Shovels
Daily Ramble
Shovels are one of the tools that defined my youth. I grew up on a cranberry farm, which is a crop that grows in a semi-marshy environment. That means drainage and ditches were a large part of farm life…and with ditches come shovels. Hours and hours behind the handle of a shovel meant callouses to be proud of, a strong back, and an appreciation for endurance activities. I’m sure it makes my pops proud to read that the qualities have stuck around.
On our little plot in the Sintra region of Portugal, we don’t have many ditches that need keeping, so it’s with some chagrin that I found myself 4 years into my rooted life at the store searching for a shovel to purchase for fence work. Not just any store, but Leroy Merlin, the box store equivalent to Home Depot of the US. Even after living in Portugal for five years, I still get shocked at cultural differences that fall into the assumption bucket of my mind. Shovels gave me that cultural shock today.
Of course, they were in the garden section, which would have just been weird if they were elsewhere. But the size and shape of the shovels were nothing like those that I’d grown up with. If you’ve not grown up with shovels, you may not know that the top of the metal scoop typically has a flat bit for placing your foot on. This gives extra leverage to drive the shovel into the ground with a firm stomp. Not a single shovel in the aisle had this convenience. Height-wise, I’ve grown accustomed to things being slightly smaller here, but really, shovels too? At 6’2”, I’m roughly the equivalent of a 6’6” person in the US. There are just fewer tall Portuguese. But to have that translate into shorter shovels baffled my mind. Finally, every single shovel had a wood handle. To be fair, these shovels had nice, solid wood handles, better than the equivalent to most wood-handled US shovels. What was missing was unbreakable, carbon-fiber handled bad-boys that can take some serious prying.
Moral of the story: I’m still looking for the right shovel.
Favorite Things on the Interwebs Today
Bitcoin Price Prediction
Yesterday: $53k - $58k
Today: $53k - $58k
Tomorrow: $53k - $58k
Grind, grind, grind. Bitcoin’s price movement has ground to a standstill as it bounces between $53k and $58k. I have a hard time seeing the choppy situation shifting for the next couple of days. I continue to anticipate the price will push up to the $58k-$60k area for our next area of interest in the bull market. Should it succeed in breaking through, new highs are on the table. If it fails, then it’s likely we’ll go much further down than $53k. Stay tuned…
Bitcoin Q & A
Q: Is it possible to make Bitcoin illegal?
A: At this point, not in any major country.
A country can choose to opt-out of the global Bitcoin phenomenon, but governments increasingly recognize that it’s like opting out of cell phones — it just hurts the nation. Already, we’ve seen attempts to outlaw Bitcoin in Nigeria and India see fierce internal resistance that has tempered regulators’ plans. Just yesterday, China came out embracing Bitcoin as an “alternative asset.” The ex-CIA head wrote a report last week highly supportive of the US embracing Bitcoin, and many politicians include supportive statements in their talking points. All this points to what the Bitcoin community has long said: nations will eventually adopt Bitcoin, not wanting to be left behind. If I’m reading the tea leaves accurately, the jockeying for position has started.
Thanks for reading,
Kent
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