Dear Family and Friends,
I decided to preempt Sunday a couple of days early. Got off work Friday evening and couldn't keep my eyes open a half hour after getting home. I laid down and slept for an hour or so. When I awoke I was wide awake. Its heading towards the midnight hour and the radio was playing some really good rock so I thought I'd just go ahead and sit at the word processor for awhile. I went upstairs and grabbed a few albums to continue with the ambiance. The radio played a Cheap Trick song which immediately whetted my appetite for more. I went upstairs and looked in the rack, but couldn't find the album. Okay, which one of you borrowed my live Cheap Trick album and forgot to return it. I decided to settle for The Firm, Foghat's "Fool for the City", and David Gilmour's "About Face".
What a week! In two words or less, it sucked.
I've been trying to take positions in different stocks for only two or three trading days hoping to maximize my short term gains on anticipation of a run up prior to earning's
releases. Friday, I bought a company (at the high, naturally) and held it through the weekend waiting for their earning's announcement on Tuesday. Monday, I go into work,
and my employer asks me to go pick up a job at another company in Chickendale (where I used to live about 15 years ago, but of course that isn't the actual name of the community). I know I'm probably not going to have access to a phone to call my broker and get updates on how the stock is doing because the trip will probably take about three
hours or better by the time I make all the stops. I called him first thing in the morning before leaving the house to see where it was headed. The stock opened down 2+ which was about 3 points lower than the price I paid for it. I called prior to leaving for Chickendale, and it was down another point. Fearing the stock would go lower and stay down, I sold it for a loss, believing I wasn't going to get the run I had anticipated (it did...two days later).
I left around 9:30 Monday morning for Chickendale. I got back to town SIX HOURS LATER!! I had no problems on the way to the first stop. I was there about fifteen minutes waiting for them to get the stuff ready and load into the back of my employer's truck. With four people it wasn't difficult to lift the half pallet into the back of his truck. Then I headed north to the community where George and Val used to live (I, too) before moving eventually out to the lake. From Chickendale it is about a twenty minute drive to where I was going next. I had just gotten out of the city limits where J.B. Hunt has there big operations, and I had gotten behind someone going about 45 mph so I decided to pass. I had just gotten about two car lengths ahead of the passed vehicle when the truck suddenly lurched, had a bit of a back-fire, and then died. Not wanting to have the center lane to pull
into to come to a stop, I hurridly cut back in front of the vehicle I had just passed and pulled over off the road. I suspect the guy I had just passed probably had a few choice
words because it was a close cut-back.
Coming to a complete stop, I turned the ignition off. Hoping it was just some sort of a fluke, I turned the ignition over and the truck started just fine. I revved the motor a little
to see if it would die in the process. It ran fine. So I gathered a little speed and pulled back onto the hiway. I got about a half a mile, and the truck starts lurching, sputtering, back-firing, and then the motor shuts down again. Now I'm beginning to wonder. I have no cell phone, I'm about a mile and a half from a phone, and I'm thinking, "Its going to be one of those days." And of course I am again reminded I should have taken some automotive classes in high school, but I couldn't stand Krause in jr. high and vowed I'd never take another shop class ever. One promise I should have been willing to compromise on but never did. Besides, I've never liked working on cars. Come to think of it, I don't like working on anything which needs to be repaired. Let somebody else bust their knuckles breaking nuts and bolts loose. Doesn't exactly appeal to me.
This sputtering and puttering went on until I had just gotten to the southern city limits of my next destination, about four miles. I pulled the truck over and went into the closest business to use the phone to call my employer. He said this happened before (which I had knowledge of) and advised me to just let it sit for awhile. I suppose I spent about ten minutes talking, and by the time I got back to the truck I thought about twenty minutes had passed. I started the truck and continued on my way. I gingered it to my next stop and made it without further incident. I called my employer again to let him know I had no problems, but I wanted to make sure he knew which route I was going to use to make the trip back. I left, got just down the hill on the outside of town driving the lake route, and the truck died again. I pulled it over in some shade and tried to start it. It wouldn't start.
