Thursday

Winter has arrived. Low teens here tonight, with some wind. I've taken the chicken route and have put off running until daytime tomorrow.

Less than a week now until the next official FFF. Not that I'm counting.

3 has had another "critter" turn up in her apartment. Not a pleasant experience. I'm thinking that her building must be a little older and has a little more Boston history in it's walls and floors than what might be expected in a newer property.

My basement has a regular crew of spiders. An occasional centipede of some sort. I spray killer-stuff every once in a while, but they always come back. I think that all basements get buggy.

Which reminds me of the "non-basement" in the original house on the farm. That single-room basement was one with a dirt floor and stacked-stone walls. There really wasn't even a set of stairs down to it. The ingress may have been altered when we put in the furnace sometime in my early grades. (Before then, there was only an old coal-oil fired stove in the kitchen to heat that room only. But this is an area that AM would have better knowledge.)

I think that Mother had a cabinet down there and stored some canned goods (tomato juice, corn and green beans). No insulation. But really not a lot of "critters", probably because of the cats and dogs.

Another bad day on Wall Street. Is this like a broken record, or what? I have no answers. Work longer. Save more. Stay healthy. Trust me on this one: regardless of how honest that you think that you are with yourself, your risk tolerance is lower than you think that it is, and much lower than what your broker thinks that it is.

Yankee hurler Mike Mussina announced his retirement today, ending his 18 year career with 270 wins. He won 20 games this last year, for the first time. Were the Fates, his relievers, and the fielders behind him a little more clutch in some key games, his 20 win season numbers could easily have been in the 5-6 range. He was a tenacious competitor without overpowering stuff, and probably could have hung on for a couple more years to get to the 300-win level that would cinch his election to the Hall of Fame. Now, his HoF fate rests in the hands of that august group, the Baseball Writers of America. In my book, he deserves the nod.

3 asked me to test the local SB's baristas on the recipe for an American misto. An Americano with steamed milk. The Duck Creek girls were all over it. I think that I need to tweak whatever the standard portions are just a little as I don't like all that much cream in my coffee. But I like the idea of steaming everything. Good idea, 3!

Glad to see Friday. Hope the weekend is good.

BCOT

Wednesday

Little to add tonight.

Another brutal day in the market. The auto boys need to survive until at least 1/20/2009 to get $$$'s from Washington. The executives before Congress all cut less-than-sympathetic figures.

I forgot to mention earlier this week the little factoid that the marathon scheduled for Pasadena, California last Sunday had to be canceled for air quality reasons. The fires. What a bummer for the people who had trained for the race. And for the city that was putting on it's first marathon. They're still trying to figure out if they reschedule or take some other action for the benefit of the registered runners. It could be a Cubs-like refrain; "Wait'll next year."

More economic effects on sporting events have been in the news. Cut backs on Buick courtesy cars at PGA events. Testing prohibited in 2009 at all NASCAR tracks with any races in the top three divisions. Three LPGA events eliminated in 2009. Perhaps an emphasis on regional teams in the lower tier bowl games.

Finally, an interesting sidebar on the golf pages. J.P. Hayes, the 2002 winner of the local stop on the PGA tour, the John Deere Classic, was DQ'd from the second round of qualifying for the 2009 schedule when he first took a two shot penalty on himself on the 12th hole for playing a ball of a slightly different profile than the one he had begun his round with. He was still OK to advance even with the penalty, but that night he remembered that he had had a prototype ball in his bag that had not been approved for play by the PGA. He later checked, and confirmed that that was the ball he had played. And he turned himself in, and was DQ'd by operation of the rules.

All of the other sports almost pride themselves in, "getting away with it", bending the rules, not getting caught, taking advantage. Golf, at the highest levels, is, declare your own penalties. Take your medicine. I'm sure that this is the same Honor Code passed around on Wall Street.

Have a great Thursday.

BCOT

Monday

4's blogs are much more interesting than the OPB (Old People's Blog). Generational connectivity is a bit of a problem. Or should I say, dis-connectivity?

The Big Three auto executives are still testifying before the Senate, essentially begging for money. Their problems extend beyond the credit crunch. They operate in an excess-capacity industry, that has failed to anticipate modern day dynamics in the market place. They can't adapt quickly. They can't run fast enough to catch up on negative cash flow. And their credit supply sucks. My guess is that even if we lend them $25 billion now, they'll be back for more inside of a year.

I did read an interesting analysis in this week's Barron's magazine about the problems at AIG. The conclusion was that one of their investment divisions was led by a hard-charger who pushed the envelope in a large mortgage portfolio, and got caught in bad bets. Their basic insurance business was fine. But they got greedy, and when the tide turned, they were "out of trust", a term used to describe an entity with borrowings that exceed the value of the assets upon which the funds were originally acquired.

These stories are why OPB's suffer.

