They're Back

Surprise, surprise. Yet another offer on my house, preceded by 3 days of telemarketer calls and immediately followed by a higher offer, contingent of course on when their house sells and of necessity all done without either party ever seeing the other.
If they are who I think they are, their family has millions packed away. I'm just looking for a few tens of thousands to pay off my mortgage at this point. Stop being jerks. Although, I guess Good Fella types can't help themselves, and it's all about the big win with them. 

Political Protest

The other day, armed protesters, dressed in camouflage  hung the governor in effigy. They were protesting the lockdowns in Kentucky.
What's still closed in Kentucky? Dine-in restaurants, hair salons and barber shops, and day care centers. Really? You're protesting because you want to drop your kid off with strangers and go out for a night on the town? Right after a pandemic? The state motto should change to Kentucky - Stupid and Self-Centered.
Now, I'm all for political dissent and hanging governors in effigy. I believe that it's part of a healthy political debate. I have to ask though, why the guns? I'm not anti-gun, I think the firearms act of 1934 and the gun control act of 1968 are unconstitutional and that people should be able to buy machine guns through the mail. The question is, why wear them to these events? If you look at the people wearing them, they are the type to have the thin blue line flag in their truck. This means if a law officer confronts them, they will instantly obey. So, the guns are just a fashion statement and to intimidate those who disagree with them, not for actual use. That's just bad taste and shows the low level that these people are operating at.
The timing is also interesting. Kentucky locked down in mid-March and not a peep out of these people, except to say how great the governor was handling the issue. Now, two months later, when they don't feel as afraid, and strangely enough, when Alex Jones tells them to, they start with the protests as the state is reopening? Seriously, most things are already open, the timetable for full reopening is already out there and they choose this moment to protest? Cowards, idiots, and bullies have always gone together.
I always thought Antifa was the best gift the right could ever receive, as it showed everyone how stupid the left could get. The lockdown protesters seem to be the right wings version.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Things are getting more curious with my abandoned house lately.
One of the big names I was talking about previously made an offer of $15,000. It doesn't matter that house is assessed at $77,000. When your relatives run the banks, you can do things like that.
The curious part is that this is the second time this month he's made this offer. Both times, a mysterious party from Arizona also expresses an interest in the house.
This time, when he made his offer, the party from Arizona offered to rent the house at half of the going rental rate and said they would pay the full asking price when their house in Arizona sold. Ordinarily, nothing suspicious, except that 2 times now, the timing has been identical, and the people from Arizona cancelled their appointment with the realtor, and so made this offer sight unseen.
I begin to suspect made up people and my problems entering a new phase of stupid and corrupt.

The Panic Is Spreading

I think I've managed to scare my real estate agent. He seemed a bit shaken the last time I talked to him. I believe he's finally figured out what's going on.
You see, he seems confused that people keep looking at my house, expressing an interest, even entering into contracts, and then mysteriously disappearing. Last week though, two people with important names approached him.
One of the names has connections all the way to state government. They also run one of the local banks.
Now for those of you who aren't used to corrupt, third world, pest holes, let me explain.
1) All my financial transactions are instantly known. Not, my transactions at the bank run by the family member, but anything done locally. It sounds illegal, but try proving anything.
2) Every time someone looks at the house, I get inundated with telemarketer calls. Okay, so this one is just middle school idiot level.
3) This is the worrisome one. Every time an offer is made, my phone usually gets hacked. It works intermittently and makes all sorts of calls on its own. This is the one that brings visions of state level interference to mind, but again, try proving anything. It might just be some hackers out to get me and several years of coincidental timing.
4) Of course, an offer has to be made first, which usually entails a second visit. Except that most times, the second visit returns to a broken into house with dog droppings on the floor. The droppings are always new. How do they know how to time it? Obviously, myself, the realtor, and probably others are being watched that closely. Who has the kind of time to do that?
Let's look at the second name.
Just read my blog on the doctor and church deacon who get sent to jail for drug dealing. Name number two was one of the people who stood to benefit from the situation. Again, it might just be coincidence.
Honestly, it feels like I'm being driven into bankruptcy by the Sopranos, while the police from the state on down are all bought off. Of course, I might just be imagining things. That's the worst thing about this. Every single coincidence might point in the same direction, but at the end of the day, they are just that. Low level coincidences with no proof.
I suspect my realtor just felt it too.

