Storm the Field

Time for my annual Black Friday game buying spree. Couple of highlights on some recent hits. Resident Evil 4 Remake: $39.99 Final Fantasy XVI: $39.99 Jedi Survivor $34.99 Prices seem to be identical at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy, though the window for when that price is valid varies.

Those of you that consider anything below 70 to be "cold" get a reprieve this weekend. Gonna warm back into the mid 70's, but nothing like the sultry summer days we saw early last week. Loving the current forecast for next week, assuming it pans out. Monday gonna start out unseasonably warm, but another fairly robust cold front will move through at some point, bringing some rain chances Monday afternoon through Tuesday morning. After that, things dry up and cool down. Wednesday and Thursday look like ideal Fall days. Sunny, calm, with highs around 60 and lows in the high 40's. Can't ask for much a better Thanksgiving setup. Extended look through end of the month looks very "November." Mostly cloudy and moderate daily rain chances. Temps in the 50's and 60's mostly.

Used car prices continuing to slowly come back down to earth.

Is "Nutted, but she still sucking" a dead meme or still valid?

Well, proud to report that our hard work over the Summer getting the lease into shape paid off this past weekend....for one of the other members that only spends 1 night a year out at the lease. Guy shot a nice, big body 8 on Sunday morning. Best buck taken on the property in several years. Don't think it was the same deer I saw on Opening Morning, because the pics he sent looked like a much bigger body. Still, the thought keeps nagging at me. Gonna head up again the day before Thanksgiving and get in a hunt that evening and next morning before joining family. I really want to take a 3+ day trip at some point, but just hasn't been working with my schedule lately, so have to settle for quick trips. Might try and block out some time at very end of season in that space between Xmas and NYE.

Looks like we're getting our annual Holiday Season dip into the 60's and 70's. Guessing we bottom out low to mid-60's at some point between now and Xmas.

CPI came in softer than expected. 0.0% MOM, 3.2% YOY. 10-year yield down to 4.46% All 3 major stock indices are up big, nearing 2-month highs. DJIA +435, approaching 35K again. S&P +70, just shy of 4500 Nasdaq +280, back over 14K

Above .500!

Press conference at 11 am tomorrow.

We put in what we call the "Harry Potter Room" under our staircase. Good place to store Christmas stuff, and dogs like to go in there to hide during particularly loud storms/fireworks.

This monstrosity costs $82,000!?!??!?

Started raining around 2:00 in Houston today, and current forecast indicates that, apart from some brief pauses, it won't really stop until Tuesday afternoon. ~100 hours of anywhere from "light drizzle" to "showers."

Sounds like the GM Meetings turned into Diarrhea Fest, literally.

I see the front has already started working its way through Austin, but It is still absolutely disgusting in Houston this morning. Was 80 and felt like 100% humidity when I left for work. Couple more hours until we start catching some of the outer rain bands and temps start dropping. Honestly looking forward to a cool, dreary weekend. Need to break out the gumbo pot.

Nintendo (NTDOY) shares saw gains Wednesday after the video game company announced it will release a live-action "Legend of Zelda" movie funded and distributed by Sony. This news comes on the heels of the successful release of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. movie adaptation earlier this year.

Ice Town costs Ice Clown his Town Crown

These guys do a damn good cover of this old Bathory classic.

Not great photo quality, but here's the 8 I saw Saturday morning. Never got a good broadside view due to all that overgrown brush in front of the feeder. Most of that shit seems to have sprang up after recent rains, b/c it definitely didn't look like that when we set that feeder up 2 weekends ago. Went out around lunchtime and cleared a bunch out. Probably made too much noise, b/c that evening hunt was the only time I didn't have anything come to the feeder.

Welp, that cold front was really nice while it lasted. Shame it didn't make it through the weekend. Went hunting Saturday morning and it was in the high 40's and damn near perfect. Same place that afternoon it was over 80, stand felt like a sweatbox and there were mosquitos buzzing in my ear. Couple of muggy days ahead in the mid-80's, then looks like solid rain chances Thursday and Friday. Longer-term forecast indicates we may finally settle into a more typical Fall weather pattern (i.e. highs <75, lows <60) starting this weekend. Getting tired of it being nice for a couple days and then immediately heading right back to the mid-80's again.

Welp, came back empty handed, but that was what I expected. This was really more of a scouting trip to see if we were getting any action. May have mentioned before that this place has been completely neglected as a hunting lease the last 2 years or so, and we only very recently started feeding again. Also, I was out there solo, so would have had to come across something no sane hunter would pass up to think about shooting. Saw a nice young 8 point, 2 doe, and a spike between 3 hunts. Fairly encouraging, considering we currently have a grand total of 2 feeders that have only been running for 2 weeks. Nothing ever came out to chase those doe, so guessing still a while until the rut starts in my neck of the woods. 2 annoying things: 1. Wednesday-Friday would have been perfect hunting weather, but or course season started on Saturday, just in time for it to get unseasonably warm again. Made a nice fire Friday night, woke up to temperature around 45 on Saturday morning. Warmed up a good 35 degrees over the course of the day. I was sweating my ass off until sundown. This morning started out warm and overcast and then got so foggy you could barely see. 2. Feeder timing was sub-par at best. Fed way too early on Saturday morning. Was still pitch dark for a good 30 minutes after going off. Also, Dad texted to remind me to adjust the feeders to account for DST starting today. I thought I had, but must have fat fingered the control panel on the one I hunted this morning and set it back 2 hours instead of one. Feeder went off exactly 1 hour after I was expecting it to, just as I was climbing out of the stand. D'oh! Double checked that everything's in order with both before leaving today, so that should be a one and done issue.

Fed aggressively raises interest rates with stated aim of cooling off overheated job market and wage inflation Job market finally cools off and wage inflation slows, lowering odds of additional hikes, bond sell-off reverses course Surly Permabears: What?!??! Why market no crash?!?!?!

Been gloriously cool and sunny the past few days. Alas, it looks like clouds, humidity and warmer temps return this weekend, followed by a couple balmy days in the high 80's during the middle of next week. Cool, dreary weather to follow starting late next week.

As of September 2023, 5.0% of employed persons are classified as a "multiple job holder." Basically right at the average for past 15 years. A higher % of people were working a 2nd job in the Fall of 2019 than the Fall of 2023.

My sophisticated analysis of market trajectory over the past 2 weeks: