Retail Sales are just out, so let’s depart from drama, disdain delay, and dispense duration…
“Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March 2023, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $691.7 billion, down 1.0 percent (±0.5 percent) from the previous month, but up 2.9 percent (±0.7 percent) above March 2022. Total sales for the January 2023 through March 2023 period were up 5.4 percent (±0.4 percent) from the same period a year ago. The January 2023 to February 2023 percent change was revised from down 0.4 percent (±0.5 percent)* to down 0.2 percent (±0.1 percent). Retail trade sales were down 1.2 percent (±0.5 percent) from February 2023, but up 1.5 percent (±0.5 percent) above last year.
Which pixels as:
Now, for the sober-curious, let’s see how the containers have been rolling on the rails:
“Total carloads for the week ending April 8 were 225,669 carloads, down 4.6 percent compared with the same week in 2022, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 225,667 containers and trailers, down 17.0 percent compared to 2022.”
Which – roll with me on this – hints that we may see a modest (compared with last month’s) SoCal ports data when it rolls next week. Last month, Long Beach inbound was down 34.7 percent year-over-year and L.A. was down 35.39 percent. Logic says if intermodal is only down 17, maybe the Ports picked up? (Or there’s a lot of empties running around…)
After the data, futures weakened. But we shall try to remain calm until after the Amateur Hour is done at the open.
Silent Nightmare – The Prequel?
We consider the term freegan today, because it’s a flavoring of recession that is also a precursor to long wave economic Depressions. Which, sorry to report, we think there’s a good possibility we’re on the leading edge of right now.
See, when the stock market hit its all-time high (to then) in 1929, the economy did pretty much what ours is doing right now. Wheels came off slowly. Recall that 100-years ago, the Fed was as well-intended as the present one. And people are not appreciably smarter. Each Fed take’s its “best shot” at policy to avoid the ditch.
In longwave economics, though, the ditch becomes unavoidable. Too many people have too much. So, as a result, as effective recycling of virtually everything picks up on eBay and Craigslist, the ultimate demand for “new product” reaches what we’ve spoken of as Consumer Supersaturation.
Freegans are systemically dangerous, but in an odd way. See, the people renouncing Consumerism (as we have, sort of) since 2003 out here in the woods. are freegans – renouncing of excessive consumption. It’s what happens when Peter Drucker’s “Management by Objective” runs into a generation that sees through ad agency hype.
Freegans don’t necessarily do without. They do with less.
With son G2 due back from his server farm build site medic adventure in a couple of weeks, I went looking for some additional furniture for the “guest room.” It was a study of freeganism.
- 20-years ago there was no such thing as a “fabric chest of drawers.” It was wood, metal, or shelving. Frame and fabric is cheap, so (after Drucker) if the objective is to simply store shit then fabric is fine.
- Ostentatious people can still feedo-ego with solid wood. WHICH ‘wood’ depend on whether you roll with environmentally useful bamboo or roll out the long green for solid black walnut. Which costs about a used car.
- The freegan focus begins on local boards: The local areas on Craigslist, OfferUP, and FB. C/L is the primary, since there are all kind of interesting things if you watch the “Free” stuff long enough.
Local “freebies” today run from free pets (pass) to a free piano (hmm…) to a couple of chairs.
Now, even though we’re not curb and gutter people, we’re not keen on sitting in some old skanky chair. BUT freegans are all about adding value and learning skills.
Since a lot of our “transporting” home is highly themed with hints of Disney design values, our “upholstery” interest might focus on theatrical upholstery (as in props – which life is full of). A PDF like this one is a starting point.
A good freegan will have collected enough free and cheap tools over time and picked up upholstery fabric roll ends to keep an eye out for a “free butt skanky” chair which MIGHT have some good wood “BONES” to it.
Well, this collides with time in life, so I’m torn between freeganism and expediency of trading some paper (“money”) for a brand-new recliner I was too lazy to make myself.
The economics (depending on your age) get to be interesting. Freegans can work less (for the man) and focus on themselves. racking up skills.
