Monday, August 31, 2009


I'm at Bookends and Beans. This is a picture of the bar there.
Not much is happening, here. Jim and I solved the world's problems, this morning. We get together for coffee at Bookends on Mondays. While doing that we discuss world events. I don't really think anything ever gets resolved, though.
I got a new wifi card, this morning. I couldn't get it to work with Linux. I was really disappointed, since it's a Belkin card and I've always been able to get them to work with Linux. It had a Windows setup. I tried to access the inf. files with ndiswrapper, but I failed. I'll have to find someone with a Windows machine who could use it.
I was reading the Des Moines Register, yesterday. It had an article on how hard it is to get disability. This article related to Social Security. It talked about a guy who was living in a storage space.
I had it better but it still took over three years to get the benefits. So how do you live while you are waiting for Social Security?
Going to school was one of the things that I did. School doesn't count as work since you are paying to go there. A person can live on the student loans.
The downside is that they might not consider you disabled if you do well at school.
On the other hand if you get through school, you might be able to get a good job, and forget about disability.
After school I went on a disability pension from the VA. I realize that most people might not be eligible for this. It's what put me over until I was able to collect Social Security. There is a pension for disabled veterans who served during a war. If you are a veteran you probably served during a war, since the U.S. always seems to be in a war. Check with your Veterans Affairs person, usually at the courthouse, for information about this pension. If you are eligible, it will get you through the wait for Social Security. I think it pays about $950/month.
Well I'm going home to try to get that wifi card working with Linux again. I've got another idea.

Friday, August 28, 2009


I'm at Java John's, waiting for Jennell. I'm finally going to give her a laptop. I had troubles with the one that I fixed up from the parts that I got a week or so ago. I'm going to give her one that works just fine. To make sure that it's working good, I'm using it for my blog.
I'm sorry that I haven't been posting much, lately. Last night I was up with a sick desktop computer. Dave, from WRAP, had a sick desktop. He thought that it had a bad CD player. It turned out that the power supply was dying. I don't have one to replace it with, so he'll have to spend over $100 to repair it. Maybe, I can get some parts off of it. It has a 40 gig. hard drive and 1 gig. of memory. Maybe I could get a power supply for it.
It was predicted to rain today, and it's finally getting cloudy. I rolled the windows down, yesterday, so I hope that it stays cool. It's a hassle to roll those windows up or down. They barely work at all. They use a crank system that is simply worn out.
On the disability front. If you are waiting for Social Security to decide to give you your payments, try not to get too discouraged. They'll fight you tooth and nail. They don't want to pay you. You have to fight for it. It takes about six months to get denied your last appeal.
I used to get emotional during the denial process. I would find myself getting suicidal for about a week. After all, they denied me an income and I didn't know where my sustenance was to come from.
One time I was so suicidal that I couldn't get the idea of committing suicide out of my head. I turned myself into a psych ward for the weekend.
That turned out for the best since it looked good at the hearing that they finally held.
It takes about 3 years to get to the hearing process. That is where the tables will turn and you'll finally get your disability. Age will work in your favor as well as your diagnosis. The one witness that I had at my hearing was from the Workforce Development Department. He consistently stated that I couldn't be expected to find work in the various jobs that were brought up.
I felt that I wasted my money on the lawyer, but things might not have gone smoothly and he might have had to fight for me.
Anyway, be patient and don't expect to get your disability quickly. You'll have to fight for it.

Saturday, August 22, 2009


I uploaded a picture of the Upper Iowa River. I need to take some more pictures. I think I'm repeating some, that I showed, before.
Well, I got another old laptop, today. It was a lot sicker than what the seller let on. I couldn't get power to it. The dc plug had been damaged. It had a good hard drive and processor, and DVD drive. I took the processor out and put it into another laptop. The battery was dead but I'm going to try to charge it up overnight. I couldn't get the DVD drive to work in that computer, so I loaded SUSE Linux. It took hours to get it to see the hard drive. I'm doing the updates, now. I'll need an ac adapter and a wifi card for it. When you consider that I spent $40 for the shell, I got ripped off. I'll have to spend anothe $10 for the ac adapter and another $10 for the wifi card. Oh well, you live and learn. At least I got another laptop to work with the parts that I had.
Now I have to find a home for it. Maybe Joan can help with that.
I don't really have much to say, tonight.
Later

