Good evening Mister and Missus America, and all the ships at sea ...
... The Find has been lean lately, but the Earn has been insane. I just billed more than 60 hours for a two-week period - that might not sound like much to people with real jobs, but when you work in all the driving between homes, paperwork, outside-the-class work, and cleanup it's more like 100, and it's the third pay period that's been like that. I'm not used to it, especially not this late in the year. I might just make it to last year's gross yet ... but I'm not sure I'll be perky enough to enjoy it.
... I spent Friday sorting through my jewelry, separating what I love from what'll get my kisser on Hoarders. I spent Saturday morning driving 150 miles, in expectation of seeing my gold guy to trade or even scrap out the ounce or two I'd been hanging onto (in a scary way). I spent Saturday afternoon passing sign after sign with "yard sale" all over them, things I'd missed while on what turned out to be a fool's errand - in my guy's state, the police are cracking down so hard on suspected thieves that they've made it nearly impossible for even a licensed dealer to buy gold from an average Jane like me. (And since the commodity's spot price fell fifty or sixty dollars an ounce in the two days previously, he just probably decided it wouldn't be worth the paperwork. I can't blame him.)
... My eBay yard sale is sort of picking up speed. I'd vowed to double the number of listings every week until Thanksgiving but reckoned without the sheer volume of work I'm getting, the sheer mass of crap in my office making it difficult to photograph and pack things, and the sheer frustration of writing up every little item (including maker's marks). I didn't know I had this much silver and costume jewelry, nor did I realize one of my end dates was Halloween. I'm not taking this week off, but I'm only listing a few things - maybe my first gold, because falling prices notwithstanding, in a head-to-head match up my yellow stuff will beat Jack o' Lantern's glowing eyes hand's down.
... I've gone another year without pulling out my bicycle. It's a cruiser, which the Big Lug says is silly on the hills our neighborhood, but I really want to ride something I can brake by backpedalling instead of squeezing until my hands scream. I even put a basket on it so I could carry groceries back from nearby stores. Yet in the two ... okay almost three years I've had it, I haven't even scuffed the new-tread spaghetti off the tires. Another thing I need to either use or sell or donate, I guess.
... Speaking of which, I hired my daughter to do some cleaning on Sunday - she needed the money, I needed the help, and I am shedding all kinds of excess this week. So when I started to the curb with a dresser I've had by the front door for months, and she asked why I wasn't putting it on Craigslist in a flash-sale, I said she could keep the money if she could sell it. Three hours later (while I was at a tutorial) she was $50 up, and I have both a bigger-feeling living room and a new perspective of Craigslist.
... And the Great Purge continues.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
In Transit
Hello from my phone! I have a few minutes between appointments (and this is short because my thumbs are fat and my keyboard is small). I forgot to blog this morning - had to walk off the on-the-run food that's been my staple, had to mail the two eBay sales that ended Sunday, had to finish some emails and internet "paperwork" for the main office. Lots of hours this week, which is good. Home feels like hotel, which is not good. But it will end soon - my Dad just called to cancel his trip out here (threw his back out) so the weekend will be the first quiet one in a long time. Hopefully the first of many.
But for today (and tomorrow and the next and the next and the ...) I will be content with the action, the passion, and the not-insubstantial paycheck I'm about to bill. Dreams of a new bathroom or ceiling fans or bedroom decor keep me moving forward - just like the thought of the empty space on my calendar keeps me from falling down.
Life really is as good as we decide it is!
But for today (and tomorrow and the next and the next and the ...) I will be content with the action, the passion, and the not-insubstantial paycheck I'm about to bill. Dreams of a new bathroom or ceiling fans or bedroom decor keep me moving forward - just like the thought of the empty space on my calendar keeps me from falling down.
Life really is as good as we decide it is!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Running
Tick-tock, tick-tock. I've been running for days, and it ain't gonna end any time soon. I grabbed the Big Lug and beat feet outta here at 7a for a 72nd Annual rummage sale (that's since the '30's!). Found some great pieces (including a couple of organization pins I've never seen before), went on to breakfast and thrift shops and used book stores (spent all of $20 for all ... 2.5 dwt maybe) and dinner and home, cleared up some work waiting for me and weighed the ring and earrings I found ... but not tested ... and now I'm blogging and will edit a paper for a friend before diving head-first into bed ...
