Sunday in the Valley

A storm blew through the valley this morning about 5:00 am waking up both my wife and I because of the rain hitting against the window and the wind...  this is very unusual for me because I sleep through damn near everything, including rain/wind storms worse than this one.  Fortunately, it only lasted about an hour or so but it was forceful enough to move furniture and carpets around on the back deck.

Once up, I just decided to stay up...  so, I fed the cats who were roaming around and let me know that they were STARVED TO DEATH as soon as I opened the door to the bedroom...

If I do not respond to their requests right away, they either start fighting each other to get my attention or they decide they need to do a little mischief to get my attention...

Once fed my 3 monsters settle down and go back to bed and typically will sleep for a couple of hours before they are again out and about, looking for food or trouble or sometimes a soft lap in which to jump into and continue their sleep...

It appears that there will be no sunshine today as an overcast sky seems to be lingering around and whatever work that was going to be done will have to be postponed...  And, while some (who are impatient) might think that would be a pain-in-the-ass to postpone a work activity, let me remind you that we are both retired and can work outside while you must work for your employers...

Retirement does have its advantages...

Is this what you want???

Saturday Afternoon

75 degrees in my neck of the woods...
I like living in East TN because the Blue Ridge Mountains are on our right side and the Cumberland Plateau is on our left side and we are in the valley in between the two...  so, what does this mean?  Weather systems coming in from the east or from the west are pretty much blocked.  Systems do not come down from the north but they do come up from the south which is rare but it happens and when it does that is the only time we receive bad weather...

Our winters are mild...  we may see 32 degrees and/or below for 4-6 weeks but the odds are that it will be less...  our winters are usually in the high 30's or low 40's...  and, if it snows one day, the temps go up into the 50's on the next day or the day after...

HOWEVER, this is not the best part of East TN...  the best part is the fact that it is 15-21% cheaper to live in here and this is NOT TRUE for middle or west TN...  Of course, all of TN pays no State Income Tax which typically saves about 7% of one's income.

The cost to build a home is less than the national average
2400 square foot home
1 acre of land,
residential community
$120,000  (ten years old)
3 garages
4 bedrooms
3 full baths
1 mile from Walmart Super Center
1 mile from Lowes
1 mile from banks
1 miles from gas station
7 miles from Interstate
1 mile from fitness center

The purchase price of a home is less than the national average
For Instance:
(and this does not take into consideration LOCATIONS)
the price of a home in Raleigh, NC or Chapel Hill, NC might be $500,000 but the same square footage would only cost you $250,000 here...

I am 30 minutes from a Top Notch University Hospital
I am 40 minutes from the airport
I am 50 minutes from Oakridge National Laboratories
I am 75 minutes from the Bristol Motor Speedway
I am 75 minutes from Dollywood
I am 90 minutes from Gatlinburg
I am 120 minutes from Cherokee Gambling Casinos
I am 4 hours from Atlanta, GA
I am 5 hours from Charleston, SC Cruise Ship Ports
I am 6 hours from Myrtle Beach, SC
I am 8 hours from Destin, Florida

Temperature
                                      Cost of Living  
                                                                         Location
                                                                                                         Weather Conditions

STAY HOME... Stay Home... stay home...

Are You Wishing For This?

Nude Celebrities

Intelligence

Intelligence is a Netflix series that takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada about the CIS, a Canadian Intelligence Service  (US FBI more or less) where the leader of that service (Mary) is being considered for a position in a more sophisticated intelligence service which would be similar to our CIA, I suppose.

The CIS is looking into a drug operation lead my a man named Jimmy who has a reciprocal agreement with Mary about sharing intelligence with each other for each other's benefit.  While this is taking place, Mary is talking with several other people, male and female, about spying for her while they are spying for someone else or another country.

This series is produced by the BBC which I believe produces better series than we do here in the US...

Yes...  this is my personal opinion and while opinions are like assholes, everyone has got one, my asshole is certainly an opinionated one, especially since I am not a film critic or a movie series critic or a critic of any sort for that matter.

