Really Federal Reserve? Really?

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I was sitting here reviewing my finances for the week, it’s always a little bit tight on the week before payday, with the local news station on the TV in the background. I was trying to ignore it but I wanted to hear the weather.

As I muttered to myself about living paycheck to paycheck or as this week was looking, not enough to make it  paycheck to paycheck, a segment on finances came on. A listener asked what to do about a CD that was about to mature since the banks were only paying about 1% interest on savings and not much more to roll it into another CD. The part that got me was the analyst said there was no inflation.

Really? Who figures this out? How do you figure it out? I know I said I don’t usually share political opinions but that really irritated me. The analyst went onto say that the “only thing up was gas prices” so there was no inflation. She concluded that if there was any inflation then interest rates would be up too.

I was under the impression that interest rates were being kept low to try to stimulate the economy. Maybe I was wrong. I don’t follow this stuff that closely.

Ok I agree gas prices are really eating through my budget but has the analyst been to a grocery store lately? Maybe the price of a box of cereal hasn’t gone up but has anyone noticed that the size of that box of Froot Loops has shrunk? So you are paying the same price just for a smaller size.

I know the cost of eggs and milk are on the rise and last week it was $1.19 for a small head of iceberg lettuce. A couple of years ago a head of lettuce like that would have cost somewhere between $.39 & $.59 depending on how far into the summer we were. You paid $.99 in the winter. Cucumbers…not that long ago you could get 2 cucumbers for $1.00. Now you get 1 for the same $1.00.

I checked the pantry and prices on canned soup… Chicken noodle soup …in a can..$1.59! I must have been out of my mind to buy that. These aren’t from specialty stores. This is the chain supermarkets in my area, southern Massachusetts.

No inflation indeed!

But back to gas and car expenses. The company I work for moved our office 25 miles from its old location. They did that 2-3 years ago when the recession was just getting underway. It was business needs. Some people got let go and the rest of use were told we had to make the commute or leave. I can understand the need to relocate to contain expenses but, and here’s the big but, by relocating an entire office like that , to a location with no public transportation , they put a financial hardship on a lot of their employees because  of the gas prices to commute and the wear and tear on the vehicles…not to mention what it’s doing to the carbon footprint!

I know co-workers who constantly overdraw their bank accounts or borrow money from friends just to put enough gas in the car to get to work. I know other co-workers who don’t have the money for gas so they call out sick until payday.

In my case I’m sitting here afraid to go anyway or use any gas because my car is slowly breaking down and it’s 4 more days to payday. There’s been another repair almost every week for the last 6 weeks or so. Those repairs have me tapped out.It’s all small stuff but it takes its toll.  I have to hang onto what cash I have left because I will need gas to get to work. I count my blessings…at least I have a little money for gas unlike others I know.

But that isn’t the point. It’s just the evidence to support my point. And that point is that you cannot have high gas prices and not have inflation and hardship. Gas prices affect everything. The electric company tacks on a fuel charge. Airlines and cruise ships are adding fuel surcharges to their tickets thereby hurting the travel industry. The prices of your groceries go up, because of the cost to bring them to market or for the farmers to get gas for their tractors.

But this analyst, who I’m sure gets her info from the Fed’s, can sit on TV and say there’s no inflation. NO INFLATION!

In another news flash they were discussing the budget negotiations going on right now in Washington D.C. That analyst said that if the government defaults on any of its debt that it will cause chaos in the world’s financial market and …this is what got me…”throw us back into a recession.” Well, I didn’t know we were out of the recession. Last I heard unemployment was still high,  jobs that exist aren’t secure and I haven’t seen many new jobs being created. The housing market is still depressed and the most recent article I read on that puts the recover over 10 years away.

It makes me wonder…am I the one who is out of touch or is it the people running the country. Oh and by the way, anyone want to bet that rather than cut special interest items to balance the national budget that in the end they will raise the debt ceiling again? Wish I could run my household that way.

I’m just shaking my head.