To wake up and go help out (and incidentally shop early at) another rummage sale then try to write up and photograph some more things to go up on eBay then go to tutorial and class only to make dinner and crash in bed before waking up ...
To run and run and run to two classes, two tutorials, three locations, and in the blank places between to get things up and running on eBay only ...
To let the world go dark and light again and race back and forth from noon to 830 or 9 or 930 all week.
Running. It's only for the brave.
Or the crazy.
To wake up and go help out (and incidentally shop early at) another rummage sale then try to write up and photograph some more things to go up on eBay then go to tutorial and class only to make dinner and crash in bed before waking up ...
To run and run and run to two classes, two tutorials, three locations, and in the blank places between to get things up and running on eBay only ...
To let the world go dark and light again and race back and forth from noon to 830 or 9 or 930 all week.
Running. It's only for the brave.
Or the crazy.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Poke Nose
Holy crap on a cracker, I was ranty last week! It was exhausting, too, especially since I had a 12.5 hr Sunday and a 9 hr Monday, with students and classes all over the place. Thank heaven the PSATs are tomorrow, and the ACTs are a week from Saturday - I don't think I could survive another month like the last, and another weekend like the last two.
There wasn't even any good stuff out there last weekend. Plenty of yard sales (it's been warm), no big caches of stuff. I think the lack of finds is Mama Angel, poking her big wings into my life again. In fact, I'm pretty sure because A) I'd made a vow to get my shelves and storage areas clear this fall, mostly with a three-month internet bash on eBay, CraigsList, and Etsy - selling off stuff that I can't wear anymore, don't use anymore, or I'm just plain embarrassed I bought in the first place. (She's big on me keeping my promises, and usually makes sure I will by pulling gold out of my way.) And B) there's this:
I spent a dollar. For work on my bat-wings. Which is the other thing she's been after me about. And (okay) I'm fine with that. Especially since the Big Lug already commented on my "losing weight."
Next week, one of my favorite rummage sales. I'll depend on Ms. Poke Nose to remind me to take a camera. And since I'm not putting plenty of stuff online (and wearing myself out in the bargain) I'll also trust her to take the hold off the gold.
There wasn't even any good stuff out there last weekend. Plenty of yard sales (it's been warm), no big caches of stuff. I think the lack of finds is Mama Angel, poking her big wings into my life again. In fact, I'm pretty sure because A) I'd made a vow to get my shelves and storage areas clear this fall, mostly with a three-month internet bash on eBay, CraigsList, and Etsy - selling off stuff that I can't wear anymore, don't use anymore, or I'm just plain embarrassed I bought in the first place. (She's big on me keeping my promises, and usually makes sure I will by pulling gold out of my way.) And B) there's this:
I spent a dollar. For work on my bat-wings. Which is the other thing she's been after me about. And (okay) I'm fine with that. Especially since the Big Lug already commented on my "losing weight."
Next week, one of my favorite rummage sales. I'll depend on Ms. Poke Nose to remind me to take a camera. And since I'm not putting plenty of stuff online (and wearing myself out in the bargain) I'll also trust her to take the hold off the gold.
Friday, October 8, 2010
The Crow
So I was stopped at a light, filing my front tooth, when I got a good look at my eyebrows in the rear view mirror. I have Andy Rooney eyebrows - long, bushy, salt-and-pepper brows that seem to have a life (and a zip code) of their own. And I realized it's not fair that I got his signature feature without his signature sense of the absurd.
At least today I did. The economy always does this to me.
Really, I need to stop watching CNBC. Or at least stop drinking soda from a bottle ... so I won't chip my tooth and need to file the burr at a stoplight and see my brows.
At least today I did. The economy always does this to me.
Really, I need to stop watching CNBC. Or at least stop drinking soda from a bottle ... so I won't chip my tooth and need to file the burr at a stoplight and see my brows.
Chicken and Egg
I'm in rhetoric overload about the economy. It's in the toilet, one side says, because we're out of control on government spending (in danger of turning into a socialist nation). No, it's in a death spiral, the other says, because corporations have screwed the pooch thanks to deregulation, and are totally out of control with their own excesses. All quote numbers as "percent of GDP" to support themselves and point fingers everywhere else.
