The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote
You forced me to dig out the bills :-( Proptax this year is $1002 based
on an assessed value of $50K. The assessments can be increased by no
more than 2%/year (Thanks, Howard!), which accounts for the low value.
The median home price in SoCal is nearing $1million. Zillow thinks our
hovel is worth perhaps half that, but they aren't including bulldozing
charges.
Wow. Prop 13 saved you. I wish I had the first home I bought in California for $200K as it is likely Zillow-worthed more than a million today.
Do you remember a couple of years ago they tried to erode prop 13 with a series of related catch-me-if-you-can propositions to chop off parts of it?
Homeowner's insurance on the $310K they figure it would cost to rebuild
(building value only) is $385/year. Quake insurance is $500/year. This
increase is new.
You have a good deal. I happen to live, unfortunately, in one of the most expensive communities in the United States - which is also a Tier III fire zone and within sight of the San Andreas fault - so that explains things.
Here is what you would have seen from the sky (it's interactive).
<http://thulescientific.com/san-andreas-fault-map.html>
I recently borrowed a slick book from the library --
https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-San-Andreas-Fault/dp/1941384080
Nice find! "The Field Guide to the San Andreas Fault by David K Lynch".
I have his book on Cirrus clouds, but I didn't know of that field guide.
I'll keep an eye open for that field guide now that I know about it.
I have in my collection a few John Dvorak books on the topic, such as
Earthquake Storms: An Unauthorized Biography of the San Andreas Fault
I have all the Roadside Geology guides starting with Arizona decades
ago and when I moved to California I picked up the Norcal edition.
Likewise with those idiotically illogical signs telling us how much the
infraction is for driving in the commuter lane is - WTF?
The signs announcing the next legal exit area are way too small to read
in the fraction of a second I have available at 80mph, the standard
diamond-lane speed when possible. Absolutely useless. In some places
the separation line is broken, which I assume means we can slip in and
out at will rather than only in designated spots.
Did you know that California was _forced_ to add those exit numbers?
I really hate using the diamond lane -- motorcycles split (the only
sensible thing for them to do), but they're silent and if I move just a
bit to the right (does anyone maintain a perfect straight line?) I could
kill the poor guy. Moreover, you never can tell when some impatient
driver stopped in the 'fast' lane will decide to go for it.
I ride a K1200 so I know all about what most bikers do. It's crazy.
They weave. That's not actually legal but they don't get tickets for it.
The way the California law works, last I checked (which was long ago when I took the lollipop test) is that both cagers and bikers have the same laws.
The laws do NOT prohibit "sharing" of a line if space permits.
So it works both ways.
A cager can legally share the same lane as the biker but it almost never happens, not the least of which is the bike can out accelerate the cage.
Bikers are supposed to follow all laws just like cars drivers do, where you should see what happens when a cager tries to share the lane at a light.
BTW, even the emergency vehicles must follow all laws in some states, but
not in California. When I was an EMT back east, I was taught that fact.
Because everyone involved in government is stupid and/or venal. If they
really gave a shit they'd replace the lights on the above-the-freeway
signs so we could read them in the dark. Headlights aren't aimed high
enough for the reflectors to work. Yeahyeahyeah, most people use their
app blablablabla but I'd rather know where I'm going for real -- google
and Garmin occasionally do weird things.
This is one of the many situations where cellphones make driving safer. Anyone who says cellphones cause accidents doesn't know the statistics.
There have been progressively fewer accidents per mile driven in every
state in the USA since before, during & after the cellphone adoption.
That reliable fact isn't what the politicians who screamed for those
driving laws used - all they used were their cherry picked accidents.
Sigh. There's no logic in politics. Ask Steve all about it.
He used to be the Mayor of Cupertino. He knows politics.
Verizon was his biggest customer. Fancy that.
Do any other states do these crazy things other than California?
I'm sure they do. We're probably #1, though!
I think the wackiest states are about five, all blue, California, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey although _they_ would throw Texas in that category (I'm not sure which are the wacky red states though).
The governor recently vetoed a bill banning the caste system in California.
*California governor vetoes bill that would have banned caste discrimination*
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2023/10/07/california-caste-discrimination-ban-newsom-veto/dd883386-654e-11ee-b406-3ea724995806_story.html>
And now we have ebony alerts for missing black people, apparently.
