I’m going to have to visit one of these!

E86decc8ed22352241aff2f896bf5cb8 1200 80.I caught this article;

 Grocery Stores Selling Ammunition Out of Vending Machines in Alabama and Oklahoma

I decided that I’m going to have to make a point of stopping next time I’m through the area.

I play a video game called Borderlands. In the game there are vending machines from which you can buy Ammo or weapons.

I never thought I’d see anything like it in real life. Yet, here we are. The contrast between California’s restrictive background checks to buy ammunition versus going to a vending machine in Alabama or Oklahoma is mind boggling.

I get excited walking into a Bass Pro outside California, where I’m able to comparison shop brands and prices. Then pick up several boxes of Ammo off the shelf put them in a cart and make my purchase without anyone batting an eye. 

The thought of a vending machine is damn near orgasmic.

I thought perhaps it was some kind of parody article but it’s the real deal.

Along the same lines, I saw a picture of a store someplace that I’d also like to visit. From the picture it looked like you could buy a carton of Marlboro Reds, a doughnut, cup of coffee, a Sixpack, rifle, and ammo at the same time.

I’d probably have to take a private moment just inside the front door.

Even as a kid in the Deep South you had to go to the gun store for guns and ammo, the liquor store for booze, and the grocery store for other things. When I got to California and found that you could buy booze at just about anyplace, even some pharmacies, and it didn’t matter if it was Sunday or not I thought it was truly progressive.

Walking into a store where literally everything could be purchased at once would blow my mind. Although there was a time when Sears Catalogues would sell you everything under the sun.

Being out of California and not being able to buy liquor in the grocery store is weird but I’ll take that over the regulations and taxes extant in California.

I’m not saying California is terrible and other places are perfect. It’s not that binary. I think it’s more a matter of choosing an acceptable level of taxes and regulations versus services rendered by the state for those fees and taxes, versus personal choice about restrictions or limitations on your personal freedoms.

Kind of like an HOA. Sure, you may love the house. But do you really want to deal with the HOA fining you because your grass is 1 millimeter too low, or the grease spot left on the street in front of your home by the garbage truck on a Tuesday, you didn’t get to cleaning up until Saturday? Do you want to be fined because you parked your boat in your drive way for one day packing up for a family trip?

Some HOAs are out of control and because you signed on, when you bought your beautiful house you’ve got to put up with it. 

Traditionally I have hated HOAs with passion and vigor, recently I’ve revised my opinion of HOAs due to my neighborhood. I still hate HOAs but I’ll admit they might be useful.

In contemplating moving, I have opened my search criteria to include HOAs whose fees are reasonable and for whom their responsibilities are limited to common areas. This slight change has opened up neighborhoods that I would previously have passed up even if the housing prices were bargain basement.

So for those of you who think I’m never learning or changing here’s an example.

All that being said, I wonder what other freedoms Oklahoma and Alabama have that I might not have in California. I wonder what their tax structures and employment is like. 

I’ve been looking at places that are kind to retirees. Places that have low or no taxes, who don’t regulate or tax the hell out of everything, and last but not least someplace where my car registration doesn’t cost $600 a freaking year.

(Ya know, my car is a 2019. The registration was right at $600 when I got it, and it’s still about $600 although the vehicle itself isn’t worth what it was when I got it. California charges registration fees based on value not weight. Makes sense if you think about it. Why charge a fee that assumes the individual should pay for their portion of wear & tear on the public roads. California can take more charging based on value of nice cars, and still not maintain the roads. I say that as someone whose been here a long time and remember smooth gleaming ribbons of freeways in good repair, instead of what we have today where a kidney belt might be advised.)

I’d also like lower medical insurance costs.  I’ve had no, none, zero, nada, major medical issues and am in good health. I’m not obese (okay, I could lose a few pounds) so I’d really like to know why medical insurance costs 1.5 X my mortgage payment.

That’s before even using it. I know the Doctors have to maintain their country club memberships, pay for their yachts, make alimony payments on their previous 2 wives, pay for their whore/mistress on the side and keep their current wife in diamonds and furs but come on. 

If you force people to choose between a roof and health insurance I’m betting most choose a roof over their heads.

I don’t think ammo vending machines are a good enough reason to move to a particular state. I do think a state having ammo vending machines is reason enough to look at other aspects of the state to see if it’s a place I might be happy and can afford to live in.

At the very least, Ammo tourism might be fun. I’d love to have a picture of me buying rounds from one of these things.

I hope eveyone had a nice Fourth of July

Fourth, fireworks.I turned the A/C on early in the day yesterday and probably will do the same today.

Much as I hate to run the system. When it hits 90+ up here and one or two neighbors are screaming & hollering, having the drone of a compressor drowning out their BS is nice, albeit expensive.

In fact, being isolated from all their noise yesterday did a lot to enhance my calm. Not surprisingly my blood pressure this morning is lower than in past weeks too.

It’s supposed to be really warm here for the next few days so the A/C will be getting a workout, but I’m going to delay turning it on as long as possible.

The pup & I will go on an early morning walk right after I finish a cup of coffee. If we’re out and back before 9 it’s not too bad. I suspect that the pup even enjoys coming home to a cool house despite his annoyance when the blower comes on.

Beach flags fourth of july.I made progress cleaning out the dang closet of the past couple of days.

