Saturday Miscellaney

For the first time in two weeks I ventured out to forage for food for my family (two legged and four legged, human, canine and feline). I was literally out of all dog/cat food. Not a crumb left. A desperate situation to be sure. I wouldn't put gnawing on our bones past our hungry vermin.

I went to BJ's. I rarely shop at the supermarket. The prices are just too high. I was surprised how lite the store traffic was as well as the traffic in the vicinity. There were police to direct non-existent traffic. We'll see how that translates into holiday sales.

I've a small Christmas list. Kids are done. Mark and I do not exchange gifts, largely because we get what we need when we need it. Frankly, we do not need anything. This year, I'm going to do the unthinkable and ask for NO gifts next year. There is nothing that I want, and nothing that I need. BUT there is much need out there. My preference would be to direct generosity toward those who are on that ragged line between making it and not making it.

Had I had the presence of mind to stumble upon this sooner, I WOULD have had this under the tree for Mark: a watercolor of Lucy. I was perusing the Illinois Bird Dog Rescue site, and saw where a watercolor artist had donated a work. Ah Hah! So, I'm commissioning a work (it is quite inexpensive) to have my beautiful Lucy transferred to canvas. I'll do the same for Greta as a present to myself. So there's an idea for you if you are looking for an unusual, unexpected but wholly welcome gift---your pet in watercolor.

After posting my speculative account, I immediately made changes to it. I sold everything except RTK and SMN. I added DUG. Some of those sold items may zoom to great heights. I'm okay with that. These small caps have been in a tough environment. As you can see from that post, it is quite easy for them to lose 20-30% of value quickly. Too much psychic energy looking at that red.

I have a fistful (5) of HRB and SLB puts in one retirement account (my ONLY two holdings). Hardly bold. I sold my WCG calls for a nice 130% gain. But it was a small holding, but it adds incremental value, and I'll take that. I've been very careful with managing my option positions. I've been buying small and taking gains when I have them. More importantly, I'm limiting losses as I did with my PAY calls. I was too early on those, and the market environment is rather poor. I closed out just in time. I made enough money on the common to "cover" the loss that I had. The stock fell even more after my selling those, so the timing was good.

I have a couple of weeks of cleaning to catch up on, so I had better get started. Christmas will be here in 10 days. Where does the time go?

P. S. The Pink Floyd album cover had an interesting design, so I included it's image for no other reason than that!