The business of Bowling for Dollars gets a change in 2011 when ESPN gets all of the BCS bowl games after winning those rights in a bidding contest this week. While ABC (a Disney-owned company like ESPN) retains the Rose Bowl, the other four BCS games jump over to the cable service. I'm not sure that this is all that bad. The old argument that there was something un-American about major sporting events not being on free-access network TV, has lost a lot of substance with the proliferation of reception choices for consumers. Satellite. Internet. Blackberry. We pay for everything anyway.

In related information, there was a big stink in these parts last year when Mediacom did not carry The Big Ten Network (BTN) on it's primary packages. Each side politic-ed in the media about their respective interests to serve their constituencies. Lots of posturing, but no BTN football or basketball broadcasts in our area last year. Finally, this Fall there was the much-hyped announcement that the two sides had finally reached an agreement and the BTN would be added to the Mediacom package.

Oh. And last month, Mediacom announced that it was raising it's rates in Iowa for it's expanded basic package by $4 per month. Shocking.

Here's a little recognition to former PV Breaker Lindsay S for leading the Minnesota Golden Gophers into the third round of the NCAA D-I women's soccer tournament. The senior from Bettendorf has been the team's leading scorer this year. Great accomplishments for a hard-working girl. The reward for this success is a date with #1 rated Notre Dame in South Bend on Friday. Ouch!

AM commented last week that they had received their SB's gold card for free after having been an online SB regular card customer for some time. These retirees are killing us. First, it's this monster unfunded liability in Social Security. Then its all this free AARP crap. And now we're paying their bills at SB's. I'm reorganizing myself as a bank, and applying for TARP money.

For the fans of Sports Not Stilettos, Brady Quinn won his first pro football game as a starter last night. It took a kicker for the other team to go "wide right" at the end of the game. But a win is a win is a win. And he looked good doing it. Not great. But not bad.

Have a great evening.

BCOT

Sunday II

A few more lines for the day.

4's lament today on trackingkch is the stuff of a theatrical farce. Or a new case of Murphy's Law.

OK. What would be on your list of the 10 things you would take with you to a deserted, tropical island with no stores or existing structures? A contemporary Swiss Family Robinson.

Here's my first take:

1. A laptop with satellite Internet access. And a solar recharger system.
2. A miniature, solar-powered desalinization plant.
3. Plenty of S-things. ( shoes, shorts, sandals, socks and sunglasses.)
4. A solar-powered hot plate.
5. An espresso machine. (The island has coffee plants.) (An Americano is just hot water and Espresso.)
6. A complete set of cutlery, including scissors, ax, clippers and an industrial strength saw.
7. An adequate set of pots, pans, glasses, dishes and silverware. (Half coconuts and wooden spoons just don't appeal to me.)
8. A solar-powered refrigerator with ice machine.
9. A stash of pens and paper.
10. A basic tool kit with pliers, hammer, duct tape, etc.

This is kind of an interesting exercise. Give it a go!

Have a great week.

BCOT

Sunday

A little SB's this AM.

2 and I bailed on the Augie game in Indianola last night. I did the math, and had we gone, it would have meant a return home around 1AM this morning. Way too late for me. (They won in a tight game. Its never easy on the road.)

The Iowa game was officially recognized as a non-sellout yesterday, breaking a string of 30-odd home game sellouts dating back to 2003. As we approached the stadium 20 minutes before kick-off, the upper reaches of the student section in the South end zone were completely empty. And that section never collected any fans. Lots of tickets were held up "for sale" by fans all around the stadium. They say that Iowa "travels well", but a mediocre team in nasty November conditions suggests a slightly fair-weather fan base for those last 10K of followers. Now, a Florida bowl game in January might be a different story. Everybody in Iowa (who can beg, borrow or steal the travel costs) likes a Florida trip after Christmas.

There was an extremely quiet passing last week of the three year anniversary of 4000 Days. Lots of meaningless information has passed through this site since it opened in 2005. Imagine the possibilities for the future.

For those who may not know, Trackingkch.blogspot.com is back up with some new posts. She has a great way with words, and her spin on life is worth the read.

There was a story on one of the sports pages this AM that the Big O was quoted as wanting to exert his influence to get an 8 team D-1 playoff in college football. Is there any area of endeavor where the wanderlust of this guy's prescience will be limited? Given the rapture on his persona in most of the opinion pages, it looks like the honeymoon period accorded most newly-elected officials may extend indefinitely for him.

More to be added to this post later today...

Saturday

A couple of shots from our day in Iowa City. If you "click" the photo, it expands to full page. Pretty good results with the new Canon.

The guy in the red hat is the TV on-field "go, no-go" guy. He's positioned at the South 20 yard line and moves onto the field when there's a change of possession or other stoppage in play when the commercials are run. The game will not be re-started until this guy raises his arm and gives the "go" sign. At the game, it seems like we're always watching Redhat and waiting for the game to get going.

Blogger is being uncooperative at this point. More tomorrow.

BCOT

Thursday

Just a few lines today.

I had a substitute Russian cleaning lady today. The regular gal is out of town this week. Irina must have schooled this gal pretty good, as everything from the laundry to the kitchen counter arrangement was left in identical fashion as Irina's style. Do you give the pinch-hitter notes on how to dust? I like the results.

