Wazzup!

Everyone that posts here gets a upvote from me for every post they make!

I am not soft, I do not get my feelings hurt, so insult me if you want, and you still get a THUMBS UP!

(This is not the basement though, so keep it clean while having fun!)

Keep on working!

I am here goofing off now!

So, while ago we (Me and the girlfriend) watched a M. Night Shyamalan movie called "Old".

I thought it was very good. I love his movies.

With the twist at the end of "The Village", I knew this movie had to also have some awesome twist at the end also, and it did not disappoint!

20 posts away from a NEW PAGE!

Actually, it is DISHTV, and HBO is free there this month, so I have been taking advantage.

Confess I love the quoting myself feature here!

I watched the last half of The Mule, with Clint Eastwood the other night, and that is what we are watching tomorrow night.

Canceling mine as soon as my contract is up.

I have found that with a really good antenna, there is plenty of free TV available, and some of those channels are all movies, no, not the latest, but FREE, and I LOVE FREE!

I am not talkative in the morning, but late at night, when I goof off here, it is brought to you by the fine makers of:

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So I need to buy a Samsung TV?

Getting close to page 2 here!

Hell Yeah!

If we make it to page 2, we have already done better than a whole lot of new threads here!

Someday, we may even overtake the NFL Thread!

Dead even! I love both of them!

New Page!

Hell Yeah, I am.

Kind of funny, thinking about all those long posts I have made in the confessional.

I love doing that, and I still plan to.

BUT! If I broke all that down and posted in a thread somewhere, that thread would already be ahead of the NFL Thread.

I just love goofing off and making posts and leaving plenty of upvotes after a few beers.

Pretty sure I maxed out on achievement points long ago for giving and receiving upvotes.

I don't give a damn, I love upvoting, and I plan to leave plenty for as long as I am alive.

As long as no bickering.

Anyone that needs some upvotes can post here and get one from me anytime!

And intermission for me now, while I go upvote some other threads that I have also promised I would always upvote.

Yeah, I just read over 100 posts and left upvotes for them in a few other threads.

Having my last beer of the night now.

Tomorrow night I will not be available to make posts or leave upvotes, but I will catch up, I always do.

I just lied.

But not on purpose!

I said last beer, but I am still thirsty, so I just put another beer in the freezer.

HELL YEAH!

I just realized that I just made post #69 here!

I have been in some threads where members try to make the 10,000th post or something.

I let them have that, I never even tried.

When all is said and done and I am dead, my post #69 will live on here FOREVER!

I have a very long way to go, but I confess I really hope to someday make my 80085 post here!

(In real life I actually like nice legs, but on a calculator about the funniest thing you can spell: BOOBS).

And while my body may be mid 50's now, I am still stuck on 12 in my mind.

Anyway, long ago I kind of reached out for some help here, with a non-pinball issue, and EJS was the only one to offer help.

We have not met in person yet, but soon he is supposed to stop by.

He has family that lives near me anyway.

While I am here, just goofing off and having fun, EJS is a very AWESOME DUDE!

I have machines that need a tad of work, and EJS has already been helping a whole lot of people here, and he will not take any money, all he wants is food. I can do that!

LTG is AWESOME!

But let me tell you, EJS is also very AWESOME!

He wants to help everyone!

But DAMN DUDE!

When someone asks for your help about something, less pictures PLEASE!

All those pictures took more time to scroll through than one of my long posts in the confessional.

And just totally joking with that!

EJS has lots of energy, and he is very awesome with everything he does to try to help others.

Anyway, ask EJS for help anytime! He is AWESOME!

LTG is always the go to guy also!

All I know is EJS and I talked about starting a new thread, that would be all over the place, and I said cool! I am in!

Then when I seen he had Little Johnny in the title, I thought cool!, I will goof off here.

And I am totally done for tonight!

I wish all of you the BEST!

(And just 18 posts left until we reach page 2).

Hell Yeah!

Can we say that here?

Anyway, my girlfriend will be here shortly, so doubt I can goof off, I mean contribute anything tonight.

New Page!

Never thought about it that way.

I have some yard waste I need to organize soon, but we are still under the summer burn ban for a few more weeks.

So, no summer burn ban?

We have had a burn ban here since 1996, that runs from May 1st to October 1st.

At first I just thought that was because of the Olympics that one time, but it kept going every year since.

At least there is an exception for cooking, so anyone that is smart enough can just claim they are cooking if they get caught.

