Done Deal

Well, we signed the contract to buy the new house yesterday. Was it smart? Don't know, and probably won't know for years, but I believe we made the correct decision. Now we turn to multitude of other bullshit things that are associated with the purchase of a new home. Namely, inspection, insurance, bank financing, appraisal and whatever else joy pops up over the next 6 weeks. Hopefully, there will be no major problems discovered during our home inspection Wed. We are going so far as to have the drains scoped, so I think we are going all out in our desire to have our home with as few problems as possible.

On a more fun front, Mardi Gras is a week from tomorrow. Sat, I ran into my Dad and while we were visiting he informed me that a friend of his, who had recently had open heart surgery, had been scheduled to ride the float. Since he clearly can't ride the float, Dad got me a chance to ride the float. Now, I used to ride the float back when I lived here, and I really wanted to this year. I decided not to, for a couple of reasons. First, I didn't want to spend any money for the reason above. Second, I was told that the residency requirement was 4 years, and I didn't want to fuck up my chances to get back into the Krewe and ride then. But since Dad secured permission on my behalf, fuck it, I'm going to ride.

I guess I'm also going to have to get some work done on renting the Fl house next week. Shit. That is all I want to say about that for now. Just know that I"m not happy, and not looking forward to it.

Later

moving towards more debt

Well, it's official. We've made an offer on a house, and been countered. The home was listed around $290K, and we offered $225, plus some appliances, furnishings and the lawn mower. They countered at $249, and we are going to counter this morning at or about $242 plus a Blue Dog print and an armoire. We'll see what happens, but I'm pretty stoked other than the fact that my total debt is now slightly higher than the stratosphere if we make this deal. But, we are going to have to find a permanent place to live here in La. and renting would cost nearly as much as buying. Now if we can just rent our place in Florida, which will now be referred to either as "The Tropical Home" or "My Beach House". Technically, it's not a beach house, but why confuse the issue?

The scary thing for housing in general is that the counter offer we received values the home at 67.30/sq ft, and we are going to counter at 65.41/sf. Then you have to add in the value of the items we are asking them to leave, which works out to be probably another $1/sf or so, possibly more if they accept the offer we intend to make this morning. This is in a neighborhood that generally runs $85+/sf, so we are almost literally stealing this house.

Updates to follow.

Later

Issue the (expletive deleted) permits already!!

Seriously. Just issue a drilling permit and let's see what happens. I mean, we've got major turmoil in N. Africa and the Middle East, the price of oil is up about 30% in the last few months, and we still have not issued a drilling (deepwater) permit since BP was kind enough to pollute the entire GOM. And while we're discussing BP, I'd just like to say a hearty "Fuck You" to the good people of BP, or at least their top execs who were fiddling while Rome burned. Now I realize that additional drilling won't really solve these problems, but at least we would be trying. Right now, it seems like we aren't even trying. And, let's face it, alt energy sounds good in theory, but it absolutely isn't going to solve our problems unless everyone in the US and the other developed countries are willing to make MAJOR lifestyle changes. I personally am not, at least not unless someone can shoe me in clear detail what I need to do and how it needs to be done.

Later

TEOTWAWKI

I never heard the term in the title before about 6 months ago, other than the title of an REM song. Now, I see signs of impending doom everywhere. Thanks apocalyptic bloggers!! (jerks).

Seriously though, while I don't believe it's the end of civilization, the combination of this reading plus current world events have lead me to decide maybe it is time to be a little more prepared in my everyday life. With that in mind, here is the short version of my preps and some thoughts as to why. Keep in mind that I don't want to be paranoid, just more prepared. Hopefully, nothing bad ever happens, and I am just spending a couple hundred dollars for nothing. If all else fails, I can go camping or something.

First, while getting my financial house in order is a top priority, as explained in an earlier post, I'm still going to buy another home. I'm going to roll the dice that we can pay for both, and hopefully make a few bucks by renting the one in Fl. At some point, I still intend to sell the Fl home, but I'l love to wait 2-5 years when prices have recovered to some extent. My primary focus over the next 12 months is to keep our credit cards at zero balance, and get a car paid off. Secondary (or maybe tertiary) is to save for retirement and/or college. I've decided to put retirement first, and tell the GCs that they can damn well go to public universities if they wish to continue their education. I know it's cold, but I've come to the conclusion that if we have to finance our retirement ourselves, we need to focus on that first and worry about college second.

