captainseapig's Blog

I think that greed and dishonesty are the root cause of the troubles we have in the stock market today. Greed on the part of lenders and dishonesty on the part of borrowers. Dishonest in the sense that there was no realistic understanding on how to pay back a loan. Their eyes so much on the prize that borrowers neglected a real accounting of resources and their ability to disseminate it. Greed on the part of lenders hoping for huge returns on the secondary market. The perfect storm for financial instability.

Now here we are with major firms going bankrupt and government bailouts of fanny and freddie. My suggestion and I am deadly serious, invest in a years supply of dehydrated food enough to feed your family. When everything really hits the fan you won't be able to buy a bushel of corn with a mountain of gold. Like the Boy Scouts say, Be Prepared. It costs about 4 thousand dollars for a good year supply of dehydrated and freeze dried food. Start small, by in bulk get wheat about 1,000 pounds for 4 people. This is basic and will sustain life. Start bottling water 1 gallon for each day. Used clean empty plastic soda bottles with one tiny drop of bleach in each one to prevent bacterial growth. Am I a survivalist, no, I know the government will be of no help to me and my family when things get rough and food is in short supply. Look at our pioneer ancestors in this country. They had root cellars and pantries and vegetable gardens. They canned and preserved.The majority of Americas food is on the road in 18 wheelers crossing the country right now. There are no warehouses with enough for the citizens for an extended period of time.Each family should begin to prepare, buy a little extra at the store and store it. Buy bulk sugar and wheat and flour and store it. No space, put it under your bed, in a closet etc.I don't want to seem like an alarmist but being prepared in case of natural disaster or economic downturns, becoming injured or sick for a while is important. Being self sufficient and taking care of our families is the goal. Dependancy is hell.

For the past year we all have been enlightened by Valintyne's posts and comments. A brilliant thought provocking young mom. I guess she's super busy raising her family. I hope all is well. Your insights are missed.

A huge problem in this global economy is US Dollars going to other countries and not staying here. When our dollars get sent to South America to countries like Brazil it helps Brazil dramatically. Billions of tax free under the table dollars are sent each year, probably each month. No wonder Brazil is getting stronger.

Look at the little country of Dubai, Billions of dollars from oil creating a city of opulence and over the top luxury. Not good. This money should be staying in America. Generating American business fueling our economy. The biggest drain is energy dollars going to Arab states. We must create our own sources of energy. Solar, wind, natural gas ,coal, nuclear plants and drilling for oil. We need to start now with tax breaks on all  installations of these new technologies to home owners and small businesses.Our leaders talked about this in the 70's but did nothing about it, lets not repeat that mistake. Get moving now. These weak arguments about offshore drilling not helping us for years is lame. Better late than never. Progress is important no matter how slow. The American people are incredibly influential if we work together in a common cause.  Individual selfishness prevents us from making a dramatic influence on world markets.  Our political leaders listen to us but ignore our plight. They talk and talk but no action is ever taken they are crippled by the fear of offending someone, someone who lines their pockets with money. Well ya can't please all the people all the time.What are we manufacturing in this country? What is our chief export? Is everything we buy made in China and other countries, are all our dollars going there?I miss the good old days when everything we bought had a label or stamp that said 'made in the USA'. It meant families were employed. It meant that employers knew that dads having jobs was more important for America than stock holder greed for low foreign production cost and high profits. It is time that patriotism meant buying American, investing in american companies that do business in America. We lead the world in our innovation and technology. Unfortunately our greed for easy profit and constant inability to come to a consensus and a positive plan of action not words is harming us. We are not like our forefathers, we lake courage and the willingness to sacrifice for the common good. We are a selfish greedy culture. We need to change, maybe all the troubles we are in are just the wake up call we need.

