The Tabor Hill Cafe

The end of June was on the cool side, and June was being a crappy month. One day I had finished my business on Wall Street, and had nothing to do the rest of the day.
So I called Dan and Special Ed, and took these guys out to lunch.
I took them to the Tabor Hill Cafe on Hawthorne Boulevard. In the window they have photos of all the food they serve. Just in case you have never seen a pancake before. Or a cheeseburger.
I really like this place. It is not the trendiest place on Hawthorne, but the food is good and reasonably priced. They also have big picture windows that look out on Hawthorne Boulevard. This is ideal for gawking at stranger passing by. And Hawthorne has a lot of strangers.
One time around Christmas I was on Hawthorne and I saw this kid on a unicycle dressed up like Santa going down the road playing the bagpipes. I am not making this up.
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I chose to order the Angry Fettuccine. You get a huge plate of fettuccine and spicy fish topped with Mozzarella and a couple of slices of garlic bread. This went well with the Earl Grey I had ordered. Their French Onion Soup is pretty good too.
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That day we saw the Yellow Girl. She is tall with dark skin, and dark hair, with streaks of Yellow in it (not blond). She was wearing a matching yellow dashiki.
She is the girl of your nightmares, not your dreams.
I also noted a very attractive twenty something woman who had ducked into the bank across the street. Tall, with long legs and well proportioned. I would describe her as a hot hippie chick. The guys agreed with me on this one.
I paid the bill and we left the restaurant.
While crossing the street, this hot hippie chick exits the bank and walks toward us.
I said hello to her.
She flashed a million dollar smile at me and said hello back.
We continued on our way.
The guys were jabbing their elbows into my ribs. They could not believe that I had gotten such a favorable reaction from this attractive young woman.
After all, I do look like a monster.
Mr. Charming

The Leach Botanical Gardens

Yesterday, Carl, who is a plant expert, and his wife Joanne, stopped by the house to show me the Leach Botanical Gardens. I had never been there, and I am always interested in learning new things about my adopted City of Portland. The Gardens are located at arouund 122d and Foster Road. Johnson Creek runs right through the place. It is a cool oasis in the middle of the city. It is vey restful. And it is free to go there.
My friend Dan, who retired last August, delivers Meals on Wheels every Friday with his mother, who is eighty eight years old. I think Dan views this as important work to be doing for the community. He happily volunteers his time to help make this a better place for everybody. We need more people like Dan.
After he finished his chores, Dan joined us at the Leach. Dan is another one of these plant experts, like Carl. So Carl and Dan already know all this stuff. I only know a little bit. But it was such a fine day to be outside in this beautful place, and I loved hanging out with these people.
Who knows? I might actually learn something.
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While Dan and Carl were busy studying all the different trees and plants, Joanne and I wandered off to the little gift shop to poke around some, to see what they had offer.
I met the lady running the store. Her name was Randy, and she was a volunteer.
Randy said: "This whole place is run by volunteers. I am eighty three years old, and three years ago they discovered I had cancer. It really set me back. Right now about all I can do is sit her and mind the store. I can't get around like I used to."
Randy showed me the huge scars on her legs that made it difficult to walk.
Randy has been a Cancer Survivor for three years. Good for her.
I am a Cancer Survivor for two years. I told Randy my story.
Two years ago in July I found out that I had lung cancer, which is a deadly killer. The odds for me to survive the next two were one in four. Statistically, I should not be here having this conversation. I told her I just couldn't be this lucky. I told her that I believed a Higher Power had a Hand in all of this, for some reason unknown to me. Randy agreed with me on this.
All the while, Joanne is very quiet, studying the little items they had for sale in the store.
Joanne has been a Cancer Survivor for twenty years.
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Visiting the Leach Botanical Gardens is free because of the efforts of people like Randy, and many others. These are all volunteers. Before we left the store to rejoin Carl and Dan, I put a little cash into the donation box.
I also told Randy that I would be back again sometime to visit. This seemed to please her.
Mr. Charming

Journey to the UFO Ranch

There is a place near Trout Lake, Washington, near Mt. Adams, known as the UFO Ranch. The TV show "Paranormal State" on A&E, did a piece on this over the winter. Also known as the Gilliland Ranch, named for the owner, James Gilliland, they offer up a spectacular nightly display of weird lights in the sky. The lights appear on a regular basis around ten o'clock at night.
You can go to "Paranormal State" and take a look for yourself. It is really quite a special place.
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Naturally this called out to me as a perfect road trip from Portland.
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About six weeks ago, Dan and my friend Special Ed decided to go check it out.
It had been one of those rare days we had in June, when it was hot and dry. Mostly June had been unseasonably cool and wet. We were all anxiously awaiting the arrival of Summer, which did not get here until after the Fourth of July. This was a Saturday night in June, a night with no moon.
It was the perfect night to drive out there and see some UFO's.
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We left here about 5pm. We drove out to Hood River, and had some lunch at Taco Del Mar. The girls behind the counter had heard of the UFO Ranch, but had never been there.
We were getting excited about the prospects of what we might experience that night. We left Hood River and crossed the Mighty Columbia River into Washington, We were going to see some UFO's!
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It was getting dark by the time we arrived at the Gilliland Ranch. My contact, Nate, met us by the gate, and let us in. We drove down the long gravel road that leads to the main house. We passed by some families that had pitched tents and were enjoying a late meal. This place is open to anybody. The people there are very friendly. They are not out to make any money. You can donate a contribution if you want, or not. I put in ten bucks for the chance to sit on one of their lawn chairs and watch the show over Mt. Adams. I am just describing to you how very laid back this whole operation really is. They are just a bunch of fine people trying to share with the world this special place by Trout Lake.
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There are about fifty or so lawn chairs arranged in a field that has a straight shot view of Mt. Adams. Eventually about thirty or so people showed up to enjoy the show. These were all ordinary people like me, who were interested in this stuff, and who had an open mind about it all.
****
Sure enough! At ten minutes to ten Dan and I spied this bright white light rise vertically from the Eastern flank of Mt. Adams. It rose slowly into the air, turned west, and then vanished. This sighting lasted all of about five seconds. It was the most dramatic thing I was going to see all night. But we had other, different experiences later. The UFO Ranch had delivered on its promise. That was the main thing.
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There were three people there in our little crowd who had brought along powerful laser pointers. With these laser pointers they were able to triangulate the positions of tiny specks of light flying over the heads of our group, and were able to track them. That way, everybody there could see all of these many sightings, though they were much less dramatic than the first sighting of the night. These were showing up about once every ten seconds or so. There was virtually a superhighway of UFO activity right over our heads. It was amazing.
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Someone else had also brought along night vision goggles. They let me borrow them. Through the goggles you could light orbs all around you. It made you want to duck your head, they were that close! Most of these were either green or blue. Light orbs have been tradiionally associated with paranormal activity, and with hauntings. You could not see these with the naked eye. But you could see them through a digital camera. Special Ed took some pictures.
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We had decided to give the place a couple of hours, and then drive home. I am retired, but my friends had things they had to get back to on Sunday. Two hours was enough.
Had we seen spaceships, aliens, or what? I cannot answer that question. I am just reporting here what we collectively witnessed that evening back in June.
If you live anywhere near Portland, this is an easy thing to do, and a lot of fun too. Go see something interesting at the UFO Ranch, and help support James Gilliland and his crew. Then you can tell me what you make of all this.
Mr. Charming

Politics

I recently read an op-ed piece in the New York Times, entitled "The Grinds". These are the kind of Lunatics like me, who wind up not doing what eveyone else did. At some time, just being a kid, they discovered that there is indeed a caste system here in the United States, and they also managed to figure out early on that they ranked pretty low in the scheme of things.
And exactly as the article says, a lot of these guys went on to become successful hedge fund traders. These guys were always loners, and they had to be smart enough to develop their own opinions on things, and to take some kind of action based on these opinions, often running completely contrary to what eveyone else is thinking.
In other words, they would take steps contrary to the herd. The herd was being controlled by the Schmoozers, which is another thing entirely.
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In order to run contrary to the opinions of the herd, you are required to be absolutely fearless.
You see an opportunity, study it carefully, and if you perceive the risk to be far less than the potential reward, you act upon your belief. This takes some guts.
Naturally, everyone around you will consider you to be a Lunatic. You have to learn to ignore this.
Often everyone around you will have a shared opinion about something that is dead wrong. You showed up early with your contrary opinion, and found a way to make some money doing it. Meanwhile, everyone else is getting turned into woolly mittens.
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Being a successful trader also requires you to be humble. You must learn to quickly attend to your mistakes in order to mitigate damages to the Portfolio. Someone who never admits to making a mistake is a liar, because you will make mistakes as a trader. We all do. The name of the game is to stay in the game. This is how you build Wealth.
Developing your own opinions is fine; just don't get married to them.
*****
So we have a few of these "Grinds" bouncing around out there.
They are all Lunatics. Who cares about them, anyway? Nobody, really.
Most everyone else out there belongs to this huge herd of Sheep.
They're just doing and thinking what everyone else is doing and thinking.
Governments and Social Institutions absolutely love the Sheep.
The Sheep are easily controlled. For the most part, the Sheep just want things to stay just about the same. They start to complain when things actually begin to get worse.
Governments and Social Institutions pay attention to this. Governments and Social Instutions then try to figure out ways to keep the Sheep from becoming miserable.
Governments and Social Institutions don't want things to change all that much either, in spite of what the Schmoozers are telling you on TV. The thing that Governments and Social Institutions all want to do is to avoid losing their power. Power is the only thing that really matters to them.
It's the way of the World.
Mr. Charming.