Swinging back to point: When we inspect the relationships between China GDP, American Imports, Rail Traffic, and Retail Sales, we can sketch out a consumption continuum. Which freegans look at and scheme ways to avoid becoming enmeshed in.
Everyone lives somewhere on the Consumerism-Freegan/DIY continuum. It’s just not apparent because there’s little focus on “divisions” among humans, other than the current gender and race fads.
Another useful way of “getting a measure” of someone, is to notice how much of their lives are spent off-planet. IoW social media. People who spend tons of time on social risk not having enough time (when they get back “on-planet” to become skilled, responsible freegans (takes time and effort). So, instead, the people on social bleed off their personal energy/power such that they are right into Drucker Objectives mode and expediently buy to fill functions. Then make up complex lies about how busy they are (with bullshit).
Weird, know what I’m saying?
OK: Morning News Review
(Barf bags at the ready?)
Beer war continues… As AB’s losses from dragging their product into the social fray has by some accounts topped $6-billion. The reaction isn’t slowing: Conservative activist launches ‘Ultra Right’ beer as rival to Bud Light after Dylan Mulvaney controversy.
Beauty of Life in the Outback: Here’s why living near busy, polluted roads could lead to dementia – Study Finds. You mean people who choose that aren’t already demented?
SIDEBAR: Local power company fellow dropped by Thursday asking permission to walk the poles on our land. Turns out, the Ures will sometime in a year or two, be upgraded to fiberoptic cable which will come from the local power Co-Op. Big federal money dump into rural broadband may be here in time for us to get 8K of the End of the World.
The Darkness of April. Heard back from the doc who was part of the “men who stare at goats” (RV) world. People have been asking for more detail:
“No change on the dark. Feeling like in the next few days or so, but big things are actually harder to pinpoint when they’re right up close. And I’ve always been poor at future nonhuman events….”
But, the timing has really broken into pieces lately. The doc is in the April 17 centered area. The Hitler birthday crowd points to April 20, and I lean toward the astrologically “heavier” April 26- early May window.
Tribulations of Trump continue: Donald Trump Made a ‘Colossal Mistake’ Testifying to Letitia James: Lawyer (newsweek.com). But few New Yorkers welcome Trump’s visits. The WOR morning show mentioned the other day that every time Trump visits Midtown the tab to the city is $10-million in cops and city workers to handle motorcades. Which MAYBE explains Trump met with chants of ‘New York hates you!’ as he arrives for Manhattan deposition. (BTW: How come I’m not on the wall at Sardi’s, yet?)
Over in the bombastic bomb builder’s burrow: North Korea says it tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile. One analyst calls it “a significant breakthrough”.
And here’s another example of the kind of dark web behavior that is likely driving BTC up – at least in part – lately: Hackers reportedly holding Western Digital data hostage – The Verge
ATR: ShopTalk Sunday
This weekend: How to turn a 15-minute wiring project into a 2 hour adventure.
Off to watch this morning’s market decline at the open. Retail does matter.
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net
“North Korea says…”
We’re told NORK is one of the poorest countries on the planet yet in terms of war tech they are 1st world. Russia is another one with their advanced hypersonics.
America is stuck in Boeing thinking.
Speaking of fiber in your area. In my area all the old POTS copper has been ripped out. There’s no going back. Another reason why there won’t be CW2.
Within a few years Amazon and Google will have to be bailed. We’ll be told America’s network has to be upgraded to maintain competitiveness against the other blocks.
All the TELCOs are selling off their copper OSP to third party scrapping companies and abandoning in place. I believe a Gubmint subsidy was provided to do so. Look at it from a Carrington Event perspective… Got Fiber? BTS the repeaters are buried or in shielded grounded boxes.
My subdivision, built in 1972, was copper wired for POTS for at least 2000 homes. At this late date, there are approx. 800 homes built. Then rural cable came down the road, providing TV and internet service. With cellphones, most homes do NOT have copper wired POTS in my area. Now I just got an offer from the local Telco that they are installing fiber down my road. I expect those fat copper pairs cables will soon be recycled scrap.