*California Ebony Alert will help find missing Black people*
<https://www.npr.org/2023/10/15/1205950946/in-a-first-californias-ebony-alert-will-help-track-down-missing-black-people>
Wow. Prop 13 saved you. I wish I had the first home I bought in California >> for $200K as it is likely Zillow-worthed more than a million today.
I wish we'd mortgaged ourselves up to the hilt and bought the most
expensive home in San Marino that we could afford. Buying cheap so we
could just walk away if we had to move across the country for work was a
big mistake.
Do you remember a couple of years ago they tried to erode prop 13 with a
series of related catch-me-if-you-can propositions to chop off parts of it?
It's a constant battle. They're trying to split the roll so that
business property would no longer be protected.
People are stupid and this just might succeed.
The tweak they accomplished sounds good if
heirs actually WANT to live in the home of their deceased parent, but if
they want to sell out immediately it's a different story.
You have a good deal. I happen to live, unfortunately, in one of the most
expensive communities in the United States - which is also a Tier III fire >> zone and within sight of the San Andreas fault - so that explains things.
Not quite a slum here, but definitely lower middle class and a freeway on-ramp.
Here is what you would have seen from the sky (it's interactive).
<http://thulescientific.com/san-andreas-fault-map.html>
Wow! That must have taken a LOT of red paint!
I have in my collection a few John Dvorak books on the topic, such as
Earthquake Storms: An Unauthorized Biography of the San Andreas Fault
I have all the Roadside Geology guides starting with Arizona decades
ago and when I moved to California I picked up the Norcal edition.
The Russ Leadabrand books are good.
Did you know that California was _forced_ to add those exit numbers?
Not a bad idea if it's an addition rather than a replacement.
When they
give city names as directions in an unfamiliar area I have more sympathy
fo the people who shoot road signs.
WTF is wrong with north, south,
east or west? OTOH that's sometimes ambiguous.
I ride a K1200 so I know all about what most bikers do. It's crazy.
They weave. That's not actually legal but they don't get tickets for it.
If you're fast enough and pay attention it's not that dangerous unless
you suddenly come upon a hunk of truck tire or 2x4 hidden by the car
ahead of you.
The laws do NOT prohibit "sharing" of a line if space permits.
So it works both ways.
I think they loosened that recently, but I don't remember where I heard
that.
A cager can legally share the same lane as the biker but it almost never
happens, not the least of which is the bike can out accelerate the cage.
Last time I took the MC written test I missed one -- I said that bikes
should ride to the side of the lane (center oil slick), but 'center' was
the correct answer.
I was pissed because they were WRONG, but then I
looked at the local freeway lanes. No oil slicks. The thing needs considerable repair (born in 1973 or so) but there's no oil. Cars are
just BETTER now, so The Bastards were actually right.
I think the wackiest states are about five, all blue, California, New York, >> Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey although _they_ would throw Texas >> in that category (I'm not sure which are the wacky red states though).
The governor recently vetoed a bill banning the caste system in California. >> *California governor vetoes bill that would have banned caste discrimination*
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2023/10/07/california-caste-discrimination-ban-newsom-veto/dd883386-654e-11ee-b406-3ea724995806_story.html>
I'd never realized that we had that many Dalits here. I watched Dr. Who
a few times and would have thought that they were able to take care of themselves without anyone's help. For once Newsom recognized reality.
And now we have ebony alerts for missing black people, apparently.
*California Ebony Alert will help find missing Black people*
<https://www.npr.org/2023/10/15/1205950946/in-a-first-californias-ebony-alert-will-help-track-down-missing-black-people>
It would seem that this was aimed at the people in control of the
message boards as well as the cops who make the decision between missing
and runaway, not the general public. Feather alerts. Ebony alerts.
Amber alerts. Will there be separate boards or will there be different-colored lights? What color is a 'feather'? We used to listen
to NPR before they jettisoned Garrison Keillor. Until then it was
merely annoying.
The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote
Wow. Prop 13 saved you. I wish I had the first home I bought in California >>> for $200K as it is likely Zillow-worthed more than a million today.
I wish we'd mortgaged ourselves up to the hilt and bought the most
expensive home in San Marino that we could afford. Buying cheap so we
could just walk away if we had to move across the country for work was a
big mistake.
