Timeshares have come up a few times in the comments. Usually, they are discussed in a negative way. As a happy timeshare owner, I thought I’d talk about how they work and what I do and don’t like about owning a timeshare.
Overview
Originally, a timeshare meant you would buy a week in a resort – say, the last week of September – and go back to that same resort every year for the last week of September. Companies selling timeshares usually owned more than one resort, so someone quickly thought of letting people trade weeks, and then to trade locations. This was basically a barter system and ran into the mutual exchange of wants problem. So, first a floating week developed (you buy the right to a week, not a specific week.) And then, the point system evolved. Now, when you buy a week in a resort, you’re really buying a set of points that give you access to the timeshare company’s resorts or an exchange system’s resorts. The nominal resort where you’re buying is referred to as your ‘home resort’ and you typically get priority in booking time there.
Timeshares aren’t for everyone, but they can be a good way to vacation. For example, some people want to be able to go to the same place every year. The enjoy the certainty that they will be able to go to the resort they like, in the week they like. A former colleague of mine was like that. She and her brother both had a week in a timeshare in Cancun. They always went the same week. For her, it was a chance to see her brother – away from the craziness of the holidays. They both have families of their own and the resort always has activities for both kids and adults. She liked having the condo, because they could keep food for breakfasts or sandwiches, and they could store beer. Another colleague has two weeks in Maui. He and his now grown kids (with children of their own) go every July. There is space for everyone, activities for everyone and they have the certainty of getting a spot.
Narrow Boat
I don’t want to go to the same place every year and am able to use my timeshare to travel the world. Most timeshares are part of an exchange. My timeshare is through Wyndham, which has lots of resorts, but there are many other companies (Marriot, Blue Green, Disney, etc.). In addition, Wyndham is part of RCI (which Wyndham owns), a timeshare exchange company, which has thousands of resorts in the network and allows you to go almost anywhere in the world.
Costs
I said ‘buying a week’ or points. What does that mean? Well you pay for the week based on the points. The number of points depends on the location of the resort as well as the size of the unit you want. The nicer the resort and the bigger the unit, the more points it is worth and the more you pay. You are now a part owner of that resort and will have to pay taxes/maintenance costs, just as you would for a condo. My timeshare has 230,000 points and my fees are around $100/month. Remember, though, you’re really just buying access to the company’s network. You can also buy timeshares on the secondary market, which is what I did. I paid about a third of what it would have cost me to buy from Wyndham. Obviously, this isn’t an investment, and although the timeshare companies are more than happy to offer you a loan – at credit card interest rates – if you can’t pay cash, you can’t afford a timeshare.
When I book a vacation through Wyndham, I don’t pay anything. Each week requires a certain number of points, which depend on the resort and the week of the year. My timeshare also has a certain number of ‘reservation credits’ attached
Wyndham Points Chart
that are applied to booking. I don’t have to book a full week; I can book by the night. If I were to run out of reservation credits because I used points to book a few nights here and a few there, then I would have to pay a booking fee. I’ve never had that happen, though I do occasionally use it for a quick getaway. Booking a night or two lets me get more use out of my points. I’m also not limited to a condo; my timeshare offers cruises and other benefits.
I can deposit my points into RCI which has more locations and resorts and use them in that system. RCI typically requires fewer points. When I book through RCI, I pay a
RCI Point Chart
fee of about $300, although RCI often has sales with reduced fees. RCI also offers cash vacations, so if I’ve used up my points, I could still make use of their network of resorts.
Finally, there are local hotel taxes or other fees that that depend on the resort that need to paid when you arrive.
Cost seems like the biggest downside of owning a timeshare, but I don’t necessarily think so as long as you use it. You’re paying for it whether you use it or not. Travel is a priority for me, so I do use it. If I didn’t, it wouldn’t be worth it. It also wouldn’t be worth it if I only used my timeshare to go to my home resort. The home resort requires all my points. That would be an expensive yearly vacation.
Luckily, I can use it for multiple weeks. I can get three or four weeks out of it, with little effort. A former colleague of mine had timeshares through Disney and Marriot. She knew every possible trick to use points for lodging, airline tickets, and even tours. She liked to talk about it, and I listened. If I do four weeks and book them all through RCI – the more expensive option, then I’m paying about $600 for each 7 day, 6 night week – $1200 in maintenance fees and $1200 in booking fees – for a condo. That’s not that bad a price. I looked up what La Quinta Inn would cost for my upcoming week in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The best price they have is $175 a night (a little over $1000 for 6 nights) for a room with one bed. If I book through Wyndham, my cost per week would be lower since I don’t have to pay a booking fee.
Benefits
Timeshare resorts are mostly condos, although there are some hotels (fewer points). I usually book a two-bedroom condo[1]. That lets me bring friends along. If you stay at a hotel, they often charge more for extra people. The timeshare condos don’t. This is one of the biggest benefits for my sister. She and her husband have four kids and two timeshares. They find places they can drive to and have been able to take nice vacations without paying for six air fares or multiple hotel rooms. This was especially important when the kids were small.
The condos have kitchens so I don’t have to eat out every night and can make my own breakfasts. I don’t have to plan ahead to book tours like the Grand Canyon; you can do all that at the resort. One day a week, most resorts offer coffee and pastries while they have various tour or attraction operators come in and tell you what they have to offer, complete with discounts. (And yes, they are discounts – I’ve checked.)
