Monday -- In No Mood

S&P E-mini Futures:

News:
Sorry, but I'm not doing this today. My beloved Aunt just passed away and she was a good friend of mine.

Over the weekend I learned that I will miss her memorial service.

It's one thing to deal with the isolation of living on an island in the Caribbean from time to time. It's another thing when business as usual on the island gets in the way of my family life.

I love living in Puerto Rico, and I love the people. But all too often anything to do with business seems to be a concept from outer space.

By now everyone knows the local government here is deep in debt, over $70 billion.

The island's fiscal agency -- which is supposed to advise the other agencies on debt matters -- is so deep in debt that it might need to be shut down.

The two utility monopolies -- electricity and water -- are so deep in debt from hiring middle management cronies that their infrastructure is failing.

And for the past six months I've been dealing with an issue in my apartment that has been put off and put off until my response, quite naturally, was to change apartments.

Now suddenly it's a top priority.

So this week I'm hosting a frenzy of contractors, property managers, landlords, building managers, and upstairs occupants whose schedules all need to be fully coordinated and re-coordinated in a mad dash to keep the owner from going without rent. All before I move out.

My Aunt was a really cool lady and this makes me mad.

My Aunt had a brilliant mind and great energy. She was the office manager for my grandfather's business. She ran the business-side of a thriving commercial farm with her husband, my dear Uncle Bill. She recorded lap times for my cousin's weekend Formula Vee racing. She was a successful long-term investor through decades of ups and downs, just like her uncle before her (my grand Uncle Fred). She was always generous and loving and kind. She adored jazz, and had boundless enthusiasm for life.

She will be laid to rest near her and my uncle's farm in New England, not far from where I used to live, which meant that I could have just bombed over there in thirty or forty minutes and pay my respects in person.

Instead I'm doing it here, thousands of miles away. But close by in spirit.

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