Tuesday Evening, 12/23/25

Well here we are, my first holiday season as a retired person.  I find that I am nowhere near as stressed as I used to be at this time of year.  I don't have to travel anymore these holidays, and if I need something at the store then I can go in the midmorning before the 9 to 5ers get off work and make things more crowded.  It is busy at the church I'm a member of; I am supporting most of the services we are having this month.  I will be glad when Christmas is behind me as that we seem to have this lull of a few days before New Year's Eve arrives.  My boss at Radio Shack said that New Year's Eve is Amateur's Night as that the professional drinkers stay home.

Anyway, we have been blessed with some really fine weather.  When it's in the low 80s in the early afternoon, I want to be out on the shaded back patio with a good book or a radio and with the dog.  The view to the back of me is the back wall of a public storage place that's on the other side of the wash, and that wash is gated off so the only foot traffic is that of javelinas and roadrunners.  Well, some coyotes might get back there too but I won't know for sure unless I remember that I eventually want to get a motion-sensitive trail camera to see if anything really happens back there when I'm not looking.

As for Christmas, I'm sure that the family I married into will be gathering together for some quality time.  Years ago I would usually be off to San Jose to visit my family and friends up there, but with each passing year I have less and less reason to go there as that a lot of the people I was close with have either moved out or are planning to.  As I am tracking down the histories of the families I am researching that I am descended from, everyone scatters and that seems to be a common thread throughout most of human history.

Meanwhile, in the news, it's being reported that the Powerball jackpot is up to $1.7 billion.  The drawing is tomorrow night, and maybe for grins I will pick out some numbers here and we'll see if I have "won", which I won't, because I'm not buying a ticket.  When I had to go to Albertsons for some scrip I noticed a line of five customers itching to make a donation to the Powerball jackpot, and I overheard one of them getting $20 worth of tickets.  

Well it's their money, and it really isn't a societal ill that needs addressing as long as the casual lottery players aren't robbing liquor stores to get money to buy the tickets.  The lottery addicts, on the other hand, are spending much more of that on every drawing, and those are the lottery players that have the problem.  The addicts really wouldn't be that much of an aggravation if they would stop insisting on holding up the line at the Circle K wanting to "go over" all the scratcher games................"are there a lot of winners with this game?  How long will this game go on?  How many winning tickets did you sell with this one?  How often do you see a thousand dollar winner?  What are the new games that are coming out next week?"  And on and on and on.  

As for the casual players, or maybe even the addicts, I'm sure many of them are saying to themselves, "if I win this jackpot, I'm going to do good things with this money.  I'm going to donate some of it to charities.  I'm going to give gifts to my friends and family members.  I don't want to be like one of those rich people who I hate."  The reality is, they're going to go into hiding first, and then face problems they never imagined.

All right.  Enough of that.  Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.

I want to find time to send out some emails to some people I am close to, and hopefully the day won't get away from me like some of them have been.  I have been spending a lot of time with ham radio and getting my logs caught up.  I joined six other hams yesterday for an outing at Saguaro National Park, where a station was set up and we participated in the long running Parks on the Air program.  I QSOed enough hams to be credited with my first activation, but I'm going to have to first register with POTA and get that credit.

There is also a Summits on the Air program, and an Islands on the Air program, which gets people with licenses on the airwaves and communicating.  Yesterday's outdoor operation was a great deal of fun, and we'll be doing more of these in the near future.  We're also talking about going over to New Mexico and operating from there.  

In the meantime, Merry Christmas!  

The Lottery: Is It Really Worth It?

From time to time when I'm trying to buy something at a convenience store, I'm stuck behind what can best be described as a lottery addict.  We had one here some years back who would frequent this one Circle K, stopping there on a Sunday morning, and getting fifteen people or more backed up behind her because she wanted to run thru a whole stack, I'm guessing a hundred of them, to see if she won anything.  And I'm sure that winnings, if any, were used to purchase lottery tickets for the next drawing.  Her husband would stand by with this pained look on his face, probably not being able to afford very much fun things in their retirement because his wife was a lottery addict.  

