Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Guess it's been a few days since I posted.

Seamless trip to Oklahoma and back. Got my 560 miles in - as much as I can get done in the time allotted. Just too many small towns and slow speed limits to get any more miles in. I usually stop at the casino truck stop, which I did last night but had no desire, whatsoever, to go in and play blackjack.  Last time I was here same thing. It was in the 20's last night, good thing the truck heater works well!

 That was yesterday,  I ended up watching as much of the Senate impeachment trial as I could stomach.  It went until 1 am my time, 2 am Washington time  and the only reason it dragged out so long was the Democrats continuing to attempt to have endless resolutions passed and both sides having to argue all 11 of them.  That pretty much took up the entire day for them. 

Oh, I also went to the mechanic's yesterday and had him install the weird, 3 part heater hose. No more leaks, vehicle running good so far.  We'll see. The thing had been leaking on electronic inputs going into the fuel injectors, some sort of sensor sitting there and a few of the ignition coils.  Whether any damage done to them remains to be seen.  But if I have further problems it will go to Ford and I will point out what happened so they have a place to start with. 

Rainy day here and cold - okay our version of cold at 35 degrees at almost 10:00 am. That means I will be doing much of nothing today.  Which is fine, I'll probably tune into the senate trial once again at 1:00 pm washington time and at least see whats happening next.  I really think Chief Justice Roberts needs to get the decorum under control.  He made a rebuke last night, but if they all start this bantering again, he should shut it down and force the normal decorum of how Senators should be acting in the Senate back into play again. 

And having had received my tax bill for the property in Phoenix, I ended up going to the tax assessor's site to find out what, exactly, I'm paying for.  2 perplexing "taxes", one called a desegregation tax - I have no clue what they are referring to, maybe busing students from one district to another to somehow add minorities to a school system?  and a "State Equality Tax".  I don't even have a guess what that one is.  I also have zero idea why I'm being forced to pay for a technical college or why the city of Phoenix is taking money and what it's going to. There is no explanation, just the amount.  The rest of it is 6 line items going to a school district in the neighboring city.  Makes sense, there are no schools on the edge of the city where we live, they have to be bused to the next city over.  I don't mind paying for elementary schools and high schools, but I definitely object to paying for colleges.  I look at some of this junk every year and just shake my head.  If you own property, you are enslaved to the government system of being forced to pay what amounts, IMO, to a sales tax on it every single year. 

In what other venue do you buy something and then have to pay the same taxes over and over again on it?  I've been an open proponent of doing away with property taxes altogether and recovering the necessary funds for school districts in some other way.  People lose their properties because they get into a position where they can't afford to pay the taxes.  If you own the land outright, that's just sad.  You never really own the property with that s*** constantly looming over your head.

And with that, looks like I missed yet another tax sale.  No biggies.  Just want to go and check one out and see how it works. 

And, the lady of the house has agreed with me that spaghetti with meat balls and meat sauce sounds delicious for dinner.  Indeed it does. 




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