For those of us who struggle along every day there’s one more financial insult…since we’re on the subject and that’s the banks.

I have a savings account or perhaps I should say “had” a savings account that is attached to an active checking account at a semi local back. I say semi local because it’s not really close to me anymore. I kept the account to use for online banking and to separate my housing expenses from my  everyday expenses. I kept a small balance in the savings part in hopes that someday I’d be able to fill it up. After all, there was a time when I had money in a savings account and money left over after the bills were paid. I keep hanging on to the belief that it can be that way again.  Ha Ha, Hope springs eternal.

Anyway I opened my statement only to see that the bank had charged me a $3.00 inactivity fee. When I questioned them can you guess what their answer was?

(Wait for it…..) Everybody else does it.

WHAT! Every body else does it? When I was growing up if I said that to my parents they’d say If everybody else jumped off a bridge would you do it? In other words that doesn’t make it right. All an inactivity fee does is punish those of us that are struggling to make ends meet. If we had the money to add to the account  it wouldn’t be inactive. So now you are going to take money from an account of someone who clearly can’t afford to have that money taken away? And if it’s inactive where’s it costing  the bank $3.00/ mo? Seems to me it would make more sense to charge an activity fee or a fee if you use a teller instead of an ATM. I think it’s a sneaky fee. I wonder how many people don’t bother to look at their savings statement because they  know they don’t have anything in  there? Easy money for the banks.

Well, no more inactivity fees from me. I closed that account and I’m thinking of closing the checking account as well. They weren’t paying any interest so I might as well keep my minimal amount of money under a mattress.

Ok, so now you see why I normally keep my mouth shut about these things, at least in these pages. I want to keep aroundustyroads as a happy place so forgive me for breaking my own rules. That news spot really got me going. I shut the TV off. When I get indignant I go off on a rant. But does anyone else see my point? Or am I just “off the wall”?

I promise not to do this again for at least another 6 months! 🙂 I need to get myself back to a “happy spot”.  I think I’ll go take some pictures in the bird sanctuary and “chill out”… Let my blood pressure return to normal. We’ll be back to fun stuff next post. I can share my upcoming vacation plans with you. (Another reason I’m fretting over money but that’s another story) Thanks for letting me vent.

Canoeing down the Potomac

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My friend and co-worker, Jay, went on a terrific  vacation in April. It’s his annual “male -bonding” canoe trip with some of his buddies.  This year was a little different because he was about to become a dad so there was some debate as to whether he should go or not. Finally after getting the doctor and his significant other to sign off on the trip, he headed off to rough it for a week.

From the beginning we planned to share his experience with everyone right here on Aroundustyroads but life and a stork intervened. Before I had time to sit down with Jay and get his stories he became a proud First- Time Papa to a bouncing baby boy.

“AJ”  or Jay’s mini-me, of course took center stage and rightly so. The birth of a child is a wonderful event and eclipses anything else that may have come before even more so when it’s the first. I’m happy to report that the whole family is doing well; Mom, little AJ and Papa Jay.

The consequence of the happy arrival was, however, that writing Jay’s vacation story slipped to the back burner. It’s now been almost 2 months since little AJ came into this world and Jay is settling into his role as Dad. He’s now ready to share his Virginia/West Virginia odyssey and raft trip. So without more ado, Heeeere’s Jay!

DR: So Jay, tell me about this rafting trip you took. As I understand it this is an annual trip. Is it always the same guys?

Jay: Before we get started I just want to mention that we’re not on rafts. We use canoes. It’s the same group of guys but not everyone can make it every year. We’ve been going on these man trips for 11 years. The most that have gone was 12 , the fewest, 4. This trip there was 8 of us. Most of us served together in the military or are friends of one of us.

DR: How long is the trip?

