this is starting to feel like a bottom for the market.

Stocks plunged yet again on Thursday, as a frantic flight from risk prompted by investors’ deepening economic fears drove the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index to its lowest level since 1997 — completing the erasure of more than a decade of stock market gains.

there is something really satisfying when you are about to drop off into lala land, and you can tell it will be a good restful night’s sleep. tonight i am in bed and it is late, and there is a nice gentle breeze coming and going, coming in the screened windows from the caribbean. the temperature and the smell of everything is perfect for deep slumbering, and even the roosters have been knocked out by it. which is somewhat unusual, and another indication that i am going to……..pass….ou….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

the band and friends skimmed across the water in a lancha out to the bocas del toro islands, panama this week, for some jamming and hanging. we played at ultimo refugio, the cosmic crab, and aqua lounge. this time i was flying solo so i stayed at the gran kahuna hostel, and that was a GOOD deal for $12/night, looking out across the water from the room enjoying a sweet fast dsl connection.
the afternoon gig at aqua lounge was fun too, out on the deck about 10 steps away from a refreshing dip between songs. i took a photo of this starfish during one swim break.

sure, it’s just another economic study, but my own observations tend to corroborate the findings in this article that wealthier people are more stressed:

Being rich used to get you into the leisure class. Money meant freedom — from work, money worries, household chores and screaming kids (via boarding school).

Now, however, the wealthy seem to be as besieged as ever. The leisure class has given way to what I call the workaholic wealthy — an elite of BlackBerry-crazed, network-obsessed, peripatetic travelers who have to keep scrambling to maintain their place in life.

According to research by Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist, quoted in an article in the Washington Post, “being wealthy is often a powerful predictor that people spend less time doing pleasurable things and more time doing compulsory things and feeling stressed.”

People who make less than $20,000 a year, for instance, spent more than a third of their time in passive leisure, like kicking back and watching TV. By contrast, those making more than $100,000 a year (I would call them affluent, not wealthy), spent less than a fifth of their time in passive leisure. “The richest people spent nearly twice as much time as the poorest people in leisure activities that were structured and often stressful — shopping, child care and exercise.”

a bunch of us went river rafting down the pacuare earlier this week. it was a great trip, with a few class four rapids in there. about halfway through our trip, the guides pulled us ashore to walk up to a waterfall with a little swimhole underneath it. it had been pouring rain all morning, and the sun had not poked through yet to dry off the rocks, so the mossy stones leading up to the falls were pretty treacherous. at one point i lost my footing, and put my rafting helmet back on. this turned out to be a good thing, because a short time later i went down really fast, and clocked myself on the head. i sat down next to the river, a little embarrassed, to catch my breath. i splashed some water on my face, looked down, and my hands were covered in blood. the group was waving at me to come join them further up the hill, so i walked up there. when i reached the swimhole and started to get ready to dive in, i could tell from the way everyone was looking at me that all was not well. they sat me down, and i passed out for a minute. when i woke back up they were bandaging me, and everyone looked pretty concerned. i shook it off, walked down the rocks carefully, and we rowed out of there.
i dove out of the boat later on and did a little swimming, just to show everyone i was doing alright. when i finally got home and got in bed, i slept. deeply.