Post Race!

[Shaggy Hiker]

Perhaps he only gargled?

[dday9]

I just found that I make $3,000 more a year than the poverty threshold.

[dday9]

That's depressing.

[FunkyDexter]

Making $3,000 dollars a year less than the poverty threshold would probably be more depressing.

[dday9]

If I were making $3,000 a year less then I'd qualify for all sorts of supplements, although I don't know if I'd take it. Currently the only welfare that I'm collecting is Medicaid for my son and that's because of a direct result of the ACA, I simply cannot afford insurance on him.

[FunkyDexter]

If it helps I'd be happy for you to send me the extra $6000. I've always got your best interests at heart, DD.

I tried being broke and homeless in my late teens. It's overrated.

[dday9]

I'll send it to:

FunkyDexter
123 Main St
SK system, UK, Earth

[Shaggy Hiker]

I tried living in a shower for a few weeks. It was pretty educational, really. Nobody knew I was living in there, as it was an unused locker room off of a storage area that few had a key to. Unfortunately, it had no windows, either, so I could sleep in until the early afternoon if I didn't look at my watch. I believe I was headed towards a 24 up/24 down sleep cycle.

A sleep cycle, for those who don't know, is kind of like a motorcycle...only entirely different.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I was below the poverty line in grad school, which I thought was kind of interesting. I qualified for food stamps, though I never took advantage of the offer. The poverty line doesn't take into account factors other than income. In my case, the fact that I had virtually no expenses other than food meant that I was actually paying off student loans at a good pace despite being technically impoverished.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It's still better not being below the poverty line.

[dday9]

My only debt is my home, well that and I took out a small $300 loan to fix the brakes on my Mustang II, but I still have electricity, gas, water, internet, and a small demon that sucks the life out my wife and me(aka my son).

[dday9]

What really hurt me is that my hot water heater went out last month, so I went several days without hot water. Then paid $400 for a new one.

[dday9]

Plus my wife accidentally flushed her deodorant down the toilet. I couldn't afford a plumber, but my brother and I took off the toilet, walked it outside, and dumped it upside down. It was pretty gross, but the deodorant fell out.

[FunkyDexter]

despite being technically impoverished

I've seen your code. Your still technically impoverished. ZING!

the deodorant fell out

Did your wife still want it?! Personally, at that point, I think I'd just have revelled in her naturally beautiful aromas.

[Gruff]

While in the Coast Guard I took care of dependent housing in New York for one of my tours.

I use to hate those over the toilet shelving/storage units.
All manner of plastic bottles, caps, and assorted doodads would fall in.

Augers were useless against hard plastic or metal clogs,
so yeah pulling the commode was the only option.

[Gruff]

Don't know if I mentioned it before, but I am moving.
My landlord upped my rent way too much.

What I came up against in my apartment search was that 3/4 of the apartments out here in the sticks are rent assisted by the state. In short since I gross over 25,000 per year I am not allowed to rent them.

The rest of the apartment complexes have waiting lists of twenty or more.

I finally found one, but it is going to cost me 200.00 extra a month than I was paying in August.
The good news is it has built in W/D and an extra bedroom. Ground floor and all one level.

Still it bugs the hell out of me that rental companies are gouging the public this year.
High cost of homes appears to be driving it.

[homer13j]

Still it bugs the hell out of me that rental companies are gouging the public this year.
High cost of homes appears to be driving it.

It helps to live in an area where nobody else wants to live. Cost of living was the main reason I fled Chicago and returned to Cleveland. From '02 through the end of '07 my rent in the ghetto (W.47th/Storer Ave.) $250/month plus utils and I thought I was getting ripped off!

[dday9]

Did your wife still want it?! Personally, at that point, I think I'd just have revelled in her naturally beautiful aromas.

Believe or not she asked why I threw it away, thank goodness she was joking. Or was she...

I use to hate those over the toilet shelving/storage units.

That was exactly the situation, she was actually grabbing something else from the shawz over the toilet when she 'bumped' the shawz the wrong way causing the deodorant to fall in.

Still it bugs the hell out of me that rental companies are gouging the public this year.
High cost of homes appears to be driving it.

I moved out of my parent's when I was 17 and the rent was fair where I lived. I was living close to downtown and for a 1bed/1bath apartment I was paying $500 a month. I was fortunate that my dad bought my first home(in the ghetto mind you) for $40k, which he paid cash for. I paid him $500 for a 2bed/2bath home for a year. Now I've bought my own home(hence my debt) and I only pay $315 for the mortgage and $3200 a year in premium for home insurance, but almost all my friends rent and one is living in the same apartments that I lived in when I first moved out. He's paying $850 a month. My friends that rent homes have like 6 - 7 people living in them because the rent has sky rocketed.

[Shaggy Hiker]

and a small demon that sucks the life out my wife and me(aka my son).

The first step is admitting you have a problem. Good job.

[Shaggy Hiker]

What really hurt me is that my hot water heater went out last month, so I went several days without hot water. Then paid $400 for a new one.

Yeah, I had to do that a couple years back. It was pretty stressful. My house was built with the water heater in a location without tolerance. There was essentially one water heater that would fit that space, and ONLY one. If that model is ever discontinued...I guess I'll go to on-demand, which I might do anyways.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I finally found one, but it is going to cost me 200.00 extra a month than I was paying in August.
The good news is it has built in W/D and an extra bedroom. Ground floor and all one level.

Still it bugs the hell out of me that rental companies are gouging the public this year.
High cost of homes appears to be driving it.