Friday, August 21, 2009


I uploaded a picture of a flower from the garden at the hospital. Alice said that David Cavennarro and Asiline planted and maintained that garden. David is an expert gardener and photographer. His pictures have been in magazines like "Mother Earth News". Asiline is a barista at Bookends and Beans. They did a great job with the garden.
I'm sorry that I haven't been posting many blogs, lately. I've been busy with sick computers. I now have 4 that are ready to be given away. I'll go see Joan Nelson at the Community Action center, Monday. She wasn't there today. I think she'll know poor, deserving, people I can give my laptops to. I only know of a couple of people who need a laptop. Jenelle and Blackie are the only ones I can think of. Jenelle might be able to simply buy one. I saw her drive a new pickup. Blackie might have troubles with transportation. He drives a motorcycle. He lives about 30 miles away so it might be a problem. I was surprised to be able to get so many working.
I'm spending too much on that hobby. I figure that I'm spending between $100 and $200 a month on old laptops. I could be investing that money in bonds. I might take up reading magazines online to use up my time, rather than messing around with old laptops. At least, I could cut back my laptop repair to one or two machines a month.
I went to the Democrat fund-raiser, last night. For an off-year, and heavy rains, it was well attended. I had to wear a jacket because of the cold. For this time of year, that is surprising.
On the disability topic, I think I'll discuss poverty and disability. They go hand-in-hand. Social Security and any other type of disability isn't intended to provide for you in a comfortable fashion. It's meant to keep you poor. Get used to it. It's not bad once you accept that you'll always be poor. You get used to not spending much money. Eating out is out. You'll find yourself watching where every cent goes. If you are poor enough, you'll be eligible for a lot of financial assistance. There are things such as heating assistance, food stamps, rental assistance, and food pantries. They make a big difference.
One thing you'll find, is that, as you get more money, your assistance programs will diminish. It's almost at though someone wants to keep you poor. The more you make the more will come out of your pocket. The only thing to do is to take charge of your finances by reducing your spending. Cook your own food. Forget movies. Curtail your coffee drinking at coffee shops. Try to move to a place where you won't have to drive. You might get rid of the car and just walk or ride the bicycle. My car is my biggest expense. I figure that I'm spending over $100 a month for just the gasoline. Insurance is another $25, and I don't even know what I'm likely to spend in repairs and maintenance.
I'm trying to get an apartment in the downtown area. That's my last big expense.
Well, I have to leave now. The conversation at Java John's is getting involving.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009


I uploaded another picture of the garden at the hospital.
Well, I'm still struggling with getting the laptop that Nick gave me to work. I added more memory and then it wouldn't load anything. I ran a memory test that came up with a bunch of errors. After considerable messing around, I found that the memory sticks had to be installed in a certain way. After getting that straightened out, I found that most of the programs loaded.
The problem was that they didn't see the sound card and most of them didn't set up the video card right.
I found a program that does everything right in the "live" mode. That means that it runs the system from the cd player. The idea is that if everything runs in the "live" mode, you click on install and load the system. I tried it and it didn't mount the program on the hard drive. If I can get it to load on the drive, I'm all set. Maybe a latter version will be the answer.
I bought another Gateway 9300 on Ebay today. I paid $40 with the shipping included. I figured that I could use some parts off of the scrapped 9300 to get one going.
I probably blew it. I've been trying to get away from such old and slow machines.
I also bought another 22 Delphi bonds. Somehow there was $50 in my Etrade account so I bought some more Delphi. They are supposed to come out of bankruptcy in September. Good things could happen to their bonds if they do.
Later

Sunday, August 16, 2009


I uploaded a picture of the garden at the hospital.
I'm sorry that I didn't publish a blog, yesterday. I just wasn't inspired to.
Today I want to write some more on disability. I've been running out of things to say, so I'll revisit some of the topics I've already covered.
Today I want to go over disability for veterans. There are two kinds of disability that a veteran may be eligible for.
The first and most common is for service-related disability. That means it is for something that happened while you were serving.
It is awarded on aI sliding scale. I think it goes from 10% to 100%. The pay for 10% is rather low. I don't think it would go over $100/month. For 100%, the last I heard it was at $2200/month. Of course, you would have to be laid up rather severely to rate 100%. You would probably have to be blind or missing limbs.
The advantage to this disability is that you can go to college for free if you are on it. 100% of the tuition would be paid for 4 years. You also get a stipend whilst going to school.
I've known people who were in pretty good shape, who had their college paid for by this disability.
The other disability, one that is usually forgotten, is the war pension. This is a disability pension that is paid if the person served during time of war.
Your disability doesn't have to be service-connected. You can become disabled after you left the service. I'll try to remember the requirements for this.
1. An honorable discharge.
2. Serve during a war
3. Be 100% disabled, but they are rather liberal on this
4. Have a low income
5. Have 6 months of active duty
6. I always forget the sixth requirement, I might be able to look it up, later.
It's rather low paying and there is only one amount that you can get. I think it's around $950/month.
If you get another job, you have to deduct that income from this pay. It discourages a person form working.
There is no college benefit.
If you are thinking about either of these disabilities you'll have to go through the VA hospital. That's a good thing because you can get free health care if your income is low enough. It's better than nothing. I get a physical once a year and I go to the psychologist 3 or 4 times a year. I get my medications from the VA and that is probably saving me thousands. It's a good thing.
Later

