Emergency Call Out

 

When banks foreclosed on mortgages, neighbors would show up and bid a penny on each item. After winning, they would pay the penny and leave the items in the possession of the original owner. Outsiders who attempted to bid more than a penny had "problems" and soon stopped attending these auctions.

I saw the above at Eaton Rapids Joe. I had heard of this before but I wonder if there will be a resurgence of this kind of thing on the horizon, what with all the foreclosures coming. The local paper had a big list of foreclosures and tax sales recently. I haven't heard much about this issue on any of the mainstream news sources but I don't pay much attention to them, anyway. I have noticed that when one of the local farmers retires/goes out of business, the other farmers usually show up and bid the prices up or buy something to help the guy out. 

I met with the financial guy again yesterday morning with the goal of figuring out how to avoid the 50% penalty on my Required Minimum Distributions and where to put that money that might be able to at least think about keeping up with the inflation rate. Not sure how that's going to work out but when you hit 72, has to be done.

After the meeting I made a few other stops, came home and had a bite to eat and about the time I was heading to the shop I got a phone call from the guy with the Ranger I repaired. He had a tire repairman working on his big front-end loader and they broke a cap on the wheel where the filler valve goes. There are two 1-1/4" pipe nipples side by side on the wheel, only one of which is necessary to inflate the tire, so he wanted me to weld the other side closed. He found a plug that was just about a perfect size to plug the hole, so I drove it in and then welded around it. Even though I put two passes on it, I got a couple of pinholes in the weld, so the tire guy let the air out of the tire and I washed another pass over it. Not that big of a job, but with the travel time and getting it fixed, by the time I got home I decided to take care of a couple other things instead of working on the header. I'll get back on that job again today.

Going out to breakfast with Cuzzin Ricky and TVI this morning and then picking up some steel for the job for the Missus. I want to finish the header for the jitney before starting anything else, however. I don't want it to rust, so finish weld it, clean it up and then get it painted with some high temp paint of some sort.