Daylight Foolishness Time

“If anyone at my funeral has a long face, I’ll never speak to him again.”

– Stan Laurel

Legendary Stan Laurel was the exact opposite of the hapless character he played - The Sunday Post

For as long as I can remember, and long before I ever moved to Arizona, I have thought that changing the clocks twice a year was a foolish practice. Thankfully, as Arizonans my wonderful wife and I no longer have to participate.

I have long described the semi-annual nonsense as cutting off the top of a blanket and sewing it on to the bottom. What’s more disturbing, though, is that the next three days comprise the second deadliest period on US roads every year, behind only the July the 4th weekend. What do you expect when you take away an hour of sleep from a population that’s already sleep-deprived?!

Although I would prefer making Daylight Standard Time the norm (it is called Standard Time, after all), even moving to permanent Daylight Savings Time, as is being proposed, would be better than the stupidity of changing the clocks. Thank goodness for Arizona and Hawaii, the only two states where the clocks remain as they are all year.

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Common sense prevailing over blind adherence to ideology? According to The New York Times, the current administration is planning to greenlight an $8 billion oil drilling project on the north slope of Alaska. That state’s lawmakers and oil executives have put enormous pressure on the White House to approve the project, citing the President’s own calls for the industry to increase production amid volatile gas prices stemming from Russia’s war crimes against Ukraine.

The notion that so-called renewable energy will be able to fully power a modern, industrialized society in the next 10 to 20 years is a pipe dream. Once again, General Motors’ upcoming $800 million investment in its next generation of gasoline-powered, small-block V8 engines is a tacit admission of that reality.

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Speaking of General Motors…

A 2008 Saturn Sky Red Line in this color with a two-tone red and black interior has been consigned to the upcoming Mecum auction in Glendale, Arizona. While, of course, Mecum wants to drum up interest in the car, the pictures on its website are quite stunning.

With our bill for repairs and upgrades on the Goose Bumps house approaching $20k, it would certainly not be a prudent decision to try to buy this car, even though I have the funds in a savings account earmarked for automotive purchases. I might, emphasize might, let the auction decide for me. If it looks like I can buy the car for $15k-$16k all in, it will be difficult for me not to make a bid or two. Remember that I won’t have to pay to have the car shipped. Did I mention that the car’s odometer reads 6,245 miles?

A small irony is that, right now, the one-car garage bay has no room for a car as it has become a repository for empty moving boxes and other miscellany. Of course, the house has a large concrete pad on which at least two cars could be parked, even if just temporarily. I guess I’ll just have to wait to see how events unfold.

#DaylightFoolishnessTime

#PipeDreamOfRenewableEnergy

#SaturnSkyRedLine

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Just Like That

When I woke up at 4:30 this morning one of the first things I did was to check the NFL section of ESPN’s website. I learned that, in a move that had not specifically been rumored, the Chicago Bears traded the first overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for multiple draft picks and star wide receiver DJ Moore.

I think the timing of this move is unusual, these trades usually happen closer to the draft which is not until late April, and just like that we know the Bears are committing to Justin Fields (drafted in the first round two years ago) as their quarterback and that the Panthers are out of the running for Lamar Jackson. Surely, the Panthers, who have been desperately looking for a franchise quarterback for years, made this trade in order to select the quarterback they like most in the upcoming draft. As crazy as this sounds, they might not even be sure who that is at this particular moment, but are sure they can draft him when they decide.

In his “Winners and Losers” piece regarding this trade, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell listed Lamar Jackson as a winner under the premise that a team that wants to sign him can now wait until after the draft and, as a consequence, would potentially have to give its first-round picks from 2024 and 2025 to the Ravens, not 2023 and 2024 like they would have if they signed him before the draft. (How’s that for 60+ word, run-on sentence?!)

To me, Jackson is not helped by this trade as it removes a potential suitor from the market. Add that to the Miami Dolphins’ decision to exercise the fifth-year option for starting quarterback Tua Tagavailoa and Jackson has lost two rumored potential destinations.