I agree with you that we should have mortgaged ourselves to the hilt.
As you're aware, any $200K home turned into a million easily out here.
Good. You understood. Most people are stupid. They only read the titles.
And man oh man, are those titles great sounding names for the props.
Prop titles sound like Apple advertisements - they're that well done!
Death of a thousand cuts it is.
You have a good deal. I happen to live, unfortunately, in one of the most >>> expensive communities in the United States - which is also a Tier III fire >>> zone and within sight of the San Andreas fault - so that explains things. >>Not quite a slum here, but definitely lower middle class and a freeway
on-ramp.
I moved here "for the schools" but in reality, that's merely a euphemism.
Here is what you would have seen from the sky (it's interactive).
<http://thulescientific.com/san-andreas-fault-map.html>
Wow! That must have taken a LOT of red paint!
You're funny.
Comedians see the same things everyone else does - but differently.
Red paint! :)
Funny thing about California paint - did'ja ever notice the strip in the middle almost always has black paint underlying the yellow stripes?
Back east, where I came from, you'd _never_ see that.
I don't recall any other state doing that.
I always figured there must be a reason _only_ California does it.
Do any other states do it that you know of?
I have in my collection a few John Dvorak books on the topic, such as
Earthquake Storms: An Unauthorized Biography of the San Andreas Fault
I have all the Roadside Geology guides starting with Arizona decades
ago and when I moved to California I picked up the Norcal edition.
The Russ Leadabrand books are good.
Thanks for the pointer, where I had to delete my ignorance of who he was.
<https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-12-23-mn-12126-story.html>
"Russ Leadabrand, writer and historian chronicled CA & the Old West"
My first search was with Google Scholar, which found some of his stuff.
<https://scholar.google.com/scholar?&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Russ+Leadabrand>
When they
give city names as directions in an unfamiliar area I have more sympathy
for the people who shoot road signs.
I've read the NHTSA traffic sign PDF ever since it was a PDF (it's only online now) where they're s'posed to pick the three biggest destinations.
As for shooting road signs, did'ja ever drive in Texas?
Every deer-crossing sign is riddled with buckshot.
Of course, out here we have _one digit_ interstates, but that's only
because they started with 5 out west moving to 95 back east (always below three digits - which is important).
Did'ja every notice that not only the mileage markers count upward and eastward from the state border (or the beginning of the roadway)?
Most people don't know that in a single mile you know exactly what
direction you're traveling from the mileage markers (or exit numbers).
People are incredibly stupid.
They know nothing about this fantastically well-designed system.
I ride a K1200 so I know all about what most bikers do. It's crazy.
They weave. That's not actually legal but they don't get tickets for it.
If you're fast enough and pay attention it's not that dangerous unless
you suddenly come upon a hunk of truck tire or 2x4 hidden by the car
ahead of you.
Bikes are dangerous because of cagers and the weather (which is never
really bad in California but it is nasty back east with the black ice).
A cager taking a left turn is the most dangerous thing to a biker...
Yeah. I've taken these tests too. My first one, when I was a kid, I also
got one wrong which was similarly stupid in that they asked if you should stand on the pegs when you go over bump where what they meant was to
simply shift your weight a bit lower in the center of gravity.
Another one, on another test, was whether to be in neutral at a light,
where they want you always in gear - but most bikers shift into neutral because otherwise they'll have hands the size of a gorilla's paws.
Given I'm German by descent, and I'm from back east by upbringing, I'd like to propose we ban the sale of hotdogs sans sauerkraut in California.
Costco won't even give you those little packets of the stuff anymore.
Must be a prop 65 sort of things...
Hence I nominate the silver coloring for missing old people.
Black coloring for missing black people.
And rainbow coloring for missing gay people.
(Do we have a rainbow alert yet?)
(If not, just wait; we eventually will.)
I wish we'd mortgaged ourselves up to the hilt and bought the most
expensive home in San Marino that we could afford. Buying cheap so we
could just walk away if we had to move across the country for work was a
big mistake.
It's a constant battle. They're trying to split the roll so that
business property would no longer be protected. People are stupid and
this just might succeed.
The tweak they accomplished sounds good if
heirs actually WANT to live in the home of their deceased parent, but if
they want to sell out immediately it's a different story.
