Bob Riggins
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Some of you may not know, but I am into art myself. I consider myself more in the primative abstract vein. I also work real cheap, maybe $3.95 for a fishing portrait (actually I just add your name to the sample below).
The Tampa Bay area is a medium sized city, around 3 million, however, it is wrapped around the bay and has a lot of frontage on the Gulf.
I fear the fly fishing industry will be particularly hard hit because it is a discretionary product.
If you have the opportunity, pick up a copy of the book, Atlas Shrugged, and force yourself to read it.
Enlightening.
Or you can wait until next year when the movie is due out.
Zach,
I don’t know if you remember, but a while back I wrote you about my opinion that the country was in a period of decline, and that I was old enough that I would probably be dead by the crash, but you and my son, being the same age, would face hard times. I’m not directly an economist, but my bachelors and masters degrees were in economics, so at least I have some background. Here is my reasoning.
1. The U. S. no longer has the major industrial base that was built up during World War II, and the remaining industrial sectors are heavily regulated compared to emerging countries and face high labor costs. This is true of the major European countries also.
2. We have exploited (in the economic sense) our major natural resources, which fueled most of the long term growth in this country. There is no place else to expand and the uses of much of our remaining resources are protected by environmental concerns.
3. Our business model favors short term gains over long term goals, therefore, the tendency is to take the money now rather than reinvesting in new technology and change.
4. At the risk of appearing to be an old fuddy duddy, the current generation was raised in a long period of prosperity and the parents, being a product of the 1960’s, failed to instill the dicipline necessary to face long term struggles.
5. We have mortgaged your future through a massive national debt. I say we (my generation) have mortgaged your (the current generation) future. If I was in my 20’s or 30’s, I would really be pissed. And what is worse, we are doing it again by financing a bailout (with your future), so that we won’t have to face the pain before we check out.
6. We are heavily invested in the stock market through 401k’s and retirement accounts. Even without the current downturn, we were due to start cashing out. This would drive down the capital markets and move the economy further to a service sector economy, a nation of shopkeepers, as they used to say about England. As an interesting side note, you will recall the effort at privatizing Social Security and moving that money to the stock market. Interestingly enough, that would bolstered the market a little longer, to make sure we all made it to the end.
7. The war against radical islam. That’s just starting, so I don’t know where it is going.
So, first of all, sorry about mucking it all up; second, thank God I have a good supply of fly rods and flies; and third, to quote Douglas Adams, “So long and thanks for all the fish”.
I’ve never used a ULA Force, but I have a Litespeed 3.5 which it fish with an 8wt in salt out of a kayak, so it gets it’s share of abuse. It has held up very well and is a lot stronger than it looks.
I agree, that the dog is probably an alpha female and is trying to assert dominance as #2. All I can say is your wife cannot let her get away with it. My wife solved a similar problem by grabing the dog when it didn’t mind or appeared aggressive and holding it down in a submissive position (and even growling at it). Once she established who was the “big dog”, the problem was resolved. But, you must do it now that the dog is a puppy. Once it gets big, I could be a real problem.