The resorts usually have on-site activities – especially for kids – as well. Almost all the places I’ve stayed had kiddie pools and playgrounds in addition to the regular pools and hot tubs[2]. Among the onsite activities I’ve enjoyed are: a class on how to make a basket from palm fronds in Hawaii – I still have the basket; a nature walk and a water aerobics class in Mexico; and a cowboy music concert in Sedona, AZ.
Mexico
Downside
The biggest downside for me is availability. Whether I’m going through Wyndham or RCI it can be hard to find something in Hawaii or Key West, Florida. I’ve always been able to find what I wanted, but sometimes I have had to keep checking over and over and then grab it immediately. This would be easier if I had more points. Wyndham gives priority to people with more than 400,000 points. However, I am already constrained by the vacation time I have available – I can’t imagine what I would do with that many points, and I have no interest in paying more to buy additional points.
View from my unit in Florida
As I mentioned above, my home resort takes all my points when booked through Wyndham. I have been able to go to Hawaii for fewer points through RCI, but it required checking every day for several weeks.
Overall
A timeshare can be great if you use it. Travel is a priority for me, and I enjoy using it. I don’t think my timeshare saves me any money, but I think I get a nicer vacation for the money.
[1] If I were to book studio sized condos, I could probably get five or six weeks a year.
[2] The narrow boat didn’t have any of that.
Thanks for writing this up! It was interesting to talk to you about this stuff the other day
The party line among Florida natives has always been that timeshares were a sucker bet.
I might be tempted to look at the numbers again after reading this.
Sounds like the magic words are “secondary market”.
Bingo.
Ding, ding, ding. Don’t buy from the developer.
And check out the broker carefully.
Interesting article. ?
Thanks for sharing it.
Interesting article. It is very similar to owning a “charter sailboat”.
Your canal boat story made me seriously interested in doing that.
Some people own shares in canal boats, too.
I liked your boat article last year – maybe I missed it but was that reserved through this system or somewhere else?
I’ve had decent luck with hotelclub.com (now part of hotels.com) over the years – since they’re worldwide and I can earn nights whether I’m staying in motels driving cross country or going out for liberty nights while on a Pacific deployment. Every night works towards a free night – but the free night is the average of the last 10 nights – still worth it though.
The narrow boat was through the timeshare, though you can just rent them.
I have never done the time share thing but in the before times I was a big fan of VRBO and have rented houses and condos here and there on various beaches and or in beach towns. Also a big fan of the discount travel websites. It is hit or miss but I stayed in a $600 a night room in Park City for something like $125 a night. I only know that because the check in person asked if I knew what a deal I had gotten. I didn’t, but it was a really nice room. Not that I would have paid $600 for it even if I could.
I’ve realized those kinds of savings in Park City, Jackson, and Newport by going in May/June or Sept./Oct.
Nice write-up, Tulip!
Narrow boats fascinate me.
Their equivalents in southwest France and throughout the Netherlands also fascinate me.
As luck would have it, the spousal unit and I had a rather intense discussion about all of this last night whilst walking the pup. My problem with planning any of this stuff is that I’m alarmed that governments all over the planet appear to have succumbed to the “totalitarian temptation” and are constantly moving the goalposts for anyone trying to plan a vacation anywhere further than about 5km from their residence. Meanwhile, one of our travel d00ds wants us to commit to a travel itinerary through Egypt, Petra etc. in 2023 for a staggering, jaw-dropping amount of money, and even securing an advance payment can only be refunded until the beginning of 2021. HUH?!?
Sorry, but until governments worldwide stop playing “whack-a-mole” with our lives and plans, I don’t wanna even pretend to commit. Fuck those assholes.
This is totally interesting. I have a buddy who bought a couple of houses in Ormond Beach. he air-b-and-b’s them most of the time, but blocks out time when he want’s to go. He has a friend who cleans and preps them. We stayed with him (and my niece, his fiancee) at one for Biketoberfest once. His houses are about 100-125k or so.
This is interesting. Since I upgraded to a Mooney, my travel radius via private airplane has nearly doubled. From the Pittsburgh area, it’s about 2.5-3 hours to New England or the Outer Banks, 6-7 hours to south Florida, and maybe 12 hours to somewhere exotic like the Dominican Republic.
A time share as described here might make sense…
What is the time to Western CO so you can pick me up for that trip to the Dominican?
I haven’t flow to CO yet. I ordered the Colorado State Aviation map (CO is one of only a few states that has a state aviation department and takes it seriously enough to develop their own flying charts). I’m guessing, depending on winds aloft of course, about 9 hours not including 2-3 fuel stops. Although my ride isn’t turbocharged, so we’re not going to be clearing the peaks by all that much.
I’m good with skimming peaks. Worked heli portable oil and gas exploration for a few years. I was set on getting my private pilot license but that faded away. Flying is good fun but expensive to get into.
I took forever to get into flying, finally decided in my late 30s that if I didn’t do it then, I’d never do it.
If you’re still interested, flying clubs can be a good way of scratching the itch without the huge expense.
I am really poor now. I have let that dream pass but good on ya for flying around. The plane I was taking lessons in before I had to cut it off was a 182. My instructor called it the SUV of the air because it could take you anywhere in the mountains. There are lots of “unknown” landing strips around these parts. She eventually moved to Nigeria and was flying for a Safari outfit. I heard she past away for some reason or other. Life sucks but she lived a full if not too short one.