In China no less.
BTW casual observation for you maybe you are seeing the same as well around your neck of the woods. Up/down the Major interstate/intrastate highway corridors I’m seeing Amazon warehouses and logistics/fulfillment warehouses being constructed. Your local grocery franchise box operators are about to go away. the question is? will they be leaving us like dead malls because of a financial /logistical lockup/bank failure event? [yes IMHO] or attrition by the convenience of the Zon and direct to home delivery? Likely a bit of both. How about the sequence of events? We will find out soon enough.
I think you’re right and many businesses will transition to A.I. soon, like Q4 soon.
Using Boeing as the bellwether nobody is buying their planes. They’ll need a third quarter bailout to make payroll so we may get one more round of PPP style schemes or even a UBI.
G pointed out .gov spent $1,000,000,000,000 and there hasn’t been a budget for awhile.
The old system has been orphaned.
There is a fiber optic junction box with an armored fiber cable as big around as my arm running through it located about 1000 ft from my gate. Bell commercial drilled through solid limestone to install that cable. It provides service to one small medical facility, with probably 2 fibers being used. There is enough fiber in that cable for the backbone of a substantial city.
It took me months of research and calling to get anyone to admit they owned that cable. I finally talked to an engineer, who told me it would cost $300 a month for a bare commercial internet connection. Line-of-sight microwave is for me.
On the plus side, I am on the same feeder as the medical facility, so if there is electricity to be had, I get it.
‘Off planet” = ‘social”….”bleeding off of personal energy and power”
Ding Ding, Ding Ding! We have a WINNER!
Congratulations G – you have sussed out the TRUTH of the matter. – a smart feller indeed.
Class is now in session – pay attention ya lazy bastards, specially youse wiseinhiemers in the back of da class..
Please refer to Ure diagrams on page ___ See magnetron diagram – and understand what Resonant Cavities look like in 2D. Now refer to Schuman Resonator diagram.
Do you have an understanding of what we are looking for hear?
Now think about why Mercury was used in the construction of old Churchs/Steeples- Antennas. Others were coated in Mercury – same reason. Now Ure home work is to study Chartres Cathedral – front window and inside/inner sanctum floor diagram. An english gent published a study with video evidence of resonant cavity oscillators in action notre dame cathedral in Paris 5-6 days prior to it being “scalared’ /burned. Stopping a dark ritual from being commited…
Once you have successfully studied the above, you will have understanding regards NRG/QI/Source, and why Social is the new Church of the ages – they all be “supplying” schlomos ice cream shop.
Also have understanding why You feel “drained” AFTER attending a church service.. If its a organized religion church, they be draining more than just Ure kids NRG.
..bwahahaha the “dude” be stealing Ure sunshine, youse all should take it back .
See Tartarian Architecture. Free energy. Electro Culture. Etc. Ain’t no secret.
Got diagram to wire fireplace? Please share. Would be interested to see.
? See mercury rectifiers = church steeples ..hmmm
think..
Mercury Arc Rectifier..https://edisontechcenter.org/MercArcRectifiers.html
Yep. Exactly.
Btw, I met a Whirling Sufi and I asked him how he could whirl for so long without getting dizzy and falling. He replied, “God holds by hand and keeps me balanced.” – had great conversations with him.
“When Ouspensky first met the Whirling Dervishes in 1904 he sensed a mystery, not so much of how they did it but why they did it. 12 years later in 1920, having finally escaped from the Russian revolution and after spending 8 years of intense self-study with George Gurdjieff he was in a better position to understand and assess the true significance of the Mevlevi Tradition and practice.”
