This is the John McCain that I once respected, and for whom in years past, I would have considered voting … well , except for the Sarah Palin comments in the middle of the speech. If this had been the John McCain that had been campaigning for the past several months, I feel the election would have much, much closer.

Welcome back, John.

And for those who missed President-elect Barack Obama’s victory speech last night, as I did:

Growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I never thought an African American would ever be elected to the highest office in the land. And yet, over the past year, I have been amazed at how much it appears that Americans are becoming more color-blind … and it was my honor and privilege to vote for Barack Obama.

Living in Utah, I was on the losing side in the state … our 5 Electoral College votes are going to John McCain; but the Democratic Party has made some inroads in Utah. In 2004, nearly 75% of Utahns voted to re-elect George Bush. In 2008, 62% of Utahns voted for John McCain, and 34% voted, not only for a Democrat, but an African American Democrat. Democrats changed the balance of power of the Salt Lake County Council. A Democrat unseated the sitting Republican Speaker of the House in the State Legislature.

A shift is coming, and one can only hope and pray that it is, and continues to be, for the better.

Now that the election is over, I have to figure out what I’m going to do to occupy my geek time and come up with new blog topics.

Maybe I’ll start writing about cycling and skiing again … wouldn’t that be an interesting twist?

One thing I’ve learned from working for years in investment services …

From Investopedia:

Risk-Return Tradeoff

The principle that potential return rises with an increase in risk. Low levels of uncertainty (low risk) are associated with low potential returns, whereas high levels of uncertainty (high risk) are associated with high potential returns. In other words, the risk-return tradeoff says that invested money can render higher profits only if it is subject to the possibility of being lost.

Because of the risk-return tradeoff, you must be aware of your personal risk tolerance when choosing investments for your portfolio. Taking on some risk is the price of achieving returns; therefore, if you want to make money, you can’t cut out all risk. The goal instead is to find an appropriate balance — one that generates some profit, but still allows you to sleep at night.

It’s all about risk/reward; sometimes you have to lose a little to gain a lot … but somewhere along the line you have to decide when it’s time to cut your losses and recoup.

And this concept holds true in so many aspects of life.

So Kim just started a new job yesterday, working for McCann-Erickson, which is a division of the Interpublic Group. The Interpublic Group is a consortium of the world’s largest advertising agencies; Kim will be the Technical Project Manager (exactly what that entails, I haven’t a clue), working on one of the firm’s largest accounts.

She started yesterday. Today, she’s flying to Seattle to meet with the client. Talk about fast. When they asked if she had any “familial hindrances” that might restrict her ability to travel, they weren’t kidding.

I’m learning that buying older cars and trucks also means buying older cars’ and trucks’ problems. We’ve already had the timing belt replaced on the Trooper, more out of preventative maintenance than anything else, since we weren’t sure if it had ever been done. I’m told that a timing belt should be replaced every 60-75,000 miles. According to Intermountain Isuzu, the timing belt on my Trooper looked like the original one. Keep in mind that my Trooper has 132,000+ miles. It was definitely time to replace that, at about $450.00 parts & labor.

They also found a leak in the power steering line. So far the estimates are coming in between $275.00 and $350.00 to do that work. I’m still shopping around, though, to see if I can find anything less expensive, at least from a labor perspective.

I need to get an owner’s manual, a shop manual, and to gradually increase the size of my tool collection so I can take care of some of the more mechanical issues myself.

Thankfully, the dealer we bought the Trooper from replaced and balanced all 4 tires, 3 power window regulators, the glass in one window, the serpentine belts, the air and oil filters, as well as changing the oil as part of the purchase price. They should be sending someone out to the office today to do a windshield replacement as well.

And, according to Kim, our insurance ought to actually go down, despite adding a second car, because of the “multi-vehicle discount”. We’ll see what happens when I call Liberty Mutual later this afternoon.