Well, I finally got it, Jagger’s summer cold that is. Headache, stuffy nose and sore throat, super. Hope I can kick it in  a week. We do have a baseball game today at 5:30 unless it too gets rained out. I have a little bit of work that must get done before my conference call tomorrow morning and we need to do some more work around the house.

We did manage to get a lot done yesterday. The breakfast nook and dinning room are pretty much cleaned and packed up meaning we packed up all the extra clutter laying around. Jagger did a bunch of work on his room but once you climb over all the stuff in the hall (from his room), his room still looks pretty much like it did before. That tells you just how much stuff he too had, mostly under his bed and in his closet.

Jag and I did make it to Lowes yesterday for the big Memorial Day Sale as we needed a few new tools to round out our supply. I had been waiting for like 6 months to get our 89 year old neighbors tools as they’re moving and he had promised them to me as long as a year ago. Finally Saturday his wife called and said they were ready for me to come and pick them up. When I walked over, his wife asked me what I wanted to pay for them. This sort of caught me off guard as they had told me for over a year that they were going to give them to me numerous times. I guess they (or she) forgot or changed her mind. Old people sometimes do that. I said I’d come back and look through them after we ran our errands. When I went back I said “ok let’s look through the box and see what you have”. His wife said, “oh just take them all” as they’re moving in a month. I again said I’d better look through them to see what I needed, now that I had to pay for them. I asked what she had in mind and she said, “oh I don’t know, $100 or $125”. Right them I knew we had a problem but went through the motions of looking anyhow. Initially I was excited as old tools are great but I knew there was no way whatever they had was worth that kind of money. Most were rusted except for a few old saws and the actual tool box was nice. After looking though them with her husband, I told him sorry but I think I’m ok and already have most of what was in the box. He was nice and fine with it but who knows what his wife thought. Lori says she was counting her cash before I ever came over. She had also offered Lori a few old quilts but when Lori looked at them, and said she wanted $75 a piece, Lori too passed. I never saw them and asked if they were warm and functional as old quilts are usually pretty good finds but Lori said they were mostly decorative and no way worth $75. So unfortunately no great old treasures were found this time, and that’s why I went to buy a new hacksaw, pry bar and 24″ cross cut saw.

I’d like to find a generator and chain saw with a 20″ bar which is what I really need, but these are hard to find at garage sales or second hand.

I’m drinking dandelion tea with honey right now trying to feel better but so far it’s not really working. Guess I should run so I can start to get moving. There’s laundry to fold and more to dry and lots to put away. It’s all green everywhere from the rain but Texas and Oklahoma are really getting the brunt of these storms with tornados and flooding everywhere. Newscasters are using terms like biblical, hmm.

Time to go, God Bless.

We actually did a lot yesterday but that didn’t include the boys rooms. We are all staged though to get after it today as well as wash all the baseboards. It’s 6am now and I’m the only one up (what’s new) and after I get to the gym, I’ll get a jump on things.

Our bbq that we were going to has been moved to next Sunday so that frees up the day. I also have some computer work to do sometime before Tuesday morning.

We did go to my buddy’s graduation party for his daughter. They had a lot of people (too many) for their 1500 square foot house. The kids had a blast running around with the 20 other kids but we left after an hour as it was beginning to storm and Lori’s neck was hurting. One funny thing though, on the way to the bbq, Ty asked if they’ll have bacon, as in bbq bacon! That’s Ty, he loves his bacon.

Guess I’ll run so I can get moving, time is running short as there’s lots to do and little time to do it in. Hope you all are well, take care and God Bless.

Today we’re entering the underworld, otherwise known as the boys rooms. You never know what you’ll find in there and you don’t dare go in without wearing a full hazmat suit. I think I’ll take everything out and then deicide what to keep and put that back in. Hopefully we’ll finish up by the end of the day.

Yesterday it continued to rain and then rain some more. This morning I’m taking the boys for some new jeans as they’re both growing so fast that they need knew ones before they wear the old ones out. Jagger is now wearing size 28-36. To put that in perspective, I wear 34-36 which means his legs are almost as long as mine. (I’d buy him 35 length but they don’t make those and 34’s are too short) I’m sure he’ll be over 6 feet by the time school starts in the fall. Ty isn’t far behind and is actually a little stockier or thicker in the shoulders. They’ll both be good sized boys.

