Just visiting with some retired friends yesterday, and someone brought up the price of cigarettes and the health hazards of smoking.  Seems all of us are former smokers, and we tossed around notes on how long we smoked and when (and how many times) we gave it up.  I mentioned that I started in the 1950′s when in the army, and unfiltered cigs cost $.10 a pack…a buck bought a carton.  I made $99 a month, army pay, and gas was about $.20 a gallon.

If you do some comparisons to today’s prices…well, let’s look:  A pack of cigarettes today will cost around $10, or $90-100 for a carton.  At that rate of inflation, gas would now cost about $20 per gallon, if I am calculating right.  But that would not be a problem, as my income would be around $10,000 a month.  Now surely some Americans make that much, but I never will.  If I did, I could probably afford to pay 10 bucks a day or more for cigarettes.  Many people who live on a lot less still manage to support a smoking habit…a pack a day…$70 per week, more or less.  Not that I mean to come across as another reformed smoker, but think about it.  Not to mention the health problems that go with it.  Does not make sense.

As a retired person living on social security benefits and a modest part-time income (my “Wealth Manager” managed away most of my IRA), I consider myself pretty low on the radar of the IRS.  Imagine my surprise when I received a letter from that service demanding that I pay back my 2010 “Stimulus Payment”, which was a whopping $150.  Their explanation was that I was ineligible for a 2010 stimulus credit as I received one in 2009.  (Yes, you’re right, our President Obama gave us one in BOTH years.)  I had calculated my tax return using a very popular tax software, used worldwide and even endorsed by IRS.  I called TurboTax and they confirmed that I should have earned the credit, and it was calculated correctly.

Of course, I immediately called IRS at the number listed on their letter, and after only a 42-minute wait, explained the situation, and the gentleman agreed with me, but explained that he had access to none of my records, he could not help me, and that I should write to his office, sending copies of all my documents, and meantime he would put a “Hold” on my charge.  (If they do not have my documents, how do they determine that I don’t deserve a Stimulus?)  Oh, well.  I did as he said.  And exactly why is HE there anyway?

In due time, I received a nice letter saying they would investigate my case, but it might take a few months, and meantime I could repay the credit to avoid interest and penalties.  I chose to let it ride. 

Over the next few months, I received monthly reminders of my overdue obligation, with added fees.  I wrote back each time, reminding them that their own Operations Manager in their own office was investigating my cause, and they might check in with her.  Then another letter, saying it might take a few more months, as the office had a very heavy caseload to investigate.  Can you guess why?

Finally came the letter I hoped for, that IRS will be “adjusting” my Form 1040 for 2010 and stopping any further notices, but just in case, disregard these notices, and they do apologize for my inconvenience.  It will be interesting to read their explanation, which I may receive within four to six weeks.  I don’t even recall what I did with my Economic Stimulus…filled my gas tank maybe.

I guess they have to try to make up that $4 trillion deficit somewhere.

No, this is not my philosophy, but I thought I must share with you.  Many of you know we have a hunting camp on Pitcher Road, Montague, in the Tug Hill snow country.  Great country, and there are a lot of nice people in the area, but of course, some not-so-nice.  We have been there since 1980, and have been burgled only 2-3 times over the years, mostly local kids looking for guns, beer, or money.  We never keep any of those around.

For years we got along with 2 propane lights in the main room, along with flashlites and electric when the generator worked.  A few years back, we decided to upgrade, and ran copper gas lines to every room, even the bathroom and upstairs bedrooms.  Lights in every room!  Now that’s living!

We actually don’t use the camp much anymore, but when we stopped in recently, persons unknown had broken in and removed all the copper plumbing.  Totally.  Every room, and right back to the propane tank under the deck.  Apparently, according to the local sheriffs, copper brings a good price these days, and buyers do not ask many questions.  So these no-goods might net $50 or so for what cost us about $600, plus the time to install.  So we are unhappy campers.

Of course, the sheriffs are checking, but I put a note about the crime on a local Lowville forum called Topix.  The quote above, my title, was one of the more intelligent comments, so you can see what we have to deal with.  Just what do you say to a comment like that?  I am tempted to add some like comments that might apply to the area…maybe: “If you drive your new pickup drunk, you can afford to have it wrecked.”  or perhaps:  If you are living on Public Assistance, you cannot afford to have children, even if you are married.”, but hey, what would it gain?  Just replace the plumbing and hope for the best.  Thanks, guys.

