I was just thinking

Hi all,
Sorry about Monday. I was off and didn't feel like doing anything.

Saturday my basketball team had its second game. We played the other 4th grade team from our school. This is a big deal to me because I am 0-4 against the "other team" (football and basketball). It was a tight game, 6-6 after the first, 12-12 at half-time, and 20-22 at the end of the third quarter. But the other team ran in to a buzz saw and we put the smack down on them. 36-24 good guys. The team is really growing up and it is really fun to coach this year.
So 2-0. This is big.

Then it was off to Monster Trucks. We start the tailgate at about 4pm (well I did, but the die hards got there at 2pm). It started at 7:30pm and went pretty fast and ended at about 10pm.
Okay, let me paint this picture...65,000 monster truck lovin' people, drinking lots of beer and smoking lots of cigarettes. Well did I ever tell you how small my 5 year old's bladder it.
And when he has to go, he has to go NOW.
So he had to go at about 6pm but he said it was only a Pee. I said, "thank goodness".
We waited in line outside of the stadium. We got into the bathroom and let me tell you how disgusting it was. The whole floor of the bathroom was wet. Beer bottles and cans and Pee everywhere.
So we get to the urinal and he starts jumping up and down and saying, "Dad, I have to go Poo."
WHAT?!!!
I said, "Oh no you don't"
"Yes, I do."
We jumped into the stall next to the urinal.
Well take a guess what this room looked like. Beer bottles littered all over the thing the toilet looked like someone took a hose to it.
Oh and there wasn't any toilet paper.
I said, "Noah, you can't go poo right now."
"But, daddy I have to go."
I told him, he couldn't.
So he did okay and just peed.
But one hour later and, "I have to go NOW."
So I loaded up my pockets with paper towels and we ventured to the bathroom.
I will spare you the details but it worked out okay.
But besides that we had a ball. My son couldn't stop talking about Grave Digger and Maximum Destruction.

Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip....this is what it is like reading Jane Eyre. I have about 40 pages to go.

Topic....
I think about money and how the economy is going. I think about is it really effecting people or is the media really blowing this up. Is it consumer attitude or is it real?
Is it people really over spending last year and since things are down a little there whole world is is coming crashing down.
I mean I know it is real but....


I want to tell you one more thing first (it is pertinent) before I get started. I told you I went to the Magic game last Thursday night. In the valet parking lot I saw a Bugatti. Now up until last year I have never heard of this kind of car. I knew this car was expensive so I went home and looked it up on the computer. 1.4 MILLION DOLLARS. FOR A CAR.
I have not stopped thinking about this. Not about having material things but having something that is worth that much money.

I had a patient last week that spent $16,000 on plastic surgery last year. He also got into his current year Lexus sedan but couldn't afford his nightguard that I recommended for the teeth he was grinding (I charge $575 for a nightguard).

So last night I am at my study club. It was on Stem Cell research. The dentist read a whole bunch of articles before his presentation and made a bunch of calls to companies and the bottom line is it is starting in the field of dentistry.
Did you know the highest concentration of medicamal cells are in the dental pulp?
This could mean alot down the road. If you harvest pulpal tissue after a kid gets his teeth out after per ortho and later on in his life he has perio disease and he has the cells harvested that can grow bone.....you never know.
The problem right now is it is $600 to harvest the cells and $100 a year to save them.
I will let you know if I hear anything else.

But one thing about my study club is the diversity of dentists there.
I like it because I feel comfortable with these guys and we can talk.
I hear one conversation out of the corner of my ear, and it is two guys talking about cars.
One guy says he went and test drove an Aston Martin last week. Now this is no Bugatti but it is still a $200,000+ car.
Then I looked out in the parking lot and it was a bunch of normal cars. Explorer, Toyota truck, Honda Civic, BMW, Camry.
There are a bunch of dentist there that are in different places. It is finally nice for me not to feel inadequate talking to a dude that will spend $200,000+ on a car.

I mean what is going on in this economy. I went to a National Championship game and let me tell you that everyone sitting at the 50 yard line spend more than a $1200 a piece for those tickets. There was 75,000 people willing to drop some serious coin on a weekend.

I went to the Monster Trucks event and there was 65,000 people there dropping $8 a piece for a beer and let me tell you there was some serious beer drinking going on.

So what is real?
I got my end of the year statement on my 401k. Talk about real. I lost $80,000 in 9 months.
That is real.
People are getting let go from their jobs and that is real.
I am having to make decisions at the office that I have never had to make and that is real.

But I am pretty sure the SuperBowl is going to be sold out. All the super expensive commercials are going to be watched on everyone's LCD TV.

I was just thinking.
How are you doing?
How is your office?
How is your personal stuff going?
Are you feeling the pinch?
You can comment and it can be anonymous.

Have a great Wednesday,
john