While I am nominally a Ravens fan, I am not disturbed by the prospect of Jackson playing for another team. In the same way, even though I have been a Packers fan since I was 12, I hope that Aaron Rodgers is playing for someone else next season. Both players now come with a lot of baggage.

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In Wandering Aimlessly, yesterday’s post, I wrote the following regarding a piece by Hagerty, “I think the article would also be worth reading to those of you with an interest in automobiles. I don’t know how much I fit in that category, anymore.” No, I do not like to quote myself and seldom do it, as regular readers can attest.

Dirty Dingus McGee commented (all of you should regularly read the comments, which now number almost 8,000 in the history of this blog), “I hate to hear that your interest has waned.” I replied that I used to love baseball, that I persevered against overwhelming odds to forge a 20+ year career in it, but no longer have any interest in the sport.

I am reluctant to write the remark about the constancy of change, but it’s true. People who hide their heads in the sand hoping to avoid change are clueless, in my opinion.

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I am biased, of course, but the bathroom across the hallway from my office is the nicest non-master bath I have ever seen.

As we are under instructions from our plumber not to use the shower in the master bath until Sunday (long story), I had to use this bathroom to take a shower after my workout yesterday. It was a mahchayeh, a Hebrew/Yiddish word for oasis, I believe.

I also seriously doubt that this is the same bathroom that was original to our house, which was built in 2006. With the bill for upgrades and repairs piling up, this discovery was most welcome.

#JustLikeThat

#TheConstancyOfChange

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Myths Abound

The picture above, of course, shows my wonderful wife’s Corvette. On our 13.7 mile, 22 minute drive to breakfast this morning what gas mileage did the car make?

A. 21.7

B. 24.7

C. 27.7

The real answer is none of the above. Her Corvette made 34.7 MPG on our drive to the deli. Yes, we were lucky in that all of the lights were green (we also don’t have a lot of lights on this route) and traffic was light. However, it is a myth that all performance cars are gas guzzlers all the time. By the way, my wife drove at or slightly above the posted speed limit, like 53 MPH in a 50 MPH zone.

How often a person has to stop at red lights and stop signs plays a major role in fuel economy. At idle a car gets 0 MPG. I am NOT advocating running red lights and stop signs. Still, when one lives in a place without a lot of red lights and stop signs, like where we live, fuel economy can be surprisingly good and easily exceed EPA estimates. The “official” EPA estimate for gas mileage for her 2018 Corvette is 18 MPG combined, 15 city and 25 highway. Since she has owned the car, my wonderful wife’s Corvette’s overall gas mileage is more than 22 MPG and that’s in about 24,000 miles of driving.

I made about 19 MPG in my 2016 Z06 and for part of that time the engine was tuned to produce more power than stock. Its “official” EPA estimate was 16 MPG combined. My 2022 Mustang GT is “rated” at 19 MPG combined, but I am getting 22 MPG. Tomorrow will be six months I have had the car (!) and I have driven it a little more than 3,000 miles.

I would not be surprised if a systematic bias exists against performance cars in EPA testing. The government is trying to push us to electric vehicles. Underestimating fuel economy for performance cars is one way to force the transition. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. #DeathBeforeEV

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My brilliant high school classmate, TI, sent me the link to this piece titled, “Sense prevails. We’re giving censors the boot.” Here is an excerpt from Hadley Freeman’s article:

“New York Magazine defined a vibe shift as when “a once-dominant social wavelength starts to feel dated”, and the hyper-vigilant, hyper-right-on social wavelength that has dominated progressive culture spheres for the past six or so years is feeling tapped out. Where once suppressing views considered by some to be objectionable — censorship, in other words — was accepted as a moral obligation, now it looks infantile, absurd and deranged.”

I’m not sure I agree, ~~woke~~ seems as prevalent to me as ever if not more, but we can only hope.

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Philip Maynard sent me this link to a piece about the role of Earth’s orbit in Ice Ages. It is worth reading.

