I’m down to 4½ vehicles now. I sold the Subaru to a dealership yesterday. I could have sold it on my own, but I took it down there just to see what they would give me for it and they offered me more than what I was thinking of putting it up for sale for. That and it was a hard enough decision that I just wanted to get it over with. I didn’t want to sell it, but I had to.
Don’t get me wrong, money isn’t so bad that I’m selling off things just to keep food on the table and pay the bills. Considering the economy this last few years and what I’ve seen friends and acquaintances going through, I consider myself lucky for that.
I’ve been working at paying off my debts, paying the 3-year amount on the credit cards and re-financed the house on a 15 year mortgage. Because of my dental bills the last couple of years of work have been wiped out and I had to cut back to the minimum, forever payment on the credit cards, property taxes and homeowner’s insurance raised the mortgage a hundred bucks a month. So, I’d started to feel like there was no end in sight. At the same time my old Fords were sitting neglected in the driveway, all needing minimal work, but no repair money in sight. I thought about selling off the Fords rather than just letting them sit there and rust away, but then I realized that as much as I loved the Subaru, it would be a lot easier to replace in the future than any of the Fords, and other than the convertible with the dead transmission, a few hundred bucks will bring them to the same level of reliability as the Subaru.
So I made the decision, and as anyone who knows me, when it comes to cars, once the decision is made I don’t like to drag it out too long, either buying or selling.
Now I can get on with the task of getting rid of those monthly debt payments, fixing up the old Fords and, eventually, getting me a newer Subaru.
Smells like a scam to me.
I got a phone call yesterday that came through on the caller ID as “RESTRICTED”. As always, I let it go through to voicemail. In the message she gave me her name, the company she worked for and informed me it was about a debt I owed and that they wanted to talk to me about options. At the end she clearly stated that this was a debt collection issue and that any information they got from me would be confidential and used only in connection with the collection of this debt.
25 years ago, when I was in the middle of bankruptcy because the restaurant I was a partner in went belly up, this would have been expected. But having experienced these calls, after a little bit of stress over a new debt and reflection on what was said in the message, and what wasn’t, the red flags started flying.
So I thought, if I fell for this what would be the natural course of action?
I’d call them back at the 1-800 number they gave me. They would ask who is calling and I’d give them my name. Then they would want to verify that it was me and that I did have authority to discuss this with them. Anytime I call my bank or creditor they ask for two things to make sure they are talking to me: my home address and my Social Security number.
Can you hear that fishing line being reeled in? I sure can.
And I figure that if it does in fact turn out to be legit (and for the life of me I can’t figure out who I’d owe money to, that’s in collections at least) with the current problems with identity theft, they should be reasonably quick to understand why I didn’t respond.
OR, I could call back and tell them I’m Max Sartin (yes, it’s a pseudonym), my address is 1313 10th Kilometer Road and my Social Security number is 666-00-1212. Now, it would be really funny if I told them all that and I got “Yes, Mr. Sartin, we have your file right here…”.
If you’ve been visiting my blog for a while you have probably read me complain about Utah State Senator Chris Buttars (here, here and a few other places I didn’t have the time to track down.) He is an ultra-conservative, bigoted, anti-public schools, anti-environmentalist that is in the back pocket of 
Gayle Ruzicka’s Eagle Forum and who knows how many construction companies and developers. I have despised this man’s politics since the day I noticed him on the political scene.
And now I’m really mad at him because he has made me feel a tiny bit of respect for his politics.
HB477 went from a simple number with no content whatsoever to the Governor’s desk in under 72 hours. Passes both the House and Senate so fast that constituents in St. George heard the sonic boom. The bill deems private congressional electronic communications; texts sent from their government issued (taxpayer bought and owned) cell phones and emails sent from their government issued (taxpayer bought and owned) computers, and exempts them from State GRAMA open information laws. The taxpayers, their bosses, the people who pay their salaries, have no right to know of their dealings when doing our business.
Chris Buttars voted against this bill.
Yes folks, it’s true. I read it on the front page of today’s Salt Lake Tribune, in the article titled “Herbert sells out”
And here’s the kicker: at the bottom of the exact same page, was an article about Sen. Chris Buttars announcing his retirement right after this legislative session.
He’s going out right after doing something I have to respect him for.
Son-of-a-…
