Monthly Archives: July 2023

A Partial List of Items Made From Petroleum

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I’m watching ‘environmental’ protesters blocking traffic and thinking they are so altruistic and intelligent, wanting to ban fossil fuels.  Well, I’m noticing that the vests many of them wear, and the backpacks they carry, and the clothes and shoes they wear (even sandals)…and dare I say the hair die many of them used last week…were made from uh oh fossil fuel.  So here’s a partial list of things made from fossil fuels, in case any of the protesters read.  Here ya go.  A DROP IN THE BUCKET of items made from …you guessed it:

Sweaters, leggings, floor wax, sports car bodies (Probably Teslas, too), tires, dishwasher parts, caulking, faucet washers, food preservatives, antihistamines (bet a lot of those are used by these protesters), cortisone, dyes, life jackets, TV cabinets, motor oil, ballpoint pens, boats, nail polish, tool boxes, petroleum jelly (duh), golf bags (don’t go there), antiseptics (uh oh, Covid), basketballs (uh oh), purses, deodorant, panty hose, rubbing alcohol, shag rugs (you can have that one), bearing grease, football cleats, insecticides, fishing lures, perfumes, shoe polish, transparent tape, soap, shoes, shoelace parts, electrical tape, putty, mops, skis, umbrellas, denture adhesive, tennis rackets, nylon rope, shampoo, clothes (pretty sure the protesters were wearing clothes),  nylon reflective vests (watch out now), toilet seats, yarn, candles, hand lotion, football helmets (uh oh), toothbrushes, balloons, fishing rods, trash bags, paint rollers, ice chests, paint (uh oh, there go your protest signs), surf boards, eyeglasses, dice, crayons (there goes the fun), pillows, golf balls, paint brushes (you’re gonna have to do finger painting for your signs), dishes (just use your hands), artificial limbs, contact lenses (oh no), shaving cream, toothpaste (ouch), cameras, and oh I bet cell phone cases too, tents (what about the homeless shelters, protesters), bicycle parts (yep, even the electric ones).  Even the products not directly made from petroleum are processed by machinery made from, yeah, fossil fuels.  You guys are complete hypocrites.

So, for all of you smooth brains out there, including the ones in government, before you start ‘ending fossil fuels’, you had better educate yourself about where these fuels are used.  And this is a SMALL list.

By the way, discarded car batteries pose a substantial threat to human health and environmental sustainability, according to the Institute of Physics…science, in other words, your second favorite buzz word.  So once everybody is driving electric cars, would you like the discarded hazardous waste piled into your back yard? Oh wait, that would be your parents’ back yard.  They have to go somewhere after all.  

Listen, it is clear that there is too much crap being dumped into the environment.  Like your plastic water bottles or those sippie cups you use?  Petroleum products by the way…where do you put THOSE when you finish.  You recycle?  No, 85% of recycled products are not actually ‘recycled’.  Oh sorry, you have to read to know that.  Little protest people, YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.  So get off the streets (petroleum based) and go grow some beans.  Oh wait, you probably think they come from cans.  Paper straws destroy the rain forests, little protesters.  And trees use carbon dioxide and put oxygen into the air.  Bet you didn’t even know that nor care.  Hint: If you can’t breathe, you die.

My point is, if you take your head out of the dark place and look around and THINK, you will start to do what YOU can do to make our planet a better place.  By screaming and blocking traffic and harming others and their property, you harm your ideology.  YOU do more harm.  But you have to have your head out of your personal dark place to see that.  Look around, read, know what the hell you are talking about in order to be taken seriously.   And before you try to eliminate fossil fuels, YOU STOP using them…ALL OF THEM.  Then lets see how you think about this issue.

Every time I see you block a child from getting to the hospital when the child is sick and in need of HELP I’m going to go fill up my GAS TANK.  You are still egocentric, unable to see how your actions effect the world around you.  So sit down and let the adults handle it.  You’re making fools of yourselves and hurting the environmental causes.

Oh, one more thing: By the time all of the car batteries are past their useful life, it’ll be up to YOU to figure out how to not destroy the planet with discarded batteries.  This will be YOUR legacy.  Just saying.

 

Changes Sellers and Buyers Need to Know

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We real estate agents are used to changes and updates; they happen so often that we’re in ‘school’ all the time.  Any service provider in the real estate industry faces these issues.  But changes are important and usually they are put into place for the sake of disclosure, so that all parties have a clear view of what they are either selling or buying, because these are big transactions.  So the one I want to mention today is about governmental compliance in disclosures.  

If you’ve sold a property in recent decades, you know you have to fill out what we call a ‘seller disclosure’, which asks about ages of systems components, whether or not you know of any issues, how much your HOA dues are and what they cover…even whether or not you HAVE an HOA.  You’re asked about the exterior cladding, whether or not there fuel tanks on the property, whether or not there are any big noises or noxious fumes in the vicinity, whether or not there are drainage issues…and those are just a few.  Until recently there was no request to disclose ‘governmental compliance’. 

