I'll admit it: It's our fault.

Over the last two weeks, the stock market has become increasingly unstable. Rather than focus on quarterly profit reports, dropping oil prices, etc., it has been tossed about by the whims of the Fed and the brokers.

Why? Because BYU beat UCLA -- by a whole stinking lot:

From The BCS Guru:

UCLA made the biggest splash by getting mauled by Brigham Young, 59-0. The last time the Bruins lost that badly - in 1929 - the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began shortly thereafter.

Yes. The economic turmoil surrounding our nation's financial markets is because of BYU football. How was the economy after BYU's greatest teams won? Can someone check that out for me?

Brilliant, I say!

I had this idea the other day: Gasoline Co-ops.

Think about this: currently, we buy gas as we need it, paying whatever the price may be at the time. This leads to interesting dilemmas, such as this: we all know when the price of gas is going to go up (say, Memorial Day weekend), so everyone tries to fill up right before hand. Thus, the lines at the pump are huge and some places run out of supply, etc.

What would happen if we bought gasoline in bulk, instead? I hear people saying, "Where are we going to keep it? We don't all have 100 gallon tanks in the back of our trucks! You have no idea what you're talking about!"

Not like that, silly. Sheesh. Take this example. I go into the co-op after I get paid on the 15th and say, hmm, I want 200 dollars worth of gas. They say, "Okay Mr. Scoresby, we'll put that on your account. Do you want regular or premium?"

"Oh, regular's fine for me."

"Okay, 200 dollars works out to 50.76 gallons. Can I see your card?" *swipe* "I've added it to your account, you can pump it anytime you choose. Remember, though, if you don't make any withdrawal for a month, we'll charge you a holding fee on the gas. It's got to stay fresh."

"Thanks for the reminder!" I'll reply as I head out to my car and pump out a tankload.

See what I did there? I just turned a gas station into a storage facility! I only need to buy the gas once a month, and I've already paid for all the gas I'll use for rest of the month (and hopefully, some of next month) in today's price. The system knows how much I have, and I can pump it until I need to buy more!

Obviously there need to be some rules: Minimum and maximum monthly purchase caps, what to do if there's a shortage or excess (I vote to sell the excess from the pump like a normal station- the profits go to fund the station's operation, maintenance, employee's salaries, etc.), what kinds of gas (regular,probably; premium, maybe; diesel? kinda iffy; E80 - bah, humbug).

Anyway, I think the general idea is sound.

Tax Time

Tracy and I have finally received all of our W2s, student loan interest papers, and other sundry and miscellaneous tax documents for last year, so now it's time to do taxes.  actually, we don't do them ourselves.  one of my co-workers from my stint at the IRS helps us.  He can find deductions that we normally wouldn't notice.  This year, however, the anticipation for next year is the biggest deal:  Imagine, next year, we will have a child to claim, a house (hopefully) that we'll be paying mortgage interest on, and Tracy may or may not be working, so our total income might drop like a rock.  I'm practically quivering with anticipation at what our refund will be like next year. 

 

Also, I'm trying out a new tool to post this particular post.  Microsoft (shudder) has come out with a blog post writer called (what else) Windows Live Writer.  Duh.  Don't ask someone at MS to name your new product if you don't want it to be incredibly dull.

A home for me?

Tracy and I went down to the bank on Saturday to apply for a home loan. This is just the pre-approval letter part, but it's the first step, one that we haven't been able to do before. Tracy's credit history has prevented us from being able to get anything before now, but with the mortgage market going belly-up, prices around here have dropped dramatically.
When I say prices have dropped dramatically, I don't mean 10 to 20,000. I mean $100,000 or more. You can find listings on the market now for less than half what that house was listed for 2 years ago.

Almost half the homes in our price range are foreclosures, and everyone says "Oh, those foreclosure homes are always trashed," but really, what can they do to the house that I can't undo? Holes in the wall? I'll patch 'em, or replace the drywall in that part. Carpet trashed? I'll replace it, possibly with something more durable like wood or tile. Unless it's structural, I can deal with it. Heck, even if it is structural, it may be an opportunity for improvement. If the previous residents tore the drywall off the wall, I'll wire the dang room for ethernet before I replace it! If this happens, it'll also let me put all those plans I mentioned here into practice. Hello, warm bathroom floors and unending hot water!