Screaming Lunatic

There is something about this kid I like.

So that means it’s time to start investing in the market. Of course as soon as I finish my annual portfolio adjustments the market will plummet like a meteor. But, I have moved some things from bonds to stocks, made my annual retirement contribution and bought some shares in some companies that have spent the past month or so buying back shares of their company. I changed brokers so I am going to go on the assumption I will get positive ju-ju out of it.

Ask me in a year if all these changes were the right thing to do.

I have posted before that I used to work for a large Blue Machine Company during the eighties. That they were some of the dumbest people I have ever encountered in one place and had created a culture of dumb. Well, the Times has written a article that expands further the sad and pathetic behavior that I encountered. Read it here and make sure you mention to the frightened people I used to work with that,  I still don’t respect them.

How does someone get involved in this kind of research?

I have come to the not so unique conclusion, that a large part of life is saying goodbye to people that have value to us. Maybe it is having lived a few years and just experienced it enough times. But as I think of it, I have said good-bye to nearly everyone who I have ever cared about. As I get older, I assume this will happen more and more.

In Heaven, the cooks are French, the lovers are Italian, the engineers are German, the bureaucrats are Swiss and the police are English.

In Hell, the engineers are French, the bureaucrats are Italian, the police are German, the lovers are Swiss and the cooks are English.

Well the landlady decided that the furnace needed to be replaced. That was done the day after Christmas, which meant we didn’t have any heat for the next three days. But, things are fixed just in time for the weather to warm.

I went to a Wholefoods supermarket yesterday. This chain is billing itself as the Organic answer to the national supermarket chain. Frankly, I was impressed. The quaility of the food was superior to what I get at Shop Rite. The store was smaller, but there is no giant aisle for pet food, like wise there is no giant aisle for cleaning products or greeting cards or books. The store sells food with small sections of the aforementioned items. Of course, the quaility is better translates into higher prices.

Being the nearest store to me is thirty minutes away and the prices are higher to boot, I probably will only shop there if I need a unique item. Now, if I become wealthy and a store opens nearby, this will change. I do not anticipate me becoming wealthy anytime in the near future.

My landlady gave me the best Christmas gift this year. A giftcard to Dunkin Donuts. Now the other gifts were nice, but free Dinkin Donuts coffee, it just is the best.

No THIS is a great idea!!

Back in 1973, being eighteen and having no real plan for life, I decided that I would hitchhike across the country from Long Island to LA. At the time the only place in the country with any siginificant gambling was Vegas, so I made it a point of stopping there and do a little wagering. After I lost six dollars my gambling fever had been cured so I headed back to the campground at Lake Mead where I was staying. I ended up on the outskirts of Vegas just about sundown. Eventually a car pulled over to give me a ride and I ran up to it inquire where he was going and wether or not he would take me near my destination. But before I got to the car the passenger door opened up and out stepped a naked women. The only thing she was wearing was a smile.

I told where I was headed she said they would get me close, she then moved the back of the seat forward so I could into the back and she moved it back so she could get into the front passenger seat, she closed the door and we were off with a drunken cowboy driving.

We proceeded the approximately ten miles to my destination, having a polite conversation about trivial things. Eventually, we had gone far enough, I told the driver that I needed to get out to walk the last mile or so back to my camp site. He pulled over, she got out and stood in the open door of the car, I got out, thanked her for the lift, she said “your welcome”. She then got back into the car, closed the door and they left in a cloud of dust.

In the entire trip cross country, that ride was, for my eighteen year old sensabilities at least, the most interesting.

That…is my Vegas story.