Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Fall Colors Presented By Aspens and Kings

My family took a wonderful trip to Tahoe this last weekend. Chris and I slipped away to visit with old friends. Other than that it was all hanging out with the fam. My little sis even brought along her delightful boyfriend, Lal. They were gross and snuggly most of the time. At first all that gooey affection was cute. Ha ha ha. I'm happy for them.

We did have a couple fun moments worth sharing. First off, we were there one of the first big snows of the year. Marvelous. Here's my favorite pic while we were walking over to see the Kokanee Salmon at the underwater viewing of Taylor Creek. And, there was a mamma bear and 2 cubs fishing in the creek. Fun to watch.

Best of all we had a great little picnic at Sorenson's over near Hope Valley. That's the place to go to see the leaves and it was every bit as beautiful as we hoped.

Monday, October 06, 2008

$$$ and Robert Plant and Carbon Footprints

Life has been so great lately. I'm a little afraid of receiving my next investment reports. But, we have lots of backpacking equipment. So we can always move to some National Forest land and grow vegetables next to the pot farmers up in the mountains. I read Donald Miller on that and he says those are good people. Will this recession last 1 year or 5? Will I find a job this time next year. I'm hopeful that my used gear business wont be too tied to wallstreet's woes. I assume people will keep buying stuff and start looking for cheaper alternatives. I saw that a lot of discount stores are pumping up their marketing - trying to capture the fearful consumers. But, one of my bellweather items - a Jetboil Stove - sold for $45 and I expected $60. Hopefully, that's not a trend.

We saw Robert Plant and Allison Krauss on Friday night. There were thousands, reportedly 40,000 people there. That's my biggest crowd since the anti-Iraq invasion protests years ago. (And, yes, I do feel completely vindicated about pressing those arguments.) I was a huge Led Zeppelin fan back in highschool. So, it was really remarkable to hear Plant sing a couple of the old hits. But, the best moment was Krauss singing "Let's Go Down To The River To Pray" which was on the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. It was moving to see so many people singing along with her - and to be part of that crowd. There are too few SF moments like that.

And, I'm delighted to see even the reluctant conservative financiers in the Wall Street Journal talking about Carbon Footprints. The article is pretty entry level but very well done. Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints