Monday Morning Coffee September 4, 2017

Against a consensus forecast of 180K, the economy added 209K jobs in July. 

Strength was seen in health care, business services, and leisure and hospitality. 

The unemployment rate declined from 4.4% to 4.3%, which matched May's reading at the lowest level since 2001.

Economic strength usually results in rate increases, but offsetting factors have kept mortgage rates down.

“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Mark Twain

In the late 1960s in Ruston, Louisiana, two Bulldog quarterbacks' life paths diverged sharply. You might have heard of Terry Bradshaw, who went on to attain the top pick in the 1970 NFL Draft, a lengthy career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, four Super Bowl victories, a spot in the Hall of Fame and a second career in front of the camera.

You might not have heard of Phil Robertson, who was ahead of Bradshaw on Louisiana Tech's depth chart but gave up football with one year of eligibility remaining because the game and any future in it interfered with his heart's dearest passion: duck-hunting season.
"At the time, no one quite understood what exactly was my problem because I didn't put football as the ultimate goal, being this stud hossfootball player, but what they didn't see then, they get it now," Robertson said. "Because as it turns out, what am I talking about now?"
Robertson was referring to the duck call business he started out of his home, which became the Duck Commander regime and led some 40 years later to the creation of Duck Dynasty.

This is one of those times where a one-sentence pitch will tell you immediately whether a show is for you: "Duck Dynasty follows a backwoods millionaire family running a duck call empire on the Louisiana bayou."
Coming out of Vivian, Louisiana's North Caddo High School, Robertson said he fielded offers to join the football programs at LSU, Ole Miss, Baylor and Rice, but chose Louisiana Tech to remain close to home. Afterredshirting his freshman year, he was joined by some soon-to-be famous company on the depth chart.
"The quarterback playing ahead of me, Phil Robertson, loved hunting more than he loved football," Bradshaw wrote in his autobiography, It's Only a Game. "He'd come to practice directly from the woods, squirrel tails hanging out of his pockets, duck feathers on his clothes. Clearly he was a fine shot, so no one complained too much."
He spoke fondly of Bradshaw... "Bradshaw's a great guy," Robertson said. "I was the one that named him the Blond Bomber, and while he was at Tech, I said 'Son, you've got the want to and the drive to play in theNFL, you got a great arm,' and I said 'You got brains,' and when I got to brains, Bradshaw said, 'Are you serious about the brains?'

I said, 'Well, you have enough sense to play in the NFL.' As it turned out, I put it this way, he must've been smart enough to win four Super Bowls."
After three letter-winning seasons and with one year of eligibility remaining, Robertson had had enough. 

He says he spurned interest from the Washington Redskins and went after the ducks full time in the fall while completing his undergraduate degree.

"Bradshaw will tell the story better than I do," Robertson said. "To put it bluntly, he was very happy that I chose ducks because he moved up a slot. I was blessed with a good arm, or Bradshaw wouldn't have been playing second string to me.

"But you gotta remember, my heart was then and to this day -- let me put it this way: Throwing a touchdown pass to a guy running down the sideline, and he runs down with the ball for six, it was fun.

However, in my case, it was much more fun to be standing down in some flooded timber with about 35 or 40 mallard ducks comin' down on top of me in the woods. That did my heart more good than all the football in the world."

Robertson went to work as a schoolteacher for several years after graduating from Tech, obtaining his master's degree in education via night classes, with a concentration in English.

"I kinda liked ol' Shakespeare and them guys, you know," Robertson said. "I went back and got my master's just in case. I thought, if I ever needed it, I'd have the sheepskin to show people no matter how dumb I looked, actually I was about half intelligent. I got the degree to let 'em know I wasn't as dumb as I acted."

And all the while, Robertson continued to hone his hunting craft. Dissatisfied with commercial duck calls, he began producing and selling his own about 40 years ago. These led to a series of duck-hunting videos that began 25 years ago, which led in turn to stints on the Outdoor Channel. Then came the call from A&E.

"Let's face it," said Robertson, "the bar has been set pretty low for you to get on American television these days. I think they said, 'Why don't we try a functional family,' and somebody said well, that's a novel idea.

Round here, you know, there's no outbursts, belligerence, cursing, gettin' drunk, dope, no, we're all Godly people, so maybe it's a little switch for a change. We're not actually rednecks, but we probably could be calledgoodoleboys."

