you have to admit that it pretty much makes a point, right?

13F above ambient because of direct sun? (122F) If that's pointy, I missed it.
I have worked in attics where everything was over 122 F.
On a sunny, summer day, I can walk up to almost any sheet metal facing up, place my hand on it, and holler, "ouch!" This is so normal to me that I don't go around touching cars.
So...what's the point? Metal gets hot in the sun? There's lots of sun in Mexico?
Sorry. I missed it.

Meanwhile, back in Florida...the heat index did not get below 90 F today. We're into the normal summer sauna with afternoon showers. I had to get all sweaty chasing the lawn mower around and my heart got all thumpy like it was good exercise.
Happy part is that it takes less than 3 minutes to replace the blade with a sharp one so the lawn mower didn't complain about what a hard job it has.

 

Actually other than smog and air quality taxes come to mind. This was the modest 2 bedroom house I grew up in. About 20 miles outside NYC. My parents bought that house new in 1953. The upper was just attic and the dormer came later upstairs. The cost was $12,500 new. The picture is 2000. The old neighborhood has changed. Today the taxes on that house are about $20,000 USD per year. We sold in 1966 for about $20,000 USD. Taxes are OK but one needs to look at what one gets for their taxes.

As many here know I am an avid shooter, I love the shooting sports. Both NY and CA have very restrictive gun control laws. Laws restricting my rights as a US citizen. I have no use for laws which restrict my constitutional rights, especially my rights to protect my home and property. Nope I have no use for NY or CA.

Ron

My parents got married in 1953. I think remember my dad saying that the first home they bought (I don't know the year because they didn't buy right away) was $2000. I think I'm remembering that correctly. I know it was fairly old and very small. I looked up the median home price in the U.S. as a whole in 1950 it was right about $7300 as near as I can tell. Today the median home price is $309k (according to the Census Bureau as of April 2017), so scaling the two that would roughly mean that their house was perhaps comparable to a home that sells for $84k today. I think I can buy that -- that median home price is close to the numbers for the local region I heard last week and I know that there are some old, small, run down houses that you can still get for under $100k.

https://www.census.gov/construction/nrs/pdf/uspricemon.pdf

Interestingly, the Census Bureau list shows the median price being $23,900 in Jan 1971, which is when we bought the home I grew in for $22,500. I can pretty easily believe that that house was in the median ballpark at that time. We sold it in Feb 1984 for $77k and the median was $79k, so it tracked well. In 1966 the median bounced around between $20,700 and $23,000, so your house was also right in there.

Another interesting thing is that that $7300 in 1950 is right at $76,000 today. But does that mean that homes have outpaced inflation by a factor of 4.1? Not really. I can't find definitive numbers, but it appears the median home in 1950 was under 1000 square feet and was two-bed, one bath. I know that describes the house I lived in before 1971, which was built in 1962 and was 930 s.f.. Today the median home is 2500 square feet. So there's about 2/3 of the increase right there. Then homes today have a lot more bells and whistles than they did back then. Hell, just the insulation and windows are a major upgrade from the days when energy was super cheap.

Here's some places with some interesting data, but it's not the only places I looked.

https://www.census.gov/const/C25Ann/sftotalmedavgsqft.pdf
http://www.aei.org/publication/toda...ce-per-person-has-doubled-over-last-40-years/

In 1973 the median size was 1525 s.f. and the house we bought in 1971 was right about 1400 s.f.

 

Mr. WBahn. thanks for sharing what proved to be some interesting data. Our little humble abode is about 1600 square and actually the house my wife grew up in. I want to say her parents bought it during the early 1960s and over the years Kathy and I have added on to it. Our taxes are reasonable and we have good city services.

Ron

 

 

Wow, that's gotta feel hot for you nor'westers. I just opened my windows because it's 61 and dropping.

 

As is typical for Colorado, yesterday we were in the mid-90's and today we didn't even get out of the 40's.

 

100 yesterday, 85 today.

 

Outside door from the outside. The sun was shining directly onto the doorknob.

Holy Cap ! You can measure the sun temperature with that....?
I want one .

 

Wow, that's gotta feel hot for you nor'westers. I just opened my windows because it's 61 and dropping.

You open your windows when it gets colder?

 

You open your windows when it gets colder?

In June we do, yes. Free A/C. It's been over 80°F and humid all week.

 

In June we do, yes. Free A/C. It's been over 80°F and humid all week.

Oh OK you turn off the AC then open the windows. I do that well above 60F and I am probably closing windows when it drops below 60F

 

Two weeks ago I was planning to mow the lawn after the heat index got below 80F. Now I'm waiting until it goes below 90F. (That will be 7 P.M.)
Heat index is 107F today. Afternoon thunder-boomers expected. The outside world smells like mold.
Everything is normal.

 

@#12 So the feels like temperature there, like here, is "feels like an indoor project day."

