Timeshares

A fellow walker at the gym shared a tale of woe.

She is in her seventies and her husband died last year. She started getting dunned by a timeshare that they had purchased more than ten years ago. She had assumed that the contract had a sunsetted because her husband handled the bills. She assumed that it was no longer "in the family".

Nope. Bad assumption. She was late on the maintenance fees and they added a $600 late-fee.

The property managers insist that there is no limit to the duration of the original contract and that it continued on into perpetuity.

She contacted a firm to un-stick her from the contract and they pressured her to "sign now!!!!" without telling her what it would cost...a practice which had gotten her into this situation. Pressure and non-disclosure of costs, that is. For all she knows, the firm that un-sticks contracts is a sister company of the time-share firm. They have the same look-and-feel.

Hell has a very hot corner for people who prey on widows and senior citizens.

A funny timeshare story

I had a boss named Ron who was a pretty sharp cookie and he liked to play golf. 

He and his wife went down to Florida and signed up for one of the endless timeshare promotionals. They were given a fabulous room, endless breakfast, played golf on an elite course, all you can eat shrimp for lunch...and then they were run through the lavatories and into an auditorium for the hard-sell.

Ron introduced himself to the people sitting around him and noted their names.

As the first speaker cued-up, Ron and his wife reached into their totes and pulled out Sony Walkmen players and headphones. One of the ushers came over and demanded that they take them off. Ron said "There is nothing in your brochures that limit what I can bring into this auditorium. If you or anybody else touches me or my wife we will file assault charges. I already have the names and phone numbers of these witnesses."

The ushers backed off.

Ron and his wife closed their eyes and listened to music for three hours.

It is good to have a plan. 

No news is good news

There is not a lot to report from Eaton Rapids today.

No Quicksilver today. 

We have some weather blowing in and are looking forward to a five day period next week when the wind-chills will be around zero F. It is called "Winter in Michigan".

 I have a pot of meatball soup on the stove. I may serve it over spaghetti.

Long article HERE on precedents for presidents activating Military for domestic issues. 

Three articles on why Amish people are significantly more healthy than the overall population, especially during our later years. If you only have time to read one, the essay in the middle is very compact and to-the-point.

Lessons from the Amish: Superior Health and Fertility in a Modern World

Why the Amish Enjoy Better Health: Key Lifestyle Factors Backed by Science  

Amish Perspectives on Their Health and Lifestyle 

Yes, I used Mrs ERJ's nail polish

I am not a nail polish kind of guy. For that matter, Mrs ERJ is not a fingernail polish kind of girl. She has three bottles, red, white and clear.

I want to go on record: I used it with Mrs ERJ's permission.

Results below the fold

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Artist Alexey Kuzmich Denisov-Uralsky born in 1863 (presumably in Russia) and died in 1926.

 Hat tip to Lucas Machias

 

The endless challenge of "Comms"

This video was suggested by frequent commentor "Gary" and is reposted with his permission.

In a nutshell, the video describes an off-the-shelf system that allows cell phones to interact with other cell phones without relying on cell towers or the internet.

The "network" are sets of low power repeaters that are positioned closely enough that they can talk with each other via redundant pathways. The cell phone speaks to the closest repeater via Bluetooth. The message propagates outward over the repeaters closest to the receiving repeater and thence to the intended receiver.

Low power means low bandwidth, i.e. text messages with few or no attachments. Low power means that repeaters can be installed in remote, less visible places and powered with solar + battery. Networks can be joined via repeaters on towers with optimized antenna (like a Yagi) to connect the two local networks...say Eaton Rapids to Albion. Then Albion to Hillsdale means a church (for example) in Albion could reach all of its congregation even though the farthest members lived 70 miles away from each other.

Why this might be useful

According to Insurrection Barbie*, protesters in Minnesota are using various apps and internet platforms to interfere with ICE agents. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to realize that those channels will be flooded with misinformation and performance will be degraded, perhaps with Denial of Service attacks.