The other half had paperwork, invoices, and receipts from 2008 in boxes at the back of the “office” closet. I’ve made it through about 2/3 of that stuff and in the process found gift cards for Barnes & Noble, Arco, Panera, and several other businesses that I’m not sure are still “In Business”. Over the past couple of days I’m up about $150. $100 of that is in gas. I suppose I can fill my tank now. Yippee!

Yesterday, I also watched the traditional Independence Day and the follow on Independence Day Resurgence. Today, I’m thinking I’ll have a Twilight Zone marathon. One of the TV stations used to run the Twilight Zone either on the 4th or the day after the 4th every year. I don’t know if they still do since I’ve not had cable for years. I remember it being a nice tradition on 4th of July weekends.

Mission beach fourth of july.I happened to catch the entire original Twilight Zone boxed set on sale a couple years ago so even with me working in the office, I can have it playing on the computer monitor through the HomePod mini speakers.

That should keep me entertained while I’m sorting through ancient paperwork. I don’t know if I’m going to keep all the Tax data if cut it off at 10 years. Perhaps I’ll say I’m going to cut it off at 10 years then when one of the 87,000 new IRS pricks reads this & audits me for records I don’t have I can produce them causing major disappointment for the poor agent I’ll have to think about that one, and make a decision based on the volume of those records. I don’t want to be dragging a bunch of crap paperwork around with me for the rest of my life.

Happily I’ve also found a home for the two filing cabinets in the garage. Now it’s just about getting them from here to there. Obviously I’m doing something wrong in this. I’m giving this stuff away and I’m delivering it too?

Hmmm something is wrong, but I can’t quite figure it out…

It’s going to be a hot few weeks. Everyone stay hydrated and as cool as possible.

I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July Weekend.

From this blog It doesn’t look like it…

QuillDarkFeatherInkSet…But I do set aside time to write every day.

Over the past few months, writing has been increasingly difficult and I’m at a loss as to why that might be.

There have been more days than I care to admit where I’ve sat down with the computer, or iPad fully intending to write something magnificent. Okay, maybe not magnificent, how about just writing anything at all?

There have been days when I’d have been happy with the letter “A” on a page. Even that has been difficult and I have no clue what’s disrupting my thought processes.

Maybe it’s time to get some of that over the counter memory drug that’s always on the TV. Much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m in the requisite age group.

YoungFrankenstein abnormal.jpegPerhaps, the problem is the same one encountered in Young Frankenstein and I need a brain replacement. Or I’ve, unbeknownst to me, had a replacement and that isn’t going well.

It tends to frustrate me. No, it pisses me off!

For whatever it’s worth, I’m trying really hard not to end up a bitter, mean, old man.

One of those in the neighborhood is quite enough, and that guy is really starting to damage my calm!

He’s taken to screaming and hollering about literally any noise in the neighborhood. My next door neighbors have gas powered leaf blowers that each uses maybe once a month and even then only for 15 to 20 minutes maximum. We’re always under water restrictions so instead of washing down the decks or their driveways, they’ll use the blowers, especially if they’ve been trimming plants or what have you. 

The neighbor about a 1/2 block away but on line of sight with my street loses his mind and starts swearing and screaming “it’s not a parking lot out here!!!!” Ironically he lives next door to the crazy lady and her boy toy. If she’s not screaming obscenities, the boy toy is grinding metal at all hours of the day & night. Apparently that doesn’t bother the mean old guy but a leaf blower 4 houses away does.

There are a couple of dogs at the end of my street. They’re good pups, if a little barkey. The house directly across from their yard is for sale and they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. Strangers get barked at. They’re dogs, it’s normal. The mean guy loses his shit over that and has shouted some of the most horrific things about the female half of the couple who own the dogs. 

Honestly if it wasn’t that the husband is such a damn nice guy, he’d be completely within his rights to punch the mean old pot head out. To be honest if the husband did it, I’d pull a Sargent Schultz from Hogans Heroes  and “SEE NOTHING!”

The mean old pot head is  also quite frustrated most of the time. He’ll be trying to reach someone on the phone and well, it doesn’t go well. He loses things quite often. Either event will cause a stream of obscenities that can be heard all over the neighborhood. These obscenities don’t stop for literally hours.

I don’t want to be that guy…

I’d prefer to be generally happy, and peaceful.

It occurred to me the other day that he’s actually a coward. He’ll shout the most horrific things from the safety of his house at people that can’t see him and who might not realize where the shouted obscenity or complaint is coming from. In the event that someone was to challenge him he’d pull the pity me card, “I’m old, I don’t sleep well, I’m infirm, blah, blah, blah.

In other words I’ve lost all respect for him. He’s an old school troll. I should introduce him to social media. Perhaps that would entertain him more than waiting to scream, rant, & rave about someone living their life, on their property, in the neighborhood.

Lately, he’s gotten so much worse It’s become another incentive to leave and find someplace better to live.

I’ve been wondering if part of my problem is simply I need a change of pace. Perhaps I need to have some fun and put distance between my frustrations and myself for a few hours.

On the plus side, I’ve been exploring interesting music via Apple Music. Their algorithm has gotten pretty spot on in presenting me with choices of music that I’m likely to enjoy. Come to think of it, Hulu has also been much better at suggesting something to watch.

I’m not sure if that’s because the algorithms are better, or because I’m no longer sharing my accounts with anybody. That’s not a complaint, it’s one of those things you have as part of being a family.

Happy Summer Solstice!