Jay: The trip lasts 4 days. We all met up on Thursday night in PawPaw West Virginia. The canoes are arranged for through an outfitter, 2 men to a canoe so this year we had 4 canoes. We put into the river Friday morning. We float along spending about 6 hours a day on the river. We usually try to camp on the islands in the river so as not to disturb the wildlife. This year because of the height of the water we camped on the Maryland side of the river. We’re very careful to take out any trash. We believe in packing everything out. Leave only footprints. 🙂

Whenever you tell people  you’re going canoeing on the Potomac they think of Washington D.C. but the Potomac is a long river. It winds through the Shenandoah Valley. It travels through a state park and is part of the National Parks system. It’s pretty rugged and remote. We take guns with us for protection from animals. There’s black bear and coyotes and one trip we even saw a mountain lion. I think they call them catamount in that area.

The wildlife is a big part of the trip. On the trip 2 years ago we saw two deer swim the river and climb a bank that was more cliff than bank. I ‘d estimate the incline was 80 degrees! That’s how steep it was and they climbed it! When they jumped into the river they practically landed in our canoe. We had to back paddle in a hurry. We’ve seen hawks and bald eagles too.

We make a stop at Little Orleans to pick up supplies. You may have heard of it.  It’s located on the Maryland side of the river and it’s home to a  motorcycle  rally. That annual rally is called the “Sturgis of the East”. Any way we pick up our supplies and have a quick burger then it’s back on the river. We’ve been coming  here for so many years that they always remember us.

DR: Speaking of supplies, what do you guys eat while your on your trip? Do you use camp stoves or do you use a campfire?

Jay. We eat pretty good. We cook over the campfire but we don’t skimp on supplies. We have steaks or chicken. We make instant mashed potatoes. This year one of the wives sent a pasta dish along. We put that in a pot over the fire to heat it up. We aren’t angels though. It is a “man-trip” so we have beer and maybe a shot or two but we don’t drink on the river. We keep our heads about us. Mostly we use the shots to toast special events in our lives. This year a lot of it was toasting “Jay Dawg” and his new “little pup”. 🙂

Over time we’ve accumulated more gear. When we first started out we had a tent and sleeping bags. Now we have cots and so on. After all, we’re getting older…or the ground is getting harder.

Over the years we’ve canoed the upper Potomac and the lower and some of the tributaries. We’ve made the trip anytime from the first weekend in April to as late as the 3rd weekend in May so we’ve seen the river in snow, rain, flood stage and drought. We’ve been hot and we’ve been cold but no matter what it’s been a great experience.

Just before we reach Hancock, West Virginia there’s a short stretch of rapids. I’d say they are probably around a class 3 depending on how high the river is. Then we reach Hancock and that’s where we pull out. The end of the line.

DR: How do you get back to your vehicles in Pawpaw?

Jay: The outfitter we hired meets us, packs up the canoes and brings us back.

DR: In the pictures you showed me you were in a tunnel. What was that all about?

Jay: That’s a tunnel over  the old canal. It actually runs under a mountain. It’s the Chesapeake & Ohio canal sometimes known as the “Grand Old Ditch”. We’d seen that tunnel every year but we had never explored it. This year we decided to walk it when we all got together on Thursday night. The tunnel is 3118 feet and we walked the whole thing that night.

The canal itself runs for around 184 miles starting in the Washington D.C. area. George Washington was a big advocate of using waterways to connect the eastern seaboard. John Quincy Adams presided over the ground breaking ceremony on July 4, 1828!

DR: Wow that’s really historic.

Jay: There’s a lot of history in the area. It seems it’s played a big part in the country’s history from colonial times through the Civil War and now it preserves some beautiful, un-touched wilderness.

DR: I can see why you make it an annual event. It sounds like something that would be hard to miss.

Jay: I try not to miss it. Once the little guy is big enough to go, I’ll take him along too.

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DR: Jay, I want to thank you for sharing your story with us and your great pictures. It makes me want to go on a trip like that. It’s been years since I’ve gone camping or canoeing. Good times!

Old Cape Cod

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The other day I posted about Cape Cod National Seashore. One of the best parts of writing that post was having an excuse to head down to the Cape.

