It was better when I was dumb

Things "economic" never much worried me when I was on active duty in the Army. That was partially based on the fact that I'd flunked ECON 101 in college, and only got a "D" when I took it the second time. But, it was mostly caused by our relative isolation from the rest of the world in terms of daily routine. For the last ten or so years we were on active duty, we spent about half in Germany with troops. The remainder of that time was also spent with troop-related assignments in the U.S. My daily routine thus began at 0500 and ended around 1800 or so. I had training schedules to worry about, training exercises to plan and execute, briefings to prepare and give, and loads of "people" issues to deal with. Equipment maintenance was paramount, as were all things "supply" related. When I watched news on TV, or read it in the newspaper (Stars & Stripes for example), I hardly ever got agitated in any way. It was just "news". Key items on my weekly agenda (especially in Germany) were Friday afternoons sipping a few favorite beverages with comrades and friends. TGIF meant a lot to us back then. Weekends were for golf or home chores and Mondays always sucked. Three or four day holiday weekends were looked forward to with great anticipation, and always seemed to go by far too quickly. In short, I was essentially a dumb person when it came to what was happening outside the Army. It's much different for me today. I've become somewhat "smarter" about the economy, pay far too much attention to politics, and am an avid "news watcher". After seeing another 600+ drop in the stock market yesterday, I long for those days when I would have paid little if any attention to such terrible news. It was better when I was dumb.