I had the regional administrative coordinator from my broker-dealer in the office this afternoon to conduct her annual audit of our procedures and documentation protocols. This is the grass-roots over-sight that all brokers must endure. I get critiqued on whether I have enough paper in my files. I wonder if the derivative creators on Wall Street actually had a compliance officer look over their shoulder. I have to put a disclaimer on the note card stock that I use to send informal greetings to customers. And those guys get millions on exit contracts.

Glad to see RevKev back online.

Anybody have an answer as to why all the investigators on the CSI shows always work with flashlights? In the middle of the day? Are all of their crime scenes located in buildings with no electrical service?

The economic turmoil will likely have some significant impact on some of the sports that rely heavily on sponsors for financial backing. I'm thinking NASCAR and golf tournaments in particular. NASCAR gets lots of support from the manufacturers ( Ford, GM and Chrysler), who are all standing in the halls of Congress with hats in hand looking for bailout money. If they get it, how will it play on Main Street that the manufacturers are still bank-rolling race cars?

Buick (a division of GM), is the title sponsor for at least three PGA tournaments. And Tiger Woods is the lead spokesman for Buick. See where this leads? And Wachovia is the lead sponsor for the Charlotte stop. Cadillac (another GM model) has always been a big advertiser for golf as well. Anybody trust the regulators, the executives or Congress to keep a lid on this? To say that the soup is murky is an understatement.

Kill Green is back on ER tonight. I didn't know that ER was still on the schedule.

I bought a SB's Gold Card. $25. It gives you a 10% discount on every purchase. For a five-day-a-week visitor with a $2 habit, the payback is 25 weeks. This scheme may front some money to the corporation, but I think that its a financial loser in the long run. And the sign-up packet gives you three, one-time 10% cards that 2 will be able to use for her one-pound purchases that she uses for home brew.

They're talking mid-30's for a high in IC on Saturday for the game. Peppermint schnapps may be the order of the day.

Have a great Friday.

BCOT

Wednesday

The good news today is that 3 has made arrangements for her Thanksgiving trip home. Sounds like we have FFF wine at PC's on Wednesday night. Not too much. Turkey Trot in the AM. We can do excess vino on Friday at 2's.

Looks like an NCAA day for 2 and I on this Saturday. I've been asked to join a client at the Iowa-Purdue game in IC. 2 is coming along, although she and 4 may take in the game at a non-disclosed location. After the game, and any post game festivities, we're off to Indianola (south of Des Moines) to get to the Augustana basketball game with Simpson College. It will be a late night coming home.

There is little going on in Washington to create any economic confidence in the hinterland. Every big corporation is converting itself to a bank so as to be eligible to feed at the trough of the Federal bailout. GM and Ford are desperate, and the politicians in affected districts are lined up to plead for their constituents. American Express is now a bank. Srarbucks might be next. Paulson now says that the bailout money won't be used to buy bad paper, like the original intent. Rather, they want to get more capital into the banks. Ostensibly to have them with more money to lend.

So gas prices are coming down. Oil is down in the mid-50's. Explain to me why it was $145 this Summer. Supply and demand. Right.

Wait. Latest word: Exxon has just been reorganized as a bank. I mean, they do issue credit cards. They need a bailout. To find storage for their last quarterly profits.

Actually, if you look at the approximate $2 per gallon reduction in gas prices over the last few weeks, Americans are again receiving a modest economic "stimulus". This time at the pump. Say a 15 gallon fill-up once a week. $30 times pick-your-number-of-weeks and its not a small number. Certainly more than the $0 that I received on the first go-around. And more than the $0 that I'll likely be eligible for on the next brainchild from Nancy, Barney, Harry & friends.

I used to like the CMA awards show for the female stars that could make a man daydream about the possibilities. Now, the females on the show aren't old enough buy beer. Watching it has the feel of going to a high school musical.

4 is Daughter of the Day. This was on the last roll taken on my old camera. At the tailgate at the Hawkeye game last month. I'm not saying that the new Canon digital would have eliminated that glare, but the new Canon digital would have eliminated the glare. Or a second pic would have been taken. We're talking progress. Anyway, 4, you 'da girl!

Have a good evening/day.

BCOT

Monday II

So the earlier post was set apart from my normal ramblings out of respect for our veterans. It doesn't seem quite right to honor the vets, and then shift gears and lament the reality of Olberbaman's new MSNBC contract.

Anyway, my topic tonight is marginalism. Actually, I want to make (more than) a few observations, and maybe some distinctions, about the application of marginal analysis in a person's (mostly mine) daily life. I know that 3 has a half of a double major in Economics, and 2 has had at least one MBA course in macro econ, but the stuff I think about is decidedly micro. I vaguely remember the old "Guns or Butter" discussion from Week 1 of Econ 101, many years ago, but I find that most of my choices today are truly off on the margins.

There's really not much marginal cost or marginal benefit in these obscurities. And the end result is usually the same place.

