Justa digging the weather

Finally spring has arrived in Upstate New York. I think the weather is supposed to be great into Thursday sometime. Just in time too. Cindy and I are readying the house for inspection by the dealer. The Manager from G&I homes will be coming by Wednesday to take pictures of the house inside and out. Cindy has been busting her butt by starting to declutter. Now that is an experience and a half, after 15 years. As for me to stay out of Momma's way in the house I have been puttering in the yard. I took what should have been an hour job into about a day and then some. My leg prevents me from going all gnarly on the yard like I would have in my younger days.(Insert whine here) I'm not complaining though, every day with Cindy is like a day of sunshine in its self.

I promised some on going information on our house buying experience. I'm not going to go into a whole lot of details until the end. I'll try to compile the journey into one post at the end that will sum it all up. Suffice it to say. That so far we have $1,125.00 of unplanned checks that we've written. We are bracing for more. You know they always come in a project of this size. We shall see. Speaking of a project of this size. I'm sure glad that Cindy is a good Manager. If a lot of these things were left for me to do or to Organize!! Well lets just say. "NOT SO MUCH!"

How bout those New York Yankees? It's to early to tell yet how they are going to do. Hey, at least they are not going to go 0 for 162.I haven't had a chance to check in on Joe Torre and the Dodgers. They are now a team I'm going to try to keep up with now that Joe is the Manager. Speaking of keep up with I had to ask my wife what the score of the Yankee game was. The kicker is. She knew it!!!! Now am I the luckiest guy in the World or what? What with the local Triple A team the Syracuse Chiefs putting a new grass field in, I might just try to go to a Game this year. Nothing like real grass fields to play baseball on. Heck maybe my best friend Shawn will get me a free ticket to the game. Now that is right in my price range. Free!! I'm justa saying!

Photo courtesy of Google Images.

Technorati Tags: Family,friends,Having fun,seizing the day,whinning.

Justa biting into an Elephant

Here are me and Carmel(Since moved on to his reward) Don't we just look like we are having a great time?

That's right folks Momma and I have taken the first huge bite of the Elephant(Before I lose some of you,You've heard the saying" How do you eat an Elephant"? Answer: One bite at a time!) Well back to the story.Momma and I have sliced off that first slice of the Elephant. Ok enough suspense. We have bought a brand new Double wide from G&I homes.You can see why we chose G&I right here It is going to be really tight the first few months. We didn't want to be house poor. But the payments for everything the house, land, improvements on the land, taxes and every other little thing you can think of and some that you can't come to $122,000 and some change.

That will leave our Mortgage right at $1,212.00. That's a little bit different than the $660.00 per month that we pay in Lot rent $300.00 and house payment $360.00 now. It just fits into our budget. Cindy's pay at her job is pretty decent, of course you always would like more, and my $1,600 per month from Workman's Compensation tossed in as a kicker and we have just enough to not eat Raman noodles every week.Not that there is any thing wrong with Raman Noodles mind you. Cindy and I,mainly because of her ability to magically pay bills with nothing fortunately have been living on less than we make for years. So although this house is a stretch from where we were house payment wise, it is still do able. But one thing. Billary if you are reading this post. Please don't call up asking for another donation.Take some more of that $100 million that you and Mr. Depends on what is is are making and pay for your lying (oops I mean campaigning) yourself.Mark lighten up on poor Hillary!!! Ok. No more politics it is Sunday after all.

Back to our adventure in House buying. Remember my discussion on our cut in pay last year? I won't go into detail on that again but if you don't know the story you can go here and read about it. As I've said above it's going to be tight. But as Mr 007 himself once said in a movie "It's do able". We've got just enough for the down payment and closing cost and a little bit more. It's those little things they keep throwing at you that you don't know about. I will with the help of Cindy try to tell you of our experience's in this little house buying journey. If your interested, and we hope you are, we in the interest of brevity are going to stop here in the story and pick up on it tomorrow. It has been "fun" so far. If you have time scroll down the page of at least a weeks worth of post to pick up on the story. Whew!! You should try living it. I'm justa saying!

Technorati Tags: Dumocrats,feeling sorry for self,having fun,house buying,seizing the day,whinning

Justa depressive episode!

image courtesy of google images

Hang on folks. Here it comes. It seem so surreal typing these words. In a nut shell this is my life coming out of the typing of these words. I'm justa starting into the depressive side of this journey through my Bi-polar disorder. Wish me luck. I still have the same support in place. That being said though the only one that controls this ride is me. Jolynn Braley said in her comment over at Tom's post on Bi-Polar disorder "The way out is through" the disorder. Read the rest of her comment by using the above link to Tom's post.

