Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, so we get to enjoy six more weeks of winter weather. Based on the exceedingly mild winter weather we’ve been experiencing here to date, six more weeks of days like today (sunny, 60° F, 15.5° C) is fine with me.
Stop SOPA and PIPA
This site has not gone dark today, but our mothership has in support of those whose rights will violated by passing of the current SOPA AND PIPA under consideration by the US House of Representatives and Senate, respectively.
A Tale of Two Systems
The base salary of US representatives/senators is about $14,500 per month. One of the typical health plans they may choose is Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Their premium is about $430 per month, which is about 3% of their salary. This includes family coverage.
The average Social Security recipient receives $1177 per month. Their cost for Medicare Part B is about $100 per month, which is about 8% of their monthly income from Social Security. This is single coverage.
References:
Disclaimer: Any misrepresentations are due to ignorance rather than malice aforethought. Please feel free to let me know if I have indeed misinterpreted the reference data.
First Snow
We had our first snowfall of the year yesterday. It didn’t amount to much, but in this area it doesn’t take much snow to wreak havoc with the normal flow of things.
Many people here in the Washington, DC Metro area are originally from parts of the country that typically have substantial snowfalls each year. However, it seems that once they arrive here, they immediately lose their ability to drive when snow is falling, no matter how sparse the resulting ground cover may be.
Yet Another McMansion
The house in the background went on the market about two weeks ago for an advertised price of $1.2 million US dollars. That’s not unusual for this area as the price of housing has always been extremely high and almost all of the new houses being built are McMansions.
As the house went through the various phases of construction, I had this nagging feeling that something about it was different. And then one day it occurred to me – the house has a one-car garage.
Now I have nothing against one-car garages, but one of the standard features one sees in the McMansions going up around here is a two-car garage.
Would you buy this house if you could get one with comparable floor space and features at the same price, in the same neighborhood, with a two-car garage?
Going Up, Part XVIII
The second McMansion in our neighborhood is now under contract and the prospective new owners are said to be hoping to be in the house before Christmas. There has been a flurry of activity around the house for the past few days. I suspect they are working on the developer’s punch list and getting ready for the walkthrough and inspection by the buyer.
The initial asking price for the house was $1.384M. It will be interesting to see what the actual sell price was.
Update, 31 December 2011 – the closing price on house was $1,216,500. A real bargain! 😉