Black Friday Shopping - In the Stock Market!

I spent over $20,000 shopping on Black Friday... but not on 4k QLED TVs, Amazon Dots, Apple earbuds, or any of the myriad other things advertised left, right, and center yesterday. I bought pieces of companies.

The stock markets were down on Friday. News about a new Coronavirus variant emerging raised fears of new rounds of lockdowns impinging consumer spending. Asian and European markets were down ahead of the opening of US markets at 9:30am EST. When US markets opened broad swaths of stocks were down by 3%, 4%, or more. Energy stocks were down 8% on fears that lockdowns would reduce travel and commerce.

Some people react to stock market downturns with dread. "Oh, no, how much money did I lose today?" I lost money Friday, in the sense that the market value of my portfolio decreased. It didn't bother me. I don't invest with the expectation of selling things the next day. (Some would argue that's not even investing but trading.) I buy stocks expecting to sell them anywhere from several months from now to a year or more, to possibly never. Thus when the market's down I look at it and think, "Woohoo! Stocks are on sale!"

Visiting the Udvar-Hazy Center at the National Air and Space Musuem

Over the last umpteen years I've flown through Washington-Dulles Airport (IAD) more times than I can remember. Actually I don't have to remember; I have a flight tracking service I use. A quick query there indicates the number is 83. I have flown through IAD 83 times. Anyway, on a good many of those trips I have driven VA highway 28 south from the airport entrance and passed exit signs for an oddly named attraction seemingly in the middle of nowhere: The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the National Air and Space Museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Links: Udvar-Hazy Center at Smithsonian Institution; Udvar-Hazy Center on Wikipedia.



Most of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution are in downtown Washington, DC, arrayed along the National Mall. There they share frontage with the US Capitol, the White House, and the Washington Monument. This annex was built out in farm country, or at least what used to be bordering on farm country when it opened in 2004, because the National Air and Space Museum downtown had always had way more artifacts than it could exhibit.

Finally this past week, after years of meaning to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center, Hawk and I did visit.



The building is shaped like a large hangar. This is appropriate to the nature of its content: dozens of aircraft and spacecraft from the WWI era up through the 21st century. Among the notable craft are the Enola Gay, a Concorde jet, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the Space Shuttle Discovery.




When I visited the main building of the National Air and Space Museum several years ago— actually my fourth visit, the first having been as a child of about 9— I pondered whether the museum had become boring. My 11 year old nephew certainly thought it was. Likely so did nearly every other child his age ± a few years there with their faces buried in their portable game machines. I think this museum would impress them more with its real-life aircraft standing on right in front of them or hanging overhead suspended on cables. I know it felt special for us, as middle age adults, to stand almost close enough to touch an actual space shuttle.