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I am going to “re-print” the beginning of this Why Evolution Is True post titled, “The sex binary in animals: a defense by Colin Wright.”

“It is a constant uphill battle for biologists to keep defending the truth that animals have but two sexes, defined by whether they have the reproductive apparatus to produce small, mobile gametes (the males) or large immobile gametes (the females). I’m not going to go into this again as you can read my explanation here. I have a longer and more popular explanation coming out in a big paper in June (stay tuned).

There are just two sexes in animals (and in nearly all vascular plants): male and female. Clownfish are not a third sex (they change from male to female.) Seahorse males are not a third sex (they are males who produce sperm and carry the fertilized eggs of females around in a pouch). Hermaphrodites are not a third sex (they combine aspects of male and female sex), and I’m aware of only one case in which a human hermaphrodite, whose male parts produced sperm, fathered an offspring. Hermaphroditic plants are not a third sex; they are simply hermaphrodites that contain male tissue and female tissue (producing small sperm and big eggs, respectively). There is no individual in animals or vascular plants that produce a third type of gamete. Ergo, sex is binary.

This assertion, accepted for decades by biologists, is offensive to ideological Pecksniffs because they want sex to be a spectrum, as gender is. (Gender and sex are different, and gender really isn’t a spectrum, but bimodal, with the distribution looking like the back of a two-humped camel, with one hump being those identifying as the male gender and the other identifying as the female.)

Under woke ideology, what you think is good in society must be seen as true in nature, an inversion of the “appeal to nature” that argues that something that’s natural is perceived to be good. In this new fallacy, which is still a fallacy, something that’s good is perceived to be natural.”

This is one of the most cogent criticisms of the absurdly false Pecksniff/~~woke~~ agenda. Once again, Jerry Coyne–the author of Why Evolution Is True–self-identifies as a liberal, although I suspect the Lunatic Left would like to hang him for many of his writings.

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This recent Hagerty piece is notable, in my opinion, for two bits of news: NHTSA is opening a preliminary investigation into 120,000 2023 Tesla Model Y vehicles after two reports of steering wheels that fell off while driving and Porsche and Ferrari are fighting the adoption of a European Union ban on Internal Combustion Engines. They want to exempt engines that run on synthetic fuel. Porsche has declared that its iconic 911 model will never have an electric option.

I will still never own a Porsche, but I applaud their efforts at fighting the ill-conceived push to all electric vehicles. They have begun to manufacture synthetic fuels at a plant in Chile.

#MythsAbound

#DeathBeforeEV

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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I’m Still Here

Just wanted to publish a short post as “proof of life.” We are finding out–the hard way–that every 17-year old house, no matter how nice, has infrastructure issues that need to be addressed. Our bill to address all of them will be well into five figures. C’est la vie…

#I’mStillHere

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Multi-Link Monday

No, today’s post is not about a system for automobile suspension. (From this piece comes this definition: The term “multi-link suspension” can refer to a number of different suspension designs, all of which include at least three lateral links.)

I don’t really have time to compose a standard length post; this photo is just one piece of evidence to back up that claim.

Obviously, those shelves should have books on them and boxes shouldn’t occupy what will be my office. Another of the many advantages to moving is this view from my office.

Yes, the solar screens obscure the view somewhat. A small price to pay.

Anyway…back to the title. I just wanted to present many links to other pieces on the Internet that I found interesting. Read them at your leisure.

EU delays vote on combustion engine phaseout after German pushback

Is common sense creeping in?

Brian Leiter makes hash of a recent claim that DEI objectives can sometimes supersede academic freedom

Leiter is a professor at the Law School of the University of Chicago, the institution that employs Jerry Coyne, author of Why Evolution Is True.

UK Home Secretary defends freedom of expression

It’s a sad development that so many so-called “progressives” want to return to the muzzling of free speech and expression, just like the days of tyrants.

GM’s 12 biggest missed opportunities

From the Hagerty piece comes this picture.

