Have I mentioned it's still warm?

 Jeez!  This warm weather thing is getting old but what ya gonna do?  Yeah, not much!  And it's only gotten up to 105F here (40.5C) so that's not an unheard of temp.  Of course the a/c in our car has decided to take a break.  That's unpleasant!  Especially since we had it repaired to the tune of $2,400 in April.  Needless to say the garage is going to be helping us with that. 

I've just gotten a new PC.  It's an HP with an i7 core and a couple of TB of storage.  It's been a long while since I've had to deal with a new PC and boy is it a giant pain in the ass!  I'm used to various pieces of software and now I'm learning I was using antiques.  I was using this office software that was last updated in 2011 for heaven's sake.  Well, that's dead.  And I go to copy my photographs to a flash drive and it turns out 128GB isn't enough room.  I've got nearly 45,000 photos on the darn computer.  Well, that's why I wanted the 2 TB hard drive on the new one.  

On the health front we are all screwed up.  My wife's two broken toes have mended but now they are cramping when she walks.  My sciatica is still a pain in the butt (sorry, I should have resisted that).  And our dog's right front paw is still growing cysts between the toes.  This growing old does have disadvantages.  I had to go to the DMV yesterday to get my driver's license renewed.  They have an online method for doing that but it wouldn't work for me so I asked the clerk about it.  She just smiled.  "You're over 70 and we want people that age to come in and be tested."  Shit!  But I can't blame them either.  You want to be sure they are still breathing and all that.

One of the things we really like is the mountains that surround us.  Here is a sunrise from last month.  It's fun watching the sun move from one end of the mountains to the other.

And we do feed the local birds.  Here I haven't filled the feeder but the thistle is still pretty popular!

It's ok.  I'll get the other one filled too!  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and staying away from the sick folks.

Wow, September!

 We are getting late in our summer around here but it is still 110F 43C) most days.  Of course it is warmer over in Death Valley so we don't feel too picked on.

The sun rises are pretty nice too.

We don't get tired of watching the sun rising from different positions in relation to the mountain.  It's got a bit more travel towards the south before it stops and heads north again.  There is a dot in the sky on the right side of the photo that is a hot air balloon.  We get quite a bit of that around here.

Our little town of Pahrump has a few stores where you can buy most of the things one needs day to day but we aren't entirely quiet.  This is something I saw in one of the store parking lots recently.

 

We haven't gone anywhere exciting lately.  The bi-weekly trip to Vegas for various supplies doesn't count.  We don't go anywhere near the exciting parts of the city.  Grocery stores with better seafood, various stores with better prices AND selection, restaurants that are different; that's the limit of our Las Vegas visits.  The last visit was to pick up a new dishwasher from Lowes.  How's that for exciting?

I got to visit the dermatologist recently to have a few little things removed.  It's just one of the things you get to do when you get to a certain age.  Well, living in sunny places and not wearing hats and long sleeves might have something to do with it.  But since that's the worst thing I've got going on I feel pretty darn lucky!

So that's what's going on in my neck of the woods.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Dull, dull, dull!

Well, the usual stuff is going on around town.  Fires, drunks, wife beatings; you know the kind of All American fun that goes on all over the country.  But otherwise, it is 80F (27C) when I get up at 06:00 and somewhere around 110F (43C) by mid-afternoon.  Frankly it slows me down quite a lot.  My wife and I like to take a walk in the morning but not when it's that warm!  We did get a few walks in a week or so ago.  It is good exercise for us old folks and it is getting Gus used to the word 'Heel'.  He doesn't know what it means and wouldn't give a darn if he did BUT the leash does keep him between us and moving on.  He is one of the most hard-headed animals in creation!  

Read an excellent post over at Sightings Over Sixty.  It is a very good blog but this week the writer talked about 'facts'.  And how they are sometimes just a bit off.  In our current political climate where there is so much miss-information it is nice to read about how some things are being miss-represented.

I have ordered various financial advisory news letters over the years so I'm on the mailing list for many, many others.  I got one the other day that started with a list they called "The Great Reset".  They expect: The END of financial and personal privacy.  The END of freedom of thought.  The END of capitalism as we know it.  The END of law and order.  The END of parental control over our own children.  The END of the freedom and justice for all that makes America mankind's last, BEST hope.

