Thursday

Halloween is just not one of my favorite days.  If they had an age limit, of say 7, maybe.  Talk about money thrown to the breeze!

At least they ended baseball this year in October.  The Cards couldn't get Ortiz out, and they couldn't hit their own way out of a paper bag. 

I had to restock the wine shelf on Maplecrest to make sure I was able to entertain this weekend and the 53rd Stree Hy Vee had the fam's wine currency at $11.99 (not on sale).  Which is four bucks less than what it was posted at for much of the Summer.  Which is why when they do have it at $15.99, I refuse to buy it on principle.  I thought it was appropriate that the empty box that they handed me upon my request was from RS in Healdsburg.

The book that I listened to last weekend on the trip to Harvest Path was another of Vince Flynn's:  Pursuit of Honor.  Its the story of the aftermath of another domestic attack by Islamic terrorists.  Typical Flynn stuff:  bad guys really stand no chance against protagonist Mitch Rabb.  Remember, Flynn was a native of St. Paul, a graduate of St. Thomas, and a victim of prostate cancer a year or two back.  What I didn't know is that he was a military wash-out due to dyslexia, and he used reading and writing to get better.  I'd say that he succeeded.  To reference Jeff Foxworthy, I'm thinking by the tone of his novels, Flynn coulda been a Tea-Partier!

My evening plans do not include hosting a candy-give-away for munchkins in the 52722.  Among other things, I need to help my pal Ron lay down some trim at 2's.  I hired Ron because I gave up my carpentry license sometime in the prior millennium.  And not because I got too good at it.  Maybe some pics later.

BCOT...I mean, its Halloween!  Be REAL Careful Out there!

Tuesday

I'm giving Kinnick Stadium a little face time on the blog this week in anticipation of 4's visit this coming weekend.  Let's hope the Hawks can show up against the Badgers on Saturday.

I did open a new account last night with another blog platform called WordPress.  I didn't do much other than set up my raw data, but I will spend some time this week exploring the flexibility of that software.  Among other things, I need to decide if I want to pay for some features.  With as much time as I devote to the blog, I don't mind paying for a good operating system.  I just don't want to pay for another half-baked Blogger.  And that auto-input to Twitter will not be part of any permanent arrangement.  Stay tuned.

Alas, the Cardinals can't hit.  Their season now rests on the arm of their young pitching stud, Michael Wacha.  Go get 'em, Kid!

GAP came through with another Customer Service gold star for me.  I've got my billing from them set up on my Wells Fargo account.  My latest ebill came through over the weekend with a $25 late fee and interest from that purchase of slacks that I made before Italy.  Somehow, I missed the September billing.  Now, I would have received that e-bill while I was in Italy, but the notification goes to my Yahoo account, and I couldn't find it in the In box or the Trash.

So I dialed up GAP, eventually got to a live body, gave my story, and the fee was waived.  The CS rep couldn't determine if a September notification had been sent either.  I was prepared to suck in the fee as another cost of the Italy trip as it could have been that I deleted the e-bill notice when going through my mail.  I often delete GAP, Kohl's and other solicitations without reading them.  The e-bill could have been deleted in that manner.  Now I know to read those things that come around the 25th.

But it also illustrates the saturation point of my brain when there are too many things racing trough the frontal lobe.  And I've determined it to be an issue beyond Sometimer's.  I don't know whether it is age, level of activity, stress or some other factor, but I have recently recognized that I just can't keep all of the balls in the air, all of the time.  Maybe it has always been that way, and I just didn't admit to it.  But I sure see it now.

I'm still not convinced that Apple OS upgrade was an upgrade.

Here's a little variation of the old Jeff Foxworthy, "You might be a Redneck" comedy routine...

There's been lots written in the last couple of weeks about the Tea Party wing of the GOP.  Mostly in the negative as a result of their stand in the House that brought DC close to a shut-down.  Unfortunately, people who believe in hard work, honoring the flag and country, paying their taxes, going to church and other out-moded traditions, are now the extremists.  As a senior, white, male, Christian, heterosexual, government-get-out-of-my-way, pro-life (how can a Christian not be pro-life, Nancy?), non-union person, I guess I might be a Tea Partier.  If I belonged to the NRA, it would be, "Case-closed!"

If they also drank some good Cabernet at their parties, I'd sign up.

OK.  Back to work.  Have a good Tuesday.

BCOT

Sunday

Just a few lines tonight to catch up after the weekend on the road.  Always good to get back to the home turf.

Neither 1.1 nor I lasted late enough to see the crazy final of the World Series game last night.  I felt like I had held out about as long as I could at 2230 and figured I probably had little impact on the final score.  So I hit the hay.  I was glad to see the Cardinals win it, but not so much so on how it happened.  Another example of when you think you've seen everything, one of Gibbs' rules is, Remember that you haven't."  4 said that she used it a few times on her newscasts today.