Tonight at 6pm we need to put in an appearance at my friend Tom’s house for his daughters graduation party. I guess she had a 4.0 all 4 years in high school. Jag plays baseball with his son Jake and Tom was just hired as assistant baseball coach for Regis College. This is great news as Tom thinks he can get Jag and Jake into the summer baseball camp there for free! My other buddy Matt drove back from the Western slope (western Colorado) for his nephews graduation also. I asked what he was going to give him and he said that the kid’s Mom (his sister in law, who he doesn’t get along with at all) is so liberal and feels she’s so entitled that they do whatever they can to get any and everything free from the government. In his words, “they’re on food stamps, have a free Obama phone, welfare and make a living by applying for any grants they can get and then go to the store and buy designer clothes and steak and lobster with our money, and don’t want to work”. He said unfortunately the kid has been raised in the same way, with no work ethic and has that “why do I need to work” attitude. So Matt has decided that he’s giving the young man an envelope with four brochures inside, one each for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines! I burst out laughing as what a great idea for a kid stuck in this rut but as Matt said, it’d be the best thing he could do for him. Beautiful!

Now, what did you do to prepare today, or shall we say this week? Did you buy some extra food at the grocery store? Are you keeping your gas tank in your car always at least half full? Did anyone plant any type of garden? How about something as simple as buying some extra socks or staples such as toothpaste or toothbrushes? Imagine life without toothpaste, yuck.

I’ll stop there but I need to keep hammering on you a little bit each day and hopefully some of it with take hold.

Guess I’ll run, time to get moving, bacon is in the oven, and we’re burning daylight. God Bless.

I know those of you in California wish you could get some rain but here it’s been raining like we live in Seattle or something. I’m sure our game will be cancelled tonight again and if the forecast is right, we’ll miss our scheduled Monday game too.

It’s the last Friday of the school year and we have a 3 day weekend, whoo hoo!

I’m supposed to get on a call at 6am which is in 7 minutes. I just ran to the store (aren’t you glad to know) for carrots, ranch dressing and a $10 Starbucks card for Jagger’s student council party today.

Can’t think of much else except we have a new western store in Colorado. Cavenders, the big chain from Texas, just opened two stores here. One in Colorado Springs and one in Park Meadows. I managed to make it to the Park Meadows store yesterday and was like the only guy in this giant store full of boots and other western clothes. Now if you know me, you know I live in cowboy boots (just like my dad) and have about 20 pair. So after chatting up the assistant manager and finding a pair I liked, that  had a small blemish or cut in the leather on the toe, I managed to come home with a new pair at 40% off! The reason this store is so cool is they are so large they’re much less expensive than the stores around here and they carry some great brands no stores in Colorado have. It was like Christmas. I wouldn’t have bought a new pair but if you remember, Mojo ate my favorite everyday boots last week or so.

Well that’s it, I’ll spare you from the impending collapse of our economic system and country for the day. If you don’t know what’s happening by now, I’m afraid you never will.

Take care and God Bless.

I finally made it to the gym this morning and on the way home stopped for some fresh bagels for the boys. Now this might not seem like a big deal but what if someday soon you couldn’t run down to the corner store or stop at any number of shops selling coffee, bagels, sandwiches or other food or gas stations were all out of gas. Think it’s far off? Think again. I’ll leave it at that for today.

Now to the big news of the day, yesterday my little sister, known as Aunt Robi, and her long time beau, Robert (or sometimes called Gus by my Mom) got married! The way Tommy tells it, they went down to get a marriage license and then walked around the corner and there was the judge, so being to free spirits they both are, they got married on the spot! Congratulations! We’re all very happy for you!

Today is the last full Thursday of school as next week the boys have school Tuesday and Wednesday and then a half day Thursday. I have lots and lots to do today and every day for the rest of the month. Lori is plugging along at work too and yes, it’s still raining.

