I guess today I am allowed to re-enter society. Being unvaccinated I was not able to go into ANY government buildings, venues, and even some restaurants still. And you know what? I didn't even bitch about it because I'm probably the last person on earth to still believe in property rights.

If I wasn't allowed in - they didn't need my money. They can suck a bag of dicks. That is how capitalism works. And I don't think businesses can survive that way. But I love to watch them try.

I'm starting to see a fair amount of Rivian's, but I'm already bored because I'm only in it for the headlights. Which is basically what I feel about this whole car cycle. Pretty boring, but the lights are interesting.

Very

 

First Lucid Air.,

And I made it look a million times better than it does in RL. I know the inside however is pretty cool. I saw them years ago,

Couple days old.

 

I don't know why I'm bothering.

 

I just can not understand the level of incompetency from our government and our media. Every single day I read articles like - There's a new version of omicron but so far it doesn't appear to be more dangerous..and Vaccinated and had COVID? You have immunity 'superpowers,' experts say.

BA2 is INDEED more dangerous. And it's already split off into version 2.2. Which is what is killing literally everyone in Hong Kong. Team "nothing matters until people die" are going to get their wish. Now, I know Team Minimalist is going to say... mew.. there are tons of old people in Hong Kong. Despite them being spared from every other wave. You know who else has a lot of old people ? America.

Heard immunity IS STILL A LIE. And now they are saying v2.2 is the most killery version they have seen yet. I predict this wave is going to be the worst because literally everyone has dropped their guard. Last Nov. everyone dropped masks too, except in office settings. Oh you didn't hear people were massless last year and literally no on cared? (I'm talk to you Republicans)This year, most people in office setting are not wearing masks. And I get it. I know very fine people who have already had this run through their entire family and think they know what to expect.

Last night someone on twitter someone said - you better hope zero Covid works because if not, that means that let it rip and zero Covid didn't work. People on my feed for a long time have wondered about this being an ELE event. Because literally almost no one can figure out how to wear masks right. Or at all.

Gee.... I'm old enough to remember when high gas prices were an immediate tax on consumers. I would say the Fed is way too late, and the pulse is already on the decline. I don't really think they needed lockdowns... they just needed high gas prices. Said in the most sarcastic way. Very bad things start to happen with gas this high.

A real nail biter.

I'm still saying they don't raise rates. Although I do admit, crazier things have happened. I actually saw they were predicting 6 rates hike this year. And it made me laugh and laugh and laugh. I'm looking for land - so I don't care.

No one is motivated to sell because prices are high. But.........while overpriced - the time capsule house across the street hasn't has ONE person to see it since the weekend it listed. It's been three weeks now. Since it's a time capsule house - they have all the time in the world. These houses went for about 50 grand in the day. Seriously. It's the only thing that kept me holding on through the housing crisis was knowing that.

I guess we will get to find out who owns the Fed. I'm still guessing it's housing, because there isn't a single thing they can do about this inflation. Except open drilling. LOL.

China has now locked down 37 million people again. And our country is partying like it's 1999. Genuinely, the world is like - hey... maybe you should look at this. And America is like - hold please. Aaaaaaaand there has been a dislocation of an entire country! Things are going to get super good if they raise. Said in the most sarcastic way.

Neighbors are going to brawl.

 

I found myself in my old neighborhood today. I was just sort of driving through and ran across this thing. It immediately caught my eye because it's an ADU that is taller than the original house. And doesn't in any way fit the style of the original house.

That is a six foot fence, and you can see the neighbor to the back has already raised his portion to probably the allowable limit of eight feet.

 

It's so tall, you can basically see right inside of it. I loitered so long the neighbors we were parked in front of came out. And I HAD to ask. First I asked... does that make the neighbors mad? As if I even had to.  They were like yep. They said the neighbor to the left on this picture was super mad. I'm like - is there a petition yet? Cause that neighborhood likes to do that. They were like - yes. And I laughed.

 

But all laughing aside - that is a real dick move. Now the neighbor to the back has a hard time selling his house. Right? And the person with the ADU has made it harder to sell his place, because the style doesn't fit in any way fit with the old house.  People are just crazy and stupid.

But... it's easy to get an ADU up these days. They green light all that shit. So, he did the natural thing and push the limits. And the guy to the back has almost no back yard. You can see the edge of his roofline. Plus, that ADU can be seen above his raised fence line. Such a dick move. ANNNNND - he is probably going to fuck the ADU's up for everyone.

This is why I haven't moved yet. I'm saving up for land. I am not going to get stuck next to one of these tards. I need a buffer. And even when you buy land you have to chess it out knowing that people are going to do the most absurd things on the properties next to you.

In other real estate news - I know of a property( that I think was around 2500 square feet) someone bought, and decided to break it into six sublets. ALL of a sudden you have six new neighbors plus their friends and family. This stuff is going to get hot.

The first 6 buck gas.

This is consistently the most expensive place I know to get gas. Even last night I was like - how can they get away with it? Mr S. said - well obviously they can because they haven't gone out of business yet. I think it helps they have a Fatburger inside. But... have they seen Fatburgers problem lately?

I was expecting it to be at 6 or only slightly above.... but even I had to let out a little chuckle on 6.29 a gallon. In who's world! Oh yeah ours.

I have a bad feeling that Biden is going to try price controls because he is not smart. 

In his State of the Union address he was talking about capping the price of Insulin, and I turned to Mr S. and asked - did he just anounce price controls? The way he is demonizing oil companies right now, I bet he tries price controls. 

But people wanted the kindly old illiterate man.

Told you.

"Leadership or loneliness? Making sense of why executives are eager to get employees back in the office."