Congrats to the Hawks and the Irish.  That Iowa win was pretty gutsy.  They always have trouble with NW.  The OT touchdown was the real deal.  A nice play by the QB who had the correct read on a blitz and made the pass.  Very cool.

Then the 24 won the NASCAR race today!  I had checked-in on the race when I got home, but didn't stay with it.  Then a little later I was on the computer and they have a "Breaking News" item that the 24 won.  Good for him.  Its still a two-man contest between Jimmy and Kenseth.  With just three races to go.  Still, the same old lesson applies here too: A win is a win is a win.

As big of a fan as I have been of Erin Andrews over the years, her presence in the World Series dugouts doesn't play on Maplecrest.  Nor do the in-game interviews with the managers.  And if they put any more information boxes on the screen , you might as well go to radio.  Just sayin'.

Rascal Flatts not my fav for the National Anthem.

For planning purposes.  Hot August Nights in Reno next year is July 29 - August 3rd.  The last Sunday in July is the 27th.  So my unplanned plan would be to get out there the 26th or 27th and stay for 10 days...more or less. 

Had a very enjoyable visit on Harvest Path.  As per normal, not a lot of extra activities, just lots of books, puzzles, pizza, muffins and princesses.  Thanks to the Dornies for the hospitality!.

All for tonight.  Thanks for reading.  Have a great week in your neighborhood!

BCOT

Friday

This is coming to you from the road in Cedar Rapids. Sitting in a Starbuck's shop with as busy of a drive-through as I have seen this side of our favorite SB in Scottsdale. (I've also got line-of-sight to an infamous Days Inn that failed to recover certain precious personal items belonging to 4 on that Hawkeye FFF weekend a few years back. Not staying there this trip, of course!)

For the record, the Over bet paid on the Buick repairs.

2's ACL diagnosis means that she will go through the same surgery that I had in 1988 or 89. They've made progress in shortening the rehab for this injury, but it is still is a 6-8 month journey. (Viking running back Adrian Petersen blazed a trail last year with a very quick off-season recovery which launched an incredible come-back year for him.) She will have to get pretty regimented in her physical therapy progression to be ready for Tahoe 2014.

Enjoyed watching the Cardinals win last night after getting back from my meetings and dinner. The Red Sox made a couple of mistakes that led to the Redbird victory, just like the Cards had done the night before. It's down to a 5-game series. StL absolutely MUST take 2 of the 3 games at home to have a chance. If they do, it will put Wacha on the hill in Boston in game 6 for the series win. For a Cardinals fan, that wouldn't be the worst scenario.

They really need to establish some limits on phone use in small environs. Two guys would have been kicked out of this place this morning if there were any rules at all. #extremelyannoying.

ND is in Colorado Springs this weekend for a game at the USAF Academy. I went to one game there, many years ago, and it's worth the trip. Postcard scenery, that special feel of honor/service/discipline of a military academy, and connections to both schools. Kind of a no-lose game for me. This time, the USAF might be a bit over-matched. Look for the Irish to cover the 20 points...if Rees plays. If he doesn't, I doubt if ND can score three times against a junior high team.

They released the route for the 2014 Tour this week. It was already announced that the race would start with three stages in England, and then do a clockwise route in France. They presented the rest of the route Wednesday. After England, they get back on French soil and do some varied days in Northeast France before hitting the Alps, and then down to the Pyrenees. Two of the hills that I have ridden are on the 2014 route, the Col de Lauteret in the Alps, and the Tourmalet that 4 and I rode in the Pyrenees. One of those days in the Pyrenees also goes through the town that 4 and I used as our Base Camp, Bagneres de Bigorre. Good memories of that place.

I'm guessing that parts of France are unhappy with the Tour organizers for the route-design this time. Western France basically has no part of the route in 2014. This is the same kind of debate that goes on in Iowa year-after-year for the RAGBRAI route. Cities see RAGBRAI as an economic boom, and most town are glad to see the bikers come through For a one-day visit. (There are exceptions. Public urination rubs some folks the wrong way. Shock!).

And as I have mentioned here previously, a TdF stage-end town may only see the riders cross the finish line...and then have them immediately head out of town for the start of the next stage which may be 50 or more miles away. So getting a spot on the route is not necessarily a home run.

All for now. I'm headed North to Harvest Path for the weekend. More from there later today.

Have a good weekend in your neighborhood.

BCOT

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tuesday

The new Home Page pic is Mt. Etna in Sicily.  I took the shot on our way down the mountain before we got into the congestion of the close-by major city of Catania.  Etna dominates the skyline for most of eastern Sicily, and that plume at the top is testimony to its status as an active volcano. (This is a pic looking down at Catania from from a pull-over near the Base Camp, 19 kilometers up from the city.)