Check this out...

W I I F M ?

What's
In
It                                                      

For
Me?

Hard to believe that Americans are so selfish but it is true when it come to one's working environment and especially since Management does not take care of its workers that well...  and, if you are in a State with the following laws on the books:

Employee at Will

Right to Work
The first pertains to employers having the ability to fire a worker with giving a reason for that firing.

The second pertains to employees that want to work without joining a Union can do so.

BOTH OF THE LAWS work to the advantage of the employer moreso than the workers although the latter does favor the worker...

CONSEQUENTLY,
Hourly workers as well as every single level of management (lower, middle, upper) looks towards themselves than they do for the company...

If an hourly worker is given the option to becoming a supervisor, that employee thinks:  WIIFM

If a middle management worker is offered a higher position, that employee thinks:  WIIFM

IF a CEO is offered to be the President, that person thinks:  WIIFM

HOME until JUNE now...

Since the USA now has the greatest number of COVID-19 cases in the world, it is easy to believe that our economy will be shut down at least for the next two months...  that is to say the rest of March, plus April and May...  Only essential services will be working like law enforcement, healthcare, military, fire departments, and emergency medical...  However, some restaurants who have "take out capabilities" will be working at half force as well.

BEING RETIRED...  my income is steady although some of my investments have lost 20% of its value, but there is always savings on which I can rely 10-20 years from now.

As you get older and/or approach the year that you are going to retire (if not sooner) you should start planning for your retirement.  If I had planned sooner, I would be much better off than I am now...  for instance:

THE RULE OF 72 - take the interest earned rate and divide it into 72 and that approximates the number of years it takes for your money to double.

If you are earning 3%, your money will double ever 26 years
If you are earning 5%, your money will double every 14.45 years
If you are earning 10%, your money will double every 7.2 years
If you are earning 12%, your money will double every 6 years

NOTE:  Since data has been collected on investments (the last 50 years or so), a MUTUAL FUND has been earning, on average, 12% each year, if you leave it alone for 20 years.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU?
If you were to save $2.50/day and invest it into a mutual fund at the end of each month and leave it alone for 40 years, you would have $500,000...
If you and your wife did that, you would have $1,000,000
On the Average:  you can count on about $400/month for every $100,000
So, $500,000 would yield $2,000/month

THINK SMART...
is the key here...  you are only stupid if you don't think smart...  relying on our Federal Government is a waste-of-time and actually counter-productive.

Congratulations people...

THE USA NOW HAS MORE COVID-19 CASES THAN CHINA...  and the rest of the WORLD...

The USA is #1 in arrogance...

We don't need to wear facemasks...                                                        
We don't need to self-isolate...

Take A Walk On The Wild Side

Play that Funky Music White Boy...

I grew up in Alexandria, VA until I was a freshman in high school and that summer we moved to Cairo, Egypt instead of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; it seems that my dad had two job offers but decided to take the job in Egypt because it was going to be more challenging.  Back then, I don't think I gave a damn either way to be quite honest with you.

The Government paid for our trip to Egypt on an Ocean liner...   USS Constitution, as I recall...  the ship was part of the Holland-America Cruise line...  I had my own inside cabin but have no idea on what level it was...   All I remember is that once the ship was 3 miles away from the territorial waters of the USA, I was old enough to drink alcohol...  and, I did exactly that.

I was in Cairo, attending Cairo American College (CAC) which was their high school and grades K-12 were all in one compound.  I graduated in 1966 and there were only 28 people in our graduating class representing 15 or so different countries.  During those years in Egypt, there was no racial prejudice or ethnic discrimination at all...  it was never part of our thinking.  I dated Middle Eastern women, Oriental women, Caucasian Women, African women, and Spanish women...  it just did not seem to make any difference at all to me or to them.

HOWEVER, when I returned to the good ole US of A, it was completely different and everywhere I turned there was some sort of racial or ethnic prejudice taking place...

It was easy not to like the country or the State in which I was born...