So I looked some stuff up. Here. The Gross Domestic Product stats page with the Feds, from 1940 (picked at random) to 2009 (last stat date). What I found was ... interesting.
Since 1940, government spending (fed, state, local) has risen - from 15% of GDP to 20% of GDP (as high as 25% in the 50's) while Goods and Services (which is the stuff that businesses produce) has also stayed fairly level at 68 -71% of GDP. Looks like they're all wrong, right?
Look again.
During that time period (which started in WWII and continued through Korea and Vietnam), married couples filing jointly paid taxes from 79% (for the million dollar upper tier) in 1940 to 88% (for $200K and above - which pretty much set the upper tier for a long time) 1942-1943, to a high of 94% from 1944 to 1945 (according to the tax bracket page). Tax rates on the upper tier didn't go below 80% ($200K) again until 1964, and not under 70% until 1982, when it was lowered to 50% (for $85,600 and above). It then bounced around with max income rising, then percent lowering, until we're now at 35% for $372,950 and above. (Not as dramatic as what happened in the beginning of Income Tax when the original tax rate of 7% in 1913 went to 77% by 1918, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.) During the same period, the government outlays almost always hit the 20%'s during war time, and fell back into the 'teens afterward. (And taxes almost always shot up, too, either in percent or upper bracket cutoff.)
Also during that time period, the proportion of Goods and Services changed just as dramatically. In 1940 (war time, remember) Goods produced was approx. 41% of GDP (57% of their category), while Services were just 30% of GDP. By 2009 that had changed to Goods 20% of GDP, Services 48% of GDP.
Oh, and the Net Exports of Goods and Services went from +1.5% of GDP to a high of +4.5% in 1946, when it started its spiral to a low of -4.9% in 2008 (when the crash made everyone pull back, so it's -2.5% now). If you didn't know, that means we send out more than we take in (and in the service sector that means were farming out 36.7% more jobs than we're importing.
What does this mean?
Simple. Everybody's right. And everybody's horribly, terribly wrong.
We are living in a financial house of cards. We consume more than we produce, which is bad enough, but we're dismantling even the potential to produce more not because we're farming it out to China and India but because we're backfilling the sucking hole with a more "educated" (yet another discussion) and entitled worker. We've gone from a product-based economy (making solid, in-your-hand items) to a service-based one. We rise through the ranks of corporate America by finding the holes in the system, and then we go to work for ourselves to market our methods. If we can hire others, we tend to own businesses that do what everyone else doesn't want to do - cook, clean, handle money, make healthy, instruct, protect - but not those that make cars, or sweaters, or even movies, because those facilities are vanishing from the landscape. If this trend continues - and it has for 70 years - then it won't be long before we're all be working for someone else, because a service-oriented person, by definition, serves someone.
And that someone probably won't be here.
We need to change. And not, I think, the way everyone seems to want us to do it.
Ideas?
So I looked some stuff up. Here. The Gross Domestic Product stats page with the Feds, from 1940 (picked at random) to 2009 (last stat date). What I found was ... interesting.
Since 1940, government spending (fed, state, local) has risen - from 15% of GDP to 20% of GDP (as high as 25% in the 50's) while Goods and Services (which is the stuff that businesses produce) has also stayed fairly level at 68 -71% of GDP. Looks like they're all wrong, right?
Look again.
During that time period (which started in WWII and continued through Korea and Vietnam), married couples filing jointly paid taxes from 79% (for the million dollar upper tier) in 1940 to 88% (for $200K and above - which pretty much set the upper tier for a long time) 1942-1943, to a high of 94% from 1944 to 1945 (according to the tax bracket page). Tax rates on the upper tier didn't go below 80% ($200K) again until 1964, and not under 70% until 1982, when it was lowered to 50% (for $85,600 and above). It then bounced around with max income rising, then percent lowering, until we're now at 35% for $372,950 and above. (Not as dramatic as what happened in the beginning of Income Tax when the original tax rate of 7% in 1913 went to 77% by 1918, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.) During the same period, the government outlays almost always hit the 20%'s during war time, and fell back into the 'teens afterward. (And taxes almost always shot up, too, either in percent or upper bracket cutoff.)
