Category Archives: The Real Deal

Do Not Call Does Not Work

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Every night at the same time. Sometime between 6:100 and 6:30 the phone rings.

“Anonymous”

“Out of Area”

“Unknown”

All signals from the caller ID that it isn’t anyone I want to talk with or to. Yet, sometimes, I pick up the phone and there’s silence. Nothing. Nada.

I’ve been told that this is just a way for machines to verify the number is good. If someone picks up it alerts the telemarketing center that there is actually:

  1. someone at home and
  2. It might be a good time to call

Of course, Do Not Call doesn’t apply to politicians, charities (the Red Cross is the worst, followed by Special Olympics) and people with whom you have done some business with before whether or not the experience was good or bad.

Still that leaves a whole pisspot full of people who call anyway.

Being a real estate guy, I sometimes hear that real estate agents will call anyway because:

  • the process to lodge a complaint that results in a fine is too onerous for most people and,
  • even if, in the worst of all worlds, a fine is levied, it’s the cost of doing business.

In other words, the risk of getting fined is worth it because the probability of talking to someone who will do business with you (i.e., buy or sell a house…or know someone who will buy or sell a house) is so small. Tiny, in fact.

Still, it’s annoying as hell to hear the phone ring at intermittent times of the day.  Is it someone I know that I really want to talk to?  Is it a call I might be expecting? Is it a family member with an emergency? All kinds of reasons.

So, I rush to the phone and look at the Caller ID and see “Out of Area” or “Unknown Caller” or whatever. Frequently. Too damn frequently.

Do Not Call Does Not Work

Finally….The HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus Installed

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In my last post, I wrote about trying to install my brand spankin’ new HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus.

Well, I finally did it. Best of of all, I think it actually works.

A couple of things I learned about the process some good, some not so good:

  • With tenacity and perseverance I can usually figure out what needs to be done to get the job done.
  • HP support really bites.  I even tried getting through to them on Twitter @HPSupport but they weren’t answering.  Maybe they had a Christmas party today or something.
  • Not everything that comes in the box is in good working order. In my case the black ink cartridge didn’t work for what ever reason and I had to run to the store to get one for an additional $37. While I was at it, I got the color ink multi-pack (just in case) for another $57.
  • While I was trying to get things working I thought I would try the direct, hardwired (USB) method vs the wireless method and ended up needing to buy a new USB cable (which didn’t come in the box) for another $28.  AS it turned out, once I got the new black ink cartridge in, I didn’t need the cable.  In fact, I had to disconnect it to go wireless.
  • Doing the AirPrint or HP ePrint thing was tricky and not at all intuitive.

Here’s the bottom line. Unlike technology from the old days when you had a huge manual that would tell you how to do everything and/or a customer support line with a live person at the end, technology of today presupposes that you know enough about how to put things together and make things work.

The other challenge, of course, is that this stuff is all made in China…including the manuals and “Getting Started” posters.  I don’t know how they put things together in China but I think it’s a bit different from the way you put things together in the US.  Especially instructions on how to put things together.

I think the real deal, here, is that unless you really have a lot of patience or a geeky 16 year old nearby installing even something that should be relatively simple…is not.

Volunteering

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The flip side to giving, of course, is volunteering.  This is either when, in my opinion, you don’t have the money to give or you have too much time on your hands.

Just kidding.

Volunteering is almost always the easy way out to provide some kind of community service or help in some worthy cause.  Sometimes, as in the case of interning, volunteering can help get your a real, money-paying j-o-b.

In my case, I do some volunteering with my local Rotary club.  One of the things they do is provide parking logistics for the US Naval Academy home games.  Yeah.  That’s right. We get dressed up in bright, neon yellow vests with equally bright orange flags.

It’s really not as easy as it looks and it’s an all day affair.  College football fans don’t just come to watch the game.  They come to tailgate and have fun in the parking lot. That means they come early.  So, me and about 70 other people are out getting people to park in the right spaces and keep the driving aisles open for cars.

