Sunday AM

Another day in the freezer. -5 reading in the car on my way here to SB's. It is January in Iowa.

For the curious factoid of the day, consider that exactly one year from today, a new President will be inaugurated. With the primaries already seeming to have been here too long, there's still another 10 months of rhetoric and posturing to digest. And then two more months of "transitioning". I guess the adage that "no one said that democracy is easy" remains valid.

The Sunday NYT again made it's way to my driveway. Thank you 1 and 3.

I think that 3 said that today was James' birthday. Make it a good one.

The 2008 cycling Pro Tour starts today with the initial stage of the Tour Down Under in Australia. This is a sport that needs a year or two of drug-free headlines. I'm struggling to work up some enthusiasm for the new season.

I'll probably watch the football games today. While doing my Mt. Rose workout in the basement. If you have any sports' interest at all, and have paid any attention to reports on today's game in Green Bay, you know that I have already collected on my over-under bet for Ice Bowl references. It was a layup.

Don't look for much significant overall economic benefits from the stimulus package being touted by the White House and the Congress. It's a band-aid at best. And the next Fed Funds rate cut of 50 basis points has already been baked into the markets. If you think that that cut will be only 25 basis points, sell now. On the bright side, election years generally tend to be decent years for the markets.

Here's a small recommendation/endorsement for a red wine that has moved up on my list of favorites. Kenwood Jack London Cabernet 2003 or 2005. It's a bottle that we've had at Biaggi's different times when Roy was buying. But it is available in stores for around $30. I put it a little higher up the food chain than the J. Lohr, and the next time we do FFF, I'll make sure that we have a couple of bottles.

Tomorrow is a holiday for the markets, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I've elected to not make it an official holiday for Criterium as it just comes too close to New Year's Day. I think that race remains a major dividing issue in our country. I'm wondering though if it is race, cultural differences, educational perspective, family construction, or other concepts that create and sustain the division. Arguments could be made for each.

Shifting gears...

Cold days like this remind me of how we had to deal with Winter on the farm. For both the first floor of the old farm house, and the windows in the barn's milk house, we would tack sheets of plastic on the outside of the windows to try to cut down the amount of wind coming through the cracks. (New homes today put on Tyvek brand sheeting over the plywood and before any siding to make the home more air-tight.) And there was always an electric space heater (or two or three) facing water pipes to hopefully keep them from freezing. This was especially critical in the milk house.

The barn always received first access to creature comforts. Frozen water meant a problem in keeping the milking machines clean. Without clean milking machines, the milk inspector could reject our milk at the dairy. No milk sold means no money received. No money received means bills not paid. Bills not paid means no farm. It was the most basic of lessons in Econ 101 in a very real and personal sense.

This was always the time of the year when our hands also suffered the most. Not only from the cold, but from the constant use of water in the cold and dry air. Daddy's hands always had cracks and open sores in the creases. As did the cows' udders. Lots of Vaseline.

The worst situation (beyond frozen water lines) would be a calf born in mid-Winter. If we were lucky and were able to keep the cow in the barn before the birth, we at least had a chance of saving the calf. If we judged the due time wrong, and left the cow out with the herd, and the calf was born in the elements, survival was 50-50 at best. Nature bringing newborns to the world in the Spring is another example of a plan that has an author.

So hope everyone has a good day. Staying inside is a good option.

BCOT