Most depressing month of the year? 'tis passing strange.
 

Over here it's January, with last Wednesday (or maybe the Wednesday before) that's slated as the most depressing day. I suppose it makes sense, the let-down after Christmas and New Year coupled with the fact that in the UK, tax returns have to be in by the end of January. Is it the same in the wide wide world? And why is the full moon linked with insanity?

Don't forget the generally gray skies, barren trees, cold weather keeping us indoors, and the lack of vitamin D.

Our taxes are not due until April 15, but because we expect a refund, I am doing ours this weekend.

I don't know about the full moon and insanity. I do notice that I have to shave several times a day and my teeth get sharper when over the full moon is out. I seem to really like my meat extra rare then too. :cool:

Regards,

D-Ray

There's a lot to be said for 3000 miles betwixt thee and me:D.

As to the moon, as it waxes and wanes does its distance from earth vary? Just as tides are influenced by the moon, maybe on a much smaller scale fluid in our brains is as well. Maybe a trip-wire effect; if you're unstable a little push is all it takes, if you're stable that little push might make you more irritable, but nothing more than that.

I'm convinced we are influenced by electric fields. Just before a thunderstorm while things are charging up, people and other animals get on edge, act all nervy and skittish. I've been close enough to a lightening strike ( flash and bang being as close to simultaneous as makes no difference) to remember feeling really freaked out just before it. You know you're close when you don't hear any echoes, or rolling thunder shaking the rooftops, you just hear a fucking great bang.

The moon's orbit around the earth is nearly circular which is strange because what we call a harvest moon sure looks bigger.

Around these parts February is considered the most depressing month. It is also the only month that does not have a legal holiday, Valentine's day is not considered a national holiday.

Lucky dog.

My corporates are due Mar 15, which means I need to have them done by Feb 15 so my accountant has time to process them. Can't do my personals until the corporates are done.

Also found out that the timeframe has expired on my annual donation. There goes a $700 tax credit.

Boo and hiss!!!

Chas

Yes, it does. And I believe so. That's right and also true. We are, they do and so have I. It blew apart an apple tree, just outside my bedroom window, when I was 12. You also feel the static charge rise in the air, just before the boom.

I'll be doing my taxes tomorrow. I should be getting a return, but it won't be much. Whatever, I no longer care.

Dave

The government gets your return. You get the refund. Ain't I a picky bastard.:D

With two boys still in college, we get a very helpful tax credit - enough to pay their rent for the rest of the school year.

BTW, as far as antidotes for mood, I just switched carts from the Empire 2000 to the Shure 95ED, and put on The Royal Scam. The Shure gives me a lot better idea of how much Bass my Infinities will reproduce. When I get around to pulling the V15 off of the Dual headshell, that will get to ride the grooves for awhile. The wife has gone shopping, so I can play it at an unreasonable volume.:cool:

Regards,

D-Ray

Wibble?

Still waiting on some interest forms then bundle it all up and mail it to our tax accountant.

Once again, the wise old bird reveals his feathers.

Much as the man who defends himself in court has a fool for a client, the man who prepares his own taxes has a cretin for an accountant.

Particularly when applied to me.

Chas

You must like changing cartridges more than me.

I had a M95EJ, but changed to the ED stylus because I could relate to it more.

Chas

I collected some headshells here and there, so I have several mounted that I can switch out and balance in a minute or two.

Regards,

D-Ray

Neither of my arms use standard headshells, so that is out of the question.

But you're missing the true essence of my post.

Chas

It is, sentence by sentence, a reply to post #3.

Dave

Must be spell it out nite.

Chas

Doh!! You know there are medications for that. I can't watch a sporting event on TV without being reminded that such medicines are available.

Regards,

D-Ray

I need a new high compliance cart for the Luxman. I'd like to go moving coil, but I have no MC phono stage, nor do I have the cash to pay for it right now.

Dave

There are a couple of high output MC carts from Denon, DL-110 and DL-160, both sound very nice.

I don't know why January is depressing to so many. We have the NFL playoffs, basketball in full swing along with cold and snow which helps insure our privacy.

Seems like a fine time to me. ;)

January depresses me because this cold snap is going to put our electric bill through the roof.

