The things you will do for your kids. This summer, we’re at the Solon Home Days. My son Nicholas wants to play that game where you try and throw the ping pong ball in the mini-fishbowls to win a goldfish. Improbably, he sinks what I now refer to as the “hundred dollar ping pong ball”.
So we’re driving home and it hits my wife and I. We have no fish bowl. We have no fish food. We now have a fish. Off to the pet store we go. And it should be noted, my wife and I are not pet people. Along with our love of Chloe from “24”, it’s one of the few things we have in common. Nothing against animals. Love other peoples pets. Both cried at the end of “Old Yeller”. Just no desire to own one.
We walk in the pet store with the goldfish in the plastic baggie in our hand. And if you are a pet store employee, this is the holy grail. This is what you sit around and wait all day for. The clearly clueless suburbanite parents to walk through the doors with the goldfish bag in hand and the kids in tow. They need equipment, food, supplies. You can play to the emotions of the kids to try and move additional pets.
An hour later (twenty minutes of which was spent explaining to my son why guinea pigs are secretly evil and are prone to bite little boys) we walk outta there $60 lighter in the pocket. A big tank, food, an electric filter, pellets for the water, decorative stones, a fake plant for the tank, a Sponge Bob fish tank ornament, and yes … two more fish.
Predictably, the carnival fish dies within days, and the traumatic experience of his “burial” is not easy to go through with my son … who still asks “is Marvin still down there” when going potty. One of the store bought fishes (Fredo) passes the next day. Within a week, we’re down to just one fish, ironically named Patches, who’s still with us … at least for the time being. I say ironically because Patches started getting these nasty looking black patches on his body. Resigned to his fate, I had “the talk” with my son about Patches. 15 minutes and all kinds of guilt later, I am online Googling “goldfish black patch disease”. We find out it’s a common ailment, usually caused by my wife someone not cleaning the tank often enough. So instead of calling Kevorkian, we’re off to the pet store again to get the medicine. As well as all kinds of new accessories for the tank. Another $40. The hundred dollar goldfish.
No ping pong ball has had this much impact since the one that delivered LeBron James to Cleveland. This fish will live another 5 years even if I have to have the top veterinarian in the country flown in to operate on him. It’s gotten personal.
The things you will do for your kids.
Quote of the day …
“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” ~ Harry Truman
Market …
January is in the books. And it was a rough start to 2010 for the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average started the year at about 10,600 before topping out at roughly 10,720 on January 19th … then just tanked into the final bell Friday, ending the month at 10,067. The jobs #’s continue to be depressing, and stock investors have not liked President Obama’s promises to impose heavy fees on banks and raise taxes on the wealthy. While these are things that the populace of this country is overwhelmingly in favor of, Wall Street feels it will lead to higher rates and fees for consumers, and that tax increases of any kind are going to negatively impact consumer spending at a time when we need it most. Also, while many of the fourth quarter 2009 earnings reports we’ve seen these past two weeks have bested expectations, the future economic outlooks of these companies as we get deeper into 2010 has been underwhelming, muting any lift the markets would have normally gotten off those earnings reports.
So that’s really where we stand as we head into the second month of 2010. The country needs to create jobs, and Obama has wisely made it his highest priority. But it costs money to create jobs, and with a massive record deficit, that money has to come from somewhere, hence the proposed tax increases for the wealthy. It’s an easy place to go for it, and the public opinion polls support the decision. We’ll see how it all plays out.
We’ve got another big week of economic indicators ahead of us, headlined by Friday’s employment report. Expectations are that the national unemployment rate will remain at 10.0% (maybe tick up to 10.1%), and that the economy added roughly 50,000 jobs in January. Today, we get info on construction spending and the ISM Index (national survey of purchasing managers that gauges manufacturing activity). Tomorrow, the pending home sales index is released and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies before the Senate Banking Committee about the 2011 budget. On Wednesday we get the ADP private employment survey and Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh delivers a speech on regulatory reform to the New York Association for Business Economics. Thursday, we get data on first time jobless claims, productivity, and factory orders. And Friday … the big employment report at 8:30 AM EST.
News …
~ New Foreclosure Filings Remain High in Cuyahoga County, Elevated in Suburbs
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/02/new_forclosure_filings_in_cuya.html
~ The Week Ahead: Markets Optimistic Ahead of Data Flood
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/02012010_week_ahead_employment.asp
~ Obama Unveils $3.83 Trillion Budget with Massive Deficits
~ White House: Stimulus Has Created 600,000 New Jobs
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35172131
~ Fed’s Bullard: US Deflation No Longer a Risk
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35139336
~ Stock Futures Point to Higher Open
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