Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Begging on EBay

I've taken to begging on EBay.  I'm now asking people to buy my etchings to help a prepper bug out to Northern California. I needed to do something to get people to actually buy my etchings
I start them out at $100 and I end up going down to $75 before 1 person actually makes a bid. I'm tempted to start out at $0.99 and see if I can get some bidding between people. I don't think I'll do that even though EBay advises it. The idea of selling an etching for $0.99 is just too frightening.
I tore a hangnail off of my big toe on my left foot a couple of days ago. Was that ever a mistake. Now it's throbbing and swolllen. I found some antiseptic in an old first aid kit and that helped a lot, but I'm still a few days away from it being well.
Not much is happening with my motor home. Dan is busy rebuilding his garage. I think he is too busy to get to my motor home. I was just asking a friend (named Nick) where I should take it. Maybe I'll take it to an RV dealer in Cresco. I think that is my best bet. It looks to me like he's been around for a while and he probably knows how to repair things. Well, I've got to get going on getting my bug-out vehicle running. I think the Ebola outbreak will only affect Africa, but I would like to have the option of leaving if I have to. I'll run up to the RV place, here in Decorah, and see if he can work on it, tomorrow.
Later.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

A Lack of Focus

I feel that I've been demonstrating a lack of focus, lately.
I should be doing everything that I can to get to California and panning gold. Instead, I've been buying gold and silver and fixing the motor home.
Of course, I need the motor home to live in while I'm panning gold; and getting gold and silver is why I want to go to California in the first place.
Maybe I'm just being impatient. Lack of patience is something I learned in the Marine Corps. It's essential to getting things done on a timely basis.
I'm also trapped by having a part-time job. I'm bringing in income that makes the move possible in the first place. Without the money coming in from my job I would never have considered going to California. I almost hope I get laid off so I can run out there immediately.
I feel that I'll make more money out there but I have a sure thing going on here.
My present plan is to wait until after next March to make my move. That way I can bring in some income by shoveling snow. I do quite well at that. Of course, I'll end up spending most of that money on gold and silver from EBay.
I've cut my expenditures a lot by moving into a different apartment. Not only was the rent less but I'm getting free Internet. I figure that I'm saving over $100/month by living here.
I just need to find ways to make more money in the summer. I got a landscaping job on Fridays. That will help.
I need to sell more of my etchings. I collect etchings by an artist named Malcolm Childers.


I put one of my favorites above. It's named "Frenchy's Flathead Flyer". It's an etching of a vehicle that a junkyard mechanic (named Frenchy) put together from various vehicles in the 1970's. I guess he used it to run around the desert in Nevada. It looks like a lot of fun. 
Well, I'm going home to work on one of my laptops. It doesn't charge up the battery correctly and I have the part that should fix it. 
Later

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Got New Tires for the Motor Home

I got the new tires put on my motor home today.
I've taken to calling it "The Beast" for the way it drives. It reminded me of an old movie "The Beast". It was about the battle between an Afghan fighter and the driver of a Russian tank. This motor home drives like that tank.
On other news, the Ebola outbreak was called "out of control". I don't think I'll panic quite yet. It seems to be attacking health care people and people who bury the bodies. I don't think normal people will get it very often. It seems to be spread through body fluids.
It might hit Africa hard since they have a lack of infrastructure. I hope it stops there. If it mutates to an airborne contagion it will kill 50 to 90 percent of the human population.
I hope to have the motor home ready to run to the north woods if that happens.
I think that a financial collapse is more likely though.
That reminds me, gold spiked by over $40 last Thursday. I didn't see any real reason for it so maybe it's the long-awaited hyperinflation. Oil also went up on the Iraq crisis. Maybe that's what spiked gold. If it keeps going up next week it's hyperinflation.
I priced taking the motor home to California by train. They wanted $14,000. That's more than it would cost to get a fairly new motor home in California. I told them to forget it.
I'll have to rent a car trailer to tow my van behind my motor home. It looks like that will cost $400 to $500. It will be worth it.
My plan is to go by next March. I'm having trouble financing the move. And I can make money shoveling snow in the winter. That should be enough to get going. Maybe I can hit up Faye for some money to make it happen sooner. I could offer her interest and maybe have her hold my gold and silver as collateral.
I need to do some sort of landscaping to make money in the summer. I need the money to make my move. I do so well in the winter but summers are a waste to me, here.
I've run out of things to talk about for now.
Later

Monday, June 16, 2014

Shipping the Motor Home is not Hopeful.

