My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on September 22, 2008

Volkswagen TDI Cup racing had 18,000 fans watching at the Iowa Speedway this past weekend for the 5th racing in the circuit. Jimmy Underhill of Denver, Colorado, took first place at the speedway driving the  Jetta TDI for the 33 lap 30 minute sprint. He lead every lap in this impressive VW ‘clean diesel’ and claimed his first victory in the series. He placed third twice before, and second once but indicated that he went into the race feeling confident that he would finish in the top few spots. According to the VW media website, there was some impressive "door-to-door racing.”

Here are the finish result for all 29 factory prepared 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI ‘clean diesel’ vehicles:

1. (1), Jimmy Underhill, Denver, Colo., Bosch, 33
2. (8), Mark Pombo, Duluth, Ga., ful®, 33, -.268
3. (12), Michael DeNino, Gaithersburg, Md., Castrol, 33, -1.166
4. (7), Caleb Kenney, Berkeley, Calif., Hoopla, 33, -4.305
5. (2), Chris Castagna, Boston, Mass., Oakely, 33, -4.803
6. (13), Liam Kenney, Sterling, Va., ViON, 33, -8.049
7. (9), Chris Kuenning(R), Grand Rapids, Mich., Aggreko, 33, -8.145
8. (4), Josh Hurley(R), Cooper City, Fla., Athlete’s Performance, 33, -8.424
9. (3), Juan Pablo SierraLendle, Puebla, MX, Aggreko, 33, -9.000
10. (22), Jake Dallenbach, San Antonio, Texas, Select 1, 33, -9.324
11. (20), Chris Holman, Burlington, Ontario, UTI, 33, -9.591
12. (15), Andy Lee, Colorado Springs, Colo., Kyosho, 33, -10.105
13. (16), Andrew Cordeiro(R), Woodbridge Ont, Canada, Castrol, 33, -10.755
14. (14), Gary Williams_Jr., Dana Point, Calif., Bondurant, 33, -11.433
15. (11), David Jurca, Federal Way, Wash., Red Bull, 33, -11.949
16. (10), Taylor Broekemeier(R), Fort Collins, Colo., Oakley, 33, -12.851
17. (19), Wyatt Dallenbach, San Antonio, Texas, SCORE, 33, -13.414
18. (17), Evan Pflock(R), Redondo Beach, Calif., DC United, 33, -13.933
19. (18), Derek Jones, Philadelphia, Pa., Bosch, 33, -14.971
20. (23), Chad Brassfield(R), Phoenix, Ariz., Kyosho, 33, -15.253
21. (26), Adam Love(R), Normal, Ill., SCORE, 33, -24.674
22. (25), David Heinz(R), Pittsburgh, Pa., Pre Loved, 33, -26.500
23. (21), David Richert(R), Niverville MB, Canada, ViON, 33, -27.077
24. (29), Adam Kretschmer(R), Brampton, Ontario, VW Credit, 33, -27.563
25. (24), Adam Crepin(R), St. Louis, Mo., SCCA, 33, -27.989
26. (28), Ryan Buetzer, Long Beach, Calif., Hoopla, 33, -30.272
27. (27), Noah Arundel, Tonka Bay, Minn., VW P&A, 33, -34.794
28. (6), Nick Mancuso, Mettawa, Ill., Auto Logistics, 32, -1 lap
29. (5), Timmy Megenbier, Melrose Park, Ill., SCCA, 32, -1 lap

VW Jetta TDI Cup provisional race results listed with finishing position, starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown, car sponsor and laps completed.

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Posted By RichC on September 21, 2008

It is not that having a day alone is all that unusual, but its feels a bit more like I’m alone? Instead of driving my son back to college with my wife today, she is doing it alone and leaving me to chores at home (and there are plenty after the latest wind storm) and available for a trustee meeting tonight. I’ve given today a more leisurely start and opted to update a few personal office details — like bills and spreadsheets — fixed a couple small items around the house and have saved the heavy lifting and sweat chores for the heat of the afternoon; so much for logical timing? Nevertheless, this first day of autumn is just another extension of summer as the temperatures are in the 80’s and sun is out as bright as ever.

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Posted By RichC on September 20, 2008

Its often the small things in a day that can trigger a smile. Here’s a text message from a long distance friend that had me laughing … of course the actual word was “coworkers” but the shortened message that came to my Treo smartphone was a bit more comical. (Thanks for the laugh Scott!)

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Posted By RichC on September 19, 2008

Big changes for the financial markets as the SEC steps in to slow short selling of 799 financial companies and secure Money Market Fund holders on the heels of an injection of loan money from Uncle Sam earlier this week. Predatory short selling is in part to blame for the meltdown in financial sector. In summary, here are the actions so far: “toxic bond debt” is being rescued by the injection of 185 billion in capital from the banks around the world (and loans to AIG by the U.S. governmet), short selling will be limited and the U.S. Government will back Money Market Funds. These announcements has the dollar strengthening and stock market futures on the rise after a last minute gain yesterday.

