Thanks for your useful post - I will post on off topic a bit about my trip.

By the way - what is a LIRA? Some American (type of IRA?)

The word I was looking for in my post a while back about the shorts was : hubris. We all had it. And I did, but not selling near $5. I was good about buying at bottoms, but didn't offload near tops. Never too old to learn.

I am genuinely worried about the big markets and the workings of large financial systems - my experience is that often big events get predicted and then - surprise! - they turn out to be true. I think that about subprime.

But I am patient for KXL news. I just takes a certain amount of drilling and then lab work.

Coach made one of his usual cautionary admonitions (and his track record is very good) that we need news of a higher grade. Yet, there will be disappointing news at times as well as excellent news, and no telling which order they come in. So I am prepared for either.

I'm happy to be back in the company of you Longs!

cedar