Give a mouse a cookie

Good Morning Ted and Jody:

The mornings are starting later and later. Yesterday started so late that I had an appointment for an MRI 30 minutes after sunrise.  Since it is over 30 minutes to the hospital, I missed capturing by camera and cell phone what must have been a glorious sunrise.  I don’t know who is in charge of scheduling these events, but they need to get them with standardized times.  The is enough change in life without having to adjust to daily, whimsical, changes in when the sun comes up.  My goodness, it is like the sun is on an operant conditioning program by someone using a cattle prod that runs out of juice mid-June and then the sun sees how lazy it can be until the person running the Skinner box juices the cattle prod up again in December.  This is no way to run a rail road (much less a universe).

I contacted Frank, you remember, he is my homeless friend who does work around the place from time to time, to come out and work clearing some space for the utility/storage shed we will have installed in a week or so. He said yes and sent me a Facebook message inviting me to come over to Oregon to see where he will be staying this winter.  His directions were to cross the Lewis and Clark Bridge and turn left on the other side of the river and he would meet me at the Shell station there.  So yesterday morning I went.  Well, I got to the other end of the bridge and thought, “I’m early and there are two lookout points if I turn right, why not see if there is a late morning (8:30ish) photo to be had.  So, I did and got two images of Longview, WA from the Oregon side of the Columbia River.  The first is a panorama of about 7 shots Photoshop stitched together for me.  I left it in rough form rather than cropping it to exclude the white space.  The second is higher up and a single shot.

 Then I drove a bit farther to turnaround.  There are cement barriers all over in this part of the country.  Either the cement contractor is a relative of the county and road commissioners in two states, or the authorities are afraid the drivers will not know to stay on their side of the road.  Either way, there are long stretches of two lane highways that have cement barriers, so I had to drive further before I could find a place to cross the barrier and turn around.  As it was I made it to the Shell station on the Oregon side of the bridge about 20 minutes early.

I often forget that I learn best by writing or trying to explain something to someone else.   I have been struggling with the dual concept of people holding cash and the velocity of money.  So while I sat and waited for Frank, I started to write about the velocity of money on the writing app in my cell phone.  Pretty soon, I was catching on fairly well.  Indeed, I thought, but the time Frank got there I had the concept nailed.  There is one small, point.  The velocity of money is inversely related to the percent of their income that people hold in cash or near cash substitutes (checking accounts).    However, I will get it.  Indeed, if Frank had not been on time, I would probably have gotten it in a few more paragraphs.  As it is, I have to keep working on it.

Frank showed up on foot with a gas can.  Give a mouse a cookie.  It seems he needs fuel to make the run to my house today. I was not surprised.  Frank reminds me of a colleague we had whose wife never let him have pocket money so when we went for beers after work he never had the wherewithal and had to mooch.  That is until he went into administration and then he never came for beers, but that is another story that I am sure involved his wife and permission as well.   So, we filled Frank’s can with diesel and went to where he is staying.  This is an untrimmed panorama of 180 degrees where he lives.  If this were West Virginia or “Kentuck” I would say he lived in a “haller.”  Here, I don’t know what it is called.  Next time I will attempt a shot from closer to the road to give you the full ambiance of his abode.  He lives in the camper in the shot.  The truck next to it is simply abandoned and waiting for scrap metal prices to go up (everyone tries to time the markets!).

More about Frank later, probably soon. So stay tuned to this spot on your computer screen for more about life in America.

Warmest regards, Ed