Yeah, when we bought our house in California had we spent another $200K
we would have a house that was worth a million dollars more than what
our house is worth now, and it would have been a newer house without all
the issues of a 1960's tract home. We could have afforded it but we
didn't want to be so house poor.
It's a constant battle. They're trying to split the roll so that
business property would no longer be protected. People are stupid and
this just might succeed.
No, what has happened is that businesses are now paying a much smaller percentage of the total property tax because there are ways to transfer ownership of a commercial property without it being reassessed. So
homeowners are subsidizing businesses.
The real change that is needed in Prop 13 is to have it apply solely to owner-occupied residential property. Not rental property. Not commercial office buildings that are leased out. Perhaps some exception for
businesses that own their own buildings.
On 10/21/2023 4:24 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
<snip>
I wish we'd mortgaged ourselves up to the hilt and bought the most
expensive home in San Marino that we could afford. Buying cheap so we
could just walk away if we had to move across the country for work was a
big mistake.
Yeah, when we bought our house in California had we spent another $200K
we would have a house that was worth a million dollars more than what
our house is worth now, and it would have been a newer house without all
the issues of a 1960's tract home. We could have afforded it but we
didn't want to be so house poor.
<snip>
It's a constant battle. They're trying to split the roll so that
business property would no longer be protected. People are stupid and
this just might succeed.
No, what has happened is that businesses are now paying a much smaller percentage of the total property tax because there are ways to transfer ownership of a commercial property without it being reassessed. So
homeowners are subsidizing businesses.
The real change that is needed in Prop 13 is to have it apply solely to owner-occupied residential property. Not rental property. Not commercial office buildings that are leased out. Perhaps some exception for
businesses that own their own buildings.
The tweak they accomplished sounds good if
heirs actually WANT to live in the home of their deceased parent, but if
they want to sell out immediately it's a different story.
Parts of prop 19 are good in theory since if the people inheriting the property are turning it into an income-generating rental then they
should not be enjoying the artificially low assessment. If they live in
the house they inherited then they get a flat $1 million reduction in assessed value versus the market value (it's a little more complex than
that, see <https://www.boe.ca.gov/prop19/#Charts>). Fixing the exemption
at a flat $1 million might not have been the best idea though.
Where the Prop 19 opponents are being disingenuous is in calling it a
"Death Tax." It is true that if adult children inherit their parents'
house, and live in it, their property taxes may go up. Which is only
fair considering that their income is likely much higher and they are
using more public services, especially public schools.
The other part of Prop 19 allows owners over a certain age to take their
Prop 13 assessed value with them anywhere in the state. This would be a windfall to counties where the old property is then sold at a huge
increase in assessed value but could hurt counties where the owner moves to.
The reality is that the primary goal of Prop 19, which was to encourage
more turnover of properties in order to enrich the real estate industry,
did not materialize. The remaining big issue is capital gains tax. The
$500K exclusion is sufficient in many parts of the country, but not in
areas with bat-shit crazy real estate prices, and we're not talking
about a $3 million house being a mansion, but a six decade old
relatively small tract home. What would be smart would be to move every
two years and take the $500K exemption each time before the value of the house increased by more than $500K.
Personally, I benefit enormously by Prop 13 but the reality is that it
is driving up real estate prices by limiting the supply. I own a 40 year
old townhouse that I rent out that I cannot afford to sell since I would
not get any capital gains exclusion.
Good. You understood. Most people are stupid. They only read the titles.
And man oh man, are those titles great sounding names for the props.
Prop titles sound like Apple advertisements - they're that well done!
There's an initiative to require proposition titles to accurately
reflect the contents. It will be interesting to see how the opponents
spin that.
I moved here "for the schools" but in reality, that's merely a euphemism.
I wish we'd known how bad the public schools were before sending the
kids to them. When we were young the only kids who went to private
schools were fantastically rich or damaged in some way.
You're funny.
Comedians see the same things everyone else does - but differently.
Red paint! :)
I guess I missed my calling :-(
I always figured there must be a reason _only_ California does it.
Do any other states do it that you know of?
I haven't driven out of state since I noticed that. I assumed that the
black paint was to either increase contrast or cover up previous white
paint. Anything that makes it easier to see the lines during our
occasional rainstorms is good.
My first search was with Google Scholar, which found some of his stuff.
