Oct 9-12, 2008

Many things happened in these days so one entry ends up for all of them as I wrote them over the 3 days.

October 12th Sunday

We had a lovely 75 degree yesterday—sudden low coming through forabout 3 days. We had a nice memorial for Mom yesterday, My cousins were able to come and many friends of mine and hers. K. and I had put up lots of pictures of her life and our childhood and old neighborhood and our various cats: Puff, Alex, Patch. Eveyone really liked looking at the pictures and just seemed to like talking to each other so that our short service started late!

The pastor did a nice job, theme was my mom’s life was peaceful and abundant and good.
It was a good day,
Nmaste, Shamba

Friday, October 10, 2008
International Trade Seizing Up Due to Banking Crisis (Updated)
I have been more than a tad concerned about near-paralysis in the money markets and imploding equity prices. But this e-mail, from a well connected international investor not prone to alarm or (normally) the use of capital letters says that the banking crisis is staring to bring international shipping to a halt.By way of background, letters of credit of various sorts are essential for trade. For instance, imagine the difficulty if you are, say, a Chinese manufacturer who wants to sell his wares to buyers overseas. How can he be sure the goods he ships will ever be paid for? Imagine the considerable difficulty and cost of chasing a deadbeat in a foreign country. Letters of credit. issued by banks, assure payment. They can also serve to finance the shipment (ie, fund the inventory while it is in transit).Not only are banks now leery of lending to each other for much longer than overnight, they are also starting to refuse to honor letters of credit from other banks. From the above-mentioned reader:

At the end of the day, if every counterparty is bad then you don't have a market and you don't have an economy. I spoke to another friend of mine this afternoon, whose father has been in the shipping business forever. Pristine credit rating, rock solid balance sheet. He says if he takes his BNP Paribas letter of credit to Citi today for short term funding for his vessels, they won't give it to him. That means he can't ship goods, which means that within the next 2 weeks, physical shortages of commodities begins to show up. THE CENTRAL BANKS CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN OR WE HAVE NO ECONOMY, LET ALONE A CREDIT SYSTEM.

We spoke later in the evening and said he had heard of another instance of a trade transaction failing, different parties entirely, this a shipment of coal, again due to the unwillingness of the seller's bank to accept an LC from the buyer.Update 12:10 AM: Confirmation comes from the Financial Post, "Grain piles up in ports" (hat tip reader Vox Sanus):

The credit crisis is spilling over into the grain industry as international buyers find themselves unable to come up with payment, forcing sellers to shoulder often substantial losses.Before cargoes can be loaded at port, buyers typically must produce proof they are good for the money. But more deals are falling through as sellers decide they don't trust the financial institution named in the buyer's letter of credit, analysts said."There's all kinds of stuff stacked up on docks right now that can't be shipped because people can't get letters of credit," said Bill Gary, president of Commodity Information Systems in Oklahoma City. "The problem is not demand, and it's not supply because we have plenty of supply. It's finding anyone who can come up with the credit to buy."So far the problem is mostly being felt in U. S. and South American ports, but observers say it is only a matter of time before it hits Canada."We've got a nightmare in front of us and a lot of people are concerned it's going to get a lot worse," said Anthony Temple, a grain marketing expert based in Vancouver....Access to credit is key to the survival of maritime trade and insiders now say the supply is being severely restricted. More than 90% of the world's trade by volume goes by ship..."The credit crisis has made banks nervous and the last thing on their minds is making fresh loans," Omar Nokta, an analyst at investment bank Dahlman Rose, said in an interview with Reuters.While shipping has always been a cyclical industry whose fortunes rise and fall with the global economy, analysts said the current crisis over the drying up of credit is something they have never seen before.Jason Myers, head of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said exporters across Canada are getting caught up in the turmoil as customers delay payments, forcing them to shoulder the cost."What some companies are saying is we can't pay you until our customer pays us, so it becomes a question of who bears the financial risk and the cost," Mr. Myers said. "We're hearing about it more and more."What that means is that manufacturers are getting hit as revenue slows and longtime customers disappear from the order book altogether. As profits decline, investment in product development starts to fall, too, he said.The Canadian Wheat Board, one of the world's biggest grain marketers, has yet to refuse a customer because of poor credit, according to a spokeswoman. "As of this moment we haven't run into that problem," said Maureen Fitzhenry,

October 10th, Friday

Headlines from finance.yahoo.com in the morning:
Dow Plunges 350 Pts Over Credit Concerns in Roller Coaster Session
Later 450 points to 8100 or so … Oil is at 70$ or so.
October 9th
October 8th of last year, the Dow peaked intraday at 14,134.
Today 8666.24 Fall of 591.86 … :0 :O S&P 916.68
Or from cryptygon.com
“Dow Jones Suffers Biggest Percentage Decline in 20 Years

October 10th, 2008

The Dow Jones index fell 678.9 to 8579.2, its biggest percentage drop since Black Monday in October 1987 and its third biggest points decline in history.

