Saturday, May 28, 2011

05/28/11 Long after Saturday's gone



Nice way to spend a Saturday, Mark. You'll look back in twenty years and wonder where the time went.

Every few months I run into a neighbor and his son on the trail down to the reservoir. I'd always assumed the guy was in his mid-forties, and his son in the high school to college range. The son is autistic, and his parents put their careers on hold many years ago in order to provide the 24/7 care he requires.

We greeted each other again last week, and I asked if they had any plans to prepare the kid for college. No way. The 'kid' is 31.

No doubt any of us would, if necessary, sacrifice living normal lives in order to raise our kids. In fact, it would probably result in a more fulfilling life.

21 comments:

  1. Nice video. My only son, 39, has been part time school teacher and part time Mr.Mom until last week whence he got "the promotion" to full time at the regional Community College. For one thing, it means I am Grandpa sitter for the summer, on and off per a schedule. I don't mind.

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  2. " Parenting Never Ends ". That ought to be a bumper sticker.

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  3. illini- I used to tell my youngest (who used to choke up around age 6 when asking what would happen after I passed away) that we never die- we just turn into spirits. If he wanted to communicate with Dad, just go out into the backyard, find Orion's Belt, and I would be listening.

    I wasn't lying. Being a Christian, that's pretty much what I believe (at a kindergartener's level). Any minister, of course, will tell you no one really knows exactly how it plays out. However, I like to think our minds are capable of imagining what might happen, and in general the truth will turn out to be even better.

    Indeed, parenting never ends. It's kind of what it's all about.

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  4. But I digress. I think global indexes will over the next 5-10 years perform even better than what we might imagine at this point in time.

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  5. I didn't grow up in a Christian household. My Dad was a self-described atheist. However, I can recall 'conversing' with God around age 12-13 on a regular basis, usually just before falling asleep. Kind of going over the problems of the day.

    In the summer following my freshman year in high school, someone invited me to a Wednesday night Bible Study at a Baptist church in Menlo Park. That was probably the night I heard the 'gospel' for the first time, and believed immediately.

    Several years later, my parents converted as well, in Ann Arbor.

    God works in mysterious ways.

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  6. Obviously, I am as anti-'legalistic' as they come. More in the 'love covers many sins' camp. I pretty much accept human nature for what it is.

    You remember the story of the man crucified alongside Jesus, and how He embraced this man as worthy of heaven. I'm kind of like that. I don't generally give a ---- about polished surfaces (or behavior). I'm only interested in the soul that resides within.

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  7. Nor do I give a ---- about traders who talk down to their 'lesser' brethren as if they've mastered the markets. We've all sat in classes with some of the best minds of our generation. How much do any of us really know about the universe?

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  8. Sorry guys (actually, I'm just talking to myself)- they just told (not asked) me to close it up for the night. Later.

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  9. Still alive here. Laugh at me if you wish, but...

    Long still more RBY, having sold a large qty of puts and adding cash and buying more shares to max in all accounts.

    Sold 1/3 of metal to do it.

    Probably nutty and too much risk, but doing that in the past is what got me where I'm at, and I could still live my dream (on a lesser scale) off the metal that remains, even if it was at 1/2 of today's price.

    I believe more than ever that by the time the market is done questioning europe's ability to ever repay its debts, the US's will then be questioned, as well, forcing either a depression/collapse of biblical proportions (if austerity is finally tried), or a stagflation/hyperinflation/collapse instead, if not, either of which returns the world to gold as wealth. Dollars, I'm afraid, are not wealth, but just more debt.

    http://business.financialpost.com/2011/05/25/un-sees-risk-of-crisis-of-confidence-in-u-s-dollar/

    http://www.jsmineset.com/2011/05/28/the-long-anticipated-rock-and-hard-place-is-here-and-now/

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  10. good to see you cb!

    so 2nd, when is your projected release date?

    a buddy of mine, true story, just got out of prison, he was a sr exec at a software co during the bubble and ended up pleading guilty to "channel stuffing" (aka fraud). he sounds ok but I'm sure the time behind bars really took its toll.

    off to church then back to the charts.

    enjoy boys!

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  11. CB - Obviously that's a lot of risk but gold will reach $1600+ soon enough and it looks like it's dragging the miners along with it this time.

    Oil and silver, along with base metals left gold behind on their recent run, and have returned from their elliptical orbits around the monetary solar system, of which the centerpiece is gold.

    Gold is well disciplined money.

    FD: I have no gold currently, but I do have BEXP and GMO still.

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  12. Grain - Russia to lift grain export ban July 1st.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-28/russia-will-end-grain-export-ban-on-july-1-as-planting-climbs-putin-says.html

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  13. Grym sent this link out on the CC site. Worth a listen...

    http://www.nragive.com/ringoffreedom/index.html

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  14. China says at least 34 mil. hit by Yangtze drought

    BEIJING -- A debilitating drought along China's Yangtze River has affected more than 34 million people, leaving farmers and livestock without water and parching a major grain belt, the government said Saturday.


    More than 4.23 million people are having difficulty finding adequate drinking supplies, while more than five million are in need of assistance to overcome the drought, the Civil Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

    “(One of) the special characteristics of this drought disaster is that it has persisted for a long time,” the ministry said.

    “Secondly, the losses to the agricultural and breeding industries have been severe ... while drinking water for people and livestock has been seriously impacted.”

    Rainfall levels from January to April in the drainage basin of the Yangtze, China's longest and most economically important river, have been up to 60 percent lower than average levels of the past 50 years, it said.

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  15. t3d - wonder how much the three gorges dam debacle plays into the water troubles? I'm worried we may look back a few years from now and find that many of the command and control "capitalism" miracles were bogus, kinda like the Japanese banks in the 80's

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  16. Today's lesson: Don't become careless just because the finish line is in view.

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  17. CP - that was un-freakin'-real. That kid isn't going to sleep for months, replaying that final turn over and over in his mind. I feel bad for him

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  18. 3 Gorges - Perhaps a series of smaller dams on the Yangtze would have served better as opposed to one large one.???

    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chinas-three-gorges-dam-disaster

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  19. Insufficient electricity to supply Chinese growth?

    http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/jeff-rubin/are-chinas-factories-running-out-of-power

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