Participating in History (OT)

[LST Express]

I just have one question, where the hell is Mosquito Bite Texas? [;)]

[morganbj]

Mosquto Bite is my euphamism for the community I live in in Galveston County. Sit outside in the evening anytime between April and October and you'll understand. (Being from Waco, you pobably understand already.) Hell, I've seen a swarm of 'em suck a full grown bull completely dry in thirty seconds. Nothin' but a pile of hide and bones. We have a lot of Confederate Airforce planes fly over from time to time. We can hear them coming for miles. Sadly, most often when we hear that sound of rotary piston engines and run outside to admire some old warbirds, we discover it's just the sound of the opening of human hunting season for those voracious little flying creatures.

And I'm not exaggerating ... well, not much. [8|]

[Canoerebel]

Now there's a teller of tall tales!  That man is a Texan!

[Cap Mandrake]

bjmorgan;

If your current gig does not work out you could always get a job with the Gavleston County Tourism Authority

[Cribtop]

NEVER let the facts get in the way of a good story!

Only good thing about our awful drought in Austin is I think I've only gotten one mosquito bite all summer. That is approximately 1 X 10 to the 90th power less bites than in an average summer.

[LST Express]

Yeah, mosquitos here are too parched to pucker this year.

[jeffk3510]

I hear ya on the mosquitos. Flies are bitting like mad this year though...

[RevRick]

ORIGINAL: bjmorgan

Mosquto Bite is my euphamism for the community I live in in Galveston County. Sit outside in the evening anytime between April and October and you'll understand. (Being from Waco, you pobably understand already.) Hell, I've seen a swarm of 'em suck a full grown bull completely dry in thirty seconds. Nothin' but a pile of hide and bones. We have a lot of Confederate Airforce planes fly over from time to time. We can hear them coming for miles. Sadly, most often when we hear that sound of rotary piston engines and run outside to admire some old warbirds, we discover it's just the sound of the opening of human hunting season for those voracious little flying creatures.

And I'm not exaggerating ... well, not much. [8|]

What that poor Texan ain't telling you is that those skeeters there are the runts that are kicked out of the Everglades because they aren't up to par. The real skeeters in the Everglades don't even bother with cattle, they head straight for the gators.. We had a few land at the local airport. The ground crew thought they'd get rid of them by filling them up with the insecticide used in the fields - but all it did was get them drunk. We had to get some people willing to go down there and see if we could find enough of the ground crew to say some words over. The real reason the Air Force worked out over the glades was that the skeeters were the only practice they could have that would prepare them for shooting wars. Guess we ought to send some of those old Swamp Rats that live out there over to Texas to help them poor fellers protect their herds....

[Schanilec]

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I would echo bjmorgan. Things here in Texas are significantly better than average. I've traveled elsewhere recently and the difference is notable. That said, the real boomtowns in the US right now are the two big shale oil plays, the Bakken in N. Dakota and the Eagle Ford in south Texas. If anyone needs a job, either as a roughneck, accountant, homebuilder or truck driver, those are the places to be.

It is somewhat slow at this end of the state unemployment around 3.8%-3.9%. That's pretty high for Norrth Dakota. I am getting a normal 40 hours the last couple of weeks. So it is picking up. I hope it continues.
The western half of the state if there is unemployment it is near nil. And they are making truck loads of money. They need more people out there. The problem is no place to rent or buy. I believe we are one of only a couple of states running the black. Over 3.8 billlion in a state of 640,000.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: RevRick
What that poor Texan ain't telling you is that those skeeters there are the runts that are kicked out of the Everglades because they aren't up to par. The real skeeters in the Everglades don't even bother with cattle, they head straight for the gators.. We had a few land at the local airport. The ground crew thought they'd get rid of them by filling them up with the insecticide used in the fields - but all it did was get them drunk. We had to get some people willing to go down there and see if we could find enough of the ground crew to say some words over. The real reason the Air Force worked out over the glades was that the skeeters were the only practice they could have that would prepare them for shooting wars. Guess we ought to send some of those old Swamp Rats that live out there over to Texas to help them poor fellers protect their herds....

This proves that Georgians, too, can tell tall tales. What must RevRick be like in the pulpit?

[morganbj]

Revrick, you're a piece of work.

And Canoerebel, ya gotta remember that a good number of Texans originally came from Tennessee and, yes, Georgia. We be of the same blood. Liars, .... er .... I mean, story tellers to a man. [;)]

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: bjmorgan

Mosquto Bite is my euphamism for the community I live in in Galveston County. Sit outside in the evening anytime between April and October and you'll understand. (Being from Waco, you pobably understand already.) Hell, I've seen a swarm of 'em suck a full grown bull completely dry in thirty seconds. Nothin' but a pile of hide and bones. We have a lot of Confederate Airforce planes fly over from time to time. We can hear them coming for miles. Sadly, most often when we hear that sound of rotary piston engines and run outside to admire some old warbirds, we discover it's just the sound of the opening of human hunting season for those voracious little flying creatures.

And I'm not exaggerating ... well, not much. [8|]

Having grown up 30 minutes away from Shreveport, Louisiana, I can totally relate to this. Just think of the flying bugs in the movie "Starship Troopers!"