I think first time is a warning, then after that fines, and they get larger each time.

Oh, and only tree debris burning allowed.

If you get caught burning any lumber or anything else, the EPA gets involved and fines start at $500.00 I think the first time.

If you do burn lumber or anything else, make sure the burn pile cannot be seen from the road, because a few streets over from here someone had a little plywood left on their burn pile that was no longer even burning, and they got fined.

They say wood other than tree debris could have been treated and cannot burn treated wood.

I forgot; it is even more stupid.

Around here, even if burning leaves, during the months you are allowed to do that, you can still get harassed.

Anytime someone calls 911 for paramedics, they also always send the fire department.

If you are lucky enough to be burning like I was one time when that happened, they will stop by after they are finished with their 911 call.

You always have to have a garden hose handy right where you are burning, and the pile can be no larger than 6x6, and at least 50 feet away from all property lines and structures, including wooden fences.

The one time I was harassed, and told I had to put out the fire, I said why, is it too windy, no just smoking too much. (The leaves were damp).

They also started the 50 feet property line crap and all that and I kept arguing until they finally left.

Oh, and you are supposed to be finished burning with no embers or hot spots one hour before sunset.

Confess that is why most of the time I start burning after dark, and I will claim it is a bon fire or cooking if caught. At least it is harder for them to tell where the smoke is coming from.

Under their rules it is not legal for anyone around here to burn anything at all.

But we all do!

Any damn time we are good and ready!

Some people around here even burn their trash, plastic and stuff, I do not do that, and even though it stinks, I will never report them, because around here we do not tattle.

Confess a few times I have thought about calling neighbors to make sure they were feeling fine and not going to be calling paramedics, just so I know it is safer to burn without harassment.

It all depends on what kind of mood the firefighters are in anyway. One dude called 911 about something with his kid, while burning plastic right next to his wooden privacy fence, and the fence caught on fire, and they did not say a word to him about any of that, and it was during the months that no one is supposed to burn anything at all anyway.

Anyway, I love my place, and I have no plans to move, so I will just stay sneaky to get what I need to get done, done.

I agree with that.

A while back when I was still doing construction and we were burning I was in charge of looking out for fires in the woods, and that day I stomped out 30 fires that were ready to take off, and one was already so bad I had to call the excavator over to put it out.

The excavator also caught on fire that day.

I am happily retired from all that now!

I have plenty of stuff I need to burn here, and just like the last several decades I think I will be fine.

BUT! At any given time anymore, the fire department may show up, and harass, for no good reason at all.

Confess there is no way I would use my phone for all this.

I love my computer with the large screen and full-size typewriter keyboard.

Some people I do business with likes to text, I hate that crap, but it is a lot easier now that I went from a tiny flip phone to a full-size smart phone.

Even so, still too tiny to mess with the long posts I make on here.

I am actually a little organized, here are some of my DVD's, they are in rough ABC order.

Hell, I have never even seen half of them. It was either keep or throw away back when I was selling that stuff for a living, and I figured I may as well keep them, in case someday I were to decide to watch them.

Half of them I have seen, and even ordered a few through the years.

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And here is some of my CD's.

Same thing, rough ABC order, but I have heard 98% of all of them.

Even some I like it was either keep or throw away back when I was selling that stuff for a living.

When YouTube came around one of my friends said I could get rid of all my CD's now.

I said Hell No!

I said yeah it is free right now, but someday that could go away.

Confess I am frugal, and patient. With all the ads on YouTube now, I just hit the mute button, just like when I am watching TV.

I love football, but I will not be paying a dime to watch any Thursday night games, instead I will play what I already have, and check the scores for free later.

It is a real shame that a local network could not of got the Thursday night games. I hope Amazon loses money on that deal.

When my contract is up with DISH, I am cutting the cord, plenty of free TV I can get with an antenna. I never even knew that until last year NBC and DISH were in a conflict, and I was missing Sunday night NFL, and when I bought the antenna, I could not believe how clear it was and how many channels I could get for free.

We first got cable back around 1978, so that is all I knew for a very long time.

When I go free tv the only thing I will miss is ESPN, and The Discovery Channel, but if cheap enough I may pay to stream those 2 channels, after I learn what in the hell streaming is anyway.

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I also like the game warden shows on Animal Planet, and Oak Island on The History Channel, but not enough to ever pay anything for them in the future.

For a while we were watching a lot of Columbo, and some other old shows like that, and that channel is actually free over the air anyway and picks up very good.

