Malsua

There are a LOT of people who are "unnecessarily" road hot. They go to the store, go home, go to the next store, go home, on and on. Nothing is done with efficiency in mind because they're used to the current price. When we had the last huge spike all these people started getting super efficient with their driving and the demand drops fairly quickly. The strategic reserved was built to prevent Opec from choking us off again, but we make enough for ourselves now. Brandon emptied the thing, but I think they've started to fill it again so it can be used to smooth out any big supply issues. I was in Greece a few months ago and fuel was right at 2 euros/liter. That's right about $8/gallon. Traffic was still ever present, they've just been in the boiling pot longer than we have.

Having owned in Florida for almost 4 years and lived here now for 2, it's such a breathe of fresh air to see legislation and realize it's actually FOR the residents, not against them. There are exceptions, but they are exceptions, not the rule. As for checks from the government, we filed for the 2019 NJ ANCHOR rebate yesterday. I assume they call it Anchor to convince people to stay in NJ. The Irony of them sending Anchor payments to people who left is delicious.

I always called them Buck Rodriquez in the 24th and 1/2 Century.

$3.03 at Sams here in Lady Lake. Of course, my Governor enacted a gas tax Holiday, so there's that. Every where I look, this state does things to help the people of Florida. NJ does the opposite.

If you're talking about living outside of Jax and working in Jax you might have trouble finding what you're after. Commute times make a 25 minute drive into an 90 minute one. Any way you look at it though, you'll need to be SW, W or NW of the city to get some level of remote. North and south you've got the river and the ocean and everything that's built up along that. If I were looking, I'd find some realtors in the region, go stay at a fleabag in Starke or the like and tour the area. Pretty much anywhere in Florida there are main highways(95,10,75), rural highways(301, 23, 27, 441, etc.) and you get much off those roads and it's rural real fast.

Define reasonable driving distance to Jacksonville? The only reason I say that is because once you're about 20-30 minutes outside of Jacksonville, pretty much anywhere you pick will fit your bill. If you want super rural, go west along 10. You'll find houses 10 miles past where the pavement ends. Sorta rural, as in, you've got neighbors, sorta, you can find any number of little towns along 301. The only downside is trying to figure out what sort of stuff you do want nearby. There are tons of places where property will back up against a state forest or Ocala National forest for example. Once you are 10 miles outside of Ocala and/or Gainesville, the banjos start picking themselves.

Since I purchased my motorcycle back in April, I have traveled north, south, east and west of The Villages where I live. The Villages is huge, about 18 miles from the northern tip to the southern tip and growing. About 10 miles wide as well. I've traveled just about every road and secondary highway. I have an on the ground perspective of everything in this area. The Villages is in the process of pushing even further south than it is. No surprises there. I don't think it'll ever stop. Every where it touches, other developers are building. There are developments breaking ground to the north, and along the 441 corridor as well. It's pretty insane really. My former boss, still a friend, lives over in Crystal River and owns property in several other places around Florida. He picked up an RV slab with power and sewer in the Keys back in about 2012. Right now that property has more than doubled and he's got a tenant on it, more than covering the nut. He bought some unimproved lots and plans to put some kind of rental trailers on it. The available land is definitely dwindling. I realize Real Estate is fixing to have a serious crash, but I suspect whatever happens, won't be felt nearly as much in Florida as elsewhere. There are simply too many people who are coming here for the low taxes and, usually, good weather.

Yeah, that shipped has sailed. Any new, modern drone will have geofencing. It is EXTREMELY annoying to not even be able to take off and fly at tree level in your own backyard. Aircraft shouldn't even be under 500 feet for any reason. The only exception are search and rescue, helicopters and emergency type situations. Glide path into an airport is also a little different. I used a tool on mine that eliminated all of the limits. I could fly mine into Class A. Of course, it'd be a one way trip as I doubt it'd have enough battery left to descend from 18,000. Out in Wyoming, in the middle of nowhere, I pushed it up and somewhere around 5000 I lost my nerve. You really can't see much from up there, anyway. All the interesting stuff is under 400 feet, which is where drones can be flown as long as it's uncontrolled airspace.

