A little Indian Summer weather just before winter. As I understand it, Indian Summer is summer-like weather that occurs following the onset of freezing weather. So 78 degrees in December qualifies. Now we could use a little rain to go with it.

There is no such thing as a housing market bubble. Housing costs whatever the materials cost, plus the land, plus paying the labor, plus about 12% for the builder. Markets do jump up above this level at times when for whatever reason people will pay higher amounts to live near a beautiful vista (the mountains of the lake), or in a fabulous climate (southern California), or a business opportunity like a major city. If enough people go through hard times and can't pony up the money to buy those vistas, climates, and locales, then prices will deflate until people have enough money to compete for luxury areas again. In my lifetime, I've always found that the luxury spots were way beyond where ever I was financially, so the average guy doesn't care if there is a bit of deflation. Prices have not gone down in our area.

I see the middle schoolers waiting on the school bus in the morning when I walk Patches. Their parents are there too and the kids sit in cars until the bus comes. What is that? We walked to the bus stop and stood in the cold, everyone together. Sometimes there were bullies. Sometimes we froze. If it rained we ran to Bobby and Cathy Crawford's house and their mom would let us in to wait. Never saw an umbrella. There wasn't even a bus stop on my street and there were 20ish kids on my street. Today's kids have to be babied, protected, and separated from each other. It's not real. The threat from predators is not that great, but they've all seen the monsters on TV. It's sort of like the homeland security department. Incredible expense for no reason and with no result. We are not safer. The kids are warmer and more pampered and more isolated. The kids aren't growing though. Less supervision is required for growth.

Okay, the word is out so I may as well admit that I've once again bought my own Christmas present and a bit early. I want to be able to use my camera at Christmas and there is definitely a learning curve. The first real success came last night at the chorus concert where from my tripod in the middle of the auditorium I got the best shots since shooting 20 years ago with my Canon F1. The camera? A Nikon D200. It is a monster. Got the 18-200 VR Zoom to go with it, so I'm a pig. Planning to get the SB-800 flash soon. I'll have to do the flicker thing soon so you can see what I see.