Indeed, we can think of a few college fans who'll be able to relate to theDuckmen's no-shave, no-laundry policies during the 10-week season. "We shower our bodies during the hunting season, but under no circumstances do we ever wash our clothes," Robertson said. "We hang 'em up and let 'em air dry. We begin to look like the landscape around us, you know what I'm sayin'?

Oh, they'll get it. Hey, life is good, life is good." ~ Campus Insider Newspaper

Escape The Heat This Weekend

With temperatures expected to reach 113 degrees inland this weekend, I thought it was a good time for a blog on places to go this weekend to escape the heat. One of the many great things about living in the Bay Area is that if you don't like the weather, just get in your car and drive a little bit and you can change it.

It's looking like it might be difficult to completely beat the heat this weekend but here's a list of places you can go that should be a little bit cooler.

The beach - With great beaches like Santa Cruz, Monterey and Half Moon Bay all within easy driving distance, the beach is a great place to go and get away from the heat. Of course this weekend, escaping the heat is relative as these beaches are still expected to see temperatures around 90 degrees, so bring lots of sunscreen. The beach can be a day trip or spend the whole weekend. If you plan to spend the weekend, then find indoor things to do during the hottest parts of the day and enjoy the beach in the morning and evening. Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Half Moon Bay all have some great shops and restaurants you can spend time in out of the heat.

Tahoe - Head to the mountains. Tahoe is expected to reach a high of 88 which makes it a great choice to escape the 113 degree heat. If you've only been to Tahoe in the winter, I highly recommend checking it out in the spring and summer. Between the lake, golf courses, casinos, spas and great restaurants, there is plenty to do. Check out this list of 50 Things to Do In Tahoe This Summer.

Mendocino Coast - The coolest spot on my list goes to the Mendocino Coast with temps expected to be no higher than 81 degrees on Saturday. It's also a great place to go to escape all the tourists. Fort Bragg is probably the best known town in this area and features great shops and boutiques, an indoor water park and water view restaurants. Don't forget to hop aboard the Skunk Train and enjoy a beautiful journey through the Redwoods without the hike! For more information on what the Mendocino Coast has to offer click here

The City AKA San Francisco - Most likely if you are like me you can start to feel like you've done and seen it all in San Francisco. You've done Pier 39, Golden Gate Park, Lombard Street, etc so what else is there? Well, there's a lot actually. Have you ever checked out the Wave Organ or the tiled staircase or the Seward Street Slides? What about the Cable Car Museum?

Here's is a list of 155 obscure things to do in San Francisco. It's still expected to reach 90 degrees tomorrow so make sure to find a few things that are indoors.

The Wave - You won't be escaping the heat with this option, but if you just want to cool off without going far from home you may want to check out Dublin's new waterpark The Wave. With an indoor pool, waterslides, a splash zone and more it would make a great place to spend the day, but don't be surprised if it is crowded. Here's a link for more information.

What about you? Do you already have plans to escape the heat? Where would you go and what would you do? Please share your heat beating escapes in the comments below.

Trivia Tuesday August 29, 2017

And I think I'm crazy for adding more Christmas lights to outdo the neighbors!

Monday Morning Coffee August 28, 2017

Every six months, the head of the U.S. Fed testifies before Congress. 

In her testimony on Wednesday, nearly all of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's comments simply reiterated what had already been communicated by Fed officials. 

However, she did provide one new piece of information regarding future Fed policy which caused a significant reaction. Yellen said that the Fed would not have to raise the federal funds rate "all that much further" to reach a "neutral policy stance," which is the rate which neither helps nor hinders economic growth. 

The practical implication of a lower "neutral" rate is that the Fed would stop raising rates sooner than investors had previously expected. 

A potentially smaller number of future rate hikes is undoubtedly good news for mortgage rates.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer. ~ Albert Einstein

Diabetes itself had been understood by its symptoms as far back as the 1600s - and the urination and thirst associated with it had been recognized thousands of years before.

A feared and usually deadly disease, doctors in the nineteenth century knew that sugar worsened diabetes and that limited help could be given by dietary restriction of sugar. But if that helped, it also caused death from starvation.

On the night of 31 October 1920, after reading a routine article in a medical journal while preparing a talk to medical students, FrederickBanting wrote down an idea for research aimed at isolating an internal secretion of the pancreas that might prove to be a cure for diabetes — a substance long sought by other researchers. 