“The system he had studied for those 8 years made it clear that to discover ‘the miraculous’, the Divine consciousness present at the centre of every human being, it was necessary to learn how to become free of the dominance of the mechanical body-mind which rules our lives with such insistence. Not that there is anything wrong with the body-mind, but for a higher life, for divine consciousness to flow naturally through us, the body-mind and the changing ego it generates must happily become a servant rather than the master.”
https://www.ouspenskytoday.org/wp/chronology/1920-1921-constantinople/mevlevi-tradition/
Yeah, whirling surfy, I’m busily assembling a chain mail emp vest using 40 perm baluns stitched together with copper wire! And a copper foil hat. Mercury is a metal with fascinating properties depending on its phase state. Kewl.
Christopher Waller, a senior Federal Reserve official said Friday that there has been little progress on inflation, with the core rate still above 5.6% for more than a year and that more interest rate hikes are needed to get prices under control. In written remarks, Waller stated that inflation “is still much too high and so my job is not done.”
– So.., another 1/4 boost in May ?
Way off track but worthy of thought.
The soap opera General Hospital has been on for over 60 years. All the typical schloshy lovie story lines.
Until now.
In short , theres been on going drama over a necklace. Im told its been part of the story line for some 40 years or so. Someone finally got it , opened it, and inside was information that stated the world is over populated by at least 50% and that a pathogen is to be released killing off the people.
In General Hospital ???
Who has the kind of power whereas these situations come up without anyone questioning it ? It frightens me who ( or what ) has this power.
For what its worth…
sheee it!
I doubt it’s an actual Time Capsule. (Seeming to believe the info was placed 40 years ago) – once again, script writers just doing their thing.
But it is amazing how often script writers are writing what the future beholds.
After thinking about that for a number of years I attribute that “future dynamic” in script writers output to the fact that as creative people they are drawing some of their inspiration from their subconscious level in order to get a good story line going … and at the subconscious level the brain can leave the present dynamic of life and tap into areas and concepts that are currently hard to accept or thought of as improbable to impossible.
THAT is the exact dynamic of Remote Viewers.
THAT appears to be the dynamic of those who seem to be able to see future events (dimly) through the fabric of time.
THAT underlies the theories that Cliff High had that as a MASS the subconsciousness of the group could perceive future events in ways that no one individual could directly perceive (he has some amazing hits … also had some very well publized failures, but the fact he had ANY hits at all for totally off the wall events that happened is AMAZING. As to amazing hits I always think specifically about his projection of a power failure during the middle of the Super Bowl which caused the lights to go out and the game to be delayed, which he started writing about a few months before the Super Bowl was to happen – BAM it happened, dead on hit!).
In the past I didn’t put much stock in Movie /media story lines reflecting the future until I started to look at the issue more seriously. Most do nothing of the sort, but the more creative and future looking the project that the script writers are having to be super creative, draw more from their subconscious, that that seems to be when that dynamic mostly shows up.
NOW … to get them to visualize “me” winning the biggest lottery jackpot EVER!! THAT is what I want to see them do!! LOL (though being who I am most of it would be given away)
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
Over fifty years ago. I was laid up.. all that was on television was the stomach churners.. always a drama over something.. the thing is.. it made a womans home life look exciting compared to the drama.. and my mother like a lot of them adored them.. I was ready to rip my hair out.. anyway a friend had heard about a guy hundreds of miles away that built a satalite dish.. to get television.. we drove on sheer ice.. and marveled at it.. ( today you just have to call a satellite television center back then it wasn’t even available ) and he gave me the legends for it.. I set out to build one.. biggest job ever.. the dish dwarfed the house LOL LOL LOL my shoebox project that year.. then the hard part.. you had to calibrate the LNA.. and to be off a thirty second of an inch was hundreds of miles away from the satellite in the sky.. no tools available to focus in.. except an old sextant.. and then it was guess or by golly.. the piece of equipment to tune it.. was hundreds of thousands of dollars and I made less than two dollars an hour LOL LOL LOL
so I had to do it the hard way.. lay down on the hood of a car.. sextant in hand and then get the closest reading I could.. then move the LNA or the dish.. fractions of an inch.. yelling out.. can you see anything YET… when there was a flicker or the sparkle of an image.. then I would work the pots to get it to the best.. then move the dish or LNA around again.. it took forever to get that damned thing tuned in..
today you call up the kid comes out aims a small K band and your watching television in a few minutes.. or on the network..
