boilermaker75

To get an idea, during the dotcom bubble you had commercials like these,

Just don't eat the yellow snow.

Salvatore is following Frank Zappa'a suggestion. “It’s not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to terms with stupidity and make it work for you,” Frank Zappa.

West Los Angeles, that is probably the value of the lot..

My daughter just bought a new condo. It was built in 1981 and hasn't been updated. She's replacing floors, tearing down walls etc. Sheets of plywood that would have been around $30 six months ago are costing her around $150.

John, I don't recall seeing it in the CoBF Books forum. It has been quite a while since I read it, > 10 years. So, I don't recall what is in it other than I had a good impression. I should reread it. I probably would get much more out of it today than I did when I originally read it. If I get to rereading it, I will post my impressions and some detail of what I got out of it. Mike

We had a homeowners policy with Liberty that was set up through GEICO. Same thing happened, the rates crept up to where we finally realized we had to shop around. About 6 months ago my wife contacted GEICO and they got her several quotes. We are now with Travelers for about 2/3 the cost for essentially the same coverage.

We had a sump pump fail about 20 years ago and made a claim. Now we cannot get a policy for ground water flooding for our house with any insurer. Two years ago our daughter's condo was broken into, many things trashed, and some things stolen. She had a security system but they had her on the phone for over 5 minutes before they called the police, so he got away. When we inquired about a claim we learned that if she made a claim she would not be insurable for burglary with any insurer. The security company admitted their agent screwed up waiting so long to call the police. Our attorney said alarm company contracts almost universally disclaim any liability for damages related to theft even it it is their fault. When you make a claim you are put in the CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) data base. So they all see your history when you apply for insurance.

McDonnell Douglas president Michael Sears, who became CFO of Boeing after the merger, ended up a convicted felon. He was involved in "hiring" a government employee who was in the process of giving Boeing a $20 billion lease agreement.

I should have waited a few minutes to give my old brain time to retrieve what I was looking for! The system is C.L.U.E.

Insurance companies can see all your previous insurance claims in some data base. I cannot recall the name of that data base and wondering if anyone knows what it is called?

I remember his book, "Unconventional Success," as being pretty good.

It is my wife's favorite shoe and she found the ad. I've tried to find them but without success.

Did anyone get a pair of these? https://www.brooksrunning.com/en_us/berkshire-hathaway-running-shoe/?tid=em:br:USA|20210430_Gear_Berkshire-Hathaway-PP|CV3X:Catch+Warren+Buffett+inside:April+30,+2021&utm_source=bm23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Image+-+Bank+on+a+great+run+|+Now+we're+in+business.+Our+limited-edition+Ghost+13+provides+a+soft,+smooth+ride+-+plus+design+details+that+celebrate+our+parent+company,+Berkshire+Hathaway,+and+its+founder,+Warren+Buffett.&utm_content=Image+-+Bank+on+a+great+run+|+Now+we're+in+business.+Our+limited-edition+Ghost+13+provides+a+soft,+smooth+ride+-+plus+design+details+that+celebrate+our+parent+company,+Berkshire+Hathaway,+and+its+founder,+Warren+Buffett.&utm_campaign=USA|20210430_Gear_Berkshire-Hathaway-PP|CV3X&_bta_tid=242529284421392130194237307719843197933726269696527573566139194469698952976933748718081129594830176520

It was showing $1.30 when I went to AMZN. I bought it anyway!

I had not heard of capital IQ before, but I now have an account through my university library.

My wife and I were fine after the first Moderna shot. After the second dose we both had effects, her's much worse than mine. We had gotten our shots in the morning and I didn't sleep well that night. I think I woke up 20 times and could not get comfortable. The next day I woke with a headache and felt like I was coming down with something, but I could function. The second day I was much better, the effects about 10% of what they were the day before. For my wife she didn't feel well for two days with her symptoms being more severe than mine. This is a well known side effect profile (more side effects, more pronounced and lasting longer) with the second dose. It's actually a sign that your immune response (protection) is building. An interesting feature in many places is that (given the spread that has occurred) many people who are being vaccinated have been exposed to the virus already and it is expected that such a pre-exposed population is more likely to suffer from side effects. An interesting aspect which is being documented with the CV vaccines is that the increased delay (vs studied delay and initial recommendations) between the two doses is actually associated with a stronger (and likely longer lasting) immunity ('booster' effect). Local reactions to vaccines can be quite marked (pain and skin changes at injection site) for certain vaccines (ie tetanus shot) when immunity is already present. Keep a record for your next emergency room visit. There are 'biological' explanations behind this phenomenon but it's basically the inverse of the law of diminishing returns (on certain incremental capital). We were in LA March 2020 and cut our visit short because of the virus and flew back to Indiana. My wife became ill and in bed for 7-10 days. We have speculated that she had covid, but back then she only had a video conference with her doctor. Her doctor didn't want her to come in, thought she didn't have covid, and didn't want to test her. Her more severe reaction to the second dose than me could be because she actually had covid.

