A NEW CHAPTER IN LIFE

This past Wednesday was the one week anniversary of Sally the dog at my humble estate.
It seems like she has been here for a month.

For those of you not familiar of the beginnings of this tale (sorry) I shall recap.
My number one son and family announced a few months ago that they wanted to get a dog or two for their planned “farm”.
Soon after that they announced the breed of pooch they wanted – Great Pyrenees.
This peaked my interest and I began some online study of the breed (as well as others) just to see what might be greeting me when I come over for my occasional visits.

I read about the breed, and training, and training THIS breed, that the challenges that his breed presents verses other breeds.
I read about different methods of training and swung from one philosophy to another as I read the different practices for training dogs.

I am a dog lover.
I have had several throughout my lifetime.
Because of this, I was looking forward to my descendants getting their furry friends.
Having said that, I have refrained from having a dog at this house and time in my life because I did not feel that I was willing to devote the amount of time and effort to training and caring for an animal.
I have a rather small yard and that is constraining to an animal.
So not only was my reason for not having a pet because of my personal constraints, but also because it was not fair to the animal.

But, during a conversation with my son about the planned acquisition of said pooches, he indicated that I should also acquire a dog.
I explained my reasons for not wanting one, as outlined above.
He was not dissuaded but did not pursue the topic.

A week or so later the topic came up again and I again responded in the negative.
A few days later he again suggested that I should have a dog and I again declined the suggestion.

Then I had a dream.
In this dream, I had received a new GP pup and we grew together as friends and lived fuzzily ever after.
After the dream I began to waver on my negative opinion on having a dog.
I knew there would be issues with house-training and leash training and feeding and setting aside time for play and/or walks.
Somewhere in all of that I came to the point that I could/would modify my pattern of living to accommodate these changes.
The next time my son brought up the issue, I told him of my dream and that I was coming around to acceptance.
We made plans to go to the same farm where his puppies were to be procured, to pick up mine (since he had just brought his pair home the week before).

And so, on the evening of December 7, I received my new furry friend.
Per some of the reading that I had done over the past several weeks I left her mostly alone while she adjusted to her new place.
By the third day, Sally the dog was more ready to engage with her new associate.
I use the term “associate” because I am not sure she sees me as her “master” in the sense that old school training manuals used to present.

I tried to feed her and help her not potty and pee just anywhere.
I was more successful in the former than the latter.
On her fourth day, during a potty trip, Sally indicated that she wanted to stay in the back yard. When I invited her back inside, she just sat down in the grass and looked at me.
Okay.
I knew from my reading that GP's were outside dogs (as well as inside), so I let her stay.
I expected this at some point in her life, just not this soon.

Sunday morning I woke up worrying about my dog, outside all alone by herself in the dark cold world, with barking dogs all around her.
It was a waste of worry.
She was fine.
Without me, or my frettings.

I looked at all the spots on my carpet and the places where I had placed newspaper over previous points of deposit in the few days that Sally had been in my house.
The four rooms she had access to in my house were a mess.
As a house trainer, I was a total failure.
For every time I had carried her out of the house to do her biological business, she had beaten me to the puddle/plop by twice.
I was doing my best to instruct her in the ways of people houses – knowing that dogs respond to actions rather than words, because they do not speak English.
And the evidence was everywhere that I was a total failure.

She was the fastest eliminator I have ever seen.
If I was not immediately up and after her when she began to sniff around, she would beat me to the puddle/plop.
And she did not seem to care where she did her business.
Two feet away from where she was playing was fine with her.
I have never seen a dog with such indiscriminate practices.
Maybe she would see it as efficient.

And our leash training sessions were not going well, either.
She barely tolerated the nice, new blue collar I bought for her.
But the nice, red leash?
Not at all.
As soon as I attached it to her collar she went into reverse.
Strong reverse.
Life and death reverse.
Fighting and struggling from side to side, working every angle she could to break free.
Even though I offered her bits of dog biscuit, she let me know she would rather starve than be on a tether.

Sunday morning I was depressed.
I was ready to give her back.
After three days, I was beaten.
The amount of effort this was taking was consuming virtually all of my time and energy.
And I was making no progress.