Secret Desires

Submission

After Fifty Shades of Grey opened in our movie theaters, the American public was finally exposed to that which had been taking place in the country for years...  it's just that it was happening behind closed doors and not many people talked about it...  similar to be a lesbian or gay...  most of the situations like this were taking place between a male and his submissive female...  but, in reality most of what was taking place was between a FEMDOM and her male submissive...

BUT, not many males would admit to having fantasies of being controlled, humiliated, and beaten by a female because they are obsessed with the erotic feelings that they would be feeling.  Being controlled by a wife is not the same thing as being controlled by a FEMDOM...  there is a sexual, erotic sensation that flies through a male's body like a bolt of lightning or electricity.









The more a male has power over people at work, the more that same male craves submission to a female...  not just any female...  one who is sexy, enticing, alluring. with an attractive appearance that gives one the impression that she would screw your eyeballs out...  For some males, large boobs is a turn on or small boobs...  it just doesn't matter as much as the feeling of voluntarily submitting...  Some men can have orgasm while they are being whipped.

Hump Day

Yes, this is Wednesday and typically referred as Hump Day because it has traditionally been the middle of the week, since there was no work on Saturday for most jobs.  However, it is somewhat misleading because we have always had people working on Saturdays and even Sundays if you are in the military, law enforcement, emergency medical, healthcare, manufacturing, or other companies...

Actually, Thursday is the true Hump Day because there are 3 days before and 3 days after that day and this will continue to be the case unless we change the number of days in a week...  lol

What is interesting here, at least for me, is that I lived in Cairo, Egypt from 1962-1966 and the school that I attended (Cairo American College - a high school) was right beside a Camel Depot.  Camels are dirty, smell bad, have bad attitudes, and oftentimes spit when irritated or pissed off.  They don't like strangers but they will respond favorably to their handlers who feed them.

Cannot Sleep

Here recently, I have been having a difficult time sleeping even though I am tired and feel like I can barely keep my eyes open; however, when I go to bed, I am wide awake...

I do not take a nap in the afternoons on these nights that I cannot sleep and in the past when I took an afternoon nap, I still had no problems falling asleep; and, I am not worried about anything that has been the case in the past when I was working...

I used to have facial hair...  a moustache for over ten years, then a goatee for a couple of years, and a beard for about a year... now, I am clean shaven...  at least every other day, I shave.  I don't care for facial hair at all anymore...  even though older males like to grow beards to show everyone that they are still macho...   I find that attitude somewhat silly and stupid...

I have also noticed that gay males and bi-sexual males, especially those that are married all wear beards as if somehow that hides their secret identity from the public.  That too is stupid and silly and they should just admit that they like to smoke cigars now and then.

Taking a break...

For Your Information

"We are shielded by 
the loose fitting 
clothes of our failures,
 and yet, we continually
 change our dress to the
seasons of our dreams."

This is a poem that I wrote back in the 70's and is typical of the kinds of poems that I write...  usually 4-6 lines with about 25-30 words...  In 2015, I pretty much stopped writing poetry, but from 1972-2015, I had written over 42,000 of these quick little poems.

I started a blog, Reflections In Thoughts, to publish these poems in the hopes that a few people might find them interesting and check out my blog daily to read the next one.  Later, I changed the name to Reflections: White Scorpion.

Currently, I have 3 other blogs that I post to on a daily basis:

1. Journal of Daily Page
2.  My Cancer Odyssey
3. A Bipolar Scorpion 
   

My writing is ongoing

I keep myself from getting bored by writing...

I started with poetry...
Then wrote research papers for college...
Then articles for LinkedIn
Then posts on facebook
Then, I completed two novels

My facebook page was hacked and taken over by the hacker...  this person changed my email and when I logged out, their new email took over, and since the password was changed, I was unable to logged back in.  Therefore, I created another Facebook page but under a different name...

BTW, I contacted FACEBOOK about what had happened to my account, and they ignored all my emails and consequently provided me with NO HELP...