[TheForge] Marginal Blacksmithing Question Wandering OT:

[Andrew Vida]

Ralph Douglass wrote:

> Right now it is costing me 15 bucks a month for the interferon I am
> taking. But the druggist said it cost 4K a month. That is not counting
> the first 4 weeks of treatment ( I think that cost almost 15K a month ,
> have to buy the Drs and nurses....)
> Plus my Rad treatments. I think that came to a grand total of 30K.
> I am glad I work where there is reasonablly good ins.

	Interferon?  Is there soemthing you haven't told me?
> 
> So you never answered. How is the east coast?

	East coast is the east coast.  In some ways better than the west, and 
in some ways it sucks donkey wang.  Real estate is almost untouchable 
here.  Shitholes, and I mean literal shitholes, in the nastiest areas of 
Brooklyn... places I would not let my enemies live for sheer decency's 
sake, are nearly $1M and needing complete restoration.  1BR condos, 
small ones, are about $1M.  A few weeks ago I saw a house in Sea Girt on 
1/3 acre and about 1200 sq. feet for $9.5M.  It's absolutely insane. 
I'm sure it will crash eventually, but in the meanwhile regular people 
cannot really even begin to think about buying here.  My old house that 
I bought for $170K is worth about $600K now.  Shame I couldn't hold on 
to it.

NJ is a paranoid wasteland.  Went into DMV to get Seshat a NJ license. 
She had her birth certificate, AZ license, and valid US passport and 
they said that those were not sufficient.  She had to cough up about 
three other documents including bank statements to prove she was sho she 
said she was.  This sort of police-state, coward crap is very 
discouraging, not to mention annoying.  Sheeeet... when I registered the 
bus in Oregon, they asked for no proof of who I was or where I lived. 
Oregon good.  NJ bad.  But all my friends are here and it's good to see 
everyone, but I doubt I will stay as I don't think I have $800K and more 
to pay for a semi-decent house.  And the taxes are astronomical.  My ex, 
Kathy, lives in Wall, squashed between Manasquan and Brielle, both on 
the coast.  Her neighbor has a SMALL cape on 3/4 acre... nothing to 
write home about, though tidy.  $20K/year in property taxes!  Kathy pays 
only $9K because she's on less than 1/4 acre.  "Insane" doesn't even 
start to cover that.  And it seems some  folks here are getting pushed 
out of their homes because of reassessments.  The $100K house is now 
worth $800K and the $5K assessment is not 15 or even 25K dollars. 
That's a hefty mortgage payment, and it will never go away.  There are 
poeple in places such as Holmdel and Rumson that pay $100K in property 
tax, and those aren't even the most extravagant houses.  Sheer insanity.