I mean, really?  I'm supposed to take financial advice from someone who sees that as our future?  Jeez!  Oh, the capitalization in that previous paragraph was all theirs.  Why don't I take financial advice from some homeless drunk in the street?  Of course in the next page we are advised that "When the Democrats are thrown out of power, it opens the door for us ordinary folks to grow 5 TIMES richer fast".  I mean I'm not President Biden's biggest supporter but I'm pretty sure that his leadership isn't as toxic or even as effective as they are making out.  

Enough of the sunny side of life.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Small Town Fun

 Our town is really pretty unusual.  There are about 40,000 people but they are spread across a valley that is almost 300 square miles.  That makes for lots of open space as I'm sure you've seen in some of the photos I've posted.  The 'downtown' is five or six blocks long with little bits here and there that are kind of on their own.  The people are predominantly pretty right wing.  My wife and I registered as Republicans so we could have a vote on our local lawmakers; the Democratic (or Independent) candidate doesn't stand much of a chance.  Open carry of firearms is legal in Nevada and you will usually see two or three people carrying firearms if you visit the grocery store.  Officially it is an unincorporated town and the town board was dissolved a few years ago so we only have a county government.  The county seat is in another, much smaller, unincorporated town that is about 170 miles north of us.  Much of the county is taken up by the Nevada National Security Site where a lot of nuclear tests were conducted.

One of the attractions here is ballooning.  Las Vegas used to have a company offering balloon rides but running balloon rides in an urban environment wasn't working out so they moved here.  There is also a locally owned ballooning company.  Once a year we even have a Balloon Festival and that was just last weekend.  Unfortunately it was quite windy this year so even though there were lots of balloons around they weren't flying!  However, yesterday was nice and quiet and I saw this guy.

If you think it sounds cool here; you're wrong!

That was on April 30 and 99F is 37C.  Oh my, it might just be getting to shorts and tee shirt weather. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and wearing those masks.

Boy, isn't this exciting!

We are in a little contest with ourselves here trying to figure out when we will have our first 100F  (37.7777C according to my converter) day.  Yeah, that's the limit of the excitement around here!  So far today we have 99F(37.22C) but since it is 15:30 I don't expect much increase.  Who knows. 

My wife and I have finally restarted our morning walk routine.  We stopped after I got all screwed up flying over to Norway last fall and haven't walked (for exercise) since.  I'm cautiously hopeful that we can turn this into a habit again.  Right now we are only doing a bit over a mile (1.6km) but we have a nice 2.5 mile (4km) loop here in the neighborhood that we were doing last year.  Hopefully we can work our way up to that again.

There are approximately 43,000 people in Nye county with most of them down here in the Pahrump area.  We are supposed to have had 44 covid-19 cases in the county with 18 of them recovered.  There is something to be said to be living out in the boonies! 

The big news is that Nevada is getting ready to re-open some public areas - carefully!  Casino's will have limits on the number of people that can be in the building and how close they may be; likewise restaruants, etc.  I haven't read anything about personal services like hair dressers or barbers. 

Construction workers have just kept going through the whole thing though they were supposed to be observing 'social distancing' sorts of criteria.  We have a wall around the back portion of our property that has had some cracking problems and we have managed to take this time to get it fixed.

You can see where new blocks are in place.  They took the wall down farther than that but apparently re-used some of the blocks.  We don't care, just so they did a good job and we believe that they did.  The contractor was an idiot however.  First they gave us a bid for taking 80 feet of the wall down including the footing and replacing it all.  That was clearly wrong and we complained.  Then they gave us a bid for taking down 120 feet of the wall but not the footing.  Dumb and dumber seem to work there!  Finally they came up with a reasonable sum and we just paid it.  Still, it might be a really long time before we have anything to do with them!

In addition to the wall we had problems with both gates into the back yard.  The first one was done beautifully; the second required TWO additional visits from the guy who did it.  Honestly!  No photos; I was too disgusted.  How these people think they are going to make a living is beyond me.  The first gate proved he could do it so why did he screw up the second?

Well, gotta go do some cooking.  We aren't actually getting tired of home cooking but sure are missing our favorite restaurants!  It's nice to have someone bring you different meals; give you leftovers and clean up the plates.  Maybe in a week or two.  Keep on washing those hands and thanks for stopping by!

Well that should show me!

Here I was talking about the unseasonable weather and, sure enough, we went from 70's to 90's almost over night.  (That's like 22 to 32 Celsius.)  That will show me!  I guess that's why we have lots of a/c around here.  Also I suggested our soil is light and  loose; I've been corrected by a local guy who says this is a type of clay.  I can see where he is correct because 1) this stuff doesn't blow around and 2) that's why it is so nasty when a little water is added.  So, I'm an idiot.  If you hadn't noticed before.