As a further aside, its worth noting that "marginal" has been used in our family as an adjective of conduct, originally used to describe one (or more) of the girls' deportment in Sunday church. I think that the term is still in use when the girls need to respond to an inquiry over any social arrangement that doesn't quite make the grade, as in, "The party was marginal."

Marginal analysis really needs to be distinguished from risk tolerance or the cost-benefit ratio. Both of these concepts suggest that a decision is predicated on producing a different and preferred outcome from other alternatives. Investing in CD's usually allows one to sleep better at night than buying pork belly futures contracts. The $15 dollar bottle of wine tastes just fine compared to the $50 bottle. (Well, maybe not for my pal Roy.)

My first marginal decision of the day comes as I awaken and need to decide whether it is easier to check the time by rolling over to look at the clock-radio on the bed-side table, or in the alternative, check my Ironman wrist watch. In the Summer, a look at the wrist watch is a lay-up. Very little effort. Come Fall and Winter, waking in the dark means that the wrist watch option requires two moves, moving the left arm for the proper angle, and moving the right arm to push the Indiglo button. I've laid there thinking about this choice for several minutes some mornings.

Next, after minor choices while getting ready for work, I need to decide whether I take the Taurus, the Buick, or Margret to work. Margret doesn't go out in bad weather, or the threat of bad weather (or in the months of November through March). The Taurus doesn't travel out of town. And I try to limit the Buick's miles, generally, and those in snow in particular. Client travel is also a consideration as the Buick doesn't go on a visit to the Ford dealer, and the Buick stays away from the GM store.

Then I need to decide on a route to work with coffee and the papers on the way. There are a number of SB's options, and a couple of other places, all influenced by the need or desire (or lack thereof) for a bagel or other treat.

Most of the work day is about risk tolerance and cost-benefit. And responsibilities.

After work, I need to map my workout, biking most of the year, running in the Fall. (Hello Turkey Trot!) My regular routes are loops of some sort, and total distance is the deciding factor. Which way is the wind blowing? Which direction do I want to take on the hills? What time is sundown?

After the workout, we're talking din-din, and the options are geometric. Is there anything that needs to be done before dark? If I water the plants and garden, are the results better than waiting until the morning? After my shower, what's the coefficient of water usage if I throw in a medium load of laundry, compared with waiting another day or two for a large load? If I have another glass of wine, is there another midnight trip to the bathroom in my future?

And, of course, if I add to the blog, will anyone care? Is there anything that I need to get off my chest? Do I have anything creative going? Or is it another day of blah, blah, blah?

All for now. Get out there and make some choices!

But...

BCOT

Monday

Tomorrow. November 11th.

So lest we forget those who have made the commitment to allow us the freedom to argue over media influence and spreading the wealth. Country first.

Full post to follow.

Saturday

Congrats to the Iowa Hawkeyes on their big win today against previously unbeaten Penn State. 4 might be in the background of this picture that shows the students rushing the field as the clock expired. I talked with her after the game and she was in the crowd on the turf.

It seems like they have a "black" out, or "gold" out in Iowa City several times during the year (where all of the fans are encouraged to wear the color of the "out"). Today, I noticed a lot of green shirts and I didn't get the message until midway through the second quarter when the camera was showing a section of green-draped fans right after a running play by the Hawks' outstanding back, Shonn Greene. Duh!

So I got my flu shot this week. The Visiting Nurses Association had set up in the Hy Vee pharmacy by the office so I stopped in and took my medicine. Thirty-seven samoliens. I'm thinking that I paid twenty bucks when I got my first shot a few years back. 85% inflation! I need to raise my rates.

We had a scintilla of FFF today at 2's raking her leaves. She lives in an older section of town with mature trees. And lots of leaves. These are just a few of the 20-odd bags that we gathered this afternoon. My guess is that there will be at least one more afternoon of raking this season. There are still leaves on many trees...and the neighbors seems to want to wait until everything is down.

When we packed the "Martian Eggs" over on Scott Street, we had my pick 'em-up to take the bags down to the collection point by the river where we dumped the bags and re-used them for more eggs the next time. Without the convenience of the truck, we're all now stuck with the city's collection of the paper bags.

We've had snow showers here each of the last two days. Nothing to stick to the ground, but a clear indication that the 70 degree days are likely done for the year. My bet is that we see 60 at least once, but with the shorter days, and the low angle of the sun, its time to button down the hatches and put the shorts into storage.

The Irish are in Boston tonight. 3 will need to let us know if the local watering holes had any ND flavor this weekend.

Let the world know that it is my intention to be on a "boy's" golf trip for my 60th birthday in January. The 8th is a Thursday, and I'm probably leaving on the 7th for Phoenix, coming back on Sunday the 11th. (Cabo has been dropped from the rotation due to costs and travel time. At our ages, we can get into all the trouble we need in Scottsdale. Plus, we can actually play golf on the 7th after arrival, if we were so inclined.)

