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Post by CampKohler on Oct 27, 2015 20:30:07 GMT
Back to Ye Olde Recorder's office in the morning. I traced things back to the first buyer of two of the three original 1911 10-acre lots of interest of the Oakdale Subdivision of the Sacramento Valley Colonization Company. (Can't you just see someone putting the word colonization in the name of a modern real estate sales outfit?) The buyer of a third lot has eluded me so far—I can't find the deed anywhere (yet!). Meanwhile I found more errors and one stumped the old geezer (I hope he doesn't see this!) that knows more about the office than the others; they will have to research it. The results of my find of two microfilm roles being marked with the same exact book number is that "they can't change it." So that means that forever more there will be at least two books that have identical labels (no A, B, C, added, etc.). That means another explanation to add to my write-up of the history of Sacramento recorder's books: "Dear Reader, we Sacramentans are really stupid." ---- Last night I helped out my friend's very grandmotherly tenant by adjusting the drawers in her kitchen cabinets so that they work smoothly. She is such a sweet old lady that I got into trying to make her front door fit in the door jamb properly to keep out the winter cold. This will involve the chiseling of wood and screwing on of weatherstripping, etc., so I sent off an E-mail asking if that was OK (which I am sure she will approve, seeing as the labor is free). ---- Later I saw an SUV run smack into into oblivion against an electric pole—a very stout pole. It stopped quickly. You can read about it in this topic of another forum to save having to retype it. (There is no way to link to a particular post there, so read the one of Oct 27th.)
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Oct 28, 2015 16:26:56 GMT
Yesterday I went back on Amazon and ordered a new USB cable for charging my camera. I had ordered one last friday which arrived on monday, but since I had to guess the size of the round end from the photos, I guessed the wrong size and it didn't fit my camera. I think the right size is 5.5 mm, which I ordered yesterday and should be here tomorrow, free shipping with my trial Prime membership. Today the folding bicycle that I ordered on friday (not free shipping though) arrived. Then I noticed that it comes from a separate website www.2ksilver.com, and if I had ordered it from there directly I would have saved $10 plus had a choice of 4 colors instead of just black, which is what I got, and would have also gotten a free carrying bag. So there's a hint, especially with more expensive items, when ordering off Amazon first check out the website of the listed supplier of that product before clicking the final Buy button on Amazon. Yesterday the maintenance guy at my apartment building explained that he had replaced the motor in the boiler room, because they found that had been the reason the walls in my apartment were rattling loudly all last winter. So that was a great relief, I had been dreading spending another winter here because of that noise. Now I guess I can relax a bit more and try to work out a deal for Building #2. I'm feeling hopeful this can become my new home and performance space. It would be really wonderful if that could happen.
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Post by CampKohler on Oct 29, 2015 20:27:24 GMT
Another day at the Recorders office. My friend's road having passed through the hands of the State of California and admitting no success looking for it in that document blizzard, I continued my search from the other (1911) end. I have successfully traced the chain of title through a half a dozen owners up to 1949. I will try to make it to 1974 today (when it went to the State for taxes), and, if successful, I will have a complete list of owners to be used to search for easements on her road and make sure there are no surprises there.
He called the sheriff on us, because her husband prevented the bad guy from replacing the wire fence with a more permanent wood fence. Of course the deputy said that it had to be decided in court because a deputy can't be interpreting the words on deeds (even though they are plain as day). So I looked it up and it will cost $240, which is reasonable to get this guy off her back. I'm going to a selp-help law library class for court tomorrow, so I will know what to expect and help her get ready for the big fight. If we get a judgment from the court, that is all the deputy says he needs to get him off the road. And if we get a restraining order and he violates that, it's off to the pokey he goes.
Last night she fed me a big bowl of home-made noodle soup with huge chunks of organic chicken in it. Mmmmm. (Just feed me; that's all I ask.)
