Has Anybody Seen....

Has anybody seen Ford Motor's stock lately? It is absolutely red hot! It is sitting at $8.50 per share right now, and that may be cheap. Let's see, it bottomed at $1.34 in March, so in 6 months it has gained $7.16. This translates into a 534% gain. Annualized it is 1,068% gain. As the car market heats up, and it will, this stock will go absolutely crazy.

If cars begin selling, so will steel. AK Steel and US Steel are really hot right now also. There is still a lot of upside to these stocks. 

Make no mistake, Americans are in love with their cars. Americans will sacrifice a lot of things to have a shiny new car. As gas prices go up, they will trade in their clunkers, even without a clunkers for cash program. Autos and steel will help lead the economy back to health. Buy Ford stock, then buy a Ford. It's a win-win.

Missing Out Again!

Yep! We're missing out again! We have a clunker, 1998 Toyota Avalon. We're thinking about trading it in. But our car, which we have owned for 12 years and has over 100,000 miles on it is not on the list of clunkers. No cash for us.

Remember those $800 stimulus checks. We didn't get that either. Then there were those other stimulus checks that we didn't get either. But we do get to pay taxes, lots of them. 

We get to work hard and bust our butts, the government confiscates our money and gives it to others. It's not that we don't give to charity, we gave over $25,000 last year. It's not that we want others to be poor, but, sheesh! how about them earning it themselves. 

We missed out on the airport noise money, too. That's right, in Thornton they are giving away money because of the airport noise. Of course you have to use the money to install new doors, windows, or to insulate, or something like that. Well, my neighbor qualifies while we do not. I mean, we hear just as much noise as our neighbor does. But there is no fairness here. If my neighbor doesn't want to work, he is rewarded with a new patio door. Because we work hard, we are rewarded by buying our own patio door. Now, I have no problem buying my own patio door or anything else we need. But it is the principle of the thing.

Now I have a question. Why should I continue to give to charity when the government helps itself to my money and redistributes it? Well, we give because we believe in what we are giving to. We will continue to give. But I'm telling you that over 50% of our money disappears between taxes and charity. If we paid fewer taxes we would buy a new car... and guess what? The government would collect more taxes through the sale of the car, more taxes from the dealership, and more taxes from the transport company, and more taxes from the manufacturers. But government is stupid. Those in government don't understand this principle. A free market economy would provide government with more money to do their stupid things. 

Airport

Waiting at the airport is an interesting thing to do. Lot's can happen!...... and a lot doesn't happen.

What doesn't happen is flight arriving on time, and if they are on time they have no gate to go to because the gate they are waiting for has a flight that leaving late. So, if you are on the plane and have to pee, you are sitting on the tarmac with your seatbelt on and an emergency is in the making. This is just like being caught on the freeway in a bad traffic jam when you have to go. Loosen your seatbelt. Unzip. Do what you have to do.

I already told you what happened when we arrived at DIA from Seattle. People had connecting flights to catch, appointments to be at, and yes, some of them had to pee. But no one would open the door.....

Well, anyway, on Friday when I was waiting for Audrey's flight from Dallas, late of course, I was standing in the main terminal waiting for her. That's when I saw her, not Audrey, a different her. At least I think  she was a her. She was slender, wore women's slacks and top. She wore a Tam. She was blonde and pretty good looking. And she.... she..... wore this dark brown mustache. I stared for a moment, then turned away, then found myself staring again. Then I had one of those "blow the milk through your nose" types of laugh. Then I tried to restrain myself. I tried not to look, but looked. Then I noticed others who also were trying not to look, but were looking. They, too, were trying not to laugh. 

Is there something wrong with me that I react to something like that the way I do, or, or, ah, I don't think there's anything wrong with me. 

By the way, I took Audrey to Mc Donald's for a latte' tonight. And you know, they are pretty good. But don't repeat what I just wrote in front of Nik. And certainly don't tell anybody at Starbuck's. 

Getting Well

In this down economy there are a few bright spots. One of the bright spots is energy, which I will not go into today. Other bright spots are individual stocks in various sectors.

Apple. In the last few months I have seen Apple go from $65 to $160 per share. Iphones are selling like crazy. If it is a choice between food and phones, the phones must be winning out. Steve Jobs being back at the job has also helped.

Ford Motor. Although it is still tough sledding to sell cars, Ford Motor has done an excellent job of dealing with the down economy and revamping. The quality of their cars is second only to Toyota and they offer a line of trucks that Toyota does not offer. They turned a profit the last quarter. In the last few months Ford's stock went from $1.34 to over $7.00 per share. Wish we had bought more. We still may.

Goldman Sachs. This is the jewel of the financial sector. They know how to get a return on your money. They recorded strong profits while other financial institutions were still recording losses. Love them or hate them, they are still the best at what they do. Their stock bottomed at $47 and is now at $162 per share. They have no negative ratings that I know of. What was I thinking, to not buy this when it was low?

