A Meeting About Nothing

I survived! I did NOT lapse into a coma during our annual meeting with our financial advisor. Probably because I was shivering, and the cold kept me conscious. That fine line between chattering teeth, and unconsciousness due to hypothermia. I was wearing a jacket the whole time, too! It was 47 degrees outside, with rain. Inside, it felt like 48.

Anyhoo... when I arrived and parked out front, I noticed SilverRedO parked across the street. I waited a few minutes, thinking Hick would walk over, and we'd enter together. That's how it usually works, with him getting there ahead of me. I tell him there's no need to arrive even one second early, because we never get called back on time. At 2:26, with no sign of Hick, I went inside. He wasn't there. The secretary said, 

"Isn't that Hick's truck over at the pawn shop?"

"Yes. That explains it! A PAWN shop!"

As we watched, Hick started across the street. First towards T-Hoe, and then inside when he noticed I was not there.

"I was playin' the slot machines over at the pawn shop. I won $13. But the lady beside me won $200! She was still playin'."

Our Financial Advisor was on a phone call. That wasn't just stalling. We could hear her through the wall. So we waited. Hick monopolized the conversation, not shy about revealing his ire with the city.

"I was over at Lowe's, and I seen two of the city employees there buyin' lumber. Musta been about $500 worth of plywood and 2x4s. That ain't right! There's a lumberyard right here in town, and that's where the city's business should be going. If I owned that lumberyard, I'd be jumpin' up and down at the city council meeting, askin' why they don't spend my tax money locally, and give ME the business that they just did over in Bill-Paying Town. I might anyway! I own property here in the city. Now they're payin' TWO guys to drive over to another town to buy basic lumber they could get right here.  Plus the gas. The lumberyard delivers. And they're buyin' at least half their vehicles from the Ford dealer over there, when they got a Chevy dealer right here."

Thankfully, FA finished her phone call, and took us back. It was 2:45, for our 2:30 appointment. You can bet I was conscious of the time! Counting the minutes until I was free.

During our meeting, the following topics were discussed:

FA's dog is allergic to chicken, so she buys beef and lamb people-grade dog food for him, which is delivered frozen, to her door. He loves it. She also gives him plain yogurt, rather than pay too much for the probiotics her vet recommends. The dog is healthy, with no problems unless he eats chicken, when he breaks out in hives that take two weeks to go away.

FA agrees with Hick about the city government being somewhat uncooperative in their dealings with property owners. She wants to put a light in the alley between her building and our credit union building, because people go through there all the time, and she doesn't know who will held responsible if there's a crime, or someone gets hurt. She has installed a camera, but only views it when she gets an alarm that there's activity of more than 5 minutes. It's usually somebody who had dropped something, and needs to pick it up. The city owns the alley, according to aerial surveys from the courthouse, but says they don't.

Hick said it was the same way about mowing the lawn behind the senior apartments, and when he argued that his group was not responsible for mowing city property, they finally backed down. Rather than Hick having to pay somebody to mow, like the old guy in charge, the city now uses local prisoners to do that task.

FA said she wanted to make a donation to the senior center, and walked down there after lunch one day with a check, but nobody was around. While looking for somebody in the lobby, she read signs that she was on camera, and felt like she must really look suspicious. Hick said to go at lunch time, when people are there. Or to use the drop box he uses for rent payments.

FA noticed a car out front of her house, and thought it was a stalker. Then she saw two strange dogs, and realized they were taking pictures of the DOGS, not her. She knew a lady looking for those dogs, and messaged her. The dogs took off, and she followed with a bag of treats, updating the lady, who finally found them. FA had no leash or collars, just kept feeding treats to keep the dogs close.

FA bought a trunk full of dog food, 40 lb bags, and took to the city dog pound to donate. They told her just to leave it, but she said NO, that she wouldn't leave it outside to be stolen or get rained on. So they sent two guys to meet her, because she would not go inside, as it's too sad, and she wants to adopt all the dogs. They were shocked at the amount she donated, but happy to get it.

FA bought an acre behind her house, which is just swamp land, but if anybody else bought it, the only place to build a house is the dry area right up next to her back fence. Hick told his tale of HIS LAND that now has a driveway built on it, but nothing can be done about it.

FA goes home for lunch, or runs errands, and can't believe how many people are out and about in the stores and on the streets. Doesn't anybody have regular jobs anymore? And people have been complaining for over two weeks about not having any food because of the government shut down, but their money was not affected for October, so did they just not budget well? They haven't missed any payments yet. FA had a friend having problems, with three kids. FA told her she would help her kids, and to give her a list of what they needed. Stuff like toothbrushes and clothes. But she would not give her money, because she doesn't know if it would really benefit the kids.

FA uses a credit card to pay all her monthly bills, because of the perks like cash-back. Also, she uses coupons and looks for bargains online. She was ordering checks, for $179, and thought it was too much. She found a coupon code and got them for $17. Then told other people so they could get the discount.

FA had ordered furniture for the office from Wayfair. She had to put the chairs together herself. One of them was broken. A leg broke off while she was sitting on it, scooting back. She and her dad repaired it with a metal plate, and saw that it had been cracked from the beginning, with paint inside the crack. Wayfair said they would replace the chair. She said they didn't need to do that, since it was fixed, but they sent her another one anyway. Their main concern was if anybody was hurt when it broke.

FA went to the schools to give a presentation to seniors about financial planning. Before the visit, she asked them to write down how much they thought it would cost to live if they moved out on their own. And how much money they expected to make. Some estimated $1000 a month. One said $20,000! She wondered what kind of life that gal expected. Anyhoo... they hadn't thought about who would be paying their car insurance, gas, cell phone, TV, etc. So they realized that maybe it was better to try and get along with their parents' rules and live at home, rather than declaring they were moving out the minute they graduated or turned 18.

Anyhoo... all this chat went on between FA and Hick, while I basically sat and shivered. I have no ill will towards FA. She's very nice, and if I MUST sit and listen to nothing related to my financial accounts for an hour, I would choose her. This time, we didn't get out until 3:58!!! I was held overtime!

Oh, in the last five minutes, we did a transaction to take out my RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) from one account. 

Only 364 days until our next meeting...