I’ve got an uncle who used to fly for MAF in Africa (probably 80s or early-mid 90s. don’t recall specific dates. (missionary aviation). Guess they have some flight school in the mountains in Idaho where you’re required to learn how to fly in extremely tight canyons, short landing strips, etc. You also have to be capable of doing ALL your own maintenance/repairs under very restricted conditions.
And they smuggle what?
Fish: The Jimmy Stewart version of “Flight of the Phoenix” is on FXM this week, a movie that’s relevant here.
Blackjack: They’re smuggling budgies.
Trivia: the terminal at DEN is named for Jeppesen.
I’d rather own a fraction of a jet. But, I ain’t wealthy. So that idea is right out.
#MeToo
I can’t think of anything better than to never fly coach again. Never flying commercial again is beyond my wildest dreams.
I supposedly am able to fly space-available on US military aircraft but COVID put a screeching halt on that dream. It’s probably one of the biggest things about this virus that pisses me off.
Dammit! Now I’m reading about the old days of skateboarding. That was the life, man!
I was about 3 years later, but this might as well be a home movie for me. I was on the team of the skate shop that was in this building. Being on the team meant free shirts (but not too many) and stickers and a discount on equipment. I think we also got a discount card for the Endless Wave skatepark too.
I lived on Ocean Blvd about 8 blocks down and one block west from where this was filmed at around the same time. I was 8 y/o then. Never wore shoes.
Did you learn to use your skateboard to bash unsuspecting deplorables in the head?
No. That was the Dogtown people. Us northern types were mellow. Except the surfers. They hated L.A. invaders.
Locals only.
Real common on the beaches up my way.
Wow, the board is short. Some how as a kid I ended up with my uncles skate board (Bakersfield roots). Thing had metal wheels. Impossible to ride or turn.
Yeah, they were better by the time I was into it. I had a z-flex Jay Adams yellow board for awhile and I got a bunch of shit for it. “Why you riding an enemy board?” Etc. Most people up there road Sims decks.
I bought a logan earth-ski with Bennet trucks and Roadrider wheels at the Sport Port ( with my discount) which was in that very building. Took it outside and did a bunch of walk-the-dogs and kickflips in that same parking lot to test it. Maybe 1978 or so. ( with my discount)
God you are old.
1978
My wife was pregnant with our second.
Yup.
Bay Area 1964.
2×4 with a pair of steele roller skate wheels attached to each end with bent over 16d nails. No tricks, just trying not to get skinned up too bad going down hills.
Wooden wheels from old shoe skates were better, but they didn’t stay round very long on the pavement.
My brother and I had a bunch of races on bigwheels in Sanfran. They would only last about three runs before they’d get shredded. We got all scraped up. Big fun. It was like big wave surfing, but the ghetto version. Maybe 1980.
One of the things I understood is that the timeshare never ends. You can’t cancel it. So, after many years of using it (and getting your money’s worth), you may be stuck with an expense you no longer want. That’s when you try to sell it on the secondary market. I’ve heard about people willing to PAY to unload their timeshare and still couldn’t get rid of it.
Not trying to be a downer, but that aspect has always concerned me about timeshares.
There are a lot of things that have a cost (taxes/maintenance) that are never ending. You can sell them and some timeshare companies have buyback programs. You will sell at a loss. It’s not an investment, it’s consumption.
If I went into it with that attitude, then I can justify the cost to myself. However, we’re not able to do any traveling at all right now, which I regret. My family road-tripped every summer and we haven’t been able to give that to our kids and now, if XY gets a job next summer, we won’t be able to do so at all.
I’m not an expert but I can tell you that my in-laws had a timeshare that had a 20 year term.
I used to go down to Mexico a lot. And every time I did, I’d get accosted with the timeshare stuff. Seems like every resort there has a full staff of young ladies who’s only job is to lure teh silly rich gringos (all gringos are filthy rich you know) into a timeshare. I never went for that.
My aunt gave us her timeshare points and my father-in-law gave us his frequent flier miles for our honeymoon 25 years ago. We went to Puerto Rico.
I was pretty drunk on rum drinks when the lady made her timeshare presentation. But she bought us a lobster dinner!
Thanks, Tulip, I always wondered how timeshares work. Totally different than what I thought. At this time the knowledge probably doesn’t make much difference to me though. I am concerned that I may get a temporary timeshare at a nursing home someday. Scares the bejesus out of me. I’d go to Canada first.
I will happily purchase a timeshare if I am provided with a free weekend trip to my resort of choice thank you.
Thanks, Tulip.
Always fun to read about the things the interesting people around here do.
OT: Tim Dillon is not a libertarian, and he is from Long Island and fat and gay – so three strikes against – but he is my favorite comedian / podcaster / ranter and this one goes everywhere.
Big Timeshare has invaded Glibertarians.com.
First Ron Paul now this.
My God.
Also I didn’t realize there would be magic spoon commercials. Get to the part where there is no video if you care!!!!!
OMG, thanks for this. “Ya gotta keep ya body guessin’; that’s why I have a cheat day.“
Great post, Tulip! Done the listen to a spiel for a bit for a discount, but that’s as close as I’ve came. Oh, and the never ending commercials for some timeshare escape firm.
It is a great post and it makes me consider timeshares as a good option for vacationing. Thank you Tulip.
Whatever I get into, I have a few principles I lean on.
a/ One nice thing about short-term, one-time rentals (hotels, cars) is you pay once, you know what you’re getting, and you know what it truly costs. Most other deals are cumbersome and emotionally dissatisfying because other costs keep dripping in. There is something wonderful about turning in a car at the Enterprise counter and knowing you don’t care when the real seal is going out.
b/ Don’t forget risk. A foot will go bad; an eye will cloud; skipping down the park path or up a gangplank won’t always be easy. A shah will be deposed. A child will need something, a partner will pass away, a river will get out of its banks; stuff keeps coming. So liquidity, flexibility, and shorter terms are better. You won’t always be young, heal quickly, or snap back from everything. If your financial horizons are far enough out, the lay of the land will change before you get there. Think of all the things that have changed in the past ten years you never dreamed of, and, btw: these are good and stable times.
c/ You can’t have too much cash. You make better decisions with the cash you’ve earned than the cash you hope to earn; it’s easier to disrespect something that has yet to come to pass; cash, like scars, carries weight and perspective; people who live in cash are completely different from everyone else.
Apply these any way you will to anything you want. The longer you live, the more right I’ll be.
If I was a serious, committed traveler, I could see a timeshare being worth it. I’d save enough that the risk would be worth the reward.
But I’m not. So it’s not.
Got this one in my feed at youtube today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJbt2uXcu6U
So… …you’re posting this here because you have a time share in North Korea you want to unload?
Well it can only go up in value, right? WHAT A DEAL
My wife and I sat through a Hilton Grand Vacations “points program” presentation a couple years ago in Orlando. They kept insisting it wasn’t a “timeshare” – you’re not attached to one place, there’s much more flexibility to go to many different places, etc.
At one point they had us sit in a room to watch a video. That’s when I pulled my phone out to do a search on their program and what people said about it. The biggest criticism was that people couldn’t reserve the places they really wanted.
As I thought about it, the points approach will almost inevitably result in a scarcity of places to use your points (the product). At least with a true timeshare, you’re guaranteed a certain week at a certain resort. And when you pay taxes and maintenance fees, you’re paying for that particular condo. So, there’s a limit on how many of these weekly timeshares that can be sold. But with a points program, you can sell unlimited points to various customers. But if the sales of points exceed the rate of new resorts being built, you will have a scarcity of product for the customers. It would only work like a timeshare if the points programs had a limited number of memberships/points that could be sold – dictated by the available spaces to use those points. But we all know they’re not limiting themselves – the salesmen aren’t held accountable for the availability of the product they’re selling. What the program probably does over time is increase the amount of points needed for each product option. This means that the points you bought will continually decline in value. And I’d be willing to bet the taxes and maintenance fees will continue to go up (the fine print in the contract likely allows them to increase them).
Whoever came up with the points approach is probably considered a genius by the timeshare salesmen. “We don’t even have to have a room set aside for a certain time period to make a sale. We can sell the ‘possibility’ of reserving a room at a certain time. Brilliant!”
I’ll stick to Airbnb, VRBO and other such rental options where I can reserve a certain place for a certain time for a set amount of money. Hey, even those can sometimes fall through – we’ve had a couple owners cancel on us out of the blue, but got full refunds each time, which we used for an alternative place,
Clark Howard is not a fan of timeshares, including the points programs. This link includes a video that talks about figuring out what your timeshare is worth on the retail market.
That’s why I bought on the secondary market
Get ready to panic.!!!
Especially you Glibs with offspring in college, As of 9/22
48,299 Commie Flu cases!!!!!
48,299 I tells ya.
2, count ’em 2 hospitalizations, and
0 yep zero fatalities.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/09/medias_wuhan_lies_lengthen_deepen.html
I’m part of a Facebook group for parents at my kid’s college. The divide between the parents about Covid is stark. One group panics any time an outbreak at any college is reported. The other group asks how many were hospitalized and how many died. There is 0 overlap between the groups.
The first group is just indignant anyone would question protecting the students. The other group, of which I’m a member, says with this little risk it’s time to get on with life.
Thank you Tulip for the write-up.
While I am an inveterate traveler I’m a bit long in the tooth to be buying in to a timeshare – probably not enough good years left to really make it worth the investment – particularly with two kids in grade school which makes scheduling travel more problematic than before.
On a related subject – one of my Top 10 Travel Nightmare Stories revolves around a dodgey Ozzie timeshare sales office on Bali. It ended with them threatening to call the police then backing down when I called their bluff – and me going to the police on my own to file a complaint.
Gonna retell this here. Had a buddy who was in the army. When they finally gave him some leave, he went to Australia. They asked him at customs if he had any felony convictions. He replied ” I didn’t know you still had to, to get in here!”
That’s a play on the old P. J. O’Rourke gag from when he went to cover the America’s Cup in Fremantle: “Australia asks on their customs forms if you’re a convicted felon, though they’ll still let you in if you’re not.”
I was on a British Isles cruise a few years back and started talking with a shipmate who mentioned that he was Aussie. I asked him, “When you landed at Heathrow, did they say ‘Welcome back?'”
Fortunately, he took it in good humor. Over the last couple of centuries, the Australians have evidently gotten tired of the convict jokes and tend to be a mite touchy on the subject.
I just want to say that because of you, Tulip, I have become fascinated with narrowboats and the English canal system. I have bought books, looked up websites, and am trying to talk the wife into a vacation on one. So, thank you!
