The Empty Nest

Our last child went off to college this past week.  We've taken kids to college enough that most of it was decidedly routine - pack to leave, drive there, unpack, offer my standard reminder about how there are a lot of people in the world that aren't so nice, tell them to keep their name out of the newspaper, and say good-bye.

What was decidedly unroutine about it, however, was arriving back at home to accept the new reality of an empty nest.  The house that was once just big enough is now bigger and quieter than it was meant to be.  It's hard to comprehend how it got to be like that.

To help cope with the unofficial end to two decades of child-raising, I keep reminding myself about what a success it has been.  My kids are the best.  There is absolutely no doubt that they are going to make major positive contributions to society.  As far as parenting goes, something must have been done right.

One emotion that I didn't expect to have is that of feeling abandoned.  The past 23 years have been spent raising children into adults who are going to improve civilization.  This has been done with a fair amount of personal and financial sacrifice - I mean, time and money could have been spent on other things.  So now, civilization, where is my parade?  In the words of Carl Spackler of Caddyshack, "How about a little something, you know, for the effort!?"

One other thing I'm getting used to is the time.  It suddenly seems like there's a lot more time to do things.  I suppose this is because there just isn't as much to occupy my mind without kids around.  This is something I didn't really expect, but frankly, it's also something it won't take me long to get used to.

Waking Up In Vegas

I recently returned from 3-day, 4-night stay in big, bad Las Vegas, Nevada.  It's only the fourth time I've been there, and the first time for a legit 100% leisure stay.

I'm always interested to see for myself how Vegas changes over time, and I've got a few observations:

1) Conventional wisdom is that over the past 20 years, Vegas went from Sin City, to a more family-friendly atmosphere, and back to Sin City again.  I'm not sure it ever stopped being an adult playground, but I can confirm that there are still plenty of kids there.  In fact, I saw kids with their parents all over the strip.  While there may be some benign things for kids to see, like the Bellagio fountains, it's disturbingly dumb for parents to drag small kids around that town, because there are also things kids shouldn't see.  My conclusion is, many of the strip hotels are marketing themselves as resort destinations for the whole family, especially in the summer.  They have great pools, restaurants, shops, like an all-inclusive resort would have, but the thing is, nobody just stays on the same hotel property when they're in Vegas.

2) The days of cheap lodging and meals on the strip are gone.  Same for casino action - it's hard to find a table game with under a $15 minimum bet at night, maybe $10 during the day.  This is another reason why it's dumb to bring kids there.  If you want deals at Vegas now, you have to go downtown, where table games are cheap, music is live, and you can still get a great buffett for between $5-$10.  In a related story, I saw no kids downtown at Fremont Street.  There's nothing for them to do there, except watch the Fremont Street Experience light show once an hour at night.

3) Vegas and its strip hotels have come a long way in providing ground transportation by tram or monorail at various points up and down the strip.  Still, this is a 5+ mile long piece of real estate, and there is a helluva lot of walking to be done if you want to get around without a car, or don't want to pay for a taxi.  If you aren't in shape, the heat and the physical activity will bite you.

4) It didn't look like a town that's supposedly in a major recession.  Maybe everything is just tremendously leveraged, but from what I saw the Vegas tourism and hospitality indistries were doing pretty well.  I saw plenty of people spending money anyway, on both commerce and gambling.

Bottom line, Las Vegas is still Disneyworld for adults.  Cool architecture, lights, music, food, even rides.  A lifetime multi-visit venue.

Headline News

For the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2011, while the global economic news was mostly cloudy, equity investors enjoyed the equivalent of blue skies. Most developed and emerging-country stock markets had positive double-digit returns, some in excess of 30%.

If someone knew a year ago that global markets would stage such a broad-based rally, one would have assumed that trends in employment, housing, and financial distress were about to take a pronounced turn for the better. In fact, they have done nothing of the sort.

Somehow, despite gloomy financial page news that kept repeating itself, equity prices marched substantially higher.

Now, as equity prices have turned lower in the past month, and have become especially volitile in the past several days, the financial pages are again full of dire forecasts. Really, if you compare the headlines, it's just like last year.

No one knows if the stock market will react differently this year to similar news. Based on last year, however, we know one thing for certain – markets do not base their movements on proclamations from the financial media!

Remember the bottom line: Due to unforeseen events, no one can accurately predict the direction of markets. Rather than react to stormy news, you should act on what's already known, and consistently keep your financial plan and asset allocation both cost-effective and aligned with your risk tolerance.

It's Easy To Be Number 3

For as long as I've lived in Des Moines, the ABC-TV affiliate, WOI, has been a distant 3rd in local TV ratings.  Basically, no one watches their news at 5, 6, or 10pm.  This is despite the fact that over the past 10 years they may have had the best weather director and sports director of all three broacast affiliates.