I like a change in season and cold weather is part of the mix. In my earlier days, particularly while in Europe, winter was my favorite time of year as an avid skier. The warming weather of April bummed me out as it marked the end of ski season.

Nowadays, I only ski occasionally as opposed to obsessively. Now I find March to be the dreariest month. It's still cold and I've grown tired of the long winter. In this area, I like April and October the most.

Rob's correct. I have a DL-160 mounted on an ADC-LT1 arm (very low mass arm) and it works great. Plenty of output through a MM stage.

For a HOMC to be used on a low mass arm (imagine your Luxman is low mass unless you've replaced the factory arm) it's a safe bet. I liked it better than my 2M Blue, Super 40, and an old model AT-440ML, with it sounding the closest. It is not a dull cartridge.

Chas

QFT - very lively indeed. Not the greatest for bass impact, but the bass it has is quite tight. I have a DL-160 on a Pioneer PL-41 and run it on the heavy side (1.8g) on a fairly high mass arm. Sounds great.

My gas bill was the highest it's ever been this month, coming in at $106. Of course, it's $28 in the summer, so I'm not complaining TOO much.

Other than it never topped $40 14 years ago when I first built this house.

Price of poker keeps going up.

Chas

Electric was over$400 last month I expect it to be worse this month. Yet I used my DMM which has a temperature probe and that Trane was pumping in 112 degree liquid when the outdoor temp was 12.7 degrees.

-7 air temperature this morning here in the Hudson Valley

Don't know much about a heat pump other than they're more expensive to run unless part of a ground source system.

I also understand that natural gas isn't really an option in the North East and you folks rely on heating oil.

Is that correct?

Chas

Did you wear your Carhartts?

Chas

Carhartts? I never saw those in Bloomingdales!
(although I did rep Dickies when they went inner city.)

-7 again today

Noon said "Dickies"!!!

Chas

lol, yeah dickies :D

Oil is not very cheap and natural gas is not available in our neck of the woods although it is in the general area, so we are all electric. Mind you that was OK for a typical Maryland winter and before Bobby Haircut gave Constipation Energy a 72% rate increase.

count your blessings, there is nothing more expensive than propane and the industry is a hustle.

mom was billed $6.99 a gallon last week, every bill you have to call up and fight them and wait for the "manager" to get back to you

If there was every an industry that needs consumer protections it is propane

These guys make car salesmen look like alter boys.

I think the current average price per gal in Missouri is a little over $2.00.

It appears to me that there is more in play here than price gouging from the distributors, charging a 400% profit margin on something like propane would most likely lead to jail time.

Chas

This is a common problem in NY/NJ. I have been forced to do allot of research on it since I moved up here to the country. The local paper did a series of articles on it this summer.

What they do is give you the tank and then you are obliged to buy from them.
It cost several hundred dollars to delivery the tank initially so if you think they are charging you too much you have a the initial tank delivery fee again plus the propane. It's all perfectly legal as it is not a monopoly and not regulated. The thing is the industry never breaks ranks because the set up is so sweet.
If you buy your own tank they charge the same prices for the propane so as to avoid any incentive to buy your own.

This is what happens under capitalism over and over again. It's not at all like in the books we read in school.

Don't even get me started on big pharma.

Wall street, LMAO no one "earns" anything there but the bucks are insane.

Insurance? Banking? All dishonest and abusive.

This why teabaggers need to step back and think about why they support what they do. The individual is powerless in the face of big business in a corporative America.

There are no mom and pops who compete to our benefit here in the vastness the future.

Most of the local propane dealerships have been bought up so there is basically just one left. Fortunately we only need propane for the emergency generator and push comes to shove it also runs on gasoline.

13 this morning with 4 inches of snow. Forcaste for tomarrow warming! but a foot of snow. :cool:

it has been a very cold winter and we have had snow cover since the blizard on the 26th of December. We have about 18-24 inches ground cover now. Extremely unusual for the south most part of the Hudson Valley.

25.6 here this AM, forecast is for the low to mid 40s.

more snow last night

it's amazing out

this is the 7th storm in a month and very little has melted

the picnic table is gone, completely buried

really beautiful out

most snow ever on the ground around these parts

supposed to get a couple more inches on Saturday

NYC official snowfall total, 19 in.