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Post by CampKohler on Oct 29, 2015 20:43:26 GMT
Another day at the Recorder's office, tracing the chain of title for my friend's road from 1911 to 1946. I will try to make it to 1974 today, and, if successful I will have all the owners' names in order to search for easements to the bad guy. Speaking of which, he called the Sheriff when my friend's husband prevented him from replacing a wire fence across her road with a more permanent wooden one. The deputy says we have to go to court and get a judgment, because he can't solve real estate disputes on his own, but he can enforce judgments. We will win of course, because the bad guy doesn't have a legal leg to stand on.
I walked to the DA's office first to see if we could get the bad guy arrested for trespassing by building the fence and gate. I got just about the same answer from them: it will have to go to court. (The inside of the office is exactly the same as the inside of the county jail—all bullet-proof glass and locked doors.) In front of the office I found a very nice sweater in the middle of the sidewalk, so it wasn't a total loss.
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Oct 30, 2015 20:13:11 GMT
Yesterday the second USB connector that I ordered for my camera charger arrived. It was a 5.5 mm round plug, the first one I ordered was 3.5 mm. Neither one of them fit. So I think the next thing I will do is order a set of adapter plugs, hopefully one of them will work. I put a mini pumpkin in font of my door in a little wreath, it was fairly cute. Here it is: I went out about 8 pm, it was very mild and breezy out, and the moon rising in the east was very orange and big looking, a couple days past full stage, but it still looked like a harvest moon. I saw a video about celebrities who died in 2014, a few I hadn't known about including Phil Everly, Sid Caesar, Reuben Kincaid (Partridge Family), The Professor (Gilligan's Island), Alice (The Brady Bunch). Is it wrong to feel a little sad because some people you most likely never met have reached the end of their story? I met Sid Caesar, and I met Rod McKuen (who died in 2015), and I don't know whether to laugh when I think back on the semi-silly things I said to them when I met them. Because I really knew very little about them when I met them, and only learned later. Of course this was long before the internet, and it wasn't anywhere near as easy to find out who people were and see examples of their performances back then. They were very nice, and tolerant of the silly things people said to them, I guess.
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Oct 31, 2015 12:58:00 GMT
Yesterday paid November rent, took plastic soda bottles to store for 5 cent deposits, bought some healthy food: sunflower seeds, avocadoes, tofu, dried apricots, and shredded mozzarella. I found how to click View in my e-mail to select only the Unread messages, which is useful if the unread ones go back several pages. I sorted through the software promotions from Serif.com, trying to decide if I should order something today with their Halloween discount coupon. I had been planning on ordering their screencapture software, and thought this might be the right time. I just purchased it, and I don't think I was allowed to use the 33% Halloween coupon because it was already selling at supposedly 50% off, and you can't combine discounts. But anyhow, I had been planning to buy it for a while, so this finally got me to do that. I'm hoping it may be useful in recording my activities online, and perhaps preserving some videos that may be removed from YouTube or elsewhere in the future, including some things I recorded on a karaoke site years ago. And hoping it may also be useful in creating videos using clips from other videos or other things. Here's a review of this software, which seems generally positive: www.geekiest.net/post/Ashampoo-Snap-8-Review-and-Giveaway.aspx
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Nov 1, 2015 16:21:42 GMT
Yesterday I ordered that screen capture download described above. Other than that, I took aspirins, vitamin C, and slept. I must have encountered some germs when I went to the store on friday. So I'm just trying to get my head un-spongey now, taking aspirin and vitamin C, and sleeping. Trying to sort my thoughts. Trying to stay motivated to keep making whatever small progress I can.