That’s about it as I need to get all the trash put out for my guy who shows up around 7:30. Imagine if or should I say when, trash service stops. I don’t know about you but I’ve been in New York when the garbage men were on strike for just 3 days and the whole city smelled and giant rats were seen running around everywhere. Not a good thing.

Ok, on that note, take care and God Bless!

Last night the music concert was really good. They have an orchestra, band and choir and between them all, they played or sang 16 songs. The kids have made a lot of progress in a year.

Still raining around here, not sure if we’ll have baseball tonight or not. It’s putting a real cramp in our house cleaning too.

Dr. R is at it again, ranting and raving, we have to get her out of there. Time to start working on a plan now. This morning I need to run to the distributor and then to an account all before 11am.

Ty is virtually in play mode at school as are all the kids while they’re still pilling the homework on Jagger even though there’s only a few days to go. I think he had two finals yesterday and am not sure what’s going on today.

No politics today as I haven’t read the news yet but I’m sure whatever it is, it isn’t good. We’re setting up a crowd funding account to start a little farm/ranch in the hills so get ready to donate. If you don’t know what crowd funding is, that’s where you help “fund” worthwhile projects or ideas for people. We’re thinking that baby goats and chickens and all sorts of plants growing wouldn’t be able to rant and rave at Lori! So get out your checkbooks and send us along your donation to Fugate Ranches!

God Bless.

Jag’s last band concert of the year is at 7pm tonight. They always do a good job and he enjoys it. When you think about it, the kids are pretty well versed in a number of different areas. As an example, Ty brought home his art work yesterday which is just amazing, a few days ago he was in a play and a few weeks ago was a DJ at the school. Meanwhile Jag plays in the band, plays baseball and is Vice President of Student Council and both boys are going to camp in a month or so (separate camps) and they’re both going to a church youth group paint ball party coming up sometime soon. Throw in all the funny stuff they say and do and it’s pretty entertaining around here.

Yesterday the govt announced that they told banks to report anyone who takes as little as a few thousand dollars in cash OUT of the bank. So now they want to report you if you deposit cash OR withdrawal cash. Bottom line is, they’re setting up a war on cash as they then can control everything. Imagine you only having a card you use for everything you buy from an account that the govt decides how much is in it. They’d love this as then they can write off or wipe out the hundreds of trillions of dollars they’ve (big banks and crooked official’s and govts Worldwide) rung up over the years. Hopefully smart people will see through this latest proposed sham as it doesn’t address the real issue which is just spending money they don’t have. If you can’t see the road we’re headed down as a society, that’s really sad. Everyday we lose more and more of our rights and liberties supposedly for our own good. It’s the old frog in boiling water thing. That’s where you put a frog in cold water and set it on the stove and it gradually gets hotter and hotter and eventually the frog cooks to death. In other words, when things happen a little at a time, you get used to it. Our main worry is we fear for our kids as I can only imagine life in 10 or 20 years and it doesn’t look all that rosy. I’ll stop now as I’m not trying to ruin anyones day, it’s just sad what life and our World is becoming. It appears a true distopian society is in our future and life as we know it is rapidly changing. I often remember when I was a kid and visiting my grandparents and the quality of life in those days. It didn’t matter how much money you had or where you lived. Even a milkman or a store worker or a factory worker could make a decent living and support their family. Now it seems as though everyone is struggling to just get by. There’s not much individual identity anymore, everyone is just a number or a group of statistics that are captured and categorized by some giant computer program somewhere. And worst of all, our individualism is now looked at as a negative or threat by the powers that be. Enough said, God help us.

Guess I’ll run, sorry for the rant. Time to move to the hills and start a small farm or ranch somewhere, that’s our dream. I wish my dad was here to talk to as it’d sure be nice to get his perspective and advice on this whole thing. Funny how often I ask myself what he’d think or do, guess he’s here after all.

God Bless.

Can you believe it? We can’t. This is officially the last week of school as after next Monday, which is a holiday, they go back for a day to so to play and that’s it. Summer vacation is here.

Yesterday we made a trip to the storage unit and then Jag and I ran to Cabelas. After that, Ty and Ben went to Jump Street where they met Vinny and Elliot. We picked them up at 4 and then Jagger had his church youth group bbq. He needed a white t-shirt as it was “your neighbors your napkin” day. That means you use the t-shirt that person next to you is wearing as your napkin! Jag was smart enough to take an extra shirt to wear after dinner.