And continuing the theme of Blogger irregularities, I don't know why the Home Page photo won't compress to fit the space in the heading.  Another software glitch.  Maybe I need to call in Verizon.  Heh, heh. :)

The chill definitely came in over night.  It was 27 according to Apple when I woke up at 0513.  I figured it was time to turn on the heat on Maplecrest for the first time of the season.  The furnace did fire-up on the second try.  When it didn't actually start on my first attempt, I took a look around the unit in my utility room, thinking I might need to manually light the pilot light.  When I couldn't figure out which side of the furnace to even find the pilot light, I decided that my only shot was to "re-boot the system".   Which worked.

The furnace joins an ever-increasing list of mechanical items that I have no skills to address in the case of malfunction.  Electronics.  Plumbing.  Household carpentry.  Outdoor power equipment.  Cars (with a manufacturing date after 1964).  Actually, when it comes to it, I can't fix anything.  My first option is my PN.  After that, I be dialin' for reinforcements.

Moving on...

My one-time fantasy-girl, Sheryl Crow was through town last week for a concert at the iWireless Center in Moline.  The review in the local paper was a good one, citing her stage presence and varied song repertoire.  Her co-headliner was Gary Allan, a mid-level country singer with a few hits over the years.  (Wiki says he's he's 46 and signed his first record deal in 1996...and I recognize some of his titles.)  They drew 4,500 or so which is less than half of the capacity of the arena.

My guess is that Sheryl never was a regular sell-out for 10K-plus venues.  And at now 50+, her fan base is certainly not growing.  Her latest music has tried to bring on the country side of her folk-rock genre.  One recently released single made the Top 40 on the Country charts, I think.  So her tour is likely an effort to keep herself relevant in her space.  (And Gary Allan is at a point where he will only be an opening act for a bigger name, except in smaller rooms.)

Sheryl Crow doesn't have quite the same low stature in my world as "Hanoi" Jane Fonda, but her venture into the global warming debate a few years back put her in the same time zone as HJF.  She did that publicity tour with the Seinfeld producer's wife, Laurie David, and came up with the outrageously funny idea of limiting toilet-paper squares per use.  (Jay Leno was grateful for the material!)  And recently, it came out that she ratted to the Feds on her one-time boyfriend, Lance Armstrong.

Fringe-ish fans like me remember these things.  And not usually in a good way.  Entertainers really need to limit their efforts to their craft.

In a bit of contrast, The Eagles played to a sell-out crowd last night at the same iWireless arena.  They're a little older than Sheryl Crow, but not a lot.  They are another of those older groups who continue to bring in the fans.  At premium ticket prices.

(Reflecting a more contemporary reality, country star Jason Aldean recently sold out a scheduled one-night January 2014 gig at the iWireless so quickly that they added a second night to capture the overflow.  Ya' gotta' strike when the iron is hot!)

Maybe snow here today?  Hello Winter!

Make it a good day in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Sunday

Looks like Fall is here in the QCA.  The nightly lows this week are projected to be 30 or so.  The ficus trees on the deck are coming in tonight for the duration. 

(Blogger still giving me problems.  Had to "Publish" after adding this pic because the system wouldn't "Save".  Really annoying.)

4 has again been the Producer for the national 7PM Eastern evening news hour on FOX the last two days.  Way to go, girl!

There's lots of chatter about the efforts to regulate the unnecessary roughness in football.  An Ohio State defensive back was tossed-out of the Iowa game on an early play when he was judged to "target" a defenseless Hawkeye receiver.  As I write this, a Green Bay Packer receiver is being carted-off the field after a hard hit from a d-back.  (And one of the tool announcers is trying to defend/justify the play.)

Personally, I do think that football is too violent.  The speed, size and strength of defensive players make for earth-shattering body shots to backs and receivers.  And video games and TV graphics have glorified the "big hit".  They've made rule changes over the years to protect quarterbacks (to the chagrin of defense advocates).  These new steps seem like the right way to go to me to bring player-safety to a higher emphasis.

This of course from a guy who never played football.

My pal "Sunshine" Ron has been working me hard over the last few days to get in at least one more round on the course. I had been completely satisfied to have called it a season after the Labor Day event...and had even taken my clubs to the basement for storage.  But Ron's a pal, the weather was looking warmer for today, and my schedule wasn't overloaded for the day.

But to get me to commit, Sunshine had to give me a stroke on three different holes.  (I really don't think the "stroke" holes mattered as I think I won those holes regardless of the help.)  As the game wound down, I was up two holes (and $2!) as we teed off on 18.  He had "pressed" on the hole, meaning that the bet was for $2 on that hole. Ron managed to get a bogey 5 when I conceded a short putt after he had missed his par putt from around 20 feet.  I was sitting on 4, about 18 feet above the hole.  If I missed the putt, he would win the hole and even the match.

The pic of Ron handing over the bet attests my successful draining of the putt!!  It was a priceless moment!  When boys play golf, its about the win, baby.  The amount of money doesn't matter.  Two bucks was a HUGE victory!

And the clubs are back in the basement.  Until Scottsdale in January.  Where, as I have already been put on notice, I will not be getting any strokes!

