Post by papaof2 on Nov 5, 2022 3:23:30 GMT -6
Complete in this post.
Ring! Ring!
'This is Jack.'
[murmur]
'Last week's storm, Bruce? No damage to the house or trees here but the straight-line winds took out more than a mile of power poles and lines - a half mile on either side of the substation.'
[murmur]
'They're guessing an ERT of "about 30 days…"'
[murmur]
'That's what's on their outage page about the 800+ meters on Feed 4 of the substation - that's the one that supplies power to us.'
[murmur]
'About the same - close to 800 meters each on Feeds 1, 2 and 3.'
[murmur]
'Same ERT. One spokesperson mentioned the number of pieces of damaged equipment and switchgear…'
[murmur]
'…and that they had more pieces out of service than they had in spares.'
[murmur]
'Most of those things are made elsewhere: South Korea for things under 50kW, South Korea or China for 50 to 100kW, China for 100kW+…'
[murmur]
'Absolute minimum shipping time of two weeks because those things are heavy enough to require them to be shipped by boat from South Korea or China - plus the actual construction time of the equipment and time to acquire parts if it's a custom product.'
[murmur]
'Solar power? Today? Only if you have a place where you can put hands on the parts right now and any local sales will likely be cash only - the online dealers are all out of stock and/or back-ordered with a minimum of 90 days wait. Expect the prices to have doubled from two weeks ago.'
[murmur]
'Yes, that company is in the US and does manufacture solar panels but many of their components come from China.'
[murmur]
'No, Duracell batteries are made in China and have been for some time. They had some poor construction and quality control early on - I had some "10 Year" batteries that were still in the original package and dead at age 6, but now most of their products will have the shelf-life listed on the box…'
[murmur]
'Almost any lead-acid or lithium battery - of any flavor - was made there…'
[murmur]
'Too much NIMBY…'
[murmur]
'NIMBY is "Not In My Back Yard". It's OK to build that in this country but not within 200 miles of me.'
[murmur]
'Yes, like many of the other libiots who drive electric vehicles charged by power from some of the oldest and dirtiest of the coal-fired plants…'
[murmur]
'You really think Joe Burden is telling you the truth about anything?'
[murmur]
'Our 10-year-old Kelly was right - you're a good uncle for teaching baseball but you know nothing about the "real world" game known as life.'
[murmur]
'It's OK if you don't grace our doorway for another five years. The last time you were here, I had to bail you, your wife and your three teenage sons out of jail - and you still owe me that $5530…'
[loud murmur]
'Bruce? Bruce?'
"I take it his last few words were loud and inappropriate for mixed company?"
"That would be correct. I guess he either hung up or threw down the phone and stomped it as he did the last time I reminded him of the bail money. That kind of financial responsibility - or the lack thereof - is all neatly defined in the rules of the trust funds Dad left us, with me as overseer of the trusts. I hired a highly respected lawyer as the executor of the trusts so there'll be nothing coming back on me about his 'lost' money - all correspondence is created in triplicate and color copies are kept at the Trust office and in a safe deposit box at the bank. The Trust sends out a statement yearly and any outstanding balances are in red, as is interest charged on borrowed but not repaid funds and any unredeemed dividends on the various stocks. Dividends not claimed in 365 days will be used by the trust to offset outstanding balances - that's also in red. Bruce's trust has about $61,000 of the original $1 million placed in that trust - all lost to not paying off outstanding balances and much of the dividends being used to pay the portion they could cover - rarely more than half the debt. Bruce is good at collecting the 'big' dividends of $10,000 or more so he'll have 'money for a big party'. Those are few and far between as most of the income is in much smaller amounts and it seems Bruce can't be bothered with those 'pittances' under $2000. I'm guessing this will be the last year he gets to be 'royalty' in his 'castle' as he ran through $90,000 of the trust the first year - plus another $90,000 of the dividend income and his spending has climbed each year. Eight years to blow almost $1 million plus its on-going dividends and, other than the 'castle' with the 8/1 ARM, he has almost nothing other than 'toys'.- and this is the year that loan jumps to 12% because he's a poor loan risk with so little income. He could barely afford the original payments so I'm almost certain they'll be foreclosed within 18 months - possibly much sooner. Sad, but 'older brother' has never listened to 'younger brother' - not even when he was ten and started stealing cigarettes from Dad. I went out behind the shed and told him 'Dad's coming with a razor strop.' Bruce said 'I know what I'm doing' and kept smoking until Dad got there and slapped the cigarette out of Bruce's mouth. Dad also used the razor strop to put 30 good whacks across Bruce's bare butt. That didn't stop Bruce from stealing things but he decided the next day that cigarettes tasted bad. Wonder why?"