I said somewhere, I don't remember where it was, that I was looking forward to the depressive  stage of this trip into the disorder this time. I think I said "I want to see how I manage the depression this time." Well I guess we'll find out. I'm not so sure now. It comes in on you like a heavy cloud, or a wave on the beach. There is no stopping it. It just is. So in other words Jolynn is right. Unless I can disconnect from my body. The wave is going to lap at my being, slowly eroding parts of me away. I don't know if this is such a bad thing. Since I'm not evolved enough to disconnect I need to anchor somewhere and ride out the episode. I'm hoping that yesterday was the worst of it. As you read this I'll be in day two of it as I'm writing this the day before.

I hope I don't lapse into a depression filled series of post I'll try to steer away from them after this post. Speaking of depression, "how would you like to wake up knowing your presidential choices for your party were a Potential racist, elitist,do as I say not as I do kind of a guy" or a Controlling,whinnying, crying when she doesn't get her way, manipulating, military hating, men hating, Liberal,lying "I'll promise you anything to get electiated kind of gal. Man is that depressing? Please pray for a Dumocrat today. Because that's the only two choices they have right now. Unless, that "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" fellow from previous administrations shows up at the end.

No wait. We could still elect that guy that shows up every 4 years to draw attention to himself so that when he goes on future speaking tours he can charge $50,000+ dollars. I'm justa saying!

Technorati Tags: Another rant,Bii-Polar disorder,Having fun,our taxes,wasting money,Dumocrats

Justa wondering what happened Frank!

I'm asking this of one person from the Cicero Ny area. You almost got us. Fortunately I took your advice and did some research. Your company itself doesn't show any problems with the B.B.B. but the owner of your company sure does doesn't he. I believe we'll just leave our deal right where it is now. Thanks for any time you spent with us. Good luck. One more thing Frank. My lack of knowledge on what our property in question was worth was just that ''Lack of knowledge" nothing more, nothing less. Your failure to take the time and truly qualify us was at best neglect on your part. You could have saved us both a lot of time had you just said a couple of things to us while Cindy and I were in your office. Just some advice for you when you have other couples in your office. You should tell them:

1. As far as service after the sale folks. Well we don't have any. In fact in 2006 there were no less than 11 complaints to the Attorney General of the state of New York. Who by the way his first name was Elliot.(Hmmmmm) Our competitor up the street has their own service department with guaranteed service for a year after the sale. We here can't touch that Mark.In fact we don't have a service dept. We use subcontractors for most of our work.And Another thing Mark Check out the fact that the Better Business Bureau has had no complaints in the last year against our competitor . You won't even find our company listed. (Hmmmm again)

2. I won't return your phone calls in a timely manner! In fact the girl we have that deals with the financing won't call you back at all. I'm really busy. Rather than take the time to call you right back. I'm going to have you chase me. It's fun watching you chase your tail.

3. Yes our homes look nice. But our competitors in all honesty with everything being considered have nicer homes than us.They will sit down with you and explain in detail what the deals stages mean. They are not to busy to treat each and every one of their customers with a respect for their time and understanding the need for the customer to feel comfortable with the deal. They unlike us Mark will not rush into the sale without fully understanding the customers needs.In fact Mark their homes up there are locked so as to respect that future owner of the home being shown. Unlike ours where we just let you come and go in the homes not giving two hoots about any questions you'll have or what you may or may not do when your in the home alone.

4. Mark the issues above are important enough. But the one overriding issue I have to share with you is. That I don't have the balls to call you back and say "You know what, I can't dispute a damn thing that is written her Mark, Not one DAMN, thing" Oh and one final thing Mark. I sure hope I don't have to face you in public somewhere some time. You are one mean bastard aren't you? I'm Justa saying, Mark!

Now that I've gotten the private business out of the way. We're in the process of trying to buy a New Double wide and put it on land we've found near our house. We should find out later today if the Financing went through. We are looking at 2+ acres not far from the park we live in now. The number were looking at would be within our "not house poor numbers". I'll let you know later if we got it. If not we trudge on here in the park we live in. Doesn't hurt to dream does it? We've only got a little under 5 years left on the house so we would just bite the bullet and keep it. Oh ,just as an aside. The new company which we like and are now dealing with is G & I homes. Stay tuned for more information as it comes my way. I'm justa saying!

Not Justa nother recession discussion!

I don't know about you guys but I'm tired of all the negative talk in politics. I thought I would look at some things about recessions and how if you manage your finances you can actually get some pretty good deals. First of all. If you lose your job or get your legs cut out from under you like Magna did recently here in Syracuse, Ny. It's going to be tough no matter how frugal you are. A sudden job lose is a terrible thing. But from my perspective and Jackofall58's perspective getting your wages cut ain't no picnic either. I'll let Jackofall58 speak for his self.

