I spent most of my July 4th Holiday over in Canada. Really what was behind it was the need to just get away for a change in scenery. So other than hanging with my family over there, I did do a couple of things on my own. The feature being my little wandering around the Woodbine Race Track. It's in Rexdale right by Lester B. Pearson International Airport and has been a fixture since the 50's.



This is what it cost to fill up My uncle's Nissan Maxima starting with a 1/4th tank. Mind you I filled my up car with 1/4 of a tank for $60 in the US of A.


If you Can't be a real good golfer, at least look like one...









For the most part the track is largely under utilized as there are 5 levels. The frist floor is the Casino and most of the horse betting activity is on levels 2 and 3. I went up to 4 and 5 somehow through using the stairs and I felt like a kid exploring into places that I should not have been ;-)

What an ass kicking day on Wall St. Although, in all I had the best day I ever had owning individual stocks. So for the most part when the Red arrows are all over the place, I'm happy and if Gold & silver counters by going green, then I'm ecstatic. This shit is only to get worse, not better. My advise is to get just buy precious metal stocks/mutual funds if that is something you can do.
_________________________________________________________

On another note I just discovered

I Can't Believe I'm Still Single

on Showtime tonight. All I can say is I DO NOT WANT TO END UP LIKE THAT GUY! Yea, I do see some similarites between Scott Baio's "Scott Baio is 45 and single," but WTF??? It makes me want to get married again just for the sake of getting married again, even though I realized that it was a horrible decision to make just to avoid being some weirdo like this Eric Schaeffer guy.

He's not a bad guy at all and is totally misunderstood, but unfortunately he does not have the balance to counter his shortcomings. If you are going to be a socially oblivious guy that comes off as a prick you need to be more of a bad influence "the kind of JERK that women love" or be a total man wuss to be successful in relationships that you are seeking. Being a socially oblivious prick or at least appearing so does not get you any sympathy from any woman. The decades of him not being with anyone just drive this home.

I have to hand it to Showtime for just being the kind of premium cable for shows these days. It will be a show that I will be watching regularly to make sure that I extinguish the shit that I have in common with the guy, because honest I do see some of my self in him and it FREAKING SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF ME!!!

This article kind of irked me today Basically we are all going to chip in to bail out people that are under water in their mortgages. Frankly I think it absolutely sucks. Let's reward people that took on irresponsible risk by saving their asses at your expense. Here I though this was Capitalism and for taking a chance at profiting you also accepted the possibility of losing. So as a guy that is just saving his money to maybe, "PUT DOWN A DOWNPAYMENT" I have to watch my tax money go to people that gambled and LOST. I mean if you're a Real Estate Developer and you lost you should not come to me to recoup your losses.

The sad part is that's it is criminal what say the Banks have done with people's deposits. Here is a Freaking Fine Example I seriously want to know what they were smoking when they though of that project. Here is my guess, (1. Real Estate only goes one direction, that is Up 2. We can always write this off 3. There will be some government bailout to help us out, so if the bank goes under FDIC Insurance will cover it.) Seriously the amount of money that is swishing around is just astounding.

Now we have people on people calling for serious restrictions on Commodity and Futures trading. This is the blame for the run up in Energy Prices. Look no one really cared for the last 7 years when Housing prices ran up. People were actually cheering when it was going on, "Flip that House, Flip that House, Flip that House" on A & E. There was never a cry for "Win fall Profits Tax" or the People that were banking the dough in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada were not going to SHARE THE PROFITS WITH YOU WHEN TIMES WERE GOOD! Then again, that's the coutry we live in now Privatize the profits & Socialize the Losses. It's OK to take a chance and lose money, but if you take a chance on a house it's not your fault. After all is it really too much to ask when you BORROWED MONEY & PROMISE TO PAY IT BACK? !?

