Inflated Houses

The Phillies advance to the second round of the playoffs after defeating the Marlins last night. The Phillies are a scrappy team with solid starting pitching (the closer is weak), and a diverse lineup of sluggers and contact hitters. They look like they're having a lot of fun. The Phillies go on to play the top seeded Atlanta Braves. The Braves are favored, but we'd give the Phillies a puncher's chance of beating them. In recent years100 + win teams don't do so good in the post season. We'll see.

Yom Kippur War....during the Sinai campaign General Ariel Sharon kept pushing the limits of his orders. Advancing when he was told to recon, attacking when he was told to probe. At the same time, he constantly argued with his superiors, whom he thought too timid. Attack, attack! he pressed. Incidentally, Sharon hated the Bar Lev Line of fixed fortifications on the east bank of the Suez, and argued the IDF should maintain only small op-posts on the canal. Sharon was right as usual. Anyway, Sharon was such a pest, historians Trevor Dupuy and Chaim Herzog, wrote long explanations about how Sharon's mind worked, how Shron saw himself and how Sharon was acting in Israel's best interests. Indeed he was. 

Here's a viral story from the Babylon Bee about a woman describing her parent's lake house and childhood home, 'This woman's parents were public school teachers in the 1990s. Look at what they could afford compared to today.' The house has three bedrooms, two baths, and sounds like it's on the smallish side plus a bit ramshackle. Still, it's a lake house. Go watch the vid and behold the view. 

We know a bit about lake houses. Our families' own house on Lake Buel is two floors with three bedrooms, two baths, kitchen, family room, and a great room off to the side. The house was built in 1960. Our grandparents bought it in 1973 for $40,000. In the late 90's they tried to sell the house for $299,000. We still have the brochure. 

What would we get for our lake house if we sold it today? At one point Lake Buel was lined with quaint summer cottages. Many weren't even winterized. Few people lived on Lake Buel year-round. Few people live on the lake year-round today. Most of those quaint cottages are gone, replaced by true second homes. Every summer a house is knocked down and rebuilt. Someone built a massive house on the lake that looks like it has a servant's quarters extension. Heck, our neighbors a hundred yards down the road have a compound of three houses. 

The march of inflation during our lifetime has been relentless and accelerated the last decade. The woman in the above vid says there are two houses for sale on the lake, one for half a million the other for 1.2 million. Sounds right. Let's just say a couple of teachers aren't buying casa de Stroock. Our house would fall somewhere in the middle of those two houses we guess and would probably be a knockdown job for someone who just wants the land. 

There's always something wrong with the family lake house. Always something which needs to be fixed. Always a project in planning or in motion. We admit to being tempted this summer, to thinking, what if? Even if we got a mil (which would be split), so what? We'd never be able to afford another bucolic lake house. Not in America today. By the way, that little 450 square foot Long Beach Island condo we go to every August is on the market for half a million. 

For no damn reason whatsoever, our World War 1990: Norway Swedish notes. Bork! Bork! Bork!