Joro overlords

In recent weeks, my home has been completely taken over by Joro spiders.  I'd never seen one before until a few weeks ago, and now they're everywhere.

I've been reluctant to knock down their webs, and I'll tell you why.  For one, they're a novelty in this part of the world, and I'm a curious cat.  For another, they spin yellow silk that shines like gold in the sunlight, and I think that's pretty cool.  Thirdly, they eat a bunch of insects.  The webs are littered with their trophies.  I think maybe the native insects don't "see" the webs as well as they see the webs of native spiders.  Whatever the reason, the Joros are absolutely slaughtering the bugs on an industrial scale, and that's a good thing.

The creepy part is that there's so many of them right next to the house.  The native spiders have never behaved like this.  It truly feels like an invasion, a conquest.  The Joros are our new overlords whether we like it or not.

Now if we could just teach them to eat yellow jackets...

Rough week

I've been sick this week and have had headaches pretty much all week.  I think it started Monday afternoon when I was bitten on the thumb by a mosquito.  A few hours later, I started to feel achy and weird.  My guess is that the mosquito gave a bug of some sort.  Who knows.

In any event, this week hasn't been fun, but I'm starting to get back to normal, I think.  I did some pushups today, the first exercising I've done all week.  My stomach's still not quite sure if it wants to digest food or not, but it's coming around.

I'm looking forward to colder weather.  When I get sick, I have a hard time dealing with heat.  I can deal with the cold better.  I wasn't always like this.  I used to be able to deal with heat better than cold.  But I'm older and fatter now, so I guess this switch was inevitable.

The hummingbirds are absolutely swarming at the feeders, and I've really enjoyed watching them this summer.  There's at least a dozen of them, and maybe closer to two dozen; it's hard to estimate with any accuracy due to the fact that they're constantly on the move.  When I'm sick, I stay inside due to the heat, so watching the hummers is one of the few ways I can enjoy nature from inside.

I've made a dietary change in recent weeks, and I think I'm losing a little weight.  Very slowly, but it's happening.  Let's hope I'm right.

Take care, folks, and make preparations for a winter full of hardships, because I've got a bad feeling about it.

Which way now?

I mentioned previously that the down-gaps on the S&P had filled in.  I also mentioned that there seemed to be resistance at around 4180.

Well, the market blew through that resistance line and climbed all the way to the 200-day moving average.  It stopped there and is on the verge of a pullback, maybe.

 

RSI is at 68 and MACD is at 92, so the oscillators are signaling that the market is overbought.  Anything could happen, but I'm expecting a pullback, at least to about 4100 or so.  That would be close to a Fibonacci line, I think.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert at this stuff, and you certainly shouldn't make any decisions based on what some guy posts on a blog.  This is for entertainment purposes only.

Coupons are back

Some months ago, Harbor Freight decided to do away with their popular coupons.  I was disappointed.

Recently, though, they seem to have had a change of heart.  Coupons are back!  :D

I don't often buy stuff from Harbor Freight, but I do scour the online coupon database from time to time.  On occasion, I'll find a screaming deal that I just can't let pass me by.

I've bought a number of clamps from there.  You won't find more bang-for-your-buck anywhere else when it comes to clamps.  I especially like the Pittsburgh quick release bar clamps.

I think it's great they brought the coupons back, and I hope their little coupon-less experiment didn't lose them too much market share.

In a heartbeat

There's been a good bit of 1980s nostalgia in recent years.  I haven't watched Stranger Things yet, but I've been thinking about giving it a try mainly for the nostalgia.

It all makes me homesick, frankly.  I'm homesick for the decade of my youth.

We didn't have easy availability of music and video that we have now, but that made us appreciate what we did have all the more.  And it left plenty of time for playing outside.  I used to ride my bike all over the place.  Now I haven't even sat on a bike in years.

Anonymity was the default state.  Whatever you did, you could be confident that no one was going to film you doing it.  This enabled mischief, but it also enabled the learning of valuable lessons.  It enabled liberty and growth and the accruing of wisdom.  We learned about living by doing.  Now the Eye of Sauron is everywhere, and we're all scuttling fearfully through our lives like goblins.

If I could go back to the 1980s, I'd do it in a heartbeat, man.  In a heartbeat.

Gaps got filled

I mentioned a little more than a month ago that gaps on stock charts tend to want to be filled.  It's one of many old sayings among stock traders.  As old sayings tend to go, they're not right all the time, but they're right often enough for people to notice the pattern.

The broader market did indeed rally to fill those gaps, just as I suspected it might.

 

It looks like there's some resistance around 4180 or so.  The MACD is on the high side and the two lines are beginning to converge, so I'd look for the market to begin a decline with the next couple of weeks.

It should be obvious to everyone by now, but I'll say it anyway: we're in a stagflationary environment, and we've been in one for some time.  We need a Paul Volcker, but we don't have one, so we'll be stuck here for a while.

Dragonflies abound

I've noticed that there are several dragonflies patrolling the yard now.  In the past, I've only ever seen one or two at a time.  Now I see three or more at a time.

I suppose the mosquito population has something to do with that.  Predators go where the prey are.

Whatever the reason, I'm glad to see them.  I hope they eat every last mosquito out there.