Yeah, that story had the same effect on me. Seems like a cool way to spend a week or two.
Or, a bachelor party!
Dear old Peep Show. I can’t decide if that or Kath & Kim is the funniest show I’ve ever seen.
Since I have neve seen K&K, the only correct answer can be Peep Show.
Sort of an Aussie AbFab x Keeping Up Appearances, satiric and quite broad. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6jlkcd
?
Do it!
When I travel, I like to go on road trips, not being entirely sure where I’ll be on a given night. So we’ll be two hours out, and Mrs. Prolefeed will be in the passenger seat figuring what hotel to stay in that night.
For example, one night we wound up in a Las Vegas – the one in New Mexico. Ran out of daylight heading to Taos. Had a wonderful stay in the old hotel on the plaza.
Timeshares are the antithesis of that approach.
Before the kids my wife and I used to backpack around Europe or Asia. Just travel around finding hotels from a guidebook as we went. Just show up and see if they have a room available.
I’m not even sure if that’s a thing anymore with the internet these days.
I loved Las Vegas, New Mexico when I stayed there back in November ‘02. Didn’t they shoot part of the Longmire series in that town?
Evening everyone
I’m posting from the ER.
Think it’s a #_+(-_$&$$##!! kidney stone. Waiting on results.
Did I say #*&$*$__#*!!
Either that or there’s a fucking leprechaun stabbing me in the back.
Oh, man! I’m so sorry! I hope they give you good drugs for the pain! : (
Waiting on that. If the anti inflammatory doesn’t work. Wife doesn’t drive at night so I’d be stuck here
I thought they could zap those puppies with ultrasound now.
Under 8mm they don’t.
And lots of them. Sorry Scruffy. Feel better.
Hope you get heled up and out of pain.
Dare I say it???
This, too, shall pass
“healed”
ugh…..stupid @&#>” wrist
And it’s a 5mm stone
Ouch! ?Get well, get well soon ?
I hope they can help you get through this without too much agony on your part. If that involves some good drugs, well, I guess that’s the price you have to pay.
Just got the morphine. So there’s that.
?
One shot didn’t cut it. They’re either stingier with the morphine these days or this thing is kicking my ass.
My money’s on the stone. Drink more lemon water.
I’m not sure if it’s worse to pass it or have ultrasound/surgery to remove it.
I’m barely high after two shots.
They’re definitely stingier.
They have me some drug to open the ureter. Never heard of it before.
The great news is that there’s another stone in my other kidney just plotting my torture.
Dude that sounds awful. Why won’t they do ultrasound on 5 mm stones?
Not certain. I think there’s some risk involved.
Maybe a threshold for what can be passed? I thought the ultrasound only breaks it into smaller chunks not into dust.
Power through it, Scuffy. Hope it ends soon!
I had a kidney stone while I was at a remote radar site in Alaska. That was a fun trip home.
Now that had to suck.
It did.
Had to wait for a charter bush plane to come and pick me up and fly me to Bethel AK. Spent the night in a native corp hospital (which I later found out was not in my insurance network) and then had to schedule my own transportation back to Spokane. If I had been thinking straight, I would have found a way to get back to Anchorage ASAP.
The only good part was when I got the morphine IV at the hospital. The warm feeling as it spread through my body was kind of nice.
The major waves of pain seem to have subsided for the moment. Hopefully, that tiny gumball of viciousness is most of the way to my bladder.
Mine took about a week and a half
Tulip, gave me something to sketch on my lunch break. I’m literally worse than Hitler. At sketching. Thx for the article.
https://ibb.co/JkB25P9
Well…..that explains the ovens I see through the windows.
I only have a dull pencil, paper and a napkin. Give me an eraser and a ruler and maybe I could make the ovens more clear.
Who doesn’t want a fully equipped galley onboard?
Now, see–not quite up to Herr Hitler’s standards, evidently. He made his own “erasers”, because he WAS a ruler.
Eh? Eh? See what I…aww, you get it.
Speaking of dull pencils…
Harsh, man….?
That’s so much better than anything I could do. I’m impressed.
Along those lines, today I read an essay by my son on Frankenstein for his high school literature class.
The kid is far and away a better writer than I’ve ever been. I was mildly shocked at how good it was.
You’re high! Thx, though.
Barely high. They obviously don’t administer as much as they used to. I can remember getting a shot of morphine that evoked scenes from Trainspotting.
Probably due to govt guidance of some sort, eh?
There’s one question which generally tells if that is or isn’t the case : Did it get better or worse?
The govt is bogarting all the morphine for their monetary policy.
I like it. Captures the peaceful feel.
I have one critique
It kinda looks like that tree is growing out of the back of the narrowboat instead of on the far shore.
Phew! Finally done writing/editing/uploading drafts for the 3 proposals we’re writing.
By “we” I mean my chief engineer and I. Then tomorrow the “proposal specialists” will take it and mangle it. Then I’ll get the last pass through it and off it goes.
Tomorrow will probably be mostly cost and schedule tweaking, but then that has to get updated across all documents.
I get why they have to have writers on staff; some engineers can’t write or see a whole story. But when the two engineers writing it are better than the proposal team, including the proper creation and use of styles, it’s an unnecessary and counterproductive requirement.
Oh well. I just hope the main message gets through to the govt agency soliciting proposals.
