February 22, 2020

Yesteryear
One year ago today: February 22, 2018, murderer statistics.
Five years ago today: February 22, 2014, 1 dress, 3 crosswords.
Nine years ago today: February 22, 2010, howdy-do.
Random years ago today: February 22, 2016, fair trial, my eye.

           I was through the mountains by mid--morning. Having time to spare, I turned west at Sparta and slowed down. I tried to find a mom & pop for coffee. No dice. I even toured downtown Smithville, now there’s and inspired name for you. I saw a few lawn signs stating business hours but never saw a restaurant. Plus, there was no parking downtown. Must be an auction sale at the feed lot. Here’s a picture of a house near downtown, possibly a fixer-upper.

           Fact is, I understand the economics of running a small-town cafe. You can see by the number of failures, especially vacant fast-food stores, that once such a shop survives, there really isn’t a budget for advertising and the joint quickly reverts to living on a local group of regulars. I kept on driving, thinking I’d soon be in Watertown on the same road. Nope, must have breezed right past it because there was not even a sign. That’s another way the GPS jerkoffs messed up the system. Thanks to them, mapmakers and signmakers never kept up their systems.
           Just outside of Lebanon (which I’ve taken to calling ‘Le Bannon’ I got a call from the Reb. She’ll be out, so I pulled up to get mobbed by the dogs. They finally know who I am, the guy that lets them each fun food when nobody is looking. They go on a new diet just I got used to the old new one. This was the heavy emphasis on lean turkey. It took half a day per week to do all the cooking. I kind of knew it was too heavy a task for her alone.

Picture of the day.
Stone Bridges Estate, NH
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           We took an extra long walk with the dogs and the primary talk was that Forex system. The more she described it, the more I realized I had been to one of their seminars way back in 2002 or so. That’s the one where this really nosy guy got the seat next to me in Ft. Lauderdale. It may be in this blog somewhere, let me check. Nope, it was during the dead times when nothing happened I cared to write about. Sure, I counted a million toothpicks, drove a Cadillac, and had three heart attacks, so maybe I was wrong.
           Anyway, I listened to the pitch and joked that I would be the one in the auditorium of 400 people that would wind the door prize, a free copy of the software. I was likely, back then, the only one in the room that recognized it was the monthly fee that was the deal-breaker. They were selling the disks for, if I recall, $400. To me it was a 50-cent copy. After the seminar, I sold it for $50, and told other people who asked me if they should buy in that for $100 I would talk them down. These people were selling memberships, not computer programs.

           As the Reb described the system, it came back to me. It was Forex, because the name has other meanings to me. I did not sign up back then for good reasons, but the Reb in the picture removes those restrictions. There are still items that don’t add up here, one being that the guy forming the group to which the Reb refers has several family members on the team, which is how she became aware of the operation. I’m always leery of “family” businesses because they form a block if anything goes south. At your expense.

           We’ve decided on our usual approach. She attends the meetings, gets the software, signs up. I stay in the background watching like a hawk and making the big decisions, which she implements in her most unique stylation. It’s a combination that, while not perfect, rarely lets us down. From what I gather, you sign up for the use of the algorithm, that is, you pay to log on to their system.,meaning I’m the one really logging on. You crank it up on Sunday, let it run to around Wednesday, then based on statistical results, make the trades. I already see a lot fo holes in the set-up, but we are prepared to learn. The Reb & I can derive opposite tacks on the same set of data, I think our challenge is to find the synergy here.

           I believe I will give this the go-ahead [based] more on my history with the Reb than any inherent value in the system, inherent or perceptible I mean. If it works even mildly well, I’m in a position to take risks. Piggy-back risks with my own money, that. Keep an eye on this. If it works, I’ll share the details. It will take a lot to unseat my contention that it will work somewhat well merely because it is a system. Um, I’ve already begun putting a finance package together. This chart shows 62% of the money in the world is still US dollars.
           In other news, she reports she never received my reply to her e-mail about the guitar player she found. We’ll go over that again, and this is the time to mention a 71 y.o. lady responded to my ad for a rhythmist. She knows 8 guitar chords. Her name is Willie, we intend to talk early next week. So maybe I can say a while from now that I toured with Willie.

ADDENDUM
           With full-blown insomnia, I left the Reb at home to finish her newsletter and headed over to the Rusty Unrinal. The entertainment was so bad. It’s the only thing worse than Karaoke but better than nothing at all, it was a DJ. He had a super PA, then again this is Nashville. Does he have any choice? By now, I’m on my fourth Bud at the place, four women have approached, one I danced with. Two men asked what I am doing. My favorite answer? “Concentrating.”
           Hey, I could have said, “Trying to concentrate.” It's more abrasive. And did I just say "stylation"?

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