Road Chronicles 000606 - BOBCAT

Las Vegas to Ryndon,

via Leeds and Ely

Late May and Early June 2000

Dear David,

We arrived Monday afternoon and I (belatedly) received your e-mail Tuesday night on my new notebook. I've never figured out the difference between a notebook and a laptop.

It sounds like you are where you want to be. I think you loved the part of your youth where you lived in Marana the most. It is very pretty there and much better than living in Tucson. Although, I have never met such nice people as in Tucson, unless it was in the shrimp fishing towns of the Texas Gulf Coast.

People in Nevada are not that friendly. They're friendly but not like Arizonans and Texans. And they're weird. It's like, in California they encourage and promote all kinds of alternative life styles and woe be to you if you talk bad of any of them. In Nevada everyone does anything they want and it's nobody's business but their's. Nevada seems to be more liberated in the sense that nobody presumes to care what anybody else does. But in Nevada they might back it up with a Saturday Night Special instead of a New York Educated Lawyer. Jack Mormons seem alright. It's funny how they seem to be willing to say much worse things about the regular Mormons than even I would. But the real Mormans seem to be much 

cleaner and harder working than the Jacks.

I wouldn't call any of us redneck trailer trash. Although, you are what you want to be. I'm sorry that you are also living in 'movable housing.' I think, if it persisted for two or more generations that would be a different matter. You tend to pick up mannerisms of those you are around. I have a problem with talking. If I live on the Kansas-Missouri line for four days and then pass through Arizona, the Arizonan will think I was born in Kansas or Missouri. I've been in Nevada growing on three months so I'm afraid if I showed up in San Francisco they would think I was country. Oh well, thinking positively, it will help me to pass as a local.

Mobile homes have the advantage sometimes of being more spacious and having more conventional fixtures than motorhomes and trailers. But having lived around them for a few years I have noticed that people never really move their movable houses anywhere. They tend to live in them till they die and then the homes go to the dump. They are almost impossible to resell.

We both had the good sense to buy used equipment so that we would not pay full dollar. That way they serve the purpose of reducing housing costs over a period of years. But in order to really be effective some of the money saved needs to really be saved and not spent.

I don't think any movable housing is good for keeping out the heat or keeping in the warmth. And you always have to worry about the roof. Don't walk on it or it will develop dents that collect rain water and leak. I really hope that this is just a passing phase for both of us.

I'm sure you know that one of the best things you can do is mist the rat dust with a fine spray of water so that it doesn't blow in the wind (hanta).

I'm glad you like gardening. It gives a certain pleasure to make things grow. We have a sort of blue-green tree giving us shade right now. But I don't think its a Palo Verde.

Glad to hear about Miss Daisy. She seems like a very special cat. Very much like our Baby Boppy which I found in the garden, so small it could not even hardly step over the blades of grass. I have tried not to talk about pets, because it reminds me of Pancho. He's dead. He could have been with us still. I loved Pancho. I don't want to talk about what happened to him. Baby Bop has learned on this last trip to ride on my lap while I'm driving the motorhome and even look out the window for a while. There was a dangerous time when he passed from laying on the floor under the driver's seat to laying under the brake peddle to laying on my lap. Most cats don't like water except for drinking. But then Daisy doesn't go into the shower till you're out.

I think I do have some investment savy and would call my self more of a fortnight trader than a day trader. I want to keep anything I buy forever. But in response to the violent swings caused by the day-traders I am forced to trade frequently to protect myself. The day I read your letter I just had one transaction and the next day two. But yesterday when the bulls came out, I lost my cool and went from a positive $10,000 in the margin account to having borrowed $ 5,000 on margin to buy like crazy. But I buy lots of Treasury bonds, Utilities, Foreign bonds, Municipal Bonds, and boring things like GE, News Corporation, Harley Davidson and Safeway.

I just got slammed in China. One stock lost 50% the day after I bought it. They dealt exclusively with the Chinese and the Chinese said they didn't want them. I own or have owned stock in China, Canada, Chile, Norway, Sweden, Finland, South Korea, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Cayman Islands, and mutual funds that specialized in Europe, Asia, Latin America.

I try to get into various industries and so forth so hat any one thing won't kill me. Foreign countries are hard to get into. It sometimes takes several tries before you find 2 or three stocks you can hold all at once. I was heavy into Latin America a while back and am just getting back into Brazil. But I am definitely in Europe and fairly well into China, Nokia, Ericcson, Smedvig, Huanang Electric, Sina.com, ADC Telecommunications, Motorola.

We spent Saturday traveling to Leeds, Utah. I wasted time in Las Vegas. My old landlord told me to join Sams Club. But when I handed the a check for $1,000 for a cheap laptop they said sorry no checks that size from a first time customer. So I gave them a piece of my mind and drove around till I found Comp USA. There I bought a Sony VAIO Notebook for $800 more (PCG-F420, Pentium III).

I wanted to stop at Casa Blanca for Rita, but she took advantage of me when I left the cab to swill down a ton of vodka, so she only saw Casa Blanca from the highway. There was a really neat canyon drive somewhere near the Virgin River. Leeds was very clean and attractive. Sunday we drove up through Pioche and stopped there to see the town. Then we drove up to Ely. Monday, Memorial Day, the motorhome wouldn't start and we were late leaving. It finally started and we drove through some really beautiful country along the Ruby Mountains (a long chain of shear peaks all covered with snow. I think it was that day that I saw a Bobcat cross the road in front of me.

We were told in Scott's Valley, California that the Banks Exhaust System was melting the starter solinoid. They said it was not an emergency but should be fixed soon. I crawled under and looked at it yesterday and the plastic housing where the wires feed into the solenoid is melted and the wires feel like they are damaged. I will try to contact a mechanic to fix it and maybe build a heatshield between it and the Banks Exhaust next week. Don't know how many times it will start without being fixed.

I have to go now. Will try to respond to the rest of your letter tomorrow. I will try to include a picture of your girl friend. It's tricky and I am clumsy at sending attachments in non-corporate e-mail. Here goes.

Charles