Friday, August 14, 2009

More computer troubles


I took some pictures and a video of some deer across the street from my home. It was 6:30 in the morning and the fog hadn't burned off yet. It was a bit dark so I'm sorry that they don't show up very well. When I move I'll miss the deer.
Well, I bumped into Brian at Java John's this morning. His computer was down. The ac adapter is bad. It has an intermittent problem. When I tap on it, it comes on and off. I confirmed the problem by trying it with Alice's computer. The problem went with the ac adapter.
Alice's computer had problems as well. The keyboard quit working. It turned out that Windows 2000 was bad. I reloaded it and it works.
Now I have to see Brian about buying another ac adapter. We'll probably get one on Ebay.
Anyway, it's hot and I'm staying at Bookends to keep out of the heat. I'll probably have to mow the damned lawn tonight.
Later
I was just attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets. I was mowing the lawn and I went over their hive, which is in an old railroad tie, that's used for landscaping. I was bit 4 or 5 times. They pursued me right into the house. Oh, the joys of homeownership. I can't wait to get my apartment.
I poured gasoline into their nest. Nick told me that there is something at Wal-Mart to spray into their nest. I'll try that tomorrow. I just hope that I'll be able to sleep, tonight. I'll take a couple of aspirin for the pain, tonight.
I'll keep you posted, tomorrow.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

More computer troubles


I called Faye, today. She told me that I can get a hold of her through Face book. I tried and found a lot of Fayes. She didn't have her picture posted. I had to register with Facebook in order to do a good search. I never did find her. I'll have to tell her to put up her picture so that people will know where to go. I don't think I prefer Facebook to a blog, anyway.
Alice's computer is messed up. The hard drive is running and running for no reason. It might have something to do with her CMOS memory battery. I'm going to change that, tomorrow. It might have something to do with the virus attack that happened today. Wall Street was pretty much shut down for a while. Maybe I should load Linux on her machine. We'll see.
My desktop had the hard drive running a lot for no discernible reason for a while. I had it in Windows mode because I was downloading pictures from my camera. I haven't been able to get my camera to work with Linux. Maybe it had something to do with updates. Maybe it was a virus attack. I don't know.
Dave W. was having troubles with his Thinkpad at to co-op. I told him to use Linksys as his server here. The co-op's server is too limiting. I can't even get email using it. Linksys has no problems.
I'm using a computer that has no pictures on it. I might load one, later.
I'm getting another old Gateway from Nick, tomorrow. He said that it's a 9100. I looked up that number on Ebay, last night. The only thing that I could have used off of it was the ac adapter and I bought one, yesterday. I was interested to find out that it runs at 600 megherz. That is as fast as my 9300s. If it is a 9100, it will be a good machine to give to somebody.
I loaded a picture of some flowers at the hospital. They have a nice garden, there. They had both vegetables, and flowers.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

This is a picture of Brian, getting his new, old laptop at the Co-op.
I gave him an old Thinkpad a couple of days ago. That was my last Thinkpad. I think I'll quit working on them because I couldn't get the sound working right with Linux. Microsoft quit supporting it's older operating systems, so you can't update anything older than XP. This makes it hard to work on them. Linux is the normal answer. I think I'll just get some newer Thinkpads. Maybe model a31s and newer. They'll be fast enough for the video and sound to work right.
I've been working on old Gateway 9300's lately. I had to scrap out 2 of them. One had a dead processor and the other wouldn't see it's cd drive. Now I don't have to get as many parts for the computers that I have working.
I might try to sell one tomorrow. I could use the money to build newer computers.
I checked on the price that the local trailer park charges for camper. Out in California, I lived for a number of years in an RV. It turns out that here the price is prohibitive. They don't rent for more than 2 weeks and then they want $17/day. That comes to more than $500/month. I think living in your trailer is out, here. That's just another reason to move back to California.
I rather liked trailer living. Inside the trailer was a bit crowded, so you stayed outside most of the time. It forced you to keep your possessions limited. And, of course, moving was easy. I'm going to look into it some more. Maybe I could get an RV and park it on my land, whilst I tear down my old moblehome. I might be able to stay in it while I build another home, here. I'll have to examine my options.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