A few weeks ago dramama made me go get a colonoscopy. I'm 53 years old. They found a polyp that was big. I needed surgery they couldn't take it out as an out patient procedure. Two weeks ago I went into surgery and now I am home recovering. The polyp was non cancerous which caused us to rejoice. Because I listened to my wives advice my life has been blessed. If I had waited and not done an exam it would have been a terrible ordeal especially if things got blocked. My sweetheart saved my life. Now I have about 6 more weeks of recovery before I can lift sufficient weights to go back to work. My friends have kept me in their prayers and I can feel the healing hand of our Father in Heaven helping me. A blessing in disguise finding this thing in me.

More good news 3 of my 50 plus friends are getting colonoscopies  soon. I talked them into it. Please if you are 50 go get one they are NOT painful and they will save your life. They take only 30 minutes and they make you a little loopy while they do it. Go do it, please. I am so grateful for my wife's insistence. Where would I be without her?

It was good to hear that there is progress in finding the serial killer who has been killing prostitutes in Metro-west over the last 10 years. My wife teaches one of the victims children in Marlboro Public Schools. She says he's a delightful boy from very tragic circumstances.

DNA is such a powerful tool against criminals a wonder of science. I'm so glad the police have been able to make a connection.

Yesterday a man pulled up in front of my two family house and asked if I were renting the top floor. He needed a place for him and his two boys. I told him it was already rented and gave him a reference to a realtor friend. Come to find out he was a floor refinisher and installer from western mass. and that he was moving to metro west because business for him was totally dead were he was from. He hoped it would be better here.

This past year has been one of my worst years in recent history. It all started in April of last year when I only had two jobs lined up. I am in the home improvement business. By the time July rolled around nothing. So I kept busy by painting and repairing my dads house in Sudbury. Things picked up a little in August and were sporadic for the rest of the year with December totally empty of prospects January was just one job and February nothing again. I told all my friends that we are heading for a recession in August and I was certain of it by the time December came.  Now other industries are feeling it. I have a friend who sells promotional items like baseball caps and jackets pens and other gizmo's that promote business, he has huge clients like Fidelity. His sales numbers are way down.Our dollars is falling, gas prices are going up. Heating oil is through the roof, foreclosures have doubled. Hang on tight folks I think we are in for a rough ride.Long term solution? I think banks should offer only fixed rate mortgages at a low rate for 30 years and encourage buyers to do a 15 year mortgage if they can. More equity faster. Build another couple oil refineries asap. Reduce taxes at the federal, state and local levels, it is out of control. I could go on, but it is only a working joes opinion.

Recently a Texas man shot and killed two burglars who were in the process of stealing from his neighbors house. He called the police and reported the crime in progress. The cops told him to stay in the house and wait for them to arrive. He reminded the police that because of a new law that was passed in Sept. 2007 he was within his rights to use deadly force to protect his property or the property of his neighbor. He went next door and called for the thieves to stop they didn't and he shot them down. As a caveat these two thieves were illegal aliens from Columbia.People all over Texas now have the right to shot in self defense any intruder to their home or property, they do not have to retreat first and call police.Strait forward common scence legislation or irresponsible knee jerk extremism?

Today in a press conference Governor Patrick revealed himself to us. He doesn't care about the morality issues that surround gambling. He doesn't care what opponents think about his proposal. He doesn't care about the social cost of 3 casinos in Massachusetts. He just cares about money. Money is his God. He tried to justify gambling with a weak argument that John Hancock held a lottery to rebuild the Quincy market after a fire. Hancock wanted to rebuild one building not generate enough money to run the state. This is such a cop out to me. Such a lack of foresight and a revelation of the dearth of ideas in the Patrick administration. Why would he want to introduce such vice and potential corruption into our state is beyond me. The only argument proponents have is more jobs and revenue. Come on people you know all the money will go to the fat cats and the job market at least the real paying jobs will go to relatives and pals of casino hot shots. I will do what I can to fight against this endeavor an endeavor that ultimately fleeces the money from the public under the gauze of entertainment. Remember a casinos job is ultimately to take your money not entertain you. Entertainment and food is the 'Loss Leader' in the gambling business.