Just think now in a couple of years as the 'Burbs unwind the Slumlords that have been sitting on property in the City for decades are going to be rewarded now that people won't be able to afford the white picket fence. Are they going to spread the money around as they start to say Cha-Ching after they can actually sell their stuff to people that are actually going to live there instead of flipping them to some "investor" on Craigslist that just can't pass up a bargin of a $25,000 house? I don't think so. We're just going to throw money down a hole on declining McMansions in the suburbs & exSuburbs as they turn into say Red Cross Offices as the Mansions on Delaware Ave did decades ago as the cost of keeping up those structures up just became too burdensome.

I just had a really start to what should have been a lazy Sunday. So what I ended up doing was just taking a Sunday drive of which I could just get away for a few hours & still come home at a reasonable hour. So I thought, heck why not drive down the 90 to check out the newest casino or in this case Racino (racetrack & casino) Presque Isle Downs Erie, PA.

Well I only lasted there 1/2 hour. The place was absolutely packed as the parking lot was just full. Once inside my friend got ID by security who then proceeded to ask questions about Seneca Niagara, since he has a room booked there next week or so. We basically told him that it was nice & if he wanted to try something different he could go to the bars on Third St. But Yea, The place was wall to wall people. You could not find a machine that was not occupied. The one aspect of the place that made me run was the smoke. Being so progressive in Canada and New York State it just drove me bonkers. I really wanted to check out the thoroughbred racing, but I just couldn't wait until then. So all in all we spend about 1/2 hour in the place. Although I have a few pics to prove it.






One more thing. How the stock of the parent company Moutaineer MNTG is only $5 I just don't understand. This place is going to be a goldmine. On the stupid shuttle bus I heard some slot players comment that the place was not this jammed packed when it had it's grand opening. Casinos in Pennsylvania are just going to be "CHA-CHING!" Yea, Mountaineer is going to some some people from Pittsburgh that are going to play at the Meadows & Wheeling Island, but all I can see for Presque Isle is Expansion. The people that mobbed this place today came from somewhere.


So other than just seeing this place, we went shopping at some mall in Erie & ate dinner at Quaker Steak & Lube. For the most part I just had to check the place out before they open up on Transit Road where Don Pablo's once stood in front of the Regal/Imax. I just had the wings with the cheese/bacon/scallions fries & it was pretty descent.

(e:jason) I think we may have found our answer to that problem...



;-)

I stopped by there on Saturday afternoon. For the first time I didn't go with any of my friends, I went with my Mom. For the first time in quite a while she was up north & available. So we went and it was an interesting time. The first lesson that was established was I really as a wuss compared to my Mom. The point to illustrate this was when I suggested we park in the Kleinhans Music Hall and for the most part it was cool since no one was in the lot, it was early enough before the event later that night and no one was really there watching the place. As we were walking out some guy very far away at the end of the lot was saying something about a ticket. I actually got worried, but my Mom was like, "Who Gives a Shit, If they ticket me I have the money." Yea, I have to admit even though I heard this there was still a bit of anxiety bubbling down below the surface. She has real balls, unfortunately more than I do I sadly admit.

It was funny to see her in action as after the AAF we went to Cafe Europa. After realizing that she could have had X,Y,Z @ Toro she went in there and asked for a menu, to keep! I guess from how she operates in FLA she basically has a book of menus from places to reference addresses, phone numbers and prices. The real fun part was going into LU Modern Classics and having her give her opinion on everything in the store. Good times for sure is all I can say.

So we walked the entire length of the show starting down at the bend of Allen St. I really only picked up a melted 7 Up bottle, just for the fact that it had the old label on it when it was still made with Real Sugar & not High Fructose Corn Syrup. For the most part it was different and cool to hear her really express her disappointment at the the majority of the booths. Heck, she even dragged me to church; Well kind of, it was the open house of the Trinity Episcopal Church. I ended up buying a $2 bottled water from there just for the privilege of checking out the stained glass donated by people that died 100+ years ago.

It was definitely not my usual AAF, as for the most part in years past we would just make it a bar hopping extravaganza. From what I saw most people did do it as I saw a ton of cups originating from Coulter Bay on the street. It was the right move as I just wanted to avoid my "friends" this year & the unbalanced relationships that I have had with them in their favor for many years.