I bought my Mavic Pro in 2017. Every month it seemed they were coming out with new firmware. Eventually, they added in the geofencing and such and prevented loading earlier firmware. I'm one of those guys that believes if something works, you stop @#$%ing with it. I left my firmware on .4 I think because it it turns out that the MIDDLE of my backyard was 30 miles from Trump's club in NJ. I could fly off my front porch but fly into the back yard...it sounded like I was breaking into a bank. I quickly undid that particular firmware and left it there. The really worst think about it, is that where I lived was on the side of a mountain in North NJ. Even at 250 feet above ground level, if I flew level from there and went west, it'd fly right into the mountain. No airspace was ever in danger from my drone yet, I couldn't fly in my own backyard. That's just bad software.

I wouldn't be leery of a used gun, specially police trade-ins. I think that at least half of what I own is pre-owned. For $500 you're going to struggle a bit to find a new 9mm that is worth a damn. One of the first guns I bought in NJ was going to be a Sig. The guy at the shop suggested I try an H&K P30. Once I did, I knew that was it. The VP9 is a fantastic gun, essentially the same frame as a p30 and a bit cheaper. Try one, get one used and it'll be around the ball park of what you want to spend. Either one will run as hard as you can and never stop. The Smith and Wesson M&P is another good one to look at. Sigs are great, you just won't find anything in your price range unless it's some kind of close out deal or a friend sells it to you. I'm not a fan of Glocks, but to each his own, they are quite reliable. Not sure if you're noticing a theme here, but stick with the main brands and you'll have a good experience. When you start with the next tier down to save some bucks, you might find ammo becomes finicky or you get an occasional malf. Good luck.

I'll sum that article up. Biden Admin: Lower your prices, increase your output and invest in refining!!!! Energy companies: But you just said you plan to phase out fossil fuels in the next 5 years Biden Admin: Yes, we want you out of business, now spend your billions and make gas cheaper! Energy companies: No. Biden Admin : SEE!!! It's corporate greed that is causing prices to be so high!!!

I thought the DEF thing was well known by now. Last fall, DEF sensors were and still are in short supply. Then we have the CEO of pilot talking about Union Pacific cutting off their diesel and DEF supplies. Watch that video I've linked below. In the USA DEF is the key ingredient. China, Russia and India were three big suppliers and they have stopped exporting the stuff. The US gets most of it's supply from Canada, so there is some hope here but it would not surprise me in the slightest if 10-20% of trucks get sidelined. If you think we're in a supply chain issue now...just wait until stuff has to start moving with gasoline powered box trucks and the like. The DEP would, under a sane president, lift the DEF requirement and allow trucks to run without it. The climate zealots in charge right now will not do that. Let the peasants eat cake! It's not letting me post this link... https://youtu.be/BjsUkFUU2BA

The worst part of this picture? It's maybe 3 weeks old and already out of date.

Typical bear markets hit 30% off highs. That last peak was 36,799.65 That gets us to around 25,700. That occurs when you have a sane president that isn't trying to do a great reset, to re-order the world to some insane ESG horseshit. The worlds greatest wealth transfer in history is happening right now. It's a private club, and you ain't in it. Therefore, I predict a DOW of 18400. A 50% haircut is what us plebes will need to deal with.

I've done some Incident response for Ransomware and it pays very well. 80+ hours in a weeks work at $120/hour and ends start meeting like a mofo. I'm not working with that company any more though...they went a bit sideways and being most recent in, I'm most recent gone. No biggie. Bought my $12000 bike with one paycheck. I've been spending most of my time renovating. Installing a Mr Cool AC mini today. Working on flooring. I also do handyman work around here in The Villages. Lots of old people who can't do anything, so I do it. Pays for dinner out. I honestly don't miss the rat race. All I know is my electric, water and internet bills are it. No heating bills. I'm not burning up a car every 5 years I'm not burning $300+ in fuel every month. Didn't spend $2000 heating the house over the winter. Didn't line NJ's pockets with $8500 in property taxes. The list goes on. Of course, when I run out of money it's a different issue...but we'll cross that bridge later.

So on July 28, when they officially announce we're in a recession, then what? Dow 400? S&P 39? Cheese line announcements and bags of Soylent Green being handed out?

