday and man am I glad that the fuel gauge reads light. It has about three gallons left when the gauge reads empty. I didn't remember to fill it up the last time I drove it and headed out for the 25 miles to the nearest station in Lawrence it said the tank was empty. I know it was pretty dry when I got to Lawrence because as I went around the corner to get to a pump the needle didn't move because of splash. The tank is about 15 gallons with some room for expansion and I put in over 14 gallons, almost 15.

I have a lot of small things to do today to get ready for the trip to Lubbock. We will be there Wednesday night to see our Hawks take on Texas Tech. They played Texas a close game at Texas so our guys will have to bring their "A" game to take a win out of there. We lead the Big XII with three games left. Missouri, Texas Tech and Texas. Not one of those teams will roll over and let us win easy. It is ours to win or lose at this point.

Have a great day out there.

MUD

2 comments:

  1. We are in the process of paying off our credit cards and then cutting them up. We'll keep one or two just in case, but we haven't put anything on the credit cards without paying it off immediately for quite a while. It's just all accumulated old debt and not much of it. It seems to really freak out the credit card companies that we are making bigger payments and not spending. I have gotten a call from Discover about every other week for the past 3 months. They tell me what a good customer I am and say they want to know what they can do to reward me for that. I always start off with, "How about eliminating my debt or at least knocking it down a bit?" They laugh at that and then I say, "Well, you just lowered my interest rate." Then they offer to lower it again and I accept. Of course, I think the new interest rate only applies to new purchases. Sneaky bastards. They aren't going to convince me to add more debt. We should never have started in the first place.

    And speaking of sneaky bastards, it's very appropriate for you to have mentioned the county treasurers in with the credit card companies. We had this whole argument last year about how houses weren't selling and they couldn't keep raising property taxes in a down real estate market. They didn't agree. They said Kansas isn't as bad as other places. Well, maybe not, but how bad does it have to get? I bet we could not sell our house very easily for what they think we should be able to. I've seen how long other houses in Douglass and the surrounding area sit empty. Meanwhile, where are all the taxes going when they can't even keep up the roads out in the county, much less pave them? That dangerous intersection where we had our accident last fall has not even had the high grass mowed around it or the stop signs replaced and it really needs to have the grade fixed on that entire 1/4 to 1/2 mile section of both roads. The same intersection has had at least 4 serious accidents in recent years--one of them a fatality. Our friends who live nearby have told their kids to take a different way around rather than going through that intersection. Re-routing in the country is not as quick or easy as in town, but in this case it's worth it because that intersection is so dangerous.

    Rant over:o)

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  2. Jenni, Thanks for stopping by. I often wonder if my rants cause people to think and react. I do know my counter keeps going up each day so I know people are reading. Love the pictures of your kids. MUD

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