I used that old home made job.. for years.. then they came out with the satellite television services.. and now they are everywhere..
https://youtu.be/OPwPo-IAQ-E
“But, the timing has really broken into pieces lately. The doc is in the April 17 centered area. The Hitler birthday crowd points to April 20, and I lean toward the astrologically “heavier” April 26- early May window.”
And Stu at The Age of Desolation site (POINTING OUT THE OBVIOUS update) is trying to get his new book finished before…
G.A. STEWART: The new book is big. It has all fallen into place now. I have been trying to get it finished before April 19th and 20th; these might be two interesting days. Another day to watch is May 10th, or possibly a war with China proceeding those days.
Apparently Joe has had a falling out with the CCP, so the conflict scenario is starting to look more plausible. The Progressives are starting to back-pedal.
This Website suffered another practice run of a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS) exactly at midnight on May 10th, 2022.
Readers should note that both attacks occurred on important dates that have appeared in my books, April 19th, 2022 and May 10th, 2022.
https://theageofdesolation.com/nostradamus/2022/05/17/as-predicted-here-poland-is-next/
Banking crisis ?
Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) are up more than 7% Friday morning.
Net interest income rose 49% year-on-year to $20.8 billion.
Profit in the first quarter increased more than 50% to $12.62 billion.
Quarterly revenue grew 25% to $38.35 billion from last year.
This morning the Dollar opened at 101.46 – and it seems that everyone believes that the dollar is finished., that it is in a death spiral.., and we’re all gonna die !
Two years ago, the Dollar opened at 89.75., and I do not recall anyone running down the street with their hair on fire screaming that the end of the world is nigh.
Yes, the dollar is in a slump and may slide even more as China continues to open back up and a lot of third world, backwater, “give me a couple of million and I’ll pass any law you want” countries are calling for the demise of the ruling currency – the Dollar.
Those third world, slowly turning socialist countries might want to take a better, deep-dive into their economies before they jump on China’s bandwagon., as their financial well-being and economies are directly tied to the U.S. consumer economy and the almighty Dollar.
I believe that the majority of the world’s countries are going to have a hard time dealing with just rubles, yuan & riyal’s.
For the foreseeable future the Dollar is still the best-looking house on the block. [ Thanks in part to all the useless crap we buy.]
For some reason the utility access to a pole on the corner of 4 lots (one is mine) got rezoned and sold to the adjacent owner, ending the easement. Power co needs to work on the pole so they nicely asked to drive across the back edge of my lot and they brought in some heavy equipment up a neighbor’s driveway; protecting the ground with heavy mats under the wheels. They spent a leisurely day working and hanging out, but at quiting time they just tore out of there, not bothering with the mats and left deep tracks across the lawn.
Next came the cable co with some subcontractor using my driveway when nobody was home. I got home in time to watch the guy drive a heavy lift skidsteer off my drivway, breaking the edge, tear up the neighbor’s lawn, spill a box of fasteners and go about his work like it was none of my business. He saw the damage to the driveway so he picked a different exit and broke the driveway in a different place.
Next, the power co needed to replace the pole because the power line to houses were drooping enough to interfere with the neighbor kids’ slam dunk. Same sweet talk routine and since the ground was frozen, damage wasn’t noted til next spring.
Maybe have them tell their legal dept to call me the next time? Sell a right of way? Just stay off the property?
