Posts

Showing posts from July, 2013

Shucking Corn

My dad grows the sweetest corn you can ever eat.  Jennifer put up one small bushel load a few weeks ago.  We ate fresh cream corn on the nights she put it up.  It was heavenly that something this fresh and organic and good for you could taste so spritely sweet. A few days ago my dad brought over a second bushel or something close to a bushel.  It was in a huge red plastic tub that was cracked on one side.   He left it sitting in my carport.  My daughter was given the task of tackling her first bushel of corn.  She's had an easy life of being committed only to school, art, and athletics so far. First of all, she predictably slept late and started shucking the corn in the early afternoon.  It was a bit over 90 degrees here that day with heavy humidity and a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.  She quickly started sweating as she shucked.  After a few ears, after dealing with the worms and the bug-eaten tips, after wrestling with the heavy silk trying to pick it off (her mother was no

When Growth Is Fueled By Nothing But Debt

In 2003 Richard Russell encouraged his subscribers to buy gold stocks, particularly NEM . I took his recommendation and bought NEM at around $23 a share. I accumulated more NEM over the next couple of years. It paid a good dividend as well, something I had forgotten stocks did back in the late-1990's when I rarely kept any stock longer than a 8-9 weeks. When the exchange traded fund GLD was created around 2005 I bought shares, more and more shares. I blogged about one of my final, big buys . It is no secret on this blog that I have been heavily leveraged in the GLD/SLV/NEM sphere of things . In 2012, unannounced on this blog, I sold every share of GLD I owned at about $168 a share. In the fall of 2011 I sold my entire position of NEM at about $69 a share, managing to hit that one near its peak. In this general timeframe, I also sold my position in SLV but left the profits invested. The phrase "take profits" seems strange to me. It seems more prudent to "take

The Jefferson Memorial: A Photo Tribute

Image
In celebration of America's Independence Day, here are some additional photos of the Jefferson Memorial taken by Jennifer and me on our recent vacation to Washington, DC .  Jennifer took the first two from our trolley and from the FDR Memorial along the Tidal Basin.  I took the others on my solo trek to the Memorial a couple of days later.   Jennifer took this shot from our trolley as we paused on a bridge crossing the Tidal Basin. We are looking northeast, showing both the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument - in scaffolding undergoing repairs.   The Memorial reflected in the Tidal Basin.  The FDR Memorial is up a small hill behind us. Detail of the Memorial's front facade bathed in the light of the setting sun. The impressive 19-foot statue of our third President .  A quote from the Declaration of Independence is engraved on the marble wall behind Thomas Jefferson .  There are four such quotations inside the open-air Memorial.

Washington DC: A Bit Beyond the Mall

Image
Here I am admiring Renoir's  The Luncheon of the Boating Party , worth going to DC all by itself.   Note: This is the third travelogue post on our recent vacation to Washington, DC. Jennifer usually researches everything for our trips before we go. She did all the research for Alaska , all the research for Boston . For DC her efforts were minimal beyond figuring out accommodation and transportation. For the most part, we walked, which simplified a lot of things. We figured we each walked a minimum of two miles a day. On the day of Jefferson Memorial sojourn, I hiked a bit over six miles. Our primary aim was to see and experience The National Mall. We accomplished that in spades. One item she researched screamed for our attendance away from the Mall, however. She asked me if I wanted to do a half-day jaunt to see one of our favorite paintings of all time. How could I say no? Pierre-Auguste Renoir as my all-time favorite painter. The Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) is