so waht ya doin today?

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
the 89 Bronco is the same way.
all or none.
wish I'd have known when I had the dash torn all apart putting in the stereo it would have been like 2 more screws and some wire loops.
it don't matter much since the thing is only run on full blast or nothing at all anyway.


so yesterday was my favoritest day of the year.
I got to go pay the property tax so the government won't hold my house ransom.
then I got to go pay the homeowners insurance just in case god decides to hate me.
and I got the good news that the car insurance now bills me for the whole year like I wanted them to in June not December.
so since I had 3$ more than they wanted I paid it too.
just for good measure I paid the electric bill on the way home, thankfully winter is here and our rates go up, so the electricity amount of the city bill goes from 80$ to $150.
the other 150 is for stuff like garbage collection, sewer, and a couple of bonds that ain't added to the property tax which has an additional 170$ a year added on.

sure glad I got that waiver for the flooding problem, it only made my property tax go up 61$ this year.


Fiver, God doesn't hate you, but Mother Nature is a bi polar witch! Know what you mean about all that stuff you have to put out just to have a roof over your head. I spend most on my time in our tiny local gov't fighting the unending increases that seem to come no matter who is running the show. Keep the faith buddy, millions of non-taxpayers are depending on you! ;)


I'm running on a couple hours of sleep here and I guess I'm in venting mode, so bear with me as I go off on a tangent. I don't know how tax assessments work everywhere else, but up here there are a lot of places, like my town, where they use a scheme to fool the tax payers. I'm drawing a blank on the term, but what it comes down to is that the town will say they they are using a 10 or 30 or, in our case, 56% tax rate. This smoke and mirrors scheme makes everyone not paying attention think that they are only paying that amount on their property taxes and not the full valuation at 100%. What these folks fail to realize, and I was one of them, is that there is a thing called an equalization rate that takes that 10 or 30 or 56% and bumps it up to full valuation! I've explained it to people a hundred times, but they just can't get used to the idea that they're paying the same amount of taxes regardless of what the rate is advertised as being. Makes me nuts (more nuts?) every time I think about it.
 
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fiver

Well-Known Member
the really sucky thing is I pay less taxes on my house than I did for 40 acres of rocks and dust, covered in rattlesnakes, 12 miles off a two lane highway down in Utah. [no house, no cabin, no grass, no nuthin]
I was actually paying more in taxes each year than an acre cost me when I bought it.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Try some California real estate taxes for awhile, you'll never again complain about what your paying in Ideehoo. I've got a two bed house on an acre a couple of miles out of town and what I pay a year in property taxes here wouldn't come close to paying it for one month for a city lot in CA.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
I'm pre-Prop 13, Rick, but pay almost $900 per year for a modest 1500+ square foot home.

There are many multi-million dollar homes in the area (high single-digit to low double-digit) and taxed at a post-Prop 13 rate of 1% of purchase price, plus increasing an additional 1% to 2% per year thereafter, the country's myriad social welfare programs are well funded.
 

Intheshop

Banned
Gotta drag some logs up today,bunch of snow coming. Think everything else is good to go.....

Got a cpl #'s of Varget the other day to keep the 7-08 fed. Which is going to be rig we take out predator hunting "when" the snow hits. Had gotten down to half a lb and was getting a little shakey. Running out of bullets is kinda fun.... woohoo,make more. But driving to town for powder,well then I'm working on someone else's time schedule.

And Ian,if you read this..... it took longer to move the Wallace out from its "cubby" than to use. 8,.... 3/8" X 2 3/4" long mortises. As fast as you can chew gum and walk. The Wallace HAS to be..... the most "non-event/drama" machine in the shop? Easier than dropping a cpl slices of bread in a toaster..... and certainly faster$
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Not a bad night last night, at least 5 hours solid sleep thank goodness. Cold here this AM and windy. Supposed to be in the mid to high 20's/low 30's for the next week or so, only tonite will be single digit lows. I can live with that.

I have an 1880's farm house with a bad foundation, nothing to brag on at all, 1200 ft or so, not a level floor or square corner to be seen, a (barely) 2 car garage, a decent 1880's barn and 342 acres of mostly woods and rock. Taxes run about $6K a year with essentially no services whatsoever beyond mail, snowplows and a fire co that will show up in 1/2 hour or so to hose down your foundation. That's with my Veterans credit and a tax relief program we have here called Star. Wife wants to move down nearer to her sisters (5 of them) in Washington Co NY on the Vermont border (my families ancestral home area too). What I've looked at down there make my taxes here look positively reasonable. I'm going to have to lower the bar if we do move I think and forget having much land and she's going to have to accept she's nit going to have the 3000 sq ft McMansion.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
I think the term is more dollars than sense. But after screwing up that Ford I would say not any more.

So is it in the shop for front suspension work?
 

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
I'm testing something new starting today. At last Drs visit I had him prescribe a Freestyle Libre 14 day glucose monitor. Put on the first sensor a little after midnight, got up this morning and checked my blood sugar. The reader showed a graph of my blood sugar from 3 am until the test at 7:30. Amazing!