One thing they've consistently had during this time, however, is dumb management.  They changed general managers earlier this year, but it apparently only made them dumber.

This link will tell you why, by way of another very funny Colbert Report clip:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/394521/august-11-2011/colbert-super-pac---confused-by-rick-parry-with-an--a--for-america

Truth And Prevention

I haven't mentioned WOITH member and Iowa congressman (and possibly Martian) Steve King in a while, although I could do so virtually any day.

He and his Fox News friends are at it again, this time over the new Obama administration's stance that insurers cover contrceptives as preventative care.  A controversial position, but not exactly for the flat-earth reasoning of King.  Check out the clip from this week's The Colbert Report:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/393824/august-03-2011/women-s-health-nazi-plan

I especially enjoyed Colbert's remark that a woman's health is a private matter between..... her priest and her husband!  Satire is funnier when it's not so far from the truth.

While I'm at it, let me take this time to officially elevate his Tea Party mistress, Minnesota congressperson Michele Bachmann, to WOITH status. Her stance to not raise the U.S. debt ceiling is effectively saying it's better to have an international economic crisis than it is for the U.S. to pay the bills it has already incurred.

It's going to be fun having her around Iowa to campaign for president, telling everyone she would do the opposite of what Obama does without ever actually saying what she would do.

More RAGBRAI Thoughts

Just finished another day on the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). Just 60 miles this year, although the heat and headwinds made it seem a lot worse.

I blogged about RAGBRAI last year, with an explanation and series of observations on the 2010 ride.

http://streffblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/thoughts-on-ragbrai-2010.html

*Lots of loosely-organized biking teams go on the ride, and their names are usually pretty clever. Some of my favorite team names include Team Wasted Potential, Team Crackanoon, and Team TenderLoins, the perfect double-entendre for an Iowa ride.

*People who live in houses and towns along the route seem to love to be hospitable to the bike riders. It's kind of weird, but bikers basically get rock star treatment, as if the effort of simply biking long distances is worthy of that kind of thing.

*This may be related to the last item, but RAGBRAI riders spend a lot of money, and spend it in a generous way. Obviously, they have to eat and drink a lot to refuel. But given the choice of buying something from a charitable organization or buying from a corporate organization, they will usually buy from the fund raising entity.

*Some riders think they're funny when they wear something unusual, but they aren't. Believe me, every accessory has probably been seen before, whether it be crazy socks or something stuck in a helmet. It basically identifies first-time riders, and it's mostly lame.

*Speaking of food and charities, last year I lamented on the lack of pie on the ride, something that used to be a staple of every church lawn on the route. This year I did find some pie, but it was company vendored pie, at $3 per slice. Still couldn't find the good old fashioned church-lady kind for a buck or two. Thus officially ends the era of the church-lady RAGBRAI pie.

RAGBRAI is still as much fun as you can have on a day-long bike ride.

The Wimpiest Generation

So there's a heatwave gripping the Midwest. Near 100 degrees all week with stifling humidity. Can't walk three steps without somebody complaining about the weather and asking, "Is it hot enough for you?" Constant media alerts about the heat index, and how dangerous it is to be outside too long.

Gimme a break. Would somebody please tell me what the big deal is? (Alert: I'm about to go off on an "I remember when....." rant.)

When I was really young, heat like this didn't stop us from going outside to play all afternoon - and not at the swimming pool, either. We had no real alternative, other than watching soap operas on one of the three TV stations from which we could choose, but we did it without complaining. And we didn't stop every five minutes to take a drink either.

When I was a teenager, it was the same deal, except instead of playing outside I was doing farmwork outside. Day after day after day. It seemed like the hottest days were reserved for baling hay or straw (a task equally as itchy as it was hot). And we're not talking about the labor-saving round bales they make today, either. I mean the rectangular ones that you had to lift and stack. Of course, since we operated a livestock farm, if we had nothing better to do we could always haul manure (a task equally as smelly as it was hot). Oh, and we didn't stop every five minutes to take a drink then, either.

Needless to say, when I became an adult with a wimpy office job, I didn't complain about the heat. Still don't.

But the current city-fied, under 30 generation, now they are a different story. This is the sedentary generation, a group raised on cable TV and video games. Anything above a climate-controlled 80 degrees is enough for them to start bitching, maybe even take the day off. The media coddling doesn't help, alerting us to take breaks, stay indoors, and of course, make sure our pets aren't outside. (Somewhere up there, my old dog Teddy is shaking his head.)

I get that each generation lives better than the one before it, and I don't expect people to be outdoors if they don't have to be. But please, please stop complaining about the heat. It makes you and the country look like a bunch of wimps