There are a couple of places I like to go for lunch depending on where I’m heading on the Cape. One is in Chatham where I’m sure to be going soon as the Great White Sharks are back! That’s exciting..at least to me. They snack on the seals on Monemoy Island which is at the mouth of Chatham Harbor.

 I didn’t get to see one last year but maybe this year I’ll get lucky. Just don’t go in the water!

The day I went down to get the pictures to wrap up the National Seashore post I stopped at the Seafood Shanty.

This is on the northbound side of Route 6 in Bourne. That means that if you are heading for the Sagamore Bridge to go onto the Cape that you will have to cross 2 very busy northbound lanes of traffic to get into the parking lot. The lot is not paved either but is gravel covered dirt. Because Rt 6 is 4 lanes wide right there (2 north and 2 south)  you better  not hesitate once you decide to cross.

 I confess that one of the reasons I like this place is that every time I’ve stopped there’s been a little chipmunk who scoots out looking for dropped french fries or other delicacies. I’m sure it’s a different chipmunk each year. After all  how long does one live even if it survives to chipmunk old age?

Seems like when I was growing up there were chipmunks everywhere but now I only see them occasionally. Not so for squirrels, they’re everywhere. So I stop to say hello to my little striped friend and share my lunch. As long as I’m tossing out my french fries he’s my little buddy. This trip I ordered the scallop plate. It comes with fries so I had plenty to share with my fuzzy friend. 

The Seafood Shanty has a pretty view and tables with striped umbrellas so it’s a nice place to have lunch. You can also take your lunch with you and head over to the Herring Run recreation area.

 You’ll get a better view of the Cape Cod Canal so you can watch the boats pass by or the bikers on the bike path work up a sweat. Since you would be on the right hand side of RT 6 at the Recreation area it’s easy to get back on the highway to continue on to the bridges that lead to the lower cape.

The day I was there traffic was steady enough when I finished lunch  that I got tired of waiting to cross 2 lanes of northbound traffic to get back on the southbound side. Instead I chose  to join the northbound traffic  back to the Bourne Rotary, about 2 miles up the road. I drove around the rotary and picked up  southbound RT 6 there. It meant a little back tracking but it was easier than the mad dash through speeding cars. I’m not sure if that inconvenience is a blessing or a curse for this little seafood shack. The Seafood Shanty is certainly in a visible location but getting in and out can be a bit hair-raising to say the least. Still, I had to visit my little buddy and the scallops where delicious.

I don’t have a lot  more to offer in this post so I thought I would leave you with the words to an old Patty Page song that’s been running through my mind. Maybe it will make you think of visiting Old Cape Cod.

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If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air
Quaint little villages here and there
(You’re sure)You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod
(Cape Cod, that old Cape Cod)

If you like the taste of a lobster stew
Served by a window with an ocean view
(You’re sure)You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

Winding roads that seem to beckon you
Miles of green beneath a sky of blue
Church bells chimin’ on a Sunday morn
Remind you of the town where you were born

If you spend an evening you’ll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

(aah, aah)

If you spend an evening you’ll want to stay (on Cape Cod Bay)
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod
You’re sure to fall in love
You’re sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

The Hot Weather is Here!

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Oh happy summer! The hot weather is here and I couldn’t be happier. I love this kind of weather. Even the humidity is ok as long as I don’t have to go to work. I feel a little different on work days because as much as I love the heat I don’t like going to work feeling like I need another shower. But on a day when I am free and clear and don’t have to worry about appearances there’s nothing better than working up a nice “sheen.” Always remember, horses sweat….ladies perspire.

Now that’s not to say I never use air conditioning. I do, especially in the car on the way to work but on a day off its open windows all the way. At home  I leave the central air on 80 and use the ceiling fans. As long as the air is moving I’m comfortable.

But I’m getting off track. I wanted to mention Nantasket Beach in Hull, Ma.