So instead of having a nice furry friend flopped around the house to listen to me mutter to myself as I did my chores, I had a walking sewer outlet.
I fed – she pooped.
Or peed.
Instead of a nice symbiotic relationship, I was doomed to a life of following this animal around with a blue bag in my hand (and more in my pocket).

And my visions of us taking nice controlled walks around the neighborhood to burn off her doggy energy while I exercised were not to be.
I had the canine equivalent of a rodeo bull.
She is a 10 pound puppy now.
Imagine what that will be like when she weights 90 pounds?

To compound my depression, when I came home from church Sunday night, Sally had pooped in three different places and peed in at least two.
That comes out (sorry) to almost once per hour. (NOT the two-hour interval the training article stated)
I knew that there would be some cleaning up to be done but I was not prepared for this.
I opened the door and took her outside to let her unload any more processed dog food.
Which she did.
I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning my storage room carpet.

On Monday morning, when she acted like she wanted to stay outside, I gladly let her go.
She has not been inside the house for any length of time since.
And she seems to like it this way.
I go out and play with her in HER yard.
I cannot trust her inside the house any longer.

But that cures the symptom but not the disease.
This keeps her from soiling my house, but does not teach her not to potty in the house.
I do not know how to go about this now.

My work starts in January.
That means that I will have even less time each day to train this dog.
Leash training is vital to me being able to walk off her energy each morning or evening.
If I cannot she will become a problem and I will not have the time to resume training until mid April.
That is four months from now.
By then Sally will be much bigger and more difficult to handle.
.

A Longer Run

The idea of doing a longer run on Saturday mornings has been simmering in my head since I stopped running six miles a few months ago.
As hard as it was on me to admit that I am no longer strong enough to run six miles without stopping at least once to walk for a minute or two, I submitted to the realities of life.
But the fallback distance of 3+ miles – even with a significant 3/4+ mile hill consistently left me wanting more.
So the question that wanted an answer was, if six miles is too much, what is the baby bear distance (“just right”)?
Five miles?
Four miles?

These questions never got answered before I had to stop running altogether for three months while I expended my energy six days each week fixing up my flip house.
That effort ended two weeks ago and I went promptly back to my weight lifting walking running program.
But because last weekend had a special church function going on Saturday morning, I shifted my Saturday morning run to Sunday morning before church.
I had intended to add some extra distance to my hilly course to test my abilities that weekend, but thought better of it because I did not know how much time it would add to my running session.
I did not want to scramble my get-ready-for-church activities and end up late for the pre-Sunday school responsibilities that I must attend.
So I passed on the extra distance experiment last week.
Which takes us to this morning.

The night-time temperature remained surprisingly mild – mid 50's with a light breeze.
But I had had a busy night in the bed, with many foggy confrontations that partially woke me up several times.
So when the alarm spoke quietly to me a 4:58, I was not really ready to respond with a leap out from between the memory foam and the flannel sheet/comforter.
So I pressed the off button and rolled over in the warm cocoon.
But I was playing my margin.
I knew that it takes only about 15 minutes to shave and get dressed (the shower is saved until after the run....), and about 10 minutes to drive to the running course.
This would theoretically, allow me 30 extra minutes of snoozing, should I choose to indulge.

I dozed for a few minutes longer than the ten minutes that I intended.
So when I popped one eye open to check the time, I knew I needed to get at it.
It was 5:15.
Getting out of the snuggly warmness is the hardest part.
I turn my heat down to 65 at night in the fall/winter so the first sensation if feel when I get out of the warm bed is COLDNESS.
A few button pushes on the electronic heating machine controller begins the process of warming the air temperature to a more comfortable.

For some reason, I overdressed this morning.
50 degrees and above is warm enough to allow bare legs when running.
But today I pulled on my wind pants for just a bit more protection.
I also wore my light, long-sleeved zip top – my usual covering for this temperature.
In addition I worn my light knit gloves and my ear warmer.
All of this is one of the reasons I despise winter.
Trying to keep my body temperature comfortable when running.

My circulation is very uneven, and running seems to only amplify some of these discrepancies.
I can be sweating at my armpits and have cold ears, hands and feet.
And this temperature variation can be moderated by a surprisingly lightweight layer on these parts.

