Friday

Friggatriskaidekaphobia!

So here is my obligatory Friday the thirteenth visual.  I tend not to be that superstitious, but then again, I don't ignore these things either.  I wonder what they call fear of stepping on the foul-lines when going to and from your position between innings in baseball? 

My basement memory-wall where I have hung my prior year calendars reveals that the days this year fall exactly on the same numbered days as 2007...when we had a Friday the 13th of July also.

(For history buffs, it is worth noting that we are celebrating this week the two-year anniversary of the last Tahoe family reunion.  Actually, the reunion picnic was on Saturday the 10th.  We spent that following week developing our "hanging out" skills.)

I was pretty impressed with the turn-around time on my new glasses at Vision-4-Less.  There was no eye-exam involved as my prescription  from last year was capturing my needs.  So all I had to do was get a sales clerk to wait on me, pick out the new frames and write a check.  That all happened inside of 20 minutes.  My prescription must not be all that unusual, because the clerk went to the stock room and pulled the lenses as part of her work.

Their protocol included an elective text-message notification to me upon their completion.  I was just concerned about getting the new glasses within a few days.  The text came within 90 minutes!  Fit Club precluded a pick-up last night, and my first attempt this AM was a bust due to a line, but I stopped on my way to lunch and was outta there in five minutes.

The one element of the process that was just a little difficult to swallow was the additional $25/pair that they charge for the non-scratch surface treatment.  My experience over the years has been that my usage will definitely scratch the lenses, so I always get this coverage.  But I gotta believe that the marginal cost for the in-store lab to apply this treatment is near-zero.  The add-on has to be a big profit number for the store.  Kinda like extended-warranties at Best Buy.

The Penn State report was pretty specifically damning.  Will the school (or the NCAA?) do anything? USA Today columnist Christine Brennan has a piece today calling for a one-year shut-down of football at the school.  Usually, I think she's a predictable lib-talker with little to say, but she has a point on this one.  What's worse:  the act or the cover-up?  One thing is certain:  the lawyers will be making money for a decade off of the cases that are sure to come. 

Hope the Peanut Gallery has a good weekend.

BCOT