W/D? Wild or Demented? Wanton or Deranged? Oh wait, I misread the words before it. It has built in W/D!! Ah, Watercloset and Doors, right? It's good to have doors in Oregon, and bathrooms. That way you won't be trampled by moose on the way to the outhouse, and the buffalo don't roam through your living room. Very good features to have.

With housing prices soaring, I'm not surprised to see rents increasing, especially when you say that you have such high demand that the waiting lists are 20 people deep. It's not gouging, at that point, it's the invisible hand of the market giving you the finger like a deranged proctologist.

[dday9]

If that model is ever discontinued...I guess I'll go to on-demand, which I might do anyways.

That's what I wanted, but believe it or not Lowes didn't have it in stock. And I'm one that's faithful to one store, so I just stuck with the exact same model that I had before.

[Shaggy Hiker]

So did I, in the end, but the way the house was built, I either stick with that model or go on-demand...which is a nasty way to build a house. For the life of that house, the water heater will be electric and it will be tall and skinny.

[Gruff]

W/D?

Sorry Clothes Washer and Dryer.

[Gruff]

When I home owned I had and old Cape Code style two bedroom with a full basement.
The hot water heater sat in a clear area a few feet away from the wall.
It was a snap to replace with any model I desired. I only had to replace it once in 18 years.

[dday9]

Basements are cool. I've been in one once in Baton Rouge, of course it was only 5 ft. tall and super damp, but I though that it was so cool to have extra square footage under your house!

[homer13j]

Basements are cool. I've been in one once in Baton Rouge, of course it was only 5 ft. tall and super damp, but I though that it was so cool to have extra square footage under your house!

I'm surprised anyone in that area has anything resembling a basement considering they don't even put dead bodies underground down there.

[dday9]

In some places we can bury people, not 6 six feet but it's like a mini mausoleum that you can't walk in.

[Shaggy Hiker]

When I home owned I had and old Cape Code style two bedroom with a full basement.

A lot of houses out that way had full basements, especially after a big enough storm.

When I was growing up, we had a basement that we could drive into. From the looks of the house, the new owners may have finished the basement such that it is (dark and nearly windowless) living space, but it was just a basement while I was growing up. The hot and cold water tanks were both down there (we were on a well, so there was a cold water tank as well as hot), along with a root cellar, a few pumps (house water and irrigation water, both of which came from dug wells rather than drilled wells, and had pumps in the house rather than the well), assorted visiting animals, and lots of other stuff. Basements were good for that. "Lots of other stuff" tends to accumulate in basements. "Lots of other stuff" is now accumulating in my garage, but it lacks the same appeal. In my garage, there is lots of light and the air is hot and dry. A basement is always cool and dank. In a garage, you might find a dessicated something, but you'd always know what it once had been. In a basement, you'd find an amorphous lump and not be sure whether it had once been a frog, a squirrel, or just something that cat horfed up.

[dday9]

I finished making a LUA tutorial website just like the VB.Net one: http://luaprogramming.freeiz.com/index.html

[dday9]

I'd really like to get away from free hosting, because those pop-ups are soooooo annoying.

[dday9]

But I'm doing it as a hobby and for free, so I can't afford paid hosting I think. Let alone a domain name.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I finished making a LUA tutorial website just like the VB.Net one: http://luaprogramming.freeiz.com/index.html

Oh come on. That one's easy:

1) Kill pig.

2) Roast pig.

3) Invite lots of friends.

4) Party like it's 1999!

[dday9]

I like a good boucherie, but I don't get it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Look up Luau. It's probably a bit similar to whatever it was that you just mentioned. Getting a bunch of people together to eat a roast pig seems to be a tradition in many countries and has many different names, but it is all similar. Whenever I see any discussion of Lua, I think Luau.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I like the code tags on Quick Reply so much that I have frequently hit them when I ment to hit the quote tags, thereby causing code formatting on a quote...there is virtually no difference when that happens.

[homer13j]

My basement is currently dungeon-like after the bank foreclosed then bungled the winterization causing massive plumbing issues that flooded it out and I had to gut everything. But on the plus side I paid relatively little for the place and have no mortgage so renovating the basement shouldn't be too much of a burden.

There are also some water leakage issues that will run me about $1200 to fix, but I budgeted $10,000 for repairs when I bought the place and the plumbing issues were cheap since I did all those repairs myself. New water heater cost me $700 but I got a nice big one and had to pay city hall $75 for the permit (!) to install it. So I'm still way ahead of the game...

In November I'm having a new 200 amp electrical box put in and wiring one end of the basement with a pair of 20 amp circuits for my PA system, bass guitar and harmonica amps, and any equipment brought over by other musicians with plenty of room and power to spare. Drywall (440 sound barrier), ceiling tiles, carpet, a 60-inch TV for movies, a bar at the other end of the room... You know, the usual stuff.

Yeah, basements are nice when they're actually habitable.

[Shaggy Hiker]

If I had a basement out here I would sleep in it during the summer when the temps get so bloody high.

[FunkyDexter]

Basement's rock but they're rare as hen's teeth in the UK. I'm actually looking at a place that has one divided into two rooms with a view to buying it but I'm just a few grand short on the deposit right now. It won't take me long to save up the difference but the house could go in the meantime. It's a race against time.

If I do get it then one rooms getting turned into a home gym and the other's getting a bigg ass TV, a bar and lots of oversized bean bags.

[dday9]

My dad who's a pretty bad alcoholic just built himself a bar and it's awesome! The bar itself is a beautiful dark wood and the pole that runs at the bottom is chromed, plus it's stacked with a ton of alcohol.