WHAT a colonoscopy? Radiation is a concern around Chernobyl? IT IS NOW!!! & Storm Water Utility

So here I was sitting on my ass because of COVID for 2 years slowly getting morbidly obese and I have a new Dr who says I need a blood test and low and behold I MIGHT have diabetes with a 5.5 something or other. 

So I start working out 3-4 times a week (actually lifting weights and aerobatics for 20 minutes and being serious) and increasing my carrot intake infinite amount (from zero to many) and loving my canned spinach which is actually much better for you the fresh spinach and even having wheat buns from time to time on sandwich's and snacking on chick peas snacks and a ton of protean with beans. 

I'm down to 170 and feeling good . . . . BUT NOOOOOOOO!!   

OH Mr. Melotte - you have not had a colonoscopy for 7 years  IT . . . IS. . . TIME!  

Actually they are not as bad as they used to be.  No drinking a gallon of liquid like the old days.  ANYWAY - NOW after eating healthy for 6 months I need to go on a diet of donuts and banana cream pie for 3 days.   No corn, popcorn, seeds, nuts vegetables, beans, fruits with skins, no whole grain bread or high fiber cereal. 

What else is there . . . DONUTS!  

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VOTE Tuesday - one thing Columbus is voting on is a Storm Water Utility which MANY towns have.  I am 100% for it as opposed to borrowing and having it cost 2-3% more in the long run. 

From a good friend          

The storm water utility is a more fair way to assess the costs of storm water management.

It applies responsibility for these costs to properties based upon how much runoff they contribute. By raising funds only through property taxes, you aren't generating funds from nonprofit or properties that are tax-exempt. Also properties with large properties with greater amounts of rooftop and parking lot will be assess their share more fairly.

Theoretically by taking those costs off the tax levy it gives the city ability to either reduce the levy or use funding that was budgeted for storm water toward other needs...like roads.

Vote YES for the Storm Water Utility.

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas - ACTUALLY the last snowfall on average is the 2nd week of April but this year March has sucked.  

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Speaking of sucking - The Grammys.  There is not a single rock artist among the Grammy nominees for album of the year, record of the year and song of the year. Most of the rock categories are full of old acts. Maybe it’s not rock music that’s the issue, but the Grammys? The Grammys are seriously out of sync with what’s actually performing.

20% of music consumption was rock music last year.  17% of downloads and streaming was rock and 13% was pop music.  The top 5 grossing tours were rock. 

BTW - I was never a big Metallica fan.  Nice songs but I never purchased music. The problem was the GOOD music are NOT their hits. It's the longer 10 minutes songs that are REALLY REALLY good. Awesome musicians now that they are grown-up and not drunk  LOL       

I mean all 4 movements of this composed piece are amazing- not what you think Metallic is    https://youtu.be/2EqYLL7GjTA

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Russia so so dumb - First they drove their tanks through the Red Forest next Chernobyl. It's called the Red Forest because the trees turned red from contamination and the Russians  stirred up all sorts of radioactive clouds with their convoys.  It's the most radioactive area on earth. 

NOW - it seems they told their solders to dig trench's in the Red Forest and hundreds of Russian solders have been evacuated because of "acute radiation sickness".  

 Journalists on the ground have also reported “ghost buses” of dead soldiers being transported from Belarus to Russia under the cover of dark.

Who didn't see THAT one coming.

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Cheers 
     

Checking in

 I'm alive!!  

Well I finished my  NBA and NHL favorite systems because  the sports are getting close to the end and teams are resting players. The numbers

I picked favorites because it was an idea and favorites were easier to compute logistically - NEXT year I include dog plays which should do MUCH better.

NBA  EXACTLY 300 wagers  +24.60   8.2% ROI
NHL Money lines  226 wagers 95% favorites)  -1.17 units
NHL Puck lines  249 wagers  +22.03 units 8.8% ROI

Working on a MLB system with the same idea but with both chalks AND dogs but if you are looking at futures I have 8 picks for over unders in MLB and I can't remember when I have lost money on these

St. Louis UNDER 85.5
San Francisco UNDER 86.5
NYYankees OVER 91.5
Minnesota OVER 81.5
Kansas City UNDER 75.5
Detroit UNDER 78.5
Cincinnati OVER 73.5
Arizona OVER 65.5
Milwaukee OVER 89.5

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 MEANWHILE - I actually bowled the other day WITH MY KNEE!  No issues besides using an alley ball and ally shows and no writes band.  It's been at least 15 years since I picked up a bowling ball.  I THINK I used a 14 pound ball named MARY! 

It was a birthday party with Josh, Jenny and the kids, Caydence Sydney and Bailey  who all used that ramp thing.   The funny part (besides me have 10 after 2 frames) was Caydence (who has down syndrome) got a spare and as Sydney said - let out a "demonic SCREAM" which terrorized the entire bowling ally.

