Cashing it out

I've been carrying this box of coins and bills around for as long as I can remember from apartment to apartment, to condo, to house, to house.  The best I've managed to do was combine them all into one container.  

Well, today I finally took them to a local coin collector and he confirmed what I always suspected.  99% of them are just worth the currency as printed.  I sold twelve $2 bills for $3 a piece and a silver half dollar for $7.50, bringing my grand total to $43.50.  

People hold onto coins and other collectibles way longer than they should, believing that there might be that one item that will fetch a high price.  It doesn't help that a story comes out every few months where someone found a rare piece of art worth money.

The coin collector told me I might want to hold on to some of my silver certificate dollar bills (he didn't specify which ones).  He agreed that I'm just as well off either taking everything to my bank and depositing it or reintroducing everything back into circulation.  And that's what I will do.  There is no point in passing these coins on to Moose and Squirrel, hoping they will be worth something more one day.  If they only increased 1% in 30+ years, there is no need to keep them around.  Is it possible they could become more valuable in a Twilight Zone screenplay sort of way?  Perhaps, but that would be such a strange set of circumstances that it isn't even worth entertaining.

2024 Bears Predication Update: First Quarter Results

The NFL season is 1/4 over and the Chicago Bears are 2-2.  This is where I predicted them but not how.  They managed to lose games they should have won and win games they should have lost.  That's the NFL and the Bears in a nutshell.

For their next four games, I predicted the following:

Panthers W

Jaguars W

Bye Week

at Commanders W

at Cardinals L

I'm sticking with it but the Commanders are playing well and the other three teams aren't as bad as their record indicates.  And any team with a losing record is dangerous because they really want that next win.

For instance, the Bears play the 1-3 Panthers next week.  We will be in Ontario so I likely won't get to watch that game until we get back (and I'll only watch if we win).  

The Jaguars are looking for their first win and I hope they get it against Indianapolis so that when we play them in London, we aren't playing a desperate 0--5 team looking for their first win of the season.  While this counts as a home game, it's on the road.  Far, far away.  But they do have the Bye week next so it resets.

Then the next two games are on the road where we have lost all season.  My prediction had them going 3-1, making them 5 - 3 overall.  I'm worried this might have been too optimistic.  Anything less than 2-2 makes their playoff hopes a little tougher.

Slow Cooker Basil Chicken Coconut Curry Recipe

Whenever I try a new recipe, I do my best to use all the ingredients and follow directions to the letter.  For this Slow Cooker Basil Chicken Coconut Curry Recipe, I found that I had most of the ingredients at home already.  I was out of Chile powder, so I used this Mexican Adobe seasoning we got from Fresh Farms in Grosse Pointe.  I also didn't brown the chicken thighs first as I read a comment that it works fine either way and the point of Slow Cooker/Crockpot recipes is less work.

Nighingale stocks up on sales and we had a ton of chicken thighs in our deep freeze.  The boneless/skinless package I used was just under 3 lbs so I tinkered with the spice ratios a little.  also, Natasha loves mixing ingredients so it was easier to round up on some of them.

Finally, I didn't understand that seeded meant taking the seeds out.  Luckily, this recipe has enough Coconut Milk that it wasn't too hot to handle.

Last Day of September

To say September was a busy month is an understatement.  We had birthdays for the twins and Nightingale.  NG also had a girls' weekend in Anne Arbor.  Our anniversary is this week and this weekend we travel to Ontario to visit Niagra Falls.  I tried several times and failed to hammer out this post.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

The weather is averaging in the 70s and I can wear long pants again without feeling uncomfortable.  I have a lot of projects to get to and the cooler weather makes it easier.  However, Boris has been home sick since Wednesday with a bad cough.  

This weekend my BIL Confederate Jethro wanted a kid-free weekend for his 50th birthday.  My in-laws agreed and the kids were divided between Nightingale's parents and his.  But my MIL had an online class Saturday afternoon so we had to watch the 3 yr old for a few hours.  In other words, my FIL couldn't take care of his grandchild for a few hours.  

I honestly don't think Grandpa Cartwright ever wanted children or grandchildren, at least not in a longing sense of the word.  He was taught that a man gets married, raises a family and that's that.  But he wasn't taught that a man is involved with his family beyond bringing home a paycheck and caring for children is woman's work.  Confederate Jethro is of the same cloth.

And the net effect of that is we had to help a guy who won't lift a finger to help us or anyone else.  I'm just writing this here to remember in a few months when my 55-year-old brain has filed this one away.

2024 Bears Playoff Prediction: Anything can happen

I forgot to do this back in March because I was waiting to see if the Bears kept Fields and drafted talent around him, or picked the best QB in the draft with the number one pick.  Without knowing any of the behind the scenes goings on, I would have wanted them to trade the number one pick for a haul of "lottery tickets" and beef up every position they could.  

