I’m Back and I’ve Been Shopping

I am finally back in Oregon after about 3 weeks of “vacation”. I put that in quotes because on my second day in San Diego, I was out for a run (I was training to run the Portland Marathon). A douchebag riding his bike on the sidewalk scared the shit out of me and I fell directly on my kneecap. I can’t believe I didn’t shatter it. Two weeks later, it’s still swollen, and I’m still sidelined from workouts, so no marathon for me. I wrote an email to the Portland Marathon organizers, because even though their policy is that they don’t do refunds or transfers, I suspected that maybe I was special enough to get one. They sent me an email that essentially said, “No fucking way. Read the rules, you’re not special.”

But it also said this: “We do encourage you to either consider running as much as you can of the full or if you need to run the half, to register for one of the remaining charity entries.”

What? I told you I’m injured and cannot run at all (I still limp a little walking) and a doctor told me that I risk blowing out my knee if I run. And you want me to run and use my race entry as a charitable donation and get a tax deduction? Fuck you, Portland Marathon. What if I ran on your advice and did hurt myself? Also, I don’t even come close to spending enough during the year to even touch the standard deduction. That was not helpful. They won’t even roll my money into an entry for next year.

Anyway, here’s a picture of my knee the day I hurt it:

Ouch!

Needless to say, I didn’t do much but sit on the couch while I was in San Diego. No hiking, no swimming, no fun. But I did have lots of beer. So I guess that was OK.

I went shopping last week when I got home. Between a quick trip to Costco for dog food and coffee and a Winco trip, I managed to spend $200. To be fair, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my fridge so bare, but I did not feel like I got $200 worth of food. I noticed that eggs were up to $2.11 for 18, which is a $0.34 increase.  One thing that really pissed me off. I went to buy a pint of ricotta cheese to make some baked ziti-like concoction. I came home with 15 ounces of cheese. I guess they’re phasing out pints of cheese now.

Moving forward, I’m watching for a slight pullback in prices which would match a recent drop in commodities futures, including those for food. Coffee, cotton, and corn saw some of the bigger non-precious metal drops. However, like the gas and oil connection, it’s much stickier on the way up than on the way down, so we might not see this reflected at the store for some time, if at all.

One reason I see cited for the recent drop in commodities is the “strength” of the dollar. I would argue that it’s not so much that the dollar is “strong”, but that we are the least smelly turd in the pile of international currencies. The Euro is on the verge of complete collapse on the heels of a Greek default (which now seems imminent). As a result, many people ‘flock to safety’, which has traditionally been the dollar. We are given a relative bump in strength, but the fundamentals that are weakening the dollar are still the same, so we can look at this as a road bump on the way down. At this point, watching the Euro leaders bicker over who’s paying what and when in the Greek bailout is kind of like watching a couple drunks fight over a bar tab on the Titanic.

And now for some positive thoughts, I’ll leave you with a few highlights from our trip.

Ouch!

A Seal in San Diego- or as I like to call them, Sea Cats

We saw Ron Paul speak in LA. It was awesome.

Chris asking a few Perry supporters, “Why???”

Mt. Shasta

My car is COVERED in bugs. Gross.

We stopped at Crater Lake on the drive back.