Otherwise it's life in the same place for us.  I did manage to go to both of our grocery stores yesterday and scored the last package of paper towels.  I'm going around the store wondering if someone is going to try to steal them out of the cart.  LOL  It's a strange world out there!  Only saw three guys wearing firearms though so it hasn't changed that much.

I've been reading about China creating a 5G blockchain network.  I'm a former IT person and this stuff is way beyond anything I can understand.  It starts out as understandable but then when you think about where it might go; it gets weird.  I understand China's desire for secret communication within their government but this gets dangerous when it is opened to others.  It is a Communist state that keeps a close eye on it's citizens.  What are they doing making this impenetrable communications network that will be available to major companies?  And, of course, what happens when it is breached?  As far as I know no one knows how to break a blockchain today but we all know that someone will figure it out one day.  Yeah, I'm reading too much on the internet!

Speaking of too much internet, I've read that fentynal comes from the Wuhan area so having most of the world in lockdown reduced the availability of the stuff.  That would be great if drug dealers weren't just raising their prices.  Hopefully some people will get help and get off the train. 

Gotta go.  I'm going to try reading a book!  Take care & keep washing those hands.

I'm HOT!

And not in a good way!  This waking up at 05:00 so we can walk in some comfort is silly.  It's worse when you wake up at 05:00 and it's 87F (30.5C) outside.  The forecast is calling for a high of 97F (36C) so that's not too bad but this not cooling off just stinks.  I was outside doing dinner on the bbq the other night.  My instant read thermometer thought it was warm without the grill and, no, that's not in the sun and it is about 6 p.m.

Yes, that's reading 106F (41C) just waiting around to check on the temperature of dinner.  But using the bbq does keep a lot of heat out of the kitchen!

I bought a new weather station recently and finally got it installed.  My wife had this uncomfortable thought that she should be able to change the batteries in the thing on her own without my help.  (What the heck does she think is going to happen to me???)  So we decided to place the station on a hinged pole.  Well, turns out that when you put a hinge on a 2x4 it doesn't like to remain in line.  In fact it wobbled quite badly.  So we ended up putting a turnbuckle on it to keep it stable.  What with her painting the pole, my questionable ability with tools in general, about 4 trips to the hardware store and the heat, it took about two weeks to get the darned thing erected!  However, now I can look over at the display and tell that we have an 8 mph breeze from the North.  Gotta admit though that I'm NOT looking forward to changing that battery!  The only other complaint I have is that the display is REALLY bright.  No need for a nightlight or even a flashlight with that thing around.

I keep reading about our President and his seeming inability to keep his foot out of his mouth.  It puzzles me that he can be so naive and be successful in business.  Perhaps it is simply that he hires people (and perhaps bribes people?) who do his bidding.  He certainly seems to have trouble keeping people around him as President.  I've lost track of all the people he's fired and he's only been in office for six months.  Of course he's managed to piss off almost every other head of state except for Putin.  We'll just have to see what happens. My wife and I have in the last few years visited several Presidential museums.  The last time we were in Texas we got to visit LBJ's in Austin and George Bush (Sr)'s in College Station.  It is kind of fun seeing what is emphasized and what is downplayed.  God knows what Trump's will look like!

When we come home from a trip we seem to start thinking about another one.  At least it seems that way sometimes.  We are now talking about a trailer trip into the mid-west.  We had hoped to go last year for my 50th high school reunion but I had neck surgery instead.  There won't be a high school reunion to visit with this year but we still have a few relatives and friends out that direction.  We hope to make it this time!

How's all that for another dull post?  Sorry but I'm just a dull guy.  Thanks for stopping by.

Summer Time!

We've got summer time here in all it's glory; even technically now that the solstice is past.  Our Las Vegas weathercasters are talking between 108F (42C) and 113F (45C) for the next 7 days; tonight they are talking a low of 93F (34C).  This is a bit warm even for here!  Still, this is the time for it.

