I usually change names on this blog. Not so with Alex J. Stinson and Misty Shephard, AKA Misty Marshall, AKA Misty Falero. Those are their real names. I post them as a public service for other people who do business or rent property in central New York. Alex’s date of birth is July 24, 1972. …
My mother once said of a woman whom she knew, “Everything she touches turns to shit”. Benjamin Franklin said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get”. Mr. Franklin’s statement is the same as my mother’s, in reverse and couched in family-friendly language. He could afford to be more sanguine because his life was easy. …
Allan Konigsberg said that showing up is ninety percent of life. I call this the Konigsberg Theorem. Konigsberg has been cancelled, but he is a genius. If we excise the art because of the artist’s flaws, that will be a loss. (Along with Frank Rolfe, Elon Musk, Kurt Gödel, John Nash, Vincent Van Gogh, Vaslav …
I have been writing covered calls and cash-collateralized puts lately. You don’t get rich quickly by doing that, but if you stick to it, you can consistently grind out singles and doubles and the occasional triple. Do it in a tax-deferred account, because everything is short-term cap gain. Stick to ETFs instead of individual stocks, …
Mobile home park infrastructure is like an iceberg; what you see is only the tip. Most of it is hidden underground. For example – as you walk through a mobile home park, every fifty yards or so you will see capped four-inch white PVC pipes extending vertically about a foot above ground. Those are clean-outs. …
I recently discovered a musician named Bobby Rush, who sings a combination Chicago Sound-Motown-Southern Blues. Along with Buddy Guy he is one of the last surviving old-school bluesmen. He was born in the south, moved to Chicago, and learned to play the guitar along the way. As younger Black people migrate to hip-hop, guys like …
I have written about my maintenance guy problems in my park in central New York State previously. I kissed a few frogs. J.B. had his good points but he dropped the ball one time too many and he was a slob. The guy I hired to replace him, Allen, seemed like a breath of fresh …
When I turned fifty, my doctor gave me a colonoscopy for a birthday present. He said, “Happy birthday. Now, assume the position”. After I woke up, he told me that he had pumped my intestine full of CO2 and cut out a benign polyp. I did not notice anything other than a slight wooziness, which …
Here are two communications that I recently received. The first was by email, the second by text: FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKIN VACINATED YOU STUPID TWISTED BRAINWASHED HUMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, Without being rude here, why do we have to get vaccinated? Both were in reference to a rule in my parks. Applicants for residence need to …
A few years ago, I decided to grow potatoes on my property. We own a small fraction of an acre down-state, most of which is occupied by a century-plus old house. I try to use every available section of the land to grow things. Most years, I grow snow peas, tomatoes, hot peppers, basil, cilantro, …