Today’s Humpy Day Miscellany is late and sort of random. That’s what happens when your head is scrambled by a head cold.

Let’s talk about Starbucks for moment.
1). I went in there the other day because I had a gift card. I got some iced tea. It cost $2.40. I’m thinking the margin on that cup of tea was HUGE!

2). The media announced that Starbucks was closing 600 stores which made a lot of sense to me since they have them on opposite corners of the same street. They then asserted that this might mean the end of 12,000 jobs. That would be 20 employees per store. Even accounting for the fact that most them are minimum wage, part time people and that there are probably some inside staff in the mix that seems a bit high to me. If it takes 20 employees per store then it is no small wonder they have to charge so much for stupid cup of iced tea.

3). I purchased Starbucks at something like $14/share. I expect this investment to work out for me because they are closing stores, tuning up operations and selling smoothies. Who doesn’t love smoothies? And if people will pay $2.40 for a cup of tea I’m thinking they’ll pay a good 6 bucks for a smoothie thereby generating HUGE cash flow.

Bicycle seats –
I went into Sports Basement the other day and looked at seats. Jenny says her hiney never gets sore because she has this cushy, padded Trek seat. Sports Basement didn’t have Trek but they did have Terry. The men’s seats cost $30 – $40. The women’s were more like $120. Terry can bite me. I’ll take a men’s saddle, thanks.

The incredible shrinking woman –

Who is that tiny little thing standing next to Jenny? I know Jenny is tall but I look like I just flew in from Lilliput!

Click on the pic to read Jenny’s Vineman report.

In search of – At IM CdA there was a man who, after the first loop of the swim, just stood in the water shivering. His hands were white and he was obviously going hypothermic. I took my shoes off, waded out to him, took his hand and pulled him out on to the beach. I told him he had to warm up before he got out there again. He said his head was killing him. I didn’t quite know what to do but some other people came up and told him he needed to do push ups. He was so cold he couldn’t manage that but he did some jumping up and down and then push ups and then he ran up the beach and back and did some more push ups. His hands were pink, he felt better and off he went. I noted his number off his cap and later looked him up. If anyone knows a Brad Williams from Sacramento please tell him I said WAY TO GUT IT OUT! He finished the race in 14:54 which is very respectable when you haven’t suffered hypothermia and the stuff of legend when you have.