At Barnes and Noble

Alice and I are at Barnes and Noble, in La Crosse, today. She decided to shop for books and I'm just along for the ride. I never miss a chance to come here. I enjoy the food as well as leafing through all the books.
I'm looking for something on digital photography. I'm thinking about getting a Cannon Powershot camera. I need something that is small enough to fit into the pocket and yet is stabilized. I also want something that has a zoom lens.
I gave away another computer, last night. I saw Brian, who is a chimney builder, at the co-op. I know that he uses computers a lot, so I gave him my last Thinkpad. I never did get the sound working right. I last saw him at Magpies, using that laptop. I think he's happy with it.
I now have two working computers to give away, and 2 that will need parts. When I'm done blogging I'll go to Ebay and bid on parts. I need a couple of hard drive caddies and a hard drive. I'll also need ac adapters and a cd drive and a floppy drive. I feel a bit cheated to buy a floppy drive since I couldn't imagine using one. I'll need it to hold the hard drive in. That's the way these old Gateways are designed.
Well I think I'll get on Ebay now. Later

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Bookends password fails again


I'm at Bookends and Beans, staying out of the heat, and Caroline is today's barista.
I tried using my good computer with the best wi-fi card, but I couldn't get past the password.
I went to the car and brought out an old laptop with a marginal wi-fi card, and it works fine.
Strange things are happening to my post. I'm getting larger letters than usual and the picture of Caroline comes and goes.
I do have to learn how to write these posts with a word processor and then transfer it to Blogspot.
Anyway, I got the bad laptop to work. It turned out that it needs a good battery to turn on properly. If I leave a battery out, it will work as well. If I have a bad battery in it, it just hangs up.
Now I'll have to buy all sorts of stuff to get the three laptops in working order.
I'll have money in Paypal next Monday so I'll start bidding then.
I was thinking about my buying Delphi bonds. I think I'll curtail it for a while. I would be better off buying junk bonds in the JNK etf. I'll save enough money that way, over time, to pay off the credit cards. I would like to be out of debt. If the house sells, I'll both pay off the credit cards and buy more Delphi. I could also buy a new car with the cash for clunkers program.
I'll see.
Well, I've got a bunch of updates to load on this machine.
I got thrown out of Bookends, as it was 4:00 and that's when they close on Saturdays.
I'm finishing loading the updates on my old machine at home. From there I went to Java John's. My good machine works just fine here. I think the problem I was having at Bookends had to do with their password, not my machine or wi-fi card.
I have a lot of problems with their password protection.
I was thinking about what I could tell disabled people today.
I found that you can delay paying credit card debt, practically indefinitely. My bankruptcy lawyer had me quit paying back in 2001. I got a lot of phone calls but I simply disconnected my phone. Some of them put a judgement against my bank account. I simply closed that account.
Since then, I had another lawyer contact my creditors to pay 40% of what I owed them. I payed some of them, but I ran out of money before they were all payed. I'm now trying to save up the money to pay the rest of them. There doesn't really seem to be much that they can do. Of course, I have bad credit and won't be able to buy, large ticket, items. But that is really not a big problem. I just don't buy things. Life goes on.
I will be happier when I get them paid off, however.

Thursday, August 6, 2009


This is a picture of the girl who gives me free coffee at the co-op.
If you go there after 7:15 in the evening, they will give you coffee for free. They do that rather than throw it out. They close at 8:30 and hardly anyone drinks coffee that late. I'm their only regular for the free coffee. Even I don't drink it every night.
Its a nice place to surf the net and read as well. I keep a book in my car for reading at coffee shops. I don't spend very much there. I normally nurse a cup of coffee for an hour. I used to eat muffins as well, but I'm trying to lose weight and save money.
Well, one of my new Gateways is trying to die. It refuses to get out of the setup mode. I can't get it to boot. I'm afraid that I'll have to scrap it out. The good thing about that is that I won't have to buy a bunch of things to complete another old laptop. I'm talking about things like hard drives, and their caddies, or AC adapters. I would even need a cd player for it. If I scrap it I'll save much money. I think I'll scrap it.
I haven't talked much about the (Cash for Clunkers) program, lately. I tried to sign up for it but I would have had to spend an extra $10,000 for the Chrysler that I looked at. I then went to a Ford dealer and he told me that my car didn't qualify. It had too good of gas mileage. With the over drive transmission, my car is rated at 19 mile/gal. The cutoff was 18 miles/gal. I would have just sold the car at a profit, anyhow. I can't justify having a new car. But I'm not one to refuse free money.
Later

