Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Farewell Puggleberry-pooh

Fluffy Pug Face, Puggles for short, faded slowly out of my life today. Puggles, Pug-pooh, occasionally Puggleberry or Puggleberry-pooh, had been with me fourteen years and I'll miss her.  She was, like all my cats, a rescue.

It wasn't a hard decision. Her kidneys had begun to fail in January. By March she was eating less and less, drinking constantly to stay hydrated, and losing weight. Today she was just 5lbs.

She was an almost constant companion, sleeping on the right side of the bed or on my shoulder. Since she got sick she'd become even more attached. Her eyesight had gone a few months ago but she managed - not as well as Jack who was blind from a very early age, but well enough. She would ask to be lifted into my lap when I was working, her two front paws grabbing onto the side of my chair. Then she'd walk circles over my desk and across the keyboard. After she'd been put back on the floor several times, she'd sit just under my chair. Puggles was quiet and affectionate, with the most amazing blue eyes, and a little vain.  But she was very special and I miss her.

Thursday, April 17, 2025

Flight to gold

Commentators have been wondering why, when equities declined sharply over the tariff debacle, money didn't go into treasuries, typically a safe haven in times of uncertainty.  Perhaps I'm missing something but that fact that Trump has threatened to turn fixed date securities into perpetual bonds might be the reason.  Why would anyone buy an instrument with a fixed maturity if there is a significant risk they would never be able to get their initial capital back?  It appears investors who have sold equities have moved into gold instead.