Misc. Rambling Post

This weekend was one of much needed diversions, which of course I plan to bore you with. I did NOT spend much time at my computer which means I have not fixed my sector spreadsheet. I had also planned to look at the market cap changes from an old Yahoo sector spreadsheet that I had prepared. That too did not get done.

Saturday we took the boat out. We boat on the Chickahominy River. It is about a 30 minute drive to this beautiful freshwater river that empties into the James River. Next weekend we will be visiting Chippokes Plantation, home of the Pork, Pine and Peanut festival.

The marina from which we embark--and have for all of these multitude of years when I was but a young lass--was virtually empty. And an empty marina, means an empty river. We thought our daughter was coming with us, but she came home and then went out without a word. I tried to call her; no answer. So we left.

On the way to the marina we encountered a broken trailer. Broken. Snapped behind the tongue. A terrible site. A wrecker was there. I've never seen that. Once on the river, I get a call from my daughter. "I'm with Matt and Britney and the motor blew up". Well, I thought the motor to her car had blown. Heck, I didn't even know where she was and her voice was alarmed and I had howling wind in my ear. As it turned out, she was on the water with friends. Luckily we were close by. It turned out to be a rather dramatic time for these young people: testosterone, alcohol and stupidity--all things in ample supply with young men--combined for some foolishness.

I'm not sure exactly the 'story' but it involved an ex-girlfriend and 'some other guy'. Somehow there was a tussle. One of them tried to break it up. He received a fist to the face which rearranged several of his teeth an a not so eye pleasing way in addition to hurting like hell. Of course another has to 'step in and help his buddy'. He has a large sore knuckle on each hand and a sore jaw. Another had a cut on his eye.

In the 'getaway' the motor blew--and managed to start a small fire (hot spark plug on boat carpet). After the necessary panic, it was extinguished with a beer. I was able to collect my daughter (who is quite level headed and she was sober), and the rest of them made their way back. We did offer to take one who needed medical attention with us, but he declined (we also know him well). We were never 'young' that way, were we?

But it was a beautiful evening on the river. We had dinner at the marina--simple fare: cheeseburgers, fried oysters. We also ran into a long-time friend. He had to be towed in. Lots of bad boat karma, but not for us.

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Last year at this time (07.11.07), I had to have Greta euthanized. The approach of this date has weighed heavily on me, and I'm not really a maudlin person. Perhaps it is because I've a geriatric, incontinent, now-not-eating poodle to make a decision about. I also have a 17.5 year old cat that I have to euthanize this week. He looks like walking death, but up until this week, his spirits have been good and he eats, poops and pees. Now he cannot even keep food down. My dad is not doing well either. He's not feeling well and his liver enzymes are out of whack. At his age, once you get knocked down by something its hard to get up. To add insult to injury, he upgraded to Vista. He's finding that his scanner is not supported and is getting used to many other things.

I'll be 48 in August, and I can tell the difference in 'things' from just a couple of years ago. My goal is by my 50th birthday to regain age-appropriate fitness level that I had in my early 40's. When I turned 40 I started running. Then I sprained my back (water skiing) at 42 and change. Then everything went downhill from there! But I'm not dreading turning 50, particularly having this goal in mind.

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I had a low key day today. I transported two beautiful well-behaved English Setters. The slept the entire way. It was an early pickup, 8 a.m., so I missed egregious traffic. Nevertheless, I was surprised coming back from Springfield, that the traffic was not heavier. Demand destruction just like the boats. There's a couple of gian RV retailers on the way. I just shuddered when I passed their acres of RV's.

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This week in the market promises to be an interesting one. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't worried about my 'cash' in my retirement accounts which is in money market due to Fidelity default option. I ranted about this before. At the very least, you should be mindful of the FDIC insurance levels.