While I was waiting in the checkout line at Walmart today, I noticed the older gentleman in front of me. He had a cap on his head that said 'Pearl Harbor Survivor'. How many of these men are left I thought to myself. I introduced myself while the cashier scanned his beans and pudding snacks. "I see by your hat you were at Pearl Harbor?" The cashier in her late 70's looked up and was blushing, her cheeks getting rosy. He said "yes, yes I was, I was stationed on the Oklahoma, it got hit by torpedos." He then flirted with the cashier and told her by the end of a shift she must have handled enough merchandise to fill a truck. This spry older woman quickly responded, "oh yah, I've unloaded trucks too." I thought to myself here are two elderly people that just won't quit, what a work ethic! Anyway I digress. This gentle elderly man then went on to tell me he wasn't onboard that fateful Sunday morning. He was in a auxiliary building receiving training and that it was holding the clerks on shore away from the docks. He had learned to type in high school because of his mothers insistence. It saved his life because the clerks were ordered ashore. His mother also made him promise that he would always say his prayers. He saw 40 Japanese torpedo planes fly over his building drop low to the water in the bay and deliver their deadly load. He told me a higher power removed him from certain death that day. After the war he went to college on the GI Bill and was the first in his family to graduate college. His career was then established with Raytheon Company as a advertising and public relations man. Today however he had a speaking engagement at a local school to talk to the children about America and the sacrifices that have made America great. I never got his name but his gentle and humble demeanor I shall never forget. His generation was truly the greatest generation.

I've been thinking about the family and it's influence on our country. May I give you some quotes I have read that have brought me deep into thought. I think these are worthy for all of us to contemplate: We know that when things go wrong in the family, things go wrong in every other institution in society.... Our political institutions... cannot rescue us if our basic institution the family, is not intact. Peace treaties cannot save us when there is hostility instead of love in the home. Unemployment programs cannot rescue us when many are no longer taught how to work or do not have the opportunity to work or the inclination. Law enforcement cannot safeguard us if too many people are unwilling to discipline themselves or be disciplined. We are free to resist those moves which downplay the significance of the family and which play up the significance of selfish individualism.
I have been thinking that the family is the primary and most significant arena for learning and fulfillment in life. Parents need to take the focus off money, house, and career re-prioritize and treasure their children more, this is the most important contribution and legacy they will make. The most rewarding. How many parents do you see cry as their son or daughter graduate. The cheers that go up! The joy on a grandparents face as they hold their first grandchild, money, career, status is all forgotten in these moments. What we teach as parents is what lasts the good or bad. As parents teach correct principles based on truth families have more success and joy which spills into our society stabilizing it and setting a standard which others may follow.

It was the summer of 1963 on Lake Boone in Stow, Massachusetts. My cousins and I were dropped off at the swimming beach to enjoy an afternoon of swimming. I was 9 years old and a beginning swimmer who promised my mom I would stay in the shallow areas of the water. My cousins and brother were having such fun jumping off the raft a little father out. I decided to swallow my fears and swim out another 10 yards to the raft and join them. I was proud of my accomplishment and to their surprise i was enjoying a fun time with them. I vowed I would dive toward the shore toward shallow waters. In the excitement of the moment I forgot my promise and dove into the deeper part of the cove off the raft.
Fast forward, tonight Oct. 7, 2007 at my families homestead in Sudbury. My cousins are selling everything at an estate sale.The old 1735 colonial house is being prepared to sell. I came by after church to see how they are doing and meet a woman who is browsing the merchandise. I ask her if if she is from Sudbury and she responds yes a life long resident. I ask her her name and she said Sorrento, I think to myself boy that name sounds familiar. We talk and her sister graduated 1 year before me and she graduated from LSRH two years after me. Then she told me her mothers name and that she was the manager of Duck Soup in Sudbury for many years, which brought me a flood of emotion. I said, "Your mom saved my life". She looked at me and laughed with a puzzled look on her face. I said it again more seriously, "Your mom saved my life, she saved me from drowning".
My 14 year old cousin Billy grabbed me and then let go as I proved to much for him, panicking and flailed the water with my arms, I went under and looked up at the beautiful blue sky and puffy white clouds, then darkness. The next thing I knew I was on shore with Mrs. Sorrento giving me resuscitation.
The hug she gave me in front of my wife and cousins nearly prevented me from breathing I melted and reciprocated, and with tears in her eyes she said," I needed that tonight. My mom died 5 years ago and I needed another connection to her. So your the boy she saved that day, she mentioned it often."
I reassured her that i wouldn't have the wonderful wife or children i do today nor would I have served a mission for my church or gone to college or been blessed with so many blessings this life offers. There is a ripple effect and it's influence is not exclusively for water.