I don't go to that store any more, due to a different reason, but a week or so ago I got behind another lottery addict.  She had a 3/8 inch stack of scratcher tickets, and I put down my items and walked out because I don't like having to be behind people with obvious gambling problems.  And now that I'm writing this, I'm going to bring up one other anecdote.

While I was in Las Vegas and working for Bigelow Aerospace, one of my more strange co-workers told us during the morning break that he was going to spend $160 on Powerball tickets that weekend.  Strange as it may seem, Nevada state law does not allow for a state-run lottery even though nearly every other form of gambling is legal.  So when the Powerball jackpot gets big, many of the residents of Trashcan will drive down to the California Lottery store just over the state line across from Primm.  Others will drive over to Dolan Springs AZ.  Anyway, when my co-worker told us this, I had a response.

"Why don't you write out a check to the lottery and mail it in?  You won't have to spend all that time driving down there and waiting in a long line, and besides, the result is going to be the same."  He just looked at me like I told him I had lunch with Elvis Presley on board an alien spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mars.  Needless to say, he didn't win the jackpot, as that he was back at work the following Monday.

Anyway, I got to thinking about the lottery, that is, the Powerball, the Megamillions, and the Arizona state lottery.  I have no recollection of ever buying a Powerball ticket or anything like that.  In years past I would buy scratcher tickets if I was out of state, so that I could have a souvenir of my visit, but I haven't done that in many years.  One reason I don't play Powerball is, is that some chump is going to win the jackpot and I won't be that chump.  A second reason is, that when I once worked out what the return would be on California scratchers when they started out in 1985, I figured that for every $100 you spent on scratchers you could expect to get $23 back.  Their lottery said that 50% would be paid out in prizes, the schools would get most of the rest, but half of that 50% was going to to subsidize the jackpot.  That's not a very good return.  And the first two jackpots went to an illegal alien and a welfare recipient who blew his entire check on the lottery.  

Now let's look at what happens to some winners.  If you google "lottery horror stories", you're going to get a lot of results.  Read thru them sometime.  There have been broken marriages, homicides, bankruptcies, and all sorts of bad things happening to jackpot winners.  Is it worth it?  Many of the winners wish they had never played in the first place.  Their lives did not change for the better.  

Now let's look at something else.  If you win the jackpot, do you really think that your life is all of a sudden going to get easy?  At that point, you become known, even if you try to hide it.  You will get hit with all sorts of people wanting handouts, and many of your family members and other relatives will turn against you if you don't share your money with them.  Sure, you could buy them houses and Cadillacs, but will that be enough for them?  

In my view, it isn't worth it.  A sudden influx of wealth will bring you all sorts of problems you're not prepared for, and repeated attempts to buy your way out of those problems can leave you in a position that was worse before you bought that ticket.

Call me insane if you want to, but the one reason why I don't play the lottery is that I don't want to the problems that come with winning the jackpot, and I'm not going to be foolish enough to think that I would be immune to those problems.  The way I see it, I am a blessed individual.  I got to do the things I most wanted to do.  I got to meet the people I most wanted to meet.  I have a neat wife, a nice house, and lots of simple pleasures.

In other words:  I have already won the jackpot, and I'm not going to trade that for the other jackpots that are out there.

If you wish to spend money on the lottery, that's your business, even if you're not one of those lottery addicts I described earlier.  If you become one, you need help, and if you win that jackpot good luck with that because you're going to need it.  

As I said......in my own way, I have already won the jackpot.

And Now Pete Rose is Gone

This afternoon I learned that Pete Rose passed away.  I remember seeing him in person at Candlestick Park with the Big Red Machine.  Baseball was great in those days.  The Reds were great.  I rooted for them in the 1975 World Series and when I saw them play the Giants at Candlestick.

Somewhere along the way, I lost my interest in baseball.  It started coming back when I was in my early 30s, and that was after Pete Rose accepted a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball for gambling.  And when the players went on strike in 1994, that was it for me.  They came off the strike the next year and I went on strike as a fan and have been on strike since.  (This is coming from someone who still refuses to rent from Hertz, due to their previous association with OJ Simpson.  And I have no idea why people say I'm stubborn.)  But let's get this back to Pete Rose.