One of the changes we make based on the season is when we walk.  In the winter, mid-afternoon sounds good but these days, the earlier the better.  This a.m. we were out before sunrise.  Walking is the exercise we are best at for sure.  It's been a staple since we moved here in 2008.  Of course there have been pauses; like after my surgery.  We started walking again about a week after I had my surgery.  Then we were doing the short walk which is about a mile (1.6km).  Now we have worked ourselves up to the 'long walk' which is a bit over 2.25 miles(3.6km).  At first the short walk had me resting for an hour or so but now we are pretty much back to normal.  Also last Friday was three weeks since the surgery and the day my doctor anointed as the day I could start driving again.  Wow, was that a relief!  My wife is actually a very good driver and she enjoys driving but laying back in that passenger seat is pretty unusual for me.  I've been susceptible to motion sickness for as long as I can remember so riding with others is something I really avoid.  Making it to Las Vegas for the followup appointment with my doctor is the farthest I've ridden with anyone else for quite some time.  Back on 2004 my knee went out while we were on a trailer trip to the midwest.  My wife got to drive something like 1,400 miles (2,250km) that time! 

We have noticed that this summer seems to be a year for rabbits.  Believe me when I say I know nothing about rabbit populations but here in the valley the population seems to run in cycles.  This is a lots-o-rabbits year.  I think they come around every three or four years but don't really know.  Year before last we could take our walk and see maybe two rabbits; this year we are seeing twenty or thirty plus a few jack rabbits.  I keep telling myself that it's just the year for them.  Maybe later in the summer we'll start seeing coyotes and then the year-of-the-rabbit will come to a rapid end.  What we haven't seen is quail.  No idea why but I don't believe we've seen one all year.

Anyway, that's a summer morning around here.  The other good news is that we are up for the sunrise on the mountains. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one!

Summer's here!

We have had several years in a row where most of the time we stayed under 105F (40+C).  So this year is starting out with a week of mostly over 105F.  Well, besides my neck, this is certainly the reason to stay inside and veg out.  I'd be embaressed to say how much 'crap' tv I've seen in the last two weeks but let's just leave it at 'too much'.  I could read but somehow it makes me fall asleep.  Hmmm, tough life huh.

We had big plans for being out of the area during this time.  My 50th high school reunion was being held back in Iowa at the end of May and we were going to make a big trip of it.  We were going to see friends in Colorado then relatives in Missouri before the reunion.  Then afterwards see friends in Ohio then go up through the Michigan Upper Peninsula.  Finally we were going to sweep down towards the middle of the country and check out the state of Oklahoma; one of the few we haven't visited in our trailer.  The whole trip would have been closer to 6,000 miles than 5,000. (9,600km vs 8,000).  The truck was all tuned up and ready to roll unfortunately, I wasn't.  Well, maybe next year! 

I am sorry to have missed the reunion but I did leave town about as soon as I could after graduating and haven't been back except to visit my parents while they were still alive.  It might have been fun to see how those people I remember as 17 or 18 look now that they are closing in on 70.  I did run across a few of them when we were all in our thirties but that too was quite a while ago.  Guess I'll just have to look at some random group of old folks.  Or maybe I'll just look in the mirror!  I'm pretty sure I wouldn't recognize myself and I can't find a copy of my yearbook photo.  I'll post it if I find it later.  There is a Facebook page that some hardworking person put together.  There are some group photos where I recognize no one.  Maybe missing the fun is something I'll live through.

We do have some thoughts for travel in the fall but we are pretty gun-shy since the summer trip kind of blew up.  If nothing else we'll probably take some short trips over to places in California that are way overdue for a visit:  Napa Valley, Yosemite, San Simeon just to name a few - we have woefully ignored California for way too long.  I should point out that we are wine consumers rather than wine snobs so a visit to Napa wouldn't take more than a couple days!  Driving up Highway 1 is on the list too.  I'm not sure how far we'd go.  We've had a whiff of the redwoods but haven't really spent time there.  We've been on Highway 1 in Oregon as well but that was coming south rather than going north and somehow it feels different.

Well, that's the news from the overheated state of Nevada.  Thanks for stopping by and have a good one!

Photo Op

We had a visitor to the bird bath the other day; a young hawk.  Needless to say there weren't a lot of other birds hanging around!  He didn't stay long but did hang around for one portrait.

The birdbath is attracting attention these days.  It's getting warm outside and everyone needs a little water.  We even had a crow stop by one day.  (No photo, he was shy and quick.)  Plenty of the ordinary birds:  pigeons, doves, sparrows and finches are the most common.  Once in a while we spot a newbie but this isn't exactly on the way to anywhere!

I mentioned the fun with the septic tank.  Found a photo that gives one an idea of the job.

