AgainstTheWind

That Lusty Holiday!

Tra La! It's May. I have to shop for the kids... all birthdays are in May. So what makes a good birthday present for grown children? My grandmother sent checks. My Mother sent checks. I'd like to do differently, BUT! I always like home made gifts. But somewhere I read that nothing spells cheap like homemade. Bother. Hell yeah! I'm cheap. Cheap and easy. That still doesn't solve the gift problem!

I'm learning more all the time about trading stocks. Still haven't passed looking at financials 101. I do know if I like doing business with a company or if their products suit me. But today I watched market fluctuations of monumental proportions, and tried to stay sane. I didn't sell in a panic. I bought figuring if nothing else the dividend early next week is worth something. But if I can figure that out so can every other yahoo who knows nothing. It's gotten to where I can cash out for a loss of about $50, or I can hold and wait for a rebound and collect my $4 of dividends. That may be a very expensive $4! But that much is a learning experience. Buy Arm and Hammer products. Help keep me out of the poor house.

Went to the library bee and sat and stitched a stem in place. I'm really running up against the time issue for my round robin this time. Next time I'll go simpler. Applique by needle turn is great for a passtime but on a deadline it's short of brilliant.

I've been fighting borderline depression. My Aunt Helen told me a long while ago I should visit a shrinker and medicate that. Not my style. But paying attention to the details of the moment is my style. So the morning I stepped out and saw this little guy crawling around on the roots of the oak in my back yard, I had to grin. He reminded me of the little dime store turtles. Tootie just couldn't leave him be, so he may have gotten chomped by my pup. I hope not. I like turtles; the speed is just about right for me.



A new found interest is in economics. I always thought of money as somehow tawdry and uninteresting. Not so. I don't need much of it, don't really want much, but studying how people use it, how it facilitates marking a value for a lot of what we do does have a certain fascination. So I've accumulated a few economists blogs that I read. Capital Gains and Losses had an interesting write up on a Senator going about learning about the fiscal side of the global warming debate. Interesting, and a nice change to read about something positive from an elected official.

I'm less a fan of nuclear energy than is indicated about Corker, but he's right to acknowledge that the way out of our energy and environmental challenges is to have fossil fuels that are more expensive, not less expensive, and to insist on that being done in a transparent way. This is what I think a conservative should be doing in the Senate. It's nice to know we've got one, even if he doesn't have much company.

Another I am enjoying is Megan MacArdle who now blogs on the Atlantic website. She used to have her own site, 'assymetrical information'. She is interesting to read, and not afraid to express an opinion.

News anchors in re Hillary's gas tax plan: "The economists don't like it, but there are no easy answers".

Yes, yes there are. There are easy answers. The easy answer is "Don't do stupid things of no possible value to the electorate." Just observe how easy this is. I look at the plan to have a gas tax holiday. I note that it is a stupid thing of no possible value to the electorate. Then I do not support the plan to have a gas tax holiday.

To be sure, having blogged for years, I have some experience in these matters. But I do not want you to think that this can only be done by a few lucky souls whom nature has prepared through extraordinary natural talent, fortunate circumstances, and herculean training. Anyone who is not severely cognitively disabled, functionally illiterate, or named Lou Dobbs, can perform this feat in the privacy of their own living room. You do not even need expensive, specialized equipment. In fact, I will let you in on the secret right now.

And enough of the dreary science. Continuing with the daily Proverb, Proverbs 1:7 (I accidentally orphaned 1:6.. look it up yourself if you care)

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Which reminds me of something else I had clipped, from One Cosmos

The truth is, truth is a kind of violence, in that it necessarily severs one thing from another, just like a surgical procedure, i.e., good from bad, true from false, and beautiful from ugly. This is why "the truth hurts," or at least why it hurts some people sometimes.

But I am human. I am often foolish. But I keep trying.

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