"Always thinking he'll 'get away with it' regardless of what 'it' is."
"Sad but true. At the last formal reading of trust status, I did have the lawyer hand each of us a list of 'Suggested pantry of backup foods, clothing and cleaning products' and the lawyer also mentioned that being without power or the County Water or Sewage Treatment Plants would be 'most inconvenient' and 'easily alleviated' by stocking the things on the list. Bruce's response to that was 'Why would I want to buy freeze-dried steak when I can get the real thing for less?' He was equally receptive to storing water or installing some solar power as a backup to the whole-house generator."
"That was when he tried to use one of your credit cards to buy a trailer and fill it with things from Cabela's and elsewhere?"
"At least the $5530 in bail was somewhat less than the $173,500 he tried to put on that expired card."
"You've kept those cards around just for nailing him?"
"Guilty as charged. He only gets nailed for what there is evidence about. That card, with his fingerprints on it, and the footage of the entire family that was captured by security cameras at Cabela's, the Tesla dealer, Jared's and Victoria's Secret were all that was needed for the arrest warrants."
"You paid that bail because you knew he'd run?"
"I was almost positive about that and it did happen so we're not likely to see any of them until such time as the arrest warrants are cancelled or the statute of limitations expires. I think that limit is 20 years for grand theft, although there may be no time limit on jumping bail."
"Would that money be an anti-ransom?"
"Payment to keep someone away versus payment to get someone back? Sounds good. Just need to add that to one of the word puzzles I'll be putting online this week."
---
Ring! Ring!
'This is Jack.'
[murmur]
'Last week's storm, Bruce? No damage to the house or trees here but the straight-line winds took out more than a mile of power poles and lines - a half mile on either side of the substation.'
[murmur]
'They're guessing an ERT of "about 30 days…"'
[murmur]
'That's what's on their outage page about the 800+ meters on Feed 4 of the substation - that's the one that supplies power to us.'
[murmur]
'About the same - close to 800 meters each on Feeds 1, 2 and 3.'
[murmur]
'Same ERT. One spokesperson mentioned the number of pieces of damaged equipment and switchgear…'
[murmur]
'…and that they had more pieces out of service than they had in spares.'
[murmur]
'Most of those things are made elsewhere: South Korea for things under 50kW, South Korea or China for 50 to 100kW, China for 100kW+…'
[murmur]
'Absolute minimum shipping time of two weeks because those things are heavy enough to require them to be shipped by boat from South Korea or China - plus the actual construction time of the equipment and time to acquire parts if it's a custom product.'
[murmur]
'Solar power? Today? Only if you have a place where you can put hands on the parts right now and any local sales will likely be cash only - the online dealers are all out of stock and/or back-ordered with a minimum of 90 days wait. Expect the prices to have doubled from two weeks ago.'
[murmur]
'Yes, that company is in the US and does manufacture solar panels but many of their components come from China.'
[murmur]
'No, Duracell batteries are made in China and have been for some time. They had some poor construction and quality control early on - I had some "10 Year" batteries that were still in the original package and dead at age 6, but now most of their products will have the shelf-life listed on the box…'
[murmur]
'Almost any lead-acid or lithium battery - of any flavor - was made there…'
[murmur]
'Too much NIMBY…'
[murmur]
'NIMBY is "Not In My Back Yard". It's OK to build that in this country but not within 200 miles of me.'
[murmur]
'Yes, like many of the other libiots who drive electric vehicles charged by power from some of the oldest and dirtiest of the coal-fired plants…'
[murmur]
'You really think Joe Burden is telling you the truth about anything?'
