74 degrees this morning, no walk (rain/lightning)
Coolish out, with some rain. I don’t think it actually rained after I decided not to walk, but you never know. I don’t mind walking on wet streets in the daylight, but in the dark it can be a little different.
Even though I knew it would be July 1, it kind of caught me by surprise to actually write it. 50% of the year 2017 gone already.
While we were actually here 3 years ago, I count July 2 as our actual “moving date” because that is the date our “stuff” arrived, furniture etc.
Over the past two moves, we had thrown/given a lot of “stuff” and are still getting rid of “things” that don’t use or need anymore.
There is always the question of “need”. Like I was advised when I was “weeding” books, with the internet etc. you can always quickly buy a book if you want it and probably get it delivered before I can find a book in my library! Anyway, that thought helped me “shed” a lot of books
Tomorrow also makes 2 years and 10 months on my job. One of those cases of the more I learn the more I realize I have to learn.
I just saw a quote by Abraham Lincoln (or at least attributed to him) that “I destroy an enemy every time I make an enemy a friend” or words to those effect.
This also marks the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, which was a major turning point in the Civill War. I still remember how I felt standing at the actual spot where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address and saw the areas, peaceful now, where hundreds and probably thousands of soldiers died.
Until I saw Gettysburg, I had always thought “Picketts Charge” was a victory, instead of literally a slaughter. We walked the hill of the “Charge” and I can’t even imagine how the soldiers felt who were involved in the “Charge”. That was actually on July 3, I believe.
Although this isn’t a 3 day weekend, it is the next best thing, a Tuesday Holiday. The only problem is it is hard to get anything done on Monday since everyone if gone, or at least someone is gone that you need to see or talk to!
By the way, the Crepe Mrytles are “blooming” now. They bloom for a relatively long time, which is why I like them.
I mentioned the decline of “brick and mortar” retail the other morning. Frankly, it is really getting creepy seeing the decline. I realize change will happen and I own’t always like it.
I was thinking last night there must be a way for them to provide services that internet sales can’t provide. At the very least they are going to have to change their thinking and methods or they will simply go out of business, which is the way the market has of dealing with change.
Real Estate (in this case commercial real estate) has always been a way to make money, that may not be true anymore, at least commercial retail real estate.
Just thinking how our patterns have changed in the last 10 years, there have been tremendous changes in the way we live and do business.
Watching “Mad Money”, while I feel Jim Cramer usually makes a lot of sense, I disagree with him about “bonds”. He espouses keeping a certain % of retirement funds in bonds. Frankly I think bonds are a losing proposition other than very short short-term bonds.
I wold never suggest to anyone in their 20’s to 50’s the they keep anything in bonds as such, (I don’t mean cash or cash type short term bonds, money market funds etc.).
My feeling is, keep enough so you can withdraw what you need for 3-5 years in a short-term bond fund (or something relatively safe) and the rest in stocks. Of course you may want to get out of the stock alert for strategic reasons (stocks going down etc.) but I am talking about permanent short term living funds. My two cents!
That’s it for now, Saturday, July 1, 2017.
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