Thursday

Yeah, I'm not going to try to fit that Home Page pic any better than now presented.  It won't be on for long.  Keeping with the current theme, today is the one-year anniversary of our tour of the Greek temples in Agrigento, Sicily.  Pretty cool stuff.  It was a warm day. 

After the morning tour, we drove the last segment of our vacation, from Agrigento to Palmero.  Getting to Palmero, and then to our downtown hotel was a bit of an adventure.  Google Maps went down just as we hit the outskirts of town, and it was close to panic-time for my navigator.  Fortunately, the system reset while we were stopped to fill up with gas, and we were able to maneuver to our destination (although the parking garage was not an easy find).

The Captain's last home game at Yankee Stadium is scheduled for this evening.  Rainy forecast in the Bronx.  MLB has given him a season-long send-off.  Cover of SI this week.  Seems like a good guy.  Shortstops are generally not the heart and soul of a team.  They tend to be lighter hitters and more important defensively.  A team has to be solid up the middle of the field.  But I'll give Jeter some props.  He's played a lot of games, won championships, made it to 3,000 hits, and stayed off the police blotters.  Why would Olbermann wanna trash Jeter?

Great article on KMOX radio in last week's SI.  Lots of commentary from Joe Buck, Bob Costas (whatever), and others about the unique position of that station with the Cardinals and other StL sports teams.  I know I listened to the Cardinals as a kid on the farm off the KMOX feed.

I've said throughout my professional career that the path to wealth is selling a commodity, not your time.  CPA's and attorney's use hourly rates to bill clients.  While today's rates at the big firms tend to be breath-taking at times, there's still a limited number of hours a firm can bill.  Compare that to a manufacturer who has a machine that spits out widgets.  The machine can produce product that is sold by price, not hours.  Sure, there are economics involved about how much can be charged and how much it costs for inputs.  But if that ratio is figured out, the money can just roll in.

The new widget is electronic services.  Prime example today:  the purchase of a Certificate of Good Standing form for an operating company from the Illinois Secretary of State.  In the securities business, you need to supply said Certificates to open an account with Schwab, Vanguard and the like.  You go on-line to the SoS site, search for the company name, then go to the retail site to purchase an authentic copy.  Takes five minutes.  Never comes close to a warm body.  Fee:  $52.  What a racket.  Wish I had that kind of  a widget going here.

I am extremely reluctantly staying in the QCA this weekend rather than going to Harvest Path.  I am failing the LLYWD test.  But I have that October 15th deadline staring me down and it won't be pretty.

All for now.  Maybe a final addition here after this little cocktail party that I have to hit on the way home.  I think the wine selection will be Red or White.  May not be my kinda party.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT