Mortgage Monday: Taking A Chance

This was the first attempt... really glad it fell through!

I am going to take a step back for a moment in this series and actually talk about a few months prior to us moving into the house. By the time the summer was coming to an end, my wife and I had a big decision that we had to make. Our lease was set to end today and while we had been looking at houses for some time, and we were under agreement on a property, there were no guarantees. While we usually take a more careful approach to situations, we decided to take a chance and give our notice that we will be not renewing our lease. So, when we sent our rent check in late August for the month of September, we included a note that, in accordance with our lease, we were not going to be renewing.

Technically, we had a place that, at the time, we thought we would be living but, as September slowly trudged on, that reality quickly dissolved and we soon found ourselves without a place to live come December. It was an interesting feeling of uncertainty and one that had us contemplating whether we should try to extend our lease but it was also freeing in the fact that it was one less thing to think about as we continued to search for a home. If anything, it certainly served as a motivator to get things done and step up our efforts to find a home.

Things do happen for a reason and our house hunt definitely proved that point. Within a week of terminating the agreement on the first house (based on inspections), we reached an agreement on a second, far superior, home. After talking with the bank the following week and shortening the escrow to 45 days, we knew that we would be moving and would be making the transition from a house to a home by the end of November. As it turns out, taking that chance in late August was going to pay off.

Contrary to the first ordeal which was rife with misleading statements and answers that didn’t match up with the facts and documents from the county, the process for the second house went as smooth as we could have hoped for and now that second house is now our home. No more renting, no more moving, and no more uncertainty about where we are going to be living this time next year or the year after. We are home.

Too Soon!

As stores moved their Halloween candy and decorations to the clearance section out came the Thanksgiving items to be put on display. But the turkey day decorations are limited in their shelf space as the Christmas stock was already dominating the aisles. With nearly two months to go, the winter holiday was already on full display smacking you in the face the moment you walked through the door.

Over the past couple of weeks the oversaturation has only gotten worse as the music is filling the stores and the slowly trickling into the radio rotation. And this week is seems as though the weather has joined in on the premature celebration with the cold and flurries filling the air. Even as I write this line there is the Hershey kiss red and green holiday bells ringing in the background. All of this is too much and way too early.

Growing up this was a time of year that I looked forward to… it was a something that I waited for with great anticipation and I could count on the decorations and music to change the world around me the week following Thanksgiving. Now it is an entire season, the same length as winter or fall, that overshadows all the other days that make up autumn. For some this is a welcomed change but, for me, it is robbing the appreciation that we once had for the sow decent into the cold weather and the holidays, events, and transitions that I enjoyed years ago.

But I guess this is to be expected during a time when people want everything right now and want it for as long as possible. With instant gratification found in every corner of the internet and easy access through all means of communication, there is no more patience left in everyday life. That is what I think I miss the most, the enjoyment of the day to day. Each day offered a little change during the fall and built up the anticipation to what we knew was to fall upon us at the very beginning of winter.

While my focus has changed as I have gotten older and the holidays which I embrace are completely different, the spirit that fills this time of year seems to be watered down by extending it over such a long period of time. Now, we find Halloween trees on display in early October and a mix of music filling stores in the midst of the fire that fills the autumn landscape. If only we could go back to the slower pace and patience that came with the day to day enjoyment of the season. Maybe we could enjoy the individual holidays rather than suffering from a merry overload by the time December comes around.

It’s Freaking Snowing!

This is what we saw on the news!

When I opened the door to my office at the end of the workday there was no one to be found in the building. The bitter rain had driven everyone from the warm confines of work and the only car in the parking lot responded to my remote. It was darker than I had seen in a long time at this hour and the echo of the heavy rain nearly drown out the traffic just on the other side of the embankment.

As with all unfavorable weather conditions, the commute home was slow with the glare of headlights screaming from the wet pavement. So, like many nights, I pulled onto the highway, slowly accelerated, and waited for the blaring of brake lights to fill the horizon. As I fluttered the gas pedal, the rain began getting heavier, the mist from the trucks denser, and the pace of travel much slower.

Nearly halfway home and I was making pretty good time given the weather around me. Around this time the straight streaks of condensation that I had become accompanied to this evening began slowing their descent and hovering above the road before melting on my windshield. Not even midway through November and the frigid temperatures were already providing us with a wintry mix.

It took me a little longer to get home from that point as the roads remained cocooned with fall leaves forcing us all to slow down significantly on the back roads. Thankfully I was able to find a spot in the parking lot as another day of work was just completely on the perpetual maintenance project in which we live. With the sleet pattering all around me I was finally able to walk through the front door and spend the evening with my wife.

