So 444 more days and all is decidedly not well. The rumbling on Wall Street after German numbers got put up indicates skittishness on the part of investors. We’re talking about the Fed taking back two interest rate increases so Mr. Powell can keep his job. What a bunch of complete cowards. We’ll pay for that down the road.

How does one play all this, if one is retired and has a semi-positive cash flow but is looking to the future? Ms. Orman would tell you to pay off all your debts and hunker down. I think that’s wrong. There was a time to buy stocks; it’s ended. There was a time to buy real estate – that’s big time over. So what to do now? Nothing. Don’t change anything. I intend to KBO, as the market softens and goes down to less than 20k by year’s end. I intend to keep working on the Tallahassee house, replacing the kitchen flooring (gotta call that flooring guy in Tally) and then working on the stairs – removing the carpet and staining the wood if it’s decent, or adding risers if not – likely with the help of that flooring guy. So yes, I will be spending money, but not on the Jupiter house. I think in the end I will end up with Kirsten in Tally in about 6 years. The Jupiter house will sell, not because of the house but because of the land. I think developers will buy next store and persuade the county to let them build mini-mansions on the 29.5 acre plot – Hovnanian opened that door and others will walk through. That will certainly not hurt our land value. But the house will need a new roof by then, and it’ll be time to move on.

Enough about that – the writing on book 3 is going well; I’m enlisting Emily and Susan R’s help with illustrating it. Yes, a picture book. Makes sense when my prime character is a 16 year old girl named Maya – sanskrit for illusion..or better description, a human who can make people think illusion is real. She’s gonna grow up fast, and a couple decades later, come back to be the major character in the second series – after the dissolution of America. I will start thinking more about that outline. Need a name for it.

All of this has come about because of the extension of Maggie Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale – currently in season 3 on Hulu. The final episode – #13 – showed that strong women can and will sacrifice to save children. And that’s what America will need when our Giliad comes to pass. You have to admit, Mags really knew something when she put this notion out there – back in the 80’s. I’m just picking up on what she and the other writers that carried it forward began.

That’s all. Gonna go call that flooring guy.