Wednesday, August 5, 2009


I uploaded a picture of the Upper Iowa River.
Big things are happening here. I got my home internet hooked up. It's a cable connection. It works really well.
I found that my Linux on my desktop didn't have enough hard drive space for the updates. It's sharing the drive with Windows. Windows had too much room, so I loaded Mint Linux, and mapped out plenty of space for it.
I really like Mint Linux. It just looks better and seems to run good.
Dave at WRAP had troubles with his laptop. It turned out that the ports for the USB and PCMCIA weren't working. I swapped with a good Gateway. I then reloaded SUSE Linux and it's happy. I'll have to watch that hard drive and see if the problem comes back.
I got my Gateways that I've been waiting for, today. I got all three working with the parts off of the bad Gateway. One had a bad CPU and monitor. The others were only missing things and had bad CMOS batteries. One of the CMOS batteries seems to work. The others are bad. I'll see about getting those from Radio Shack.
I loaded Mint Linux on one of the new Gateways. It seems to be working well. The other two are missing hard drives.
On the disability front. Now that you are getting your Social Security, have you given any thought towards leaving the country?
I've given it some thought. It would be a way to hold down expenses. You can collect your Social Security checks anywhere, so why not go somewhere that the cost of living is low and you have nice weather?
A good book on the topic is (Getting Out) Your guide to leaving America, by Mark Ehrman.
I was thinking about Belize, because they speak English and I have a problem with Spanish. Panama and Costa Rica look attractive. I like their health care. Basically it's socialized medicine.
I may not get around to it if I find an inexpensive, rent-assisted apartment. It depends on how much I can shave off of my expenses, here. The weather, here, bothers me, however. I'll keep looking into it.
Later

Tuesday, August 4, 2009


I'm at Bookends and Beans, today. I'm having troubles getting the Gateway laptop to hook up to the internet. I gave up on the Great Quality. I had to reboot 3 times for the Gateway to work. Maybe I should have kept rebooting for the other computer.
I'm still waiting for the 3 Gateway laptops to arrive in the mail. They should have been here by now. Maybe it takes longer for large packages to ship in the mail.
I got the Thinkpad to work with the Lucent wifi card. I won't be able to use it at Bookends, with their password. At least it's working good enough to give the computer to somebody.
I talked with Dan Micals about the rent-assisted apartments. It turns out that the electricity isn't free. Since the heating and stoves are electric that means I won't save much on that. That will cost me an additional $100/month. I would cancel my name from those lists, except that once I sell the house I'll have $20 to 30 thousand to invest. Of course, my investment leave a lot to be desired.
The GM bonds are doing good. I made about $700 in the last week on them. I haven't sold yet. I want enough money to pay off the credit cards. I've got another $4000 to go.
I was thinking about disability and savings. As hard as it is, I believe that a person on disability should still save. Paying off the credit cards is a worthy goal, but a person should still set aside some money for emergencies. One never knows when the car will give out or you have dental problems. It never hurts to be prepared for that kind of emergency.
I'm now saving more than I was when I had a job. It's simply a matter of living cheaply. Eat at home and hold your expenses down. You can do it.

