As luck would have it, and I checked, Vietnam does not have a Doge owners club. So you can start the chapter when you move there.

Good times. With you living in Vietnam, and me moving to Samoa; it will be just like you living in Fresno & me living in Frisco.

 

Happy Thursday all. It is 87 in my bedroom at the moment, so I am unable to sleep without waking up every hour in a sweat. So here I am in my computer chair in the living room with the AC on, wondering if I can get any sleep. Four more weeks and the recliner remote should be here...

Made a mistake on my food stamp recertification paperwork, and they canceled my food stamps for this month. They sent me a secure email on their site telling me they will send another one and if I fill it out completely and add "proof of income" they will reinstate it. I always add "proof of income" but for some reason known only to God, I didn't this time. It just means going to the social security website and downloading/printing a letter proving to anyone who reads it that I do indeed receive benefits from them, and how much. Same with the VA benefits website. I know, in today's world with all the technology we have available, that they already know what my income is, and from where I get it. I send them the paperwork every year. Still, seems ridiculous to me to have to do it. However, I need the food stamps more than I need those 3 pieces of paper, so I did it. Now I am just waiting for their paperwork to show up so I can answer all their questions again, and then stuff the "proof of income" in the envelope with it and return it by the end of the month.

At least the Dodge is running fine now. And the Ranger is as reliable as ever. Maybe someday I can get the AC fixed in that.

Jim

 

Gas is through the roof. I'm taking the bus from now on.

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Holy cow! The corner gas stations are at $4.09 and $4.19 a gallon. However, if I drive about a mile southeast of the apartments, I can still get it for under $4.00 a gallon, except for their stupid .35 cent fee for using a debit/credit card.

Jim

 

It's a reflection of the cost of real estate in the city. Gas stations gotta cover their rent.

 

So true. And they only make pennies on a gallon of gas. their biggest income comes from their snack sales, and if they are a gas station with a service garage (very rare these days) they make money on that, but it helps to be in a good location. I worked several gas stations in my younger days. Some as a mechanic, and others as a cashier. And all of the owners said the same thing about where the bulk of their income came from. The station that did the best was on the southeast corner of Disneyland. So they had a lot of traffic coming through. I worked one in the City of Orange right by the 57 freeway. And when the city closed down the off/on ramps for repairs of the bridge, he almost went bankrupt. There was no freeway traffic, and because the bridge was closed, no thru traffic from the other side of the city. The garage traffic was up and down. even next to Disneyland you never had a steady stream of customers coming to the station for repair work. So the snack shop would get most the business from the customers stopping in for gas.

Jim

 

Good evening guys!

Jim, Sorry about the food stamps.

Rob from the city, Thank you again for your service sir!

The first of the week gas was $3.879 at one of the local stations.

 

A guy I know owned the local corner gas station by my house. He candidly spoke about how his gas station made money - for everyone else. For all the money that flows into his cash register - almost all of it went right back out. The margin on a gas station is extremely small, when compared to other small businesses. Only pennies per gallon, but how many gallons is he selling? He has service bays which are always busy with those coupons for oil changes. The snack shop sells everything at a huge mark-up. He said that he could have made more money buying Chevron stock with the dividend and growth, than what he made operating a Chevron gas station. He said that he came to America as a refugee after the Arab Israeli War, when Jimmy Carter was president. Gas prices were sky high, it was a terrible business to be in, and that's how he got into the gas station, because the previous owner was desperate to sell. Carter became president in 1977. Chevron was about $5 a share in 1977. Today, it's about $100 a share. I have no idea what he paid for that gas station, or how much money he made over the years. But I'm willing to bet that he has made a ton of money, and he just likes to complain. No way do you buy a gas station, then lose money for 40 or 50 years.

 

Very true. If he was losing money he would have sold it a long time ago.

Jim

 

Good morning Nor Cal

 

Afternoon Tim.

Jim

 

Good morning all. August is 50% complete, and the smoke is backing down to our corner this morning.

 

Good morning Crew!

I just put a brisket on the smoker, cooking a little higher temp then my other cooks. I cut in two to fit on my smoker. I hope to eat dinner before midnight!

 

From where I am, all I see is fog. But we have about 25 miles between us.

 

I usually separate the point from the flat, then cook 1 piece at a time. The whole brisket is so big, you need 20 people to eat it. If we all carpool, we could make it to Washington by midnight. Jim's Dodge has new belts, hoses, and AC.