Apropos of this recent blog post is this recent CNBC article titled, “As Social Security reform talks heat up, changes to the retirement age, payroll tax may be on the table.”

Time for more unpacking.

#Multi-LinkMonday

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Sunday Update

Although this is not even close to being our first move–not our first rodeo, in the colloquial–my wonderful wife and I are overwhelmed. One complication is the fact that because I refused to share the pre-purchase home inspection report with our insurance company, they are insisting that we do a quasi-inspection with an app used primarily for contractors. I just have a bad feeling about that process.

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Even though the Federal Reserve and other central banks have hurt the value of our fixed-income investments by raising interest rates (higher yields mean lower bond prices), we are still doing very well in that investment class. Yes, I might break my arm patting myself on the back here.

Since January 1, 2009 our fixed-income investments have returned an average of 6.7% per year. Our brokerage company uses the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index as its benchmark. In the same time period that index has had an average annual return of 2.5%.

Since 40% of our investment portfolio is in fixed income, it should be no surprise that our entire portfolio has exceeded its “expected” return (weighted by asset class allocation) by 170 basis points (1.7%) per year for the last 14 years. I had been reluctant to check this data and had not done so since before we moved to Arizona in 2020.

In case you’re interested, or even if you’re not, besides the 40 percent in fixed income our allocation just with our brokerage company and not counting other assets is 40 percent large cap equity, 5 percent small cap, 10 percent international and 5 percent cash. Again, we have cash and other assets outside our brokerage company. Small cap stocks are the only asset class where our investments have significantly under-performed their benchmark. By the way, our brokerage company makes all of this information available on its website; I didn’t really have to do more than a few calculations.

Since becoming totally debt-free more than five years ago, I have somewhat changed our main investment objective from maximizing total return given our risk tolerance to increasing the amount of income from our investment portfolio. That has changed some of my “rules” for buying bonds. In addition, our fixed income allocation has increased in that time and made our investment value especially vulnerable to the actions of central banks. However, we are still receiving a healthy amount of annual income.

Remember that, although the dividends paid to holders of common stock are usually relatively safe, any company can decrease or eliminate its dividend at any time. A bond is a contract that obligates the issuer to make payments of a known amount on a fixed schedule. In the event of a company bankruptcy, common stock holders are usually left with nothing while bond holders usually receive something.

OK, that’s enough on that topic. I guess I have to write the disclaimer that since my FINRA licenses expired years ago and since every person’s risk tolerance/objectives are not the same, all of this exposition is not intended as advice.

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I have to show a couple of pictures from inside the Goose Bumps house.

Looking at the photos in the editor makes it apparent that they are a little tilted. Of course, I am very tilted.

The top photo shows what we call the “bedroom hallway” as three of the four bedrooms are located there. The door to the master bedroom is a few feet behind me. The bottom photo is the front door from inside. As best as I could measure, from where I stood to take the photo to the door into the laundry room (the open door at the end of the hallway), the distance is 50 feet (about 15 meters).

My wonderful wife would like just to twitch her nose and be done with all of the unpacking. I am not a fan of this part of the move, but it’s really the last part so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and doubt it’s an oncoming train.

My posting schedule will probably remain erratic for awhile. We have a lot of vendor visits in the next week or so. Please bear with me and please don’t forget this blog. Many thanks.

#SundayUpdate

#Investing

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Freeform Friday

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean anyone else has to listen.

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.

Making a very hard turn…

If the top of our trash and recycle bins were any indication, then we received about two inches of snow. Of course, except for the mountains all of the snow had melted by yesterday afternoon. The bottom photo was taken then.

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I’m afraid I don’t have too much to write about this morning. My wonderful wife and I have so many tasks that need to be completed. We did finally find our cereal bowls and dinner plates; finding the former was very significant for me as I am still eating a lot of cold cereal.

