Memnison Journal

Yesterday was my first day out with both feet in REAL shoes; it was snowing in Chicago, and I had to go downtown to have my monthly all-day session with the leukemia docs and get my IVIG treatment.  The two dogs had torn up my sleep a lot the night before with getting up and [...]

Asking the public brain trust on this; we’re looking at refinancing the house to get rid of some annoying bills and taking advantage of better interest rates.  But it’s been a while, and I’m not Mr. Expert on the subject; any suggestions from the mass mind on this?  What to do, who to avoid or [...]

Hedge Fund founder who lost a serious bundle in the Madoff ponzi scheme commits suicide, and no, he didn’t jump out a window.
The radical Israeli settlers in the West Bank are a political nightmare that any government will have serious problems with and neither main party coalition wants to deal with.  Of course, government policies [...]

Craft stores and online stores that sell handmade stuff are doing well as cheap gift-things with the recession.  Me, I’m worthless at handmade gifts, unless you make ‘em on a computer.
People (and primates) will believe lies and deceive each other far more than dolphins will. I say we elect dolphins.
Yes, the non-US based [...]

A commercial real estate attorney speaks up:
Suddenly, and coinciding with the Lehman/Goldman fiasco, the commercial lending markets completely disappeared. Not just a slow down, but a complete and total shut down. Loans for which there were commitments were suddenly pulled. Term loans (most in the development world are for 1-2 years at a time) were [...]

With huge numbers of people unemployed, and more rolling into the offices, the states are running out of money to pay benefits.  Like 30 out of 50 states.
Drill-baby-drill just went *choke*, as oil companies are suddenly unwilling to finance new exploration.   Existing wells are being shut down as uneconomical to operate, and forecasts are [...]

Well, pawnbrokers are doing well from the frantic sales of the desperate, including tapped-out mortgage brokers.   Business is up 20%!
Things are so grim that investors are willing to snap up US Government securities that will be worth less than the amount that the investor put in in the first place.   Reason?  They’re really secure, and [...]

Zimbabwe is a complex subject, and the complexities have gotten a whole lot rougher on the inhabitants as time passes by.   Europeans under Cecil Rhodes marched in in the ned of the 1800s and took control of the land from the local chiefs, and passed out all sorts of claims to white settlers, who set [...]

Susan reported about a week and a half ago that my van (we have two vehicles, Susan’s SUV and my van) was acting up, as if it was overheating and underheating the inside of the vehicle.  We’ve had heating-cooling problems for a while, and we were dreading this, on top of the big recent vet [...]

I’m noticing that a lot of my friends-list and others online - and the few I talk to on the phone (man, I am so housebound) - are going to take the holidays easy, cheap and local this year.  Our household will, as usual, trot out to Susan’s aunt Marlyce’s house and do the holiday [...]

If some particular division of Citi has done well over the past few years, I can see letting the management of that division stay on. But the people who either ran Citi into the ground or were asleep at the wheel need to go. That should be the condition of a bailout: if you turn [...]

The ‘audition’ stuff, much as I had expected, turned out to be a situation where they were willing to take on Mere as a student, with a $2300+ fee for the acting lessons, etc.  Plus running her back and forth for all sorts of lessons quite some distance away.
The answer is:  we can’t afford it.  [...]

How the Office of Thrift Supervision was gamed by businesses into being a see-no-evil non-regulator of mortgage outfits, and Citigroup got seriously stupid about its operations.  Short version: it didn’t happen overnight, and nobody in management at these companies wanted to deal with anything resembling regulations or reality.   Nobody at the oversight end wanted to [...]

So whatcha gonna spend it on?
I’d have to consult with Susan, of course.
I’d be Mr. Conservative.  Stick it into some needed repairs and fixes around the house and outdoors.

The pancreatitis has died down enough to bring Dot home from the vet’s office / animal hospital, and while she’s still shaky, she’s obviously a whole heck of a lot better.  And there’s a ferocious vet bill, over a grand, and I really DON’T want or need that with Christmas coming up.
Susan’s knee is better, [...]