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Post by CampKohler on Nov 1, 2015 21:14:35 GMT
Get well, oh, cat-loving sicko. And please do tell us where you were and how you met those celebrities. The only famous person I ever met was presidential candidate George McGovern, who was standing at the door of an airliner when I boarded. I shook his hand, but, surprisingly was not wrestled to the ground by the Secret Service. I'll never forget that he looked very haggard and like he could use about two week's sleep. Well, he's sleeping OK now. Also I saw Dolly Parton and her huge... uh, entourage walking outside the entrance to the Las Vegas airport terminal. She was wearing a very form-fitting purple sweater. If I had it to do over again, I would yell out, "Be careful! You could put someone's eyes with those things!" But I am sure she has heard that before. When a young squirt, my uncle, who was a politco of sorts, took me into the governor's office in Reno, NV. But my eyes were only for his collection of little metal airplane models on his credenza. He must have been a pilot. ---- Friday I zoomed down to the county law library to get there by 8:35 AM and get a lottery draw for an appointment for the self-help clinic. I needn't have zoomed. There was no one else before me, so I sat down with the two ladies at the clinic table. They heard about 10 seconds of what the case was about and said, "Oh, you really need a lawyer!" There were there only to help people fill out forms for a name change, etc. What a bust! While I was there the nice young lady at the library counter gave me some very thick law books and I dug in. It turns out all these thick books are made up of very large number of very short—one or two sentence long—sections, so it is not daunting at all. And everything is cross referenced, so you eventually get around to all the points of law that might affect your case. After about three hours, I felt I had hit all the high points and left for the grindstone of the recorder's office. I found some key deeds (one where the indexers had failed to enter one of the party's names, creating an unbridgeable gap if it weren't for the guy's wife being on the deed as well!) and so did some good. However, there is a gap in the chain for my friend's road that I just can't bridge. It was bought in 1946 and there is NOTHING showing it sold before the tax collector got his grubby hands on it in 1974. This can't be, so I surmise the indexers have struck again. I could fall back on the handwritten General Index, but this is laborious, involving reels and reels of microfilm. Instead I will try the title company that insured the title, because they have a database (built at GREAT expense) that shows all the deeds for a given parcel. Maybe they won't tell me about the missing deeds, but will want to sell it to me. I am going to have to sweet-talk them into spilling the beans. All I need is one name to get back in the game again. ---- Yesterday I killed the day composing a pleading as though I was going to court on the case. We will probably have to get a lawyer, but maybe this great and majestic lawyerly work will be helpful to him and cut down the time he needs to prepare. Or... he will be polite and try to stifle a huge belly laugh at reading such an amateurish steaming pile of crapola. Last night I watched about 4 episodes of the 2nd season of the Mentalist. I really like that show. Simon Baker plays such a likable smart-ass. I have the 2nd and 5th seasons checked out from the library. After one disk played, it showed a notice in about 49-1/2 Asian languages of about the disk being only for use in those countries and NOT the U.S. Oooops! (Shhh! Don't tell!) What did Elise do yesterday?
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Nov 1, 2015 21:41:25 GMT
All this computer technology is being applied to researching general information, and filtering online shopping and medical research. It's got to eventually be applied to the law as well, where all the information in all those law books can be entered into a huge legal database, and the answers you can spend weeks, months, or years researching in the big books will be provided to you in seconds by a computer.
That'll be the day!
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Post by CampKohler on Nov 1, 2015 21:54:33 GMT
It's already done. They just want the oodles of money for it that only the law community can pay. Enough trickles out online, however, to be useful to we mere mortals.
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Nov 1, 2015 22:01:29 GMT
So in other words, keeping things complicated lets the lawyers continue their monopoly on the legal system.
p.s. I wrote to the realtor who showed me "Building #2" three years ago, he replied that it's "under agreement" and expected to close in a month or so. Still sounds somewhat indefinite.
Meanhwile, I have my folding bicycle now, and may travel to New Hampshire to see "Building #1".
p.p.s. my head is starting to clear finally. Once I started sneezing, my system was clearing itself out.
What did you do with your extra hour today, All Saints' Day?
