Pete Austin’s Blog

 If you’re like me you’re probably channel-surfing between CNN and the other new networks watching the coverage of hurricane Gustav as it approaches the Gulf Coast. As someone who lived in Miami for eight years and went through many hurricanes, including the record 2005 season, I can attest to the hype surrounding Gustav. It’s refreshing to hear the media taking this category 3 storm seriously. I’m sure some people think that he media is being overly dramatic about the storm and sensationalizing - so I thought I’d share what is probably my favorite picture from the record breaking 2005 hurricane season. The damage you see in the picture if from hurricane Wilma which was actually the strongest (in terms of pressure) hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. When it passed through Miami and Ft. Lauderdale it came through as a very strong category 3 (almost a category 4) storm. While the hurricane intensity scale goes up to five, it’s important for people to know the kind of damage that just a category 3 storm can do. New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana is in for a rough ride.

The building above is an office building in downtown Miami. While it look like the damage is isolated to the top floors I can assure you that the damage continues down the building blocked by the other building in the foreground. This happened to be the most devastated building in downtown but countless others were damaged in similar ways. As we walked around downtown immediately after the storm we found every street in downtown Miami covered in 1-inch thick skyscraper window glass that had been blown out of Miami’s skyline. It took more than six months before most building windows were replaced and more than a year for all of downtown Miami’s building to return to their normal appearance.

Update:
Gustav has since made it’s run through Louisiana, and now Ike has hit Texas also as a category-2 (borderline category-3) storm. If you pull up pictures of the Chase Financial tower in downtown Houston, it’s eerily similar to my pic from Miami. A hurricane does not have to be a cat-4 or 5 to do severe damage.

Leah and I returned from Michigan this week. We were out there for an annual friends-and-family golf tournament that my parents hold in Elk Rapids. The weather was absolutely beautiful and perfect for the three straight days of golf. I hadn’t been out of the course even once thise year leading up to the tournament so I knew it was going to be a little hairy getting back into the swing. In anticipation of tournament I found a local golf shop having an unbelievable clearance special on a set of clubs that I’d had my eye on for a while. I picked up a new set of Wilson Ci6′s and a Taylor Made Burner 3-wood. My current clubs were actually the very first clubs I ever owned and they were ok for a starter set 11 years ago but they just didn’t match well with my skill level now. The first day out on the course with the new Wilsons I knew I made a good choice. My first shop with the irons was an approach shot from 215. I pulled out a 5-iron, let ‘er rip, and actually flew the green! Amazing, I never would’ve hit my old irons like that. The first day I shot 96. The second day I shot a 92 – a personal best. The third day was a scramble format but I played great and I’m sure I could’ve bettered my 92. The tournament day was a blast. Our team came so close but wound up losing by one stroke. The putts just weren’t falling for us even when we hit 15 greens-in-regulation.

It was great to see everyone again and Leah and I had as much fun off the course as on. Spa days, Torch Lake kayaking, and good food highlighted the rest of the trip. Now that we’re back in Seattle we finally get some long-awaited down time at home. At work though, I’m as busy as I’ve ever been. Big projects coming down the pipeline.

I really wish I had the time to post more commentaries. There’s so much interesting stuff going on right now. Politics, technology, the Olympics, it’s hard to keep up. As soon as I get over the project hump at work I’ll be posting a lot more.

This year Warren Buffett officially surpased Bill Gates to become the richest individual on the planet. It’s hard to imagine just how much money these two men have individually, but what’s even more amazing is the partnership that they have in their philanthropic efforts. In 2006, Mr. Buffett announced that he would be donating almost 83% of his fortune to the charitable efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As such he also earned a place as a co-chair of the foundation. In 2008 he attended the annual meeting of the foundation and sat down with the other co-chairs for a Q&A session from the foundation’s employees. Below is a transcription of his responses to two questions asked of him. It’s rare that you get to see such insight into the mindset of a person as influential as Mr. Buffett. His responses are certainly not what you would expect, and it’s for that reason that I wanted to share them here.

Why did you make the decision to donate to the foundation?

“Since we have small, intimate, discrete group here I’ll make a confession that I normally wouldn’t … I don’t work very hard at my job. At Berkshire Hathaway we have 255,000 people out working and then we have about 19 of us that just fool around at the office and – I like it that way – all I really do is I allocate capital and I align myself with outstanding managers and organizations, that’s all I do at Berkshire Hathaway. I decided two years ago to do the same thing in philanthropy. I allocated the capital and I aligned myself with terrific managers that.. I don’t want to do what they do, but I want done what they do. And all I can say is two years later I feel a hell of a lot smarter than I felt then even.”

How do you feel about your investment in the foundation so far?

“I feel terrific about it. I’m used to evaluating often large projects. When the facts just hit me in the face I have no problem making the decision. This is done exactly what I expected, it will continue to, and in fact it will probably exceed my expectations and it’s a perfect answer of what to do with a lot of money to benefit the most people in the world. We’re two years into it now and I’m looking forward to observing it for a long time.

I have never given up one thing in this world that I wanted in order to make somebody else’s life better. Now, I given up surplus to do it, but so what? I have not denied myself anything in life and I’m not denying myself anything now. Somebody that goes to church on Sunday and puts $5 in the collection plate that otherwise would have meant a movie or an extra toy for their kid, or a different dinner they might order; to me that’s real charity. What I’m doing is just logical. My older sister was on C-SPAN on Sunday with Brian Lam and my sister, who’s 80, is spending 10 hours a day doing what I call retail philanthropy and she gets involved in people’s lives, she helps them, and she was describing all of this. She is giving up some significant things in her personal life in order to make other people’s lives better. I’m giving up a lot of surplus and I’m delighted to do it and society has treated me sensationally, but it’s not real charity, it’s really just sort of the logical disposition of money to a society that’s handed it to me in a crazy way.”

Leah and I celebrated our 1-year anniversary on Monday. Amazing that it’s been a year already. So much has happened in that time, but suffice to say that it was a great first year. Leah and I are just suckers for trying new things so to celebrate our anniversary we decided to have dinner at the Space Needle. I know what you’re thinking – the Space Needle? Isn’t that just a tourist trap with a view? True, it is a touristy place, but what we found out about the restaurant at the Space Needle is that it is not your typical tourist attraction fare. The restaurant is located on the floor beneath the observation desk and rotates giving you an ever-changing view of the skyline and surrounding scenery. It’s a little disconcerting stepping on to the rotating deck at first. The motion of the deck and the rotating view throws your stomach for a loop. Leah and I both felt queesy for about 15 minutes until our stomach adjusted to the motion.

The food at the restaurant is actually extremely good. It’s also extremely expensive. They know that it’s a million-dollar view as you eat and they price accordingly. The fact of the matter is that the drinks were great, food was delicious, and the service was wonderful – even offering to take pictures throughout the dinner as the view behind us changed. It was a great night and a great way to celebrate our first year.