Bacchus Winery

09/02/2026

Pyment has moved into its final stage. Grapes dropped a couple of days ago so it was time to move it into glass. Looks like it will be a beautiful rose’ color.

09/02/2026

Ody update:

It has been a while and a lot of highway behind us now. We have now slipped into a cadence of taking Ody to his veterinarian to change his bandage every two days. Our veterinarian told us early on that this was going to be a very long road to healing and she was as not kidding. As designed, Ody’s loop sutures had started coming out. That made life miserable for everyone for a few days. So on Monday with just a little bit of local anesthesia, Ody put his big boy pants on and let the veterinarian replace two new loop sutures and that has made things so much better. Ody is still on antibiotics to help prevent the possibility of infection and so far, he has been able to handle it. He is on a good path to healing. He has one fairly small area that remains deep but it is showing good signs of granulation so it is healing. He will have a permanent scar from all of the burn damage but we can deal with that. Ody is also continuing to contribute to the Histotripsy study and is contributing to the future of dealing with lipomas. We were so worried we were going to lose him. Ody is not completely out of the woods but the outlook is way better today than it was back in late July. Thank you everyone for all of your continued prayers and support for Ody as he heals and gets back to being his old ESS self.

08/29/2026

Because economic wars are so much harder to see and so easy to discount it is important to have a visual way to measure the effectiveness of the actions taken against your enemy. When a bomb takes out a building full of leaders in a country, you get instant feedback that is undeniable and pretty much impossible for anyone to say fake news. But when someone says that we are turning off every node in the global economic marketplace that feeds your enemies local economy, the next day it is easy to say—well that wasn’t any fun. So you have to have a yardstick to measure the effect of your actions. So I have provided you a yard stick that measures the street value of the currency in Iran to the value of the United States dollar. Never forget that money makes the world go around. Once your money becomes valueless, mass panic results and the country implodes from within. It is not as satisfying as a bomb but it is so much more effective.

https://alanchand.com/en/currencies-price/usd-hav

08/28/2026

If you were not aware, Spotsylvania county stopped accepting construction materials at a couple of the large landfills because they wanted to stop non-residential dumping or improper disposal of hazardous materials. Harry homeowner is now denied services because a select category of commercial contractors abused the landfill rules. So now that the landfill has taken away resident rights because of the bad apples, guess who continues to try and break the rules? I was there a couple of days ago and a truck pulled up with the bed heaped up with a mountain of black plastic trash bags. Some had 2x4s sticking out of the bags. I watched a few of the bags being crushed in the bin and paint shot out of the bag and the landfill operator jumped out of his cab and ran over to the truck to tell them to stop throwing their bags in the bin because it was construction materials. The operator ripped open one of the bags and it was full of tile and drywall. They said “No hablo ingles”. I have a very quick way to fix this. Station a few ICE agents inside the landfill. These landfill rule violators have ruined a good thing for private citizens. When the rules went into effect on August 3rd, the only violators of the rules are the same violators that ruined it for everyone else. BS!

08/25/2026

I don’t know if you caught Scry Scott Bessent today but if you did not, you should. Make sure that you watch the full uncut, unedited recording. Most United States Citizens have never received a national security threat briefing and I can understand why things don’t make sense to you. I can also understand why the actions involving the global market place, even taking the national security briefings weekly, it is still extremely hard to believe that our adversaries come up with their unbelievably nefarious schemes to destroy the peaceful foundations of the United States and all of our allies. Money is the heart beat of that global foundation. The United States does not force the US Dollar as the standard for all currency on the global market because we are arrogant. The US Dollar standard allows the United States to wield the biggest stick of all to ensure world peace. Without control of every economic node around the world and without the ability of the United States to influence every country by causing economic chaos in bad behaving countries and all other countries that want to embolden bad behaving countries, global peace would fall apart. We should never second guess why it is critical for the US Dollar to maintain its status as the global finance standard. There are so many countries that are extremely evil and they want to cause evil and terrorism around the globe. Financial starvation and isolation is the most peaceful way to stop bad actors from being bullies. Money makes the world go around and by cutting a country out of global money market place, they will have to choose to die on the vine or become good actors in world peace. It is very unfortunate that Iran has forced the hand of the United States to reveal a very critical arrow in our global quiver. We have had to show a very important and very protected hand and it will weaken our global strength but if that is what it takes to prevent Iran from their nuclear genocidal terroristic strategies and align them to become good global economic citizens then it is worth it to reveal a little bit of our hand to the rest of the world. I am really sorry if you can’t understand this but you have to trust that what the United States Treasury Department is doing is for the benefit of world peace.