 (I have one more paragraph to add, but I need to go away from Blogger for a moment, and in order to "save" these last few paragraph, I have to publish.  So if you think this is the end of the post, it isn't!)

I can't remember if I have touted this bottle here in a prior posting or not.  A new recommendation is for Black Stallion Cabernet.  I had a bottle or two of this earlier this year when it may have been on sale at Hy Vee, but had not purchased it recently as it was usually not on sale...and at $23 was more than I was inclined to spend.  But I needed a case to re-supply the shelves on Maplecrest, and when I stopped to do so on Friday, I was able to lower my average bottle cost to make this a good option to take in for dinner that night at Geneva.

Smooth.  Has body.  No after-taste.  Certainly as good as the top-shelf Louis Martini or Rodney Strong.  (Well, not the top-est of the top-shelf Rodney, but the top-shelf Rodney that we see here in Iowa!)  Not a bad bottle to take as a guest to a house party.

All for this evening.  I'm taking the Buick over to the dealership this evening for them to take a look tomorrow at some front-end brake and suspension work.  A drop-off tonight when my pal Pete can give me a lift back home.  I need to get this stuff done before I get stranded on I-80 on one of my trips.  Over/Under on this is $2K.  Not too optimistic here...and taking the Over.

Have a great week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Friday

Finally Friday.  I really felt like it was Friday on Tuesday...so this is actually my FOURTH Friday of the week!

The BEATER went to the repair shop again this week.  Front brakes.  The noise had gotten so bad, I was  embarrassed when I pulled up to a stop sign because I sounded like a BEATER...and I was a little worried that things were getting so bad that at one of those signs, I wouldn't even be able to stop the car.  Not the cheapest fix, but quick, and I'm back on the road.  Until the next problem.

If you looked here earlier and saw an unfinished post, it was the result of Blogger-itis.  Another case of Blogger limiting my editing...and then publishing with an "Enter" keystoke meant to start a new paragraph.  Sorry.

I may be in the market for a new home for the blog.  I'm more and more frustrated at the amount of

inconveniences that the system currently presents with each entry.

Here's a little levity for the women in the audience.  Dagwood still gives me a chuckle.  And every time I read one of these comic strips, I think of Daddy.  He laughed and laughed at Dagwood's troubles.  I'm betting that he would never have known who Brad Pitt was/is, even if he were alive today.  (Daddy, not Brad Pitt...who is alive, right?)

This cartoon was passed around by one of my more cynical friend/clients with whom I share some common beliefs.

My TT training finally got started this AM...at 0430...with an early run.  Not sure if that will be the regular time slot for it, but I like having things done before I go to work.  There are fewer people to harass me on Devils Glen at that hour.  Next up is the re-start of the Maplecrest Health Club.

All for today.  I'm looking forward to a "normal" weekend.  Being out during daylight is a new experience.  Go Cards!  Go Irish, Hawks and 'Clones!

BCOT

Thursday

Whoa!  Exactly six weeks to the Turkey Trot!  LtPC has a lot of preparation to do between now and then.  The early line is the Over on a 60 minute time target.

My pal Pete is over at ND for an estate planning continuing education conference for the next couple of days.  He and another attorney from Des Moines (who is an ND Law School grad) have been going to this annually-held (and highly-regarded) program for several years.  Actually, I went to it a couple of times in the early '80's when I was working a little more in that technical area.  Of course, there is a home game in South Bend this weekend (USC)...but the boys are taking a pass since it is a night game on Saturday night.  Just too long to be away from home.

The latest effort by the PN is tree-trimming.  When he mowed the yard (again!) last week, the lower branches on those two trees in my front yard must have bothered him enough to take some action.  When I got home the other night, there were several small bound bunches of freshly cut branches in the parking by the street awaiting pick-up on garbage day.  He really does have too much time on his hands.

My only comment on the stench in Washington is, "This is statesmanship?"  Actually, I do have one additional observation.  And this is my own thought, not a conservative talking point.  I think that it is disingenuous to make the argument that raising the debt ceiling doesn't increase our deficit.  I know that it's parsing words and definitions.  But really? 

My Top Ten list of things learned in my most recent Tax Day exercise:

1.  Tax work on complicated returns is NEVER over.
2.  Electronic filing makes the actual filing of returns more efficient for the preparer.
3.  Deferred decisions on alternative tax-treatments finally get made.
4.  Available flat-surface space in my office amazingly opens.
5.  Promises to clients to look at some other issue after the deadline now come due.
6.  At least one client will call on the filing date with a new piece of information.
7.  Random solicitation calls pay no heed to the due date.
8.  When you're too busy to watch entertainment TV, you don't miss it.
9.  I still do some of the same exact ministerial work on client files that I did in 1976.
10. "Military-time" is really more like 14 hours on and 10 off rather than 12 and 12.

Today is another day of re-programming myself to all of the non-due date (Ordinary Time for you fallen-away Catholics) tasks at hand.  And there's lots to be done.  The rest of the calendar year will continue on a vapor trail.

