Good Morning All. 39° and clear as can be. Rain has finally moved off to the east. Nice weather is forecast for a week and then the cold and possible snow returns next Tuesday.
Today is my wife's birthday. She would be mad if she knew that I posted that she is 69 years young today, but I won't tell her.
Out back in the train shed, it was dry and warm. I got some more ground cover in place but mostly ran some trains. Over at the workbench I finished painting all of the windows on the DPM structure that's currently being assembled.
Here's a close-up picture of the slaughterhouse that I forgot to post the other day.
Garry -
For instance, home improvement contractors will quote a lower price if customers agree to pay in cash instead of with a check, and we know why. There are many ways to avoid paying income taxes. ....
Of course most of us have seen that happen and I have taken advantage of the cut rates many times. However what many don't realize and some of my friends who did this have discovered, when the time comes, Social Security payments are rather dismal and you hopefully have saved a lot of the money, many haven't. One extreme case is our friends in the horse business. She trained a lot of horses off the books, and he transported many horses off the books. At 71, he still has to transport them, and she (68) has a job as an accountant at a local business because their combined SS is less than $800/month. That barely covers utilities and the feed bill for the horses that they still own. I never worked off the books but my wife did for a few years.
Sherrel - My credit union tells me what the dealership paid for the car and advises me not to pay more than 5% above that. I'll toy with the salesman for a bit and then tell him what they will lend and after he agrees, I pay cash anyway. That eliminates the kickback as well as any interest I might have paid. I have gotten up and started walking out before and the sales manager chased me down in the parking lot and accepted the offer that the salesman turned down. He even threw in a full-sized spare as a bonus. As
Chet posted, best time is at the end of a month, not only for the reason that he gave, but in many cases it's a matter of meeting the quota or collecting a bonus for exceeding the quota.
Chet - Hope that the doctor visit goes well for you.
Curt - Enjoy the meal at McDonald's.
Karl - Neat structure.
Johnny - Great news this morning.
Last move that I made in 1981, was from a smallish 950 sq ft rental house into the 1500 sq ft house that we still live in today. Borrowed a box truck from work and moved everything. It didn't all actually fit! Partly because my wife wanted space between stuff instead of everything butted against each other. A couple of couches resided in the yard for a few months until I finally set them ablaze. The exciting thing was moving an oversized (10' x 16') chicken house (with 70 chickens penned up inside) loaded on an 18' utility trailer, for a distance of 20 miles at about 15 mph through a town without getting caught. It didn't slip off the trailer until it was nearly in position at the new house. Original intent was to jack it up, pull the trailer out and then lower it to the concrete blocks. It ended up about two feet from where it was intended to go and subsequently had to be raised and the blocks slid in place. It's still there today although it's now in disrepair.
Of course today is also Abe Lincoln's birthday. We used to celebrate this day when I was younger but politicians/bureaucrats changed that.
Everybody have a great day. Still jammin' to ACDC here. That's my favorite from them.