I'm trying to figure out where the Federales will draw the next line in the sand. Ford and GM are both burning through cash at rates that will deplete their reserves in a short period of time. Their stock prices have crashed. Are they "too big to fail"? I don't think that Uncle Sam wants to own a car company, but if he forks over $100 billion-plus to rescue AIG, why not offer the same deal to Detroit?

Don't be fooled by short term ups in the market. The slope remains slippery.

Here's another sign of the times. I haven't spent near as much time listening to the radio over the last few years, and as a result, I have lost much of my contact with contemporary country music. The Country Music Association awards show is on TV next week and ABC is promoting the show at seemingly every timeout in every game on the schedule. I know Brad Paisley, but most of the other singers are young, blond and off my charts. I do listen to a country station as I go to sleep, but that's usually for only a short period. Then again, with my Alzheimer's, length of listening may not matter.

Finally, another observation about Blogger protocols. When I pull images off the Internet, the system is fairly efficient and usually clears the picture for upload quickly. On the other hand, when I try to upload one of my own photos, like the one of 2 with the leaves above, it might take two or three minutes. I know that they have some controls to minimize publishing anything pornographic, but its interesting that the software distinguishes these different types of visuals. You don't think that they have a little man behind the screen that looks at each picture, do you?

So more tomorrow, maybe from SB's in the AM.

BCOT

Wednesday

I have a couple of Top Ten lists to offer today.

During the now completed political campaign, I found myself spending a lot of time, day and evening, reading the Internet news sites and political blogs to keep up on the latest developments. In retrospect, I think that those efforts were a poor and non-productive use of one of a person's primary assets: time.

Now, what constitutes wasting time can be a debatable point. For a sports enthusiast like myself for instance, I still don't get the deal of playing fantasy sports. (Sorry, 1.1.) But this list is just about me, and where I think that I have thrown away the most time. Not in any order of importance. In relevance sometime during the last 25 years.

1. Watching old, old reruns of Law & Order on cable.
2. Spending anything more than 1/2 hour per day on a crossword puzzle.
3. Surfing the 'net.
4. Reading the third daily newspaper. Maybe the second too.
5. Listening to the talking heads on any business channel. More so if NBC is involved.
6. Sitting in drive-time traffic in Chicago.
7. Attending any all-day insurance license continuing education seminar.
8. Eating lunch by myself rather than with a client or associate.
9. Watching any pre-game, half-time, or post-game NFL, MLB or NBA show.
10. Watching a NASCAR race.
11. Following the Tour de France and other bike races on-line.
12. Reading the comments following any Internet political blog article.

My guess is that the Internet is today's biggest waster of time. Replacing TV from the old days. (Is/was watching The Lone Ranger an act of wasting time?) I have no experience to opine on video games. And I'm not sure where comic books fall on the continuum.

And befitting the conclusion of the elections, my Top Ten things learned from the campaign:

1. I can live without late-night TV.
2. MSM does kind of stand for a network.
3. Hope Floats.
4. Eight Is Enough.
5. It's the economy, stupid.
6. I know what I want. Don't confuse me with the facts.
7. Technology and politics do mix.
8. The tanning of America matters in politics.
9. The GOP: we met the enemy, and he was us.
10. On November 5th, The Sun Also Rises.

I have been struggling this week to adjust to the Circadian Rhythms of the time change. Running my days on the same clock time as last week just hasn't worked as well as normal. My body is just a click off.

Looks like we're back into Fall weather tomorrow. That's OK. November and all.

1 reports that she will be Assistant Varsity Coach for the girls team at her new high school.

I'll catch up with some more here tomorrow.

BCOT

Sunday

These are pics that I took just a few minutes ago out my front window as some birds were having breakfast of red berries from my ornamental tree. The 70 degree temps probably have these robins confused on their latitude setting for this time of year. (They doubtlessly remain unbothered by Daylight Savings Time, or the "Falling Back" that occurred last night.)

I spent some time this morning trying to effect a download of pictures from my cell phone to my computer. No luck. I was inspired when I discovered that the cord provided for downloads from my new camera to a computer had the same shaped plug-in as the receptacle for my phone's external power source. But the computer queried for a Motorola RAZR program and it looks like you need a license.

A quick Google search suggested some hacking procedures, but since I'll be running for elective office in the future, I didn't want my reputation tarnished. So I took a pass. The pics weren't that good anyway. But I may stop by the phone store and see if there is a legal option available on the cheap. This is definitely getting me out there into the techno culture.

The Saturday Wall Street Journal had a good human interest story on the concept of handicaps for golfers. It was written by a guy who had recently done a weekend boys trip with a bunch of guys and it had struck him in the aftermath that the handicap system had very successfully evened-up whatever teams had been matched up over the weekend. For any of the golf trips that I have been on, we've always used a rough handicap system, and it has usually been reasonably successful for us as well.

A low handicapper is a good golfer, shooting close to par most of the time. A high handicapper is a hack. So if a good golfer is matched in an event against a hack, the hack gets lots of shots. Lots of mulligans. Lots of do-overs. The equivalent of a head start in a foot race. It evens the playing field. If both golfers shoot their handicaps, the match should end in a tie. But as with all things human, handicaps are a function of averages, and on any given day, one golfer usually does better relative to the averages than the other. And, wall-ah! We have a winner.

