BASICS OF INVESTING

Little Tahoma Peak (left) and Mt. Rainier, provide the stunning backdrop to the Sunrise visitors' center in Mt. Rainier National Park.

Wednesday July 15th, 2010, my wife and I drove into Seattle. We spent the day there. I got my Jet Boil stove fixed with a new igniter at the flagship REI store (Thanks Andy). It had failed on the recent two day float trip my son and I took on the Grande Ronde River in Oregon. I bought some books at the Tukwila Half Price used book store, then had a nice Thai lunch next door. My wife got some quality penny slot investment time at the Muckleshoot reservation, then we headed for Sunrise at Mt. Rainier, trying to time an early evening arrival.

NOTE: This gets confusing for folks whoe aren't from the state of Washington but there are two major visitors' center on Mt. Rainier. One on the south side of the mountain at 5,382 feet elevation and it is called: PARADISE. Record snow fall occur here yet the road to PARADISE remains open year round. The other visitors' center is on the N.E. side of Mt. Rainier. It is at 6,390 feet. It is called SUNRISE. The road to SUNRISE is closed most of the year. Though SUNRISE is a thousand feet higher than PARADISE, it gets much less snow. The reason? Mt. Rainier creates its own weather and most of the winters' snow falls at mid-elevations not the highest. So if it gets confusing talking about taking "sunset" photos at "SUNRISE" then that is the reason. SUNRISE is a location within the park.

We made it to Sunrise as planned and found the meadows starting to appear from beneath the snow pack. But, when we hiked up the trail above Sunrise, we soon hit snow. Lots of snow. The snow was soft and easy traveling, so we hike a little over a mile along the Sunrise to Dege Peak trail. We didn't meet another hiker, doing this hike at dusk.

Though I hoped for some good sunset photos at SUNRISE, they didn't happen. The light was filtered through to much haze. The next day when we went to PARADISE at Mt. Rainier, the sky was crystal clear at dawn, and we got much better photos.

Still, we enjoyed the hike and where avalanche lilies were out in mass on the Paradise side when I visited it on my own on Monday (7.12.10), the flowers out at SUNRISE were the interesting Mountain Pasque flowers, which are most famous for the fall seed heads than their lovely spring blossoms. A.K.A.: Western Anemone and in seed head form: "old man of the mountains" "mouse-on-a-stick" "dishmop" etc.

Mountain pasqueflower [Anemone occidentalis] is a member of the buttercup family.

After returning toward our hike on the Dege Peak trail, we headed up to the saddle on the Burroughs Mountain trail, to watch the last light fade from Mt. Rainier. Two rangers came down the trail, carrying cross country skis.

These photos were all taken on 7.15.10 at sunset and Sunrise.

From Life, June 11, 1925, page 1. The text reads:
What should a family's very first investment be? Bonds? A home? Insurance? There is one thing even more vital than these. Their future success is going to depend principally upon his and her mental growth. Will their social acquaintances find her interesting, or mentally commonplace? Will men in business be impresses with his range of information, his capacity to think straight and talk well? More than 150,000 families have found the answer to these questions with the help of Dr. Charles W. Eliot, for forty years President of Harvard. These families are spending 15 minutes a day with the most famous library in the world, Dr. Eliot's five-foot shelf of books. You know something about this great library, but every American household should have a copy of the little book which tells the whole story. The book is free and will be sent by mail; the coupon below will bring it. Out of the great mass of books (more than four million volumes) Dr. Eliot and his associates undertook to select 418 great masterpieces that contain what he termed "the essentials of a liberal education." These he combined in fifty volumes and arranged with notes and reading courses so that they can be thoroughly mastered, even though you read them only fifteen minutes a day. Fifteen minutes a day with the world's greatest travelers, scientists, poets, essayists, biographers and historians. Fifteen minutes of the sort of reading that made Lincoln a well-read man, though his formal education never went beyond the common schools--surely this is the most valuable investment that any household can make. For here is the highroad to charm, to brain power, to success, which every man and woman will find it profitable to follow, especially when the money cost is only a few cents a week. Decide today that no matter how little time you have for reading you are going to make every minute count. Let Dr. Eliot guide you in this important department of your life as you would let a physician guide you in matters of health, or a banker in the care of your savings. His guidance is free; it is contained in the little book "Fifteen Minutes a Day." This booklet contains the contents, plan and purpose of the most widely read home library in the world. It is sent absolutely free and without obligation to those who mail the coupon. Send for your copy now.

<< Arhiva >>