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Ever since I first started bringing home a paycheck, which was hmmmmm years back, I have been a customer of Marine Midland Bank in Syracuse, which later was taken over by HSBC worldwide bank.  They have done the job for 40-some years, no major complaints.

Last year, I suddenly started receiving mailings from a First Niagara Bank, which I found was based in Buffalo, NY.  They never tried to solicit my business…just impersonal mailings as if I were a long-time and valued customer, but I had never done business with this bank, never even heard of them.  I later found they were building a bank in my area, but they are one of many.  Seems it is a good business.

But I was puzzled by their correspondence: No offers of free checking, free toasters, amazing interest rates, or any of those financial attention-getters, just a casual “Hi, friend” type of letter.  No account numbers or other identifiers.  Did they have me confused with someone else?  Did I have a lost inheritance with their bank, earning huge interest dividends unknown to me?  Was I concerned enough to contact 1st Niagara?  Well, no.

Then one day came the announcement that First Niagara was making their move for greatness: purchasing all the HSBC banks in New York State.  Hmmmm.  Were they laying groundwork for keeping me as a customer?  Where did they get my personal info?  From HSBC’s files?  Isn’t that illegal?  But still, they never did ask me to become their customer and friend.  At least not yet.  An HSBC employee told me that they could not do that.  Strange doings.  I guess I just have to wait and see what transpires.  Maybe talk with a local credit union in the meantime…there is one in our neighborhood that accepts teachers and everyone else.

This is the gist of my letter recently published in Syracuse’s Post Standard, and I thought I would share it with you:

To the Editor:  Although I often react to Letters in your paper, I seldom write in reply, but Lynn Davis’ letter of July 6 struck me as wrong.  I would guess that Davis is a current or retired government employee, and not fully aware of the current state of our economy.  Be aware that many people actually did plan for their “Golden Years” with pensions, 401-K Plans, IRA Plans, and other investments, only to see those retirement funds disappear through the efforts of our government, our banks, and Wall Street “Wealth Managers”.  The “American Dream” has become a nightmare for many of us.  Even those who had private investments outside the stock market now find that banks have decided to stop paying interest on those funds.  In addition, thousands of former employees, such as auto workers, have lost their jobs indefinitely, along with health insurance, pension benefits, and unemployment insurance.  Call this “Lack of adequate retirement planning” if you will, but I feel our government has let us down to satisfy the financial greed of others, and the retired workers suffer most.  Social Security benefits have been a safety net for many, and now our Congress is working to do away with even that.  (Give thanks that President Bush was discouraged from investing Social Security funds in the stock market.)  The near future does not look bright for many retirees, Mr/Ms Davis, and you can consider yourself lucky to not be among them, but please do not condemn them for circumstances beyond their control.

This has already had some circulation on youtube, but it is so good I thought I must share it with you.  Bimsie has been a neighbor of ours for many years, knew his parents, and he has always been a bit of a daredevil and adventurer.  I think this would make a good candidate for “Funniest Home Videos” or something similar.  Maybe a “How Not To…” seminar.  They might want to clean up the sound a bit, but nowadays it is probably acceptable.

Enjoy:  Bimsie

Along with everything else, I have been searching over the years for the ideal, yea perfect, recipe for French Meat Pie.  I think I may have found it.

The tourtiere, as you may know, is a traditional French Canadian dish, usually featured around Christmas.  Many French Canadian families migrated to the Adirondacks to join in the logging boom, and the meat pie came with them.

Like the beef stew, everyone has his or her variation of the meat pie, adjusting another recipe to taste, or sometimes just tossing in whatever ingredients they have on hand.  (I have made some priceless stews that way.)  Anyway, there are dozens of meat pie recipes in cookbooks and on the internet, and I have tried a few of them.  I even read one comment that a TRUE Tourtiere is made with no spices whatever.  I say…whatever.  It is all in your personal taste.  I tried this one and liked it, but I will keep tweaking it every time I make it.  Give it a try.  I don’t make piecrusts-Mother Pillsbury does it better, but if you make your own, fine.  I don’t have a photo-maybe next time-but it was beautiful.