Monday, August 3, 2009


I'm at Java Johns, today. This is the only place that the internet is working well. I had pass word problems at Bookends and Beans. The co-op didn't work very well. I couldn't even get hooked up to Linksys, there. I didn't try Magpies. So I don't know if its working there.
Anyway, I took out my good computer and tried it at Java John's. Its working just fine.
Now I have to wonder if I have problems with my computers, or is it the wifi at the various places that I try to go online. I don't know. I do know that Alice was having troubles at Bookends. I think she was having problems with the password, just like I had. She runs a Windows machine so I'm not sure that it was failing in the same way as my Linux machine.
I decided to get cable internet for my home. I added up the costs that I am incurring by going to town every time I try something new with the internet. I could also save many trips by downloading my Emails at home. I also check the news and my Etrade account. I could reduce my trips to town by at least 50%. I could also buy my bananas at Quick Trip and save about 50% on those. I'll miss the socializing, however. I'll probably just cut out the trips that have to do with the internet. That will save me over the $50/month that the internet will cost.
I bought another 14 Delphi bonds. They are going down in value. I got these for only $7.20 per bond. Maybe somebody knows something that I don't. But I feel that, when they come out of bankruptcy, they will be worth a lot.
I missed Jim at Bookends and Beans, this morning. He probably called me to cancel today's meeting. I wasn't at home to take his call. I've been in town, trying to get my computers to work with the internet.
It's almost 7 now and I'm at the co-op, linked to linksys. I don't know why some of my computers don't work at some times of the day. I don't have any idea about why that is. This morning most of my machines didn't work. Now they do.
About disability. Some people will disparage you for applying for disability. Much of the time it is on religious grounds. After all, can't you just turn your problems over to Jesus? Weren't you created in the image of god? How could you possibly be disabled? Others will look at you and think that you are just as able as they are so why could you get disability?
All I can say is that your disability is between you and your doctor. You have to decide whether you are disabled enough for disability. Then you have to fight for it.
My disability mentor, a guy named Benike, always said that you have to fight for your disability. The Social Security people make it as hard as they can for you to get on disability. Most of the lawyers will turn you away. All that I can say is that if something is worth having, it's worth fighting for.
Don't get discouraged when Social Security rejects your appeals. They always do.
Lawyers will tell you that your aren't disabled enough for Social Security. Keep looking until you find one who'll fight for you.
Keep your chin up and hang in there. It's worth it.

Sunday, August 2, 2009


I uploaded a picture of some flowers,next to the Upper Iowa River.
It's another lazy Sunday. I need to mow the damned lawn. You can tell that home ownership and I don't mix well. I'm looking forward to moving to an apartment.
I have to talk to Dan Micals about how high I am on the list.
I'm having troubles with my wifi cards. I got one working, this morning, at Java John's. Now the same combination doesn't work at the co-op. I'm using my good computer with the newest Belkin. A pattern hasn't emerged yet. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I need to get ndiskwrapper to work on my SUSE Linux machines. I've downloaded it but I haven't been able to get it to work, yet. Maybe I have to run it from the command line. I think I"ve already tried that.
I was calculating how much I'm spending on coffee and banana trips. It adds up. I'm spending more on gasoline than I am on coffee, but the combination comes to over $300/month. It's my biggest expense. I could ride the bicycle to town for most of the trips. I could combine things that I do, so as to reduce the number of trips. I was even thinking about getting cable internet at home so I don't have to bring my laptop to town. That would make it easier on my laptops. I don't like to bounce them around on the bicycle. That would give me more money for investing on bonds.
Tomorrow, I should be getting more old laptops to work on. I hope that I can get both of the old laptops to work at Bookends. If I can I'll download ndiskwrapper and try to get it working.
Later.

Saturday, August 1, 2009


I uploaded a picture of the Upper Iowa River, near Kelly Real Estate.
Nothing is happening today. The mail is late so I'm still waiting for the laptops in the mail. I do like to keep busy with fixing up old laptops. They take a ton of time, but it helps me to keep busy. I don't like to have idle time because I tend to eat when I'm just sitting around. I'm trying to lose weight. I've already lost 20 lb. but I have another 40 to go to reach what is considered normal. I'm still 7 lbs. over being obese.
I think people really have to take responsibility for their own health. Your weight is something that you can do something about. I've found that if I simply starve myself, I can lose something like 5 lbs. a week. I take vitamin pills to replace any missing nutrients that happen because I curtailed my eating. I figure that I have another 2 or 3 months to go before I'm down to 200 lbs.
Then I'll get back to eating normally again. I may have to curtail my eating, even then.
I sent $100 to Etrade, this morning. It won't be credited to my account until Wednesday. I'm hoping to buy some more Delphi bonds. They are still in the toilet. I should be able to get them for $82.50 per $1000 bond. I'm hoping that Delphi comes out of bankruptcy soon and they start paying their coupon.
My GM bonds went up yesterday. I made about $200. I'm hoping that they go up enough for me to pay off some credit card debt. Maybe they'll start paying on their coupon. We'll see.
Well, I ate my banana. I think I'll go home and see if the Gateway laptops arrived in the mail. I'm looking forward to working on them. When they are up with SUSE Linux everything on them works just great. I'm giving up on old Thinkpads for now because I never could get the sound to work right with Linux.
Later