stock market on Sara's birthday

Rough ride downward in wild water to this point. Two 9-1 up-down volume days  should give us an 100 day (tepid) upward meandering pause in a bear market.

 

All of this mailing of checks to us, bailing out banks, etc, is credit (our) money.  We are borrowing OUR MONEY to right some federal financial failures.

Near misses in life

Dad loved Estes Park, Co. Special was the Loveland Hghts cabins in the Big Thompson Canyon...We had res for all the family Mother, Gene, Billie and kids in August, to stay there. Just after this was OK for everybody, Billie and I rcvd an invitation to go to Boston with friends to see the Yankees and Red Sox.

 We were able to move our res to the next weekend to Loveland Hgts. We went to Boston.

A 100 year flash flood hit Estes and the canyon on our original res.28 people died and the canyon was gutted.

A near miss in life's journeys.           30/30      

Another Beauty

Another yucca blooming. Now two under bloom. They send up a shaft, 2 or 3 feet a day growth until they top off with a bloom at 20-30 feet. They send off a few puplets, then die.
The bloom spirals down the shaft until the whole structure collapses. Then the cycle repeats again for anther 7-10 years

.Special beauties of the high desert.             30.30

Baby

Bought my 1st stock in 1950. I've never seen such a tumultuous market.

Yet I'm sleeping like a baby.

Wake up every hour at night and cry.

Obama never heard his Preacher Wright say wrong in 20 yrs.

Found. Rip Van Winkle. 

Last visit to Old Las Vegas

There was free freshly popped corn, 59c footlong hotdogs, a horse shoe of low limit 21 tables, and a craps table sticking out to the edge. No door, one of the last air conditioned curtains that invited customers inside. Only 2 or 3 of these air curtains remain in Vegas. Oh yes, premium beers, ice cold, 59c a bottle. 24/7.

This is Slots of Fun.

 The sparrows hopping up the aisle to snag popcorn. The rookie stickmen at the craps, having a ball on the speed of play. The slots chinging out two quarters--the sound of a jackpot !!

The popcorn and sparrows are gone. The crap table isn't open until 11 AM. But we'll be there tomorrow; Steve is in town. He just needs to pick two dice out of the basket with one hand and throw and hit the end board, like feeding chickens.

I'll buy in for $120 which will give me 20 $5 chips and 20 $buckers, my 1st play will be $3 pass, and a 2way call 1-5 for $1 each. This makes the dealers your friend for a dollar. If 1-5 hits. both the player and the dealers win $15.

6 will be  good number. That's the gambler in me      

Through an interpreter

a new pitcher from Japan' signed by the Dodgers, wanted to know how to say "Thank You" from Japanese to English. The Dodger bull pen told him what to say. 

The next day manager Tommy La Sorda went out to the mound to change pitchers.

The Jap pitcher, being removed, gave the ball to LaSorda, bowed and said

'TAKE A HIKE" !!

LaSorda had a tiff with an umpire over a series of calls. Tommy went out, kicked the dirt around and muttered, "You're blind" and went back to the Dodger bench. He took a ball from the ball boy and autographed it. Soon the umpire needed some more baseballs. The ball boy took out six new balls, including the autographed ball.  The umpire, catcher and pitcher didn't notice the autographed ball.

A couple of pitches later, this ball was fouled into the stands to his wife. She picked up the spinning ball and saw, "You're blind   Tommy Lasorda".

Spring Training Baseball

We enjoyed a bunch of spring training baseball, in Fl and Az. One time we were seated in the last row corner at Dodgertown in Vero Beach Fl. After the 2nd inning I always went to get a dodgerdog and beers. As I wheeled around, here was Roy Campanella face to face. They had wheeled him up right behind my right shoulder. Dodger great, hall of fame catcher, quadraplegic from an accident. 

In Az, we were at Scottsdale spr training game. The fellow sitting behind us was wearing a Hall of Fame ring. He was Jocko Conlin, an umpire. He was a bench player for the St Louis Cardinals back in the late 30's. In the 9th inning, the working umpire was injured. Back then there was no backup ump. The home team manager would send in a bench player to sub ump.

He sent in Conlin. 

On a bang-bang play with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, Conlin called his team mate OUT !!

The SL paper jumped all over the call.

It opened the door for Jocko as he was seen as a fair umpire. An opening happened for a new umpire. Jocko umpired for 40 years and reached the HOF.       

1951 Hudson Hornet Convertible

Gene's new 1951 Hornet CV. Only 256 were made that year. When Gene graduated from college, he entered the Air Force and I took over as the pilot of this honey while I still was in Iowa City Hi.

Dad had a hog feeding property next to Highway 6 on the edge of town. One time I was zipping  along the highway with a heavy foot and the farmer saw me fly by and told Dad.

Dad grounded me, saying that Bud saw 

"a red streak past the pig farm" !!