The next morning, he discussed the idea with F.R. Miller, a professor of physiology at Western, who advised him to seek support for his proposed research at the University of Toronto. 

On 17 May 1921, Banting began work under the direction of Professor J.J.R. Macleod and assisted by C.H. Best.

Banting's and Best's experiments in the summer and autumn of 1921 were crudely conducted and did not substantiate Banting's idea, which was physiologically unsound. 

Banting had left London and risked all of his meager assets on the research in Toronto. However, he and Best did achieve favourable enough results treating some symptoms in diabetic dogs that Macleodapproved further experimentation and an expansion of the research team.

It was in 1921 that Canadian physician Frederick Banting and medical student Charles H. Best would be credited with discovering the hormone insulin in the pancreatic extracts of dogs.

Banting and Best injected the hormone into a dog and found that it lowered high blood glucose levels to normal. They then perfected their experiments to the point of grinding up and filtering a dog's surgically tied pancreas, isolating a substance called "isletin."

The pair then developed insulin for human treatment with the help of Canadian chemist James B. Collip and Scottish physiologist J.J.R.Macleod.

Macleod had been impressed with Banting and Best's work but wanted a retrial of the evidence. He provided pancreases from cows to make the extract which was named "insulin," and the procedures were repeated. 

Collip's role was to help with purifying the insulin to be used for testing on humans. 

Ultimately, the first medical success was with a boy with type 1 diabetes - 14-year-old Leonard Thompson - who was successfully treated in 1922. 

Close to death before treatment, Leonard bounced back to life with the insulin.

Insulin was immediately and spectacularly effective: not a cure, but a powerful lifesaving therapy for diabetes mellitus. 

Frederick Banting was hailed as the principal discoverer of insulin because his idea had launched the research and because of his prominence in the early use of insulin.

The Nobel Prize Committee in Sweden recognized the contributions of both Banting and Macleod in this important discovery. 

On learning that he was to share the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Macleod, Banting gave half his prize money to Best. 

Macleod gave half his prize money to Collip. 

Banting was awarded a lifetime annuity by the Government of Canada, was appointed Canada's first professor of medical research at the University of Toronto and was knighted in 1934. He was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society (London) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. ~ Michael Bliss

Trivia Tuesday August 22, 2017

If you were one of the wealthiest people in the world where would you live?

Warren Buffett is also the Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. As an agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Drysdale Properties I have access to a wealth of valuable tools and services that allow me to get your home sold or help you find your next home. So call me when you are ready to buy or sell a home and you'll not only get a great REALTOR® but also the power of a great company behind you!

Monday Morning Coffee August 21, 2017

One of the brightest spots in recent U.S. economic data came from the housing sector. 

Despite a lack of inventory in many markets, the national housing market continues to prosper.

Single-family housing starts were 10% higher than a year ago. Similar gains were seen for building permits for single-family homes in June. They were 9% higher than a year ago. 

Yes, inventory is still low in many real estate markets, but home builders are contributing by steadily increasing the number of new homes being built.

Thinking about selling your home? Curious what it is worth?

Click here for a FREE Instant Home Valuation.

"Give them quality. That's the best kind of advertising in the world."-Milton S. Hershey

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a time when ruthless businesspeople created empires of steel, oil and railroads on the backs of a hapless rural population forced into grim factory towns, Milton S. Hershey followed a different path to success.

Unlike Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt who offered their workers callous treatment and back-breaking labor for menial wages, Hershey offered his employees dignity and prosperity, inspiring bounteous love and loyalty in his workers and making himself wildly rich in the process.Hershey began his candy-making career at age 15 when he was apprenticed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, confectioner Joseph H. Royer. Hershey blossomed under Royer's tutelage, acquiring many of the skills and tools he would later use to build his own empire.In 1876, with $100 he'd borrowed from his aunt, Hershey opened his first candy shop in Philadelphia.For six years he worked day and night to keep the business alive. Working 15 to 16 hours a day, Hershey would make caramels and taffies at night, then sell them from a pushcart to crowds at the Great Centennial Exposition, which was being held to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.But in February 1882, after a winter dogged by illness and mounting debt, Hershey sold the business and headed to Denver to join his father in the great Colorado silver rush.Surprisingly, the riches Hershey found in Colorado came not from the ground, but from a cow. While working for a confectioner in Denver, Hershey learned that adding fresh milk to caramel greatly improved its quality and extended the candy's shelf life - a discovery that would be crucial in later years.Hershey left Denver for Chicago, where he started another candy shop. But failure continued to haunt him, and the venture quickly fell through.

