Regarding selling houses, we have had a few years where quite a few of the desirable ones get snapped up by cash buyers; both real people trying to put cash in safe investments, or landlords and corporations building big rental portfolios. They can swoop in fast, and they don't have a long lead time for the deal to close, so it might pay to be ready for that scenario.

Ran a full set of errands yesterday in the new wheels; took me a while to figure out the hatchback WAS locked, it just kept unlocking itself every time I walked up to it with the magic key. Ridiculous, but I was afraid to leave it 'open' in a big parking lot til I proved to myself it really was locked.

In an effort to get some of my funds out of the hands of greedy corporations, I stopped at the new little produce stand I've been speeding past. Met a nice lady and got some fresh local foods for a song. Have to do the same with local meat suppliers next. Bought a leather belt I needed in Mexico instead of at the big-box. Just think if 50 million of us pulled back even 20% of our purchases from the chains...