One of the worst critiques of a golfer's character would be to have the reputation of a "sandbagger". A sandbagger is a golfer who knowingly and intentionally inflates his handicap for the express purpose of receiving more strokes in a match based on handicaps. A cheat. And every club has a few.

Sandbagging terminology has found it's way into the general lexicon. Anyone who under-performs or tries to shade the truth for their own advantage merits the moniker.

I'm going to get out this afternoon and do a little yard work, rinse Margret down and generally enjoy the day. Maybe fire up my new grill. And get a 3+ miler in to start the week.

Have a great day.

BCOT

Saturday II

Happy November to all. Next month is Christmas!

I wasn't all that productive today. A little recovery from Friday at Biaggi's. Coffee and then Hy Vee breakfast with my pal Roy. Then a 49 minute run that extended past four miles. (Need to build up that distance/stamina.) Football. (All my teams lost.) Enough study on the camera to get those two pics up. And a spin with Margret. Not all that bad of a day. But a Loser's Saturday Night on the blog. And The Bourne Identity. Starring the neo-conservative Matt Damon.

One interesting exercise this morning was the small matter of losing my phone. And finding it. It's a story worth telling.

I had been at the office after breakfast to check on any Friday afternoon activity (since I didn't get back to the office yesterday afternoon following a client meeting on the Illinois side.) When I left a half hour or so later to get on with my errands, I had to make two trips to the car, as I had client files in the backseat that I had forgotten to take inside when I first arrived.

On the first trip out, I had set my phone and keys on the roof of the car as I gathered the files to take back into the office. I had to re-grab the keys as I went inside because I needed to lock the door. Didn't re-grab the phone. (Big mistake.) Took the files inside, came out, locked the door, jumped in the car, fired it up, and took off West on Kimberly to go to the dry cleaners just a little ways up the street to pick up some shirts. 30-45 seconds later, pulling into the dry cleaners, I look for my phone to check messages. Oops!

Fortunately, all of this happened in such a short period of time that even the Alzheimer's hadn't had time to kick in, and I was able to exactly recall the sequence of my actions described in the preceding paragraphs. If the phone wasn't in the car, I knew that I had to have left it on the roof of the car as I left the office. So I paid for the shirts and doubled back to the office to fully retrace my steps.

As most of you know, Kimberly is a four lane divided highway, and I looked across the grassy median to the westbound lanes as I went East to the cut-through, did the u-turn, and re-entered the office parking lot. I didn't see the phone. At the office, I first went inside to see if I had left the phone by chance on a box by the door (as I do at times). Nothing. Then from an office phone, I did the old, call your own number, to see if I could hear it ring. Still no luck.

Plan C kicked in and I walked through the parking lot, to the street, scanning the pavement. Nothing in the parking lot. Then its out walking alongside Kimberly (with exceedingly low expectations), with traffic whizzing along with little interruption. If I had had a sign, "Will work for a Phone", I would have fit in perfectly with some of the vagrants who occasionally populate Kimberly.

Finally, about 25 yards West of our office park entrance, in the crack between the two lanes, I saw the phone. In one piece. I hustled over to it at a break in the traffic, and picked it up. Except for a missing battery housing, it was undamaged. Amazing. Didn't see the housing close by, so I assumed it was gone. Blown in the wind.

But the phone gods were even kinder, as on my next drive by to head home, I saw the housing a few yards further up the road, and I was able to make a final scavenger recovery of the mostly undamaged housing. To an unknowing observer, my phone now looks a little "used", but certainly not like a veteran of Kimberly Car Wars.

This one could have obviously had a much worse ending. One could posit that this result, given the premise that you're going to leave your phone on the top of the car as you take off on an errand on one of the busiest roads in town, is as good as it gets. It certainly couldn't be much better. Unless you didn't leave the darn thing out to lose it in the first place.

There is precedent in my life for this kind of event. I specifically remember leaving some glasses on the rear bumper of one of my pick-ups after ending a bike ride at the Eastern Avenue parking lot, maybe 15-18 years ago. I was able to back track and find the glasses, but not before they were partially crushed by traffic. And uninsured.

Coffee cups and sodas have suffered terminal events numerous times over the years.

Now, my pal Roy loses his phones (yes, phones), pretty regularly. Nothing exotic like leaving it on top of his car, but by more routine exercises like in the seat of an airplane, a golf cart at a far away course, or while sitting at some other venue on his many travels. In market speak, if you were to "short" Roy's possession term for any one of his mobile devices, it wouldn't be a bad long term investment.

I think I pretty well beat The Lost and Found Phone story to death. Sorry. But it may be a reference point for the next family member's faux pas or mis-placement. Look for a similar meandering in a Craig Wilson colume coming to you soon.

Have a great evening.

BCOT

Saturday

Halloween 2008 with Sarah and Indy!