When I started out on the course, my left hip, knee and ankle all took turns complaining about their lot in life.
None of this was strong enough to seriously consider canceling the party, but it put me on notice that the potential was there.
I do not do any warm up exercises, so my first quarter mile of running is very tentative and cautious.
I felt other nudges of distress from my upper and lower back, probably from my weight workout yesterday.
Gradually, everything gets with the program and I am fine for the duration.
It was so today.

Going up the big hill was a bit of a challenge today.
By the time I got to the top, where I turn south, I was into level three breathing.
That is not my preferred rate, but I knew that I was finished with the most difficult portion of my course, so I did not fret too much about this.
Ego would have preferred that I not be breathing faster at all.
Silly boy.

The more level plane of Tollgate Road got the breathing rate back into preferred cadance and the walk down Mountainwood was uneventful.
It was at this point that the zipper on my long-sleeved top was taken all the way down.
I was warm.
Then came the change.
Instead of turning left at the bottom of Mountainwood and going to the 1/10th mile out and back on Owens Drive, I turned right on Owens and started down the gentle grade.
I ran sightly more than a half mile, looped around and started back.
I felt good at this point.
The question at this point was, is this too much?

It on the return trip that I wished I had left the wind pants in the car.
I was just a bit warmer than I wanted to be.
But I was quickly lost is the nostalgia of running my favorite course again, in the direction that I prefer.
From this turn-around point, I would be following almost two full miles of the six-mile course.
I plodded along, daydreaming – the sure sign for me that I am as comfortable and free as I can possibility be.

The last quarter mile was not as easy as it has been in times past.
Nothing was wrong, I just knew that I had expended some extra effort.
When I got to my car I was ready to stop.
I could have run further, if necessary.
But it was not necessary.
I had completed my planned distance.
I felt properly challenged.
After a short cool-down walk, I slid into my car drove home.
Certain that I will do this distance again next week.
I love running.

Running Date of Up

Since the first week in August, yers troolee has been busy fixing up a house to resell or rent (wee will let the market decide which it is to be...).
Given that this house project required a lot (LOT!) of bending, standing, stooping, wiping, scrubbing, kneeling, etc, six days a week, I decided to forgo all weight workouts, morning walks and weekend runs until the project was finished.
I knew that my elderly body was only capable of doing so much effort in a given time period and I needed to get the house fixed up ASAP.
That is one reason why there have been so few posts on this here blog.

As of this past weekend, virtually all tasks at the Flip House have been completed.
The few that remain are of the optional nature and will not affect the value of the house in any meaningful way.
Thus, this past Monday I started my previously usual morning weight workouts, walks, and - TA DA - my Saturday morning runs.

It is not a welcome sign when the local weather person predicts that the morning temperature will be 37 degrees. (I HATE winter)
But that is what he promised for this morning.
So when the gentle radio alarm came on at 4:58 this morning, I knew what I was in for.
Based on previous adventures of this sort, I dressed in two layers on legs and top, mittens and ear cover band.

The day was dawning clear with an ever-so-gentle breeze of 1 or 2 mph.
Having been out of training (of this sort) for three months, I was prepared for a bad run.
"Bad" meaning having to stop and walk and/or some muscle/tendon/ligament/joint breaking, etc.

I started out on my hill course with a "let's see what we can do" attitude.
To my surprise, I warmed up quickly.
So quickly in fact, that I was pulling neck zippers down at the end of the first half mile.
As I putted along I felt nearly every body part from my hips on down announce its displeasure with the festivities.
Hamstrings were complaining - mildly - about how hard life was, and left hip chimed in.
My chest and triceps were chirping as well, from my first chest workout in three months yesterday morning.
None of this was even close to painful and the unanimous response to all of this from Runner, Coach, and Running Central was "get over it".
Which they all did, more or less.

As I started up the steeper incline in mile one, I wondered if I would be able to go the distance.
Assuming that I would have a difficult time of it today, I did not push my pace.
I just wanted to finish without any unplanned stops. (there was a planned walk down and then back up The Hill at mid-point)
I was pleasantly surprised.
I was able to run all the way up the 3/4 mile hill without a stop.
In fact, my breathing or effort never came close to the point where I wondered if I should stop.
The Bankhead hill is a substantial challenge on a good day.
That is one reason why I run it.

Frankly, I was surprised how "easy" this session turned out to be, considering my past runlessness.
I knew I was taking a chance by not, first, running a level course of the same distance to build up to this level of effort.
But I was feeling frisky after a week of my usual exercise routine and no serious negative reactions.