Despite the fact that we moved about 9 miles, it is only 5 more miles driving distance to one of our favorite eating places, a delicatessen. We had breakfast there this morning and I had lox (smoked salmon), cream cheese, tomato and onion on a sesame bagel for the first time in months. I had been avoiding “full-fat” dairy as much as possible, per orders of the ER physician, but have found that I can tolerate cold dairy, for some reason. Maybe David Banner (not his real name, but a real doctor) can offer an explanation.

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Two links to posts from Why Evolution Is True. By the way, Jerry Coyne is far more prolific that I am, usually posting multiple times a day. I only share a small fraction of those posts here. Feel free to click on the hyperlink above to read the blog in its entirety.

Richard Dawkins touts science above indigenous “ways of knowing” in New Zealand

The Atlantic unpacks (and criticizes) ~~woke~~ language

By now you should know that is my mark through the true curse word, ~~woke~~.

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This article from FactCheck.org reports that contrary to the crap on social media, no surge in deaths among athletes, particularly young athletes, has occurred. Here is a large excerpt from the piece:

“More than 2,000 children and adolescents in the U.S. die from sudden cardiac arrest every year, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and two-thirds of the deaths “occur during exercise or activity.” Among young athletes, sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death, according to CHOP.

Drezner said his center [UW Medicine Center for Sports Cardiology] monitors “all cases and all causes” of sudden cardiac arrest or death in athletes by working with the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “[T]here is no change,” he said.

The National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research catalogs injuries for high school and college athletes, and its most recent report covers the 2020-21 school year. It shows that 21 athletes died while playing their sport that year.

COVID-19 vaccines were available to everyone 16 and over in the U.S. by April 2021, so the overlap between the period covered by the report and the period in which vaccines were widely available to young people was relatively small. We reached out to the center to find out if the data collected for the 2021-2022 school year has indicated any increase in deaths.

The center’s director, Dr. Kristen Kucera, told us that so far, “the numbers are the same and it’s actually fewer than we captured in 2018-19.”

For context, the center reported 19 deaths in 2019-20, 25 deaths in 2018-19 and 21 deaths in 2017-18.”

Americans’ mass ignorance of mathematics and statistics has significant negative ramifications. Too many people are not willing or able to avoid the “I don’t let facts get in the way of my opinions” axiom.

#FreeformFriday

#WhyEvolutionIsTrue

#IgnoranceIsNotBliss

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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All’s Well That Ends Well?

I was going to title today’s post “The Sixth Time Is The Charm” or “By The End, I Hated That House.” Obviously, the house to which I refer in the latter is the first Arizona house in which we lived. The former almost title refers to the fact that the Goose Bumps house is the sixth house that my wonderful wife and I have purchased, two each in three different states. We sincerely hope it is the last.

I must have known something…last Sunday I saved this link to an article titled, “Does elevation affect temperature? It sure does.” What am I talking about? Look at this:

I shot this brief video of our courtyard last night. The Goose Bumps house is about 2,950 feet above sea level whereas our previous house was about 2,100 feet in elevation. Our friend and now former neighbor Emily confirmed it did not snow at our previous location. Yes, I opened the front door and let the cold air in so I could shoot the video unobstructed. Actually, the published video is just one of three I recorded last night.

While, of course, we have many boxes to unpack and many calls to vendors to make, we are very happy to be in this beautiful house. I hope that the end of the ultimately successful quest for an “upper-end” house marks the beginning of a new chapter of better things ahead. However, I am not so vain that I am going to publish countless photos. Maybe a few here and there…

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I have been writing that I strongly believe ~~woke~~ is a cult. This piece is called “The Cult Dynamics Of ~~Wokeness~~.” [my mark]

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To call Snan Dyder (what I call the owner of Washington’s NFL team) an asshole is an insult to assholes. This ESPN article is about how he (allegedly) took out a $55 million credit line without the knowledge and required approval of his minority partners.

One source who supposedly has insider knowledge said this, “Three billionaires — not a few whistleblowers — alleged to the NFL arbitrator that their partner had possibly committed bank fraud. This is jail time type of fraud.”

