As I’ve written before I’ll be able to tell you who is lying about the state of the economy, the Biden administration or our own eyes, by the end of the week. Two big clues just turned up.
The first is that the Saturday after Cyber Monday which during the Trump years had been an optional 7th workday of the week will be a regular day off. While this is a big clue it’s also possible that the change in the shift structure from six months ago at my place meant there is enough weekend coverage that we aren’t needed. So it’s possible that this is solely due to clever preparation by the company to cut down on overtime expense.
The 2nd is more substantial. Yesterday was Cyber Monday, and not only were we able to keep up with orders but by the end of the day we were told that instead of coming in two hours early the rest of the week for the ten hour days they scheduled us for we can come in at our normal times.
Four days after Black Friday and we’re already back to 8 hour days. In the time that I’ve been here that’s unheard of.
As of right now Friday is still a mandatory 6th day. If that becomes optional before the week is out then hold onto your hats everyone because if you think it’s a bumpy ride now it’s about to get worse.
It’s Thanksgiving day and because the Turkey is cooking and my wife is on full blast I did a quick Dunkin & McDonalds run so as not to dirty stuff for DaWife’s coffee or my breakfast.
I passed by St. Bernard’s football field and remembered the phony hate crime hoax from years ago that got national attention of the FBI & the Obama admin and caused the Lunenburg St. Bernard’s game to be cancelled that year. I covered the story here:
As I recall the town never got an apology from all those who called them a bunch of racists nor did the players who missed their Turkey game that year.
They never do.
Thanksgiving is a traditional day for football (as mentioned above). When I was young the TV would be filled with college games. Now the NFL has gone in a big way, not only just the Cowboys and the Lions who both host home games on Thanksgiving (and will therefore never face the other on Thanksgiving day) but a late game that is an A list matchup between the 49ers and the Seahawks. They have even added a black Friday game Dolphins at the Jets.
I guess they’re all in on Thanksgiving weekend and taking the business from the colleges and I guess it’s the right move. Make the money while you can now because nothing lasts forever.
As for me, well I guess it a good way to pass the time waiting for spring training
In a recent speech Tucker Carlson talked about trusting your gut. My gut says that the deal with Hamas that Israel has made for hostages is a bad idea.
But since it’s the Jews of Israel who are doing the fighting and dying and it’s the Jews of Israel whose woman and children are hostages and I’m just sitting at a keyboard in safety I think I’ll defer to the judgement of their leadership vs my own.
I’m old enough to remember when I could make a joke in public or online without worry that it wouldn’t give supporters of terror groups that want to kill jews idea.
Alas those days are gone so my excellent joke shall have to remain in house.
Finally today is going to be my last day off before Black Friday. During the Trump years this was flat out time for me. We ended up working 14 days in a row after Thanksgiving and six days a week all though Christmas and carried a ton of temps all thought that time.
Last year we had one busy week and it was so quiet that the Friday after black Friday was optional and all the extra temps were laid off within two weeks.
We had a busy week this week as one of our retailers had a pre-black friday sale but this week will say more about the truth of Biden economy than any talking head can.
As all of you know I’m both a big baseball fan and a huge pinball fan and yesterday I got an offer that I thought I couldn’t refuse.
There is a first rate pinball game called Silver Slugger that was rented for me as a Christmas gift last year. I really enjoyed this game as it combines a standard pinball scoring system with a baseball scoring system (pinball points and runs) I can highly recommend this game to anyone who wants an inexpensive pinball machine. (New Machines generally run between $7-15K)
Well the fellow who rented the machine offered it to me for sale. He understood that I only had a limited area to place a game and said location might have issues with sunlight than can fade machine. This machine had a color scheme that would best be able to handle the location without damage.
Furthermore the price he asked was $300 less than the median current price on Pinside (the pinball market) and because he would be picking up a rental from my son anyways the delivery would not be extra which is huge.
It was an excellent bargain. I had enough to pay for the machine in the mad money that I’ve been putting aside every paycheck for the last year or two and I was debating if DaWife would tolerate a machine at the spot where it would go when the oil delivery truck showed up in front of the house.
So I went outside grab the mail and to get the bill for the 190 gallons of heating oil that the tank took.
$710
Mind you this is the first delivery of the year. During an average heating season I expect to have 3 1/2 more such deliveries turn up at the house over the four or five months. Which means $2500 more in oil bills yet to come.
During the Trump years that same oil bill would have been about $360-$400 at the most meaning I would expect to pay another $1260- $1400 dollars over the course of the heating season.
The difference? That the price of the machine.
Now if it were the Trump years I would be able to use that cash saved for the machine secure in the knowledge that I’d be able to handle any twists and turns that might come up. The only question would be the reaction of DaWife to it being a permanent rather than a temporary addition to the house that my sons might rent for me at Christmas & Birthdays.
But alas Joe Biden is president, everything from groceries to gasoline has skyrocketed and given the inept foreign policy that has enabled our enemies and funded Iran who funds Iran and the turmoil in the middle east I can’t be sure that my next oil bill won’t be a whole lot more by the time I burn through what I have, particularly since domestic energy production which was big in the Trump years, is discouraged now.
Given those facts It would be completely irresponsible for me to spend the money on that machine, much more prudent to hold off in case the side effects of the third Obama Term Biden years get even worse. And of course if we have a fourth Obama term second Biden term it likely won’t be much better.
So as I look longingly at the photo of the machine that I enjoyed so much and email the fellow that I really can’t pull the trigger right now all I can say is:
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