I buy my meat from a local rancher. I asked him about giving cattle and pigs Mnra shots (covid vaccines) and he said that the local ranchers did that but will only do it once. I wonder if eating this meat will be the equivalent of getting my own shot or if heat will make a difference.
its vaccine scaremongering:
https://www.factcheck.org/2021/07/scicheck-meme-spreads-falsehood-about-vaccine-transfer/
halal meat is raised and slaughtered differently than typical store meat:
https://animalscience.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2016/01/Halal-Foods.pdf
This is not relevant to today’s column, but is relevant to any previous or future comments regarding issues like the Bud Lite debacle. An investigative journalist searched for an answer to “Who is Behind the TRANS AGENDA?” and here are the VERY interesting answers she found:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLXdoqXbC6k&t=1s
Reminder wrt the “Darkness in April” referred to by George in a few columns as seen by his acquaintance who was supposedly in the RV field doing that kind of work for the government at one point in time:
Ramadan ends on Friday April 22 this year. Friday sundown of course being the beginning of the day of Worship for both Jews and Muslims.
Not saying that anything is going to happen, or if something does that causes a “darkness” of some sort that it is related to the Middle East or any other potential War area. It could be non-human event such as a massive volcanic eruption, or asteroid strike, or Carrington type event, or a major event for a very small area but one that doesn’t impact the rest of us at all.
Just an observation.
??????????
could this April darkness.. be more of a technical darkness…
like internet blackout??
The alleged ‘leaker’ of the classified intel documents has been arrest. A 21 year old Air National Guardsman.
– My question? Is not why he did it., too late for that one.., but – just how did an Air National Guardsman get his hands on highly classified intel regarding the Ukraine War ? Looks to me like there are a few holes that need patching., and damn quick.
He actually had a Top Secret clearance as a ‘Journeyman’ IT security man.
“Let’s see if anyone gets “Older But Wiser” from reading what happens when you mix a bullshit social agenda with beer: Anheuser-Busch sheds nearly $5 billion in value since Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney pact sparked outrage. Between Jack Daniels antics and buttwiper, I’m damn near bright-eyed and bushy-tailed again. ”
Hmm.. all those years building a real man’s man beer image.. to one where a guy goes into a bar orders a bud.. the guy on the bar stool next to him says.. how do you go to the bathroom without a fly on the panty hose LOL or what kind of heels do you wear..
https://youtube.com/shorts/TMnmrXSf0tk?feature=share
https://youtu.be/pgfZgNpneD4
now MILLER… a mans beer
https://youtu.be/pUJ36nFdOyg
https://youtu.be/IixigYbcm_s
see the cultural change
https://youtu.be/nDxfBX_DVE0
https://youtu.be/Sn5BhnYr8WY
A man’s beer…
That’d be Bell’s Expedition Extra Stout.
It looks and flows like molasses, and is 17% alcohol. I can state with absolute certainty that it is a REAL Man’s beer…
I thought these were amusing back in the day… makes you wonder if it was conditioning instead…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mJGjwqWqObU
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hSH7iFdvkBM
Finally getting warm up here in the tundra! Here’s how to make those dang sausages (brats) palatable:
Big sauce pan/stock pot – heat 2-3 tbl red pepper flakes until aromatic. Make sure you do everything under an exhaust fan.
Add 2-3 tbl dry onion flakes and continue heating until they get a slight amount of color and turn off heat.
Throw in 1 large package of brats and cover with any beer that is low in hops and not stout and not (Bud or any) light or you’ll get what you deserve. Hops mess with flavors and light is hardly worth the effort. The steam will make any pepper lover choke; avoid.
Turn up heat and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, cover and leave until cool enough to handle.
Brown brats on a hot grill and serve with saurkraut, cheddar, mustard etc. on a bun.
The brats don’t absorb as much heat as you think so they are safe for people with moderate pepper tolerance. If you can’t tolerate any pepper, learn to do so, you can start here. A little salt, herbs or sweetness in the boil helps. Use judgement.
Alternate grilling: make an aluminum foil pan and baste with bbq sauce over coals. Mesquite chunks on coals is a nice touch.
