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CleverNickname

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Posts posted by CleverNickname

  1. On 10/18/2025 at 5:59 PM, ROFL BOX said:

    I had not seen anything about y'all being in Scouting America.

    Will he be First Class by May '26?

    Near enough. Our troop doesnt require it. He will he 14 big enough to carry a pack. Hats off to those dad's 50+ getting it done. 

  2. 4 minutes ago, UT_OB1 said:

    @CleverNickname explain what you’re doing with all the concrete blocks and the pipe please. There a reason to not fill with dirt or rock?

    its a drainage. Rain flows across neighborhoods dirt drive and comes down into that draw (left to right in 2 of the pictures) and then on down to my creek. Naturally old man rancher just dumped old coils of fencing there for 80 years. But I'd like to be able to drive along the fence line before dropping down the hill. As it is I enter the ravine just a bit below this point, so it involves breaking over an edge running 45 degrees across the road. Takes a bit of clearance. My hope is a groomed straight path requires nothing special at all. Also its a place I can dump spoils of hole digging. 

  3. I've been working on trying to fill up the top of a draw the prior owner used for junk. Pulled out lots of barb and net wire. 

    Before:

    20250726_102634.thumb.jpg.9dff8b1891f482e5cc79178374ecf40a.jpg

    20250726_091214.thumb.jpg.d221ae2a34a337fc20dfd0215dc33af5.jpg

    After:

    20250928_125128.thumb.jpg.1c16ace42b12c5e8c3b287b06608f0a7.jpg

    Still a work in progress. Probably not going to do blocks all across. For the gap over the pvc I will probably do some quickrete and her some 2 ft quarter inch steel cutoffs.

    But I did get out about 5 buckets from the hole today. Jack hammer etc. I am a little worried about tweaking my back, because the boy decided we are doing Philmont summer '26. So taking it pretty easy.

     

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  4. eh, Larry T Spider has the right of it. I think some of us are parents (and hell, property owners) who are kinda unable to see the big picture. Old small schools were always going to be the ones closed first. They sort of have to in any rational world. The conspiracy theories about backroom deals to sell the campuses? I highly doubt it. 

  5. 1 hour ago, Brew said:

    Day 4 of Covid after taking a flight to Houston late last week for a meeting. Shit sucks, it’s really kicked my butt this time. It has been much more of chest congestion issue for me this time than head congestion. About ready for it to move on.

    dame here. My first case (to mu knowledge). Some congestion Sunday, popped positive. Felt meh yesterday. Fever this morning. Congestion now building. 

  6. 7 minutes ago, Parliament said:

    Doesn't hafta be 55+.  I live in a higher-end, larger apartment complex with no age restrictions.  We have recent college grads, olds, and everything in between.  The olds love it.  Zero maintenance and all they gotta do before a long trip is dump out the milk.  

    so you rent even though you could own a home? Up until like this week I never even considered it. But the simplicity appeals to me. I also am considering how I could make things easier for my spouse or our kids when we are old and far less independent (or I'm dead).

  7. slightly adjacent topic: downsizing

    I kinda want a smaller condo or small house in retirement. Ideally lock and leave, but I could make do with turning the water off in a house.

    We would try to save the difference, and use that money for a family vacations (like a week long Neuces river rental or beach rental) on our dime when the kids are older or maybe with grandkids. But I keep penciling the math, and I don't see a huge savings. Our house is smallish (but NW Austin, so the value is the lot), so realistically a smaller place only nets us $100-150k equity. Gotta live somewhere. The difference in taxes is often soaked by a HOA fee. I suppose its the utilities and cost of maintenance we'd benefit from. I dunno. Might make sense just to fix up this place (its a one story). 

    I almost... almost... see the logic in a 55+ active retiree community with gym, pool, etc. Paying rent is a drag, but basically all costs would be predictable and no big maintenance hits. 