---

In my own personal take to (e:paul)
In a crazy way I can see her point, but not in the same light as she was referring. As I have explained to people before, I am one of the few people that would leave this area for the reason of finding a descent wife. Usually the cause if career/job but for me it would be for someone that I can relate to and find attractive.
There are attractive people in WNY, but to be honest I wouldn't want anything to do with the self absorbed hotties that are around here.

So I can agree with you that there ARE attractive people around here. The point I totally disagree on is that there are very few quality people to take them any further than 1 or 2 nights.

Although for me in reality that really isn't too much of a attainable goal. As for me I just can't keep up a "normal relationship" with a "normal girl" just for the sheer fact that I just can't keep up the facade that I must have to go on. Eventually anxious or mildly depressed me will come out & when he does it's all over. So I guess that's why I end up with the goth chicks or the one's with low self esteem/wight issues. Especially the goth chicks, as I actually brighten them up to an extent and they can deal with my semi-regular lows.

At the end of the day on that topic, Dr. Neil Clark Warren is so right; You can't enter into a marriage if you're depressed. Any descent person just won't put up with your moping and whining.

So there it is a vulnerable (e:strip) post. Usually I'll lock it away some place else.

It is kind of funny that the last real American mega brewer is going to be gobbled up by foreigners.
Although they are right in that no one really drinks "American" beer anymore unless it is light or low-carb, it does bring a significant end of an era. The consolidation of the 70's and 80's are going to leave us without a true national brew. Miller is South African & Coors is 1/2 Canadian. Really the only beer large scale national company will be Pabst and their collection of brands of yesteryear. Yea, they tried to do this when they bought Rolling Rock, but in doing so they did alienate the drinkers of the brand. Come one I drank to because it came from Latrobe, PA, not New Jersey where it originates now.

Yea, I do always find an appreciation for Michelob, but the real stuff is hard to find without light or ultra on the bottle. Then again I a friend of mine compared it to whole milk, "It's good when you have it, but you just can't drink it everyday."

it was Bud's fault for never really branching out. They could have bought out the smaller old man beers, but they only came up with brew products that never went anywhere. L.A. Beer, Bud Dry, Ice Draft (although I do miss Bud Ice Draft)

There is only real one weird thing in my mind. Is Busch going to survive Bud? I mean when Schlitz when faded away in the 1980's after people stopped drinking it, the secondary brand "Old Milwaukee" survived & is actually still thriving today. Actually Old Milwaukee is the best selling brand for Pabst. The only thing I can think of is that there are still a bunch of guys still thinking of this commercial: the ultimate misogynist beer as sex commercial ever!

I can't wait to try this out

In kind of the spirit of (e:metalpeter) 's last post I have my own thoughts on the issue, but more so from the transportation side of things. This was influenced by listening to On Point this morning during my drive in to work. It was titled, The End of Affordable Air Travel?

It really reinforced some major points to me, the one being that at some point we are going to go back to flying as a luxury as it was back before regulation. Flights will be sparse and some cities will lose their service all together. The effect on tourism and even say grandparents visiting their kids and grandchildren are going to be major issues. So if someone is really family oriented taking that job down in the Southeast or Southwest may not happen, unless their family moves down with them. Who knows it may lead to someone taking a lower paying job in WNY just so they may see their family often instead of once every 10 years. Yea, you can make the point of keeping in touch with iChat, but really does it make up for a real hug or your grandma's fresh baked goodies?

What really gets me is that with airfare going through the roof taking that trip elsewhere may not be cost effective anymore. If it is going to cost $400 to fly to a city that you can drive to within 8 hours flying will lose out in the end. Going through the B.S at the airport just isn't worth it.

That's where I hope we may have a resurgence with train travel. I remember seeing a special on PBS about the (WIKIPEDIA - Pioneer_Zephyr) and realized what we could have had if train travel wasn't squashed by cheap oil for decades. It would really come in handy now wouldn't it? Could you imagine the Central Terminal if it wasn't piecemealed off 28 years ago? Especially if we had real "High Speed Rail" like they do in Europe & Japan? Not that "higher than the freight train thingy we have now between NYC & DC" Laying the track for a rain system is costly, but once is set up it is a kick ass way of moving people around efficiently in regards to a carbon footprint.