I am just trying to be fugal and retired from ever doing any construction again, and with property taxes going up so much on my rental houses I need to save all I can in other places, and $1000.00 bucks a year for tv is a good way to start, when I can get so many channels for FREE!

All the tenants I have now, I have had for 3-6 years now, and I like all of them. I will never go up on their rent one penny, unless someday I just absolutely had to.

2/3 of them are retired, and on fixed income, and I know the high food prices and everything else is hurting them, and I never plan to add a penny to their pain. Instead I just get more frugal myself.

Good tenants are hard to find anyway, so never want to lose them.

BUT! If someday they do move, then I will have downtime, and repairs like new paint and floors, but the next rent will be more market level, to even those costs out over time.

Right now, because the rent prices have went up so much, my tenants are saving an average of $400.00 a month, because I have never once went up on their rent.

Other landlords think I am nuts, but they have a whole lot more downtime than I do. And during the time when the courts were closed and tenants knew they could not pay rent and not worry about being evicted, those landlords had a lot of problems and lost a lot of money.

All of my tenants paid on time, every month. They did not try to pull any crap on me, and so I will always be good to them also.

Well, mostly.

One of them always pays a few days early. (A retired one).

One of them always pays a couple hours early. (A retired one), except one time she called crying that she was going to have to pay 2 days late, and she knows what the late fees are, but don't worry, I will get paid.

I called her back and said don't worry about any late fees, you are fine, and I hope things get better for you. And that was the only time she has ever been late.

BUT! The 3rd one gets on my nerves. They do stupid shit like running space heaters in the winter and I have to repair messed up wall sockets and fuses, and makes no sense because the house has gas heat, and that is cheaper to use than electric space heaters in the first place.

I finally told them that they will have to pay for future repairs if they continue to use space heaters. I told them maybe if they want to use space heaters, they should go to a hardware store and talk to someone that can tell them which ones use the least amount of power.

In the meantime, I was using a old retired electrician, and because he had strokes and was shaky, he had me doing the work, so now I feel pretty confident when a repair like that is needed, and the parts are super cheap.

That old man was super nice, and just wanting to get out of the house. When he could actually do the work he charged me 20 bucks, and when he was shaky and just told me what to do he would not take a dime, so I gave him some Laurel and Hardy DVD's I had laying around, and he was thrilled.

Anyway, back to the 3rd one, as far as payment. (Only one that is not retired).

Rent is due at 5pm on the first day of the month in my drop box. All houses are within 2 miles of me, no need to mail it.

The 3rd one most of the time is 2-3 hours late. Pisses me off. I have told them to drop early, even a month early, it will not be deposited until the 2nd day of the month no matter how early they write the check.

They are the only house that I have had to post a late notice on their door, and I had to do that 2 times in the last few years.

One time they had a emergency and had to go out of town, and one time they were sick and forgot, was what they claimed.

Told them again to pay early, and you will not have to worry about last minute stuff.

Both times I had like 5 voicemails from them before I checked my phone saying please, we dropped it off now, please do not charge us the late fees.

I did not charge them the late fees, I had already had them as tenants for a long while before they slipped the first time anyway.

The few times in the past that I did charge late fees with bad tenants, I never collected any of that anyway, they were moving anyway, and good riddance!

I LOVE MY DROPBOX!

I check it everyday!

Sometimes a tenant pays early and there is a check in it.

Sometimes a friend drops off a birthday card or Christmas card in it.

Sometimes a friend owes me a few bucks and they drop the cash in it.

Sometimes I worry that I may have pissed off my girlfriend, and she dropped her keys to my house in it.

But overall, I feel like a kid on Christmas everyday, just checking that box, and when I see a check in there, I am like HELL YEAH!

The box is hidden, so anything in there I know is from a friend, a client, or a tenant.

Confess I am a little surprised that no one has been a smartass and dropped a note in the box saying: We have been trying to reach you about your car warranty.

Reminds me actually, I have a friend with a dropbox, I think I will leave that note in theirs.

The USPS is very stupid about your mailbox. If the mail carrier finds anything in it that does not have a stamp when they drop off your mail, it gets stupid.

Not like they paid for the damn box in the first place.

I highly recommend a hidden drop off box, for friends, clients and tenants.

Anyway, getting late now, so I need to start organizing my ass to get ready to go to sleep.

I hope all of you have a GREAT WEEK!

No. It is hidden at my fence, so no one even has to step onto my property.