This piece from Associated Press reports that NFL owners will discuss Dyder at their upcoming meetings. NFL bylaws do allow for the removal of an owner by a three-quarters vote. Dyder would probably sue if forced to sell; rumor has it that the owner of the Dallas Cowyucks (another piece of work) is trying to broker a deal where Dyder sells the team.

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Automotive American has been publishing pieces called “A Brief History Of…” The histories are very brief, too brief, in my opinion. However, I will publish the links to the last three: Packard, Studebaker and American Motors.

Here are pictures of my favorite cars from each of the three defunct American makes. For Packard the choice is difficult.

Maybe, just maybe, I will own one of these someday.

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Since I have been away for a little while, I am going to publish links to four posts from Why Evolution Is True.

Creationism is back: a pro-ID bill passes the West Virginia senate

In which I push atheism on Bored Panda

The decline and fall of academic probity

When does DEI supercede academic freedom

I can’t resist writing that my answer to the last title would be “IT NEVER SHOULD!” because to me DEI = Deny Excellent Individuals.

Glad to be posting again. Thanks for reading.

#All’sWellThatEndsWell?

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#DefunctAmericanCarMakes

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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See You On The Flip Side

Although we have not received any confirmation, the buyers of our house were supposed to sign the docs to execute the purchase yesterday afternoon. We are proceeding under the assumption (you know what happens when you assume) that we will be moving on Tuesday and that the movers will be here tomorrow to pack our belongings.

I will not be able to post until Wednesday at the earliest and it’s possible I won’t post again until Friday or Saturday. Please bear with me. Thanks.

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I want to shout these words from the rooftop. Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali is quoted here as saying, “We will never go electric.” F1 will be switching to synthetic fuels, or eFuels, instead.

Domenicali also noted that by 2035, when some governments–including the European Union and California–have mandated that only zero-emission vehicles can be sold, there will still be around two billion vehicles on the road powered by internal-combustion engines. “Zero emissions can be achieved without having to change engines or throw away the entire fleet of vehicles that already exists,” he said.

EVs are NOT the answer; Synthetic Fuels are.

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Even though this potential purchase is probably at least ten months away (barring some unexpected windfall), I am mulling my choices for a sporty, good-looking convertible. Reading reviews about the difficulty in raising/lowering the Solstice/Sky top is giving me pause. This car has stepped back into the conversation.

While the XLR has never been included in any iteration of my Ultimate Garage, it was omitted only because of the teething pains upon introduction, especially evident in the 2004 and 2005 model years. I still think these cars are stunning in appearance and have thought so from the first moment I saw one at the Dallas Auto Show in 2004.

If I “lower my standards” by raising the maximum mileage I would consider to 60,000, then I can find a few examples of these on Autotrader with an asking price comfortably under $30,000. At a price in the mid-to-high 20s that would be about $10,000 above a Solstice/Sky, but about $7,000-$10,000 less than a Jaguar F-Type convertible with a six-cylinder engine.

I would only consider XLRs from the 2006 through 2008 model years, inclusive. In that way I would avoid the teething pains of the 2004-05 models and the awful polished vertical trim piece on the front fenders from 2009. I also would only consider cars with no accidents.

In base spec, the V-spec costs far more than I want to spend–even used, the XLR engine was rated 320 HP/310 LB-FT of torque to power a car that weighed about 3,650 pounds. While not earth-shattering, that is not a bad power-to-weight ratio.

My 2011 Infiniti G37x coupe, the “forgotten car,” weighed about 3,850 pounds and its engine was rated at 332 HP/270 LB-FT. That car was not slow. Yes, it was all-wheel drive so it had better starting traction. The G37x was supposed to be able to accelerate from 0-60 MPH in 5.4 seconds. The base XLR 0-60 time has been reported as 5.6 or 5.9 seconds. By the way, the base XLR was supposed to be able to pull .9g on a skidpad, which is also a good result.

