Sunday, May 20, 2012

I Live in Iowa: Week 57

Sometimes I ask myself, 'am I living "the life"'? After going down a hill earlier today on my bicycle at least 43.6 mph with my hands off the handle bars screaming, I do feel that I am living "the life". While that is simply one little three second burst of excitement in my life, it is indicative of everything else. For the record, from a conservation of momentum physics perspective bicycles and motorcycles become more stable theoretically at high speeds. The only problems are small perturbations which may cause excitement of a natural frequency, an imperfection in the road surface, cars, pedestrians, wind, animals, and loss of personal balance. So... it felt right at the time...

Anyway, I worked 53 hours this week. We have quite a lot of work to do and overtime is offered so I took it and worked extra hours. I finished more projects than I normally do, but let me tell you, sitting in front of a computer over 50 hours a week is not entirely fun. On the other hand, my time and a half rate does feel ridiculous.

Coaching was an anticlimactic end to the season. We had one very motivated person who was going to close out the season with a 10,000 on the track, but due to family commitments did not run the race. So that's it. The season is over. Our team has two people going to nationals, one in the 100 and 200 and another in the 400. I am excited for both of them because they are both multiple time school record holders and our only two seniors this year. What a great way to end  your college career.

My own training, went well, really well. I ran 50 miles taking a day off. I rode with the Wednesday night Free Flight group and we hammered on each other for 35-40 miles at an average of 19.6 mph. It's going to be a good summer. I registered for the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon up in Duluth, Minnesota and the Grandview Gallop here in Dubuque. Of note, I was not fast enough to get into the USATF Half Marathon National Championships, so I am in the actual Gary Bjorklund Half. Plus they have no prize purse for the half this year because it is going to the national championship race. This all means, I am probably one of the fastest people in the half. Which means, I could win the thing. Me? Win the Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon? For those that do not know, it's one of the biggest half marathons in the country.

What else? Does there need to be more? Isn't that enough? There is one more thing, I bought the DVDs "From the Earth to the Moon". It's pretty amazing, we went to the Moon!

Also, the company I invested in back in February, DHT Holdings, has had their stock price drop to the floor. I don't get it. They have more in cash than their market capitalization. Their book value is about five times their market cap. Their most recent quarter had earning per share of $.10 (meaning they are profitable) with a $.02 dividend. That's a Price to Earnings of less than two! That's a dividend of 13%. So I invested even more money in it. Of course there is probably something I am missing and I will lose weeks of pay. The only reason I can figure out people are selling at these record low prices is that they are afraid it will lose more value. In other words, when everyone else is selling, it must be a good time to sell. That's ridiculous. It is bewildering. As time progresses I am sure that I will learn some valuable lesson. Hopefully it is not some key variable I am missing now.

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