Divemedic

Rumors

Here in the north side of Central Florida, we are experiencing shortage in frozen vegetables, along with beverages of sports drinks like Gatorade, along with canned soups being picked over. The last time I was at the store, a woman there told me that she and her husband had arrived from Pennsylvania several days before, and that area was having shortages in toilet paper and frozen vegetables. Meats were in good supply but expensive.

J KB is reporting shortages of various supplies in the Carolinas.

Things like shampoo, body wash, mouth wash, cleaning supplies, foot spray, OTC drugs, were low, especially the store brand generics.

Any other shortages in other areas of the country?

Today I went to Walmart at lunch and it took was low on a lot of non-food supplies.

By Divemedic, ago

HOA battle

I own rental property in a neighborhood that is deed restricted and covered by an HOA. Three years ago, that HOA tried to make a rules change. This is the rule that they wanted to change:

Leases – All Leases of a home shall be restricted to residential use. All leases shall be in writing and shall provide that the Association shall have the right to terminate the lease upon default by the tenant in observing any provisions of the Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions for [neighborhood]. A copy of any such lease shall be delivered to the Association upon request. Each lease shall contain the following provision:


The lessee hereby acknowledges that this lease is subject to the Declaration of Covenants, conditions, and Restrictions for [neighborhood], that lessee has read the same and agrees to be bound thereby, and that failure to comply with the same may result in certain remedies being applicable to lessee including, without limitation, termination of this lease without further notice, and personal liability of lessee and lessor for damages, including reasonable attorney’s fees.

I had a number of problems with this. The first is that the HOA wanted to have the power to evict my tenants, but expects me to assume all liability and expense. No fucking way. So I went to the HOA meeting and told them that not only was this illegal, but that it would expose the HOA to liability if a person they ordered to be evicted was part of a protected class and decided to sue under the Fair Housing Act. The HOA lawyer agreed. I figured I had won that round, but took that as a warning and become involved in the HOA, eventually making it onto the board.

I am on the board as the treasurer, and I represent the interests of several property owners who own rental property in the neighborhood. Collectively, we own as rental property more than a third of the properties in the neighborhood, or more than $10 million worth of rental property. The rules of the neighborhood cannot be changed unless 2/3 of the property owners vote to do so, and we have the votes to block any rule change that we choose to.

So now here we are, three years later, and apparently this rule was put in place without our knowledge. One of the landlords showed me a letter where the HOA is telling her that they want a tenant evicted within ten days because that tenant has been parking a boat in the driveway of the rental house.

This all stemmed from an argument with a petty tyrant in the HOA. Another HOA board member lives across the street from the rental property in question, and told the tenant to move the boat out of the driveway. The tenant told him to mind his own business, a screaming match ensued, and now the board member is demanding that the tenant be evicted.

I am not going to allow that to stand. I will sue if I have to, but for now I am advising the HOA to meet with an attorney before pushing this any further, because litigation can be expensive.

By Divemedic, ago

Remote employees

The website Payscale.com asks: “Should pay be adjusted for remote employees?” The real question isn’t whether it should, the question should be “Is pay adjusted for remote workers?” To which the answer is: “Yes, yes it is.”

This is just reality. When a business is hiring from a local pool of workers, the cost of living and tax climate of the local area dictates what amount of pay workers will be willing to accept. A person in Manhattan or Oahu, where the cost of living is high, will demand a higher salary than a person in Biloxi.

It isn’t just that, however. Labor is a product to be sold, and is thus subject to supply and demand, just like any other product. Expanding the labor pool from the local area to the entire nation increases the supply and thus the value of the labor.

One of the things that COVID and the lockdowns did to the business climate was to show businesses that expensive office space on Park Avenue in Manhattan wasn’t strictly necessary for success. Most office workers are capable of doing their jobs remotely. It won’t be long before businesses begin recruiting employees from places like Des Moines because they will soon realize that the employee pool there doesn’t need to be paid as much as the employees from Manhattan who are having to pay $3500 a month for a studio apartment after paying a quarter of their salary in state and local taxes. Places like Tulsa will soon host remote workers in the same way that India and the Philippines now host call centers.

This is why cities like Nashville and Clearwater Beach are seeing population booms as cities like Chicago and New York City see massive relocations.

The employment reality is changing.

By Divemedic, ago

Little Marxist

One of my wife’s friends is from Cuba. That friend has been dating a man from Puerto Rico, and the boyfriend has a child from a previous marriage. Let’s refer to the kid as Carlos. I first met Carlos about six years ago, when he was eight years old or so. He was a decent kid who collected coins as a hobby. He’s fourteen now. He has been in the process of “finding himself” for the past few months.

It happens. My niece decided she was gay. Then a few months later, no longer gay, but a vegetarian. Now she is back to Pescatarian. I guess kids have to experiment. My son did something similar when he was 15 or so. He decided that he wanted to be Socialist, mostly because he thought the government should pay for everything. That phase lasted until he got his first paycheck and saw how much was taken out in taxes. “This is bullshit,” was the phrase he used.

Anyway, back to Carlos. He came home recently and announced that he is a Marxist. On his visitation weekends with Mom (who is also a hardcore lefty), the two of them have been going to protest marches in places like Tallahassee, where he is waving signs saying things like “Capitalism kills” along with signs disparaging the US military, calling them baby killers, that sort of thing. He also marches with the Defund the Police, things like that.

My wife’s friend was willing to ignore it. She found a Che shirt in his closet. As a Cuban, she came unglued. I’ve seen the kid’s social media posts. He blames the US for supporting Pinochet, says he was elected and the US is to blame for supporting a dictator. He claims he is going to head to Canada as soon as he is 18. (Why do they always pick Canada?)

I can’t talk to the disgusting little monster without wanting to punch him in the face. Oh, and mom? That little communist is a certified nutcase. She is also a middle school social studies teacher.

By Divemedic, ago

Children and COVID jab

Physicians in Central Florida are recommending that you vaccinate children aged 5 to 14 against COVID.

Since the vaccine doesn’t prevent infection, the only possible reason for accepting the vaccine is to lessen the severity of the illness.

According to the NIH, the COVID fatality rate of children in that age group is 0.02 per 100,000, which is 1/10,000 the rate of the US population as a whole, which is 215 per 100,000.

Currently, the COVID vaccine has an adverse reaction rate of approximately 20.7 per 100,000.

The adverse reaction rate for the vaccine is thus approximately 1,000 times higher than the risk of COVID for that age group.

The science and the math don’t lie. Even using the US government’s own figures and accepting them at face value says that the risk of the vaccine is greater than the benefit.

By Divemedic, ago