At a local level, messages like:

"The peaches on my trees are ripe. I cannot pick them. Need three pickers and will pay 1/4 share to the pickers. Contact Timmy Gibson" 

"My Australian Cattle Dog had pups. 3M 2F. Think papa was a Lab. Contact Chelsey Greene"

"Alpha Bapt Church picnic. Nobody signed up for pot salad. Need lifeguards and overwatch sign-up"

"Houses being broken into on Kemler btw 12 and 3 in morning. Beware"

"Have extra pallets. Looking to trade for 16d nails. Contact Brad Hammer"

"Riot forming outside Windsor Estates Trailer Park 5:17 p.m.. Avoid area."

Those kinds of messages put a trivial load on the network and are extremely useful. 

Longer range than a conch shell

This kind of system is not "secure" nor is it impervious to outside forces jamming or disabling it but it is WAY more useful than smoke-signals or waiting until Sunday church to catch-up on the neighborhood news.

*A tip of the hat to Bayou Renaissance Man for the Insurrection Barbie link 

Some pictures that will make you smile

 From 24hourcampfire. Posted by DMc.

Novel flu H3N2 Clade K hitting hard

While walking at the gym yesterday, Mrs ERJ and I ran into one of the regulars who we had not seen for a while.

The woman, approximately 70, and two of her three daughters had the "flu" that has been going around.

"Flu" is in quotes because the woman said all three of them were tested and came up negative for flu, Covid and RSV.

She said that she has NEVER been that sick. She said it lasts for three weeks. Coughing. Can't catch your breath. Phlegm. High fever.

She also claimed that 900 kids have been hospitalized in Michigan with whatever-it-is. I don't have a good way to verify the numbers but here is some old data from the Detroit News "According to state data, there were more than 1,400 hospital admissions associated with acute respiratory virus for the week ending Dec. 27, the latest week for which data is available. Among those, 929 admissions were for influenza..." 

I replaced the battery in our thermometer and verified function when we got back home. The only way we could be more read would be if we had a current prescription for albuterol for our nebulizer.

Considerations when planning a windbreak

Michael ask in the comments if the windbreak that Southern Belle and Handsome Hombre will be planting will have food-plants incorporated into it.

Not at this time

No, there are no plans to incorporate food-plants into the windbreak upwind of the house.

As a consultant, I need to be hyper-aware that I listen to what is important to the clients. This is not my wind-break. It is not my property. They have to "own" the windbreak.

Parameters that come into play

Handsome Hombre, Southern Belle and Quicksilver are very animal oriented. They want many different species of domestic animals. They want to see and touch them. They want the property to produce most of the food that sustains those animals.

 

 

A windbreak, or a shelterbelt in very severe climates like the Great Plains states, requires a substantial footprint. A single row of trees might mitigate high winds but a broad belt of trees and brush is required to really tame it and to trap the drifting snow. A single row of tall trees has the distressing tendency to increase wind velocity at ground level when the lower branches die.

SB's property does not have a shape that supports that kind of wide footprint. Her property is very long and skinny. A fifty or sixty foot wide shelter belt would obliterate a substantial portion of her pasture.

Fortunately, the parcel that is upwind of the house is swamp filled with buttonbush, dogwood (Gray, Silky and Red Osier), willow, poison ivy and other "pucker-brush". That will capture drifting snow.

From an elevation standpoint, though, the existing pucker-brush is far too low to slow wind velocity at the house which is 2-1/2 stories and is on a slight knoll.

On the plus side...

Handsome Hombre loves fruit. He is one of the very few people I know who will help himself to a ripe American Persimmon, eat it and then reach for another.

Southern Belle is open to the idea of "sacrificing" a 10' wide strip west of the pasture to plant trees like oak, chestnut, nut pines, hazelnuts, peach trees and persimmons.

Things will not be moving with lightning speed. There is never enough time or money to push a button and make everything happen at once. Fence costs money. Animals cost money. Brush-hogging costs money.

Given the cyclic nature of the cattle business, one way to proceed would be to fence half of the pasture. Seed the bare spots. Control the brush and weeds with a 2x a growing season mowing/brush-hogging. If a screaming-deal in terms of a couple of calves shows up, then pull the trigger.

Plant small seedlings, seed nuts, acorns, peach pits, etc. in the 10' wide band on the upwind side of the pasture. Mark it off so the man who is mowing or 'hoggin doesn't mow them down.