There is no doubt he was one of the greatest baseball players of all time.  I remember him running to first base when he drew a walk.  From what I have read he adopted a derisive nickname and made it his own.  There was never a Charlie Hustle before and there will never be another one.  

When the gambling allegations surfaced, I'm thinking..........say it ain't so, Pete.  The investigation went on for many months, and I read that Rule 21, prohibiting gambling from the players, was conspicuously posted on the door of every clubhouse.  In other words, Pete Rose had no excuse.  Gambling problem?  Yeah, we learned he had one.  But it went deeper than that.  There was tax evasion and shady behavior on his part.  The man who I saw run to first base upon drawing a walk was doing a different kind of hustling off the field.  I was disappointed, and I agreed with the ban.

For some time, I thought MLB was going to cave, and reinstate him.  To their credit, they haven't.  In my opinion MLB isn't exactly an honest enterprise and a large part of that is due to continued fan support, which I've touched upon in a few posts from many years back.

Anyway........someone who became as controversial as OJ Simpson, but in a different way, is no longer with us.  

I hope that anyone he was ever a role model to will restrict their emulation to passionate execution in what they do for a living, and not in what Rose did off the field.

Some Random Thoughts; 1/11/15

In the wake of the tragic shooting at Charlie Hebdo, Organized Media and the liberal left have been in a panic over two things.  One of them is that the mainstream of society will associate this terrorist action with Muslims, and another is that the right wing might gain control of France.

France for years has been a socialist paradise.  Free health care (if you can get it), 35 hour work weeks (if you can find a job), six weeks of vacation a year (if you have a job), and gun control that's so strict that even a percentage of the police aren't allowed to carry guns.

Could it be that the real fear is that they know a socialist paradise does not protect the individual citizen, since the needs of the State come first?

 

* * * * * * *

I'm waiting to see if one of our own politicians will be blaming the NRA for what happened in France.  The NRA is a formidable opponent to the proposed UN treaty that's targeting "small arms".  Watch for one of them to come forward to say, "if only this treaty had been in force this would never have happened!"

* * * * * * *

Organized Media and those who let Organized Media do their thinking for them are telling us that we shouldn't be offending the Muslims.

Yet these are the same people who have no problem with Christians being offended.  Example, federal money being used to fund "art" depicting a crucifix in urine.

They will deny that they have an anti-Christian bias, but try asking them about having federal money fund an art project that has the Koran submerged in urine, or an image of the Prophet Mohammed defaced. 

Watch them change the subject if you suggest that.  That is, if they don't turn and walk away from you.

* * * * * * *

Living in a state that has legalized gambling will present you with images that you are not likely to forget.

I keep thinking about that 40 something woman that I saw in a casino last month.  She was trying to withdraw funds from an ATM, and saw the message on her screen that informed her that her daily withdrawal limit had been reached.

That look of despair and panic on her face is something I will never forget.

* * * * * * *

Proponents of legalized gambling will tell you that it will bring money and jobs into your state.

That's very true.  Billions of dollars come to Nevada each year.  The roads here are in good shape, and I pay no state income tax. 

However, the entrepreneur who founded my new employer didn't make his money from gambling.  He made it from another business, having recognized a niche need for that industry that he filled.

I can't say that my job depends on legalized gambling, and I think that might be a good thing.

As for those billions of dollars that are coming here, I haven't gotten a single dime.  I do indirectly benefit from the good roads and lower tax burden.  But I'm not convinced that gambling should be legal. 

* * * * * * *

How has legalized gambling helped Atlantic City? 

Last I heard, the slums are still there.

* * * * * * *

Yet...........I'll have to admit that playing the nickel slots are a lot of fun, as well as shooting craps.   I haven't done very much of either since I started living here.  I don't like the $5 minimum bet that most casinos here have on the craps table.  I did visit a casino in Henderson that my boss told me about that had a $1 limit, and thirty minutes later I was up $4 when I quit. 