Not Essential

In one of my last posts, I made the claim that if there were any cuts to higher education because of lessons learned from the pandemic, it would be among faculty and not among diversity officers, or marketing specialists.
You see, in America, faculty are considered non-essential. Only administrative staff and the maintenance people who support them are essential. This isn't only the opinion of my institution, but that of the United States government.
Let me give an example. My institution is spread over 250000 square miles. That means a lot of sites to cover. If an administrator or maintenance person needs a school vehicle to travel from place to place, no problem. The government considers that they are traveling for business purposes. If an instructor does the same thing, the government taxes them for the privilege. It's not much, depending on how much other income someone has, but the government is still charging these rural teachers, who it claims they need, about 15 cents a mile if they use school transportation. The rationale is that they are not conducting the essential business of the institution. They are considered non-essential. If the government feels that way about instructors, why should the institution treat them any differently?

Useless Idiots

One of the amazing things about the pandemic, is how panic stricken and confused my colleagues have become. I've come to the conclusion that one of us doesn't know what they are supposed to be doing.
I work in higher education. Once the pandemic hit, we moved all instruction to online. That made me very happy. I had a lot more free time and everything I did could be focused on presenting material to the students. I thought that was my job. Of course, the students went in two directions. Those who were doing alright continued to do so. Those who were borderline, just disappeared. They refused to answer emails or do any work. That was expected. It was the reaction of my colleagues that was confusing.
Some of the things that confused me were:
- Daily briefings by the college president, even if there was nothing to say. Seriously, a 500 word daily briefing every day. It was amusing, but why?
- The school safety officer started sending out home and yard safety tips and ended up by asking for photos of our gardens or yards so we could show people what we had been up to during quarantine. Sorry, I thought we were supposed to be working from home, not gardening.
- Many of my colleagues started calling the students to make sure they were doing their homework. Seriously, they got the phone numbers of the students and started calling them. Should college instructors call their students to make sure they are doing their homework? Yes, American education is doing fine.
- I started receiving emails from colleagues telling me how much they were looking forward to coming back to work so that they could see me. I couldn't help but think that these people would run the other way if they saw me in the hallway, and they send me emails like this? Why?
- The president of the faculty sent out an email the other day with the closing line, "See, I'm still working".
-Basically, a lot of my colleagues showed that they couldn't function outside of a group telling them what to do 24/7. Of course, that's probably why they got hired in the first place.
The inescapable conclusion is that my colleagues don't know what they are doing. They think that hanging out with people and chatting and transmitting knowledge to students are the same things. It would explain a lot of  things. I think that transmitting knowledge to the students is my job and chatting is only to be done in furtherance of that goal. I seem to be alone in that attitude. There were others the thought like me at one point, but they all quit as soon as they could draw retirement. That should have been my first clue.
Of course, the pandemic has also shown that the school can run with about half of the current staffing and budget. Of course others have noticed this, and you can be sure that when the cuts come, they will be among the faculty, and not among those posting pictures of their yards.

Hacked

It looks like the contract fell through on that house I've been trying to get rid of for the past 3 years. How do I know? I still have a phone.
You see, every time a contract is placed on the house, my phone gets hacked. Phone calls and texts get lost. My phone calls people at random. Often emergency services. My icons get placed everywhere. My phone starts providing a wireless hotspot for everyone. It's very annoying. Worse, it really doesn't do much good to fix the problems, because they reappear as fast as I can fix them.
It seems someone with a degree of technical ability and the ability to gain more information on my activities than is good for me or even legal, really doesn't want me to sell the house.