I see a Walking Dead pro in there, and I really hope you can figure out how to add the Cleland sound upgrade to it, so that you can do that to mine when you are in town.

TP had sent me this link, not sure if real or a joke (I have not clicked on it yet):

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/where-is-the-most-recent-cleland-twd-code#post-5174159

Probably real, I think TP and I get along great, and I figure any day now he will send me a PM inviting me over to hang out at his pool.

He has a AWESOME! looking pool!

But I would have to pass, because I know he has kids, and a wife, and I don't, and I am a very bad influence according to my past friends that had a wife and kids.

I have a really nice bay boat that has not even been used in over a year now. It used to get used all the time.

Weird how about the same time Ya'll were talking about this, my girlfriend was asking me if I was still trying to get together with my friend Brett to take the boat out fishing one Friday.

I said Hell No!

After it has sat for a year, and even though it is in a garage, all the dust on it and all the cleaning and charging batteries is way too much work to just go to the lake one time.

I have no plans to do all that work until I know the boat will get used again a lot.

I do not have a picture of it handy, and not going out after midnight to try to take one in the dark, but it is a 19-foot center console bay boat, with a 115 HP Yamaha 4 stroke motor.

Hell, I also have a 3-person banana boat that is about 15 feet long and holds 3 people, that used to get used a lot also.

Previous girlfriends had kids that loved to be pulled on the tubes on the lake, and they liked to fish also.

My girlfriend now has no family to get together with and do all that, they are in conflict and do not talk.

And she really does not care about taking the boat out, she sees how much work it actually is.

I have no plans to ever sell the boat though. I purchased it new, and I know every ding and scratch on it, and what caused it, and there are not that many.

In the past I have taken the boat out by myself, and it is just so relaxing, that I know eventually I will want to do that again.

The biggest thing that sucks is I will not drink and drive, so when I do go to the lake I take O'Doul's, and that stuff costs 2 times the amount that my Natty Light costs.

Confess maybe I should play the lottery. Because if I won, I could buy 1000 acres, and have my own 998-acre private lake on it, and just be on the boat and drink beer and have a good time!

And on the other 2 acres, just a small house with a awesome pool like TP has, and the pool would take another acre.

And that would be about right, not much grass to mow or other work that would need to be done.

Ok, sorry for the long rant, now time for us to get back to some organizing stuff.

I am pretty sure there is not a market for them.

I won't be on here tonight. I will be getting organized with my girlfriend tonight.

I got a whole lot done also last night.

Have a great weekend!

EJS you have commented that you would be in my area soon visiting family, and you were going to fly here.

Do you have wings? (Just joking).

If you fly, and have to rent a car, that is a whole lot of money wasted.

Long ago I drove to St. Paul MN, to the last postal auction they had there, and you can make that same drive here, in a long day, or split it up and get a room for one night along the way.

Gas and a motel room for one night would probably be about $250.00 each way at the most, or $180.00 each way if you did not stop at a motel.

I do not hate flying; I just hate all the crap involved with flying myself.

Driving is a lot cheaper, and I like to drive anyway.

A few years ago, me and a friend that were going to all the Six Flags Parks in the USA made the trip to CA.

2 motel rooms during the trip to get there each way, I think gas and rooms were like a total of $600.00 round trip. (Not including gas and motels while we were at our destinations).

Another friend said why not just fly? I said because we are going to multiple places along the way, so it would be even more flights and more rental cars, and can only pack so much anyway, and I want my large beer cooler on the trip.

The hell with flying, it was cool to see how much the landscape changes when you get to the desert southwest.

I really doubt you could see all of those tumbleweeds and cactus plants from a airplane.

And the signs along the road, like the marker for the continental divide, and stuff like prison nearby, do not pick up hitchhikers.

Yeah, not as fun of a drive from MN to here, the few hours that seems to take a lifetime while driving through IL and nothing but cornfields for as far as you can see will age you a tad.

Driving is a whole lot cheaper, and I am very frugal.

Yeah sometimes driving can get very boring, especially when you are on a 2 lane interstate, with 2 tractor trailers next to each other for an hour, going 63 in a 65 behind them, until that truck in the fast lane finally completes his pass, that should have never been attempted in the first place.

BUT! I am patient, and I just say to myself while this does suck going so slow, at least going slow does save on gas, so the truckers are actually saving me a few cents.

Confess that few cents gas savings does go right out the door, the minute that truck gets out of the fast lane and I put the gas pedal to the floor, which is usually about the same time there is a speed trap.

