Let’s call this one “The Power of Preconceived Expectations.”
Expectations
Despicable Me
Did you happen to catch the end of that Lakers-Nuggets playoff game last night? The Nuggets were down by 20 in the second half, but slowly, relentlessly, they came back. A full blow-by-blow LA Times account of the game, complete with sour grapes from Laker coach Darvin Ham and aging superstar LeBron James, is here. ICYMI: Jamal Murray was the big Nuggets hero last night winning it on the final shot. But for my money, the Big Guy from Sombor Serbia, Nikola Jokic, reigns supreme in just about everything he touches, both on and off the court: Devoted family man. Horse lover. And spokesmodel for Despicable Me 4, coming soon to a theater near you. See the trailer, here.
Oh, did I forget to mention? He’s an MVPX2 and gets more Triple Doubles than anybody since Oscar Robertson. Plus, he’s the odds-on favorite to win his second NBA title – and 3rd MVP in 4 years – this season. Not half bad for the 41st pick in the 2014 draft, eh?
Consider for instance the hubub over his full-bore funny Gru attire upon arrival at Ball Arena yesterday. No way Joel Embid or Anthony Davis pulls off that look. None. Let’s just hope Zach Edey (7’4″ phenom from Purdue, often criticized for being “dour,” but still a likely lottery pick in the upcoming NBA draft) is taking notes. Because ya just gotta love a Big Man with a wry sense of humor. Also, ya just gotta love the fact that “Joker” (as he is affectionately know to us in Denver) is hands down the best basketball player on the planet right now – not that I’m biased or anything. Well, at least he’s the best since LeBron James started collecting Social Security benefits that is.
Tillamook Head
Tillamook Head is just south of Seaside, due west of Portland, on the Oregon coast. Our hike yesterday, here, and by the numbers: Four miles RT (to the top and back) took us three hours, with over 1000′ of elevation gain. The trail was very steep and hella muddy, with lotsa primeval-looking ferns and ginormous root balls sticking up from fallen old growth trees. I Googled it, and it says some of these Sitka Spruce are over 800 years old. For those of you keeping score at home, that means they were saplings long before Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes made Shakespeare in Love. 😉
All this and some way-overpriced beach-front real estate: Who could ask for anything more? On a cool mid-April Sunday that threatened rain early but turned out sunny, the hike itself was definitely worth the price of admission. Thanks for the tour, Ben. I fear our muddy sneakers will never be the same.
Happy 420 Day
Happy 420 Day, y’all! You can Google it if that’s not in your wheelhouse. I drove up I-5 yesterday and got an appropriate photo at a rest stop just north of Mt. Shasta. The chamber of commerce sells t-shirts that say “I ❤️ Weed.”
Although Mt. Shasta is roughly the same elevation as Pike’s Peak (14,115′), it’s a whole lot more imposing for a couple of reasons: First, the base and surrounding habitable area is all under 4000′ instead of over 6000′, so it sticks up more. Also, it has 7 full time glaciers, with year round snow on top. Last, it’s an active volcano that last erupted in the late 1700’s. Oh, and also, there’s a 1-in-5 chance of it doing so again in our lifetimes. So if all that doesn’t get your attention, I’m not sure what will.
Ben’s place is near the corner of 207th and Rockport Lane SW.
It’s in an unicorporated area between Beaverton, Hillsboro, and Aloha.
The local LDS spire looks pretty much like LDS spires everywhere. I think maybe they keep a warehouse full of spares back in Salt Lake?
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Joyful Java Coffee is only one block from Ben’s house, but he’s never been there. Why? He doesn’t drink the stuff. Whiskey, however? Yeah, he’s got that covered.
Folks in this neighborhood seem to have a pretty good sense of humor, all the way from the dog-walkers to the math teachers. “Why is geometry adorable? It has acute angles.”
Now, switching gears and driving the ten short miles to downtown Portland…
If you aren’t having a Happy 420 Day, you aren’t trying hard enough.
