TOTALLY RANDOM POST II

[tobedetermined]

You have to buy them from a retailer who include the initial setup as part of their selling price. Let them. After that you can go back to them for changes or learn to do your own.

 

[moose eater]

Exactly. Taxpayer's money . . . but the great unwashed somehow don't see it that way.

I am going to buy some seeds with my cheque.

All Alaskans receive the Permanent Fund Dividend Check, which former 'Bush Rat Governor' Jay Hamond (a very good man, by the way) helped to put into the State statutes back then, somewhat naively believing it would give cause for the average Alaskan to watch oil markets and make sure their jointly-owned resources (in this specific case, oil) were being sold and/or developed wisely by the Producers and the often co-opted legislature..

In retrospect, as I've put it years ago, instead it taught a bunch of lesser educated entitlement-oriented idjits to note heavily when the first week of October is each year; the date which most PFD checks are issued.

Key issues being that while the Permanent Fund itself (a State savings account that's divided up various ways including investments into stocks/portfolios) is a matter of State Constitution, the PFD checks are merely statutory, and not necessarily guaranteed despite statutory classification, as each legislature has the authority to handle the budget, putting a lock on a budget from one legislative body/fiscal year to the next is unconstitutional here, and after years of uneducated and/or corrupt legislators allowing our oil to be retrieved at what were OFTEN WELL BELOW market rates, in violation of Article 8, sections 1 & 2 of the State Constitution, we're not nearly as self-sufficient or 'fat' as we might've been, had many not been so spend-thrift, including engaging in what amounted to vote-buying by promising full PFD checks during years we shouldn't have issued such.

Many people are truly shallow and self-serving, as exhibited on these boards many days.

As I've put it publicly in the past, when my family's in debt, we DON'T typically choose that time to go out for steak and lobster dinners or eat out at all. It's called common sense, which seems more and more uncommon.

In the past, both (infamous) former Governor Sarah Palin and current Governor Mike Dunleavy have both somewhat successfully engaged in this 'legal' rouse.

This year, Cornell West has managed to gain ballot status via the Borealis Group/Party here, for the US Presidential race, and in what seems to be a parody of all parodies, he's mocking the shallow folks of Alaska by putting in the State's election pamphlet that if he's elected, every Alaskan will receive a $10,000 PFD.

Now, mind you, an independent (60% non-partisan) but heavily red State like Alaska isn't apt to vote for a political activist with a late 60s/early 70s afro and a history of willingly being arrested at OCCUPY, etc., but the prospect of those who are shallow enough to make decisions based on such promises from a man who likely can't otherwise win even 3% to 5% of the vote here is utterly hilarious to me. Putting the shallow greed of the masses to a test, as it were.

When you see Bubba voting for such a guy, I hope someone's got the cameras rolling. Ought to be something to save in the voter comedy archives for generations to come.

We put all of our PFD checks into debts and #1 home heating oil purchases this year, of which I'm now sitting on about 1,000 US gallons, which is good for this very warm house for about a year and a half or so of hot water and heat, so when I pass, if during this timeframe, my wife is set, other than for needing help transferring drums into the main tank..

Many will fly off on some elaborate vacation, buy a new snowmobile or ATV, buy Christmas gifts, or pay off debts like us. I always told my kids when they were growing up (and still do), debt is invisible prison. Pay it off and free yourself up. Otherwise, it'll impact many decisions down the road a ways.

 

[moose eater]

I just phoned a local feed store where I've sometimes scored my headlamps in the past, knowing they had been discontinuing some of their more affordable but 'decent' brands, and sticking solely now with Lupine headlamps. Which, if you're a pro-musher (dogs) and need a truly amazing piece of gear on your head to illuminate the darkness, they're likely in the top ranks.

But I had no idea of price range or features/models, so I took the dive... and reached for non-existent heart medication afterward.

Their cheapest model here that's in stock and available is the Piko X4 and is priced at a mere $390 USD.

I'm starting to think that at that price, if Hellen Keller could learn to effectively stumble around in the darkness and not immediately die from it, then I might be able to over time as well.