After a similar experience in New Orleans, Hershey headed to New York City and opened yet another store. Despite his best efforts, the company continually lost money. When a group of kids stampeded his delivery wagon and made off with his entire stock, Hershey was bankrupt.Hershey returned to Lancaster to find that his relatives had given up on him, refusing even to take him in, let alone lend him money to start another business. But Hershey would soon find salvation in the form of an old friend and employee.Henry Lebkicher, who had briefly worked for Hershey in his Philadelphia store, not only offered Hershey a place to live, but also lent him the money he needed to bring his candy-making equipment from New York.

The pair then scraped together enough capital to start the business that would firmly establish Milton Hershey as a candy-maker, the Lancaster Caramel Co.By 1893, in addition to the original Lancaster factory, the now incorporated Lancaster Caramel Co. had plants in Mountjoy, Pennsylvania; Chicago; and Geneva, Illinois, which together employed more than 1,300 workers. Hershey's persistence had finally paid off. And this would prove to be just the beginning.During a visit to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Hershey witnessed a demonstration of chocolate-rolling machinery from Germany that sparked a new determination in him. Hershey turned to a friend and said, "Caramels are a fad, but chocolate is permanent. I'm going to make chocolate."The next year, using the very same machinery he'd seen at the exposition, Milton started the Hershey Chocolate Co. and began producing more than 114 different types of chocolate candies, including the product that would make his name famous the world over - the milk chocolate Hershey Bar.

Previously manufactured only in Switzerland and Germany, milk chocolate was new to the United States, and the Hershey Bar became an instant phenomenon.

It was so successful that Hershey sold Lancaster Caramel Co. for $1 million and turned his attention solely to chocolate.For several years, Hershey had been perfecting a plan for mass-producing milk chocolate. Now with the wealth generated from the sale of the caramel company, he could put that plan into action.

Inspired by the utopian "city of the future" created for the Columbian Exposition, Hershey set out to build not just a chocolate factory, but the ideal town where the work force could live, play, work and prosper.

Because of its rich supply of clean water, proximity to some of the finest dairy farms in the country, and plenty of land for expansion, Hershey chose his birthplace, Dairy Church, Pennsylvania, as the site for his dream city.

In 1903, Hershey broke ground for his new factory and set into motion the events that would turn his dream into a reality. The factory was modern in every way, with high-tech machinery that eliminated the cost and tedium of making and wrapping chocolate by hand, and made possible the mass production of high-quality milk chocolate at affordable prices.The community Hershey built for his employees (officially renamed Hershey, Pennsylvania, in 1905) was just as impressive and modern. It featured affordable housing with sewage and electricity, paved streets (with names like Chocolate Avenue and Cocoa Avenue), schools, department stores, a trolley system, churches, a library, a hospital, a zoo, an open-air theater and even an amusement park.

Both the community and the company prospered, and by 1915, the chocolate plant alone covered 35 acres; company sales rocketed from $600,000 in 1901 to $20 million by 1921.When the stock market crashed in 1929, Hershey refused to let the dark shadow of the Depression fall over his idyllic community. While other companies fired employees and cut back their operations, Hershey embarked on an ambitious building plan devised solely to keep his workers employed.

They constructed a new high school, a sports arena, a community building and a lavish 170-room hotel.

Legend has it that during construction of the hotel, Hershey was watching a steam shovel in operation when a foreman proudly commented that it could do the job of 40 workers. Hershey told the foreman to get rid of the shovel and hire 40 workers.Both the company and the town survived the Depression and continued to flourish, thanks to Hershey's singular vision and amazing inventiveness.

Hershey would put that inventiveness to use for his country during Word War II, when he oversaw the development of the high-energy Field Ration D bars carried by GIs serving in the war zones.

The 4-ounce non-melting chocolate bars packed 600 calories and could support soldiers if no other food was available.

Hershey would later say that the four Army/Navy "E for Excellence" awards bestowed on the Field Ration D bars were among the proudest achievements of his life. ~ Entrepreneur Magazine

Trivia Tuesday August 15, 2017

Check out this article on Wikipedia for a fun list of spite houses.

Here's one right here in Alameda, CA that is still standing and occupied.