Not long after we finished our dinner we saw the news previews pop up on the screen showing the flurries falling across the region. That was when we noticed that things had grown silent just beyond the windows. Curious, we walked over to the door, cracked it open, and glanced at the light accumulation already coating the cars.

While not a significant weather event and nothing that would hinder our commute in the morning the fact is that we’re not even halfway through November and it is already freaking snowing! Surprised, I couldn’t help but venture out into the sloppy slush so I grabbed my hat, put on my shoes, and stuffed my mail in my pocket. Might as well enjoy the change in the weather before we get tired of it because based on the predictions that is not going to take very long.

The Education Question In Pennsylvania

Last week I saw two completely separate items in my email arrive in my inbox almost at the same time. While unrelated, they played off of one another in a rather interesting way. The first email was one of many from WalletHub about their most recent national ranking. The subject this time was “The Best and Worst States for Teachers” which immediately had me wondering, based on much of the biased media coverage I have been reading for months, how low Pennsylvania would rank on this list.

To my surprise, they ranked Pennsylvania at #2 based on a variety of variables such as salary, employment opportunity, quality of schools, ratios, and spending per student. The facts supported what I have been saying all along that education in the Commonwealth is not in the sorry state that the Democratic Party would have you believe. This leads me to the other email that arrived just moments later.

The debate the previous night between Governor Corbett and Tom Wolf (in sheep’s clothing) was full of the faulty statistics that have been bandied about in many of the attack ads by the desperate challenger. No one can argue that the education system in the commonwealth needs to be fixed but funding is something that is not lacking and more money is not the solution to those problems. Four things are slowly crippling the education system especially in areas still considered to be economically depressed: unrealistic educational expectations, wasteful spending, an unsustainable pension system, and the financial black hole known as common core.

Also playing a supporting role in the current situation is the evaporating federal funding so heavily relied upon by the previous administration. Even if you only focus on the stimulus numbers, Wolf’s claims don’t hold up. Even the local media has picked up on this fact as was reported on philly.com, “If the federal stimulus money is not counted, it is true: Corbett has increased the state's annual funding for basic education - to $5.5 billion in 2013-14…”

As was reported in another article, “how you count pensions, charter reimbursement and federal stimulus money makes a big difference.” What it comes down to is that you can’t believe the BS that is floating through the radio of teachers complaining about no toilet paper in the schools and blaming the Governor for it. The money is there, more money than ever before, but little is left once the nearly billion and a half pension system takes a chunk, administrative and school inefficiencies chip away a few more dollars, common core requirements suck the marrow out of the funding, and dollars are wasted on thinking all students are the same and all students need to go into higher education.

Unfortunately, the billion dollar illusion still seems to work in the public and in the media despite the curtain having been pulled back and the mirrors broken. People and school districts these days pretty much have the same mentality in that they don’t want to take responsibility for their own shortcomings. So, instead of staying on course and slowly increasing spending at a reasonable rate while trying to make the changes necessary for educational growth and success in the commonwealth, we face the very real possibility of higher income, sales, and real estate taxes under a new administration that will piss away the money that we are forced to give them (regardless of your income). Of course, you can prevent that from happening come November.   

Commonality

I have never really given too much thought to my birthday in my adult life. It’s one of those things that, when you think about it, you are celebrating being another day older. I guess the only thing that comes about more often regarding this day is when someone has a similar birthday or some event happens to fall on this day. Other than that, it is an excuse to be with family and friends and to enjoy the fact that I have experienced a lot in the last year and however hard it may have been at times I have made it through.

Something fun to do this time of year is to find out what happened on this day and discover the people that I share this birthday with. This year, I share this Wikipedia list with you and I encourage you to do the same on your birthday as it is one of the ways to accumulate random Jeopardy knowledge. Enjoy!