In a staggering final hour of trading, the Dow fell more than 400 points after Standard & Poor’s downgraded car maker General Motors and investors were forced to sell off shares to meet margin calls.

The S&P 500 fell 75.0 to 909.9 while the Nasdaq closed down 95.2 at 1645.1, its lowest level since August 2003.

Trading volumes soared, sending volatility near to all time highs, as the Dow closed down 7.3pc. That came exactly a year after the index hit an all-time high on October 9, 2007….

October 9th
October 8th of last year, the Dow peaked intraday at 14,134.
Today 8666.24 … :0 :O S&P 916.68

October 1-4, 2008

My mother took her last breath about an hour after I left her yesterday afternoon. The time was 4:20 p.m. I had to go back as they called me right after I got home from seeing her. She went peacefully and more quickly than I thought she would. She died the last day of the month of September 2008.

To make a long story short, M. and I will be planning a service for Saturday next weekend. My brother can come for 3 days.

I’m doing okay but seem to be very tired from all the tension of her illness, and all the other news out there!

Bailout/rescue bill passed the Senate first on Wednesday and House on Friday. It was packed with all kinds of stuff before the voting. We’ll see what this or doesn’t do for confidence in the markets. Public citizens were enraged by the bills but businesses and banks were for it as a confidence booster. I can see both points of view and I didn’t express an opinion. R. our broker really wanted it to pass. He ‘s sounds truly worried about how long this coming recession/downturn will last—he was afraid it would be longer than 2-3 years. Scary because of him feeling this way going along with all the predictions the last 2-3 years about this possibilities. Because the bill WON'T STOP THE DOWNTURN COMING but it will slow it down or make it not so bad.

Namaste and Om Shanti,
Shamba/sheri

September 29-30th

Sept 30
Mom was very peaceful today; she also is quite unresponsive. Sghe talked a little last night to me but it was very hard to hear her much less understand her. I knew what she was saying:”I don’t know what I’m doing” or What can I do?

I told her she was doing exactly what she was supposed to and that she had done very well with her life. I told her that today as well. She was still somewhat agitated and restless yesterday and last night. She didn’t want too much next to her skin, sheet or robe or nightgown. Today she is much quieter with the white cat tucked under her hand.

--DJones actually came up today and was not as volatile as yesterday anyway.

--I went to get gas at the cheaper station at Bethany Home Rd and it was all out of all kinds of gas. They only had regular on Saturday; premium was all out and the guy said he expected a shipment but he hadn’t had one for the previous day either he was supposed to get. Station closest to home had enough of all kinds for a few cents more still it was 3.35.

--Got legal docs of Mom’s out to check on something. I’ve got everything I’ll need now.

--Made a big pot of veg soup this morning to keep busy.

shamba

September 29 Monday

Mom, Eleanor, is in Hospice of the Valley unit at Phoenix Baptist Hospital. She hasn’t eaten anything except a bite or two of chocolate pudding since Saturday noon meal. She just keeps saying she doesn’t know who she is and/or what I am supposed to do? She can be very agitated and distressed about these two issues.

Saturday she wanted me and the nurse to kill her, then that she was dying and was afraid and then a few times that she just wanted to stop and why can’t I just die. I told her is okay to die, and okay to be afraid and I was afraid too. I also always told her she was doing just fine and exactly what she was supposed to be doing.

I’ve been there every day with her for a few hours; but I am so worn out today I want to shut out the WHOLE F******* WORLD for a few hours. This also has to do with the finance news today—see below for that.

K. has to move from David’s to a half-way house; not more punishment/restriction but because of David’s connection with the Children’s Pool issue.

More news this interesting day (!):

--Yahoo finance headline at 12:00 noon MST:
Dow Plunges 700 as House Defeats Bailout Plan; Selling Intensifies- AP

--DJ down to 10,500; lots of acrimony about this not passing house between representatives. Most of the congressmen and women have been getting that most Americans don’t want this so they have every right to ask their representatives to do what they want. I don’t blame them but we will also get much worse sooner without the bailout.

And there will be freefall in the market until something is tried or we’ve hit the bottom.

--Congress isn’t supposed to get together again until Thursday! And tomorrow is Rosh Hashanah. So, that’s a holiday for them, too.

Got supplies last week from Sprouts of bulk items; I just keep buying food stuff! I want to get some more charcoal briquettes. I haven’t done any cooking since last Tuesday when Mom went to the hospital.

As for the October 7th date predicted by urbansurvival.com, a bank holiday?? I got a lot of extra cash from the CU last Friday and also made a large payment on what’s left on the credit card.