Get with the program, folks!
Oh, and happy 39th today to my better half.
I’ll be home soon, hon.
Love you lots!
Ron and Nancy’s Rental
I was walking the streets of the Fab 40’s yesterday after a stop at TJ’s for yogurt pretzels, and I almost missed the Blue House because I was on the phone with my real estate agent. (Our third showing @392 Midstream is today @2:45.) For what it’s worth, if you smell smoke in the Fab 40’s like I did yesterday, it’s probably some rich retired guy firing up a fine Cubano, not some stanky hip-hopper with sagging shorts smoking weed. Just FYI.
For those of you on the outside looking in, “The Blue House” was made famous in the movie “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig’s breakout hit – and a “love-letter to Sacramento” – before she made the Barbie movie.
Last but not least…
1341 45th was a rental real estate property back in the late 60’s and early ’70’s. A nice couple named Ron and Nancy lived there. He worked for the State, while she practiced astrology and kept small dogs. It was nothing special by Fab 40’s standards, but they seem to have liked it. Later on they moved to DC after Ron got a promotion. In latter days they retired to Bel Aire in SoCal where they finally achieved the American dream of home ownership. That’s where Ron lost his marbles and Nancy continued with the dogs and the astrology. The things some people do, eh? Ah well, it beats living in a rental at least. 😉
Heading up I-5 to Portland today to visit Ben and see what kind of trouble we can get into this weekend. Stay tuned for details on your late local news @ 11.
About Dang Time
Well, it’s about dang time, that’s all I’ve got to say. The goats have finally arrived on the levee, and not a moment too soon. Any more weed growth and they’d have had to drop the fisherman in to the riverbank by helicopter, dangling from a cable like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. I mean, REALLY!
Federal Reserve
OK, today’s post is all about interest rates. And we’ve started off with a cartoon because it only hurts when you breathe deep – or when you laugh. Here are a couple of softball questions to test your financial knowledge. Yeah, sure, you could probably Google the answers. But where’s the fun in that? Let me know in the comments section how you did. If you don’t, I’ll just have to assume you got them all wrong. And we wouldn’t want THAT, now would we?
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1. How many members currently serve on the Federal Reserve Board?
A. Five
B. Seven
C. 435
2. Of those, what fraction are women?
A. None
B. All
C. About half
3. Which of the following are NOT current members of The Fed?
A. Colin Powell
B. Janet Yellin
C. Alan Greenspan
4. As of 4/16/2024, the 30-year fixed mortgage interest rate was…?
A. Above 7%
B. Between 6% and 7%
C. Below 6%
5. The commonly used short-hand term for the Federal Reserve?
A. The Fed
B. The Sonsabitches
C. The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders
6. Jerome Powell, current Fed Chair, was appointed by which POTUS?
A. Barack Obama
B. Donald Trump
C. Joe Biden
7. If interest rates remain high, who am I voting for in the fall?
A. Donald Trump
B. Joe Biden
C. Ralph Nader
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If nobody gets them all right, I will let you know and post correct answers in the comments tomorrow. Now, good luck y’all. And just to show I’m on your side, here are some free hints. Yer welcome.
Northern Mississippi
Man, I have really been enjoying reading Ace Atkins. “Ace?” I hear you say. Yeah, I know, I know. But the guy can write a good mystery, even with a name like “Ace.” He did some of the “Spencer” series after Robert B. Parker bit the dust. Then he ventured out into new territory with his series about Quinn Colson, Sheriff of fictional Tibbehah County in Northern Mississippi.
Quinn is an ex-Army Ranger who comes back from Afghanistan to his home town and picks up in local law enforcement where his uncle Hamp (now deceased, formerly disgraced) left off. Both Quinn and his uncle have checkered pasts, which only adds to the fun. You know, along with the moonshine, the juke joints, the fried catfish, and more local color from rural Northern Mississippi than most good-old-boys can shake a stick at. Think of it as John Grisham without the law degree, wearing a Carhartt coat and muddy boots.