I do other stuff, too, but what bought this to mind is that today is the Navy home opener against the University of Delaware.  Newark, DE is really not that far from Annapolis, MD so there will be a ton of fans for both teams descending upon theNavy-Marine Corp Stadium.

The fun never stops.

Bad News and Empathy

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I really try to put myself into other people’s shoes.

OK. Maybe not always.  But, for the most part, I really try to see life from other people’s perspective.

Well, today I just got some news that makes other people’s woes real personal. Not just one or two people. Hundreds of thousands of people.

I through it would be nice to refinance my home. You know, catch a lower interest rate so I could save some money on my monthly payment.  I didn’t even want to “cash out” and get enough money to buy the 60″ flat screen or buy a new car.  I just wanted the lower interest rate.

So I talked to my loan officer guy and he told me that my credit score looked good, my debt-to-income ratio looked good, money in the bank.  Everything seemed to be showing a green light.  The only thing that needed to happen was that my house needed to appraise for 20% more than I owed on my mortgage.  The idea was to avoid PMI – Private Mortgage Insurance – which would negate any savings I would make on the monthly payment.

So, the appraiser came out and we chewed the fat. He took lots of photos of the place and drew his little floor plan and left. Four days later the official appraisal report was sent to the lender and my loan officer called me this morning.

I not get the 20% above what I owe on my mortgage in order to refinance. That would have been disappointing but not the end of the world. I did not get an appraised value even for the amount I owed on my mortgage.  Again, that would have been OK.

No. I got an appraisal that told me my house was worth $50,000 less than I owed on it. That was hard news to swallow.

I bought the place in 2003 and, sure, it was during the boom years and all but it was still in the early boom years. Yes, I did take out a small equity line in order to buy an “investment property” (don’t get me started on that).  We consolidated in 2008 and basically have a principal mortgage balance within $5,000 of what we bought the house for in 2003.

In other words, the house has declined in value by $50,000 in 8 years.  That’s hard news.

My wife is the eternal optimist, though.

“We’re not alone.”, she says. “Lots of people are going through this.”, she says. “We happy living here and not planning to move anytime soon.”, she says.

All that is true.  My mortgage is current. I can afford to make the payments every month. The worst case scenario is that I’m stuck here for another 27 years paying down a mortgage that started in 2008 (with the refinance).  At some point, even if it’s 15 years from now, I will have enough equity in the house simply through paying down the mortgage to be able to sell it.

I just can’t sell it now. Or refinance. Or anything.

So I have found new empathy for the millions going through this horrible housing market.

Just A Little Pissed Off

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man at laptop with cell phone getting reprimandedYou may have heard.  The stock market isn’t doing too well these day.  In fact, all the news is bad.  Downright scary. It’s not scary because of its effect on the larger economy. That would be bad enough. It’s scary because of what it means for my personal economy.  Like my retirement savings.

So I decided to e-mail the financial adviser guy I’ve been with for over a decade.

Yeah. He’s not really a financial adviser. He’s a stock broker. At least that what the people who do his job used to be called before they decided that “wealth management” sounded better and they could sell annuities and insurance in addition to stocks and bonds.

So, I e-mailed him to ask if there was anything he could recommend to unload the poor performers in the portfolio and pick up something else that might fare better in these economic hard times.  I’m nervous. The truth is I’m not as young as I used to be and my “golden years” are a lot closer. I don’t have 20 years to ride out the storm.

He was nice, at first. Kinda glib, really.  Don;t worry. Things will get better.  Keep your head down and sell some houses.

I pushed back by telling him his own company was partly responsible for the big market drop with their gloomy economic forecast. I mentioned the Federal Reserve promised to keep the Fed Rate near zero for the next two years. I mentioned a few other things.

That’s when he took off the gloves.

He basically told me where to get off the bus. it wasn’t like “Hey, I’m the expert.”  It was more like he had been through a lot of down markets, the media is paid to scare us to sell more advertising, politicians don’t know jack. That kinda thing.

But it was the way he did it.  It wasn’t the patient, understanding, or even paternalistic way.  It was the “I don’t want to take any crap off you.” way. I felt like I was being scolded by a guy who has made plenty of money from me over the years and who I think I get along with fairly well.