When I got to the end of my planned circuit (my car) I did not want to stop (a VERY good sign).
I ran a half a block past my car for the shear joy of it.
Could I have done 6 miles today?
No.
Could I have done four?
Prolly.
But I would have produced many lingering physical memories by doing so.
We will see who/where reminds me of the cost of my excess faux youthfulness tomorrow.
In the meantime, I look forward to next weekend.

Movie Review - There Will Be Blood

While the rest of the state of Alabama was watching a football game, I spent part of the evening watching a movie that was regarded by the movie making community as an excellent film.
I did not get to see the first 30 minutes or so of the film, but that seemed not to matter.
I was only mildly impressed in a positive way.

It reminded me of a remake of the oil-tycoon-related movie "Giant", which my natural father worked on.
The "Blood" movie was stereotypically Hollywood, to wit:
There was a "fundamentalist" preacher who was proved to be a hypocrite.
There was an oil tycoon who was a drunkard and ruthless and hateful and mean and nasty.
These two major themes were so hackneyed that I almost changed the channel.
The ending was awkward and unfulfilling.
This is not because the bad guy did not get his due, it just seemed that a more conclusive ending could have been created.

And Hollywood got to drop its collective pants at us conservatives again and present two of its favorite topics - evil rich businessmen and the Christian religion, of the more conservative persuasion.
Never mind that many of them are "rich".
THEY are Arteests and earn their millions playing people that are not.
Or at least, they want us to think they are not like the people portrayed in their productions.
But my perception of the moral behavior of most Hollywood types leads me to the conclusion that many of them are virtually identical to some of their evil characters, just with a different costume.

So, some questions arise....
1 Does EVERY wealthy businessperson have to be evil?
2 Does EVERY Christian minister HAVE to be so fundamentally flawed that we can have no faith in what they say or do?
The easy answer is, no.
But the exceptions to the more common Hollywood characterizations are all too rare to suit me.
Which is why I so rarely watch their so-predictable presentations.

TAXES AND THE "RICH"

It is interesting to me that the First Idiot is trotting around whining that the "rich" need to pay their "fair share" of taxes, when they already pay 50-75+ percent of all income taxes (depending on where one draws the line for "rich").
Per the IRS, the top 1 percent of income earners pay 39 percent of all income taxes.
The top 10 percent of income earners pay 70 percent.

In his latest tax increase proposal, he wants the income tax rate on "rich" folks to go from 35 percent to 39 percent.
So, these wealthy, unpatriotic slackers are a full four percent away from paying their "fair share".
Four percent?
But this four more percent represents a tax increase of over 10 percent.

What does not penetrate the cranial processing organ of this, and most other liberal policy lemmings is that increasing tax rates ALWAYS results in LESS tax revenue.
When GWB convinced the Congress to reduce the highest tax rate from 39 to 35 percent in 2001, actual tax revenues went UP.
This happens every time tax rates are cut.

Why?
Because "the government" has no money of its own.
It can only take money from individual productive citizens.
What about the "big corporations", you say?
Where do you think a company - any company, large or small - gets its money?
If you owned a company - any kind of company - where would you get the money to pay your taxes?
You would get it from your customers.
It would be hidden in the prices you charge your customers.
SO - a tax on a business is ultimately paid by individual citizens who do business with that company.
Thus, ALL taxes levied by the government are ultimately paid by individual citizens.

What most people do not understand that that "the government" is not a stand-alone entity with a source of income separate from the general economy at large.
The money pie of any nation is only so large at any given time.
The more of this pie "the government" takes, the less that is left for all the rest of us.
And when "the government" takes your money, IT gets to make the decisions about where and how much is spent.
You don't.
You might agree with some of the spending decisions by "the government" but you likely will not agree with all of them.
Tough noogees.

THE NEW TOOL QUEST

One manifestation of my multiple personality defects is that I like tools.
I have totally bought into the adage from old mechanics (older than me...) that says, more or less, “To do the job right, you need the right tools.”
That said, I have wanted a more complete set of sockets for decades.

For you girls out there, allow me to describe the basic attributes of socket sets.
Socket tools were invented to install and remove nuts and bolts.
They are especially useful for this where working space is limited.
There are two parts to a socket set – the sockets, that fit on the nut or bolt, and the ratchet, that turns the socket/bolt/nut.

