Had a feast last night for dinner. The london broil sat in the fridge in my marinade for a few days adding enhancement. Served with BBQ’ed corn and a salid.
The grandson will be two years old an a few days.
On the home front we are kinda “locked” into our well below 3% mortgage. Our fantasy of moving further north in the Hudson Valley would have to be a big bonus offering, or it is not worth it. Also the new property would have to be close to turnkey. “Maggie” says she is too old to go through extensive remodeling again.
Gas is cheap, the drives are kinda open road, and our destinations about an hours drive away. We still love our Baby-Victorian. We are kinda open thinking though as times go on and we age that our home will appreciate at an advanced rate, and that maybe in the way future it might be worthwhile to go through the hassle of selling, renting, and then buying another property.
In the meantime we will contact our real estate agent to get an appraisal. We will have been paying into our 30 year mortgage approaching almost 4 years, mostly interest, but already our house by public estimates show about $250K increase, and that really does not reflect the remodeling (two baths and a major kitchen overhaul, and addition of mini-splits for central AC).
My guess in less than 4 years we have perhaps gained $300K in equity, maybe more.
I think the comment to make here is that this rapid gain in equity is such short time expresses how bad the housing shortage is, and also how bad inflation has been. A lot of money has been “printed” to devalue our currency to keep our economy and the world economy afloat and prevent a collapse.
Data suggests that many households are drowning in debt, and others are just treading water. Meanwhile Maggie and I are high and dry.
Some of our thinking is to downsize, and have such a tiny mortgage that interest rates would not matter. The living space could be rather modest, 2 bedroom, one bath, maybe only 1000 square feet for eating, sleeping, but then say a proper outbuilding for a workspace/studio. Also some land for privacy that has forest or trees for shade.
Pretty much moving further north would be a “no-brainer” to a better financial situation, like a tiny mortgage that could be paid off in just a few years. Don’t forget when I’m 70 I’ll have some income I don’t need. Then we can still explore and tour around to learn the good, the bad, and the ugly in the meantime.
I have three more cantaloupes on the vine. I lost two that were hollowed out. On the watermelon front there are 8 watermelons. It looks like they are slow in growing.
The rabbits I believe have nested under our Rode-A-DEN-Drums that are about 9 feet tall on our side yard, and to an extent under the boxwoods surrounding our pergola that after 3 years are now turning into hedges for privacy.
I’ve been doing a lot more vocal study. Seems like I have a three octave range. Know that the average range for most is 2 1/2-3 octaves, and pretty much I’m at the long end of the range. Last night I tuned down my low “E” string to find out how low I can go into the bass range into the register below a six string guitar.
Pretty much If I added a “B” string, or another string below my low “E” It would be in my range. For me this is a great area of discovery. Firmly I have a bass range and a baritone, and I somewhat extend into a tenor. Not a bad place. Seems I already have a very strong and powerful natural chest voice that is very resonant.
Wow, I might look into my bass playing more, and then there is this thing call a baritone guitar.
In North Carolina I watched a Tom Cruise film I think was called “Maverick.” Without naming the country (Iran) a kinda suicide mission element to a rather risky fortified valley that was basically a death trap had to be proven viable, to destroy a nuclear development site in a kinda first strike senario.
Pretty much a U.S. mass launching of cruse missiles would be launched to disable and ground any air response. Pretty much it was as if the U.S. was a Japan, planning an attack on Pearl Harbor.
Spoiler: Basically out of the 4 F-18’s Tom Cruise, Maverick, gets shot down, and then an evil attack helicopter is basically trying to kill him, when one of the 4 F-18 decides to go rough and shoot down the enemy helicopter. The end result is that a second F-18 gets shot down and the two pilots pair up and are now deep into enemy territory.
They visit the airfield that suffered the cruise missile attack, and of course there is a flight worthy armed F-14 that somehow went unscathed. Then in all the chaos the two pilots hijack the plane and with the swing wings swept forward are able to use a somewhat destroyed runway that is just long enough for a successful takeoff.
The nose gear though is damaged, and also understand that the F-14’s we sold Iran had no tail hooks, so basically what lays ahead is an old obsolete plane that has to survive now in an alerted enemy and in enemy territory.
Two modern 5th generation aircraft are loose ducing the F-14, the second pilot in the weapons officer seat, tells Maverick it is his call, and mentions the mantra, “It is not the plane: its the pilot.”
They have been donning oxygen masks as disguises and they had waved to one of the pilots as a friendly gesture, but they were still being escorted, then Maverick flipped the switch, vectors the plane towards the flanking enimy and hits his guns to take out the one plane.
Now it becomes a full blown dog fight, except it is a big heavy old F-14 against a 5th generation plane with mucho tech enhancements.
Lots of exciting maneuvers, lots of flairs being used to evade heat seeking missiles. Of course they defy the disadvantages, and the odds. This is Tome Cruise and Hollywood: These are Americans. LOL.
So now in the situation room on the aircraft carrier they are trying to figure out what happened to Maverick and the other pilot. The kinda figure out that they are both a live and stole a F-14 that is approaching, and basically it will be a crash landing, no nose gear, no tail hook.
They set up a net to capture the plane: Happy ending.
So anyways the expression: “It’s not the plane: It’s the pilot,” is the relevant takeaway to singing: “It’s not the range; but how you effectively use it.”
Cal