I guess craps isn't as much fun if it's legal where you live.  It seemed like it was much more fun when I was a resident of California/Arizona. 

* * * * * * *

I am becoming convinced that federal legislation is needed to prohibit Microsoft engineers from being near any hardware or software that is used to fly spacecraft or aircraft. 

How many planes would suddenly crash if Microsoft were to write code for aerodynamic control?  How many rockets would blow up?  How many manned spacecraft would find themselves stranded in orbit?

Microsoft engineers definitely need to be kept away from flight articles.

* * * * * * *

That's all, folks!

Back to the Workforce

I returned to the workforce last Monday, reporting at 8:00 AM.  I immediately was taken to the executive office area (ultra modern looking, like you see in the movies!) for clear-in processing by Human Resources.  There were a lot of documents to sign, including benefits and 401k authorizations.  The HR lady commented that it was like trying to buy a house.  I don't remember clear-in taking as long as it did since the last time I had to do it was in 1999, and I'm sure more laws regarding employment have been passed since then so there's more that a company has to make you sign.

After that I was then taken for some briefings on some internal procedures.  That was rather painless as that my previous employer had this way of over-engineering the presentation to where it took longer to go thru all of that.  Then it was a visit to the company cafeteria, as that the coffee and cookies are free and it's customary for people there to take a coffee break.......I'll say that it's encouraged by management, and hey, if they want me to grab some coffee on their nickel then I'll take it.

At that point it was time to start my new assignment.  I was given some reading material on one of our hot projects and ten minutes into reading this I knew that I had made the right choice in accepting their offer.  Well, it was the offer I most wanted to get out of the existing possibilities, but it was nice to have that feeling re-confirmed.

I could write a few pages on what we are doing, but company policy will not allow that.  No, it's not classified or anything like that; it's that what we're doing is proprietary and the potential for industrial espionage is there.  I could name this employer and direct you to their website, but I'm not going to do that.  Those family and friends who need to know already know.

I will say this:  I am doing the neatest job that I've ever gotten to do in my life!  Mark back in San Jose was right when he predicted this.  He admitted being tempted to send in a resume to this firm.

* * * * * * *

There is naturally a collection of concerns that one has when undergoing a transition like this.  I'm not worried about losing this job or anything like that, even though the industry can be brutal.  I think we're the best at what we do so I have confidence in this company.

The concern though is whether or not I will be able to afford a house in the Las Vegas valley.  The market here is taking off and the market in Tucson is not.  I have heard some chatter that it is picking up in Tucson, but people who want to leave the People's Republic of California are more likely to land in Las Vegas than they are in Tucson.  There is no state income tax here and the climate is business-friendly.  In Tucson, the city council is doing all they can to discourage business, no doubt a consequence of their left-wing leanings.........meaning that they view all for-profit businesses and corporations as evil, and thus these enterprises must be punished with taxes, fees, and bureaucracy.

The upshot of that means that Tucson is on its way to becoming a retirement community, with only service-oriented industries.  The high tech jobs are disappearing.  They're going to Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas, Orlando, Huntsville and other places.  So, that translates into a dismal housing market in Tucson.

Now I could sell and get some money out of my house.  Not as much as I'd like, of course.  The value was nearly doubled in 2004 but when the foreclosure wave emerged prices dropped to 2000 levels....the year that I bought my house. 

Las Vegas was hit harder by the bubble burst than most other cities.  I think the typical house ran up to $400k and a lot of people moved here from southern California.  Then the bubble burst, with Vegas having one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation and those who kept their houses found out that they owed more money on their house than what it was worth (this hit Phoenix metro as well).

The crash here has since happened, but it's picking up again.  This new wave started in California, and quickly migrated to over here, and it might be picking up some in Phoenix. 

So the big concern here is, will I be able to afford a house here should I sell in Tucson?