Shots Fired

The gunfire is back with a vengeance in my little semi-rural suburb. I understand the half hour of sustained gunfire during daylight hours. That's just people practicing. I understand the 5 or 6 shots rapid fire, also during daylight hours. That's just the tourists who want to show off their gun and prove they're real life country folk by shooting something. My problem with them is that they usually just throw a can or something out into their yard and blaze away without considering the school behind it. That in itself is a reason to bring firearms safety classes back into the public schools. I don't see how firearms safety is any different than motor vehicle safety, but I digress.
What confuses me is the all day gunfire. Always a single shot. Never in the same place. A single shot here. A few hours later another shot there. Another shot at midnight. What are they shooting at? Are they hunting? In a subdivision? Possibly. After all, it is semi-rural and there are areas of 5 acres or so free here and there. The people here would have no problem hunting on 5 acres. Intelligent, no, but that never stops people around here. You have to wonder what they are hunting at midnight though.

Return To Roots

One of the good things to come out of the pandemic, has been a chance to return to my roots.
I've been spoiled since the 80's with fancy foods and coffees, but during grade school, I was a 70's, latch-key kid, living off of canned meats, iga brand cheeses, cheap white sandwich bread, and non-designer coffee. Okay, the coffee came later.
Since the pandemic has started, trips to the large town stores have stopped and been replaced by trips to the local, rural IGA, and Dollar General Market. The gas savings have been high. The foods, while not what I am used to now are what I survived on during grade school, and I haven't been "deprived" in the least, unless you count having to drink non-Starbuck's coffee as a major life challenge, and if you do, I suggest professional help. It's been fun revisiting 1970's cuisine.

The New Normal (part 2)

The one thing you can say about Americans in general and Kentuckians in particular, is that they are always ready to jump on the next bandwagon.
Now, it's the everything is normal, don't tread on me bandwagon.
In the lake country of Kentucky, this means everyone get on the lake. The tourists have arrived. The locals are bringing in all of their relatives. It's party time at the lake. Silly me, I thought there were still restrictions in place.
The sound of cigarette boats running full bore a half mile away reverberates through the hills all day. Of course, I've also seen kayaks and inflatables. The locals generally can't afford anything better. I'm surprised there haven't been fatal interactions on the lake. It's not that big.
While the stay at home was being obeyed, I heard the Life Flite chopper once or twice, now it's back to once or twice a day, so maybe there are more interactions than I know of.
Random gunfire at midnight has started up and you have to wonder what they are shooting at. Is it city folk who don't like the thought of raccoons, even though the tourist crowd killed them off a couple of years ago? Maybe they don't like their neighbors dogs? Gunfire in a subdivision is always worrisome.
Worst of all, are the fires, every night at sundown. The temperature has finally reached the 80's, the humidity is bad, the air is stagnant, the pollen count is causing problems, and every night at sundown, a pall of smoke hovers over the area all night. It's like living next to a charcoal plant.
At times like this, I have to wonder why I didn't buy a place outside of a Mexican tourist trap. I'd get the same lifestyle.

The New Normal

Well, he new normal is here. You see, Andy has destroyed all the good will that he built up, and it's all about good will.
A month ago, people were saying that the governor of Kentucky was presidential material. People were making up songs about him. Why did this happen? Because he showed that he was putting the people of the Commonwealth first. Then he decided to put politics first. In the middle of an epidemic, when he was closing businesses and telling people to stay at home, he vetoed a "born alive" bill.
Let me explain what a "born alive" bill entails, to those who aren't familiar with them. Basically, it means that if a baby is born alive, it is treated as a person, and given medical care. If the mother doesn't want it, it goes to an orphanage.
That apparently is too much for the governor of Kentucky's political masters. With the veto, if a baby is born alive, and is unwanted, it can be put in a corner and denied care until it dies. Now bear in mind, if I walked past a baby in the street and ignored it and it died, I would be charged with manslaughter. Seems a bit hypocritical.
Needless to say, the people of Kentucky are pissed. Instead of songs in his honor, he now gets threats and insults.
The strange part is, all his closures and stay at home orders, which are likely responsible for keeping Kentucky one of the lower ranking states for COVID-19 infection are now being ignored. The people of Kentucky don't like him anymore, so they are going to do their best to ignore everything that he says. Sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face, but that's Kentucky.