Thursday

I'm thinking that it was almost 70 here today. 2 and I did our run in shorts this evening. Record-setting time for Lt.PC.

Halloween tomorrow. Actually, several of the localities around here have been celebrating different things since last weekend. They all choose their own times for parades, trick-or-treating, and the like. There are very few things that I can say positive about Halloween. The girls enjoyed dressing up, trick-or-treating with kids in the neighborhood, and hoarding candy for months. There may still be some in the back of bedroom drawers.

Anyone notice that the Phillies won the Series last night? About the only interesting thing to me about that rain-delayed fifth game was the betting results. I guess the bookies' rules were tested by the circumstances. Did they just call the first night a push, and roll the pot to Wednesday?

In response to AM's comment from Tuesday, I clearly remember Grandma's Saturday Evening Post collection. And the frequent appearance of Norman Rockwell prints on the covers. Not wanting to destroy my image among my loyal readers, but that magazine registers on my scale about the same as Playboy: I mostly looked at the pictures and read the cartoons.

And RevKev, the camera is a Canon PowerShot SX10SI, with a 20x zoom lens, and 10.0 mega pixel clarity. Not the fanciest machine in their line-up, but I'm optimistic that it will meet my needs. All I have to do now is figure out how it works. We're talking video, sound and lots of things that I hadn't even considered. Technology rocks! (There's a rumor afoot that 2 is dressing as Sarah Palin tomorrow night, so I need to accelerate the learning curve.)

I was in a casual conversation today with a clerk in a store and I volunteered the factoid that the last Presidential election was the impetus for me to cancel my telephone land line. She commented in response that she had signed up on the Do Not Call Registry, and that she had not received any political solicitation calls this year. (The store was a local Trophy and Trinkets place. I was buying a box of US flag lapel pins to give out with my business card at client employee meetings. I have extra now, so I'm sending a couple to the Big O.)

October 30th is the anniversary of Orson Wells' reading of The War of the Worlds on CBS radio in 1938. There's lots on the web about the myth and reality of that presentation. Interestingly, I found nothing in my quick review that connects Orson Wells, family-wise, to the story's author, H.G. Welles. (Of course, the first clue was that the names are spelled differently, but I didn't know that when I started this paragraph.)

1 has a "Last Day" on her current job tomorrow. And then starts her full-time position (with full benefits) next week. She's done a great job getting over a bit of a rough patch. DOD material for the near future.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Wednesday

I've been a little bit distracted.

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The hard frost came in and took out any of the annuals or perennials Monday night. I had brought everything inside that needed to be, and stuffed some other pots in the garage for a little safe-keeping. Those plants will come out today and should survive for another week or two. You can't complain if something lasts into November.

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More proof that Major League Baseball doesn't care about the fans: there were pre-game discussions among MLB, the teams, umpires, and even the grounds crew Monday night in anticipation of a shortened game because of probable rain, but they didn't tell FOX. So Buck and McCarver spent a good portion of the broadcast hypothecating on what might happen if it did rain. With those what-ifs already planned for by MLB, the broadcasters came off, in hindsight, as a bit buffoon-ish. (That's rare: a buffoon-ish sportscaster.).

Of course, I saw none of the game.

This picture is a copy of a Norman Rockwell print that I have hung in my bedroom. Being a bit of a traditional sportsman, and humorist(?), I like the story that the picture depicts. Although I have always been troubled by the math. We have the Yankees and Dodgers. Home whites and traveling grays. Top or bottom of the 5th. Who's on first? If its not a complete game, does it get fully replayed? If the home team is behind and doesn't get to hit, who wins? So many questions.

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High school football playoffs in Iowa start tonight. Not one or two, but rather, numerous 4-5 teams are in the large-class, 64-team field. Heck, with just one more game, everybody could be in. Lots that would prove. Reminds me of Dad's Club soccer where participation is the key concept.

As I approach my 60th birthday, I'm finding a few more genetic similarities with Daddy. Most recently, I've managed to nick the skin on the top of my wrists each of the last three mornings getting ready for, or traveling to work. Just little things that occur without pain or notice, produce a few drops of bloods, and then almost immediately self-seal. I remember Daddy having those same types of "nicks" while working with the cows or otherwise around the farm. I figured at the time that it was Old People's Disease.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

I almost forgot. I did buy the camera. I've had it for two days, and still haven't got past the "On" switch. 286 page instruction book with two separate 80 page booklets on peripheral (?) stuff. If I could get college credit for it, I think we're talking about a two-credit-hour, full semester course of study. I promise initial photos by week's end.

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Have a great day.

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BCOT

Sunday

Busy weekend in the Quad Cities. 3 and 4 had fun with their friends at the wedding and associated events. Modified FFF at 2's for lunch today. Both are now on the road home. Look to 3 for picture sharing.

A front moved in today and the temps are headed into the 20's for lows over the next three days. The wind came up and anything that wasn't tied down got blown down the street. I heard of one report of sleet up in Dubuque.