A Cadillac salesman once candidly admitted to me he thought that the XLR “failed” because Cadillac priced them too high. At introduction in 2004, the MSRP was $75,000, about $120,000 in 2023 dollars. A year later, the first year for the sixth-generation Corvette–a car that shared a lot with the XLR including where it was built, the base MSRP for a Corvette convertible was $52,000. Yes, the financial meltdown of 2007-09 would have probably doomed the XLR, anyway, but if sales had been more robust at a lower price before the meltdown, maybe the car would have been seen as more viable. Hindsight is at least 20-20.

Temporarily, I bid you adieu. Please don’t forget the blog and wish us good luck because we still need it. Thanks again.

#SeeYouOnTheFlipSide

#EVsAreNotTheAnswer

#CadillacXLR

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Two Hours Of Panic

Let me begin by writing that, compared to the beginning of the second year of Russia’s war crimes against Ukraine, almost every “issue” with which I have to deal is a first-world problem.

Yesterday, my wonderful wife and I dutifully arrived at 8:45 for our 9 AM appointment to sign the documents to execute the purchase of the Goose Bumps house. After completion we enjoyed a celebratory breakfast at one of our favorite spots.

Helped by my wonderful wife’s father, we did a few things around the house in anticipation of the move before going to lunch not that long after breakfast. The two of them then went grocery shopping for him and I stayed home to listen to music.

My wife returned home a little after 3 PM. At 3:30 PM our realtor called with the news that we were incorrectly informed yesterday and that the title company processing the sale of our house had, in fact, not received the necessary documentation from the company providing the mortgage for the buyer. We were also informed that this put the timing of both closings in jeopardy. (Once again, our buyer decided to change lenders just 17-18 days before the scheduled closing date. Not surprisingly, but I think, by law, the deadline after which a buyer cannot change mortgage companies should be at least 21 days before closing.)

When you hire a moving company it is never a simple matter to tell them, “Hey, we need to push the move back a day or two.” We had also already made numerous calls to change our address for various utilities and other services, including our electricity provider, which meant if we delayed the move we would be in a home without electricity. Yeah, I guess the backup generator would have kicked in, but…

Completely deflated, my wonderful wife and I decided to get out of the house. First we went to the bank to withdraw some money to use for tips for the movers. Then we decided to go for a drive to clear our head. Perhaps not too surprisingly we wound up at the Goose Bumps house.

My wife decided to pull into the driveway and wanted to get out to look around. Shortly after we exited the car, we heard loud barking and saw a medium-sized dog at the gate to the courtyard. We got back in the car, but didn’t leave.

Just a couple of minutes later we were surprised when Michael, co-owner of the house, walked up to the car. We thought he and his wife were out of town trying to move into their new house. I asked him if he recognized us and he said he did. He then graciously offered to let us look around the house.

The dog, Tank, proved to be unbelievably friendly. He was just doing his job as guardian of the property. Michael showed us around, which was very nice and very helpful for us, explaining various items and proudly showing off the expert work he had completed.

I think we were in the house for almost an hour. We didn’t want to intrude any longer so we thanked Michael and we drove home.

When we returned we noticed that we had received a text from our realtor. The time stamp on the text was about two hours after the phone call. The text read, “Just heard from […] at [the title company]. […] got an email from the mortgage company that everything has been resolved. They are sending loan docs today and the buyers will sign tomorrow [today, Saturday]. The loan will fund on Monday.”

While that means we did not close on the sale of our house yesterday as scheduled (so we still own the home and are not staying here as tenants), it is likely, although not a certainty, that both closings can take place on Monday. The closing for our purchase of Goose Bumps was originally scheduled for Monday. In the event our purchase closing is delayed a day, the owners of our soon-to-be new home will let us move our belongings in as scheduled on Tuesday.

Yes, that was a champagne problem, but it was still two hours of panic. I am still waiting for something in my life to go off without a hitch from beginning to end.

#TwoHoursOfPanic

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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