So in the end I think people are going to eventually fall back into the cities by circumstance not by choice (e:metalpeter) We will be like the French, in where the Rich live in the inner city & the poor live in the 'burbs. Some of the sprawl had to deal with people chasing "the best & newest." So where do you build a new house? Out where there is space, especially since you're going to build a McMansion with a 3 car garage & a storage place for that 40' "Dick Boat" and the R.V. You won't fit 3 cars, a camper, boat and jetski in that city lot. So you destroy a forest and build on a swamp so you can squeeze all of those toys in your property. Because you are chasing the next "best of the best" product like the newest line of spring fashion or the newest best high tech device. You wouldn't believe the amount of peices of furniture, rooms and kitchens that are bought and remodeled just so people can show them off to their neighbors. It got beyond utilitarian living & just became a pissing contest of "I have a Ralph Lauren ______ 2005 edition Blah. When it would get to be 2015, time to remodel & change everything even though everything works & is still functional. It's funny as I remember when my older generation of my family all died off they still had most of the same stuff they had when they first moved in to the houses they had. My mom hustled my great uncle's 1950's kitchen table & chairs along with the old school oven. The only reason why he got rid of the 'suffocation death trap" white latch refrigerator was it broke in the 80's & parts were not available any longer. My point is the stuff they had worked just fine & they never felt the need to remodel. Ironically when they passed the stuff they had was extremely valuable, since it was authentic & should have never survived our consumerism culture.

It was brought to my attention last night as I was leaving the R.E.M show. There weren't too many suckers like myself that parked & paid $20 to drive home. Most of the people were crossing the bridge on Lakeshore Blvd to catch the Go Train or the TTC. Yea, that was a good time last night :-) but seriously I wish I could afford to live in Toronto and ditch the car, but that is another post sometime...

Oil up more than $10 a barrel in one Day!!!

Yea, in a sick way I kind of enjoying it. I own shares of UGA the U.S. Gasoline Fund Exchange Traded Fund. It is basically a basket of Gasoline Futures Contracts, so when the price of Gas goes up, so does this Fund. Hey, I just wanted in on a piece of the action. It's a still a capitalist kind of society until next January when most likely things will change drastically. Not because of some grassroots mandate, but by circumstance. This is only the begining. 30 years of an economic boom fed by an easy money orgy is not going to be corrected by 6 months of "flat" growth and bounce back like some bad cold recession like in 2001. This is going to be 1930's time and as prices for everyday things explode like Wilhelm Germany things are going to get ugly.

From my perspective things in this country are going to go left for a very long time. Everyone is going to be affected, heck even Ed McMahon is going to lose his home and he is supposed to be that "Great Depression Generation" that kept saving every penny they made, kept a cellar filled with canned goods & stole all the condiments from the restaurants they went to.

Then again it is what we signed up for when the Alpha Males on Wall St came up with these "innovative" products to make "Joe 6 Pack" a mini Donald Trump. No one complained about inflation when Real Estate Prices shot up to the stratosphere & people had to sign their lives away. What perfect timing was it when the changed the bankruptcy laws right before the top of the slippery slop started to turn? Everyone wanted to keep their profits private when their house doubled or tripled in a few years. Now they want to nationalize the losses when they owe the bank more money now that their mortgage is under water?

It makes me wonder if America is really the ultimate capitalist society that it claims to be? Money like life is a Zero Sum game, the losers pay off the winners, the Credits balance the Debits. Right now it seems that no one wants to pay off what they owe. It may be true that we never want to go too far to the left, since Americans are always for free enterprise and such. But with powerful market forces at work I leave you with this one thought.

What if in the ultimate free market Capitalist way a Hedge Fund cornered the market on some life saving Pharmaceutical Drugs keeping them out of reach of the public; With the intention of holding them on pure speculation that they price would go up? It would be a free market with those with access to capital using their leverage to gain more capital, thus making a profit...

These are interesting times, it will be interesting to remember when before the return to strict regulation people used to drive up the cost of shelter, heat, food, ect.