Can't afford to live

Over the past few days, I've taken several steps to look for affordable housing for next year..... and I'm getting REALLY frustrated.

It started earlier in the week when my apartment complex informed me that my rent was going to climb another $150 next year (this after the $110 increase from last year). I thought, "they much be out of their minds..... I'm outta here"! Then I started looking around and found that EVERYBODY is out of their minds!

I've gone to the internet and used several real estate calculators to see what kind of morgage I could afford...... basically, NONE!! I went to my credit union to see if they had any first time buyer programs or excellent rates they could point me to....... NOTHING!

So for right now, things are looking really CRAPPY for the future. If I stay a renter, I may start looking for a roommate. In the meantime, I hear that modular homes (formally known as "mobile homes") could be a nice change.... I'll look into that some more.

Reinventing the Wheel

I just don't get it. There are a number of companies (mostly in Eastern countries) that are racing to invent to next big thing in walking. Whether they are exoskeletons or some kind of assist device, these biped inventions just look silly when you concider that we already have a segway technology. Really people, what are we going for here..... a horseride experience? I think I better give the parking lot guys at Epcot a heads up that their Segway experience could change soon.

What's that in the Sky?

After a record 40-some days without rain.... last night the sky opened up and said "hello"! From about 1am - 4am there was a steady stream of BEAUTIFUL lightning and thunder.... mixed with moments of heavy rainfall (I stayed up ALL night on my balcony working on my laptop....it was fun). As the sun came up the rain vanished leaving only wet roads.

Then 10 day forecast has sunshine sunshine sunshine as far as we can see..... Who knows when the next rain will come.

Whoa!

Wednesday is a ONCE in a Hundred Years event..... Hope you don't miss it:

At two minutes and 3 seconds after 1pm the time will read:

01:02:03 04/05/06

GO GATORS

TWO BITS,
FOUR BITS,
SIX BITS,
A DOLLAR,
... ALL FOR THE GATORS
STAND UP AND HOLLA!!!!!

Video Memories

So I'm in the process of converting all of our family DVDs to computer files (DivX). It's been a hoot watching some of the old footage! Hopefully in a couple weeks I can share my files wit everybody.