Sockets come in various sizes to match the different bolt/nut sizes.
These sizes can be “standard” (or “fractional”) or metric.
Sockets also come in “standard” length (or, depth) or “deep-well” (longer length/depth).

For sockets to work to their full potential you need a ratchet.
A ratchet is basically a handle with a rotary gear on the end.
This allows you to rotate the socket (and thus the nut/bolt) in various steps up to and including 360 degrees, if space allows.
Ratchets and sockets come in various drive sizes – 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch, 1/2 inch, and 3/4 inch. (and there may be a 1 inch drive for REALLY BIG jobs.)
Thus, certain size sockets work with certain size ratchets, others do not.
When you buy a socket set, all the sockets are matched to the ratchet(s) that is (usually) included. (you can buy the sockets and ratchets separately.)

40 years ago or so, I purchased a socket set from K-Mart.
It included a 3/8 inch ratchet and several standard depth sockets.
It also included several 1/4 inch sockets and an adapter that allowed the 3/8 inch ratchet to fit the 1/4 inch sockets.
The set has been adequate for 90 percent of my jobs.
But the lack of deep-well sockets was a problem.
And this was made more apparent because, as part of the tools supplied by my last employer, was a socket set which included deep-well sockets. (which came in handy many times in my work.)

A task in my Flip House has required a deep-well sock.
Thus, I find myself lusting after a new socket set which includes deep-well sockets.
So, I set out to find a “good” quality set of sockets (with ratchet(s)) that had the following attributes:

3/8 inch drive ratchet
1/4 inch drive ratchet
Standard (fractional) sockets only (no metric) in standard depth AND deep-well depth for BOTH 3/8 AND 1/4 inch drives.
And I want all of this in a nice single plastic or metal case/box.
And I do not want them made in China. (I prefer the USA but Taiwan is okay)
And, while price is not my first consideration (I do not need the cheapest set available) I am not willing to pay $500.00 for these tools (yes, there are sets out there that cost this much and more)
Simple, right?
Not.

I went shopping on the internet.
Guess what – almost nobody sells a set like this any more.
I can find sets with standard-depth and deep-well 3/8 inch drive sockets but without any 1/4 inch sockets.
I can find sets with standard-depth and deep-well 1/4 inch drive sockets but without any 3/8 inch sockets.
I can find sets with standard depth 3/8 inch drive and 1/4 inch drive sockets but without any deep-well sockets.
I can find sets with 3/8 inch deep-well sockets but they include metric sockets (which I do not need or want).
I can find sets with standard depth and deep-well 3/8 inch sockets and standard depth 1/4 inch sockets, but no deep-well 1/4 inch sockets.
I can find sets that include everything I want, but are made in China.
I found a set that includes everything I want but cost $150.00.
I found a set that includes everything I want but cost $500.00.
I found one set that included everything I wanted that cost over $2000.00.

In the end, I found what I wanted in two sets at Granger, a 3/8 inch drive set and a 1/4 inch drive set, both with deep-well sockets, no metric stuff included, made in Taiwan.
Now I am happy.

Just Thinkin....

Economics 202 - Stock Market Price Changes

Economics is a murky topic for many people, but it is really a very simple subject.
Nearly every economic situation can be distilled down to one simple concept – supply and demand.
Or, offer and bid
Or, perceived value verses actual value.

Related to this general template are the price movements of our stock market.
Or any stock market.

You may have heard the the goal in making investments is to buy low and sell high.
Another simple maxim of economics.
But to many (most?) the rise and fall of stock prices is without logic.
Even to many who have some understanding of economics.
I am here to help.

Rather than think of the entire stock market and the millions of transactions that take place every minute or hour of each business day, imagine the behavior of just one share of stock of just one company.

