OlDawg

I'm not a professional market person. But, I've done okay. Now, I'll blare out a forecast like someone you might see on TV with the personal FOMO advice. AI is here to stay and grow. I firmly believe it will be the 3rd 'Industrial' revolution. That being said, if you have some spare lying around, or are thinking about rebalancing your retirement 401k or whatever, I'd be looking at nuclear. Two points that are kind of behind the scenes: U.S. and Saudi Arabia signing the nuclear deal. This stands to benefit American nuclear power and companies like Constellation as well. Data Centers needing to be self-reliant, and possibly even a partial supplier, from the power grid for approval to build. IMHO, these points lead to the surge in the need for nuclear power. The probable scenario would be small power plants (similar to those used on carriers, and other Navy vessels) that power the data centers. Saudi will need the whole infrastructure and support network. This will benefit our nuclear companies and other utilities. The deal with the Saudi's is a 30 year deal. It will build on the alliance with partners in the ME, and keep the Russians and Chinese from creeping in. My personal play was an ETF (NLR) for broad-based exposure with minimal risk and highly liquid as an ETF. I purchased it a few years ago when I saw the modular nuke plants coming, and Texas A&M was heavily involved in the research grants and tech. As a long-term play (growth/value) with little downside, I'd highly recommend a look. Any nuclear ETF would be good. Just depends on your personal risk level. I chose this one because it also included value, established, stable companies like Constellation to buffer speculation from a pure nuclear play. But, make no mistake. Modular nuclear is here. You're just not seeing it on the news yet. By the time you do, it will be too late to get in early. NLR is up about $65/share in the last 10 years, up $62/share in the last 5 years, up $43/share in the last 2 years, and down $19/share YTD. At $114/share, THAT'S a BUY all day, and twice on Sundays with a fair value of a P/E of 26. Most other nuclear plays are running a P/E of 29-31.

For some reason, I couldn't read that. May need new glasses. Maybe, x-ray glasses?

Don’t tell Hippy with his SpaceX buy. He’d of been better off playing pitch at the high roller tables. He wouldn't even have had to worry about taxes. 😉

Ha! Happens that way doesn’t it? Was trying to get bath redone for wheelchair/transport chair access a couple years ago. Bidders came in from $25k - $80k. Unreal! Found a company in Htown (Shower Doors of Houston) who replaced all my glass in the shower—which already has a low 3” threshold I can get her over—with a 34” door. With veteran discount, cost me right at $2500.00 with a lifetime guarantee & free seal replacements for life. All the doors in the house needed to be widened as many were 24”, and I couldn’t get her chair through. That required a whole new paint job after the demo & installs. Now, all doors are minimum 32” except closets. Of course, carpet was 25+ years old & had so many wrinkles from stretching, it was a safety hazard & pain to roll her on. So, that had to change. Grout in the floor tile was very discolored. So, I had it acid washed & recolored. Looks brand new next to our porcelain tile—which just needed a good acid scrub. Was already in this deep. It looked like crap next to the rest of the house by then. So… Long story shorter, what started as a bathroom/shower remodel that was ridiculous turned into a newly remodeled home that accommodates handicap everywhere for less than the lower end of just the bath remodel. Took me 3 weeks to clean & regrout the shower. But hey…it was worth it for everything else we got done. My arm about fell off after. 😂

No such thing as a grunt. I got out of serving our country, and began as a lowly "B" operator handling the BOD (poop ponds). Went back to school all while working shift with a family and a young child. All about how bad you want it. My neighbor is a young scaffold builder employee. I think he's actually a gold hat now. I know he's moved up the chain, and doing well. My dad retired from 'Uncle EI' Strang Rd. decades ago. Much of DuPont was sold to Dow. Strang Rd. facility in La Porte was parcelled out. It's pretty much gone now except for the boiler house, and a smaller Noltex unit. (I think it's still Noltex. Haven't checked in years.)

