Good Morning!!!! 43F @ 5:15AM. Sun and clouds mixed. High 71F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.
I'll try to explain how I feel.
Imagine a scenario, where an investor came to you and said "RNG, I need your talent to start a company, I want you to buy in a 5% interest, and you'll be the primary on getting the company moving. Oh and I'll pay you a 6 figure salary until the profits can handle it."
So, you agree and fork in your $250,000 investment and on Monday you start work. You work 80+ hour weeks, with tons of stress and worry to get the business rolling down the tracks. After 25 years of your blood, sweat, and tears of hard work, your investor comes to you and says "Great work RNG, the company is doing so well, I'm going to bring in another 8 people, offer to start them at your salary, and GIVE them a 5% stake in the company to help lure them onboard."
The newbys have no sweat equity.
How would you feel about that?
We do have infrastructure problems in areas, and not enough water to handle much more of a populace right now. But we have a $22 Billion dollar surplus even after having to spend over $10 billion at our southern border.
Kinda hard to overlook a 25 year accumulation of a six figure salary, that if managed properly, would put me in a strong position to retire quite comfirtably. And also that, after those same 25 years, the company apparently has grown sufficiently to warrant paying eight additional staff that same six figure sallary, another indication that the company is now huge and that five percent share would make me a multimillionaire. About the only shortsighted thing I see about the deal is that the new guys weren't reqired to make a 25 year commitment to the company, such that if they left ahead of time, they forfit the five percent.
I'm not so sure the analogy between a business and a community holds up that well. The problem with newcomers, large numbers of them, and I saw this in Chico, CA after the Camp Fire destroyed Paradise and a large number of the 10,000 households from there moved to Chico, is that the rate at which the new people arrived was greater than the rate at which the supporting infrustructure was developed. So they had problems with traffic, crime, utilities and such that significantly lowered the quality of life for the "been heres", problems that continue to this day, eight years later. Maybe Chico isn't a good example due to the large forcing function represented by the fire. When I moved to California 45 or so years ago, I was drawn there, like a lot of people, more by a good paying job than the weather. Now adays the job opportunities are gone and people are actually leaving, such that the state lost a few seats in the House of Representatives. The tax base in California is also in decline, and now we're seeing budget shortfalls. I'd be hard pressed to establish direct cause and effect on that, but it likely has an impact, but probably not as much an effect as poor decisions on how the available funds are allocated. My sense is that the kinds of problems California is having will follow Californians to their new state, whereever they go, because they will make the same poor decisions in their new locations. And that's a much bigger worry than how the newbies will impact infrastructure.
Hopefully this weekend I will be able to start on my project of derashing the aluminum wheels.
One of the used wheels I purchased for the Vanagon had some pretty deep road rash, Drew. I Bondoed them full and used a dual action air sander to smooth them back to the original contour. Then took one to the local automotive paint store and got them to match the color and texture of the original paint. Ended up painting all four wheels, but it wasn't that much work.
Regardless, I'll ask for advice here from our wood burning veterans.
I didn't have very dry wood my first year heating with it, and had a hard time getting a fire started. By the second year what was left of that first wood had dried out, and I'd processed a lot of dead and down trees, and I couldn't believe how much easier and hotter the stove started and burned. I also learned to fill the stove as much as possible, and burn it hot enough to prevent creasote deposits. Only time I ever saw smoke coming out of the chimney was during the first few minutes of lighting a new fire, or when stoking an old one. Oh, and once I learned the "top down" method of fire building, and always using dry kindling, starting was a breeze. Not as simple as flipping on a thermostat, but not much of a chore, either, and the house was a lot warmer than with forced air furnace.
Finished up some paperwork yesterday and got the van mostly packed for the trip north tomorrow. Just last minute stuff left.
Made a call to a local junkyard about getting rid of the Vanagon parts car, and was happy to learn they'll give me a hundred bux for it, and come up and haul it away.
I should cut the grass here this afternoon once the dew dries. Not sure what else I'll get into.
TGIF gang!
![IMG_4375[1].JPG](/forums/data/attachments/2672/2672888-316846d2297b87430e30d4af3e73ea05.jpg)
