Favorite Time of the Year Here

Black Dog on White, Hunting

Happy Wife gets fearful when Black Dog is that far away. The early dusting of snow in the high country makes him easy to spot though. Her concern is that he’ll get on the scent of a ground squirrel, or whatever the hell is up there squeaking “Here I am! Here I am!,” then follow it over the ridge never to be seen again. He’s never scored a kill. I kinda feel bad for him. So much for all animal behavior being consistent with the supposed one true goal of Reproductive Success. Loudly reporting your location over and over again to a seventy-five pound carnivore seems to me like the very opposite. But hey, I’m no expert in rodent biology. Although with enough training I’m sure I could see how advertising your location to predators is a feature of superior fecundity. 🙄

I know, I know, just let it go, Rod. Focus on your breath. Calm the cortex. Live in the present. Whatever the truth is, experience it. ✌

I had the quarterly discussion last week with our wealth advisor. I don’t envy her role, lately having to soothe client’s concerns over the evanescent valuations of their portfolios. “There there,” the glass-half-full people say, “what comes down must go up again.” I’m actually unfamiliar with any principles of physics that support such a guarantee. But if the past is any guidance, markets do oscillate over time. It’s just that the amplitude and frequency of those oscillations vary greatly. Our advisor’s reassurances are a bit more sophisticated than this. She’s not the least bit pollyanish in her approach. I like that about her. Although in the end there really are only so many ways to spin the fundamental truth that all investors right now are bobbing up and down in a vast ocean of uncertainty. Us included.