So much, can’t write it all down!
shamba

Sept 24-25

There is much news on the financial and economic and negotiating of the bailout but I can’t recount it all because Tuesday afternoon, Mom suddenly had trouble breathing, and the paramedics took her to Phoenix Baptist hospital. I went to the ER and met her there, someone from the Stratford was there with her, thank heavens. They are good people there.
She’s been there for a couple of days, heart tests, lung tests. Maybe the beginnings of congestive heart failure. She knows me but even talking to e she talks sometimes very incoherently. That’s news for her but it could just be the environment of a strange place.

I will say that the nurses/drs/everyone has been very nice there and it seems she’s getting appropriate care as far as I can judge those things. I met the cardiologist and coordinating physician of hers this morning. One had called me yesterday but I wasn’t home I was talking to Dr. Riess and filling him in on what had happened. I feel much better after talking to them today.
Cardiologist said heart and valves look okay. the right side of the heart isn't pumping as well as it should; it pumps to the lungs. A pacemaker is not necessary even with a slightly irregular heartbeat. She's got several new medications that are helping her, heart stuff; no I'm not sure what all they are. she hadn't seen the pulomonologist yet so we don't know what's happening with her lungs.

She also ate well at breakfast and not too much at lunch. She was dozing off when I left.
PS.Congress and bailout supporters still negotiating.

Cheers,
shamba

September 6 2008

Sun disappearing on the north side, patio side of the house due to seasons changing. I just have to move it closer to the north wall to cook with the solar oven. Temp are still in mid 100s about where they should be anyway. Cooking house for solar are now 10:30 a.m. to 3-4 p.m.
I just plug the cord that came with the oven into my extensions cord and plug it inside the patio door and voila! I continue cooking electrically instead of solarly! This works well in the shade between 4- 7 p.m. and it cooks quite well.

I’ll just have to try it on the front porch on the south side as the season turns more.
I picked up some small light weight round dark pans at Goodwill again. I bought 3 more and they can be used in the regular oven and solar. I was at goodwill to take a bag of things there so I decided to cruise around inside the store—it was 50% off day, too.

Signs of the times:
--My webspace is going up $1.00 a month. They haven’t raised prices in 3 or so years.
--Our laundry machines have gone up from $.75 to $1.00. This is washing machines and they haven’t gone up in years either. Most Laundromats are more.
--Mom’s residence at Stratford is going to have new management. I hope this avoids any major changes, like price rises, until a few months down the line.
--Gas is down and crude oil is down. Hurricane Gustav didn’t do much damage to oil/gas infrastructure; Ike will be around early next week. We’ll see where it goes. Josephine fizzled out in the middle of the Atlantic.
--FannieMae and FreddieMac are about to become part of the National Debt this weekend.
--11th bank for the year has failed; another rather small bank in Nevada. That’s 2 in Nevada with branches in Arizona.
--My house and car insurance went down 29.00 a month! They’re using credit ratings for criteria and I have decent credit it seems.
-- I don’t know how much my health insurance will go up this fall; enrollment is in mid Oct to Mid Nov. for us retirees.
--and, of course, the Whiskas cat food is going up some . It’s a little over $11.00 for that 18 pound bag; it used to be 10. Something and sometimes was on special for under 10.

also, Mom just seems to be disappearing before my eyes the past 2 weeks. She's also, too aware of the process that she's "going blank" as she calls it. she asks what she should be doing and when she's going to get over "this". "This" being the lack of initiative she can't come up with for herself. It's all part of the Alzheimers' disease. Lots of this process hasn't upset me I just know that it's part of the disease but this remark this past week really made me feel that I'm losing her and how terrible it is she is so aware of the demise of her ability to control her own consciousness.
That’s enough for now,
shamba

July 21-23

July 21
Got cake for Mom’s BDay tomorrow and candles but we’ll only use 8 for each decade of her life-although she’s 87 and almost needs one more candle. . I wasn’t up for making a cake from scratch when I haven’t done it for so long—another time.

Cooked roast in crock pot; yes, the cats get some of it. It’s enough meat for a while and I’ll probably freeze part of it.

Got more small white beans and ½ doz eggs at Safeway when I was looking at readymade cakes and pricing something else. I’ve got two potatoes outside in the solar oven and also a recipe for Roman Honey Cakes—I’m not sure how that’s coming out but it’s interesting. Very patchy sun today.

July 23, 2008
DJones up this week—toay 11, 64?.00; barrel oil down to less than 125.00; gas here dropped from 4.05 to 3.99 for regular. Wacko, it’s so wacko!

Then again it’s July in Phoenix with sixty something dew points all this week.

Checked out the Fresh & Easy store a couple of miles away. Smaller store but good prices for what I’d buy small selection than Safeway but good variety and better prices

Cheers, shamba.