Random Thoughts

I'd love to be doing this more often than once every couple months, but I won't promise it will happen, so here are just some things I've been thinking about.

• The mortgage industry is fairly healthy, on the whole, and the subprime "collapse" doesn't really amount to too much from our vantage point. However, markets are funny things, and they respond to press and atmosphere fairly sensitively. The press is bad and the atmosphere in the mortgage industry is like a graveyard - okay, well, then like the house right next to the graveyard, which isn't itself a harbinger of death but still gives you the creeps. Lenders are scrutinizing even our fairly solid loans far more than ever before, creating delays and increasing stress and cost for our clients. It's frustrating.
• No, the market isn't "bad". But it's not good. I would still advise buying, and inexpensive money can still be had, but caution is recommended. And solid, professional advice.
• Utah needs rain really badly. This sort of pretend rain of the last couple of days is worse, almost, than nothing.
• It's been interesting to watch the SuperLiga games over the last couple of days. SuperLiga is an 8-team soccer tournament between Mexican-league and MLS teams. So far, the MLS is 1-0-2, and the LA Galaxy (sin David Beckham) beat CF Pachuca last night 2-1 in a cracking good match. The interesting thing is that most of the fans in the tournament so far are cheering for the MLS teams. Granted, the games are being played in the US - but when the US national team plays here, especially against Mexico, it's an away game. Not, it appears, in this competition. Local teams seem to have captured the fan base much better than the national team has. It's curious.
• Say what you like about J.K. Rowling and her writing ability (and I'm in agreement that she's not creating great literature), Harry Potter is a towering literary figure, and quite possibly the most recognized character in a book since Jesus. And for my money, the most annoying since....since....okay, there's never been a protagonist or antagonist as annoying as Harry. 'Long about chapter 20 of this last book, everyone in my family was rooting for a serial killer to wipe out him and Ron and Hermione so Ginny Weasley could run off with Neville Longbottom. Alas.
  
• Maybe it's just me. But given the travails of the cycling world, I have to comment and ask a question. In the last couple of days, we've lost four riders from the Tour de France, two of them among the greater names in the sport, one of them the leader of the 20-stage race after stage 16. First, the comment: the cycling authority has incredible guts. Sending these guys home is akin to ejecting one team's starting running back in the Super Bowl. It's just totally impossible. No other sport inflicts such damage on itself during its marquee event, no matter what the provocation. But now, the question: what for? Does anyone really care if these guys are doping? Isn't it practically impossible to catch them doing it? Is there some reason why we care to try?
  

Pray for my Uncle Kumen, and my mother, both recently hospitalized with heart problems, both now released and doing, as far as we can tell, quite well.

And pray for rain.