Working at home has its advantages, not the least appealing of which is to be able to enjoy the local traffic reports for their entertainment value rather than as strategic intelligence. I often don’t get around to shaving until after my daily workout in the late afternoon, and blue jeans are about as dressy as my work attire gets. I can take the dog for a jog around the pond when things get stressful, or get a haircut when there’s no one ahead of me. And there are of course the untold benefits that accrue to one’s marriage.

So why am I considering renting an office? Because, to put it mildly, there are so many interruptions each day that I have been unable to get anything done. Yesterday, for instance, I was unable to do any income-producing work from about 11 a.m., when the weekly Rick’s Picks Q&A session ended, until around 5:30 p.m., when the Comcast repairman finally gave up after working on my phones for three hours. Regarding the actual problem that had brought him to my home, we never settled on a fix. He thinks that a wireless telephone headset in my office has been feeding AC current into my household phone system, screwing things up the way that neurological problems screw up one’s body and mind -- in countless and bizarre ways.

Dell Is Trouble

My big mistake was to think that I could use a chunk of yesterday’s down time to resolve a Dell-related technical issue. Dell hold times have been averaging more than 30 minutes for me lately, and that’s only to get through to the first of a chain of humans and additional voice menus that will usually stretch the call to more than an hour. Remind me not to try again with Dell tomorrow when the repairman from Precision Door shows up, supposedly at 11 a.m. On the telephone yesterday, Precision softened me for the visit with a half-dozen ostensibly good reasons why the $700 I shelled out last week for an overhaul of my garage door created a $400 problem that a week ago did not even exist.

What are the odds that, when the doorbell rings, I’ll be in the middle of a trade?

***

‘Overheated’ Economy?

Let me share with you some pungent observations from our colleague Bob Bronson of Bronson Capital Markets Research. Bob writes as follows:

“Merrill Lynch chief North American economist David Rosenberg pointed out a handful of companies who have made headlines in just the past day or so by cutting prices, including video-game maker Electronic Arts, home builder Centex (and soon maybe other home builders) and Wal-Mart. ‘Oh yes,’ a sarcastic Mr. Rosenberg warned clients, the economy is clearly overheating.’

“Here's what WSJ.com said today:

The Dow has closed above 11000 for six straight trading days, the longest such stretch since May 2001.

“Here's what they chose not to say:

“The Dow has closed below it's all-time of 11738 for over 1,500 straight trading days, the longest such stretch since the ten years it took to make new highs from early-1973 to early-1983, and the 25 years it took from from late-1929 to late-1954. Or...

 ‘Longest Stretch’

“The Dow has closed below it's all-time of 11738 for over 311 straight trading weeks, the longest such stretch since the longest such stretch since the ten years it took to make new highs from early-1973 to early-1983, and the 25 years it took from from late-1929 to late-1954. Or,

“The Dow has closed below it's all-time of 11738 for over 72 straight trading months, the longest such stretch since the longest such stretch since the ten years it took to make new highs from early-1973 to early-1983, and the 25 years it took from from late-1929 to late-1954. Or,

‘24 Quarters’

“The Dow has closed below it's all-time of 11738 for over 24 straight trading quarters, the longest such stretch since the longest such stretch since the ten years it took to make new highs from early-1973 to early-1983, and the 25 years it took from from late-1929 to late-1954. Or,

“The Dow has closed below it's all-time of 11738 for over six straight trading years, the longest such stretch since the longest such stretch since the ten years it took to make new highs from early-1973 to early-1983, and the 25 years it took from from late-1929 to late-1954.

“Any of these alternatives provide more meaningful information to long term investors than what they chose to say.”