Last North Roaders game?

These top two photos are from our Phillips Blue Flames team. It was my last game of the season because Lois and i went on vacation to Anacortes WA. We usually play two games a week in the Rusty Blades league in Soldotna. We have 6 teams and often the same number of fans.

Below are a couple photos from the North Road rink which is cooled by global cooling.




The weather has been staying above 32 for about a week now and the ice has been getting softer each time we play. It has been a fun season of hockey. Tonight we had seven players, other nights there are more of us. If there is no goalie we score by hitting the pipes. We've been playing 2 or 3 times a week recently, ice permitting.

Are We Rome?

I recently read an interesting, well written book comparing ancient Rome at it's height to modern America. If you google 'Are We Rome' you will find many links to reviews etc. It was interesting to read about Rome's history and see the parallels that we are repeating today. Below is an exerpt from a review on Amazon.com written by Daniel B. Clendenin: (i made the bold words)
"After a short prologue, Murphy devotes one chapter each to six parallels of "direct relevance" between ancient Rome and modern America. Both empires exhibit the symptoms of solipsism-- an exaggerated self-identity, the isolating effects of exceptionalism, ignorance of others, the presumptions of privilege, and sheer arrogance. Militarism characterizes both societies. Today America has 700 bases in 60 countries, and in any one year will conduct "operations" of some sort in 170 countries. Murphy suggests that our military is both "too large to be affordable, and too small to do everything it is asked to do." He then turns to how America has blurred the distinctions between the private and public (government) sectors, "the deflection of public purpose by private interest." Outsourcing government responsibilities might be effective and even necessary, but selling the public good for private profit isn't. The fourth parallel between Rome and America is the disdain with which both view outsiders ("barbarians") as inferior. Fifth, Murphy explores the complex notion of borders, both literal (eg, immigration) and figurative. Finally, in his epilogue he examines the "inherent complexity" of large empires like Rome and America. Are they ungovernable?"
An interesting observation was made in the epilogue that the 'fall' was really not noticeable until decades after it happened. Finding the peak of an empire is much harder to find than say the peak of a stock price. Many aspects of the Roman empire carried on even centuries after it's apex. After reading this book i wonder has America reached it's peak already? What can we do as a nation and as individuals to improve life in this country and the world? He talks about his book if you click here.

Snow Time

This Honda snowblower is the most useful tool ever bought. It was $1100 and has saved about 20 years worth of plowing bills.











No flowers in the wheelbarrow this time of year. Look at all the snow held by the branches, waiting for the wind to let down their load.












Looks like there is as much snow on the branches as on the ground.











Frosty cold branches from Alaska. This can last for many days especially in below zero weather we have recently had.












If you click on this one you can see many six sided snowflakes.

Gingerbread Houses

John and Heidi each try to make the best house on Christmas eve. This is the second annual event. Next year they will have to plan ahead and come up with a secret decoration.

Family Photos

Heidi's favorite sport ....shopping!!!



















CBS working on his ski doo











Everyone together for another great meal.
(my favorite sport ..eating!!)













The ladies with star shaped christmas lights in the background.













Heidi and Holly holding Abigail.

New Camera - winter photos

We now have a new camera that i'm still trying to figure out. Here are a few shots taken recently. We hope you have a white Christmas.

Vocabulary Game

This is a great game on the internet to strengthen your vocabulary and to strengthen a hungry person at the same time. My vocabulary is in the 35-39 range out of a possible 50.
freerice.com

Fresh Ice

It is a rare opportunity to skate on a lake with smooth, snow free ice. Sometimes you have to wait several years for the chance. Also CBS and i both had a day off work... We had to go skating.

The death of the custodian: The case of the missing tutor

This is a great free book by W. Carl Ketcherside. If you click on the title above you can read it online. A friend from our mens group 'taco tuesday' recommended it, and i found it on the web for free. It is about the law and grace. We so often have the tendency to make 'christian laws' in the church today because we do not understand the differences in the old covenants and the new covenant. READ IT in a couple of days!

The Black Swan

This was an interesting book that took several months to read. If you click the title of this blog entry you can see a summary of what it is about. We have the tendency to think that the future is predictable when really many 'black swans' have changed our lives more than we realize. A few black swans are the internet, 9-11, electricity... Stuff you could never have predicted nor imagined yet they caused huge changes.