It’s raining a bit so not sure if baseball practice is on or not. Jagger has his last band concert at 7pm tomorrow night. We need to see if we can squeeze one more night out of his dress pants and white shirt before summer. His pants are “high waters” now meaning they’re a good 4 to 6 inches too short but if we buy more now, he’ll grow out of those by fall. What’s a parent to do. He says it’ll be a good concert as they’re playing music from the movie the Hunger Games.

Guess I’ll run and get to work. Laundry is going, Lori’s making lunches and I think Jag’s in the shower while Ty is still sleeping. Time to get him up!

Hope you enjoyed the extras in the post yesterday. Lots going on and in the immortal words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a changing.

God Bless

We managed to get up, get ready and move some stuff at our garage sale which lasted from about 8 until 11am. I think we did $300 which is nothing to sneeze at. We then donated some stuff to the church via out neighbor next door who is a pastor and also to Lori’s friend Andrea. I was hoping for a bit more as we really need a new couch but we’ll take the $300 and be thankful.

Lori took 4 boys on their new favorite walk or nature hike down along the river. I’m always nervous as there’s lots of homeless people that call the woods down there home but she had Andrea also meet her so there were 7 of them in all when you throw in Andrea’s daughter. I have a ganglion cyst on my foot which comes and goes from too much weightlifting. It seems whenI’m standing lifting a few hundred pounds, it puts pressure on a specific part of my left foot that then fills up a little with fluid. It either goes down on its own or I run up to Panorama Orthopedics and have them drain it. They just stick a thick needle in it and then squeeze it out. It sounds a lot worse than it is as it doesn’t bother me at all.

Today the boys want to go to Cabela’s so we’ll head out early like 8:30. Lori did too much yesterday as usual so I might have to tie her to the couch today. I think we’ll then go to the park or take a drive to the mountains, something relaxing. Lori planted a few things yesterday and I’m sure will be all over the same today but we’ll see.

No politics today as it’s Sunday but you have to see these two articles below. Hope all’s well, God Bless.

What Goldman Is Telling Its Clients: Sell In May And Don’t Come Back For One Year

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/16/2015 18:27 -0400

While Goldman gives the following explicit warning in all of its public research pieces: “Our asset management area, our proprietary trading desks and investing businesses may make investment decisions that are inconsistent with the recommendations or views expressed in this research”, the reality is that in recent months Goldman’s chief equity strategist David Kostin has been getting increasingly “toppish” if not outright bearish on stocks. In his latest report he now openly warns that “the market will rise to 2150 by mid-year but fade after the Fed raises interest rates in September for the first time in nine years.” As a result Goldman’s “year-end forecast is 2100 and its 12-month target equals 2125.”

Which is where the S&P 500 closed on Friday. In other words, sell in May and don’t come back until next May.

Here is what else Goldman is telling its buyside clients:

During the last 50 years, dividends accounted for nearly 80% of the total return generated by US equities. The proportion fell to 45% during the past 25 years and 35% for the past decade. However, since the 2009 financial crisis lows, price return has accounted for more than 80% of the total return of the S&P 500 as the P/E multiple soared from 10.1x to 17.3x. Looking ahead, the market implies 46% of the total return for stocks during the next decade will be generated by dividends, in-line with the past quarter-century.

 

 

The median S&P 500 stock trades at a P/E of 18.2x, the 99th percentile of historical valuation, and has limited scope for further upward expansion. Investors are looking to enhance performance by buying stocks returning cash to shareholders. We forecast S&P 500 firms will return $1 trillion to investors during 2015 via dividends and buybacks. Cash dividends will total $400 billion, a 7% increase from 2014, while buybacks will climb by 18% to $600 billion. The median S&P 500 stock trades with a 1.9% annualized dividend yield, slightly below the ten-year US Treasury note yield of 2.2%.

 

In addition to high dividend yields, investors are also looking to boost returns by finding stocks growing dividends at a rapid pace. The median S&P 500 stock is expected to grow its dividend by 8% annually during the next two years. However, with record levels of cash on corporate balance sheets, many firms are increasing dividends at a much faster clip.