For those of you who don't have diabetes, knowing and controlling your blood sugar is the key to a healthy-as-possible life. For years I have used test strips and a meter to check my blood sugar. You (typically) have to prick your finger tip to get a drop of blood to put on the end of a test strip so the meter can determine your blood sugar level. Given my past history I often check my blood sugar 4 to 7 times a day. My current meter remembers past readings but it does not show you a graph, just discrete values. It can't show you trends or warn you if your sugar is too high or low. I can download the results to a computer and graph the data but it is klunky and not in real time and doesn't show you the REAL value between data points, just a best fit line.

My new device has a sensor about the size of a quarter and as thick as a poker chip. It has an adhesive pad on the bottom and a small (32 gauge?) needle in the middle. A spring loaded mechanical applicator is used to apply it to a spot on the back of your upper arm. Once in place it will work for 14 days. No pain was felt during application. You can shower with it on if you don't get it wet for more than a couple of minutes. I have lots of experience in masking off body areas to keep them dry while showering so no problem there.

I've been up now for several hours, checked my blood sugar several times, and haven't bled a drop yet. My fingertips have hundreds of small puncture wound scars from years of testing; no more! All I have to do is turn on the reader and pass it within a couple inches of the sensor and the data is automatically transferred via short range RF.

Guys, for me this is a real life changing technology. And in January when I switch to Medicare I plan to try an insulin pump. Been talking to a friend of mine who has one, the technology has improved a lot since I first looked at them. The newer technology and an economic incentive to switch from pen based insulin injections to a pump makes this attractive.

It's been a rough couple of weeks in several ways, but there have been two good things happen that make me feel very upbeat about life, and this is one of them.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
I looked into Freestyle Libre a little while back, quite pricey and if I'm not mistaken Medicare didn't cover it. Would be nice if I'm wrong about that. Lantus pens have gone up again, last couple of 3 month scripts were over $2500 each. Got a doc appointment coming up in a couple of weeks, I'll once again look into that. Don't know anything about the insulin pumps yet. New doc this time & I know nothing about her or her possible knowledge of diabetes but I do know that not all doc's are really up to speed on it. Last doc came down with colon cancer and is off getting it treated. Wishing him the best, he was the best doc I've found around here.
 

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
One of the reasons I may switch to a pump is because Medicare covers Durable Medical Equipment at 100% (I think) and the pump and the insulin used in it is considered a DME. Injectable (pen and vial based) insulin is covered under our plan G supplement program's drug provision with co-pays and only a % of total covered. My retirement/insurance advisor showed me how I could save $100+ month by switching to pump.

My wife found a good advisor who has really helped us straighten out insurance/Medicare issues. I recommend doing that if you can find a good one, it can really help straighten out a lot of confusion surrounding same. Well worth the money IMHO.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
My insurance between Medicare and my health insurance from work covers the Lantus, I pay a $50 co-pay every three months for it. I should again check into the Freestyle Libre and make sure what the insurance will or won't do. Sure does sound like a plan to stop with the test strips which I also pay a $50 every three months co-pay for.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
did they really put spacers in between those rims and the brake rotors to move them out instead of buying proper off set rims?

I wonder if someone tried telling them about all the wonderful on road handling attributes of doing that, and the consequences of actually driving the truck off road like that.
must be for flatland dry road use only..
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
you know those pens contain at least one more zap in them after they show empty.
you have to tear the housing off them to get at it but there is still marks under the cover to meter the dose.
when the wife was on the pens I would pull them down to give her 2 more doses to extend the pens out as much as possible.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
did they really put spacers in between those rims and the brake rotors to move them out instead of buying proper off set rims?

I wonder if someone tried telling them about all the wonderful on road handling attributes of doing that, and the consequences of actually driving the truck off road like that.
must be for flatland dry road use only..

Kinda what I was thinking and not to mention how hard that is on all of the front steering and suspension parts. That's why I thought it was in for front end work.
 

Intheshop

Banned
Watching glue dry on the cherry table....

Shopdog is being dang patient.... so,we walked down and hung a target at the 100yd berm.Chased some Canada's.... then went and shot some 3D. Hard to see in pic but. Above the Mule dear antler is a hog eating a hog. Halfway between the Mule and hog on R is a bedded doe. And to the right of that same hog is a full strut turkey. The rises and valleys.... along with shadows make this extremely difficult.... not to mention sun in your eyes.20181207_105647_resized.jpg
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
I have used a Dexcom Generation 4 constant glucose monitor since late 2014. The CGM is WITHOUT DOUBT the largest single health care upgrade I have ever received in my life. I see an excellent endocrinologist, which was another uptick in care that came just before the CGM did--prescribed by her. This doctor in particular--and my health care providers in general--are the reason I have not moved out of California since retirement.

Costco has a number of diabetes care items at deeply discounted prices--this was just shared with me by the endocrinologist last week. This includes CGMs and the sending units/transmitter accessories that need changing every 7-10 days.