<https://scholar.google.com/scholar?&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Russ+Leadabrand>
He wrote a column in the local fishwrap for a long time. Another good geologist-writer is Robert Sharp, who caught at Caltech and took the
students on field trips around the LA area.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sharp+geology
As for shooting road signs, did'ja ever drive in Texas?
Every deer-crossing sign is riddled with buckshot.
Driving I-10 in Texas is different.
Widely-spaced trucks in the right
lane, cars passing maybe 15mph faster in the left lane.
Car wants to go
even faster, pulls to the right passing a lot of cars and then tries to
elbow his way back into the left lane. Sometimes he has to wait a long
time for some kind person to let him in.
It's almost like a ritual that
works sometimes. I decided it was a lot less stressful as well as more efficient to just stay in the left lane and hope that there would be
some scenery to watch pretty soon.
Of course, out here we have _one digit_ interstates, but that's only
because they started with 5 out west moving to 95 back east (always below
three digits - which is important).
Nice of them to leave Highway 1 alone and not make I-5 I-1.
One year we
tried to drive every single bit of Highway 1.
Lots of it are just gone,
and one part was a steep dirt road. I happened to be driving when we
started to slip. I made everyone get out while I backed down with the
driver door open in case I had to jump. Turned out OK.
Did'ja every notice that not only the mileage markers count upward and
eastward from the state border (or the beginning of the roadway)?
We used to pay attention to that when we were calibrating the speedometer/odometer.
They know nothing about this fantastically well-designed system.
It's so well designed that we don't NEED to know about it!
Bikes are dangerous because of cagers and the weather (which is never
really bad in California but it is nasty back east with the black ice).
Going up to Big Bear via I-15 (18 was down for a whole year due to a
really impressive washout) I hit a patch of it and slid into a snowbank.
Eventually a farmer came along and yanked me out with a rope. Just a
few feet around the corner there was a CHP guy parked. He could clearly
hear everything that was happening, including my slide. But would HE
help? Yeah, right.
A cager taking a left turn is the most dangerous thing to a biker...
Not just bikers. "Honest, Officer, I didn't see those pedestrians
crossing with their green light..." The cow's $25K insurance didn't
cover the whole medical bill.
Simple rule: When in doubt, stand up.
Another one, on another test, was whether to be in neutral at a light,
where they want you always in gear - but most bikers shift into neutral
because otherwise they'll have hands the size of a gorilla's paws.
Not necessarily. My 1960 Ducati was nasty about finding neutral, so I
never learned to do that automatically. Never needed to with the
Japanese dirtbikes.
Given I'm German by descent, and I'm from back east by upbringing, I'd like >> to propose we ban the sale of hotdogs sans sauerkraut in California.
Sauerkraut is almost food if you have nothing else. What I liked were
the NY hot dogs with almost-caramelized onions. And the REAL frozen
custard. I've never had any ice cream that good EVER.
Costco won't even give you those little packets of the stuff anymore.
Must be a prop 65 sort of things...
I miss their combo pizza.
Covid took away more than it knew. OTOH,
Amazon Fresh baked-in-store pizzas are better than either the Costco or
Sam's combo pizzas. Until they cut their prices in half, the pizza is
the only thing worth buying there.
(Do we have a rainbow alert yet?)
(If not, just wait; we eventually will.)
And a sort of medium grey for people of mixed or unknown ethnicity/gender/age/preference.
Suppose I identify as a service animal. Are there any benefits?
I think keeping money out of the hands of governments is a good
thing.
On 10/22/23 5:01 PM, sms wrote:
On 10/21/2023 4:24 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
<snip>
I wish we'd mortgaged ourselves up to the hilt and bought the most
expensive home in San Marino that we could afford. Buying cheap so we
could just walk away if we had to move across the country for work
was a big mistake.
Yeah, when we bought our house in California had we spent another $200K
we would have a house that was worth a million dollars more than what
our house is worth now, and it would have been a newer house without all
the issues of a 1960's tract home. We could have afforded it but we
didn't want to be so house poor.
<snip>
It's a constant battle. They're trying to split the roll so that
business property would no longer be protected. People are stupid
and this just might succeed.
No, what has happened is that businesses are now paying a much smaller
percentage of the total property tax because there are ways to transfer
ownership of a commercial property without it being reassessed. So
homeowners are subsidizing businesses.