"The Future Forum, developed by workplace-messaging platform Slack, surveyed more than 10,000 workers globally in the summer of 2021 and found an “executive-employee disconnect” with regard to returning to work. Three-quarters of all executives reported they want to work from the office three to five days a week, compared with about one-third of employees. Among executives who have primarily worked completely remotely through the pandemic, 44% said they wanted to come back to the office every day. Just 17% of employees said the same."

Because.... it is sort of pathological. They brought everyone back in December, and only managers were not wearing masks. Which was the weirdest thing. But how can you figure out who's better than you if everyone is working from home?

I give you three scenarios for why this is happening.

1. Middle managers are the most likely to not be needed.

2. Corporate espionage. The longer people stay at home, the more company secrets are not in their complete control.

3. Real estate.

4. Real estate.

5. Real estate.

It was sort of a marvel watching corporate tycoons try to convince people that employees were sad working at home. That was a whole lot of FUD.

Everybody hurts.

I was just at this gas station toppling off on Wednesday. Regular was 4.67 and diesel was 5 bucks even. 

This is the cheapest gas station I know of because you get a cash discount. I have never seen gas this expensive even during the housing crisis.

 I just found out that Youtube has been banned in Russia. And all I feel is..... everyone is going to be bored! No more dash cam videos! Surrender now!

More conversations with Mr S.

Last night Mr S. took me out to dinner. While there, he says - I want to talk to you about a post you made a couple of days ago.

I just smile and say okay. I knew which one he was talking about. Even I thought I was a bit hard. 

He begins - I think you are being unfair.

Me - So you think if Russia rolled up we wouldn't just  hand the country over?

Him - I think you are being a bit of a Karen. You are attributing people not wearing masks as people who don't care. They just don't think masks work.

Me - I understand that, but Republicans has become the biggest Karens' lately. We were like a week from dropping mandates and they saw Gavin Newsom without and went crazy. If you don't want people in your business - stay out of theirs. (And I'm not defending Newsom in ANY way) People are hypocrites. That's life.

Then he went on to talk about politicians making rules that they don't follow. Which is fair, but it isn't just with politicians. It's with everyone.

I've been super frustrated with Republicans because I think they have just become everything they claim to hate. But .......it's ALWAYS good to have people around you, who are brave enough to tell you that you are wrong. I still think I'm not, but...it doesn't mean I'm not willing to listen.

Everybody back to the office!

Gasoline prices in the Bay Area reached a grim new milestone Thursday: For the first time, the average price per gallon has topped $5 a gallon in much of the inflation-savaged region.

The average price for unleaded regular gasoline has hopped past $5 in Napa County, Sonoma County, San Francisco, Marin County and San Mateo County, according to the AAA gasoline survey for the Bay Area, as of 7 a.m. on Thursday.

Santa Clara County, Alameda County, Contra Costa County and Solano County were no more than a few pennies away from the forbidding $5 benchmark, AAA reported.

Alameda County average prices were at $4.999 a gallon Thursday morning.

Source.

The last time gas got this expensive - bad things happened.

Jumpers be savage.

 

The jumper phenomenon started well before the pandemic. And it goes like this. If you leave a car length space in from of you - someone will jump in from of you. So, a lot of us these days learn to stay two feet from the car in front of you. I'm surprised I haven't tapped someone yet. And even sometimes that won't repell them.

Trucks jumping in at the last minute is a new one. This is literally the end of the offramp. And sometimes, if you don't let people in - cars will just block off the whole freeway lane waiting for someone to let them in. It's a hole lot of bullshit. 

The force is strong.

Google to end work-from-home option for most Bay Area workers. 

"The firm's decision to bring workers back to offices indicates that despite the popularity of remote employment among many technology workers, Google is committed to office-based operations."

The truth is - the pandemic was a good thing in many ways. People got to spend more time with their families, and got some of their own personal time back.

Right before the pandemic - the Bay Area was reaching a point where you couldn't get anywhere without sitting in gridlock all of the time. There used to be a traffic window, but that had evaporated. It was miserable. A two hour commute each day was a blessing because it could be FOUR hours round trip. No joke. 

But, those tech companies have got real estate and middle managers to justify. I literally have no idea what this is going to do to gas. Cheap gas is over 4.50 here. 

I'd put them on death watch now.

I feel like some very bad things are about to happen to our economy. And a lot of them are Joe Biden fault. So.....

We are basically Russia and Chinas bitch. They control very large portions of commodities.

A few days ago I was talking to a guy I know and I was like - you aren't freaked out? Russia controls about 25% of the wheat in the world. He goes - we've got plenty of wheat here. I reply - that doesn't mean the price won't go up.

 

I'm going to have to find the well that spits these out and find out who's gear that is. It's somewhere near the Tesla Plant. They have been pretty persistent there. I've seen one every time I've been in that area which is about once a week. So ....not that often.

I think this is a 2022 Hyundai Kona(?) I'm not sure,  but obvi eclectic from the grill. At least two pucks.

Conversations with Mr S.

Last night I turn to Mr S. and ask him if Kamala went full Dan Quayle.

He just sort of looks at me.

Me - Hawaii is in the Pacific.  It's an island that is right here.

He busts up laughing. I had completely forgotten about that he said. I'm like really? We'd get high and and repeat it over and over. It was a meme back in the day.

This is what Quayle said: "Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here."

This is what Kamala said: “So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine."

Oddly...late last year the media was comparing Kamala to Dan Quayle. (Even our own Mercury News interestingly.) So I guess she has grown into her role. But no one has really connected the two statements.

It is the worst time ever for this State of the Union.  Putin has to be watching this and laughing at Grampa Simpson.

Everyone in that audience has to be terrified. Right? What does the state of the union in two or three years look like?