 

* * * * * * *

One option is to keep the house in Tucson and rent it out.  I could easily clear a good chunk more in rent than what I'm paying on my mortgage.  That scenario of course would mean returning in Tucson when I'm really ready to retire.  Sheila loves the house, and I do too.  The lot sizes in Vegas though are small....you have to wonder why they don't build rowhouses like you see in Philadelphia and cram 'em in.  I personally wish my back yard in Tucson was bigger than it is, but it would be even smaller in Vegas.  I might have room for a BBQ grill and a few lounge chairs and that's it. 

So the second concern here is, the quality of house I could get here if I could get one.

 

* * * * * * *

The third concern is the school situation.  I had a good chat with the chief of security at my new employer.  He said that if kids are in the mix, live either in Henderson or in Summerlin.  If kids are not in the mix, then any good neighborhood would do.

We've already been looking at Henderson.  It would mean for a longer commute for me, but we're talking 20 minutes.  My boss lives in Henderson and loves it.  Henderson is also among the top five safest cities in the country, as reported by the FBI. 

The kids of course, are a little apprehensive about the move.  I won't interrupt a school year and I need to know that we'll be able to make it here as a family before I commit to a move.

However, I'm also prepared for the possibility that I'll be making frequent visits to Tucson for two years.  That is not to my liking nor is it to Sheila's, but if there's another boom here in housing prices that is not reflected in Tucson then we'll definitely have to hang on to the house.

* * * * * * *

Fourth concern.

I'm living in a state with legalized gambling.  As related in the previous post, there was a time in my life when I thought gambling was great as hot buttered popcorn and bottled beer, but I don't think that way now.  After coming up here for a BTO concert in 2002, I found myself being against legalized gambling for the first time in my life.

What had happened was that I had stayed Downtown, where BTO was playing on a stage set up at Fremont Street between the then Fitzgerald's and the Four Queens.  During my time there, I was constantly hit up on by panhandlers.  I got tired of it.  After the concert, Bob Self made the pronouncement that "The whole town is a trashcan!" and although I was laughing at it, I realized where he was coming from.

That Sunday morning, after gassing up for the return home, I saw this destitute guy walking around in a daze.  I'm thinking, this town sure has sure destroyed a lot of people.  When I got back to Arizona there was an election later on with three ballot measures seeking to expand Indian gaming in the state.

In the past I would have voted yes on these.

I voted no on all three, since I'm thinking about what I saw in Vegas and also thinking, not in my state.

I do have something of a libertarian streak in me and I believe that a state has the right to legalize gambling.  I've done some research as to why Nevada legalized it in 1931, and I want to do a little more reading on this. 

As for gambling itself.......I did discover one minor benefit.

I was Downtown yesterday for people-watching, and I stopped off at the Four Queens for a Coors Light.  The bartender informed me that if I put ten dollars into the video poker machine that was embedded into the counter right in front of me, he could "comp" me the beer....meaning that it's "free" if you gamble.  Otherwise, he'd have to charge me $4.50.

I got to thinking, what's to stop me from leaving the bar before I gamble away the ten dollars?  What are they gonna do about it?  So I fed ten smackers into the machine and went at it......slowly playing a quarter a hand.  I was slow and deliberative in playing my hand.  Once I was down to $7.50 in the machine I quit playing, although I pretended to be carefully studying the cards every time the bartender looked over at me.

When I was done, I cashed out. 

By my reckoning I paid $2.50 for that beer instead of $4.50, and had a little entertainment along the way.

 

* * * * * * *

That is going to be it for now.

No.....Not the Whole Town

Yesterday Sheila and I did some driving around and we saw some neighborhoods west of here that we liked.  They looked a lot like my neighborhood in Tucson, with the only drawback that I could think of was that it would take me some time to get to work since I'd be further away from the freeway.  I'll need to explore a little more of North Las Vegas and Henderson.  There's plenty of time for that later on, as that my next few days will be spent making sure that my new digs will have the utilities turned on effective my move-in date of 11/24.  I may rent where I'm at now for that whole week in the event that something goes wrong.  I'm thinking it might take two trips from "here" to "there" to move the things I've acquired since I arrived here.