Sometimes I have really wondered, if some of these towns that love to set up speed traps are paying people to drive slow and block the fast lane, right up to the time that they have their speed trap ready.

Driving is still a whole lot cheaper than flying, as long as you are patient.

I guess on a plane you can actually drink alcohol, but you can not smoke a cigar or a cigarette on a plane, so pros and cons either way.

Anyway, if you are organized, and crunch the numbers, driving saves a whole lot more money than flying and car rentals I would think.

I am not a morning person, and later in the day I am drinking beer and I don't drink and drive, but yeah, if you can arrive at the airport around 2pm most likely I could pick you up, with advance notice of course.

I do have a spare vehicle, except I cancelled the insurance on it a few months ago.

After the last round of property taxes on my houses I am trying to be as frugal as I can.

On one hand it is nice that the houses have gone up in value, in case I wanted to sell any.

But on the other hand, I do not want to sell any, anytime soon, so I wish the market would crash again to get the property taxes back down.

It ticks me off that they cannot adjust their millage rates or whatever lower, instead of charging so much now.

Confess I have thought about being a smartass, and going to the county and asking if they have a list of ways that I can decrease the value of my houses.

I am just lucky that none of my houses are in any city limits, or that would be even more taxes.

Just a random tip if you have a pinball machine that has a action button on top of the lockdown bar, that needs to be held sometimes for points:

Hold the button with your chin, that way you can still see everything and be able to use both of the flippers also.

I recently figured this out with Godzilla.

I wish I had of thought of it back when I had the JJPOTC.

Confess I do miss the JJPOTC, but I am not good at working on games, and I knew it would be a nightmare if certain areas ever needed a part replaced.

That rocking upper playfield and then firing the cannon was very cool.

TWD pro is still my favorite game, and I have had it the longest also, but so far, I have no plans of even thinking about getting rid of Godzilla. It is very good, and it looks like it would be easy enough to work on if ever needed.

Confess no way I could do all that.

I am used to buying NIB, and the only game I have bought in the last 20 years that was used is the Zombie League pitch and bat, and it was close enough to new.

When I was younger, I did buy some used games, but none looked that rough.

It is very awesome that you love restoring games, I just like to play them.

Pretty sure the way you are going, you will always be very successful, and very wealthy.

(Except for the working on people's games for a slice of pizza that you do sometimes).

Hell, seems the going rate for a good pinball repair person is about 150.00 a hour around here.

Confess I really hope someday you get tired of all that winter snow where you live and move here close to me.

I would not take advantage of you, I will pay you good money and decent pizza!

(Decent pizza being Pizza Hut, that is what we like anyway).

HELL NO!

I am sorry that you ever had to deal with all of that.

Confess I really hope for a few snow days here this winter.

The last few years we may have had 4 inches of snow that was gone within 24 hours, except shady areas still had a trace for a few days.

I LOVE snow here for 2-3 days every now and then, other than that, snow = HELL NO!

HELL YEAH!

I stopped wearing my gold years ago, because just not safe anymore.

I try not to look like a bum, but I also try not to stand out as having any money.

There are people out there that will kill you for $20.00.

Or you could get organized a little better so that they do not get lost.

Anyone that ever sees my office and "man cave" may think it is chaos, but I am actually very organized, I always know where everything is supposed to be.

My girlfriend drives me nuts when she picks up something and does not put it back in the same place.

She has made fun of me for going behind her and moving something back to where it is supposed to be, but the joke is on her, because she is always misplacing stuff at her house.

And so many times, after she left here I had a call from her home phone, because she left her cell phone here.

Yeah, she is not organized at all, and she can make all the fun at me that she wants, because I am always know where everything is.

If they fit, just put them in the coin box of the games.

If they do not fit there, just put a box with the parts of them inside the game.

All along I thought you invited me here to goof off, but now I see you need some pointers from me.

With all the games you have, best is to put everything in the game that they belong to, OR, at least have boxes on a shelf for each game that you have parts, or paint, or anything else for, so it is all together and when you are ready to work on a certain game you can just grab the box off the shelf and get to work.

Actually, I think the box on a shelf will work better. Just label the box which game it is for.

Before you are ready to work on a game, long before, look over the game again and make a list of everything you need, and then check the box to make sure everything is there.

No matter how hard you try, there will always be something else that you will find you need, that you only realized it at the last minute.