Hope y'all have a good day in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Wednesday

Happy Birthday to 3!!!  You are Daughter of the Day!!!  Enjoy.

More here later.

After a very hectic last six weeks, the rest of my life starts almost immediately.  By a stroke of luck, I remembered early this AM that I had scheduled through email while I was in Italia an employee meeting at a long-time client for 0830 today!! Yikes!!

BCOT

Tuesday II

Forgot to put this on earlier post:

HAPPY TAX BIRTHDAY TO 3!!!

Still loving that smile after all these years!!

Love.

BCOT

Tuesday

I did make it TO today.  Now I just need to get THROUGH today.

Actually, filing day tends to be somwhat anticlimactic as the clock is winding down to zero, and you eventually just have to go with what you've got.  The clients that I'm usually working on on filing day have returns that have so many moving parts that absolute, total and complete accuracy becomes a relative term.  As in horseshoes and hand grenades, "close" can be an acceptable result.

Bummer with the Cards last night.  Not that I was up for the end of the game.  Wainwright wasn't at his best, but regardless, you don't win many games by scoring zero runs.

I know that some of my readers go elsewhere when I bring up NASCAR, but bear with me a minute.  Here's an example that happens to come from NASCAR, but is applicable to most any field of endeavor.  Michael Waltrip Racing announced this week that they are laying off at least 15% of their work force next year as a result of losing sponsorship for one of their teams. 

NAPA Auto Parts had been with Micheal Waltrip even before he started his own team several years ago.  He had been a commercial spokesman in TV and print ads.  They followed him when he set up his own race shop.  Waltrip Racing has had three fully sponsored cars in races most of the last few years, and have been able to run near the front, with several wins.  Now they'll be down to two cars for 2014. 

When the Waltrip teams tried to conspire to get their third teammate into the Chase a few weeks back (as discussed here on the blog), radio-traffic made their efforts front-page news (at least on the sports pages).  Gordon and Newman were brought into the Chase and Waltrip Racing received some big fines and sanctions as part of NASCAR's damage-control.  Subsequently, NAPA surveyed the lay o' the land and decided it was time to move to another team.  (Yes, they could have been moving anyway, but this incident gave them complete cover.)

Waltrip has tried to find another sponsor fo the third car to no avail.  Hence, the announced lay-offs yesterday.  They might get some one-race sponsorships for selected races (Michael Waltrip, who doesn't drive full time any more, can personally still get around competively with anybody at the restrictor-plate tracks at Daytona and Talladiga), but some folks are literally out of a job because other people in their organization tried to trick the system. 

Among other things, this is another lesson of the new reality of ,"You're NEVER below radar!"  And that actions have consequences.  Maybe the members of Congress will get this message.

Moving on...

Bob Costas' latest sermonizing on national TV on the offensiveness of the Redskins' name is an example of a TV personality thinking his opinion matters to his listeners.  Of course, I didn't her the soliloquy, and I would have hit "Mute" if I had happened to be watching the game, but really, Bob?  You're not the national conscious.  You used to be able to call a good baseball game.  Go back there!

OK.  Glad to get that off my chest.

Have a Good Tuesday!

BCOT

Sunday

This wasn't much of a weekend for the Lt. Nice weather in the QCA, but I spent most of it inside. Another couple of days and I'll have a little more flexibility. Monday will be a bear.

My weekend wasn't the best, but 2 gets the last brownie. Her knee injury yesterday while doing some promotional work on campus at Augie is not fully diagnosed at this moment. She goes in to have an orthopaedist examine it tomorrow. I'm saying that its a torn meniscus. Whether there's ligament damage is hard to tell, but that's possible too. Her week will be interesting.

Giving Daughter of the Day designation to 4. She was the producer of this evening's 7 PM, hour-long, national news show on FOX News. You've come a long way, Baby!




My technology system is not helping this evening. My laptop has become extremely contrary. I started this entry on it, but when I tried to post 4's pic, it wouldn't let me do so. Plan B became taking a screen shot of this pic with my iPhone, and posting to the blog from the Blogspot app. But the software doesn't entirely match up, so...you get what you see.

The PN mowed my yard again this weekend. He must be bored.

My Harvest Path son-in-law has been getting into my pocket with regularity, a dollar at a time, in our version of Vegas Sports Book. Which explains why I 'm working long hours in my near-retirement years. Gambling is not my strong suit. I need to figure out how to short my own logic.

Tomorrow is Columbus Day. Most government offices are closed. If they aren't already. The market is open. There was a guest column in the Illinois-side paper this AM by a PHD professor who trashed Columbus as a money-crazed, killer of the natives. Not sure if this guy wants Ohio to rename it's capital city, or if he just wants Walmart and Ford to rename their weekend sales.

The Iowa fish wrap made news on one of the media watch-dog sites that I read (yes, the website has a conservative bent to it) for the paper's lead editorial today titled, "Congressional Terrorism". Really? Liberal media outlets can get away with calling the opposition absolutely anything without fear of being held to a standard of civil accountability.

