September 8, 2010 - Summer is Over

1) Summer is Over. There is no better feeling than sitting by the campfire at night, listening to the coyotes howl, watching the stars twinkle, and feeding my broker research into the flames one page at a time. The research from Goldman Sachs (GS) seemed to burn especially well. Perhaps it is the esteemed firm's close association with Satan so alleged in Congress that makes its product particularly incendiary. The Merrill Lynch research? You might as well throw a bucket of water into the embers.

Alas, summer has come to a close. Driving back to San Francisco was the usual five hour nightmare on Labor Day. But this time I was joined by 50,000 refugees from Burning Man, toting home dusty bicycles and coming down from hopefully enjoyable acid trips, driving an assortment of vehicles modified to look like spaceships, warthogs, and gigantic fish. The Highway Patrol had a field day.

For me, it's back to worrying about the next move in interest rates in Australia instead of the bears raiding the ice chest, focusing on Saudi Arabia's crude output figures instead of whether the bacon is burning, and analyzing the thunderstorm that may hit the financial markets rather than the one that is just clearing the nearest High Sierra ridge. So it's time to clean up the Coleman stove, empty the sand out of the sleeping bags, and mend the holes in the tent before returning all to storage.