Those who hate Exxon Mobile can now jump for joy because they turned in 36% lower profits than last year. But I remind you, it was still profits when many others were taking losses. If you really want to spite them, buy their stock because it is as low as it is going to get. Oh, wait, if you have a 401K invested in mutual funds there is a good chance you already own some XOM. Thank goodness because you IRA could have been worse without them.

Gee, this coffee is good!

Seattle, Day Three

My Third Day in Seattle was pretty cool. Of course, It started at Starbucks for a sandwich and coffee. Then it was off to see Tracy's wine tasting room. But before we got there I ran out of coffee, so it was off to Mc Donald's to get another cup. Then to the wine tasting room. 

Tracy is running a pretty good business and her wine tasting room is pretty cool. She runs a little store there as well. If you ever have a chance, it would be well worth your while to visit. I wish Tracy the best.

Then it was back to the W, then off to Puyallup to see the in-laws. Lots and lots of in-laws. Pretty nice bunch of people. I knew a few of them. Emphasis is on few. Many of them talked to me. Some of them even hugged me. The more mixed drinks they got, the more hugs I got. One lady, who had a few, and I de-emphasize few, gave me a big hug, said it was good to see me, then asked me who I was. Well, that was cool. I hugged her back and said it was good to see her, too.

The meal was great. The chicken was especially good. Audrey felt guilty eating it because she didn't bring anything to contribute. I didn't feel guilty at all. 

Then it was back to our hotel. We searched for food later that evening. We walked until our feet hurt. We finally ordered in a highly recommended greasy pizza. I had heart-burn pills along, so that was no problem. Then it was off to bed to we could get up at 4:00 AM to catch our flight to Denver. 

Everything went smoothly until we landed early in Denver. We had to wait a half hour to go to the gate. Of course the seat belt sign was on and I had to pee..... bad! So I had to break the seat belt rule and use the toilet. We finally made it to the gate, but nobody showed up to open the door. The flight attendant lost her cool and started pounding on the door and yelled, "Open the damned door!" Then she made a nasty phone call. Can't say that I blame her. No more coffee for me on the airplane, even though it is Starbucks. 

Seattle, Day Two

Our second day in Seattle was cool. We are staying at the W right down town just five blocks from the West Lake Center and Six blocks from the Pikes Place Market. "Yea ho, yea ho (then throw the rubber fish).  The Crumpet Shop is a favorite place. You can get your crumpet and choose your tea. But you have to go up for refills of coffee. My Crumpet Shop would include choices in coffee as well. 

We met Susan and Jeri at the fish market. We ate lunch together and Audrey went off with the girls and I went off by myself to take some pictures, then back to the hotel to rest my feet (actually my knees). Then we went to Cutters, a highly recommended sea food place which is on the Sound. (I told Jeri that I could see the sound from hotel room, but she didn't think I could really see sound). Anyway, we had reservations at five and we arrived at 4:59 - plenty of time. We got great seating. Everything went smoothly. Audrey bit into some hot green mustard, Susan got the wrong meal, my medium well burger came medium rare and the guest ticket came all screwed up. At least after all this time of not seeing each other we had something to talk about. All-in-all it was a great time so we all tipped the guy. Cool.

Susan and Jeri left for Kirkland and Audrey and I walked up to our room at the W. We have this gorgeous corner room on the 7th floor that faces 4th Avenue and Seneca Street. The Seafair Festival Parade marched by right below us...... all two hours and fifteen minutes of it. The streets were lines with people for a couple of miles at least. Bleachers were set up at the West Lake Center. People had their lawn chairs out at 7:00 AM, and were guarding their goods. The parade began at 8:00 PM. That's 9:00 PM for those of you in Denver. And the parade was.... well .......OK. Really long but just OK. I was falling asleep at the end of the parade.

Today it is off to Puyallup for the family reunion. I hardly know anyone, but it should be a great time. 

After I upload some pictures I'll include some of those.

Seattle, The City of Coffee

Today Audrey and I flew to Seattle. Down town Seattle is one of my favorite cities. It's pretty, it's clean, there's lots to do, and there are dozens and dozens of coffee shops. There is also the Pike Place Fish Market with hundreds of interesting shops. 

The trip to the airport was smooth, check in was smooth, loading was smooth, the flight was smooth, the landing was smooth, getting the rental car went smoothly, hotel check in was smooth, meeting Audrey's friend was smooth, everything was smooth. Tonight I celebrated by getting a raspberry smoothie. It was smooth....... except for the tiny pips.

This morning we met Audrey's friend, Judy, for tea and crumpets at the Crumpet Shop. Delicious crumpets and great tea. Then we went to the  Market Spice shop to buy some tea. We walked the fish market until we came to Cutter's, a seafood place on the Sound. Great food. Later we went to Starbucks Coffee for coffee. Then we were off to the Westlake Center to shop. It was there I couldn't resist the smoothie. Tonight I am sitting at a corner window watching the city and blogging.

Tomorrow a huge parade will march buy our hotel just below our window. It should be a good view. But, of course, we will start our day at Starbucks...... just across the street. It opens at 5:30 AM. 

Cell phones, you gotta love them! Today I picked up a nice contract because I was available by phone. I get to vacation and run my business. Cool!