[Alpha77]

Germany here, despite Goverment "propaganda" that everything would be "fine"... most of the middle class here is in the downward movement, inlcuding me (meaning income, inflation etc.). I have stocked food for ca. 1 month and some silver coins (ca. 150 troy ounces alltogether) however (and hope it might help to avoid the worst even if it is not much - Gold seems to expensive for low income gyus like me now).

This system will crumble eventually anyway question is only: When ? But I guess this is sloooow downturn so much people are not too much alerted as long they have bread and games (like in the roman times). Games would be football, television and oooops pc games also [:D] To keep the public diverted the newspaper still spill out good news like lower unemployment (but the statistics are manipulated) or higher GDP growth (which may still be true, but go down the next month for sure). In the end we tax payers will pay for all the debts of the banks and the bankrupt EU anyway. Unless there would be some kind of "revolution"

[warspite1]

Alpha77, what is the feeling generally in Germany about the goings-on in the eurozone's PIGS, and the fact that Germany is seemingly being asked to foot the bill to keep the European project on the rails? Don't want to get political here, but in the context of the OP's question would be interested to know what the average German thinks of all this.

[Chickenboy]

Alpha77, I'd like to echo warspite1's request for your take on the "German situation". I'm hearing / reading more calls for the return of the DM-and they make good sense.

[ChezDaJez]

"We're getting by"
"We're doing alright"
"We're blessed"
"None of your beeswax"

I'm in your "doing alright" bordering on "blessed" category thanks to my profession as a registered nurse and in part to my military retirement. I always thought my profession would be somewhat immune from economic fluctuations. People always get sick and need care, right?

Turns out that's not quite true. They still get sick but the changes to Medicare and Medicaid (America's national health care for geriatric and indigent populations) earlier this year are hitting health care facilities hard. Patients are being pushed out the door before they are ready in many cases. So census is down. That's forced major reductions in nursing hours. Fortunately I took a position as a nurse manager last May so now I am salaried... I can work all the hours I want for the same amount of pay!

My wife and I bought our dream retirement home a little over 2 years ago. We had waited nearly 5 years to buy because the housing prices were spiraling up out of control and we just couldn't afford to get what we wanted. Then the market crashed. We waited another year and then bought our dream home with 5 acres for 75K less than the asking price. We bought at what we thought was the bottom of the housing market. It wasn't. The house has lost nearly 30% of its value since then. That means every penny we put down has been lost and we now owe a bit more than what the house is worth. Despite the devaluation, our property taxes still went up $125 a month. Go figure. The good news is that this is the house we intend to live in until we die and we can afford the mortgage so we'll regain our equity and then some eventually but it looks like it will take a very long time to do so.

My wife's and my 401Ks have taken quite the beating in the past couple of years as well, especially the last 2 weeks. Financial stability in our retirement is no longer the sure thing it looked like a couple of years ago. Between our social security and my millitary retirement, we'll survive well enough but there doesn't look to be much room for fun things.

I still have 10 years to go to retirement so hopefully things will improve in the meantime.

Chez

[JohnDillworth]

I'm in your "doing alright" bordering on "blessed" category thanks to my profession as a registered nurse and in part to my military retirement. I always thought my profession would be somewhat immune from economic fluctuations. People always get sick and need care, right?

Hey Chez. Nurses rock. We know who keeps the medical system running. I'm in the Northeast and they are always in demand. If you would like a bit of perspective on your property taxes I'm paying about $650 a month on 1/4 of an acre. I get a lot for my money, but still..................

[Miller]

What is the retirement age in the US? It was 65 in the UK but will rise to 66 in a few years time, and will probably be 68 by the time I am due[:(]

No wonder Greece is in such a mess when the retirement age was 50 not long ago.......

[Chickenboy]

Hi Miller,

There's different 'retirement' ages here. Classically, retirement from a company was at 62. 65 was also common.

Full social security retirement age is currently 67, will probably go up before I collect it as well (recipients can opt for collection-albeit at much reduced % value at 62 instead of waiting for 67). With SS, bonus additional recovery if one waits until 70 to claim.

For privately held 401Ks, (dunno about non-Roth IRAs) for example, one is required to start taking regular disbursements at age 70.5, but can take them penalty free at 59.5.

So, somewhere between 59.5 and 70.5-and everywhere in between-is recognized retirement age here. [:D]

[crsutton]

I am a Realtor. Need I say more....[;)]

My wife and I are both self employed and I am old enough to have been through a few downturns. We are wise enough to not live in debt and know how to turn things down when money is scare. Five years ago, I was beginning to feel like we did a pretty good job of preparing for retirement. We own two homes-one a vacation rental, and were slowly building up a small investment account. But we have no pensions to look forward to so that was it. Now, I am worried about retirement. We have pretty much accepted that we are going to have to work longer into our Golden years. I really do worry about the country and where it is headed. I think that the trend toward a concentration of wealth at the top and the erosion of the middle class is unhealthy for a democratic society. I know it sound sort of trite, but the backbone of our society is the middle class. Any sort of government that acts to erode the health of the middle class is bad government.