Actually, I had seen the editorial at coffee this morning and kind of shook my head at their slanted effort to speak for the public. In such strident words. Really?

The W is here tonight. With 2 on the DL, I'm handling the duty tonight. With her allergies, W is anxious for that first frost.

And speaking of frost, the BEATER had a thin glaze of ice on the rear window this AM. I park that car on the side of my driveway, between the houses, and it always has a heavy morning dew on the exterior these days. Ice was a new element today. Frost will be here in no time.

All for tonight. Have a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Saturday

Just a few lines this AM to take a break from pounding on the tax program.  When I'm doing returns, am I working for the client, or the IR of S?  These days, I don't like the answer of just who seems to be first on the hit parade.

I changed the Home Page pic to give another view from one of our Sicilian vantage points.  This one is looking almost due South from the high ground above Agrigento's seaside community.  I kept trying to figure out whether that ship in the sea was moving.  Never could tell, even when doing the close-one-eye-and-measure-from-a-light-pole-in-the-foreground effort.

That Cardinal game last night had a good end-result for the home team, but I was long-gone before it ended.  I saw the final score at my middle-of-the-night bathroom break.  I wonder if all the fans stayed for the win?  It was a LONG game!

So the latest news from the Perfect Neighbor is that Mrs. PN came over to my kitchen-door entrance a couple of nights ago to deliver some fresh produce when they saw me pull into my driveway later in the evening.  Tomatoes and raspberries.  Suite.  She also wanted to sign me up for the Sunday paper for a year.  Some promotional deal that ends up costing $2 for the year after the rebate.  She's a coupon-clipper, and my responsibility is to give her the coupons.  She's even doing all the sign-up paperwork.  Hmmm.  I really need to consider what else I can out-source to these folks.  I think that I've become to them kind of like that classic, elderly bachelor neighbor who needs a little help at times.

Maybe some more later today.  Hey to 4 in NYC.  She's producing some of the national newscasts today.  Be a star, Kiddo!

BCOT

Thursday

I'm starting another challenging day on a positive tone with a tip o' the hat to the StL Redbird's for their win last night in their series with Pittsburgh.  Its not like a World Series win or anything, but ya gotta get through the opening rounds before you can go for the brass ring.

All of baseball admires the StL organization.  Good front office.  Good management.  A sound "system" for player drafting and development.  Players who know how to play.  A baseball-first town.  The fam needs to get back there for FFF.

(Actually, there are quite a few folks in this area ...read: Cub's fans...who won't root for the Cardinals.  Another example of your enemies enemies being your friends?)

That computer problem yesterday was not an isolated incident.  I had "lock-up's" at least a couple more times last night.  But I kept "saving" my input, and never lost any long string of data.  Really not sure what gremlin has taken up residence in my desktop.  I do have an extra layer of spam-filtering and email-capturing on my machine for my securities compliance reasons.  The IT folks always say that they can do all this special partitioning work with no problems.  Maybe the extra loop-d-loops that they put in to do those jobs causes these hiccups.  Whatever.  Welcome to my world.

Moving on...

My total 3% foreign transaction charge on my recent Visa statement was a little over $60.  Which means that I "spent" around $2,000 on the trip with that card.  This does not include the car which was on AmEx for around $1,000 and one charge on a Mastercard for $50 or so.  Which means the credit card companies took in an additional $100 for allowing me to use the cards in Europe.  Like their marginal costs were any different.

Relatedly, AmEx gave me notice last week that the annual fee for my "Small Business Gold Card" was going from $75 per year to $175 per year.  A nice percentage increase, eh?  Actually, I do think I was "making" money on the $75 rate.  Between my use of that card for car rentals and air fares, as well as some recurring monthly business bills that I have gone to auto-pay, I was getting discount "points" that I converted to cash that had to exceed the annual fee.  The egg-heads at AmEx probably did the math.  Can you say, "Bait-n-Switch"?

But I close with the note that yesterday was RCL day on Maplecrest.  Always a treat to walk into my place after her 4-hour week.  It even smells clean!  Life's small pleasures.

Make Thursday a good one in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Wednesday

This just an inter-day random posting that might be better suited for a few connected Tweets, but I needed a more disconnected moment to recover my equanimity.

With the 15th approaching at warp-speed, I didn't need this warning to come across my computer screen:

and there was a good reason for the warning.  For whatever reason, the tax program that I was working in, and had been inputting data for about 90 minutes, had a brain freeze, and shut down without further warning.  When I spooled it back up, this afternoon's new data was no where to be found.  Perfect.

I've been using this tax software package for at least 15-20 years (as updated annually).  And have never had that happen in that fashion.  Goes to show ya, if you think you have seen everything, remember that you haven't.

Normally, there is an automatic "save" feature that is triggered when you hit the "Enter" key.  Not so much this time.  My guess is that I hit two keys at the same time and the program couldn't process the order.