08/23/2026

I absolutely loved the Freedom 250 Grand Prix held in Washington DC today. I hope and pray that this will take place again. Congratulations to Roger Penske and all who helped him for a successful race and congratulations to team Mario Andretti for an outstanding job in winning the first automobile street race in Washington DC. Thank you to President Trump and the Executive branch leadership team for clearing the way to make this race a reality. What a huge 250th Birthday gift to the greatest nation on earth. Mario Andretti was a huge childhood hero for me. He was second behind General Joe Engle only slightly ahead of Dale Earnhardt Sr.

08/23/2026

A lot of stuff going on recently over cameras imaging activities all over the place. I am not sure what all the hubbub is all about. Why should anyone care. If you are behaving yourself and not doing anything nefarious, what does it matter who has a camera running. As long as the cameras are placed in areas that appropriate (in other words not in a bathroom or other private places) what difference does it make? What I worry about is when someone complains about a camera that is invading their privacy. It makes me wonder more about what they are doing that I need to be concerned about. If you are in the public or you are on private property, you have no foundation to protest a camera. Just behave and you gave nothing to worry about.

08/17/2026

I am not informed on certain aspects of our legal system but if anyone understands why judges are not held accountable for releasing a multiple violent crime offender on our streets and once released the criminal goes out and murders someone. In my mind, the judge needs to be arrested and they need to go to prison as if they conducted the murder themselves. If you think about it, the judge releasing a known multi offense violent criminal into free society is basically the same as the judge handing a gun to a convicted criminal and releasing them on to society. If I knew of someone who was a violent criminal and I gave them a gun and ammunition and that person used that gun and ammunition to kill someone, I would go to prison as if I had committed the murder myself. Perhaps a federal law is needed that holds any and all judges criminally liable for the crimes of an individual who they released (who is a known convicted violent crimes offender) onto society regardless of the state law where they sit on the bench? Is there a reason this can’t be done?

08/15/2026

AARP has a very simple return on investment calculator to help our kids of today understand what it means to invest. I have provided the link below and I encourage each of you to sit down with your kids (40 years old and under) and walk through it so that they understand investments in a capitalistic society. Run the numbers against $1,000 using standard bank interest, then using money market interest, then using a S&P 500 indexed stock fund, then using a DOW Jones Industrial indexed stock fund. Then use a running average gain against Berkshire B (blue chip stock fund). Then for fun, pick the highest earning single stock over the last 10 years in the DJI and run the calculator against that stock. I think it will be an eye opening experience for both you and your kids.

Now take that same exercise and ask your kids how much they spend on coffee shop coffee, ci******es, v**e, alcohol, drugs, lunch purchased while at work, golf, dance,…. And add that to the funds every month and see where that investment goes. They will all be millionaires in under 10 years.

Now, show your kids you love them by investing $1,000 of your own money into a stock fund and hand them the list of companies that are part of that stock fund. Promise them that you will match them dollar for dollar up to $500 per year over the next 10 years when the fund becomes theirs to do what they want. You will see a different kid in about two to three years. They will respect capitalism. They will learn to invest. They will help those companies out that are in their portfolios. They will start participating in board meetings. They will gain an appreciation for investment that they will pass on to their children.

Use this investment returns calculator to calculate how much your money may grow and return over time

08/14/2026

Since I brought up the subject of affordability and housing, I offer a story that a good friend of mine shared. He and his wife invest in properties. He told me a story of a house he invested in. He found a single family home that was in a mediocre neighborhood that was priced pretty low for the comparables in the neighborhood so he decided to go take a look. He and his wife opened the door of the house and their breath was ripped out of their lungs by the extreme stench of the house. It was enough to make any strong stomach vomit all over the place. Okay, now he begins to understand why it was not selling. He went in, his wife said we are not buying. He went to the basement and there it was, a dog was dead on the floor that had been chained to a post in the basement. Very sad situation and very poor doggy. Cruelty to animals is common in rental properties. His wife reiterated—WE ARE NOT BUYING THIS PROPERTY!!! My friend said, honey, do you smell that smell? I am sure the look she gave him was not pleasant. He looked at her and said, honey, that is the smell of money. Perspective and opportunity. They negotiated a price with the owner that reflected the situation and hired out the cleanup. In a very short period of time, the house was rented above market pricing. That is called business strategy. If kids today would learn this, they could experience for themselves what capitalism is all about. It is hard and extremely hard work. No one is going to throw money in their laps. Housing can be affordable if you know where to look and how to play the game. Buying a brand new McMansion at age 20-25 is fantasy land stuff. It does not work that way. The best years of a kids life is when they are at home with mom and dad providing everything. After that, it gets really, really, really hard and complicated. The sooner that reality check happens, the better off the kids are in being prepared for the rest of their lives.