Tourtiere – French Meat Pie

from: (chowhound.chow.com)

Make or buy dough for double crust pie, chill, wrapped, for 1 hour.

Filling:

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 lb ground pork

1 stalk celery, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

¾ cup chicken stock, low sodium

¼ tsp pepper

½ tsp thyme

¼ tsp ground allspice

1 bay leaf

2 tbsp bread crumbs (fresh or dry)

In a saucepan cook onion & celery in butter over medium heat, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.  Add the pork and cook, stirring, until pork changes color.  Add the chicken broth, spices, and simmer the mix, covered, for 30 minutes.  Stir in bread crumbs and let it cool some.

Prepare pie crust in 7 inch pie plate and pour in mixture.  Cover with top crust, seal edges, and trim excess crust.  Make a ½ inch X in center.  Bake in lower third of preheated oven for 10 minutes at 425 F.  Reduce heat to 375 F. and transfer pie to middle of the oven and bake for another 25 minutes, or until crust is golden.  Serve hot or cold.

Note: original recipe called for ½ tsp salt and no pepper, but we found it to be salty.  I am removing the salt and adding ¼ tsp pepper.  Feel free to experiment.

For Fun & Profit

Actually our experience with Ebay selling over the past 6 years has been more fun than profit.  We are retired, enjoy playing on the internet, and got into ebay pretty much by accident.  We were having a big garage sale, and our daughter was home from college.  She asked if she could sort out a few of the t-shirts we were trying to sell for 50 cents, and first thing we knew she had taken photos and listed them on ebay, and was selling them for $10-15 each.  Hmmmm.

So with her help, we got started in ebay selling, with clothing, books, knives, and things we had around the house.  We needed a digital camera, so we looked for things we could sell to raise some money for a camera.  I had a collection of books and hunting knives, so we sold some of those.  We got into buying t-shirts, books, and jerseys at garage sales, thrift stores, library book sales, wherever.  It is fun to list an item you have paid a buck or so for and watch the bids climb to $10, 20, even higher.  We use the proceeds for our bingo fund.

There have been some remarkable successes over the years.  I had a hunting knife I bought for fifty cents at a garage sale, used it for 20 years, and sold it for $900.  We have bought shirts for $1 and sold them as high as $100.  I sold a collectible hunting book for $200, then found another copy for $2 and sold it for $325.  An old empty shotgun sell box sold for $95.  Those make it interesting.

Ebay selling is not difficult, if one follows their rules, and knows the basics of computers.  We take our own photos, upload them to our server, then use them on the auction listing.  Before listing an item, we like to research similar ones that have sold or are selling.  We never copy another seller’s listing information or photos.  Good clear pictures and a good description are very important, as well as details on shipping cost, payment methods, etc.  For example, if you tell bidders that you accept cash, ebay will cancel your auction.  Not allowed.  Paypal costs a little more, but works best for buyer and seller.

Give it a try, and have fun.

And that is Just My Opinion.

Crunchy numbers

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 4,700 times in 2010. That’s about 11 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 36 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 149 posts. There were 24 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 7mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was August 4th with 72 views. The most popular post that day was Build a Better Mouse Trap….

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were huntingpa.com, en.wordpress.com, Google Reader, yorkstaters.blogspot.com, and search.aol.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for tug hill real estate, tug hill land for sale, tug hill ny real estate, adirondack mousetrap, and adirondack mouse trap.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Build a Better Mouse Trap… September 2007
3 comments

2

TUG HILL REAL ESTATE FOR SALE: May 2007
4 comments

3

Tug Hill Land For Sale May 2007
2 comments

4

Venison Kebab Recipe August 2006
1 comment

5

Let It Snow! January 2010
1 comment

Has anyone else noticed the marked increase in SPAM comments recently?  Mostly by obviously non-English-speaking people.  Do they not have anything useful to do?  Of course, wordpress does a beautiful job of sorting them out so I can delete them, and probably they delete many before we see them, but what a waste of time and effort.  No doubt all coming from one low-life somewhere, but if only wordpress could locate and squash him/her.  “You are doing so nicely things” indeed.

And why do they even call it spam?  I have some fond memories of spam in a can, the real kind.  Still buy it once in a while when we can afford it.  I love it browned with eggs and toast.  It is nothing like this other spam, though.  I guess they could not publicly call it as it is, just s**t.