Jim McTague of Barron’s was interviewed Thursday night about our recent Wall Street woes, and in his view we are going to see additional bank failures since the they are over leveraged. The Presidential candidates will focus on U.S. economic health and what should be done to correct our current condition. In the end, McTague’s conclusion is that the next President will have very few dollars to work with after the U.S. makes commitments to citizens and financial companies. He comments that no matter which candidate or party is in control, that “there is no way we can tax our way out of this problem.” He indicates “that growing our way out is the only real answer,” and therefore he believes that whoever has the best “growth plan” for America in next 4 years will offer the best solution in order to pay not only our new debt, but the trillions in previous debt. Once again, the election looks as if it once again is pegged to the economy.

Senator John McCain proposes the low taxes for all Americans in hopes to stimulate business growth and it has been a criticized by those wanting additional dollars in Washington DC. Senator Barack Obama has advocated lower taxes on middle income Americans, but higher taxes for those wealthier Americans. A piece of news that has gone semi-unreported is that Barack Obama seems to have recently indicated that “if we remain in recession in January and he is the new president, he will not raise taxes.” *

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Posted By RichC on September 18, 2008

Sorry about that “incorrect information” … 🙂

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Posted By RichC on September 17, 2008

Whoa … kind of shocking when I walked into our local grocery store to pick up a few items for the kitchen — the coolers and freezers were all bare! I suppose I should have given it a bit more thought since much of the area is still without power. Schools in my area have been closed and thankfully just our cable (including Internet) has been out. I did spend another evening cutting up trees and cleaning up a bit. A friend who borrowed our generator finally was able to get power on Tuesday night, while my brother north of Dayton is still without power or water (well pump requires electricity). BUT … things are improving and by Wednesday we should have a patched roof.

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Posted By RichC on September 16, 2008

The news for long term investors, home owner equity and equity oriented retirement plans is pretty ugly. Monday’s drop of 504 points of the Dow as continued news that financial companies in the U.S. are in serious trouble triggered by Lehman Brothers facing bankruptcy. Another company, AIG fell 49% on Tuesday morning and has brought the markets down again … the worst daily point plunge in the U.S. stock market since the first day of trading after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In addition to AIG’s woes, the financial markets were rattled by the rushed sale Sunday of Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corporation. Both presidential candidates are rushing to address this crisis, as answers and leadership will no doubt be the hinge-pin to victory in Novemeber.

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Posted By RichC on September 14, 2008

Hurricane Ike didn’t just come ashore and disappear after the Texas and Louisiana landfall, but continued to leave damage in its path. On Sunday here in Ohio, the strong winds arrived and were gusting over 70 mph between 2 and 6 PM. Here in the Cincinnati area, power outages were widespread — 650,000 in the Cincinnati area, 80,000 in Dayton and 90,000 in northern Kentucky.

In anticipation of moderate winds, I put most of our cushions and lightweight items away, but didn’t expect that the wind would be strong enough to take down trees, tear off shingles on our house and blow the gazebo off its pilings in our community lake. Here are a few photos (click photo for larger versions):

Shingles off the roof of our house

Bradford Pear down in front of house

Tree from upstairs window

Gazebo blown off pilings

Pine torn out by the roots

Clean up in the neighborhood

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Tags: cincinnati, damage, efe, gazebo, hurricane, ike, ohio, storm

Posted By RichC on September 13, 2008

There is a lot of discussion on TV about the possibility of a significant rise in fuel prices in the wake of Hurricane Ike hammering Texas and Louisiana. As I post this message on Saturday morning just a few hours after Ike came ashore, the conclusion is that the shipping channel in Houston is ok, only two oil platforms have been set adrift and don’t pose any current danger. The Colonial Pipeline is shutdown (supplies the northeastern part of the U.S. with oil) and there has yet been a report on damage to the refineries. We do know that nearly 25% of all our refined fuel comes from this area, so any significant damage will affect the price of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. So far in my area of Ohio there hasn’t been any “gouging” as is being reported in some states, but its still early …

Reports are that fuel prices could rise one or more dollars over the next couple day and weeks, let’s hope not.
Here are a few national number from Thursday and Friday from “GasBuddy.com.”

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Posted By RichC on September 13, 2008

As I head to bed on Friday night, I watched Hurricane Ike come ashore as a very wide storm pushing a surge of up to 20+ feet into some areas of the Texas coast. Although my thoughts and prayers are with those who are affected directly, the rest of the U.S. will likely feel Ike’s impact through gasoline prices and some significant rain though the nation’s breadbasket. On Friday, the markets saw wholesale gasoline jump higher as crude oil actually continued to trade lower, sinking below the $100/barrel mark. (April 2, 2008 was the last time it was at that level)

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