Good on ya! For some fun, tell the engineers that you happily recommend them for proposal positions. When they start to object, tell them that ‘no thanks is necessary’.
Here’s hoping that money exchanges hands on this.
Thank you.
My statement above is unclear: in theory, technical writers are better at writing than engineers are.
In practice, at least in this case, the engineers are better writers and the proposal specialist/tech writers are causing the headaches and wrecking our documents so that I have to clean them up again.
Well, if their job is about writing, that stands to reason. Ultimately, it sounds like the org got themselves some Renaissance types.
It also sounds like maybe they could save some money on….No, I won’t go there; people–even writers–get to stay employed today.
Good writers are terrific to have around.
I’ve figured out which ones I prefer to work with, so I just need to steer my work their way.
Even they can’t make a decent style template in Word. Pathetic.
One of the newer officers here has been placed on my shift (two, in fact). He had to write his first report last week. Well, first report w/o a supervisor holding his hand–he’s a rookie/”true freshman”. It hurt my head to read it. And, we work for a college! Oy vey…. Even my supervisor had that WTF?? look on her face when she read it.
My co-worker thought English may be second language for him, and that’s possible, but, he certainly doesn’t sound so.
If there is any possibility that this officer might have English as his second language you might think about getting him some help/training for his writing skills. He might speak English well enough but speaking and writing are completely different things. Most of us don’t even recognize how different the words we use are for describing something verbally vs. written.
Unfortunately, it’s not really my place to do so. I can say something on the sly to his sgt., but, with no guarantee of any action.
Plus, having worked with officers in several settings, I have a pretty good idea (within reason) of what to expect should I bring it up to him.
Sounds like you need to hire a Kayliegh. Easy on the eyes, smart as a tack with a binder.
Proposal specialist. I could use one of those.
I think you’ll need a referral from your PCP, first.
“Proposal Specialist” that’s what I call the kosher dill in my front pocket.
*guffaw*
How the heck are the lefties going to serve the debate to Joe on a silver platter?
He’s not thinking right at all, and it’s live TV.
All I can come up with is that they will show a bunch of talking heads immediately afterwards all agreeing that Joe won.
Oh, so much this. That house of Aricept scrips has to be propped up somehow.
Even if the DNC got to write the questions in advance and prep SloJo with the answers, and run the debate with a teleprompter in front of him I can’t imagine the amount of gaslighting it will take to fix the brunt of the damage. He is going to go off script at one or two points and get lost in the weeds. I only hope Trump scores his points without looking to mean to the old coot.
The looking too mean could be an actual problem.
Pity is an awful reason to vote for a presidential candidate, but people are awfully stupid.
“Awfully” So much this.
I can see that problem getting compounded when the media chimes in and pulls his words out of context. Much better for Trump to just look at the camera and shrug his shoulders, with an expression like “You REALLY want this guy running the nation?”
^This, but fucking Trump can’t help himself.
Yeah–that looking mean thing. Not that he can’t, but, there are plenty of people who will never see it as anything but, and many of them are employed in the media.
Localish news.
https://www.fox29.com/news/levittown-man-faces-adversity-after-car-plows-into-home
That sucks.
At first, I read that as “cow plows into home.” I thought, “Wow, that must be some cow!”
::looks at full mug of coffee, takes a BIIIIIIG sip::
Agreed, you’re supposed to use oxen or horses for plowing.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx1_6F-nCaw
?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/joe-biden-tom-ridge-op-ed
Fuck Tom Ridge.
Doesn’t know if the GOP can be ‘rehabilitated’, but sure as hell isn’t gonna stick around to find out.
Interestingly, he’s willing to endorse someone he disagrees with/will do so in the future, but won’t extend the same to the incumbent in his current party.
Well that would impact his social life, which is vastly more important than anything else.
Are you stone free yet? I saw that above.
Nope
I’m at the limbo stage between the drugs wearing off and the pharmacy opening.
Sure. Donald Trump, New York Democrat born and bred is going to usher in the handmaid’s tale. I don’t even want what these people are smoking. All they need to do is stroke his ego and he’ll give them whatever they want. Heaven knows that’s what most of the Republicans would be more than happy to do. Monty Hall Presidency.
Good morning/good late evening Festus. Man, oh man are you right about that. All the Dems have to do is tell the Short-Fingered Vulgarian he can put his name on it and decorate it in Mafia Rococo style and he would have agreed to anything they set before him.
A gilded ACA. Bigly!
He wants payback for the way he was treated. All they need to do is massage his prostrate and suck his mushroom. Is that too much to ask 🙂
That is my uncle’s favorite republican politician- I can see why now.
Morning, Glibs.
Another working from work day. I’m already in the office, eating a salad for breakfast.
Morning, UCS. Salad for breakfast? On purpose? I like salad, but even I don’t want it for breakfast.
I had groceries delivered, and intended to have the salad as lunch.
I forgot to check the weight of the premade salad, and it was tiny. (no wonder it was cheap) Not enough for lunch, but I didn’t want to waste it, since I had paid for it. And besides, I’m in a rush on office day mornings.
I’ve got a week of PTO, thank god.
Good on you! Don’t (get caught) do(ing) anything I would do with it!
Greetings, fellow Glibsters!
Oh, sure–just come boppin’ in at all hours of the morning!
Howdy.
Hey, Friend. You know my schedule. I was casually hanging a skateboard over my shoulder and turned my ball cap backwards when I made that comment.