I had a lot of bad news, today, about shipping the motor home.
One person I talked to about shipping it by truck said that it had to be shorter than 8' 4". I measured the motor home and it came to over 9'
.
The Beast

Another place gave me quotes of over $3000.
I still have to find out if I could ship it by rail but I don't know how I would load it and off load it to a train. I guess I would need a crane. That might damage it.
It's not too hopeful. I'm thinking I'll have to drive it out.
I think I'll name it the "Beast" because of the way it handles in the wind. I drove 18 wheel trucks that handled better than this thing. I hope it's just the tires that are causing troubles.
I've been fighting with Linux Mint 17 at work. I got one version to work on the HP and another to work on the Dell. I think I'll leave it there. At least I got the latest form to work with the HP. I tried the same version on the Dell and it messed up Firefox. I need Firefox to work to get Chrome to work.
I've got to get after Coinbased to see if I parked some Bitcoins there a few years ago. Writing these blogs helps remind me to do things.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Buying Gold on EBay

I gave up trying to buy gold at garage sales, here; so I'm back to EBay.
I found a gold bracelet that has 7 1/10 ounce coins in it. It also has gold chains holding it together. I figured that a 1/10 ounce Kruggarand is worth $150 on EBay so 7 of them should be worth $1050 and that's not even counting the gold chain.
I have a credit card that has $1000 on it. If I can use that I'll bid on it. The bidding is now at $760. It's been listed before and the bidding never got over $700. It is a little ugly. Maybe that's why there wasn't much interest.
I don't know what the reserve is; that's the minimum price that the seller will sell it for. I'll bid $960 because I have to pay $20 shipping and there might be other fees. I don't want to go over my credit limit. I just feel that it's a great bargain.
Wish me well or bid against me. It would be good to get it at less than $1000 or just save my money for any of the multitude of things I need it for.
I'm thinking of going back to college and getting my degree in Social Work. I doubt that I'll ever get a job as a social worker but I would like to have a degree. I've gotten very close to it.
I'm thinking of taking most of my classes at a Junior College in Calmar, IA and then transfering the credits to Luther (here in Decorah, IA).
It would take about a year and then I could go out to Happy Camp, CA and pan for gold. Maybe I could work as a social worker in California or Oregon and pan gold on weekends.
It looks like it will take me a year or more to get out of here anyway. I could finance most of my college with Pell grants and help from government agencies. I'll start looking into it tomorrow.
I've got to get on another computer to make sure that I can use my Visa card  on Paypal.
Later
Update on EBay bidding

I was out bid. Someone went up to $1000 for the coin/bracelet. I feel that it was worth $1300 so they did well. I ran out of money at $980. At least I didn't spend anything and I can use my money for something else, next week.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Another get rich quick scheme bites the dust.

Well, I tried to buy gold jewelry at garage sales, yesterday. There was nothing but garbage for sale. I didn't even offer anything to anyone. At least I didn't waste any money. Maybe I live in too small of a town for that to work. The selection is rather limited. I did better on Ebay. Oh well.
Bitcoin took a dive. I'm glad because I want to buy in a couple of weeks from now. I'm going to spend some of the money from working at the primary polls for that. If it goes down I'll get a better price. I think it's being held down due to the auction that the FBI will be holding for the Bitcoins they took from Silk Road. They were selling drugs, there.
I'm watching news on the Ebola outbreak. It seems to be slowing down but it could still take out 90% of the human population. I have to wonder if the ruling class is just taking out everyone else. We'll see.
I had some bad news on my bug-out vehicle. Dan said that it needed 6 new tires. Each of them will cost over $125.
I knew that it would be expensive to get that motor home working. I might just forget about the refrigerator. I need to talk to Dan about getting it ready to drive. I might need it earlier than I thought.
I was thinking about going back to school. I could get my BA in social work.
I'm only a semester or two away from it. The Pell grant would pretty much cover tuition and I could hang on to my job at the Peace Center as well.
It would delay my trip to California, but it might be worth it. I'll have to look into it.
I don't know how going to school would work with my snow shoveling and working at the Peace Center in the winter. It would be hectic but I feel it's worth it to get ahead a bit financially.
Well, I'm going to an auction. I haven't given up on finding cheap gold yet.
Later

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Glendon says I can simply buy gold

I was watching Glendon Cammeron on his YouTube site yesterday. He said that he bought a lot of gold jewelry from people who don't know the value of gold, through garage sales.
Maybe I could do that. I wouldn't have to go traipsing throughout the country trying to find gold. I could just go to auctions and garage sales and pick up what people have for sale.
I could finance it with a credit card. I have a Visa card that hasn't been used much. I hate to get even more in debt; but I think it's a good idea to have gold. I just don't trust the currency. That's why I'm planning on going to California and panning for gold.
My plans to go to California took a hit last week. I had to pay $385 to get the fuel pump replaced on my van. That set me back by at least a month.
If I spend money on gold here, I may not get out to California until next year.
I'm looking into shipping the motor home out to California by truck or train. The owner of an RV dealership told me that it might cost $1000 to have an RV towed if it breaks down. If I have it shipped I would not only save on gas but I would eliminate to possibility of it having to be towed. I think a train would be even less expensive than a truck.
Maybe I'll just forget about fixing it up and ship it out to California, first. After all, what I need a motor home for is to live in, not to drive around with. I've got the van to drive around with.
Another thing I have to look into is whether I bought bitcoins during the summer of 2010. I remember reading something about bitcoins on the Internet, then. I think I went through the process of buying them. The computer and hard drive that I had them on died and they probably went to bitcoin heaven. But it's possible that I opened up a wallet on a site named Coinbased. I'm going to send them an email this week and see if they had a record of me, back then. It's not too hopeful.
Well, I've got to go home and unpack some boxes.
Later