Nov 30, 2010

The other day I mentioned that despite the fact that don't ever pay credit card interest because I don't carry over a balance, Chase Bank analyzed my credit file and concluded that their latest offer could benefit me.

Their benefit was a low interest rate.  If you don't pay them interest, their interest rate is immaterial.  As we all remember from grade school, zero times anything, even 2.9% for the next 12 months, is still zero.

However, as a point of clarification, even if I never pay a penny of interest, the credit card companies still make money on my purchases.  They charge the merchant a percentage fee for my having used the card to buy stuff.  If I pend a hundred bucks using my AmEx card, AmEx gets about $2 from the merchant.

So, it is to their benefit to get me to use their card.  Even if I am a freeloader in their view.

Now, on to the news.

It's cold here.  Not cold by the standards of most of the country, but cold for us.  As I type this it is 29.1F.  At three this morning we hit 25F, which is pretty much as cold as it gets in these parts.

My chief concern with the occasional freeze is how to protect our semi-tropical plants. 

We have a bunch of plants that are ill-suited to freezing temps.  Some are not worth worrying about, but some warrant protection.

I built some PVC frames over our big potted hibiscus and drapped freeze cloth over them.


 I can just flip up the cloth during the day,
 and close it back up at night.
The rose trees on the other hand, aren't bothered by a little freeze.  They won't even lose their leaves over the winter and will even bloom some.  In the background, next to the blue tarp is a pygmy date palm.  It is hardy to about 20F, so it only requires protection now and then.







Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

1 comment:

Kurt said...

I'm never signing up for another credit card as long as I live.