43 Things Tags: Dining out,Dumocrats,God,saving money,wasting money,whinning

I went from taking home $977.00 per week after taxes to taking home $400.00 per week on Workman's compensation. Anyway you cut it that's a lot of money.That's $577.00 per week or $30,004 per year. That my friends is a lot of moola! Do you realize what we could have done with that kind of money. That being said. I'm glad it happened. Sure I'll walk with a limp the rest of my life. So what,so did Festus in Gunsmoke. This has given me the opportunity to have countless hours with my wife. We truly are each others best friends. Sorry Shawn and Pat. My wife is my best friend. So see Shawn I have more than one friend. The picture on the right here is Shawn (in the middle) and his wife (Pat) on the left. The Gentleman on Shawn's right is Momma's first husband Walt. Your not going to meet a nicer guy than Walt. We get along very well. I have know Shawn & Pat since way back in the Horse & Buggy days. Shawn & Pat are the ones I refer to as "The Mayor & his Wife" in earlier post.

How do you save money in Recessionary times? Well Cindy and I have done a few things.

• We now buy all of our gas at Bj's at $3.21 a gal right now. this is abut $0.14 a gal below the average station in our area. Bj's is right in the area that we drive in during the week so it's not out of our way.

• We do 99.9% of our grocery shopping at Save A Lot in Fulton, Ny. We've cut our grocery bill by at least 40%. Even with the rise in grocery prices the difference between shopping here or Wegman's is stark. Shopping at Bj's doesn't really work for us because we're only shopping for two.

• We've cut way back on eating out. We don't deprive ourselves, we still go out to either breakfast on Saturday or a dinner or lunch during the week. It is either one or the other now. Where before it used to be both Breakfast and lunch and a dinner or two tossed in when ever we were to lazy or tired to go home and make it.

• We could cut back our T.V. and Cable package. We consider these necessities. I'm sure other people don't but come on we have to have some vices. Neither Momma or I smoke or drink. I have been trying to talk Cindy in to dumping our Home phone service this would save us about $40.00 a month. It's not as if we don't already have phones. Our Verizon cell phone service is very good and cost us right around $100.00 for the month. (Getting Momma to carry the phone everywhere is like getting a Liberal letting us dig for gas in Alaska.) It ain't happening!

I'm sure others have ideas how to save let us know what you do to make or save money. Maybe it would be something we could all do. I'm justa saying!

Justa selling my other blog!

That's right I have sold the Justakrusen.wordpress.blog to Momma.Actually I tricked her into posting on it a couple times, now I think I've convinced her to post on it again. I was talking to Cindy on the way into work (hers, not mine) yesterday. I just suggested that she ought to take over writing for the blog and make it "hers". She didn't kick me out of the car, and she didn't say no. So I think I have a sale. The only thing it is going to cost her,Well this is the kicker that might squash the deal is,she has to admit to knowing me in public from time to time. This has been something she has been loath to do in the past. So we shall see.

All that being said I was talking to our son Jeff yesterday morning also. And I got some great news. I got his permission to put his and Amanda's picture up here on the site I figured I would use this one first as this will be what he will be doing most of his married life.(Begging Momma to let him do something, or begging for forgiveness, or some such thing. Now he will deny this behavior will ever be displayed in his house hold. Maybe he hasn't had to do it yet. But in time after years of marriage. You will Jeff have assumed this position if not physically then for sure metaphorically if nothing else.:) Just for example look at the look on his face on their wedding night while they were dancing! It's as if to say. You expect me to follow what rule? The smile on Amanda's face tells us that "yes Jeff I do" Just look at that fire in her eyes. Ya gotta love it. Now showing these particular pictures at this time and in this place might get me in trouble. But I can't help it. The middle letter S in my name stands for Sneaky. I am a sneaky fellow aren't I Jeff? No you have gotten me in the past with some of your jokes, particularly you and your mother with some gift giving shenanigans. I didn't get made at the time I just told myself that I would get even. :) I might not be even yet but it is getting closer. Now really I hope you don't mind that these are the pictures I used. I just wanted to have some fun with these. I'll close the post with a really good one and than a link to a picture of me so you will feel better about the use of these pictures.

See, this is a better picture isn't it? and in closing I'll link to a photo of me that I'm sure you'll enjoy because it doesn't exactly show me in a good light, check it out right here .I almost forgot. For a really neat Aprils Fools day trick check out Gary Conn's really funny trick. Fortunately he didn't get me. He almost did though, it's pretty funny. Be sure to read the comments to see my comment to him,Check it out over at his site garryconn.com As always, I'm justa saying!

43 Things Tags: April fools day,family,family pictures,having fun,seizing the day.

I'm justa nother April fool!

I typed up the article that I had intended to post on this post today. I use Windows Live Writer as my tool of choice to Write the post for both this site and the Justakrusen.wordpress.com site. Well I had the post all written, pressed the send button and voila. It brought me to the post I had done. It was on the wrong blog.

I had forgotten to reset the button that would put it on the Blogspot blog after Momma had posted on the Wordpress blog. Did I confuse you? Sorry. The bottom line is... Check out our other site over on Wordpress. Both Momma and I have posted an article for today. I could have changed it but decided to leave it that way and link to them from this site. So if you've got time click on over there and check out Momma and Mine's post for the day. And hey! Happy April Fools day! I'm justa saying!

43 Things Tags: April Fools day,Being aware of surroundings,Whinning