Next, I'm on the hunt to build up a "bug out bag". For those of you who don't know what the hell that is, it's basically an "oh shit" bag which would have various survival and comfort related items in it. My current (very short) list is this:

• Basic backpack. I'm looking for a Molle type bag, used that I can pick up cheap.
• One or more canteens, plus some method of filtering or purifying water. I am assuming that I can get water wherever I am prior to an emergency.
• First aid kit. I figure a minimum of the band aid type, but I want to add some medications such as sinus and pain relievers, an Ace bandage (or 2), maybe some Benadril or something. Enough to handle minimal emergencies, with maybe some additional.
• Duct tape. 'nuff said.
• A multi-tool and a folding blade knife. Also in this category would be channel lock pliers and a pair of screwdrivers, one philips and one flat blade. A screwdriver with changeable tips would be fine also. Possibly a small pry bar? Also a cane knife or hatchet might be smart.
• Wool socks, inexpensive parka and/or several ponchos (obviously not the bright yellow ones!). A wool or other type of knit hat, a baseball style or floppy hat in a neutral color.
• I'm thinking that some zip-loc bags in various sizes would be handy. They could be used to store things, or food or water. Large ones could be cut open to make a small solar still, or to wrap something in conjunction with the tape.
• I'm inclined to throw in a .22 caliber pistol, and 50 rounds of ammo, but this might be dangerous if stopped by the police. I need to research the legality of this some more.
• Method of starting a fire. I plan for strike anywhere matches, and lighters. I may also acquire some of the flint/steel strikers, and maybe something else.
• Wipes/toilet paper along with bug spray and sunscreen. For shelter, a small tent, or some plastic sheeting to make a tent. Possibly a ground cover or lightweight sleeping bag.
• Some plastic tubing, or an actual siphon. This will probably just live in the car and not be part of the actual bag, but could be very useful to have. While in this vein, a 12v compressor, tire repair kit and jumper cables too.
• A couple of MREs, freeze dried meals, power bars or something long lived to eat.

This will just about do it. I don't know that this is useful to anyone, and based on my research I know I've left out some things, but I believe these are the essentials.

Later

Must.stop.drinking.....

Seriously, I'm not 25 anymore. We stayed up until after 2 am Saturday night with friends drinking beer/bourbon/rum/vodka. Bad Idea, because our lovely children were up about half an hour before the crack of dawn rocking. I could have gleefully strangled them all, and 3 of them aren't even mine. So I got up at about 6:50 to go sit with them, and drank coffee.......a LOT of coffee. Literally like 8 cups of coffee. I hated everyone and everything with a passion. I am too old for this shit.

Other than that, the day was fine. How was yours?

Later

Banks are dumb, or

to paraphrase the movie "Spaceballs"....."now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb!". You need to say this in a Darth Vader type of voice though. It also helps if you've seen the movie.

Anyway, contacted a bank to see what options were available in terms of buying a house here in La. Since I still own a home in Fl, I sort of expected that to be a problem, but lo and behold, it was okay, as this unnamed bank will allow you to use up to 45% of your gross income on loan payments. Now if this holds true, and I'm not convinced that it will, I could theoretically purchase a huge house on the river and according to the bank, I would be fine. My budget spreadsheet suggests otherwise, but clearly I must be doing something wrong....yeah right. I mean, 45% is a really high number in my mind. Most of the "rule of thumb" type information that I'm familiar with suggests 28 - 35% is the norm. Not that I'm bitching mind you, since my honey would like to vacate the place we are living in now for something that is "ours". Since rents are stupidly high here, I can buy and end up paying about the same per month as if I rent. I know that a lot of people would think this is a stupid move, and I'm not 100% convinced myself, but my calculations say I can do it. If I can rent the Fl house, I'm in high cotton.

Not a lot else going on, just work and soccer for the GC's. Thinking about taking them to the LSU spring game this April. I think they would enjoy it, but not sure.

Later

In-laws

My in-laws are in town. Now, while that is not normally a problem, I just don't feel like having them here. Does that make me a bad person?

Later

First Board Meeting

So, I'm getting ready for the first board meetin here at the new job. Little nervous to be honest, I don't have that much to present, and I've got help, but it's always a little nerve racking the first time.

So far, we've put together a weekly model to estimate revenues, and I'm working on daily one. I've also done a bunch of research into our new accounting software, although no decisions have been made. Need to gather a lot of information still, and hope to have it narrowed down to 3 or 4 vendors by March 31st.

On the home front, all seems to be well. The girls are adjusting to their new schools, and seem to be doing better. Hopefully GC#2 will make some friends, that seems to be the main sticking point. Not sure why she hasn't, or if she has, and just isn't doing a good job of expressing herself. GC #1 seems to have made some friends, although we are the worst parents ever. We totally forgot about a b-day party she was supposed to go to Saturday, so she missed it. We didn't even realize it until Sunday. I guess she'll be okay, but I'm disappointed with myself and my honey for forgetting. It would have been nice to let her go hang out with some potential friends.

Superbowl Sunday......don't know about the rest of the country, but the game was pretty good, but the buildup was the suck. All the celebrities and other bullshit just reminded me of the Oscars, a show that I generally go out of my way to avoid, so I really didn't enjoy it. The commercials were okay, but not great. Thank God it was a pretty good game.

Later

WTF

Seriously, they are calling for sleet, freezing rain and possible snow on Friday? WTF? Did I mistakenly move north of f-ing I-10 somehow?

Should make driving to and from work down that back ass country 2 lane exciting. Guess I need to pick up some firewood tonight too.

Later