Friday

Friday's in August tend to be extra-low-key at the office.  Today is no exception.  At least the heat has abated.  The air is "Off" on Maplecrest.  Still dry, but not baking.

The party on Wednesday night for my pal Roy was a big success.  It was a gathering of long-time friends, many of whom were on those memorable trips to Cabo in the 12-15 years ago range.  There was even talk of reprising those junkets, but fortunately, clearer heads have prevailed since the party, and any trip this Winter will likely be to the more-economically friendly (not to mention safer) environs of Vero Beach in the Sunshine State.  We'll see.

It looks like next week will be the last week for the Maplecrest Fit Club, at least the last with our current instructor.  She heads to her new job in Milwaukee Thursday or Friday.  Bummer.  Maybe 2 can be our new leader, eh?  Awards function is Tuesday.  The only open question is, "Will Cal make it?"

The PGA event this week is at a scenic, ocean-side club on Kiawah Island, just off from downtown Charleston, South Carolina.  Lots of sand and wind.  My pal Cal has played this track several times during what has been almost annual vacations to that island.  The course really looks too hard for the average golfer, regardless of the length that you play it.  The pro's use the back tees, and I'm pretty sure that I couldn't even get a tee shot to the fairway on lots of the holes.

Lots in the sports pages today about the NBA trade of Dwight Howard from Orlando to the Lakers.  It's been an oft-repeated formula: team in smaller market with superstar needs to ship him out to maker him happy, as in Kareem from Milwaukee, and as Shaq from Orlando.  But this guy is a head-case.  He can play, but he has the maturity of an 8th grader.  He can't carry Kareem or Shaq's water bottles.  If they don't win it all within two years, he'll be calling out his coach and/or teammates.

And football season is underway.  Amazing.  Did it actually end?  What do people pay for tickets to those NFL pre-season games?  To watch undrafted free-agents junk around.  And this year, with the games ref'ed by replacements.

I'm giving props to NASA for their latest Mars rover project.  The Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet.  This pic was on their main website.  (Our first cousin Peter was the project manager on the previous Mars rover mission.  He seems to still be involved.  Here's a link to a Q&A with him from last year on this current mission.) http://www.space.com/11618-mars-rover-curiosity-theisinger-qanda.html

The Hertz folks have not responded to my email inquiry from Monday.  I sent a follow-up.  Their auto-response system says that I'm very important to them...but don't respond to their response because no one checks it.  Hmmm.  Are these guys also campaign advisors?

The BEATER clicked over 140K miles this week.  I had a friend riding with me this week and I was told that the squeaking and creaking that the car makes when coming to a stop sounded like me getting up from the chair.

Hope the Peanut Gallery has a good weekend.

BCOT