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  8. On 6/11/2023 at 7:49 PM, CleverNickname said:

    I'll hit 80 at age 53 with ERS in 9 years. Folks hired after 9/1/22 don't get the plan at all (not even with the pre-60 penalty). I'm very worried about recruiting. But enough about hypothetical people. How has retirement been without COLA increases? That's what I worry most about. I wish ERS offered an inflation adjusted option. I don't have a good feel on how much to save to basically provide my own inflation kicker.

    quoting myself from 2 years ago... fwiw ERS now offers a "COLA-ish" annuity option: +2% fixed rise every year. I will pick that (bought 3 years, now eligible 2031). The 100% spouse option was about 94% of just my life (we abiut the same age), and looks like the cola is 77% or that. Still makes retirement planning way easier. 

    My budget and retirement spreadsheets show we could retire at age 52/51. Wife has TRS (and AISD so also social security). More than kikely we would enjoy our mandatory 3+ months break. Wife still wants to teach, so part time or sun for her. I could try to find a 50% part time attorney job. That income is just bonus - or subsidizing college or just iut of college kids. What I really want is to take 2-3 week vacations in late Sept/October and March/ April, when shoulder season weather is cool and the summer tourists aren't so crazy. 

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  9. re international schools. I am interested on behalf of my sophomore daughter. But the schools in Canada and UK don't seem cheap. They are every bit the out if state $$$ I see elsewhere at very good public universities. I guess we are in that "make good money but not $350k+ pay out of pocket $80k per year" group that is price sensitive.

     

    My daughter has excellent academics, but I think she will probably either need to find an OOS school that will give a partial (in state) rate, or non upper tier private institution that will throw money at her. It am thinking it may be that to go OOS she will have to take a step down in academic quality from top in state options (UT Austin). We have a good 529 chunk, but I try to tell it would be good to keep some it for grad school. Maybe a lot of it if she wants to go to law school.

  10. Sadly (?) the hole is not a well. Got out 5 buckets in 1.5 hours of work. My clothes must have had 2 pounds of sweat.

    20250816_095618.thumb.jpg.ad50b0fca0dac6c845e95cce2dcfb867.jpg

    Magically turned into this:

    20250816_113406.thumb.jpg.dc9e0b52ababc8f369b8213964c7d2af.jpg

    Yeah, I dont see a change either. But onward and downward! 

  11. There are many things one can say about the Yukon, many said better by Robert Service than I ever could. But one thing remains true some 25 years after my first canoe trip there: Germans fucking *love* the Yukon. 

  12. 1 hour ago, StassneyHorn said:

    @Trey3216- do you have any opinion/feeling on people utilizing ULTY to pay for their kids tuition payments? Car payments? responsible boat purchases? in regards to expediting debt repayment

    if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Those returns sound like bullshit, and you don't want to be holding when it goes up in flames. If my spouse put the college fund money is some speculative bs, I would divorce her. 

  13. It's funny as hell. But the reason general counsels hate the scenario is not just because she can say "I was afraid to break it off, because of retribution." It's scary because evey happily married person who *didn't* get a huge raise/promotion can allege they would have, if only they were sleeping with the boss. So the individuals that have the company over the barrel isn't just that one person, its virtually everyone. Corporate doesn't care if the line cook is fucking the waitress. But when its a boss, its a problem.

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  14. 1 hour ago, SurlyGator said:

    Any idea how much rain your property got since your last visit?  Considering recent events, that metal siding may be the only reason it's not a really small, really deep swimming pool.

    2 inches last Sunday of which a half inch in 15 minutes.

  15. I put in 40 ft of metal edging hoping it will divert water flowing across the surface from a heavy rain. 

    20250719_114328.thumb.jpg.202d962685ac4a9dd4925e4eb686ff4d.jpg

    The hole had about the same water as the last time. Makes me wonder if that's the wet weather ground water level. Hmm.

    20250719_104820.thumb.jpg.cd532a87badd48b9e8863733d43c6448.jpg

    20250719_115451.thumb.jpg.379bc46f18a232cab35afa6008359738.jpg

     

    Some friends:

    IMG_20250719_124839.thumb.jpg.dff5c5316b59b9e1ce428185d3df5968.jpg

    20250719_114312.thumb.jpg.080df7274889f685c77003756ccc20fd.jpg

     

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