Hey, it ain’t William Faulkner or Flannery O’Connor. But I know what I like. And as thriller writers go, Ace is A-okay by me. I started off with his most recent (The Heathens – 2021) and I’m steadily working my way back through Atkins’ output aiming toward his initial Quinn Colson offering (The Ranger – 2011). If you get a chance to sample, please let me know what you think. I can’t necessarily vouch for the catfish or the moonshine. But the local color rings true enough to hold MY interest through eleven novels… and counting.
Are more in this series on the way?
This is what Atkins has to say;
“There will always be another Quinn Colson book. But these are weird times and I don’t necessarily want to write about COVID times. It’s very difficult to do an interrogation scene with masks, and Quinn and most of his deputies would be out with COVID. I don’t think people want to read about it.
Fingers crossed, Ace; fingers crossed.
Pandemic’s over; so, high time to get crackin’.
LMK
I know it probably sounds over-dramatic, but every year when I finish doing the taxes, I feel like I’ve just been pardoned from death row. Having retired last year – and hopefully selling our CA place soon – this should be the last time we’ve got multiple state returns to worry about. And of course, without the aid of modern tax-filing software with its relatively simple Q&A interface, I’d more than likely have jumped off a steep roof in tax season a long time ago – just FYI.
Still, this year’s return(s) ran to over 60 pages. All that and I got it done with 12 hours to spare. New this time around was IRS form 199-A referencing Treasury Regs. §1.199A-4(b)(1)(i); as well as §1.199A-5(c)(2). For those of you on the outside looking in, that’s the de minimis Safe Harbor Real Estate Statement. In previous years this was just covered by a single check box inside the Tax Act package. But this year, inexplicably, it required an additional .pdf attachment to form 1040. I could go on. But if I did, I’m afraid I might have to seek additional psychotherapy. And nobody wants to see that hot mess.
Suffice it to say, I’m walking on post-tax sunshine today, and that is a very good thing. We should all be so lucky. As I’m well aware, there are those of us out there who are not yet off the hook. Sorry about that, Chief.
LMK = “let me know,” just FYI.
Better luck next time, DJT.
Aesop’s Fables
Remember Aesop’s Fables? You know, those old-timey anthropomorphic wildlife stories with a built-in human moral at the end to make you feel like you got your money’s worth? For instance, The Fox and The Grapes: A fox can’t jump high enough to reach some tasty-looking grapes. So he imagines they are sour and not worth the effort anyway. Thus the origin of the term “sour grapes.” And a reinforcement of the lesson that scorn for that which is beyond our reach is rarely justified.
Or, The Tortise and The Hare: A hare makes fun of a tortise for being slow. So the tortise challenges him to a race. Jumping out to a big early lead, the hare curls up for a nap, only to end up losing to the patiently plodding reptile. Moral of the story? The race is not always to the swift. Or, as I learned it: Slow and steady wins the race.
Ever hear the one about The Owl and the Grasshopper? Me neither, but here goes: A wise old owl trying to sleep during the day is disturbed by a grasshopper’s incessant racket. Instead of arguing with him, the owl invites him up to his tree to share a drink of wine, promising that it will make the grasshopper’s “song” even sweeter. The foolish – and vain – grasshopper, taken in by the owl’s flattery, is quickly eaten, thus preserving the owl’s peace. The moral? Don’t let flattery fool you or you might just end up as somebody’s dinner.
The real moral of these stories? Aesop’s Fables draw pithy life-lessons from “nature” to impress upon gullible children the enduring wisdom of human virtues like sincerity, patience, and – oh yes, let’s not forget – rank flattery.
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See here, here, and here for the originals.
Care to come up here for some fine wine, Grasshopper?
It’ll make you sound like Taylor Swift.
And it pairs well with insects.
😉