Elections Have Consequences -- New Mexico Is Quickly Finding Out -- January 26, 2021

The road to New Mexico: Scuttlebutt on social media yesterday: the Delaware Basin is dead; the end of drilling in New Mexico. Operators scoot three miles to cross the state line and drill in Texas. 

The market: S&P sets a new all-time high; Dow jumps after J&J, 3M top estimates.

If this is what the pandemic looks like, long live the pandemic. My hunch: things are not as rosy as they look with regard to the pandemic. Which, of course, is good for the market. The frog - boiling water analogy? Maybe.

Bubbles: GS calls out 39 ticker symbols. AAPL is not on the list. Nor is TSLA.

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A Shout-Out To Truckers Across The Country

We shipped our Chryser minvan from San Pedro (Los Angeles), CA, to Portland, OR.

The process was one of the simplest ever. Went very, very smoothly. 

Time line:

• early January, went on line to find a trucking company
• within one hour, had the contract with a broker
• car scheduled to be picked up on Monday, MLK holiday
• miscommunication: trucker thought he had two-day window; great communication with trucker; end of day: minor speed bump
• car picked up on Tuesday, January 19, 2021
• car delivered to Portland, OR, Monday, January 25, 2021

What a great country. It helped following truckers on the YouTube to get a feeling how to communicate with truckers. Communication is key. 

With regard to communication:

• call only when necessary
• too much communication can make things worse
• as a customer, always put yourself in the shoes of the truck driver -- hey folks, things change
• we did this during the draconian lockdown in California; in fact, just after making the deal, Governor Newsom declares 120-mile max radius for driving in California; our truck driver never missed a beat;

Love 'em all.

Pay it forward. Give each truck driver in the process as big a tip as you can afford. You will never see him/her again but it will brighten his/her day and the next customer will benefit. Guaranteed. 

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Nissan Rogue

Replacement for our Chrysler minivan? Possibly.

Toyota Sienna: too expensive. 

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USAA Billing Statement

After decades with USAA, the insurance company debuted a new billing statement this past month.

Incredible. I've never seen such a great billing statement. I wish I could post screenshots but obviously I can't. 

This is a great example of someone (probably a committee) really, really looking at insurance billing statements from the customers' perspective. 

Color me impressed.