Yup. And if their property taxes increase WE, the customers, will be
paying them. Businesses don't pay taxes, the consumers do. And the
State wastes it.
The parents worked for it. If they want to give it to their kids to do whatever they damn please with it that's proper. The parents already
paid a shit pot of property and income taxes; that's enough.
My grandchildren will never have the career my husband and I had. What
we leave is for THEIR retirement -- so they don't have to eat dog food
and live in a crappy apartment. Our choice.
The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote
There's an initiative to require proposition titles to accurately
reflect the contents. It will be interesting to see how the opponents
spin that.
OMG! That would be fantastic! I doubt it will ever happen. Just look at how Steve changes the truth when he's shilling for Verizon as an example of how the politicians use every trick in the book to earn votes of stupid people.
I always wanted to make a proposition that a proposition could like to you. It had to tell the truth in the title.
Like the one where they needed money and they figured they could get it
from taxing the lottery, so they called it "Modernizing the lottery!".
Also I'm against the propositions that are put forth by Home Depot, such as the one where they required every home to have a CO detector by the end of the year (and at the same time their prices skyrocketed at Home Depot).
I moved here "for the schools" but in reality, that's merely a euphemism. >>I wish we'd known how bad the public schools were before sending the
kids to them. When we were young the only kids who went to private
schools were fantastically rich or damaged in some way.
Where I came from, the Catholics went to private schools (and wore plaid).
Out here, we have some of the best schools in the country, but of course,
the "best schools" is a euphemism for something else altogether you know.
I always figured there must be a reason _only_ California does it.
Do any other states do it that you know of?
I haven't driven out of state since I noticed that. I assumed that the
black paint was to either increase contrast or cover up previous white
paint. Anything that makes it easier to see the lines during our
occasional rainstorms is good.
I have asked the roads crews why they do that and they say it's for
contrast, but my only wonderment is why doesn't any other state need it?
Driving I-10 in Texas is different.
Widely-spaced trucks in the right
lane, cars passing maybe 15mph faster in the left lane.
In some states, it's the law that trucks must not use the left-most lane of
a multi-lane highway but I don't think California has that blanket law.
Car wants to go
even faster, pulls to the right passing a lot of cars and then tries to
elbow his way back into the left lane. Sometimes he has to wait a long
time for some kind person to let him in.
I wondered for years why certain exits backed up miles before the exit
where I learned it was people wanting to stay left until the last possible second - and then when they pull over to the right - they have to go SLOWER than the traffic at right (to slip in) and so they literally STOP the fast lane completely.
In some states, but not in California, it's the law that you must use the rightmost available lane if it's available - where in California there is
no law that says you have to drive in the rightmost lane.
As long as you're driving at a legal speed in California, you can be in any lane - which is NOT the law in some states which say you must stay right.
It's a ritual to drive from SF to LA on the Pacific Coast Highway.
I did it only once. Almost died. Like ten times. You know what it's like.
Lots of it are just gone,
and one part was a steep dirt road. I happened to be driving when we
started to slip. I made everyone get out while I backed down with the
driver door open in case I had to jump. Turned out OK.
Back east, there is also a highway 1 as I recall, that does the same.
But we have to differentiate the interstates from the state highways.
And they call 'em "freeways" out here (even though they are _not_ free!).
Even if I had a paper map with me, it would be useless until I figured out where I was on it. (You remember those days, don't you?).
My kids? They don't know what a paper map is. They think AAA is for towing.
They know nothing about this fantastically well-designed system.
It's so well designed that we don't NEED to know about it!
This is true even as you may have been joking. For example, all the sign posts are designed to be breakaway - so much that they blow away in teh
wind out here.
People probably don't notice any of that stuff... do they?
BTW, did you ever try to pass the California lollipop?
It's damn near impossible on a big bike unless you're a circus rider.
My beemer is smooth shifting but still, the book says you should stay in
gear so that you can scoot out if someone doesn't see you and tries as a result to hit you head on - which just isn't going to give you enough time anyway even if you are already in gear. Plus your paw will be sore.
Sauerkraut is almost food if you have nothing else. What I liked were
the NY hot dogs with almost-caramelized onions. And the REAL frozen
custard. I've never had any ice cream that good EVER.
The pizza is damn good in NYC too!