My primary task today was to get my seven-foot ficus tree into my house for the Winter. I had to find a pot for a transplant first as the current one had been outgrown. What I found was as big of a "pot" as is available for residential use. Maybe 30" tall and almost the same across. I barely got the re-potted tree inside, both from size and weight factors. It should survive the Winter, and will again take it's post outside come Spring. But if it grows as much next Summer as it did this year, it may not make it back inside.

4 was an intern reporter for the local television station on Friday night. This is the station that she interned at last Summer. She had previously declined an offer to do Friday night reports for the high school football this season, as it is pretty hokie unpaid employment. But since she was going to be home for the weekend, she had scheduled herself to go into the station on Friday to complete a project for one of her classes. One thing led to another, and she was sent out to do on-sight reports on certain games. She did great. I couldn't download the tape, but it is on www.kwqc.com

Click on "Sports" and then "The High Light Zone" and then segment 2 of the 10-24-08 program.

I did vote on Friday. At the local library. No line, although I had tried to vote there earlier in the week and took a pass because of a line. In an interesting twist at the library, ACORN had a table set up in the lobby and was handing out kits to voters as they left the building describing the proper steps to take to re-register and vote a second time. Somehow, they figured out that they didn't want my second vote, and I didn't get a packet.

The early voting process got me to thinking about whether those votes and absentee ballots are tracked in any way to the voters' home precincts? Early voting is available at only a few central locations. Obviously, each voter first fills out a name and address sheet for the poll worker. But I didn't see any method used to identify me on the ballot that I subsequently completed, nor on the separate envelope that I sealed the ballot in, and placed in the box. I know that local and state political operatives have always paid close attention to precinct outcomes. I wonder if the new trend in early voting changes this dynamic?

But since they do early voting only for the general election, the precinct data from primary and off-year elections probably give enough data for the politicos to do their slicing-and-dicing thing.

2 and I did almost four miles along the river yesterday. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 minutes. Which means that I'm on target for a sub-hour Turkey Trot. Less than five weeks to go.

On the wedding pics story from above, 3 took them on Mom's digital camera, and then 3 was able to download them to my laptop this morning. That little exercise re-enforced my conclusion that I needed to go digital myself. I even stopped at the local camera store this afternoon and checked out their options. Since that establishment is where my current camera was acquired, and I have had such good luck with it, they'll get my business on this new venture.

Major League Baseball had the third game of the World Series finish at 1:47 AM local in Philly last night. Do those guys have any care about viewers?

I need to rest my intellectual vigor.

Have a great week.

BCOT

Friday

3 and 4 are intown for the weekend. 4 is in a wedding. This is a pic of them from this Summer.

The girls corrected me on the football schedule mentioned in an earlier entry: the Iowa-Illinois game is next week. 3 had run into some guys at the airport this morning who were headed to the Illinois-Wisconsin game in Madison tomorrow, and my mis-statement had her a bit befuddled. Unlike the Main Stream Media, 4000 Days always has it right. Most of the time.

1 reports that she has been offered a full time position with benefits at a nearby high school beginning sometime next month. Congrats to her!

Have a great evening. I'm off for some Tuscan red.

BCOT

Wednesday

Just a few lines tonight. 2 and I met for our normal run. And completed the route in our best time yet.

Successful night last night in IC at The Airliner with 4. We've been pretty lucky getting a table without waiting most of those Tuesday nights that I make the trip.

My pal Roy spent the weekend in Florida scoping out the possibility of buying a place and establishing residency there. Lots of retirees get places there and spend enough time in the state to qualify as a resident for tax purposes. Florida has no state income tax. Higher income folks take particular interest in the tax laws in retirement destination localities. Nevada and Texas are other popular tax havens.

The World Series started tonight. Usually, I have a nominal interest in the event. Not this year. I don't regularly follow either team, and I know of few of the players.

The weather forecast has lows in the high 20's at the beginning of the week. We've had some cool morning temps already, including enough to singe the tips of the leaves on my big hibiscus plant, but the high 20's is getting down there. The golf shirts may be done for the year.

4 got word this week that she did get the Spring term internship at the CR television station in a repeat performance of last year. You go girl!

The story tonight on Criminal Minds was set in the Tahoe area. Some nutcase was killing people at a little out-of-the-way motel with a rustic cabin motif. I'm thinking that I rode my bike right by the place. Maybe even stopped in for a soda. I thought that there was something a little odd with that clerk.

Brutal day in the market. The dollar is up. Oil is down. Global growth is slow. Earnings are off. Don't look for an early turn around. At this stage, companies are almost encouraged to get the bad news into the current statements. Why delay the inevitable? Earnings are already in the dumper, why not get all of the toxic stuff in the open now?

I'm thinking that the tailgating in Champaign this weekend for the Iowa-Illinois game could be very robust. (Very robust. A duplicative description?) I remember going down there years ago for an early season match between Illinois and Nebraska (on a Nebraska fan bus) for a Tail-Great event. I was impressed at the time of the Illini Nation's ability to party.

So have a good day/evening.

BCOT