Mornin’, Fes & Diggy!
Yo! No salad for me.
I dunno about Festus.
She calls herself Tulip but her avatar is a peony. Git ‘er!
Festus is a botanist! Git ‘im!
/sorry-couldn’t resist
Wow, twitter is ablaze with anger from all the people who just learned wealthy individuals are able to structure their businesses and assets in such a way they have little to no tax liability. Not that I really trust what the NYT’s printed.
“Dammit! That’s why we passed the 16th Amendment–to soak the richies!”
Every Leftist since the 16th was passed. The ones before that just lamented not having that tool.
Heheheheheh….”tool”
It is amazing. Being low level tax cattle it is easy to figure how much is stole from you and people are pissed. Not that they are robbed, but that some people aren’t robbed at the same percentage. I am more pissed at how much I am robbed and dgaf about the rich. I am not big on wealth envy like progs though.
Bing-f’n-O.
Yeah, I don’t really care how much the rich are able to escape the tax man. I know they have to spend a lot of money on items that only have a marginal good for them to be able to do it. And I like to dream that one day I might be able to do the same.
The politics of envy don’t work that way, Tej.
Since the vast majority of Twitter users never earned a dollar in their lives*, I’m not surprised they don’t understand taxes either.
*It’s an intentionally hyperbolic claim.
Interestingly enough, the NYT won’t release the actual documents so they can protect their source. Maybe this stuff is true but I haven’t trusted them since Walter Duranty which equates to never for me.
Well, their source did break quite a few laws in releasing that information to a third party.
Definitely but it wouldn’t surprise me if this was made up out of whole cloth, then again it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s one hundred percent legit. If the leaker was this exposed though it doesn’t seem like it’d be that difficult to figure out who it is and I’m not sure how withholding the documents helps.
I would not be in the least bit surprised if it were checked out of a digital document repository that watermarks the document with the user info of the person who checked it out.
Either government is too incompetent to do that, or somebody in the IRS/NYS department ordered that information scrubbed.
You’ve seen the documents directly?
Are you the source?
Are you NYT?
I get it, you’re a proofreader for the Times. It all makes sense now.
People are stupid.
Those who run businesses are effectively mini-IRS’s. Without them, income tax and sales tax would have to be collected directly from the tax cattle by the government.
I guarantee Trump has facilitated more tax payments than 99.99% of the population. Never mind what he pays in property tax.
Yup. And financial institutions got conscripted into the War On Drugs and the War On Terror with all the Bank Secrecy Act crap. But that’s a rant for another day.
All the noise has been that he paid so little and there is something wrong with that. Some on the IRS disputing his taxes. Nothing on whether he broke some specific law.
If he broke any law that a times reporter would be able to spot, the IRS would have caught it ages ago, since he’s been under active audit.
That’s the problem, he followed the law. Law was done by legislators to protect the people that make legislators.
Turns out taking zinc for months is bad for kidney stones.
Lesson being learned.
I’m sure someone made the joke about you being stoned at some point, but I can’t be arsed to search all those comments.
At least you never got the Yellow Fever.
Oh I’ve definitely had that as a chronic condition.
I’ve only ever gotten cabin fever, thankfully I know better than to act on it.
What you and your cabin do in the privacy of your own…cabin…
I caught the Beaver Fever when I was 21. Giardia is no laughing matter.
Never had it myself, but I know other hikers who did. Not fun.
This is what happens when you try to be healthy.
You need to drink massive quantities of beer to keep your kidneys flushed out. That’s the excuse my kidney stone prone alcoholic friend uses at least.
I am taking your advice to, well, I was going to say ‘heart’ but ‘bladder’ seems to be more appropriate.
What was your dosage?
7.5 to 10 mg / day in solution
https://shop.eidon.com/liquid-zinc/
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I went over a decade without any stones, to having a sizable one in both kidneys a few months after I started taking it.
It could be worse: Several years back my dad had a *27mm* stone in his bladder.
How in the fuck?
I don’t think that fits down the tube from the kidney to bladder unless they’ve been severely distended by previous stones. Can they form in the bladder proper?
I have no idea; that’s the number I was told. He had to go in once for the ultrasound, and then a second time to get the catheter.
Apparently one is supposed to cut down on oxalates, too.
Sorry to hear about the kidneys, been down that road too many times. On the bright side, my first one had a positive outcome. In the office one morning got knocked to the floor by the most godawful pain I’d ever felt, wound up in the ER. Next day, pretty young lady comes to my desk to check up on me (I had been taken out on a gurney). 18 months later that young lady was Mrs. Patzer. Good luck to you with this one.
My wife is playing the role of Nurse Ratched, if that counts.
She’s going to have you lobotomized?
I would say she’s probably considering it.
Nurse Dish would be a better option.
Going back to last week’s electoral shenanigans, the electoral stuff was gone by the next night. I’m not sure what their focus was on but it sure put the lie to the claim that the ruling party was “torn” about calling a snap election. That stuff was ready to go for weeks if not months. Fucking lying politicians lying.
Is this some canuck problem?
You get the government you deserve, sorry sane Canadians.
Yeah. Some theater about calling an election in these trying times and two days later everything needed was sitting at the back of my warehouse. Disappeared the next day. Nobody in Government works that fast, especially Canada Post.
Speaking of electoral shenanigans…
itshappening.gif
I just watched it. Completely out of control.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/colorado-secretary-of-state-mails-postcards-to-non-citizens-dead-people-urging-them-to-vote/ar-BB19qZ8Q
Mornin’ everyone!