They make it on stone/clay surfaces with fire heating.
a) Dripping with olive oil, tomato sauce & mozzarella cheese
b. And you eat it with your hands (curled up, and dripping hot)
Out here in California they make pizza wrong(ly).
a) They use electric ovens with wire grills
b) And they put stuff on it that doesn't belong (like pineapple)
And then they eat it with a fork!
Who does that?
Costco won't even give you those little packets of the stuff anymore.
Must be a prop 65 sort of things...
I miss their combo pizza.
Huh? The pepperoni/cheese combo?
Did they remove it?
I went on a diet of trying to avoid highly processed carbs.
And my wife cooks better than Gordon Ramsey.
So I don't do the Costco food anymore.
But I didn't know they ditched a mainstay.
Gotta check next time I'm there...
I used to love, at Costco, the $150 hotdog with soda and the $5 chicken.
Give the government money.
They will abuse it.
Thank God we don't get anywhere near the amount of government we pay for.
On 10/22/2023 11:24 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
On 10/22/23 5:01 PM, sms wrote:
On 10/21/2023 4:24 PM, The Real Bev wrote:
<snip>
I wish we'd mortgaged ourselves up to the hilt and bought the most
expensive home in San Marino that we could afford. Buying cheap so we >>>> could just walk away if we had to move across the country for work
was a big mistake.
Yeah, when we bought our house in California had we spent another $200K
we would have a house that was worth a million dollars more than what
our house is worth now, and it would have been a newer house without all >>> the issues of a 1960's tract home. We could have afforded it but we
didn't want to be so house poor.
<snip>
It's a constant battle. They're trying to split the roll so that
business property would no longer be protected. People are stupid
and this just might succeed.
No, what has happened is that businesses are now paying a much smaller
percentage of the total property tax because there are ways to transfer
ownership of a commercial property without it being reassessed. So
homeowners are subsidizing businesses.
Yup. And if their property taxes increase WE, the customers, will be
paying them. Businesses don't pay taxes, the consumers do. And the
State wastes it.
Prices for goods are set by the market. Businesses can't increase prices
just because their cost of production goes up because their competitors
will not. If Apple's property taxes go up they can't just raise the
prices of all their products.
<snip>
The parents worked for it. If they want to give it to their kids to do
whatever they damn please with it that's proper. The parents already
paid a shit pot of property and income taxes; that's enough.
Nothing in Prop 19 stops the parents from giving their house, with no mortgage, to their adult children. What it changes is that the adult
children no longer get the artificially low assessed value. Remember,
Prop 13 was sold to voters as "preventing seniors from losing their
homes because of the increase in assessed value." The 2% limit is
reasonable and it was expected that when the seniors sold the property
it would be reassessed at market value. It was not expected that the artificially low property tax would remain in perpetuity with those that inherit the property being subsidized by everyone else.
Sure they can! Apple more than most due to the loyalty factor.
There's an initiative to require proposition titles to accurately
reflect the contents. It will be interesting to see how the opponents
spin that.
If they weren't governments they'd be thieves.
There's an initiative to require proposition titles to accurately
reflect the contents. It will be interesting to see how the opponents
spin that.
That would be wonderful if it could be enforced.
On 2023-10-23 15:30, The Real Bev wrote:
Sure they can! Apple more than most due to the loyalty factor.
Funny how quality, integration, performance and reliability breed that.
The fiends!
Sure they can! Apple more than most due to the loyalty factor.
Funny how quality, integration, performance and reliability breed that.
And my very own daughter is one of them. I thought I raised her better.
I think you stick with the system you started with unless there's some overwhelming reason to change. The first iPhones were better than the competition, and Daughter isn't interested in the actual technology
The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote
And my very own daughter is one of them. I thought I raised her better.
I think you stick with the system you started with unless there's some
overwhelming reason to change. The first iPhones were better than the
competition, and Daughter isn't interested in the actual technology
If all someone does with a phone is talk, text & play games, then an iPhone is just as good as Android at that but the phone is still a commodity.
Apple marketing's sole just is to make stupid people "think" that an iPhone is a specialty item - which let's admit - they're very good at doing.
It's exactly why they "differentiate" with "Titanium" & "YELLOW" colors.
Stupid people like Alan believe that if you paint that pork belly commodity yellow, then it's no longer a commodity - but now it's a speciality item.
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