All the trouble and I mean ALL the trouble with the increase in foreclosures can be linked to ignorance about intrest rates. Lenders selling 'intrest only' loans for the first few years then tacking on huge principle payments, this is the worst and should be illegal in my eyes.

Lenders with ajustible rate programs were the intrest rate skyrockets after a couple of years. Consumers need to educate themselves on intrest and how it works, very carfully before buying a home. Never and I mean NEVER be seduced by a lower monthly payment on the first few years.

Your plan being we will sell before the payments increase. What if the Real Estate market faulters and values go down, your in trouble. At a closing session you can refuse to agree with the terms and by law back out of the proceedure and commitment without penality (bring a lawyer to all closings if your not sure or confidant). It's an option and on one of the last of the documents you can sign. I found at a closing once that things were not to my liking and I refused to close, they brought in thier boss and tried to gentley intimadate me into signing the deal, I didn't and walked out of the lawyers office.

Rent until you find the right house, no matter how much your desire is to own, control your passions and desires. Find a local lender and get a intrest rate that is fixed. 15 year is best you build equity quicker, but 30 years is generally the starter morgage. You know your payment is going to be the same month after month and you can plan accordingly. Of course tax increases change the escrow in the payment each year but intrest and principle generally remain the same.

Lastly it's about patience, do not accumulate fancy stuff early in life. It took your parents years to get good stuff. Buy a house that is modest and clean with a good roof,foundation and plumbing. You can paint and do landscaping yourself put in some sweat equity, it never killed anybody, don't hire it out. Save that money for the morgage payment.

Whenever there was a feeling of chill in the air people would prepare. The firewood got split and stacked, the harvest was canned and preserved for the winter. people were prepared. I have brought this up before in previous blogs. I seriously think we as Americans and New Englanders need to follow our predecessors example and prepare for a rainy day. Put some money away into savings every week. Even if it just a little bit. Get some extra food in the pantry, enough for a month or so. Get 25 gallons per person, of water in the basement, filling empty 2 liter soda bottles is easy. Most importantly widdle down those debts, get rid of them as soon as possible and incur no new debt. Live within our means. Get fuel and a camp stove if the electricity goes out. Like the Boy Scouts teach, Be Prepared. I think we are going to have some bumps in the economic road soon. Do you?

Dramamama and I are going to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary soon. 24th of Sept. to be exact. We are going to keep it simple and romantic by going on a Boston Harbor dinner cruise. I know, some of you may think wow thats not very celebratory for a 25th anniversary. For us it is. On our first anniversary i gave her one rose, on our second two roses, this year it's two dozen with one extra. I hope to be able to give her about 60 roses someday.

With the mounting cost of higher education in this country why would the credit card companys target college freshmen? Greed, plain and simple. It should be against the law to get a credit card until after 21 years old. The misery they cause young people is inexcusable. The credit card companies defence is, that the kids knew what they were getting into. No they don't!
The majority have no clue about intrest rates or penalties etc. I think some even think they can delay payments indefanantly. Some get them to feel 'grown up' and 'sophisticated'. There are exceptions to the rule, maybe one percent of college students. As a student you can live without one. If you can not afford it, don't buy it. Eat beans, go to Good Will for clothes, Craigs List for all your other needs and get a part time job. Most students don't have sugar daddys or sugar mommies the ones that do are being spoiled and cheated of important life lessons.