Hope everyone had a great day and that you don’t have too much of a turkey hangover. Our meal was great thanks to Uncle T and the misses. Everyone arrived between 2ish and 2:30 and stayed until round 5pm. The boys were extremely well behaved at dinner. We just have to remember that sometimes kids are kids. The only major casualty of the day is the misses. Her cold is back in full force twice as bad as it was yesterday morning. Mine is a bit worse too but nothing like hers. It’s now down in her chest and she has that deep guttural cough. Both boys seem to have it as well but it’s hard to tell in kids as they seem to keep on going like the Energizer Bunny!
I managed to get the dishes cleaned up as we went so by the time everyone was leaving, the house was pretty much clean. Today I’m helping out at my friends store from 8 am until around noon and Mom and the boys were going to start getting out the Christmas decorations. I think I’m going to have to ask the boys to wait until I get home so Mom can get some rest. It’s still almost 70 degrees around here but is supposed to be a bit cooler (in the 50’s) today.
On the news they’re showing all the people out for Black Friday. I don’t know if the crowds are so big because no one has much money and they need to take advantage of the deals or because people are planning on spending more this year than usual. I suspect it’s the first as the overall forecast is that spending will be down. The news right now is saying the same thing, that too many people shopping on Black Friday can be a negative sign. Oh well, either way I told everyone last night to give us their Christmas wish list by about December 15th or 20th as that’s when we hope to have a little bit of money to shop. No chance we’re going to have any extra cash before then as we’re still fighting the endless pile of overdue bills around here. It sounds like Uncle T and Aunt B and Grandma are all over getting the boys a bunch of stuff which is good as it’s going to be lean year around here.
I have two more trips scheduled this year, New York next week for 1 night and then Seattle the following week for 3 nights. Hopefully after that, I’m done for the year but who knows what’ll come up.
At dinner, I was pleased to hear Aunt B ask me about a previous post telling everyone to get their money out of the stock market. At least she’s thinking about it. Now you all have to decide for yourselves but let’s say I’m wrong about this, what are you going to lose by taking your money out of the market for a year or so, maybe 1 or 2%? Think about it, not much. On the other hand, what if I’m right and things get worse or heaven forbid, the economy crashes and you lose 80 or 90% or all of you savings! What will you do then? All I’m saying is as a precautionary measure, get out while you can and park any money you have in a bank account for the next 12 to 36 months until things settle down. It’s a no lose move, I mean come on, it’s not like you’re going to miss out on 20% gains or something. Enough said, I’m not the smartest guy in the World but I am the best looking, or something like that! Seriously, (oh oh, here I go again!), there are a lot of really smart people moving out of the markets which are basically a scam and these days too volatile for individual investors. If or more likely, when, the big pension fund managers decide to make a move out, the market will nose dive. Don’t be caught riding the wave down trying to get out after these guys and the billions they manage jump ship. You ought to pay me for this advice, trust me, it’s inevitable. I mean look at the stock market just over the past two weeks, one day it’ll go up 150 points and the next it’ll go down 300. The apathetic public (you) have become so desensitized to these huge swings that years ago would have prompted mass panic. Does anyone remember Black Monday in October in the late 80’s? The market lost something like 500 points in one day and everyone freaked out, now this happens every few weeks and no one bats an eye. I’ll stop now as I’m sure many of you think I’m crazy or over-reacting but I just feel I have to say something to you even at the risk of you thinking I’m nuts! Ok, if you don’t get it by now, I’m not going to change your mind, (MOM) but please at least ask someone else or do a little research yourself, enough said. Like I said, what do you have to lose by getting out, not much! What do you have to lose by staying in, oh yea, everything!
The youngest just joined me on the couch at 5:35am. The oldest has been in teenager mode for about a year now meaning he’ll sleep as long as you let him. The misses thankfully is still in bed although I’m sure she’s up as she was most of the night. I guess Grandpa Bob was alone yesterday as Eleanor went to her daughters or something and he stayed home as he was having heart palpation’s which is brought on by panic attacks. Hope he’s doing well, it was probably the 49’ers losing to the Ravens last night that set him off! At least Green Bay won so my Mom was happy. I was praying for this as if they lost she would have been in a bad mood for dinner.
I guess I’ll run now and get the little guy some breakfast and get showered and ready to go work some retail, whoo hoo! Have a great day and weekend and if you’re looking for something to buy the misses and me for Christmas, think gold coins or ounces of silver! We can tell you the name of a reputable dealer where you can order some up!
God Bless,