When I first moved to Massachusetts back in the early 1970’s Nantasket Beach was the place to go on a hot summer day. It wasn’t just the beach either. There was a substantial amusement park with a huge roller coaster. The amusement park was known as Paragon Park. Sadly the park closed in 1984 and the roller coaster was removed along with most of the other rides but the vintage carousel is still in action. One of the things I love about the Paragon Park carousel is that it’s all about the horses.

 Prancing steeds in all colors are just begging for a rider. Teams of spirited horses pull flying chariots if you’re prefer this kind of ride, but it’s all horses.

 There’s none of the elephants, giraffes or big cats with saddles like you see on so many other carousels. It’s just horses of all colors with flying manes and tossing heads.

 Well, at least they look like that even if they are made of wood.

 It’s wonderful what the imagination can see so of course the first stop was the carousel. I had to see it again.

 Then I headed over to the beach. The band stands are still there but I wasn’t looking for that. I wanted to see the beach. Too bad I came at high tide. Even so I waded out to about mid-calf only to get drenched by a breaking wave that hit me almost waist-high. I was amazed at how warm the water was but Nantasket Beach it shallow quite a ways out so the water has time to warm up.

To get to this little gem of a beach you follow Rt 228 as it winds through Rockland, Weymouth, Hingham and finally Hull. It’s a very scenic ride , especially the section after you cross RT 53  but be sure to wear your patience hat as it is a winding road, not a highway. As with any winding road, traffic can be a problem especially on a hot weekend day. But I was there on a mid-week afternoon so traffic wasn’t bad. There was even parking in some of the lots once I got to the beach. 

There is a small parking fee but I think as parking fees go that it’s pretty reasonable. $7.00 for the day $4.00 for seniors. I’m not sure what age they consider senior. The first lot I tried was full but retracing my route to the beginning of the beach I pulled into the first lot on the beach. Not only was there plenty of parking but there was no attendant! When no one came to take my money after a reasonable time, I pulled on into the parking lot.

Nantasket Beach was always known for its soft , gray sand. Here on the lower end of the beach the sand was courser and there were a lot of rocks. Still I saw several sand castles being built and everyone seemed to be having a great time. I spotted one of those surf paddlers…that new sport of standing on a surfboard and paddling it instead of surfing. Lots of people were in the water.

There were lines at all of the ice cream stands.

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 It looked like a perfect summer day. So many people making awesome memories. I could have stayed for hours but unfortunately for me responsibilities called and I had to drive away to meet them in the real world.

One more Red White and Blue Comment

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The Red White and Blue Trivia test was posted by Xfinity News on my home page. It ran for one day, the 4th of July. I took the test a couple of times before decideding to use it in my blog. Each time I took it there were different questions that popped up.

One question that I missed had to do with term limits for the President. I was not able to find the question again in spite of spending quite a bit of time looking for the test and “googling” all combos of trivia, Xfinity News etc.

A House in Taunton with patriotic Bunting and Flag

The best I can remember the question went something like this:

The President of the United States cannot serve more that 8 years in that office. True of False

I said True. There are term limits. Originally George Washington set a precedent by refusing to run for a 3rd term. That was enough until Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected for a 4th term. At that time the 22nd amendment was passed to set a limit on the length of time a person can be elected to the Highest office in the Land.

The 22nd Amendment states that no person elected president and no person to hold the office of president for more than two years is allowed to be elected more than once more. It makes no difference whether the two terms are consecutive.

http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/presidential-term-limits.html

I wish I had written down the exact wording of the question because they said the correct answer was FALSE.

I guess if a President gained office by finishing out the term of a another president( think LBJ after the Kennedy assination or Gerald Ford after Nixon’s resignation) then was elected in his own right, he could possibly serve more than 8 years as President. Then I would have to agree that the correct answer would be False.

Since the quiz didn’t give explanations, just the answers, I removed that question when I posted it because I think it’s a very obscure point and not one that most of us need to know. I think the point of the question is that we have term limits.

What do you think? Any political science readers with additional insights?