Hell, all those years I did construction, after the material supply truck left, I would always see something else that was needed and have to run back to Home Depot.

No matter how hard you try, you will always forget to order something, or find a new problem that also needs parts.

Ok, no posts in 24 hours here, WAKE UP!

BUMP! (This is for accounting organization).

Most of the time I will probably goof off here, but not with this post, this post may can help you, unless you are totally just lazy.

History:

My dad was self-employed construction for many years, and I worked for him many years.

In 1992 he got in bad health, made bad decisions because of the health issues, and lost everything. And he had a whole lot of machines and properties.

His accountant called me, and asked if I would stop by and help him with Dads business stuff, because he had no clue how to categorize what stuff paid out was for. (At the time dad was in a hospital for several months, and out of it after some strokes).

I was instantly great at that, and the accountant gave me a brand new book, that when I started my own corporation in 1994, I started using it, and have used it every since, kind of.

Around 2010 that book was no longer available, and I did not like the replacements, so for years now I have been making blank copies of those pages, to keep on using.

The book is for weekly use, but I always used it for monthly, and I could get 4 years out of a book that way.

A very large business would probably need to use the book weekly, I was never large, never cared to be after seeing how things for my dad ended up.

Current:

With a book like this, or similar, each time you write a check, (or pay a bill online these days), list what it is and if deductible or non-deductible, and the amount, and the category #.

Takes me 10 seconds per check I write, unless a check for credit cards that have several different categories of expenses, like gas, repairs, materials, etc., that needs to be broken down on the credit card statement, to be added to the book.

At the end of each month, it takes me 30 minutes to update the totals in the book, including my receipts for the month.

At the end of the year, same thing, done monthly, in just 30 minutes I have all my totals of the year, on one sheet of paper, to fax to my accountant.

Roughly, in 8 hours total a year, I have everything I need, on one sheet of paper for my accountant.

My accountant loves me! So many people still sends him grocery bags of receipts that he has to go through, and even though he charges them a lot of money for all his extra work, he loves the fact that my stuff is so easy.

(I do have to send him a separate sheet of paper with my rental house info, and that is no big deal).

My accountant also loves me because I always fax him my totals for the year, the first week in January, so he can work on it early.

My corporate taxes are due March 15th, and I usually go ahead and pay in February.

Yeah, personal taxes are due April 15th, I usually pay those in March.

I have no problems being great to my accountant, because they have been great to me in the past.

Long ago, I received a letter from the IRS about something and I owed some late fees or something, and I faxed that letter to my accountant, and he said sorry, that was our mistake, we will take care of it and pay it.

It ticked me off at first, but his dad had just passed, and he was taking it hard, but he kept everything all good for me.

And that was long ago, he is awesome again now!

Why this long rant now?

While ago I was hanging out with one of my friends that is a lot younger than me, and about 2 years ago he had started his own business, and sometimes asked me for advice, and I was asking him about accounting stuff, and he said he put all his receipts in paper bags and gave them to his accountant, and his accountant told him that he would take it that way, but he will charge extra.

I asked my friend if he would like to get organized, and he lit up, he wanted to learn more from me, so I showed him how I do all that, and I even gave him a page from the book so he can make his own copies.

My friend acted like he was going to get on top of everything and get organized, he even said he would get separate files for each category, and I said no need for that, hell, just one bag or file with everything in it for each quarter has always worked for me.

I really hope he gets organized, I gave him the advice and tools he needs.

Long ago another friend that was self employed, and so damn lazy he did not even file taxes for a few years, and wasted money on penalties and stuff once he did try to get caught up, had just had a surgery, and was bored because he could not lift anything or do anything, and I asked if he would like to get organized, and he said yes, and I actually bought him the book, they were still available at the time, so at least back around 2010, and he said he was going to start using it, loved how easy it was.

A few years later I asked that friend how he is doing with the accounting organizing stuff, and he said well, I just can't list every check in the book like you do, and I try to catch up a little but usually I just wait and file more and more extensions. That dude is just lazy.

***While ago I was telling my girlfriend about how I was trying to help my friend get organized, and even she said that she wished that she could be at least half as organized as I am***

(And that was not sarcastic or anything coming from her, she is not like that).

HELL YEAH!

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The more I think about it, my accountant was awesome in the first place, for showing me how to get organized.

I have been trying to help others, just does not work if the person is just lazy and will not change.

And a few years later I started making myself notes about things and leaving all over my computer.

