Things that bug me

A couple of things have irked me lately.

Minor irk: I bought some magazines (old Sesame Street issues) on eBay. Paid $4.50 for shipping & handling. By my count, the postage was slightly under $3. The kicker is that they used an inside-out Priority envelope to mail them. Now, mostly it's no skin off my nose, except that I've had acquaintances in the same situation have to pay the difference between Parcel and Priority postage when the PO noticed the inside-out Priority packaging. That can get kinda pricey. Also, when you order the free Priority packaging online, you sign an agreement that you'll only use it to ship Priority. This kind of thing has been enough of a problem that the boxes are all printed with something-or-other on the inside.

More major irk, with Serious eye-rolling: DH's brother (2nd oldest, upper 40s, who had a heart attack last week) is looking at buying a house. Actually, an insurance-nightmare house with attached workshop, attached riding arena, and horse-barn attached to the arena. The fire hazard alone would give me the willies, plus the dust and possible rodents.

This is the brother who doesn't save any money - his philosophy is that he might be dead tomorrow, so why bother saving up, or paying down his truck loan, or any other loan. The same brother who's had one truck repossessed, and voluntarily surrendered the other one before the repo guys came. He's worried about identity theft, although his credit report would probably scare anyone off. He's got a good salary, and lives with an uncle, rent-free, utility-free, basically paying for his DSL, food, and gas. Oh, and insurance on a truck (to commute in), a motorcycle, and at least two cars (one of which he refused to commute in when his truck was in the shop and he was freaking out about $4 gas). So, really good income, very little expenses, but crap for savings. He likes his "toys" a lot.

Anyway, he called one night to talk to DH about this house he found. Without talking to a realtor or anything, or getting an inspection, or doing any checking, he was apparently ready to go out the next day and offer the seller their asking price for the place. Supposedly he was told that he could get a mortgage for that amount at some rate that was freakishly hard to believe given his history. Some bank was either delusional or he misunderstood something.

We'll see him again Sunday. I'm calculating the odds that he'll be talking about his new house. It won't shock me if he is, no matter how much DH tried to convince him to do some research on it.