Commercial Break Between First Quarter And Second Quarter Of ObamaCare

The first quarter has come to an end.

We're now in a commercial break before the start of the second quarter.

So, what will we be focused on going in the second quarter? Offside penalties, that is -- deadlines and confusion over the deadlines.

Fox is reporting:

The deadlines in the ObamaCare enrollment process have been a moving target. For those seeking coverage for the start of the new year, the deadline to sign up was originally Dec. 15. Then it was moved to Dec. 23, and then again to Dec. 24. Even after that deadline passed Tuesday night, the administration announced that those who ran into technical problems on HealthCare.gov could still seek an exemption and get covered by Jan. 1.

Then comes the next set of deadlines. After appeals from the Obama administration, major health insurers announced earlier this month that they would give people until Jan. 10 -- as opposed to Dec. 31 -- to pay their first month's premium and have coverage effective Jan. 1.

But many states running their own exchanges have their own deadlines for first payments. Some have more than one.

In Idaho, for instance, Blue Cross, Bridgespan and Select Health extended their deadline to Jan. 10. But PacificSource extended its deadline to Jan. 15. The deadlines in Washington, D.C., also depend on the insurer.

Other deadlines are earlier. California's and Rhode Island's is Jan. 6. Vermont's is Jan. 7.

It was noted that Mr Obama, already covered by the best government health insurance program out there, the military health program (Tricare), has "also" signed up for "Obamacare." He opted to enroll only himself, and did NOT elect to enroll his wife or his daughters (three more folks thrown under the bus, I guess). Not only that, he chose the least expensive plan, a "bronze" program that will cost "only" $400/month. It's hard to believe that's the least expensive plan for a healthy, non-pregnant, relatively young male.

Oasis Reports A Huge Well In Camp Oil Field -- The Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Wells coming off the confidential list Christmas Day (Wednesday) and Thursday:

Thursday, December 26, 2013

• 23103, 556, SM Energy, Johnson 3-6HS, Musta, t11/13; cum 3K 101/3;
• 23804, 786, Oasis, Lars 5792 13-3H, Cottonwood, t9/13; cum 12K 10/13;
• 24272, drl, HRC, Fort Berthold 147-94-3B-10-3H, McGregory Buttes, no production data,
• 24646, 3,284, Oasis, Pikes 5200 41-20B, Camp, t8/13; cum 62K 10/13;
• 25070, drl, Hess, EN-Hermanson a 155-93-3601H-4, no production data,
• 25124, 224, Oasis, Shafer 6093 13-1B, Gros Ventre, t8/13; cum 12K 10/13;
• 25396, 1,882, Oasis, Rizzo 5493 44-23T, Robinson Lake, t11/13; cum --
• 25496, 719, Slawson, Walleye (Federal) 1-12-11H, Sanish, t11/13; cum --
• 25665, drl, BR, Washburn 44-36TFH, Charlson, no production data,

Wednesday,  December 25, 2013

• 24450, 1,528, Whiting, Kummer 34-31-2H, Pleasant Hill, t6/13; cum 32K 10/13;
• 25746, 113, CLR, Christine 1-30 H1, Hanson, t8/13; cum 12K 10/13;

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24646, see above, Oasis, Pikes 5200 41-20B, Camp:

Date	Oil Runs	MCF Sold
10-2013	9914	13282
9-2013	23778	20491
8-2013	27627	18227

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Holiday retail numbers will be interesting to watch. 

The other day I posted that a US postal service carrier said that in his 30 years of working for USPS he had never seen such busy holiday season, delivering packages.

Now, this very, very interesting story: UPS says there system was overwhelmed with all the packages. Reuters is reporting:

A high volume of holiday packages overwhelmed shipping and logistics company UPS, the company said on Wednesday, delaying the arrival of Christmas presents around the globe and sending angry consumers to social media to vent. 

Amazon.com responded with an email to affected customers offering shipping refunds and $20 gift cards to compensate. A convergence of factors, including higher volume than expected and recent patches of bad weather, caused the delays, UPS spokeswoman Natalie Black said. The company projected 132 million deliveries last week "and obviously we exceeded that," Black said, without disclosing how many packages had been sent.

Meanwhile, another economic data point that surprised analysts. CNBC is reporting:

Perfect timing: just before Christmas, the market has been gifted with another strong economic number--this time, in the form of November durable goods. The figure was up 3.5 percent, was far better than the 2.5 percent gain expected, and even orders excluding defense were strong. 

That indicates capital goods orders are picking up. Because of an expiring research and development (R&D) tax credit, there is some question about whether capital goods orders have been "pulled forward," which would explain the strong rise. Regardless: this is the third decent number we have had, after November retail sales and personal spending were both better than expected.

The Nativity: From The Gospels of Matthew And Luke

Most Christmases, we begin our Christmas Day reading the Christmas story. Today, my wife handed each of us a brand new copy of Ruth Sanderson's The Nativity: From The Gospels of Matthew and Luke, c. 1993.

We each took turns reading one page. 

The pages are unnumbered, but the third page of text (about the sixth page):

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

Ah, yes, to be enrolled. 

Merry Christmas to all.

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A Note to the Granddaughters

I received a number of books for Christmas.

More on those later but it was a great Christmas as far as books go, including a biography of J. D. Salinger, a biography of J. Paul Getty, and incredibly, the autobiography of J. Paul Getty, written at the request of editor-publisher Hugh Hefner back in the 1960s.

The first chapter of J. Paul Getty's autobiography is as good a description of what is going on in the Bakken as any could hope to find. Nothing is new under the sun. 

This is my Japanese mother-in-law's lemon tree. It has been producing lemons at least since 1975 when I met my wife-to-be.  It produces lemons throughout the year. We get so many we give them away to local delis to be used in their recipes calling for lemons.