Confess I rarely waste any money from buying random, I make notes of what I want, and what I need, and obviously if I know my truck has a issue and needs to go to a mechanic now, or if it is something I can fix and make notes about parts I need, then that is a priority, but a lot of times I make notes about something, glance at the note for a few weeks, and then trash it, deciding I really do not need that, nor do I need to spend any money for that.

Being organized really helps a whole lot if you are also trying to be frugal.

Long ago I was not as frugal and organized, and when I did anything I never returned left over parts to a store for a refund.

These days anytime I need anything for some repair, I go and look at all the stuff I have laying around, and a whole lot of times I find something I can use without having to go out and buy more.

While I am pretty organized now, in the past I was not, and when I look at all that oddball stuff I am glad I have it now, but at the same time kind of wish I had of taken it back to the store long ago.

(With a few things anyway, that I see, and wonder why I have that).

AND, after 10 more posts here, we will have a new page!

They have changed the forecast again, and while it may not even rain here, we may have 40mph winds for hours, and if that happens a whole lot of trees are ready to fall around here.

I am on a dead-end street, and last to get power and everything else back every damn time, and it sucks.

Until gas gets back under 2 bucks a gallon, I am staging a silent protest, and refusing to drive over 20 miles a week.

If you live close to me, HELL YEAH! We can make something happen!

And I am not flying anywhere. Last time I did that, security harassed me so much I would never fly again.

And that was in 1998, I heard security is even worse now.

I really hope you can make it down here this year.

I have nothing to add at the moment, but I am upvoting all posts here, and I am caught up with that.

All of a sudden, I have a good tip, I just thought of it.

I burn a lot of firewood, cut and split it all myself, and sometimes the wood has a lot of carpenter ants in it.

Those damn things always go to my jacuzzi, causing me to have to clean it and change the water.

Anyway, NOW, when I spilt wood and it has ants, I plan to have my shop vac handy, to just suck all of them into it, and then I can spray some ant spray in there, and be done with all that.

Take the filters out first, like using it for a wet vac.

I only wish I had of thought of this a long time ago.

Nothing new for me to report at the moment, but I did want to check in here, and upvote all the posts here.

I hope all of you have a great week!

My real mailbox, that brings me real bills to pay, I actually look forward to them arriving and getting them paid and done with for another 30 days, or 6 months for insurance, or one year for business license renewal.

The business license renewal is a pain these days. They send a paper that says I qualify to do it online.

At first, I thought hell yeah! But then I found that does not save anything, a total waste of time. I would still have to print the stuff, and have it notarized.

This just causes me to have to take more time, to email for a renewal form to be mailed, the papers that I used to get in the first place.

I have not worried about my mailbox here in a long time. I have been behaving, as best I can anyway.

It is weird sometimes when my mailbox here is jumping, and I am like what? I have been behaving.

Then when I check it, it is a question about a game I have, and if I still like it, and would I recommend it.

Anyway, if anyone here lives in my area, be careful if you burn leaves at the moment.

It is so dry that a regular leaf burn pile with a slight breeze was starting fires 20 feet away that I had to stomp out.

And yeah, I did have the water hose handy, as required by local laws, but was not needed, although I guess I may have melted my shoes a tad.

I have 3 credit cards.

One I have had for over 30 years now, that was badly needed at the time when I was buying stuff at post office auctions to re-sell on eBay. I have some really good tool sets that I still use, from points on that card. No cash back with that card, just travel or merchandise.

The second credit card I have had for about 25 years now, just because it was an eBay thing at the time, and had huge discounts on eBay fees. Back then I was averaging 1400.00 a month on eBay fees. It is a decent cash back card.

The third credit card I have had for about 5 years now, no cash back, but higher points that can be used to pay off the balance.

Confess all those extra bills are a bit of a pain, and I have thought about canceling some, but that big time would lower my credit score, and I want to keep it up in case I ever do find some awesome deal on another rental house or something, and I need a loan.

I already know, because my uncle just did this, the next time I need a water heater from Lowes, I could save 100,00 if I sign up for their credit card, but not sure if I will want to mess with that or not.

Funny, just a few days ago I was watching a squirrel on the power lines here, and I thought I was about to lose power, but he survived, and I did not lose power, so we were both happy.

In the past that has happened though, a bird or squirrel caused a loud boom, and no power for a long time.

As far as power lines, when I was doing construction, it always scared the crap out of me having to dig around them with a backhoe or excavator, but when I hit one, I was never shocked, the loud boom just scared the hell out of me.