Alas, they decided to go the other direction.  On a side note, I'm not getting any younger and I hate that every time we get a new GM or Coach, they need to replace the current GM or QB because it wasn't their guy.  WTF did this not come up during the interview?

Anyway here is my 2024 prediction.  two games have already been played and the Bears are 1-1 but I'm 2 and 0.  The Chicago Bears have two ways to make the playoffs: Win the Division or via WildCard.

Winning the Division:

Currently, in the NFC North, the Lions are trending up, the Vikings are trending up and the Packers aren't going away.  This could be the year that the NFC has four teams that finish with winning records.

Through a fluke of scheduling, the Bears don't have any division games until after the bye week and later in the season and what on paper looked like a soft schedule beforehand.  They also have 1 more home game though it is in Europe so it doesn't really count.  

I'm gonna take a stand and say the Bears will not Win their Division this year.  At best, they will split with each division opponent.

Also, there is no way the League is gonna let a rookie quarterback win a Super Bowl, so they won't go deep in the playoffs no matter how good Caleb Williams turns out to be.

WildCard:

To make it to the post-season, this is their path.  The Bears went 7-10 last year, mostly because their defense improved at the end.  They also lost 4 games they were leading by double digits.  If they win two of those, they might have made the playoffs.

So this year they need their Defense to keep them in games and for the offense to execute.  Through 2 games so far, the D has kept opponents under 20 points.  If the Offense can show up, they will win a lot of close games.

Summer is nearly over down here

I cannot, and I assume most other people, cannot discern any noticeable difference between 87, 89, and 92 degrees.  Or any temperature difference of just a few degrees.  I acknowledge that an 87-degree day can be miserable if there is humidity while a 92-degree day could feel just fine.

We are in the high 80s this week and although we can still get temps in the 90s throughout October, I would say that Summer is nearly over down here.  The mornings are cool and crisp and the evenings are completely bearable.  In another week or so, I'll be back to wearing long pants.  

It's been 7 months since I've earned a paycheck.  The week before Labor Day 4 Recruiters reached out to me.  Five if you count the one who cleared did a very lazy search and thought I'd be a perfect match for a skillset I do not possess.

In no particular order, Recruiter #1 was for a consulting gig I did not want, so I didn't even bother filling out the online app.  He faded away.

Recruiter #2 wrote up a cover letter for me but has also disappeared.  He felt that some of the gaps in my resume indicated I was having trouble finding a job.  While technically true, the idea that maybe a person would take time off from Corporate America wasn't even considered.

Recruiter #3 reached out to me the Tuesday after Labor Day and I handed off my resume but I haven't heard back.  They took a copy of the resume I had on LinkedIn and pasted into their template.

Recruiter #4 is arranging for a video call this week but hasn't confirmed if it will be tomorrow or Thursday.

Note: I'm not doing backflips following up with any of them because I know it is futile.  But I did realize something.  Gaps in your resume aren't so much about you not being able to get a job.  It's about you being able to exist without having a job.  Because if you can do it once, you can do it again.  And our Corporate America Overlord do not want a workforce that doesn't rely on them.

Tastes of Chicago

Now that it's the 2nd week of September, the mornings are starting to be a bit chilly.  It still gets up to 80s and 90s in the afternoon but soon we will be swapping shorts for long pants.  I'm looking forward to the consistently cooler weather because I have a lot of projects that are just too uncomfortable to do in the heat.

I haven't been able to watch a Cubs game down here lately, but I keep up with them via the web.  They are 9 games back in the division with 19 games left in the season (magic number 29, tragic number 10).  Winning the division isn't gonna happen.  We knew this by July.  They didn't get hot again until August and by then Milwaukee built up a double-digit lead.

They are 5 games back in the Wild Card and while it's more realistic, they will need some help from the teams in front of them.  Too little, too late.  Too many blown leads.  I don't know if it's better to miss it by 5 games or miss it by 1-2 games like last year (I don't want to look it up, suffice it to say they collapsed last year in Epic Cubs Fashion.  

Because it was against the Tennessee Titans, I was able to watch the Bears game yesterday.  The Defense bailed out the offense for the win.  Next week is Sunday Night Football so I will be able to watch that game as well.  After that, I must decide if I want to pay for the Sunday Ticket to continue watching the games.  Yesterday's game was fun to watch despite the anemic offense.  

The problem is most of the games are at noon.  This is smack dab in the middle of the day when Nightingale is trying to food prep for the week and the kids need lunch.  It is not hyperbole when I say that everyone is calm and chill until 11:59 am and then the minute the game starts, I'm suddenly needed.

There's no point paying all that money to not be able to enjoy the little joys I get down here and watch them lose.  I have about two weeks to decide.