He’s probably right.  That’s not the point. But, I’ll stick with him and I don’t really expect to get a “Geeze, I’m sorry. It was a really rough day.”  Maybe part of me wishes I could do that with my own clients.  You know. Tell them where to get off the bus when they’re being unreasonable or hysterical or something.

Instead, I hold their hand and in my calmest voice tell them everything will be alright. I’ll be there for you. Don’t worry. Be Happy.

And then I come home and wish I had a dog I could kick.

Back On Track?

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Well, I’m still not happy with how weird the scale works but I weighed myself this morning — 280.4 lbs.  I’ll take it.

Week 23 — 284.0 lbs
Week 24 — 280.4 lbs
Decrease —3.6 lbs
Total Decrease Year to Date — 22 lbs or .91 lbs per week

That’s still not s sterling track record. The worst part is that by starving myself the past few days (on and off). I reflexively bought some bad stuff today.  Challah bread and huge chocolate chip cookies both from a gourmet bakery called the Great Harvest Bread Company. Cute t-shirt slogan: “It’s nice to be kneaded”. Get it?

Anyway, my pattern seems to be that I follow the straight and narrow for awhile and then backslide.

Anyway, tomorrow I’m heading back to the gym for my on/off exercise routine.  It’s just really, really tough to establish this “new lifestyle” habit.

Day 7 of my 30 day challenge to myself

 

Weekly Weigh In … Week 24 (Delayed)

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Normally this would be the day to weigh-in and report.  The idea is to keep myself accountable. Yeah.  I look at my weight every day and see what it is but if I put it here maybe it’ll make it stronger.

However, this week, I’m putting it off.

Here’s why.

I can’t freakin’ trust the scale I’ve been using.

Check this out:

5/22 — 282.4 lbs
5/23 — 281.30 lbs
5/24 — 280.2 lbs
5/25 — 278.8 lbs

In the space of 4 days I dropped 3.6 lbs and, for the first time in memory got below 280 lbs.  Sounds pretty good, huh?  I was doing the end zone happy dance and thinking I finally broke through the plateau.

I weighed myself today (the official day) and I was at 282 something.  Wait!  That can’t be right.  I really didn’t do anything different.  I stepped off the scale, reset it (it’s a fancy schmancy Sater that tells you everything about yourself that you never wanted to know) and then stepped back on.

I was up a pound.  In the space of two minutes.  Ok.  Time to let the scale “cool off” or something.  So, I have my morning cereal and toast and check e-mail and then weigh myself again.  Now I was up to 284 something!  So I had gained two pounds in 35 minutes.

No way.

I have been going over my calorie limit the past couple of days but not by the amount necessary to pile back all that weight and surely my weight didn’t fluctuate 2 pounds in less than an hour.

I guess it’s time for another scale.  I watched what I ate today and I’m 267 calories under my limit.  I’m also a little hungry.  That’s OK.  Let’s see what this wacko scale says tomorrow morning.

I’m getting a new scale, though.

This is what I have in mind…

 

This is Day 6 of a 30 day challenge to myself

Weekly Weigh-In … Week 22

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I probably should contribute to this blog a little more that I have been.  Especially since I’ve been on this plateau for awhile and, lately, been craving nice sweet, sugary treats.  I also recently went through — with the ables assistance of my lovely wife —a pound and half of hard pretzels and a ound of chocolate covered pretzels.  Not just any pretzels, mind you, but Hammond’s Old Fashioned Handmade Pretzels from the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, Lancaster, PA.

Here’s the weekly breakdown:

Week 21 – 282.6 lbs
Week 22 – 281.6 lbs
Decrease – 1 lb
Year to date decrease – ~21 lbs or .95 lb/week

This is still not the optimum.  I have been losing at a much faster pace but, of course, I’ve been getting lazy by not logging in my calories and not exercising as much.  I went back to the gym yesterday for some time on the treadmill.  I’ll go back today.  Hopefully, that will help jump start the loss, again.

Who knows?