Late to the original post, but Tulip, this is great!
I never understood how timeshares work (or don’t), so this was really helpful.
I quickly realized that any business model that has to sell that hard probably comes with some serious downsides for any customers they ensnare, even if everything is fully legal.
Then I thought a little more and decided that I really don’t want to keep going to the same place for vacation, especially not on someone else’s schedule.
You didn’t read it. I don’t go to the same place on someone else’s schedule.
I did read it.
And at the time I made the decision, those options were not there.
And the system as described in the article is clearly no longer a timeshare. They should rename it to get away from the stigma the system earned.
Though I must note the point system is a newer development, It’s still not for me.
” I really don’t want to keep going to the same place for vacation”
Like sleeping in the guest room and pretending you bought a new house. We took fly in fishing trips to Ontario, always to a different lake, every year. It was learning the new lake, where the fish were, change of scenery, etc, that was the most fun.
I’ve interviewed former timeshare salesmen. I now just exclude them from my hiring pool. They’re not worth the time if you depend on repeat business. They’re trained to get that one sale at the expense of everything else.
Well, I have at best secondhand tales of how hard it is to get out of a timeshare agreement. It probably depends on the company.
They’re the used car salesmen of real estate.
Agreed. Sounds like they reel in the average traveler but if you’re a frequent flier it works out. All I know about it is my roomie in Mexico got roped in for one of their spiels and since he didn’t drink, I wound up with two bottles of kerosene that were supposed to be Mezcal. I drank them anyway.
Back in the days, Son, we’d a been a good team. Sounds like that kerosene was some good stuff. Like drinking wine in Morocco from a plastic bottle.
Ate the “worms” too. Good God! Got back from my trip and one of my friends had died. I don’t know if I ever had a worse hangover in my life. That was three months of my being that seemed to last about three years.
I believe I may have figured out the GOP’s basic problem. Most pols start out at the local level and a lot of local politics tend towards the democrats. So they cut their political teeth dealing with democrat issues and democrat thinking. A lot of them are probably democrats in thinking but the field was too crowded in the DNC field so they run as R-s.
This is why they always knuckle under when it’s time to stand. They don’t see that the republican position is correct and thus are easily swayed.
Most pols of all stripes are morons. And politics attracts people who want to be in charge, quite often those who failed at other avenues of success.
“pols of all stripes are morons”
That is a given. Few have anything in the way of principles so they go with “feelz”. The GOP is nothing but the DNC’s second string who too often forget what they were elected to do and go with their feelz.
I met the leader of the VA GOP years ago. The guy was a straight up idiot who was more concerned with the arcana of party ladder climbing than principle.
There is no party line.
It was a GOP pol that originally called the LP the “Party of Principle”. It was an insult.
Well the LP has been a joke for a very long time. I don’t dare call myself “One Of Them”.
Pomp and Circumstance. They dig the suits and the liveried servants. Look at that hilarious example when the Dem Congress walked over the articles of impeachment over to the Senate.
Hollywood for ugly people
I think that most Pols want to get along to go along. They’ve spent their entire life trying to be one of the “cool kids”. I mean we’d never wear some of the terrible clothing that we did in high school now just because it was the fashion at the time.
Nice write-up, Tulip. We bought into Marriott before they went to a point based system, home resort is in South Jersey. Worked for us as a place to take a yearly vacation with the little ones at a place close to beaches and other distractions. When they converted to points, they did everything they could, short of physical violence, to get us to convert our weeks to points. We stood our ground and still are able to get what we signed up for. Will probably dump it soon now that the kids are grown.
Hrmm… That sounds as if the point system was more profitable. Though I can’t say that’s surprising.
Yes. They built a bunch of new resorts all over the globe, which are available only via the points system. So if you wanted access to these wonderful resorts you needed to convert your weeks to points. Of course, the conversion rate did not provide sufficient points to actually get a reasonable shot at the new places, so you would need to purchase additional points. The sales lady could not understand why I called this fraud, she was very upset.
There are lots of things wrong with voting in person, it is not as secure as it could be, but it is a hell of a lot more secure than vote-by-mail.
Remember all of the whining about Diebold? And somehow the people who (possible legit) complained about that are okay with this shit? Yeah, its not at all about the system, is it.
Its like BLM. I would like to have a reasonable conversation about police reform, ending no-knock raids, and etc. But you can’t because of the BLM BS. I would like to have a serious discussion about an electoral system that is as fraud-proof as possible, but nope, can’t do it.
https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-wisconsin-elections-us-supreme-court-courts-9f58fae97f3296c1a318f9f1082cf198
Now if they’ll do the other states whose courts have gone outside their authority.
Finally some good news.
“thousands of ballots mailed days after the election”
Too bad.
I can’t believe that they are being so brazen. This isn’t America, anymore.
I can believe it. After all their shit they’ve pulled since 2016, we all knew it would end up here.
It’s one lie or scam after another. On every single thing.
You need a neural implant in you head to vote securely,
I am not sure I understand the advantage to this to just renting something on airbnb / booking but glad you like it. I don;t have kids, but never wanted to go to a resort with activities so this has no attraction to me.
Well, you see, after having pre-paid, you have to get your money’s worth back out of the program.
Can I interest you in a company called Amway?
No.
Good answer.