I drastically cut my fuel expenses by working remotely and moving to Florida. My fleet of vehicles gets an average 41mph. My primary driver, a 2015 Club Car gets around 50mpg. My secondary driver is a 2018 CRV, it gets around 28 mpg My Tertiary ride is a 2022 Kawasaki Z900 that gets around 40mpg. I can't imagine what my fuel bill would have been if I was still doing 80 miles a day in commuting. My Acura ran premium, but also got around 30mpg. Still, averaging about 450 miles a week, is $80 in fuel at today's prices. Right now I'm spending maybe $25/week. Less if we drove the electric golf cart we own. I've since been released from the company, but having no income makes life cheaper

I am sorta bummed about no snow here in FL, but I can tell you that since I've been here 10 months now, 60 degrees is cold, anything colder than that artic tundra! It's finally Florida again this week, lows about 65, highs in the 80s. We had a stretch of weeks there, I had to put on jeans, a tee shirt, an undershirt, a heavy fleece and a jacket to walk the dog. 50 degrees, BRRR. It looked a little something like the picture below.

It was 27.3 degrees here for near on 8 hours. We covered our plants as much as possible but pretty sure some of them are smoked. That said, I demand that NJ take it's weather back! No, NJ, you have no visitation rights with me! Thankfully old man Florida woke up at 8am, had breakfast and shoved the cold back north by noon. Today it's a wonderful 70 and sunny.

Snowstorms make me think of snow days, one of the joys of childhood. Going to be cold here too, I'm hearing below freezing in Miami! Break out the national guard. We had some piece of that thing down here over the past two days. It was cold and rain with a miserable 50ish degrees. Good luck.

The state taxes mattered quite a lot because from April to December, I paid no state taxes on my income. NJ was getting me for just north of $100 a week. Not only that, if I decide to take a big chunk out of retirement income to pay off one of the houses or to buy a car, whatever, I don't trigger any state taxes, just federal. I have a decent chunk of unrealized crypto gains that could also do some damage if I decide to realize it. I know the goal is to minimize income, but when I do work, I make a decent income because I'm one of about 50 people in the country who has my skills. My ex employer built in 30k for consulting or me in 22, so that's just bonus money that I'd rather not have NJ get. I don't really have to do any of it, but once again, it's really easy to start triggering taxes when I can sneeze hard and bounce over 6 figures.

I did it when I could and am glad I did even though I'm now unemployed. I'm no longer burdened under the groaning weight of NJ taxes and expenses. I'm also in a warm climate where food pretty much grows year round. I don't have a huge winter propane bill and while electric in the summer is costly, my electric bills for this house are STILL lower in the summer than they were in NJ. I've actually been doing handyman work on the side and if I never went back to a full time job, I'd be content. Granted, we were financially prepared to do this and I own two properties one of which is income positive. Every little bit helps. If we have a full societal collapse, I don't think you can live anywhere frankly so this is good enough. Besides, we've seen this happen in other countries and the people are still living there and getting by. I don't have a commute. I don't have state income tax, my property taxes on two homes is less than my Sussex taxes were. I can pluck Bananas off my Sister's tree if I get that hungry. I have a small lemon tree too and we're currently getting bombarded with Oranges :).

You can find rural in Florida pretty easy. As far as land goes, there's more rural land the further north you go. I know there are lots and such selling like hotcakes on the west side north of Tampa and above. East of Homosassa and Crystal springs. It only gets more rural as you go even further north. Essentially once you get out of the major population areas, Florida is quite rural. Even where I'm at in The Villages, I can drive about 10 minutes west, east or north and start running into non paved roads that dead end into nowhere. Lots of horse farms and houses sitting way back on large plots. While there there are still rural areas south of I4, it's not like north if I4.

I miss NJ Bagels and much of the NJ pizza. There are a lot of chain restaurants here in The Villages; we're missing Greek diners and Italian eateries.

I moved to Florida in April. Sold the NJ house. We've owned a house in The Villages since 2019, which is about 20 miles south of Ocala. We bought a 2nd house in The Villages and rent the first one now. It's income positive. I Lived my first entire summer here in Florida this year. The heat is a big nothing burger. Yeah, it's hot, it's just as hot in July in NJ. You just don't do outside stuff, from like 1 to 5pm. You can, but it's got to be in short doses. Besides, you go from a house with AC to a car with AC to a place with AC, rinse repeat. The difference is that summer runs from April to mid October. Right now, it's very pleasant. Highs in the high 70s, lows in the low 60s. Yes, you get the occasional cold snap, where it struggles to get into the 60s, and every once in a while, it gets into the 30s. I've already lost my tolerance for cold though. 50s was Tshirt weather in NJ. Down here, I'm bundled up like Nanook of the North when it's in the 60s.