Some Random Thoughts About Things That Are Important !

Last week Kris got to spend the whole week babysitting for Jacob in Minnesota. She drove up on Sunday and I had to stay back to help with the yearly inventory at the store... it is one of those big things I have learned you should not miss. After inventory, I flew up on Thursday afternoon. During the flights and layovers, I jotted down some random thoughts. They are important, at least to me.

- Airports with free wifi are great for those times when you just have to sit, and the iPhone is great to play with.... however, airports without free wifi really suck.... there were places at Midway in Chicago where I did not have access. It made the wait longer.

- Another observation is that my air travel consumed over 6 hours of waiting and flying... driving to Minnesota takes just over 6 hours. And seriously, I was just as tired / relaxed. I probably wont do that again.

- I am tired of hearing how the changes in the credit card laws will hurt you. That is just plain fear mongering... if you pay your bill on time and pay it off in full, no big deal! Hey, my cards even lengthened the grace period. If you don't like your card, get a new one.

- I believe in free markets... they work. However, the free market in healthcare might not be such a good thing. Think of it, as a country, and individually, we pay more for healthcare than anybody else. Yet, our outcomes, those objective measures of health, show that we are no more healthy the others. We pay a lot, but don't get objective benefit. With the current system, you get choice, but yet the choice costs more, and you don't get more. It just doesn't make sense. We all want the newest drug or treatment, yet so often the older drug or treatment works just as well. So... there just might be a better way to look at things!

- You should not have to loose your health insurance if you loose your job. Let's take health insurance out of the employment relationship. Your employer does not pay for your car insurance or home owner's insurance. In those areas, the free market works. But as long as we provide the bulk of health insurance through the workplace, we will have way too many who do not have insurance because you cant afford it on your own.

- Executive compensation should be tied to risk and reward. If you take a risk with your company that leads to success, reward it. If you take a risk and it fails, the executive team should be a serious risk in compensation. That would lead to better decisions for the business. Some companies already do that... look at Best Buy and Costco. You can be rewarded richly for good decisions, but most of your salary is at risk, so you make those good decisions.

These are just my random thoughts.

Where I have been

Time to update what we have been doing for the past month or so... Haven't updated facebook or the blog for way too long. Too much to do and way too little time. But the summer has been fun!

Jeff went to Colorado with Scott W, his 3 son-in laws and our son Chad for Jeff''s annual "Man Trip". Awesome trip. We climbed around Long's Peak with the frozen lake at the base of the infamous 'diamond face'. We just missed seeing a cougar and it's cub by 20 minutes. The scenery was great. We had great conversations. Ate well. We stayed at Glacier Lodge in Estes Park, where the Langdon clan as gathered for the past 16 years. This is the first year we have missed! The owners really let us know we were missed this summer. Staying there is like going back to Grandma's house.

It was just a good overall trip. I will be planning my next years trip soon. Possibilities include back to Colorado or trying canoing in the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.