A company has issued this one share of stock in the hope that someone will buy it.
When someone buys this share of stock they, in essence, loan to the company the price of that share of stock for some period of time.
The period of time is determined by the buyer.
It may be a short time – sometimes as short as a few hours, or a long time – years, or decades.
The company, for its part, will use the money received by the sale of this share of stock to invest in the operation of the company.
The hope is that, when invested wisely, this money will help the company grow and become more profitable.
When the company becomes more profitable the value of that share of stock will increase.
When the value of that share of stock increases, the owner may be enticed to sell his share of stock and make a profit from the sale (vs the amount he paid for it).
If the owner of this share of stock DOES sell it, the company can sell it again to someone else.
But since this share of stock is now worth more, the next person who buys it will pay a higher price than the first person who bought it.
Thus, the person who buys this share of stock, will, in effect, be loaning more money to the company than the previous purchaser.

Now, back away from this simple example and take a larger view of the stock market.
Think of it just like a supermarket.
A supermarket sells many kinds of food, fruit, vegetables, soup, meat, milk, etc.
In the same way, the stock market sells stock of many kinds of companies.

The shoppers in the stock market are called investors.
There are two types of investors – long-term and short-term.
Long-term investors buy stocks and hold them for months or years.
Short-term investors buy stocks and only hold them for a few hours or days or weeks.


So why does the average price of stocks go up or down?
Two reasons – investors believe that the price of stocks will go up in the future (near or far term), or they will go down (near or far term)
Remember buy low sell high.

Lets assume you have some money and you want to invest it somewhere where it will grow at a faster rate than a regular savings account in a bank.
You look at the general market situation and decide that stocks will likely increase in value in the next year.
You do not know how much but you think they will go up.
So you buy as many stocks as you can afford.

But you are not the only person who views the general economy this way and you are not the only person buying stock for this reason.
As you and others buy up shares of stock, fewer shares of stock remain for purchase.
The fewer shares left to buy the more valuable they become.
So the price for each share goes up.
Supply vs demand.

Lets say you want one share of stock of company A.
And lets say a guy next to you wants that same share of stock of company A.
You offer one dollar to the agent selling the share of stock.
You offer this much because you believe that this share of stock will be worth more than this in a year or so (your investment time window).
The guy next to you offers a dollar and ten cents for this share of stock.
Now you have to decide if you believe that that share of stock will be worth more than a dollar and ten cents in a year or so, or not.
If you believe that it will, then you offer a dollar and twenty cents for the share of stock.
If you do not believe that the value of this share of stock will be worth more than a dollar and twenty cents in a year or so, then you let the other guy have the share of stock.
This is how the price of shares of stock go up.
They are bid up by buyers (investors) competing with each other in the market.

The reverse is also true.
Lets say you already own a share of stock of company A.
But you believe that the future market conditions are such that company A will not be able to sell as many of its products next year as it did last year.
This will cause the value of your share of stock in company A to go down.
Rather than hang on to your share of stock in company A until the market improves, you decide to sell it.

But there are other people who hold a share of stock from company A and they want to sell their shares also.
They are standing in line behind you.
You offer to sell your share of stock in company A to the agent in the stock market for a dollar.
But the agent has already bought back other shares of stock in company A and finds that he cannot re-sell them for a dollar.
So he offers to buy your share of stock in company A for 90 cents.
The offer is good for only one minute.

You see the value of your share of stock in company A dropping as you stand there thinking about his offer.
You decide it is better to sell now at this price than to wait longer and have to sell your share in company A for even less.
You make the sale and as you are walking away you overhear the agent offer 80 cents to the guy who was in line behind you.

There are two reasons why you would want to buy or sell stocks at any given time – you believe the price will go up or it will go down in the future, or other buyers and sellers believe so.
There are two reasons why the price of a stock will go up or down.
Either market conditions are such that the business of a company will do better or worse, or, OTHER STOCK BUYERS believe that the value of a share of stock will go up or down.
Even if YOU do not believe that the value of the stock shares of a particular company will go up or down, if other buyers and sellers think so, the price of shares of stock will move according to what they do.
So if other buyers bid up the price of a share of stock, your share of that same stock will increase in value, too.
If they sell their shares of stock, bidding the price of the stock down, your shares of that stock will go down with them.
Thus, sometimes you buy simply because others are buying and sell only because others are selling.