[murmur]
'Our 10-year-old Kelly was right - you're a good uncle for teaching baseball but you know nothing about the "real world" game known as life.'
[murmur]
'It's OK if you don't grace our doorway for another five years. The last time you were here, I had to bail you, your wife and your three teenage sons out of jail - and you still owe me that $5530…'
[loud murmur]
'Bruce? Bruce?'
"I take it his last few words were loud and inappropriate for mixed company?"
"That would be correct. I guess he either hung up or threw down the phone and stomped it as he did the last time I reminded him of the bail money. That kind of financial responsibility - or the lack thereof - is all neatly defined in the rules of the trust funds Dad left us, with me as overseer of the trusts. I hired a highly respected lawyer as the executor of the trusts so there'll be nothing coming back on me about his 'lost' money - all correspondence is created in triplicate and color copies are kept at the Trust office and in a safe deposit box at the bank. The Trust sends out a statement yearly and any outstanding balances are in red, as is interest charged on borrowed but not repaid funds and any unredeemed dividends on the various stocks. Dividends not claimed in 365 days will be used by the trust to offset outstanding balances - that's also in red. Bruce's trust has about $61,000 of the original $1 million placed in that trust - all lost to not paying off outstanding balances and much of the dividends being used to pay the portion they could cover - rarely more than half the debt. Bruce is good at collecting the 'big' dividends of $10,000 or more so he'll have 'money for a big party'. Those are few and far between as most of the income is in much smaller amounts and it seems Bruce can't be bothered with those 'pittances' under $2000. I'm guessing this will be the last year he gets to be 'royalty' in his 'castle' as he ran through $90,000 of the trust the first year - plus another $90,000 of the dividend income and his spending has climbed each year. Eight years to blow almost $1 million plus its on-going dividends and, other than the 'castle' with the 8/1 ARM, he has almost nothing other than 'toys'.- and this is the year that loan jumps to 12% because he's a poor loan risk with so little income. He could barely afford the original payments so I'm almost certain they'll be foreclosed within 18 months - possibly much sooner. Sad, but 'older brother' has never listened to 'younger brother' - not even when he was ten and started stealing cigarettes from Dad. I went out behind the shed and told him 'Dad's coming with a razor strop.' Bruce said 'I know what I'm doing' and kept smoking until Dad got there and slapped the cigarette out of Bruce's mouth. Dad also used the razor strop to put 30 good whacks across Bruce's bare butt. That didn't stop Bruce from stealing things but he decided the next day that cigarettes tasted bad. Wonder why?"
"Always thinking he'll 'get away with it' regardless of what 'it' is."
"Sad but true. At the last formal reading of trust status, I did have the lawyer hand each of us a list of 'Suggested pantry of backup foods, clothing and cleaning products' and the lawyer also mentioned that being without power or the County Water or Sewage Treatment Plants would be 'most inconvenient' and 'easily alleviated' by stocking the things on the list. Bruce's response to that was 'Why would I want to buy freeze-dried steak when I can get the real thing for less?' He was equally receptive to storing water or installing some solar power as a backup to the whole-house generator."
"That was when he tried to use one of your credit cards to buy a trailer and fill it with things from Cabela's and elsewhere?"
"At least the $5530 in bail was somewhat less than the $173,500 he tried to put on that expired card."
"You've kept those cards around just for nailing him?"
"Guilty as charged. He only gets nailed for what there is evidence about. That card, with his fingerprints on it, and the footage of the entire family that was captured by security cameras at Cabela's, the Tesla dealer, Jared's and Victoria's Secret were all that was needed for the arrest warrants."
"You paid that bail because you knew he'd run?"
"I was almost positive about that and it did happen so we're not likely to see any of them until such time as the arrest warrants are cancelled or the statute of limitations expires. I think that limit is 20 years for grand theft, although there may be no time limit on jumping bail."
"Would that money be an anti-ransom?"
"Payment to keep someone away versus payment to get someone back? Sounds good. Just need to add that to one of the word puzzles I'll be putting online this week."
---
