The Pirate goes to the dermatologist and says, “Arrg, I got moles.” The dermatologist says, “Don’t worry, they’re benign.” The Pirate replies, “Arrg, count again, I think there be ten!” Health care, astronomy, and mortgage banking are filled with numbers. Losing daylight is the name of the game these days in the Northern Hemisphere. Chicago, where I head this weekend, is losing three minutes per day of sunlight, Anchorage five minutes, Honolulu one minute. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it; The official conventional conforming loan limits, issued by the FHFA/Freddie/Fannie triumvirate, doesn’t occur until Thanksgiving. But in recent years investors have “jumped the gun;” more below. Speaking of jumping the gun, today is Mexican Independence Day, marking the battle of independence after nearly 300 years of being ruled by Spain, but the celebrations began yesterday in places like Chicago. Things kick off September 15. On this day back in 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla gave a historic speech and rang the church bell which helped inspire the fight for freedom, and the date is helped by it being the birthday of Porfirio Diaz, president and dictator from 1876 to 1911. (Today’s podcast is found here and this week’s is sponsored by Visio Lending. Visio has a top-notch broker program and is the nation’s premier lender for buy and hold investors with over 2.5 billion closed loans for single-family rental properties, including vacation rentals. Hear an interview with Glenn Stearns on the choices that have shaped his mortgage career.)