Well what is that?  Let’s take permitting as an example.  In the past, if you had added on to the property without permits, you could just exclude un-permitted space from the advertised square footage. You couldn’t give it the same value as the permitted spaces, or you gave it no added value.  I always cautioned my buyers not to move forward with an offer in these cases, because if an addition is not permitted, what they used for wiring, for example, could represent a very dangerous hazard.  But ultimately it was up to the buyer if they wanted to risk it.  Now, however, sellers are being asked to state whether or not they are in violation of any governmental mandates…like permitting.  And septic permitting as well, for example.

Importantly for buyers, if you buy a property with un-permitted space, it will become YOUR issue when you sell.  So just be aware, and careful.

It is important to know that many municipalities purge their records in what I believe to be a short time.  Sometimes under 10 years.  So by the time you get all of the required permits, add on a den, and years later sell the house, your records could be gone.  It gets sticky at that point.  You know you permitted but you can’t prove it; your buyers don’t believe you but they cannot prove you did not.  Sounds like attorney time.

So.  Homeowners, PLEASE keep good records of renovations so that you can prove you got your permits.    And agents, review this stuff with your clients way ahead of time.  If your clients can’t find the permit, maybe they can find the place where they paid for it.  That can go a long way to resolution in some cases.  It’s not enough to claim ‘no representation’ anymore.  I sometimes call that choice the ‘I don’t know and I don’t care’ choice.  But you can find yourself in a bind if it relates to governmental compliance.

By the way, if you don’t think you need a real estate agent, think about this stuff.  We know what to look for ahead of time, to avoid these roadblocks.  This can be important when Due Diligence funds are on the table.

 

Is It Vallow or Daybell?

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And who cares?  Well in case you do, it started out as Vallow and murders later, it became Daybell.  Have you heard about that case?  Media called it ‘The Cult Mom’ or ‘The Zombie Mom’.  But those were both too kind.  Turns out it was ‘The Murdering Mom’, and mom isn’t even a good word.  I’m hearing ‘bitch’ used a lot and I think that’s also too kind.

There’s another science article (and if you follow me you know I’ve read a lot of them) called “Love is Chemical”.  It was about pheromones and ‘love at first sight’ and how that is also a misnomer.  The thought is that we all have a chemical cloud around us, which I believe, and that sometimes, when two particular clouds collide, an unstoppable chemical reaction begins that some call love.  

Love.  Now that word is over used beyond all belief.

Well the two cloudy people, Lori and Chad (the frog man, I call him) ended up with a cloud of death around them.  Interestingly, two of Lori’s husbands ‘died suddenly’, one by ‘natural’ means (don’t believe THAT one for a second) and the other one by a couple of bullets fired by her brother “in self defense” (proven to be a lie).  Then there were the two CHILDREN, Tylee and JJ.  The deaths were unimaginably cruel, particularly little JJ.  I can’t write about this part; you’ll have to look it up.  It’s abominable.  And finally, there’s Tammy Daybell.  She was Frogman’s wife who ‘died suddenly’, later to be called ‘murder’ by asphyxiation.

So that ‘cloud’ of pheromones was called ‘divine’ and well, Lori was a Goddess and Frogman was Jesus’s brother in ONE of his past lives.  He had been married to Lori in several past lives and THAT pickup line worked like magic for the frog.  But it was death to the ones around the idiots.  Only, interestingly, it was only the ones connected to LORI who died, until Frogman’s wife was deemed an obstacle.  She was beloved by her friends and family, by the way.  Not a witch of a wife.  She never knew what hit her.  JJ did.  Little JJ knew, and his death took TIME.  In fact, I’m going to take a wild guess that it was primarily JJ who got the murderer, Lori, found guilty on six charges.  She’s yet to be sentenced, but she’s not going to go around Frogman’s ‘storm’ ever again.  Can you guess what the ‘storm’ is?  Oh my god, this case is insane and ridiculous, but people died.  Many good people died.

See, they took the death penalty off the table for Lori, but if anyone ever deserves the death penalty, it is her.  Chad the Frog is yet to go to trial, but he’s going down, no question.  He and Lori orchestrated all of this destruction for sex, money and power.  Those are the words of the prosecutors, who nailed it.

So this story is going to be seen in movies, written about in books, talked about around the fire…all of that.  Because it is so unbelievable, yet true.  And this whole thing was primarily about sex, in my science opinion.  That chemical cloud that literally blinded Lori.  She orchestrated the death of her husband who had been a pro baseball player with big muscles and a flat stomach if you can believe it, for Chad the Frogman with a fat stomach and man boobs.  And he looks like, well, a frog. But that sexual attraction turns some people stone cold and singly minded about sex.  I’ve seen that happen in person and it’s frightening as hell and very, very real.  

Charles, the husband who was shot, once had a million dollar life insurance policy with Lori as beneficiary.  Well, God bless Charles, he changed the beneficiary to his sister.  And Lori didn’t know.  She thought she was going to be free AND a millionaire.  Surprise!  No cash. So she murdered her children and cashed their Social Security checks (hence the sixth federal charge for which she was found guilty).  There’s a good chance Lori will die in prison, and also a good chance that the frogman will get the death penalty, well deserved.  Such destruction.

Look, you should check out this case.  Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell.  Well two weeks or so after Tammy was buried, these two assholes got married and danced on a beach in Hawaii.  It’s evil.  It does exist.