When you hear discussions about the Colonial Pipeline (main pipeline manifold system that feeds most of the terminals around the country and begins in Kinder Morgan Galena Park) you’re hearing and discussing my engineering design. I—and my design crew—designed the entire manifold system. 24-36” rolled plate manifolds, 3 levels high, connecting with valves as large as small vehicles that had to have their own individual casings and access to reach and containment for required maintenance. It was one of the first major projects in the terminal business ever fully designed with 3D software & intelligent databases. That way, when maintenance, replacement, or repairs were needed, surveys were minimal, probing was unnecessary, and materials could be easily drawn from the intelligent models. Training, safety, permitting, everything required under ASME 31.4 and other regs was easily managed. Took my crew of 8 engineers/designers about 4 years to finish my design. Every line can connect to a different major supplier, or other oil distribution pipeline in the country by valving redirection at any time. Kinder Morgan now uses the design as a block template for all their new manifolds. Basically, a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach. Saves them a heck of a lot of engineering/design time and money. I should have asked for a different type of compensation package. 🤣 EDIT: Looks like Matrix is still using some of the models for service today, and it's been designed for decades. [Hidden Content] Pig loading area. (Clean out/chaser 'pigs' would be pressured through the lines for clean out/inspection/other needs. Almost like a large vacuum tube system you'd find at some bank drive-ups. But, obviously much larger.)

😅🤣 No. I love high school football, am proud of the local town & school, enjoy the banter with some folks I’ve known for many years, and my better 1/2 is unable to communicate now with her condition. So, posting with y’all keeps me kind of connected as I don’t use other social media.

Never too old to learn. I do at least 2 or 3 Duolingo Spanish lessons a day to try to keep my mind working. You’ll find my name on drawings from cogen units, to glass/ultra-pure distillation towers, to crackers, furnaces, kilns, desalters, and beyond. You would be hard-pressed to find a drawing in many of the units at the old Shell DP or Geismar, LA that didn’t have my name on them in one place or another. Heck, you’ll even find my name on loading docks from Dow Freeport to Pequiven in Columbia. Haven’t had the pleasure of working in a cyclohexane unit. But, I have redesigned and upgraded an old Nylon unit at DuPont. Been around plenty of benzene and phosgene. Used to laugh when I was contracted to Bayer Cedar Bayou. We said the hourly beep on my watch was the daily phosgene release alert. That, and Shell DP were the most dangerous facilities I’ve ever stepped foot in—and I’ve been in more than a few in my day. My operations days were in a plant that made up to 70+% hydrogen peroxide, which was the fuel that went into the solid rocket boosters for the shuttles. We used to say all NASA had to do was throw in the rusty nail for the decomp, and hang on for the ride. If the hydrogen reactor blew, it was calculated it would take out a good chunk of Deer Park, La Porte, and Channelview. We had Air Products and Air Liquide on a direct pipeline for N2 to our reactor for purging, and could empty both of their capacities in 30 seconds.

No. Again. And again. And again. We are an oil exporter. That's different than being energy independent. We can't use our own ultra pure, light oil because our refineries are set up to refine dirty, heavy crude. We haven't been able to really take advantage of our newly accessible deposits because of regulations on our oil industry. He--like all the rest--is either too stupid to know the difference (entirely possible), or is intentionally misleading and counting on the public just to take the easy way out--or be too stupid themselves--and blame Big Oil without really investigating his claim. It's become a tired drumbeat. The new South Texas refinery will be the first new refinery built in 50 years. It will specifically process U.S. shale oil. Of course, it won’t help us with prices. All product is to be exported to India, as they are funding the project even though it’s a Texas based company.

I've explained this over and over again until I'm blue in the face. All politicians--regardless of Party--blame Big Oil when something they do causes prices to rise. Oil is a global commodity. If Administrations hadn't invoked policies that made it difficult to build/revamp refineries to process our own product, we wouldn't be quite so dependent on foreign supply. Trump is taking the easy way out. Just like all the rest. Blame someone else for your own screw-ups. Project reinvestments are typically done on a 10 year payout. The 10 year average profit margin for XOM & CVX is right at 6%. Hardly a profit large enough to make major investments in new technology. They don't set the price of oil, nor the price at the majority of the pumps. I guess everyone's a free market capitalist--until they're not. No wonder socialism and communism are gaining traction. Now, we're deciding how much profit is too much. Sounds suspiciously like the Democratic Socialists like AOC, Mamdani, & the Bernie Bro's to me.

The probable sidekick/understudy/backfield mate of Simon that Stepp referenced. He’s got pretty good hands and returns kicks as well. [Hidden Content]

Low t (itan). 😁

I'm waiting to see how LP's D will be this year. Pretty confident the O will be okay. Sounds like ST will be improved as well.

Haven't heard much on New Caney. But, I noticed they have 3 WR's on this list. Must be pretty potent through the air?

[Hidden Content] [Hidden Content]