Events:

• 355 – Roman Emperor Constantius II promotes his cousin Julian to the rank of Caesar, entrusting him with the government of the Prefecture of the Gauls.
• 1528 – Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot in the area that would become Texas.
• 1632 – Thirty years war: Battle of Lützen is fought, the Swedes are victorious but the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus dies in the battle.
• 1789 – Pope Pius VI appoints Father John Carroll as the first Catholic bishop in the United States.
• 1844 – The first constitution of the Dominican Republic is adopted.
• 1856 – Scenes of Clerical Life, the first work of fiction by the author later known as George Eliot, is submitted for publication.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.
• 1865 – American Civil War: CSS Shenandoah is the last Confederate combat unit to surrender after circumnavigating the globe on a cruise on which it sank or captured 37 unarmed merchant vessels.
• 1869 – In New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers College defeats Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), 6–4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game.
• 1913 – Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
• 1917 – World War I: Third Battle of Ypres ends: After three months of fierce fighting, Canadian forces take Passchendaele in Belgium.
• 1918 – The Second Polish Republic is proclaimed.
• 1934 – Memphis, Tennessee becomes the first major city to join the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• 1935 – Edwin Armstrong presents his paper "A Method of Reducing Disturbances in Radio Signaling by a System of Frequency Modulation" to the New York section of the Institute of Radio Engineers.
• 1935 – First flight of the Hawker Hurricane, with its K5083 first prototype.
• 1935 – Parker Brothers acquires the forerunner patents for MONOPOLY from Elizabeth Magie.
• 1939 – World War II: Sonderaktion Krakau takes place.
• 1941 – World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his 27-year rule. He falsely states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, the Germans had lost 4.5 million soldiers and that Soviet victory was near.
• 1942 – World War II: Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign begins.
• 1943 – World War II: the Soviet Red Army recaptures Kiev. Before withdrawing, the Germans destroy most of the city's ancient buildings.
• 1944 – Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
• 1947 – Meet the Press makes its television debut (the show went to a weekly schedule on September 12, 1948).
• 1948 – Deputy commander-in-chief of the Eastern China Field Army General Su Yu launches a massive offensive toward Xuzhou, defended by seven different armies under the Suppression General Headquarter of Xuzhou Garrison, the Huaihai Campaign. The largest operational campaign of the Chinese Civil War begins.
• 1962 – Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.
• 1963 – Vietnam War: Following the November 1 coup and execution of President Ngo Dinh Diem, coup leader General Duong Van Minh takes over leadership of South Vietnam.
• 1965 – Cuba and the United States formally agree to begin an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States. By 1971, 250,000 Cubans had made use of this program.
• 1971 – The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians.
• 1975 – Green March begins: 300,000 unarmed Moroccans converge on the southern city of Tarfaya and wait for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara.
• 1977 – The Kelly Barnes Dam, located above Toccoa Falls Bible College near Toccoa, Georgia, fails, killing 39.
• 1985 – In Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the 19th of April Movement seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, eventually killing 115 people, 11 of them Supreme Court justices.
• 1986 – Sumburgh disaster – A British International Helicopters Boeing 234LR Chinook crashes 2.5 !2¹⁄₂ miles east of Sumburgh Airport killing 45 people. It is the deadliest civilian helicopter crash on record.
• 1991 – The last Kuwaiti oil field fire is extinguished.
• 1995 – The Rova of Antananarivo, home of the sovereigns of Madagascar from the 16th to 19th centuries, is destroyed by fire.
• 1995 – Cleveland Browns relocation controversy: Art Modell announces that he signed a deal that would relocate the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Ravens, the first time the city had a football team since 1983 when they were the Baltimore Colts.
• 1999 – Australians vote to keep the Head of the Commonwealth as their head of state in the Australian republic referendum.
• 2004 – An express train collides with a stationary car near the village of Ufton Nervet, England, killing seven and injuring 150.

Births:

• 745 – Musa al-Kadhim, Imam (d. 799)
• 1391 – Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, English politician (d. 1425)
• 1479 – Joanna of Castile (d. 1555)
• 1494 – Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman sultan (d. 1566)
• 1550 – Karin Månsdotter, Swedish wife of Eric XIV of Sweden (d. 1612)
• 1607 – Sigmund Theophil Staden, German composer (d. 1655)
• 1661 – Charles II of Spain (d. 1700)
• 1692 – Louis Racine, French poet (d. 1763)
• 1753 – Jean-Baptiste Breval, French composer (d. 1823)
• 1753 – Mikhail Kozlovsky, Russian sculptor (d. 1802)
• 1814 – Adolphe Sax, Belgian musician, invented the saxophone (d. 1894)
• 1833 – Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (d. 1908)
• 1835 – Cesare Lombroso, Italian psychiatrist (d. 1909)
• 1841 – Nelson W. Aldrich, American politician (d. 1915)
• 1841 – Armand Fallières, French politician, President of France (d. 1931)
• 1851 – Charles Dow, American journalist and economist (d. 1902)
• 1854 – John Philip Sousa, American composer (d. 1932)
• 1855 – E. S. Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist, founded the Human Betterment Foundation (d. 1942)
• 1861 – James Naismith, Canadian-American inventor of basketball (d. 1939)
• 1880 – Robert Musil, Austrian author (d. 1942)
• 1880 – George Poage, American hurdler (d. 1962)
• 1880 – Chris van Abkoude, Dutch-American author (d. 1959)
• 1882 – Thomas H. Ince, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1924)
• 1884 – Mohammad-Taqi Bahar, Iranian poet, journalist, historian and professor of literature (d. 1951)
• 1887 – Walter Johnson, American baseball player (d. 1946)
• 1892 – Harold Ross, American journalist, co-founded The New Yorker (d. 1951)
• 1893 – Edsel Ford, American businessman (d. 1943)
• 1894 – Opal Kunz, early American aviator and feminist (d. 1967)
• 1903 – June Marlowe, American actress (d. 1984)
• 1906 – James D. Norris, American businessman (d. 1966)
• 1912 – N. Shanmugarajah, Ceylon Tamil engineer
• 1914 – Jonathan Harris, American actor (d. 2002)
• 1916 – Ray Conniff, American composer and conductor (d. 2002)
• 1921 – Eric Day, English footballer (d. 2012)
• 1921 – James Jones, American author (d. 1977)
• 1922 – Frank J. Lynch, American judge and politician (d. 1987)
• 1923 – Ray B. Sitton, American pilot and general (d. 2013)
• 1924 – Jeanette Schmid, Austrian whistler (d. 2005)
• 1925 – Michel Bouquet, French actor
• 1926 – Haradhan Bandopadhyay, Bengali-Indian actor (d. 2013)
• 1926 – Frank Carson, Irish comedian and actor (d. 2012)
• 1926 – Zig Ziglar, American author (d. 2012)
• 1930 – Tom Hornbein, American mountaineer
• 1931 – Peter Collins, English race car driver (d. 1958)
• 1931 – Mike Nichols, German-American director, screenwriter, and producer
• 1932 – Stonewall Jackson, American singer-songwriter
• 1932 – Francois Englert, Belgian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1937 – Leo Goeke, American tenor (d. 2012)
• 1937 – Garry Gross, American photographer (d. 2010)
• 1937 – Eugene Pitt, American singer (The Jive Five)
• 1937 – Marco Vassi, American author (d. 1989)
• 1937 – Joe Warfield, American actor and director
• 1938 – Mack Jones, American baseball player (d. 2004)
• 1938 – Branko Mikasinovich, Serbian journalist and scholar
• 1938 – P.J. Proby, American singer-songwriter and actor
• 1938 – Diana E. H. Russell, South African activist and author
• 1939 – Michael Schwerner, American activist (d. 1964)
• 1939 – Leonardo Quisumbing, Filipino jurist
• 1940 – Johnny Giles, Irish footballer
• 1940 – Ruth Messinger, American politician
• 1940 – Dieter F. Uchtdorf, American pilot and religious leader
• 1941 – Guy Clark, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1946 – Sally Field, American actress
• 1946 – Viivi Luik, Estonian poet and author
• 1946 – Fred Penner, Canadian singer and guitarist
• 1947 – Jim Rosenthal, English sportscaster
• 1947 – Edward Yang, Taiwanese director (d. 2007)
• 1947 – George Young, Scottish guitarist, songwriter, and producer (Easybeats and Flash and the Pan)
• 1947 – Carolyn Seymour, English actress
• 1948 – Sidney Blumenthal, American journalist
• 1948 – Glenn Frey, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Eagles)
• 1949 – Brad Davis, American actor (d. 1991)
• 1949 – Nigel Havers, English actor
• 1949 – Arturo Sandoval, Cuban trumpet player, pianist, and composer
• 1949 – Joseph C. Wilson, American diplomat
• 1950 – Amir Aczel, Israeli historian
• 1950 – Chris Glen, Scottish bass player (The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Michael Schenker Group)
• 1950 – Nimalan Soundaranayagam, Sri Lankan Tamil teacher and politician (d. 2000)
