December 7, 2002

           Logistics which had piled up for weeks finally broke through today, so I got nothing done until past 6 p.m. This delays Project 21 and the approaching solstice means nothing moves forward on weekdays. The end costs of Project 21 have really bled my accounts, but the income potential keeps me focused. That total picture is bleaker, to make more, I'd have to go back to something I don't like: taking orders instead of giving them, for instance.
           So it was a comforting book during the ‘waits’ today. I read “Bomber”, which I think I've read a condensed version of somewhere. It is based on many instances of the inaccurate bombing during World War II, which is factual enough. It dwells overlong on the even-sidedness of the battle, where in fact, Germany never stood a chance.
           This is an important historical date. The birth date of the very first lady I was ever truly in love with. Judith Ann M.. And I do believe I'm still in love with her today. Mind you, I remember Judy, the young lady, not Judy, the woman. I swore to her I would call her in 20 years, which I attempted, but her father got on the phone and blocked that. Then, okay, make it 40 years, he can't keep doing that forever.

           [Author's note: Judy's father, an English doctor, Gordon, graduated from dental school with a Victorian set of standards. Back then I had very little understanding of how “well-bred” English daughters were considered a liability until marriage. It would be another decade before I understood the theory of the surplus English daughter, that there were not enough titled men with money to marry them all.]

           Gordon on the other hand operated totally on this principle. When he asked my intentions, I sincerely stated that things had to “remain as they were until I finish school”. He nearly croaked. Apparently he later told Judy, that I had said something to the effect that I like things just the way they were. Since he was browbeating me at the time, I cannot really guarantee that I hadn't said something that may have given that impression.
           Gordon never understood why I had no stocks, no bonds, no real estate, no car, no investments, no discretionary income, or how I ever managed to get myself into such a financial jam by the time I was 19 years old. I'd never been more than 500 miles from home and was in my third year of university. In a sense, though he wasn't wrong, because I didn't really finish school until I was 36. By the time I reached 24, you needed a bachelor’s degree to get a job sweeping the floor.

           The income of the toothpicks was enormous. However it did not last. During the time it was displayed, it produced an income of $4.40 per minute. That is the equivalent of investing $30 million at 8% APR, and that's the potential I was referring to.
           There are certain people who dispute my stand that Germany could not possibly have won WWII. The fact is, their military philosophy was to collapse the enemy's frontline armies, known as lightning war. They never started a battle where the outcome depended on a long drawn out slugging match of men and material.
           Even if they had won, they did not have the wherewithal to police their conquests. By the time the Western powers geared up their industrial production, their weapons were a generation newer than what Germany was using. The reality of the matter is that the Western Allies never at any time faced more than 4% of Germany's second line troops. The Allies were producing bombers faster than Germany could possibly shoot them down. Step forward, whoever said, “By 1945, the only thing left flying in Germany was bitter recriminations.”