Also during that time period, the proportion of Goods and Services changed just as dramatically. In 1940 (war time, remember) Goods produced was approx. 41% of GDP (57% of their category), while Services were just 30% of GDP. By 2009 that had changed to Goods 20% of GDP, Services 48% of GDP.
Oh, and the Net Exports of Goods and Services went from +1.5% of GDP to a high of +4.5% in 1946, when it started its spiral to a low of -4.9% in 2008 (when the crash made everyone pull back, so it's -2.5% now). If you didn't know, that means we send out more than we take in (and in the service sector that means were farming out 36.7% more jobs than we're importing.
What does this mean?
Simple. Everybody's right. And everybody's horribly, terribly wrong.
We are living in a financial house of cards. We consume more than we produce, which is bad enough, but we're dismantling even the potential to produce more not because we're farming it out to China and India but because we're backfilling the sucking hole with a more "educated" (yet another discussion) and entitled worker. We've gone from a product-based economy (making solid, in-your-hand items) to a service-based one. We rise through the ranks of corporate America by finding the holes in the system, and then we go to work for ourselves to market our methods. If we can hire others, we tend to own businesses that do what everyone else doesn't want to do - cook, clean, handle money, make healthy, instruct, protect - but not those that make cars, or sweaters, or even movies, because those facilities are vanishing from the landscape. If this trend continues - and it has for 70 years - then it won't be long before we're all be working for someone else, because a service-oriented person, by definition, serves someone.
And that someone probably won't be here.
We need to change. And not, I think, the way everyone seems to want us to do it.
Ideas?
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Maxxed Out
I didn't get Jimmy Olsen's number, but I sent my pics to my computer, even took another with my phone for last week's and yesterday's finds. These are my first Saturday flea market. I found a couple of fun things, but one really good one here. The entire week's stuff is this:
Mostly yard sales (pearl earrings), consignment (hoops priced "sterling" - marked "585"), and an antique mall (the bee, dangle earrings, and one of the pins). The pin on the right was this flea.
The entire previous week is this:
More pearls (14K clasp, perfect condition), more clutchbacks and wires (no one ever checks!), white gold and singles (rummage sale several hours after opening - few look at "silver" or stray things), toe ring (a dollar!), and one pin from a dollar bin and another that isn't marked that was ten (a yard sale - haven't tested anything yet). The best finds were the engagement ring with a quarter-carat diamond (a previous husband's), the onyx-and-14K ring and earring set, the jade with diamond, and those pearls, all from the same sale (not dollar finds, but under $200 for all of it). The hummingbird was yesterday from my favorite charity shop - half its "melt" instead of my usual tenth, but gold is rising again, isn't it?
Yes, thank heavens!
So I've learned several things this week. One - pictures on my phone suck, and I can't get them to the blog at that moment anyway, so I need to learn to take my camera and just hit the 'net at the earliest possible opportunity. Two - the greatest finds seem to come along when my reserves are lowest (that ring was one of two exes' rings), so I need to have a backup plan. And three - if my backup plan is to restart my internet yard sale to refill the pot, don't do it during my busiest week of the year.
I'm dead tired. I'm sucked dry. I haven't walked in two weeks. And I really need to take a shower.
Jimmy Olsen can go hang - I need Superman!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Field Work Study
I had every intention of taking pictures this week, a sort of photolog. Only problem (at first) was the incredible lack of multitasking ability in this Bunny's gene pool - when push comes to shove, "earning it" outweighs a chronicle of "finding it," at least for now. Even yesterday (which took me out of town and into an antique mall, a consignment store, and two thrift shops) didn't hit "reset" on my memory. And today I remembered only near the end of the flea market.
But I DID remember. I just found out I can't upload the images from my phone, though. Kinda puts a crimp in the whole Lois Lane thing, huh?
Does anyone have Jimmy Olsen's number?
But I DID remember. I just found out I can't upload the images from my phone, though. Kinda puts a crimp in the whole Lois Lane thing, huh?
Does anyone have Jimmy Olsen's number?