I was very terrified anytime I had to use a shovel to look for buried power lines though.

Luckily, I never hit one too hard with a shovel, but I did break a few plastic waterlines through the years with a shovel.

Back then I thought screw this, why do we have to deal with buried power lines, all those should be on poles up in the air so I can see them.

Now that I am retired from digging, I am wishing all power lines were buried underground.

EJS do you know yet when you may be in my area?

I really hope you can figure out how to do the Cleland stuff on my Walking Dead, and it has other minor issues also.

I will get whatever food you want, because I know you prefer to be paid with food.

0 here for the last 30 years.

I have been slacking with that. I will try to do better.

A little out of the way.

The main deterrent is my yard was fenced in 30 years ago and Beware of Dog signs posted.

No doorbell camera needed here.

In the last 30 years, only 2 people have ever climbed my fence, that I know of anyway, and both were friends that had lost my phone number.

So, in 30 years, my doorbell has only been used 2 times.

Confess I love my fence!

Tied for the record low of zero now for 31 years.

Fun fact:

Around here you can only have a 6-foot fence in your front yard, nothing taller.

So, I had some dirt hauled in.

Confess I just noticed this thread has the flame next to it, Hell Yeah!

It would be a lot of work, but I have thought about making some funny posts about getting organized to go out and rake leaves, with pictures showing packing a cooler of beer, and icing it down, before going out and raking leaves.

Life is short, have all the fun you can, while you can.

Reminds me, while ago me and my girlfriend normally watch 911 on Monday nights, (the show is ok sometimes, and sometimes it sucks), anyway, that show was not on tonight, and when I told my girlfriend that the reason the show was not on, was because that station had the World Series.

She was like what the hell, I thought we just had the World Series a few weeks ago.

I said nope, that was a year ago now.

She said damn time is flying at this rate we will be 100 in a few days.

That is very true, time is flying by now.

I really hated school, bored the shit out of me, and I would look at the clock, 10am, look again at the clock after what seemed like it had to be 2pm, and nope, only 10:15am now.

My life just slowly crawled by, and drove me nuts when I was in school, but ever since then, it has been holy shit, I thought I would be done with this project by 10am, and now it is 3pm, and I have not even had lunch yet.

Confess sometimes, I actually think about enrolling in some community college, and taking some very boring class, just to try to slow down time again.

It seems like only a few days ago I was glad when I turned 21 and no longer had to worry about getting busted for a fake ID to buy beer.

Life has flown by very fast, after turning 21.

Actually, I may someday take an HVAC class, because with my house and rental houses, I have found that is the biggest expense, and it would save me money if I knew more.

Roofing is high, first thing I do is a nice-looking painted metal roof, so no longer have to worry about that.

Septic systems are very expensive, but I know how to do those, and as a recently retired excavator/backhoe operator, I have already saved a whole lot of money making my own repairs.

Recently an old, retired electrician taught me pretty much all I need to know about that stuff and has already saved me a whole lot of money.

Water heaters are pretty high also, and recently I learned enough that I think I will be ok with replacing those.

The way things have gone, was basically I used to get up at 5am all the time, and because I was so busy working for someone else, repair people were making a killing off me.

Now at times, some repair that actually takes me 15 minutes to do, after reading about it for 30 minutes, I suddenly am saving 80 bucks, from what repair people used to charge.

Some repairs I will still hire someone else, and the work is not gravy, because I have already looked at it close enough to know I will not try to do it. That is 150 bucks each time, and well worth it still.

I could make a lot more money and take on a lot more different kinds of work, with what I know now.

But no, I am fine because I am very frugal, not rich, just frugal. (Will still go on some vacations).

It is so nice to no longer get up at 5am, and have to sometimes drive 2 hours round trip working all over the place.

The older I get, the more I really love my afternoon naps.

(Well, that, and not sitting in traffic anymore, or dealing with people that I do not want to deal with anymore).

I also want to say, I am very impressed with @EJS, and I really think he will be able to retire very young, and just make a few bucks doing work that he enjoys, and no more sitting in traffic and all of that.

For sure when he gets away from fast food and takes time to cook some stuff for himself.

It is very easy and saves a whole lot of money.

I learned that late in life myself.

Fast food is about as big of a waste of money, as paying someone 80 bucks to repair something, that you could actually repair yourself in 15 minutes.

At times it is all about fast and easy, but sometimes more money can be saved/earned, by slowing down a tad.