Sheila is back in Tucson, and me, I feel like I'm away from home on a business trip, like I've been so many times before.  I spent several weeks in San Diego once when I was managing a satellite tracking facility that was set up at Qualcomm.  I spent three weeks in the Waco area of Texas providing launch support.  I've had three trips to Japan, the middle one being five weeks.  I've had more trips to Los Angeles than I can remember.  I am no stranger to hotel rooms or long term residence inns, but there is no place like home, and I look forward to being in my own bed Thanksgiving weekend.

A lot of people who know me are somewhat on the envious side that I have a job in Las Vegas and they don't.  I know of some people here who really enjoy living here.  If I could have one of those houses in a nice neighborhood like I saw yesterday, I could enjoy it here, and not miss my house in Tucson since I would have an equivalent or better one here. 

I can understand why someone who doesn't live here would love to vacation here.  Las Vegas is famous all the world over; I'm sure due to legalized gambling and the movies that feature this city.  In the mid 80s I really wanted to come here bad for a trip to see what it was all about.  I got to do that in 1986 and again in 1993, and although I enjoyed it, the reality is that three days in a casino district is enough and you want to be somewhere else.

I might be in the minority here, but I'm thinking that the Las Vegas of the 50s and 60s was in some ways a lot better.  The slot machines were mechanical and paid out in coins.  I've read where silver dollars circulated here.  I'm sure Glitter Gulch, a nickname for Downtown, was quite the exciting place to be.   All of that's changed now.  In some ways I like the change and in other ways I don't.

I'm sure that Sheila and I will be having lots of date nights Downtown.  There are a few places on the Strip that she still wants to check out.  She hasn't yet been inside the "Pyramid" (Luxor Hotel).  There's still Venice and the Bellagio to check out (I've been to the real ones in Italy).  I plan to take her there on her future visits.  When the kids come for the weekend, I want them to see the saxophone player Downtown, Carl Ferris, who performs there almost every night.  I might just end up being one of the few residents who vacations here from time to time.

As for gambling........a few words here.

There was a time in my life, such as in my early college years, that I thought gambling was great.  I wasn't yet 21 but I couldn't wait until I was so that I could go to Nevada and gamble.  I saw Nevada as a quick means to make a lot of money real quickly, and to have fun doing it.

At the age of 19 we went to Nebraska, in the summer of 1978, and I remember begging my dad to try out a slot machine since there was this chance of getting a whole lot of free money out of it (we had stopped in Reno for gas).  He relented and put in a quarter, or maybe it was a dollar bill, came up empty, and then asked me if I was happy.  We were then on our way to Nebraska.

On the return leg of that trip, we had stopped in Winnemucca.  I knew that I wasn't old enough, but I really wanted to try out some slot machines that were across the street from where we were staying.  I announced my plans.......my dad was going to go ahead and let me learn the lesson while my mom cautioned me to be safe since Nevada has a higher crime rate.

I walked into that casino, acting like I owned the place.  I went to the cashier and asked to buy a roll of nickels.  She said "good luck to you" as she handed me the roll, and I went on my way to make some free money.....or so I thought.

I went at it with a nickel slot machine.  At one point the security guard was looking at me, like maybe I wasn't really old enough to be playing the machine......which I wasn't.  I glared back at him with a "you leave me the **** alone!" look and he never came over to challenge me.  I continued at it, getting small payouts here and there.

Then I ran out of nickels.  They were all gone.  After the course of ten minutes or fifteen minutes or whatever it was, I had lost $2.00.  I then decided to walk back across to the motel.  I felt like I was cheated.  The casino was rigged.  They cheated me out of two dollars, and I was somewhat torqued over that.  The bastards stole that money off of me, and I wasn't going to get it back.

It wasn't until some years later that I gambled again in Nevada, although legally.  I probably should tell you some more gambling stories in the posts ahead.

As for whether or not I'm gambling now.........let's just say that as a soon to be resident, I tend to view casinos more for their dining and buffets and people watching more than for anything else.

I can't see the point in gambling, as that it's a good way to be separated from your money.