This big old tanker truck with a tractor on a trailer was just the thing.  The top of the tank is about four feet down (1.2M) so we were all glad the guy had a tractor.  No one knew exactly where the openings were so he used a tool to probe around in the ground then proceded to dig in exactly the right place.  You've gotta say it might be a stinky job but he sure knew what he was doing.  Yes, the black thing in the photo is the 'straw' they use to suck up the sewage.

I said it's getting warm.  Here's the latest from the Fox news in Las Vegas.

That's 39C-41C for our highs and around 27C for lows.  Needless to say we are running the a/c a lot.  It is basically 24/7 now for a while.  We like to walk around our neighborhood but when it is this warm we either go really early or not at all.  A new alternative is for us (wifey needs exercise too) go to the gym.  Yes, I said  gym.  It's not a word you've heard from my mouth (keyboard) before but there it is.  As part of my medical care under Medicare (health plan for oldies here in the states) I have a gym membership.  I haven't used it much but these days a treadmill in an airconditioned building is better than walking in the neighborhood at 05:30 or so.  I tried out a stationary cycle; found muscles I didn't know I had in 2 miles.  I tried out an eliptical stepper thing; yep, more muscles I didn't know I had.  Finally tried the treadmill; at least I can do that!  I strained my foot back when we were in Ireland and 15 minutes on the treadmill make it quite painful.  There is something about the surface that is harder on my foot than ordinary walking.  Still, gotta move it or lose it.  They also have strength-training machines.  These are weird machines I've never seen and can hardly figure out how to use even when I'm reading the directions!  I tried two of them:  one for your chest and one for your abs.  I guess they are ok but it's another episode of 'old dog, new tricks'.  As though the new pc wasn't enough.

That's it for today.  My spouse wants to go to the gym again.  Stock market hint:  buy Advil!  Have a good one.

Not a lot going on!

It's smmer in the desert so outside activities aren't as popular as on the shoulder seasons.  If we haven't taken our walk by 07:00 it's going to be pretty sweaty.  The extra attraction is that we see more wildlife; not that there is a lot.  We see bunnies and jack rabbits mostly.  Aside from finches we mostly see doves, quail and the ocassional hawk.  If we walk in the desert, away from any of the houses, we might see a coyote.  Of course walking on the roads we get to check up on what the neighbors are doing to their houses and all but that .  I think we prefer the wildlife.  So we are staying inside a lot.  The tv is interesting to all of us. 

It's really odd what gets the cat's interest.  He spends a lot of evenings either on my lap or my wife's.  (Yes we watch tv most evenings at least before the sunset.)  Every now and then there will be some sort of animal segment on and he is ON IT!  He's almost 19 and doesn't hear very well and I'm not sure about his vision but he does know what he likes.  One time he even went around behind the tv to see where the animal went when he disappeared. 

Here's my excuse for sitting at the computer so much these days.

This was day before yesterday about 6 p.m. - the one on the left says 105F the one on the right says 101F.  That's 40C & 38C for the rest of the world.  One remote is on the north side of the house and the other on the south.  We usually have a difference like this.  Happily the interior temp is 78F (25C).  Makes you feel for the folks who lived here before the invention of air conditioning.  Our local museum has one of the houses built by an early pioneer.  They managed to find some spare railroad timbers and built the house from that.  Those huge chunks of wood actually did a pretty good job of insulating the place.

That's all I've got for today.  Have a good one!

Medicare???

Yep, it is almost time for me to make all those Medicare decisions.  Ugh!  Oddly thinking of Medicare is making me feel older than thinking about the actual birthday.  Maybe it is because I've had so much experience having birthdays!  To be truthful, the Medicare part isn't so bad but figuring out the add-ons is a giant pain in the you know where.  Of course it is made worse by the fact that we live 'over the hump'.  In a city like Las Vegas there are lots of choices.  Here, not so much. 

Here we get to choose between Humana and something called Senior Dimensions.  (Why they would name their company something so close to Senior Dementia is beyond me!)  Humana is called a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO); Senior Dimensions (SD) calls itself an HMO-POS.  In the HMO you go to doctors in their company; the POS is supposed to let you visit doctors outside the plan at additional cost.

Humana is a bit more expensive than SD but they are accepted by the doctors I've been seeing for the five years we've lived here.  With SD I'd be saving some money but would be seeing new people.  I seldom visit the doctor so maybe it's no big deal.  We also need to figure out what goes on when we travel; either in the U.S. or overseas.  Reading all the fine print is just else something to get aggravated about.  Glad I don't have blood pressure problems!

