A Little Follow-up to my Water Rant

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070726/hl_nm/pepsico_aquafina_dc;_ylt=Ai.hX8eawIMtVLegDnoUnKCs0NUE

Hello.

Well I successfully drove from Chicago to DC to NYC to Forest, ON and caught a train home from Detroit. All within a week. The craziest part of the adventure had to be the drive from my hotel in Newark, actually Elizabeth, NJ (one of the dumpiest cities I've ever seen) to the Brooklyn cruise terminal to pick up my mom and brother. It started with me happening to see my muted phone was ringing at 8 a.m. and it was my brother. Turns out they had been calling since 7:30 a.m. waiting out in the rain. I jumped in the car to begin the 20 mile drive. I was excited to see the Manhattan skyline for the first time. Well, 3.5 hours later I arrived at the terminal exhausted and in dire need of the john. In addition, it was too foggy to see the Manhattan skyline. The drive took so long because of the incredible rain and flooding in NYC that day. It was the same day the steam main broke in Manhattan. I saw a city bus up to its headlights in water. There were expressways and side streets closed. It was mayhem. It took us about 30 minutes to back-track to Newark from Brooklyn. Something else to keep in mind if you ever decide to drive from Chicago to DC. It cost about $30 in tolls to get there. Another $15 to get from DC to NYC and I skipped the toll road around Philly. And it cost $6 to cross the Goethals Bridge from Newark to Staten Island and $9 to cross the Verazzano Bridge from Brooklyn to Staten Island. One good thing is that the gas was considerably cheaper out east than it is here.

Business is going well for Waterford. I think I have six contracts signed so I'm very busy bringing everything up to speed for those clients. It doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day right now. But once everything is up and running and I stop traveling it should calm down.

I went to see "Punks Not Dead" at the Siskel Theatre on State St. last night. It is a documentary about the history of punk music. It was pretty interesting and funny too. It seems like it has changed a lot in thirty years. The old men from bands started in the 70s that still play hard today was hilarious.

I have relatives coming to town tomorrow for the finale of the Tigers-White Sox so that should be a good time. Oh yeah, it is interesting to see the 10 year treasury yield take a dive over the past month while mortgage rates are going up. Not exactly what I expected. The low treasury should keep the market and private equity fairly healthy but the real estate market can ill afford a continued increase in mortgage rate.

Nos vemos!

Been a while.

This is my first post on the new computer I bought for my business. So far it is ten times better than my old Dell. It is a Lenovo, which is a Chinese brand that bought IBM's PC division a few years back. If it is as good as the ThinkPad I used at the Commission I'll be quite happy. That Dell was a piece of junk.

I've read a couple articles lately about mayors banning bottled water sales from city offices due to environmental concerns. I never really bought into the whole bottled water phenomenon of the past decade. It seemed strange to pay for something that was readily available at no cost. However, as an investor I'm always looking to profit from the irrational behavior of the masses so, as mentioned in a previous post, I own Coke (Desani) and Pepsi (Aquafina) stock. Pepsi has really benefited from the bottled water craze and Coke is doing alright. Being a bit of a tree hugger, I have to agree with the environmental concerns of the mayors. How can anyone with an ounce of concern about the environment purchase bottled water. The bottles are made from oil, only 20% get recycled, they are transported all over the world, the water is displaced, and it takes tons of energy to process the water. Most waters claim to come from natural springs but you know damn well that most comes from a municipal system and runs through a filter. I realize some people cite poor municipal water as the reason they drink bottled water (some crackpots cite taste) but that seems like a stretch and even if you are concerned about quality, buy a filter, not a case of bottled water every week. Dragan and I always drink the tap water that comes out of our refrigerator filter and it just tastes delicious. Now, some people may call me a hypocrite for owning Pepsi and Coke, and maybe they're right, but I see it as a no lose proposition. If people continue their ridiculous behavior (buying bottled water, soda, even cigarettes) I profit, if they stop and the stocks tank I lose money but I'm happy about the positive impact on the environment and the health care system. Imagine if everyone just stopped drinking soda and smoking cigarettes? Health insurance premiums would probably be cut in half.

Well, I'm spending two days camping next week with my lady friend and then a week later I'm driving out east to pick up my mom and brother from their cruise home from Europe, and hopefully meet with a client. So you may not here from me again for a couple weeks.

Oh yeah, I made an eagle on a par 4 a couple weeks ago. Sand wedge from 75 yards. Not bad.

Take care.

Jonathan

PS - Check out my brother's blog. He has lots of good pictures and stories from his travels through Europe this summer. http://mattphelan27.blogspot.com/