 

Greater Cleveland, Ohio suburbs, nice day today. WE have about 75 F. with a RH of 42% so comfortable. Thinking a nice evening for Bike Night at the local Quaker Steak and Lube which has great wings. Looking at rain tomorrow so I may as well enjoy while I can.

Ron

 

I must be getting acclimated. I did the whole lawn before getting over-heated to the core and dripping sweat continuously.
We also have some pretty. This is the setting sun only hitting the tops of the thunderstorms east of me.

 

I must be getting acclimated. I did the whole lawn before getting over-heated to the core and dripping sweat continuously.
We also have some pretty. This is the setting sun only hitting the tops of the thunderstorms east of me.

This is why I have a lawn service.

Ron

 

This is why I have a lawn service.

This is why I don't.
I am a firm believer that you have to romp your heart regularly or you'll drop dead.
It might be a stress that wouldn't hurt a healthy person, or you might just wallow a dent in the couch until the cholesterol clogs you to death.

Mowing the lawn is my best exercise. Thirty-five minutes of an artificially forced pace with a side order of paying attention to where I'm going.
It's even better than walking a mile at night. Yeah, walking gets things warmed up, but mowing the lawn gets 'em romping.
I'm 66 years old. I cut down a tree and chopped it into firewood. I replaced the differential in a truck after going to a junk yard and removing one. I trimmed two other trees and went on the roof to repair my antenna. I mow my own lawn every 5 to 7 days for 7 months per year. This year. My resting heart rate is 59.
I had an ultrasound of my heart and my neck arteries, 6 weeks ago. The guy with the machine guessed I was 40 years old.

I've seen people 18 years younger clutch their chest and drop dead because the most exercise they got was lifting a martini.
How do you keep your heart above 120 BPM for half an hour?
(You don't have to answer.)

I don't have to ask about spinnaker. A bicycle is how I started my fitness program, lo those 44 years ago.

 

Actually #12 I am just a little in front of you having turned 67 back in February. I get my exercise and as to overall health am doing better than most of my friends. I still get out and maintain the house but mowing is not something I do. Last doctor visit was a 6 month checkup a few days ago and things were good including my circulation. I can't complain considering friends who are no longer around or in poor health.

Every year up here, generally following the first heavy snow fall we get our share of coronary attacks. I just try to maintain but don't over do things. Glad I retired at 63 and am enjoying life. Had a nice time at hike nite last night and still ride. Right now as we say, life is good.

Ron

 

Had a nice time at hike nite last night and still ride.

That's good. Just don't start believing you can stay healthy and never break a sweat.

I don't believe in, "No pain, no gain." but I do believe you have to take the goods out for a romp, regularly, or your body gets so accustomed to coasting that it can't compensate during an injury or disease. This is the first year my heart got all thumpy during the first mow of the summer. By the third mow, no problem. I guess I need to find something more exercisy during the winter. Maybe do my night time walks with a back pack and 30 pounds in it.

As I fell asleep last night, I was thinking about Tina Turner doing Proud Mary. "I never do anything, 'nice and easy'."
I don't either. When I work, I switch gears. I go as hard as I can and you better get out of the way.
The problem lately is, my business partner died and I've done about 3 outside jobs this year.
The last call I got was a guy who wanted me to drive 35 minutes each way, fix his wiring problem, and do it all for $20.
I need to find something else to do!

I checked on that guy who had a heart attack. He was 48, hated his job, and complained constantly, to the point that he was referred to by his friends as, "crisis du jour". He drank after work every day to numb the hate he had for his choices. Then there is, "Dead Jim's wife". The heaviest work she ever did was browbeating her husband into an early grave. Same age as me with osteoporosis and anemia. Weighs about 105. You know the next time an injury comes along, she won't survive.

So I'm fixing their air conditioners, ice makers, refrigerators, cars, faucets, door locks and hinges, fences, sewer pipes, water heaters, washing machines, and they are wasting away because their highest goal is to avoid romping their heart rate. Don't do that!

 

The problem lately is, my business partner died and I've done about 3 outside jobs this year.
The last call I got was a guy who wanted me to drive 35 minutes each way, fix his wiring problem, and do it all for $20.
I need to find something else to do!

We are at that point in life where we start losing friends a little faster. It simply happens. There was a time when I hunted. I would make several trips a year to West Virginia to climb up and down mountains chasing the deer. We would average 5 to 10 miles a day, loved it. A good friend and hunting partner died a few years back and I missed not so much the hunting but the hikes which were a part of it. Cleveland is fortunate to have a metropolitan parks system known as the emerald necklace. I hike there quite a bit and every so much distance they have exercise stops. I just do without overdoing. Clint Eastwood, "a man's got to know his limitations". That means like you I watch the heat index and don't beat myself up in hot and humid weather. Common sense prevails.

As to work? I may on occasion help a friend but I am not about to drive anywhere for twenty bucks. Friends and family are done free gratis and I really don't look for paid work anymore. I see that as why I retired.

Looks like thunderstorms may move in a little later. Mid 80s today with a front moving in. I guess we wait and see.

Ron