Friday, May 25, 2007

Friday AM

Since I typically don't do so well making entries on Friday afternoon, I thought I would lay one down this morning to break the routine. Not that I am that creative at this hour.

4 may be taking over as the required "read of the day". I mean, do events of an old man in the Quackers, or the ruminations of a college girl on tour in Europe have more basic appeal?

The three day weekend is getting off to a good start. Good weather for today, and I fired up Margret for my ride for the day. A front went through last night and cooled things down, and calmed the wind. We are still dry, but that keeps the grass under control. I'm having to water my outdoor plants as well as my tomatoes. I'm sure that the farmers are griping about the need for rain.

Happy Birthday to 1! She is Daughter of the Day.

There has been a shake-up in our local minor league hockey team. The previous team, the Mallards, were the equivalent of an "A" level franchise. Their average attendance had slipped from a high in the mid-8000's when they were a novelty and really good, to the mid-3000's in the most recent season. So for whatever reason, the power-that-be, whoever they are, elected to locate the "AAA" franchise of the Calgary Flames here for next season. Huh? I suppose that the theory is that better hockey will bring out more fans, even at the higher ticket prices. I'm taking the under on that bet.

Today starts the weekend of cycling in Eastern Iowa/Quad Cites. There is a road race from Wapello down to Burlington this evening. Then the racers have closed-course races tomorrow in Burlington, Sunday in Muscatine, and Monday in Rock Island. Closed-course races are called criteriums. Hope the weather holds.

For those interested in history, check out Memorial Day on Wikipedia. It was not until the late '60's that this U.S. holiday was moved from it's May 30th day to the last Monday in May. The rationale was to make a more people-friendly three day weekend to start the Summer. Now, I think that commerce rules and it's all about the money.

So everyone go out there and have a great day.

Be careful out there.

1 comment:

Tracy said...

Uncle Charlie -
Wanted to let you know of a service that would let you call Spain for a lot less than $.50. It is called Onesuite. The way it works is you sign up on their Web site www.onesuite.com and essentially buy minutes. You need to place a minimum of $10.00 in your account. Calls to Spain are $.05 to a land line and $.29 to a cell phone. It can be used in Spain too – calls back home are $.26. It is easy to make a call all you do is call the toll-free access number and enter your pin and then the number. It is that easy. We use it for most of our International calls.