Damn. Now I knew I was going to be there awhile, I had about a good mile to walk, most of it up hill, and it is getting hot. Not to mention I could have been in a better position to have the truck towed if need be. I put my second pick-up in the front seat, locked the truck, went across the road to head back up the hill, thumbing for a ride as I walked. The
second car that passed pulled over to the side of the road. "Praise the Lord," I said as I greeted the kind stranger. He let me off at a convenience store where I tried to use the
phone. It was in need of repair.
I was only about three blocks from my last pick-up, so I just walked back to the business. When I got there, a service van was working on a vehicle which was also having trouble. "What luck," I thought. No, he had another before me, and the vehicle was a thirty minute drive one way. I called my employer for the third time thus far and let him know what was going on. He decided he would just have a co-worker, Warren, come to see if he could repair the truck (the same guy that rebuilt the motor in my truck) after he returned from lunch. I told him I was going to go get some lunch and where to pick me up when Warren got to town. The time is about 12 p.m.
I got my lunch (took about 15 minutes for fries and a shake, place was pretty busy), ate, and just hung around waiting for my ride. I waited and waited and waited. I knew it was
only about a forty-five minute drive from work to where I was waiting. Finally, I walked back to the convenience store, luckily got the one of the two pay phones which worked, and called my employer to tell them I was walking back to the truck. "I'll let Warren know," said the receptionist, "they're just loading him up now." It was approximately 12:45 p.m., and I was getting agitated. I held my tongue and simply acknowledged the information, and then I hung up. I bought a drink to stay hydrated and walked all the way back to the truck silently cursing the day. Once I got back, I finally adjusted the load and laid down to sleep.
Around 2:30 p.m., Warren showed up. I was secretly thankful he couldn't get the truck started either. I didn't feel like such a helpless fool. We hooked a tow rope up and pulled the truck to an empty lot to be picked up later that evening. Then we took some boxes Warren had brought with him just for the purpose and off loaded the cargo into his vehicle. Finally, I was headed back to town. (Warren replaced the ignition on my employer's truck. Seems to be running fine, now.)
But we might not have made it had Warren been going faster and not been paying good attention. About ten miles from where we left our employer's truck, we were going around one of the many curves on the back way to town. Suddenly, this suburban comes around the corner from the opposite direction, and he (a she couldn't be that stupid) is flying. Just before we were about to pass going the opposite direction, I could hear and see the tires on the suburban squealing and sliding while it started to approach the center line. Had Warren not reacted by pulling close to the ditch side of the road, we would have surely collided. Warren said he was driving when he was much younger, and he was hit by a guy under the same conditions. Only back then, the driver, drunker-na-skunk, rolled the vehicle, and in the process was thrown from it and died. Warren said immediately after it had happened, he was so mad that he litterally kicked the driver's door from its hinges (because it had been jammed from the impact), knocking it onto the road surface. He said he was so mad at the guy he wanted to kill him. Then he felt guilty for feeling that way when he found out the wreck had already killed the driver causing the accident. Warren is one of those types which is difficult to anger, but watch out when he is. When we finally got back to work, I called it a day. It was 3:30 in the afternoon when I clocked out to go home.
Wednesday, the dentist called during lunch to ask if I could come in to have another impression taken of my lower jaw. They had broken the first one. This was a month after I had had the original set done thinking it was going to be any time to have the first of two fittings for my partial. Now it will probably be another month before the lab gets the
appliance (their word) made.
But the week wasn't a total loss (I'm not talking stocks). While in route to the second stop for my employer, I noticed someone selling sweet corn. My corn practically being a total loss, I was anxious to get some. Thursday, SJ and I went over after I got off work and bought two bushels (you pick - $7, they pick - $9, I let them pick). I suppose it was a bit overdone, but not having had some good sweet corn for three or four years now, I wanted to have enough to get tired of it. While in the area, she and I stopped at the Dairy Queen. Many of you live in places where such places and things are taken for granted. Because of the community's situation, chain stores are highly discouraged. And because of the highly wooded area where we live, the raccoons and squirrels make mince meat out of corn around here. SJ told me two or three times she really enjoyed our little drive. It must be the simple things.
Talk at ya all later. I'm sure to have something to say (smiling).
Hoping you and your's are well,
Mike, SJ, and Bear
P.S. I'm going into next week with a stock which is up almost 3/4 of a point while practically everything else is up 10 to 20 points. No patience. You'd think I'd have learned by now.......nope. |