And since when do you have to make reservations at a bowling ally.

It took a game to get any sort of rhythm but it started coming back by the time I could no longer grip the ball.  But my knee held up fantastically although I could not grip a pen that night LOL

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MEANWHILE2 - the downtown of Columbus is for sale it seems.  Soon 4 antique stores will be for sale with one having an offer and the  red corner STAR building is for sale and MIGHT have an offer.  J&J tour the place.  There is a 3rd floor but no ACTUAL floor and a supporting beam that holds up walls has been cut in half so . . no support anymore. 

The historical museum will have a new tenet it looks like 

Society Boutique  - good luck to them (that sound sarcastic but it's not).  In fact all sorts of awesome places are opening - the Tea Time Wine Bar & Bakery in the old Fireman's Tap is open and across the street is the Good Vibes Cafe and Candy with sandwich's you can take across the street.  

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Our house we are TRYING to build at the very tip of door county came in with an estimate about $100k to much so . . . . . . 

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Had issues with the weather station but that is all fixed as of this morning.  And I LOVE WIN11 - seriously.  zero issues  . . except none of my photo software works on it  , but it no longer worked on my Win7 so . . . . .

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We have two concerts in the coming months Nightwish in Chicago and Roger Waters in Milwaukee.  Can't wait. 

It's all I got at the moment cheers 

And no, tax exempt municipal bonds have not sucked for 8 years, more like 5% a year.  We're on the conservative side. Dow goes up 4% we go up 2%  DOW goes down 4% we go down 2%.

Cheers   

      
 

   

Lot's of happenings in downtown Columbus

 Well - seems the "old guard" are vacating the downtown and opening it up to new owners.  A bar is gone an antique store is for sale, the ugly should be condemned "star" building is for sale and so forth. 

One of those COULD be a home for my surpluses of new and old artwork.  We shall see. 

MEANWHILE we had a meeting with our financial advisors about how to finance a log home up dar at the tip of Door County - right next to a good friend of mine from High School Steve Seybold.  

Of course we waited until Covid was in the rear view mirror and supply chain issues were fixed before we started to move forward . . .to soon?  sigh!  And of course a war happens. 

We laughed last fall at meetings when builders talked about people who were in the middle of building when Covid hit and prices for EVERYTHING quadrupled.  

I always liked talking to REAL financial people and their take on things.  

1. Bonds have sucked for 6 months and will continue to suck for a while as interest rates go up.  

2.  Stocks have sucked because of the fear of the unknown with wars and supply chain issues but not because companies are losing money.  A few days ago they said we SHOULD be near the bottom of this "correction" unless Russia hits NATO and the shit hits the fan. 

The issue they are most concerned with is the recession that always happens when the fed  start to slow down the economy.  We are at Full Employment at the moment and people have not stopped spending money even while they complain about high prices. The fed will raise interest rates one tick too far and a couple years later - recession.  

They predict in the next 5 years American Stocks will perform worse (not the +30% in the last year), International stocks will perform better and bonds will perform better then the last year.  

Our mix is 40% bonds  40% stocks 15% international stocks and 5% cash if you are wondering. We have been doing half of what the DOW does  DOW up 2% we are up 1% DOW down 2% we are down 1%.  

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MEANWHILE

Gus is going to go to his first Brewer game  Bark in the Park  June 7th 

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Burgers - I've made Plaza sauce and spicy cheese sauce for burgers and now want to try tzatziki sauce.  Not REALLY knowing what it tastes like except for the one time I had a gyro I would rather buy it but it seems to not be something grocery stores stock. 

Pray for me. I hope I don't die from bad tzatziki. 

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WEATHER - another snooze More rain. It WILL snow but it will be more like slush.

My weather station is having issues "Error Communicating through USB"  WTF!  tried everything. this USB has a weird connection to the actual station.  i SUPPOSE I could but a new USB but . . . .    

Nuff said at the moment  11-2 in NBA the last 4 days  NHL system is a break even system but that is played 100% favorites. It was an experiment. NBA is fign fine at 9.3% ROI with 260 wagers.  

Cheers 

Baseball is back, Adventurefuls = horrible, Tactics in the Ukraine

Adventurefuls Girl Scout cookies are the worst sweet cookie I have ever tasted 

it's like they put a little of EVERY cookie into one cookie.  Who green lighted this cookie.   

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 I watch a freakish amount of news in a day and most of it horrifying and disgusting.  But the main news I saw yesterday is 

BASEBALL IS BACK!!!  AND ALL 162 GAMES 

Opening Day April 7th. Universal DH which I'm not fond of but . . . the National League was the ONLY league in the entire world that did NOT had a DH so . . . . 