• 1951 – Peter Althin, Swedish lawyer and politician
• 1951 – John Falsey, American scriptwriter and producer
• 1952 – Michael Cunningham, American author
• 1953 – Frank Hanisch, German footballer
• 1954 – Catherine Crier, American judge, journalist, and author
• 1955 – Alton Coleman, American serial killer (d. 2002)
• 1955 – Maria Shriver, American journalist
• 1957 – Cam Clarke, American voice actor and singer
• 1957 – Klaus Kleinfeld, German businessman
• 1957 – Siobhán McCarthy, Irish actress and singer
• 1957 – Lori Singer, American actress
• 1958 – Trace Beaulieu, American actor
• 1959 – Mare Tommingas, Estonian dancer and choreographer
• 1960 – Michael Cerveris, American actor
• 1961 – Kazuhiko Aoki, Japanese video game designer
• 1961 – Craig Goldy, American guitarist (Dio, Giuffria, and Rough Cutt)
• 1961 – Florent Pagny, French singer-songwriter and actor
• 1962 – Aznil Nawawi, Malaysian actor and singer
• 1962 – Annette Zilinskas, American musician and singer, who was the original bass guitarist for The Bangles then later lead vocalist with Blood on the Saddle
• 1963 – Rozz Williams, American singer-songwriter (Christian Death, Shadow Project, and Premature Ejaculation) (d. 1998)
• 1964 – Kerry Conran, American director and producer
• 1964 – Arne Duncan, American educator, 9th United States Secretary of Education
• 1964 – Corey Glover, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (Living Color and Galactic)
• 1964 – Greg Graffin, American singer-songwriter, producer, and author (Bad Religion)
• 1964 – Arkie Whiteley, Australian actress (d. 2001)
• 1965 – René Unglaube, German footballer
• 1966 – Peter DeLuise, American actor and director
• 1966 – Paul Gilbert, American guitarist and singer (Mr. Big, Racer X, and Yellow Matter Custard)
• 1966 – Elizabeth Price, English artist
• 1967 – Rebecca Schaeffer, American actress (d. 1989)
• 1968 – Caesar Meadows, American cartoonist
• 1968 – Kelly Rutherford, American actress
• 1968 – Alfred Williams, American football player
• 1968 – Jerry Yang, Taiwanese-American businessman, co-founded Yahoo!
• 1970 – Ethan Hawke, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• 1971 – Clonie Gowen, American poker player
• 1972 – Deivi Cruz, Dominican baseball player
• 1972 – Garry Flitcroft, English footballer
• 1972 – Adonis Georgiades, Greek politician and author
• 1972 – Thandie Newton, English actress
• 1972 – Rebecca Romijn, American actress
• 1973 – Nell McAndrew, English model
• 1974 – Zoe McLellan, American actress
• 1974 – Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgian cyclist (d. 2009)
• 1975 – Tarmo Saks, Estonian footballer
• 1976 – Catherine Clark, Canadian journalist
• 1976 – Mike Herrera, American singer-songwriter and bass player (MxPx and Mike Herrera's Tumbledown)
• 1976 – Jodi Martin, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1976 – Pat Tillman, American football player (d. 2004)
• 1977 – Patrícia Tavares, Portuguese actress
• 1978 – Sandrine Blancke, Belgian actress
• 1978 – Daniella Cicarelli, Brazilian model and television host
• 1978 – Jolina Magdangal, Filipino singer and actress
• 1978 – Taryn Manning, American singer-songwriter and actress (Boomkat)
• 1978 – Zak Morioka, Brazilian race car driver
• 1979 – Adam LaRoche, American baseball player
• 1979 – Lamar Odom, American basketball player
• 1979 – Gerli Padar, Estonian singer
• 1979 – Brad Stuart, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Myolie Wu, Hong Kong actress
• 1981 – Cassie Bernall, American student, victim of the Columbine High School massacre (d. 1999)
• 1981 – Lee Dong-wook, South Korean actor
• 1981 – Kaspars Gorkšs, Latvian footballer
• 1981 – Andrew Murray, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1982 – Sowelu, Japanese singer
• 1982 – Steve Millar, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1983 – Jon Hume, Australian singer-songwriter and producer (Evermore)
• 1983 – Janette McBride, Filipino-Australian actress
• 1984 – Ricky Romero, American baseball player
• 1984 – Sebastian Schachten, German footballer
• 1985 – Ettore Marchi, Italian footballer
• 1986 – Katie Leclerc, American actress
• 1986 – Conor Sammon, Irish footballer
• 1987 – Ana Ivanovic, Serbian tennis player
• 1988 – Erik Lund, Swedish footballer
• 1988 – Emma Stone, American actress
• 1989 – Jozy Altidore, American soccer player
• 1989 – Shaina Magdayao, Filipino actress, singer, and dancer
• 1990 – André Schürrle, German footballer
• 1990 – Valentina Nappi, Italian pornographic actress and adult model
• 1992 – Paula Kania, Polish tennis player
• 1997 – Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, English actor