And now I have no idea why Blogger won't let me left justify.

So I'm going back into the tax program and hope that I have better luck on this iteration.

BCOT

Tuesday

Just a few lines this AM to acknowledge that I failed to deliver last night on my intent to add to yesterday morning's entry on the TC Marathon weekend.  It was a long day at the office and a short evening on Maplecrest.  The blog didn't make the agenda.

The new Home Page pic is looking up the coastline from the seaside sidewalk/bike path in downtown Salerno.  I think that this means a Northwest view on a directional basis.  This is the place that we stayed for those first four nights in Italia.

Its an Election Day in Davenport.  City aldermen elections.  I didn't realize the occasion until I heard it on the news coming to work.  Since I don't live in Davenport, I am not eligible to vote.  Our office building IS located in Davenport, so the decisions that end up getting made by the City Council definitely can impact my pocketbook.  And rarely in a good way.  The politics of Davenport have a poor history.  Leadership has not been one of the attributes of most of these officials.  Not that Davenport has a corner on that market.

Off-cycle elections like this tend to have low turn-outs from the electorate.  I'm guessing that 10% of eligible voters might be a high number.  Which is double the expectation of a school board election.  So those positions that can have a regular, direct impact on voters are usually elected with the fewest ballots.  Welcome to America!

Trying to figure out why SI put Kate Upton on the cover of last week's magazine.  Yes, she does share the same last name as the two brothers for the Braves (who have now been eliminated from the play-offs).  And yes, she has been the cover-girl from the last two swim-suit issues.  But really, a baseball play-offs cover?  I get it...sex sells.  But this one fails to deliver.

Actually, SI has gone all-in on the skin trade.  Their web-site is one of my Favorites in my browser, so I'm usually on the site a couple of times a day.  For the last couple of years, they have maintained in a fairly prominent position on their Home Page a Swimsuit section that is updated daily with new pics and stories on the models from the swimsuit edition.  Key data for the sports enthusiast.

(To be fair, I think ALL of the sports websites...FOX, ESPN, etc...have sections of their Home Pages dedicated to cheerleaders, fight-ring models, and women sports figures and fans in varying degrees of undress.  Generally, these are not sites that feminists frequent, or there would likely be a constant cry of sexploitation.  Personally, and surprisingly, I find these efforts by the websites to attract eyeballs as being mostly annoying...regardless of how pretty the girls may be.)

Another big day ahead here.  Make it a good one in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Monday

Well, that was a, "Where did it go?" weekend!

Our quick-strike trip up to Harvest Path was a success, but it wasn't exactly a recipe for relaxation.  The Friday evening drive was a pain with storms.  We did enjoy a pleasant Saturday with 1.01 and 1.02, which included lots of books, and other rainy-day activities.  Then Sunday was a full day of the TC Marathon and the return drive home. 

Let's give 1 and 1.1 the distinction of Daughter and Son-in-Law Of The Day for their successful completion of the marathon.  This pic is actually from the Fargo Marathon earlier this year.  The logistics yesterday never gave me a chance to get a shot of them together after the race.  They haven't aged much since May, so this pic is still valid!

The marathon was pretty much the same as in prior years, so I was able to find my way around the course with few problems.  There was one meet-point at Mile 19 that I almost missed because of a temporary loss of my internal compass, but other than that, it was Situation Normal.  I saw 1 at our four pre-arranged markers, and we also met up pretty quickly at the Finish Line.  And by parking in a Physician's Only spot at a nearby Public Clinic, our egress from downtown St. Paul was a snap as well.

I wasn't able to follow 1.1 throughout the race as the reality is that following one runner in this big of a race can be a huge task in and of itself.  Its hard for the spectator to find a runner when there are these thousands of faces passing by a viewing point.  And with the two of them at different paces, and the view-points requiring car travel to loop ahead of the race, there was simply no way to keep track of both runners.

The technology of Runner Tracking didn't work on my phone.  Like most of these big races, you can sign up to receive Alerts on your runner that automatically go to your Smart Phone.  When I signed up for both 1 and 1.1 on Saturday night, I got the immediate text message that I was in the system.  That was the last text I received from their Alerts program.  If I was depending on that system, I would of been an unhappy camper.

The biggest problem I had with my following-the-race task was reading the small-print map in the course book or on my iPad.  The website has a decent map, but its just  a pdf rendition of the map in the race book.  You could enlarge it on the iPad, of course, but it wasn't inter-active to give you all the side streets.  And I had to take off my glasses to read it anyway.  And when I went to Google Maps to get details, you didn't have the course laid out and you had to understand the course to pick out the side streets.  I really could have used 2 and her navigating skills for that Mile 19 mix-up.