No real shifting which is sort of meaningless and only because fans complained.  The shift for Right handed Batters was a wash and statistically will add one hit a week for each team.  There will also be less walks and less strikeouts for right handed batters.  Left Handed power hitters will get a boost (Yelich) as they are the ones that were hurt the most with shifts. 

The shorter spring training will make teams act fast on getting their team together in a rush rush fashion with no expanded rosters.  There is an expanded lottery for the bottom 6 teams and an expanded 12 team playoffs. 

The bases will be slightly larger (an injury thing). The schedule will be balanced and play every team in MLB.  yes we can finally see the Miami Marlins.    

MEANWHITE there is a war going on. I don't like war and especially when WE didn't start it but it fascinates me being a WWII buff. 

What the news is not covering is tactically HOW the Ukrainians are slowing the Russian hoard.  

So far the Russians have lost 465 pieces of heavy vehicles (tanks, armored fighting vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers) while the Ukrainians 138.  This is on par with the normal numbers of an invading army losing 3 times the equipment of the defending army IF both sides are evenly matched.

SADLY - Russia has a LOT more tanks then Ukraine   (9700 to 2100).  15% of the Russian vehicles have been abandoned do to stuck in mud and maintenance issues (more on that to come) 

But what is the tactical strategy  of Ukraine?   

When the invasion started Ukraine went after the lead tanks to slow down columns. Once the columns were slowed they went after the command and control vehicles (two of the to generals were killed)  and the engineering units who maintain vehicles. 

In the air the Russians have lose 11 migs, 11 helicopters and 2 drones** while Ukraine has lost 8 aircraft and 3 drones.

** one drone was LITERALLY hit by an old woman throwing a container of pickled tomatoes at it.   

Both sides have ample surface to air missiles for shooting aircraft. and the Russians have cruise missiles and a shitload of artillery. 

Russians Navy has not suffered any losses (contrary to popular belief).  I believe the Russians can capture but not hold for very long any land.  The WORST thing Russia could do would be to kill Zelensky who would become a martyr. 

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Nuff said - just checking in 

   

NEW computer - LOVIN WIN11

 OK then - what a weekend - start with a new HUGE computer (like size  . . and I suppose everything else) and the headaches that goes with it. Not real bad but fear of the unknown and all that. Which included cleaning my room. AAAAGH   I'm LOVING WIN11 though. 

Then after going to Club 60 for perch we came home and listen to a concert. I mention this as Sofie LOVES concert night - sitting on one of the two 740 watt Dominion subwoofers 2 it tickles her bum I think. 

Saturday was normal until I looked out the window and . . is that a bear?  No  a scraggly raccoon with no tail. He was taking his time eating peanuts we tossed out for birds.

We watched (along with 2 cats and a dog) and after about 45 minutes I went out for a closer look.  He was VERY docile and unsteady.  WTF!! 

He wandered around for a couple hours and we called Wisconsin Wildlife and sent photos and after a few close photos they said he was injured and should be put down.

By that time he had found some leaves next to the house and was sleeping quietly.

Called police but they would not do anything as he was too close to the house. Called DNR - nothing, called Columbia Wildlife warden but he never got back to me. 

 So, we put some water out and I put up a little roof so the storms would not get to him.   About an hour later he was up and drinking water and washing his paws, then back to his little bed and back to sleep. 

More text's and it was decided if he was still there in the morning we would put him out of his misery. 

8:30PM comes and I look - he's gone. I mean he left.   I laugh as I texted my contact at Wisconsin Wildlife and said he was at peace.  HE'S DEAD?   no no sleeping  LOL 

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Got a new tattoo Thursday from Black Koi - love it.  Nothing anybody would understand. But I'm becoming a tattoo guy  LOL  Every 10 years I seem to get new ink.  Started 50 years ago. 

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My wagering system is  . .well . .  not FAILING but it's coming up with no plays worth anything except the NBA.  The experiment is actually working well and I know a few more tweaks for NEXT year - like doing the same thing but with underdogs.  Still up about 60 units.

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Baseball - WOW - a HUGE different in starting pitchers in MLB.  Two years ago maybe only 60% of starting pitchers went 6 or more innings.  Last year that went to less then 10%.  It's all about bullpens now as the pen accounts for 40% of the innings.  

And WHENEVER they get a contract shifts are now a thing of the past which will help Yelich as he was one of the most hurt from shifts. 

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That's it for today. First blog on a new computer - I could fit TWO of my old computes into the box for the new one.       

OH OH - yesterday I purchased the Microsoft suite for $149  - TODAY I see they decided to lower the price to $49 for the entire suite - no subscription needed.  I need photoshp still since my CS5 will not work in WIN11   

Nuff said