Extras: grill and refrigerate for several days or freeze before grilling: wrap tightly in plastic and foil, lasts several months. Thaw at least partly before grilling.
https://youtu.be/eZgD89VYkVc
spend years building a brand..
https://youtu.be/JQtYr6tqHzc
then to toss it away … coke almost did that.. with the new coke LOL
https://youtu.be/YwZHq4bt8M0
Hilarious govt action, the supremes wacked the big guy’s 10% pepe:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/us/supreme-court-administrative-state.html
In case you missed it, the bidster told his base that he would use the “agencies” to bypass congress in an effort to push his wacky agendas. i.e., have OSHA and the armed services force ineffective and possibly unsafe vaccines on non-Democrats and fed law enforcement stomp out free speech if it’s nonwoke, SEC for climate change etc.
Normally, I say it’s stupid to have politically biased judges since that would indicate a lack of judgement. I guess it works sometimes.
Does Biden act like someone who was elected, or is he acting like someone who is bitter about having to cheat his way into office, against an opponent he wrongly considered himself to be superior and more popular? Poll numbers and vindictive actions point to cheating. If any elected rep had to face an investigation into whether elections were rigged, why would they not fight the investigation?
Bud Light is part of an ecosystem and someone is telling the hive-style boycotters they got it it wrong.
“Donald Trump Jr. Urges Right-Wingers to End Boycott of
‘Conservative-Leaning’ Bud Light”
Re: food for thought
Folks,
Wow. I guess last Monday around the time of the Easter Egg Roll but before the trip to Ireland, the Republicans forced the President’s hand to sign off on ending the covid emergency a month early? Covid19 meds can now increase in price? Covid19 linked Title 42 ends?
“A good freegan will have collected enough free and cheap tools over time and picked up upholstery fabric roll ends to keep an eye out for a “free butt skanky” chair which MIGHT have some good wood “BONES” to it.”
Nearly ALL fabric-covered furniture has “good bones.” Even if it’s poplar, it’s still a hardwood. Some builders put it together with Elmer’s Glue-All though.
I’d never opt for fabric, cardboard, or PVC furniture (except maybe LOOB’s cardboard.) When you can go to a flea market and score a hardwood or distressed pine dresser for $25.
If’fn I lived <70 miles down the road from Kilgore College, UT Tyler, Trinity Valley, and several other colleges, all of whom are closing their doors for the summer in the next 4 weeks and booting their students out — That's a LOT of free furniture, furnishings, computers/tablets and hubs/routers/modems that will be going in the trash in the next few weeks. Very few college kids keep their electronics or furnishings, other than just a cellphone and Kindle. They pitch them and let their rich Uncle buy them new ones in the fall. A friend of mine recovered over 220 year-old Macs in one year, from dumpsters off-campus at a single college, a few years back.
A 6×16 trailer with 32" sideboards will hold a lot of free stuff, discretely.
Just sayin'…
Good point on the college kids discarding good stuff. I used to hit SMU every summer, where I picked up a ton of 2 X 12 and 2 X 10 boards and cinder blocks that had been book shelves in the dorms. I used my Monkey Ward radial arm saw to rip the boards down to half width and used them to build my barn.
I keep telling myself I should make nightly runs to the dumpsters to filch upholstered furniture, to scavenge for the hardwood frames. Not counting legs, by today’s prices, any junk sofa would have $100 worth of oak, maple, poplar, or hickory in just its frame, and it’d be clear-grained wood…
I don’t have time to be a scavenger, but I would do that for a single piece (or three) if I had a use. Upholstery is easy, and it’d be nothing at all to turn an old sofa frame into a thousand dollar couch — maybe $100 worth of fabric & padding and a couple hours work…
Freegans: My oldest son 27 and his Friend group during college were able to furnish their entire home by going out after dark to furniture stores in a large city and picked up dented and dinged furniture the stores can’t sell and put in the trash. It is apparently not allowed by law so it has to happen in the dead of night but all the stuff was in the trash to be picked up. I have been to their home and they have some really nice stuff. He now has multiple 3D printers and is all about DIY his life.
Good for him!!!!!
Totally forgot about that. Places like “Big Lots” often toss new, dinged furniture, as well, and toss their floor displays 3-4 times per year. Only caveat is you have to get to their trash before the next rain shower…