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Nov 1, 2015 22:27:13 GMT
And please do tell us where you were and how you met those celebrities. What did Elise do yesterday? Yesterday Elise watched fireworks and ate Halloween candy that no children came to her door for, except one floppy bunny masquerading as a stray cat. Both Sid Caeasr and Rod McKuen I met because they were promoting books they had just published. Sid Caesar was speaking at the public library and signed books after. Rod McKuen spoke at a book festival, which I went to see Annie Liebovitz at. I got her to sign a guitar, which I still have, and Rod McKuen was standing there. It's ridiculous, because I really had no idea what he had done musically, and really his autograph on the guitar would have been so much more signifcant. About a month later I took that guitar to a Dr. Who convention, with the intention of getting Tom Baker to sign it, but I dawdled a little too long and he left just before I was going to get in line. After that I decided to give up the autograph-hound guitar project, so it's just got Annie Liebovitz's autograph on it. A couple other celebrities I did meet pretty randomly. One evening walking home from work I passed John Kerry who was standing in an archway with a half dozen reporters sticking microphones in his face. Perhaps I should have said "Hey, John Kerry, why the long face?". But I just walked by. Another time I met John Mellencamp one afternoon, who was playing a concert that evening I think, and was playing touch football with his band and crew members on the Boston Common. I talked to him for a minute, he was pretty nice, and I believe his first wife was there too, she was the blond cheerleader in the Pink Houses video, and she looked exactly like she did in the video. Nice smile.
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Nov 3, 2015 15:06:31 GMT
Yesterday I figured out how to restore a thumbnail "most visited" link on Google Chrome homepage, having accidentally removed my e-mail thumbnail a week ago and it not reappearing no matter how many times I visited that site since.
I had to remove two more thumbnails (usually you just need to remove one thumbnail), and then a "Restore All" link appears at the bottom of the page. When you click that, it will restore previous thumbnails going back a while, and you just click X on the ones you don't want until you've got the 8 thumbnails you want. And if you goof and remove one you want, you can do the Restore All again and start over until you get the eight you want.
One small step for a man, one giant leap for a floppy bunny.
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Post by CampKohler on Nov 3, 2015 23:11:57 GMT
I went over to the sheriff's local substation to ask some questions, but misremebered which office complex it was in. A sign at a gate said to report to the guard and I did. After eyeing my ID and making a call, I was admitted to the building where I was passed through a metal detector and logged in. Then I saw a sign on the wall, "Federal Bureau of Investigation." What the...? Wrong building! Well, if I ever need to get into the FBI building, I know how to now. I was only off a mile or two.
I spent another three hours at the Recorder's office, Digging for Deeds for my friend's road. Having failed to find the missing ones on their computer system, I started looking at the General Index—the old hand-written index—on microfilm until my head was "reeling" (get it?). If I can't find it there, then I will have to admit that it just doesn't exist, because as far as I can tell, they didn't make mistakes by hand; it takes a computer! The only alternative is to search for the 1969 tax collector's deed to the State of California, which being among hundreds of deeds will be tedious and time consuming.
I keep a close eye on some dumpsters behind two Goodwill stores, because people dump stuff that GW doesn't want (or they think they won't accept) as donations. I find a lot of kid's stuff for my friends child care place, because they won't take anything a baby can sit or lie in. Last night I found a Compaq AT PC, complete with RAM, CPU, heatsink, etc., missing only the hard drive. One lucky find! Also some tweaker dumped a microwave oven he had stripped, but he left the magnetron in it, so I pulled the tube. Even if the tube no longer works, there are a couple of nice round magnets in each one.
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Post by floppycatlovingbunny on Nov 4, 2015 1:23:57 GMT
I think it's likely Goodwill throws out some of the things that people donate that they don't think will sell. If they don't think they can sell it, who are they going to donate it to? End of the line, except for dumpster pickers.
If there's a drop-off location (usually a trailer or storage container), with a sign clearly saying "Do NOT leave donations when this facility is unattended", and people leave bags and bags of stuff after hours anyhow, I think it's fair game to take what you want from there at night. Especially if it's raining or snowing, or expected to before morning.
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