He had a discussion starting on about page 30 about 'Mediocristan' versus 'Extremistan' which was interesting. In 'Mediocristan': nonscalable, mild randomness, like an opera singer before there were recordings, a small restaurant owner can only make as much as one person can do, history crawls... In 'Extremistan': scalable, wild randomness, like today's unlimited www audience for artists, history jumps...

So what does this mean for everyday life if Nassim is right about life being unpredictable? On page 201 he starts his chapter about what to do. He suggests planning your life like a barbell; with part being safe like living debt-free and with safe savings for those bad 'black swans' that may come. Another part of your life can be prepared for those good 'black swans' by investing or doing some extremistan things that could grow exponentially. For example this year fertilizer, and shipping stocks have grown like crazy. Also, by using the internet your audience is unlimited if you have something to show or tell others.

Investing Philosophy

Here are 4 rules of investing that have helped over the years.

1. Be generous. Jesus brought grace, and we can be like that. Giving prevents us from becoming too greedy and selfish.

2. Zero debt. No worries. Why would you want to give a percentage of your hard earned money to banks and credit card companies?

3. Emergency fund. Two or three months of living expenses is a good cushion. Another good way to put your worries to rest.

4. Invest in stocks. You can own the best companies in the best sectors, and they will earn money for you. There are thousands of investment opportunities, even when the market goes down.

Closing the Plant

We will be shutting down our plant today and then mothballing and winterizing it. Most people will be leaving in December, some in January, and some a few months later. It has been a fun 30+ years of work. I guess we are a victim of "peak oil" or more correctly peak gas since there is not enough gas for us(Agrium), the LNG plant next door, and all the houses on the Kenai peninsula and in Anchorage. At the peak we all used about a third of the available gas each. Ironically when I first came to Alaska on 'Bertha' the bus we went to visit the ocean down a road by the two tanks on the left. That was in 1968 and our plant, in the foreground, was brand new then. Could this really be retirement???

Putting up siding

To see how you are supposed to do this click on the title. You can just us an ordinary saw to cut the cement siding, but hold your breath - it's dusty!!







Walking up the ladder with a 12' board is a little tricky.









I only broke 1 when it started flopping around and folded in half and broke.








The end on the left is in a loop of a rope. The nail gun is hooked to my pocket while i try to get the board in place.









Nailing it...

Stock websites

Here are some of the websites that i look at most days. 1st i like Jim Sinclair on http://jsmineset.com/ He has taught me a lot about charts. 2nd i like looking at some of the articles on http://321gold.com/ it shows charts of gold, silver, and the us dollar. Gold and silver go up when the dollar goes down. 3rd http://www.321energy.com/index.php has articles about the energy markets, oil, uranium, solar, etc.
4th http://stockcharts.com/ has the charts that everyone uses on the internet. You can learn about charting by clicking on chart school at the bottom of the page. Also you could click on Public Chart Lists on the side of the page to see how others chart the markets. A couple of my favorites there are Jack Chan with JC's buy and sell signals, also
DADDY'S watch list by Rodney L Carry shows some interesting stocks that have been going up quite fast.

That is a lot of stuff to look at. And of course not everyone is right, but maybe these will give you a feel for what to expect or not expect when you finally buy some stocks. Right now the whole market is quite high and if the Dow and Nasdaq and S&P 500 all go down; all stocks tend to go down with them. If you make 10% a year (which is average), your money will double in 7 years. If you make 15% a year, your money will double in less than 5 years. Do you see why banks charge interest on loans?

Ralph and Jean visit Alaska

My sister Jean and her husband Ralph visited us the day we got back from Anacortes WA. We took a ride down to Homer which is always nice.

Visiting John and Heidi

We had a fun time in Anacortes and also helped do some home improvement on John and Heidi's new home. I did the bookshelves in the living room. Lois Ann painted the cabinets in the kitchen. We also went on a picnic with Heidi's pre-school kids.

Sidetrip to Idaho

We took a few days off to go across Washington to see the Stinsmans in Idaho. It was a great trip. Lois and Suzie are standing on the porch of their beautiful home. Below is a photo of Bruce in his garage. Bruce and i used to work together for years at the plant, and we also went on a lot of mountain bike trips on our days off.

Moose and Muskrat

The other day i had almost walked into the house when Holly asked if i had seen the moose lying in the yard. Of course i had missed it!















You have to be almost blind to miss something as big as this. (My eyesight is very bad.)













Here is a fat muskrat swimming by the camera. There are two of them in a pond back in the woods.