Many short-term investors like to buy and sell shares of stock “on the margin”.
Basically, they study the price movements of the shares of stock of certain companies or industries.
They know from experience that certain shares increase or decrease in value by a certain percentage then they stop moving that direction and reverse.
So, for example, the price of a share of stock in company X tends to go up 15 percent over three months, then it stops and starts to go down.
So you buy a share of stock in company X when it is low and hold it until it gains about 14 percent, then you sell it and take your profit.
I does not matter if the stock goes up a couple more percentage points after that, you have made your “safe” money on this cycle.
You may invest your money in another stock that is in an increasing cycle while you wait for the value of the stock of company X to drop back to its expected low point.
When the value of the stock of company X hits its expected low point you buy some more shares and ride its value back up to its expected high point again.
Then you sell it again.
And so on.

Remember – supply and demand.
Price always follows demand.
When there is less demand than supply, the price drops.
When there is more demand than supply, the price rises.

SOME QUESTIONS FOR THE BRITISH RIOTERS

In the last few days there have been riots, looting and serious property destruction in several cities in Great Britan.
A radio reporter interviewed two female participants and asked them why they were involved in the destruction.
The girls said, “To show the rich people that we can do what we want.”

This answer seems to have no relationship with the reality of the situation, and it prompted some questions in my mind.
To wit:

1 Who are the “rich people”?
2 Have rich people restricted the activities of the young people?
3 In what way have rich people restricted the activities of the young people?
4 How does destruction of cars and buildings demonstrate freedom from rich people?
5 Will the freedom of the young people be improved by destroying local stores and property?
6 Do the young people believe that the local store owners are “rich people”?
7 If the local store owners are considered “rich people”, is it the goal of the young rioters to cause them to abandon their stores that have been damaged?
8 If the local store owners abandon their damaged stores, will that have a positive or negative effect on the neighborhood?
9 If the rioters cause the “rich” local store owners to leave the area, where will the young rioters shop for the things they need/want?
10 How wealthy does a person have to be to be considered “rich”?
11 Is being “rich” a bad thing?
12 What elements of life are the rioters missing in their current situation?
13 How will this expression of anger improve the lives of the rioters?
14 Do the young rioters believe that the “rich people” are paying attention to them and will take note that they can do what they want?

New Car Update

No, I haven't bought one.
Just still lusting.
And have eliminated a few models.

I love this little car.
It is at the top of my list.
The Ford Focus is second. (I can't believe I just wrote that...)

The Room of Old Men

The chairs that ringed the big room were half filled with old men.
Some had canes, some had roller-walkers, a couple were in wheelchairs.
A couple of them carried an oxygen bottle with clear plastic tubes running from the bottle to around their head and under their nose.
Most of them just walked with a limp.
A few were like me, walking normally (if I do anything normally).
Many of them had the deep, rasping cough of a life-long smoker.

As I sat and observed those around me, I thought, these guys took the bullets and the shrapnel for me.
These are the ones who came back.
Some paid in the jungle or the desert.
Others, like these, came back, but they still paid.
On the installment plan.
Some of them would say that the ones who came back in a box are the ones who got off easy.
And I would agree with them.

I have skated through life because of the lifetime of discomfort and pain they paid for me.
I owe them.
Big time.
I owe each one of them.
There is no way that I can repay or compensate them for the life of suffering (some of them more than others) they have endured so that I could raise my children free from fear and harm, go where I want, when I want, say what I want.
All of this is written on those pieces of paper we call our Constitution.
But the words on the paper aren't worth anything unless some of us defend them against those who want things another way.

I went to the doctor today for my annual checkup.
Because of my short service in the US Army, I am entitled to free medical care from the US Veterans Administration. (thanks to all of you who pay your taxes.)
He said my prostate was down from 2X to 1X. (don't ask me how the doctor was able to make this determination.....)
This is good news.
We are not sure why the change has taken place.
I am taking Saw Palmetto pills but they are not supposed to affect organ size.
But something did.
Not complaining, just sayin.

My blood pressure was good.
They took some of my blood to do a workup including HIV (just to settle the possible question).
Just like last year (except for the HIV test).

I am disgustingly healthy.
Even though I grunt and moan about my little aches and pains, in reality, they are so minor that I do not need to take any chemical substances to diminish their intensity.
The day may (will!) come when this will no longer be true, but for now it is so.
I am blessed.
I can still run three-plus miles each week, and walk three miles twice a week.
Many of those men in the big room can barely walk to their cars.

And while I am most grateful to Yahweh for his illogical kindness and love to me, I also feel a strong sense of gratitude to the old men sitting around the big room today.