 

The dividend swap market foreshadowed by more than six months the underperformance of shares in our dividend growth basket. The rebound in the dividend swap market at the start of 2015 presaged by two months the recent rally in our dividend growth basket.

 

At the sector level, Telecom and Utilities offer the highest dividend yields at 4.8% and 3.7%, respectively. Information Technology and Financials account for the largest proportion of gross S&P 500 dividends paid, each at 15% of the index total. The fastest dividend growth is found in Financials, Health Care, and Consumer Discretionary, each with a 13% pace.

 

 

The historical relationship between the cyclically-adjusted P/E multiple (currently 23.4x) and forward equity returns suggest the prospective 10-year annualized total return for the S&P 500 will be 5%. Dividend levels implied by the swap market suggest that 46% of the total return during the next ten years will be derived from dividends, and 54% from price gain.

Which means annualized capital appreciation (i.e., price increases) over the next decade will be just about 2.5%. And that is assuming record central bank intervention. One wonders: what happens if and when the central planners finally pull the plug?

 

AND NOW, FROM THE TRULY UNBELIEVABLE……

Jefferson Parrish, LA — In a Jefferson Parrish School District in Louisiana, an eighth grader was handcuffed and dragged out of the classroom…for throwing skittles. He was then held for six days.

For throwing skittles.

The boy had allegedly thrown the candy on a school bus the previous day. A report from Vocativ states:

“The following day, as the boy was taking a social studies test, a police officer assigned to the school handcuffed him, dragged him out of class and arrested him. He was charged with “interference with an educational facility” and battery.

As the officer led the handcuffed teenager out of the school, both students and faculty heard him threaten to “beat the f*** out of [the boy],” or to have his son, who is about the same age, do it for him. The student, who is African-American, spent six days in a juvenile detention facility before seeing a judge, whose first comment was: “Am I to get this right? Are we really here about Skittles?”

The mother has pulled the young boy from the school.

This is no isolated incident. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Jefferson Parish School District has had over 1600 kids arrested for things like carrying a cell phone, swearing, or not adhering to dress code. Arrested.

In what universe is this acceptable?

They also found that black students make up 80% of those arrested, despite that fact that black students make up only 40% of the school district. The SPLC has reportedly called on the Department of Justice “to intervene with the school’s unwarranted arrests of overwhelmingly minority students.”

According to SPLC attorney Eden Heilman,

“The Jefferson Parish Public School System has continued its destructive practice of arresting and jailing children for minor, and often trivial, violations of school rules and decorum. It’s nothing less than a racially biased system of criminalizing African-American children.”

The school district stated publicly that it was aware of the situation and will be working to fix it.

It’s 6:20 and we have a few hours to get stuff outside and signs up. Lots of crap which is hopefully other folks treasure is ready to go.

Lori’s headache is so so with it virtually going away yesterday for a little bit. So we’re hopeful that the steroids are working but too early to tell.

Baseball practice was fun and Ty had four friends there to play with, 2 girls and 2 guys. After practice I let him hang at Vinny’s for a few hours.  I think Vinny is coming over today to “help” with the garage sale. Last night he said he’d give us some stuff to sell and we could keep the money. His Mom and I laughed as she said the last thing we probably want is more junk. Ty had also made Mom a plate of almonds along with a big glass of almond milk with a note taped to the plate that said “I love you mom, I hope your head feels better”. How sweet is that. We really have two great kids. He was also in a play at school about the Boston Massacre trial in the 1700’s. They all had period costumes on and did a great job. Lori came from work to watch and then drove back to the office and I was there too.

Ty and I picked up ice cream on the way home and the kid behind the counter gave me $5 too much change. I realized it and told the little girl behind the counter and gave it back (they’re all like 18 working there) and Ty said “that was nice dad, I would have done the same thing”. That was good to hear from your child as a parent as he was totally sincere when he said it.

That’s it for today, time to run, God Bless. (I keep saying that for two reason, one so God will Bless you and the other as the way things are going, it might be illegal to say it some day!)