My wife and I were fine after the first Moderna shot. After the second dose we both had effects, her's much worse than mine. We had gotten our shots in the morning and I didn't sleep well that night. I think I woke up 20 times and could not get comfortable. The next day I woke with a headache and felt like I was coming down with something, but I could function. The second day I was much better, the effects about 10% of what they were the day before. For my wife she didn't feel well for two days with her symptoms being more severe than mine.

I got my shot at a WMT pharmacy. It was straightforward making an appointment and very little wait. I imagine WMT has the same system everywhere.

I remember watching it in slow motion. BNSF was cash-flowing well its rights to scarce physical pathways across U.S. After learning about Bill Gates' railroad purchase, I had started following it before Berkshire bought it. I started paying more attention as Berkshire started buying shares. As the # of shares purchased kept on going up, I remember realizing that Berkshire is probably looking to purchase it outright. My memory is a little faint, but I think Buffett tried to hide the purchase of shares on that also a little bit. During the big recession, I remember when price was around $70 per share, I was waiting for it to fall further, and then Berkshire snapped up the remaining shares at $100 per share. Now, I see VZ with its cash-flowing rights to scarce spectrum across U.S. in similar situation and wonder if it might be too big to swallow, or if there is a probability that it might be a way to pick up BRK shares for cheap. In inflationary times, VZ's rights also don't need as much higher maintenance as would BNSF's rolling stock. Wonder how the ratio of VZ's Market Cap of $230B to Cashflow from operations of $41.8B compares to BNSF's valuation in Buffett's mind. That $41.8B annual cashflow from operations ideally belongs in Buffett's hands to invest further as he will likely be able to make better investments with it than arguably VZ has been. I remember writing a lot of puts on BNI, from around 60-strike all the way up to 90-strike in 2008-2009. It was like an ATM spitting out cash. I've written some 55- and 56-strike puts on VZ, but at an order of magnitude smaller volume for now than I was doing with BNI. Way to go! If I remember correctly, Berkshire also picked up some BNI shares by writing puts perhaps in an attempt buy shares without raising the price. Did your puts end up getting exercised? In hindsight, did you make more money by selling puts than you would have made by buying BNI shares at the time to get BRK shares for cheap? Just so that I understand, is your volume with writing VZ puts lower than it was for BNI because you like to be more diversified now or because you're not as sure yet if BRK will acquire VZ as you were with BNI? If the April 13F shows a lot more VZ share purchases, would that change your mind? I responded yesterday, but now I don’t see my response. So, I’ll try again! I did get put to on BNI and I would turn around and sell covered calls. I never looked at whether I would have been better off just purchasing BNI and waiting for the deal to close. I like writing puts to play these risk arbitrage situations because I set the date for the close rather than buying the stock and not knowing when, or if, the deal will close. Also, I was writing so many puts on BNI I would have been heavily on margin if I had just bought the stock. Yes, I could have gotten heavily on margin if I was put to on everything, but I was staggering in price and time throughout 2009. The best thing about the BRK’s purchase of BNI was the introduction of the B shares. As soon as there were B shares, I started writing puts and accumulating BRKB by being put to. I have gotten to 80% of my portfolio being BRKB, so I am really concentrated. I am keeping my volume of VZ puts low because I am essentially fully invested and don’t want to end up on margin. I was already interested in BNI pre-Buffett. So, I was confident ramping up my put volume. VZ only came on my radar because of BRK’s purchases so I am being more cautious.

I remember watching it in slow motion. BNSF was cash-flowing well its rights to scarce physical pathways across U.S. After learning about Bill Gates' railroad purchase, I had started following it before Berkshire bought it. I started paying more attention as Berkshire started buying shares. As the # of shares purchased kept on going up, I remember realizing that Berkshire is probably looking to purchase it outright. My memory is a little faint, but I think Buffett tried to hide the purchase of shares on that also a little bit. During the big recession, I remember when price was around $70 per share, I was waiting for it to fall further, and then Berkshire snapped up the remaining shares at $100 per share. Now, I see VZ with its cash-flowing rights to scarce spectrum across U.S. in similar situation and wonder if it might be too big to swallow, or if there is a probability that it might be a way to pick up BRK shares for cheap. In inflationary times, VZ's rights also don't need as much higher maintenance as would BNSF's rolling stock. Wonder how the ratio of VZ's Market Cap of $230B to Cashflow from operations of $41.8B compares to BNSF's valuation in Buffett's mind. That $41.8B annual cashflow from operations ideally belongs in Buffett's hands to invest further as he will likely be able to make better investments with it than arguably VZ has been. I remember writing a lot of puts on BNI, from around 60-strike all the way up to 90-strike in 2008-2009. It was like an ATM spitting out cash. I've written some 55- and 56-strike puts on VZ, but at an order of magnitude smaller volume for now than I was doing with BNI.

Whiskey first then the stout chaser for a true Boilermaker!

Congratulations! Looking forward to taking mine when I'm eligible. I'm old, that is why I am eligible! Just got my second dose!

I have added it to my wishlist!

Loving to 100 sounds great. And what a way to go!