The Steve Miller Band

I saw Steve Miller play at the Edgefield this week. He began his career way back in 1967. He has enjoyed a great deal of commercial success, which he no doubt deserves. He has worked hard at his craft of creating popular songs that people like to listen to.
He came onto the stage around 6.30 in the evening. He played some of his big hits, and then he played a couple of songs off his new album. In other words, he is still doing the work he has always done. He also played a couple of tunes by the Great Muddy Waters, and a Jimmy Vaughn song (the brother of Stevie Ray).
At 7.30 he played "The Joker", to raise the level of excitement of the crowd
It worked.
If anything, Steve Miller is a master entertainer.
*****
We have heard all these popular songs a zillion times on the radio. They have been played to death and are no longer interesting. The reason for going to this show was to hear these songs played live by the guy who wrote them all those many years ago, and to enjoy that experience at the Very Large Picnic with thousands of your neighbors.
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Steve Miller closed out the show with a lengthy version of "Fly Like an Eagle", one of his biggest hits of all time.
Dan and I were being smart about it when they launched into the intro to this song. We had already packed up our gear, and we left before most of the crowd. You could hear everything just fine walking back to the car.
Mr. Charming

The Edgefield

I live in Portland, Oregon. The Edgefield is a nice resort about twenty minutes east of Portland. They feature fine dining, and they offer more than a hundred guest rooms. They have a movie theatre, and you can get the spa treatment there if you want it. They have their own brewery, and a 3 par golf course to boot.
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This all started in 1911, when the county decided to build a poor farm in the middle of no where. A few years ago two brothers bought the place, and turned it into what it is today.
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I had never been there before. I went there with my friend Dan to see the Steve Miller Band. When we got there, we drove right by the massive stage that had been built for Steve Miller. We had tried to get there early; there were already hundreds of cars parked in cow pasture when we got there. They were just opening up even more cow pasture for even more cars to park.
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The "Concert" was being perfomed on the par 3 golf course. There was a sort of natural amphitheatre facing the stage. The golf course had been covered with green mats to protect the grass underneath. The "Concert" was actually a Very Large Picnic.
In order for this to work, eveyone had to sit down. That's what we were doing, and so was eveyone else around us. This way you could spend a splendid evening in July listening to some good live music, and be able to see these guys play the songs that had made them famous.
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About forty feet in front of us was this couple, along with their teenage son. They had brought with them perfectly good sand chairs to sit on, but they remained standing up, ruining the view of the stage for hundreds of people behind them, including me. They were ruining the Very Large Picnic.
I pondered this for a while. Then I decided to get up and talk to these people.
*****
I walked up to the wife and husband. In the nicest way I could think of, I told them that there were hundreds of people behind them that could not see the stage. All we could see were the backsides of three people standing up.
The husband said to me:"We are not going to sit down until the three guys in front of us sit down."
I told him this: "I am absolutely fearless. I am going to do for you what you are too afraid to do for yourself. I will tell the three guys in front of you to sit down too."
So I went over to the three guys. They got it right away. They were polite about it, and they sat down. And then so did the husband and wife and the teenage son.
I finally made it back to my little group. I got a lot of "thumbs up" from perfect strangers. Some people even applauded.
This meant a lot to me.
In my own small way, I had made the Very Large Picnic into a better experience for all the folks who, after all, had just wanted to see the Steve Miller Band.
Mr. Charming