Road Tripping

 

Back from an 800 mile business mile trip in the wilds of the Nebraska Panhandle and Northeast Colorado. While not a Texas trip, there are a lot of miles to be covered. Sorry, no pictures.

Saw exactly three Biden signs. Scads of Trump/Pence signs and flags.

I did see something that reminded me of the values flyover America retains. A more disliked Supreme Court Justice than Ginsberg would be hard to find in the area, yet flags everywhere were at half mast out of respect, and not just government buildings.

What Sisty calls over thinking and what I call thoughtful analysis,  is something I do while driving. Better, for my alertness, than listening to “tunes” or talking mouths (since we can’t see their heads) on the radio.

One random idea I kept mulling over is the number of “educated” university graduates with staggering student debt and degrees for which there are no real jobs. At their core, they know they have been gamed. Their salvation is make work government funded “social sector” jobs. The same party that created the mechanism for their dilemma is the party they expect to save them.

Another random idea is the impact all these wildfires will have on water supplies. My city has some of the finest drinking water in the country but draws water from five reservoirs that collect runoff from areas now burning. How much of a problem will that be for California?

Still another thought was the number of dying towns I drove through and the number of small, but seemly prosperous, towns just down the road in the heavily agriculture areas I traveled. Most, but not all, prosperous towns are in areas with ample water supplies. Most, but certainly not all dying towns are in areas where dry land farming is practiced.

Back in the day I worried this particular bone in trying to decide places to hold our offsite sales. I never developed a template and instead asked questions here and there. At the Chamber of Commerce; are you getting more new members than you are losing? At the town clerk (permits, permit, permits up the wazzo) are you delinquent  taxes higher this year? What I wanted to determine was the prevailing attitudes, positive or negative. Was the local newspaper eager to accept my advertising?  Local radio station willing to run my adds and do a live remote?  As to advertising, we had a direct mail guy that put something into every address in a zip code.

One more thought on water. Most of the Nebraska Panhandle is pumping from the Ogallala Aquifer. It isn’t being replenished as fast as it is being depleted. A portion of that replenishment is from the Rocky Mountains runoff, where the fires are currently burning, ie the North and South Platte Rivers and tributaries.

Retirement means I don’t need to make these trips. The company I work for as an agent is hurting and I don’t mind helping. Plus, I do get paid. We are seeing the end of some of the Chinese Flu short term programs. Unless some or most of the programs are renewed, I think I may be very busy this fall contacting delinquent mortgagees.