Aside from all that, we are continuing on our nice warm summer.  Most days it is around 105F (40C) and doesn't cool off enough to open the house at night.  We take our daily walk at 06:00 to avoid most of the heat.  The mountains are pretty then; all gold from the rising sun.  I thought I'd taken photos of the sunrise but apparently not!  Maybe tomorrow. 

I signed up for this free site, Duolingo, which attempts to teach English speakers various European languages and vice versa.  It was invented by the guy who came up with those little squiggly words you have to type for leaving comments, etc.  The site is kind of fun but between my atrocious typing and my spelling (which isn't good in English!) it's going to be slow going!  I'd love to be able to speak and understand a couple other languages even at the level of a three year old. 

That's all the whining you'll hear from me today.  Thanks for checking in.  Hope you have a good one.

I'm not saying it's hot....

I'll let this photo of a dove hiding in the shade of the bird bath say it for me!

If you have been following this blog you know I've been copying old photos to my computer.  I'm about worn out trying to pry photos out of albums.  It's a giant pain but in a way it is kind of fun.  For example, copying the photos we took back in 1993 when we took European delivery on our new BMW.  We took three weeks and wandered around southern German and northern France.  We had lots of fun & saw all kinds of wonderful stuff.  People at work said it was 'the trip of a lifetime'; I said then and say now 'I'm not dead yet!'.  I'm hoping for many more 'trip of a lifetime' experiences.  Still, we did have fun.  Here I am 19 years ago(!) storing up energy to see Neuschwanstein - German King Ludwig's fantasy castle.

That huge bag is my camera bag:  Nikon, telephoto, flash & a few filters.  Wow, how times have changed.  These days half my photos are taken with my phone; it and my camera will fit in my pocket.  It was my wife's first trip to Europe.  Only four years later, she took a job there.  What a rush! 

One of my favorite RV bloggers says "Life is not a dress rehearsal. Don't be afraid to laugh, love and retire early." Well, I don't know about the retiring early; that's tough to manage but he's certainly right that life isn't a dress rehearsal.  So if you want to do something, make it happen!

Until then, have a good one.

P.S.  It occurs to me that this was my dad's birthday.  Had he lived he would be 108 today.  Happy birthday Dad!

Still whining...

It's still hot here and am I whining!  It affects everything, for example, the guys fixing the road around one of our three stop lights don't work when it is this hot.  How hot is it?  Well, it's 11:00 a.m. and we still have lots of warming up to do.  But here is what the birds think of it.

They are hiding in the shadow of the bird bath.  When the sun moves around to the west, they'll be on the other side of the bath.  They aren't dumb, that shade really makes a difference.  There was even one little guy hiding in the shadow of the bird feeder!  As an aside, I was expecting the birds to actually bathe in the bird bath but all they do is stand on the side and drink.  We put a large rock in the middle to act as extra standing room but they don't seem to use it much.

Have a good one.

MIA all over again

Well, I've fallen off the 'regular blogger' wagon again.  No particular reason except a distinct lack of thought on my part.  We've been having record high temps lately.  Las Vegas broke 4 or 5 high marks and the low temps were also hotter than usual so the weather guy has been having fun.  Missing out on Irene didn't hurt anyone's feelings.

This morning we walked our 2.5 miles (4km) then showered.  We had the radio on and when we got out of the shower the announcer said it was 85F (29.4C).  By the time I'd shaved and brushed my teeth, he announced it was 89F (31.6C)!  That's just silly.

In an article on Yahoo taken from The Street a guy from Standard & Poors is saying that the stock market will remain volatile for at least September and probably this is a new normal situation.  "Who or what deserves the blame? High frequency trading, hedge funds, inverse and leveraged ETFs, take your pick," he says.  Well, doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy!  He's probably right though.  All these new products that weren't available in the past (except hedge funds) have got to be changing the rules.  It's up to the investor to sort out ways to deal with the new reality.  So far my response has been to buy something I like and hold it for some time.  It's kind of a head-in-the-sand approach but as long as I'm diversified and can take some profits when they appear it should work.  At least I hope so! 

One of the new rules requires mutual funds to identify individual purchases of stock so for a fund like Fidelity's Capital Appreciation (FDCAX), Yahoo Finance shows 3 holdings of UAL, 2 of VMED.L and 2 of CVX in their top 10 holdings!  Well, isn't that just helpful.  Google isn't quite so stupid but I usually prefer Yahoo Finance.  Looks like I'll have to change my habits there as well.  Good thing I'm not totally stuck in the mud.

Gotta go.  Real life calls.  Have a good one!