The book-on-CD that we listened to on the trip was no better than a C-.  Some radical Muslim, terrorist, spy-ish novel that ended up relying on some absurd coincidences to get to the ending.  @srh4 theorized that the author was contractually obligated to have a certain number of pages in the book, so the last few chapters gave us a lot of useless, extraneous background on characters brought into the story in the last 20% of the book.  Whatever.  The book did shorten the drive so in that respect it was useful.

For those so interested, the Turkey Trot mailer hit my email this weekend.  So the sign-up is open.

I'll try to jump back on the blog this evening.  I always feel like these, "What I did on my weekend", entries don't ad much to the Book of Knowledge.  Make a Good Monday in your world.

BCOT

Friday

My extended work days resulting from this October 15th deadline business has accelerated the depression-inducing condition of going to work in the dark in the morning, and going home from work in the dark in the evening.  Usually, this absence of daylight for my free time is a later-in-October situation.  Maybe I need to do my own selective government shutdown scheduling.  The IRS would understand, right?

(Blogger is messing with me again this AM.  If you see a partial-publishing, its just an effort to not lose content that I've entered, but that the system isn't "saving".  Not sure if its Blogger or my spam-filters on this desktop.  Technology.)

Tough loss for the 'Clones in Ames last night.  I didn't see a lot of the game, but failing to punch in that last touchdown and settling for the field goal was the ultimate difference (ignoring the officiating).  Bummer.


My Gold's in Davenport is changing over to a YMCA location this month.  4 actually alerted me to this news a couple of days ago from her vantage point in NYC.  Why wouldn't she get the news first? I know the guy who has owned the gym for the last 10 years or so (a local stockbroker).  I don't think he ever made much money with Gold's, and he may have just got tired of making payroll. My suspicion is that he came into some money otherwise and decided to cut bait.

The Gold's building is actually leased from another investor, so my bet is that the Y will keep it open for a year or two, and then rationalize that the usage doesn't justify a location less than a couple of miles from it's primary building in Bettendorf.  This area just doesn't have the density for an adults-only facility.

Supposedly, this is the last day of the current heat wave.  High 80's today, but high 50's come Sunday. Not the worst forecast for our Twin Cities marathoners.

I did receive a letter in the mail yesterday at my home address from United Healthcare to inform me that our current health insurance program will not be offered in the 2014 renewal cycle (which, for us, is sometime in the second half of the year).  Shocking.  Of course, this is merely coincidental to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  Because, as our President told us, "You like your current plan, you can keep it."


In this case, he can blame United Healthcare since they are the ones who made the decision to change their offerings.  But really, we all know that its the fault of the poor-sport Republicans who want to deny benefits, kill children, and close the National parks and cemeteries (including those in France). That metric is just so obvious.  Ask NBC.

My Perfect Neighbor has added mowing my lawn to his list of services.  I think that with the rain that we had here yesterday morning that he decided that mowing was not going to do any more harm to the grass...him not even cutting his own yard for almost a month.  And they know I've been working these long hours.  So when I pulled in the driveway last night, it was evident that he had taken the time to cut my yard as well as his own.   I know that it was easy work, and didn't take him all that long to do, but it certainly adds to his PN resume.

All for today.  Hope everyone gets the weekend off to a good start.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Wednesday

Middle of the first week in October already.  Hard to believe that it has now been more than two weeks since 2 and I left for Italy.  On the plus side...I think that the jet lag is mostly gone.  Last night was close to regular sleep for me.

I have mixed emotions about the impasse in Washington.  The White House is using the bully pulpit to pound the Republicans with the blame, and the MSM is continuing to echo those positions.  I think that there's plenty of responsibility on both sides.  There is a leadership vacuum in the Beltway.  You can almost hear the sucking sound of the compressor pulling out any hint of statesmanship in the cast of players. 

I heard one commentator suggest that if the shutdown included the airports, there would be an agreement today.  I think that that's probably true.

4 gave me a text "heads-up" yesterday that she was writing a lead-in for a Danica appearance on one of her shows.  GoDaddy put a pink paint scheme on the #10 Chevy for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and she was in NYC to promote the effort.  Sharp looking car.  Now, if she could just get it around the track a little faster!

I mentioned on Twitter last night that I did break my no-entertainment-TV watching to see the Ziva episode on NCIS.  Actually, I had the TV on, but I was also busy doing some domestic chores that had me in and out of the room throughout the hour, so I never did get the nuances of the show's story other than Tony's search for Ziva.  I guess I'm glad that they didn't kill her off.  They sure didn't do much to enhance her make-up for the show.  Whatever.  Bring on the next love interest for DiNozzo.

I wonder how much money Cote de Pablo left on the table to go away?  I'm guessing that she just got emotionally tired of playing the same character for so long and needed to get out.  People get tired of their jobs, even if they are well-paid.  But this kind of a move is full of uncertainty.  History has not been all that kind to successful TV stars who thought they could launch from their tube character to similar status on the big screen or in other endeavors.  Think David Caruso, Suzanne Sommers and Farah Fawcett among others.  Again, whatever.

Baseball play-offs are now in full swing.  Go Cards!

All for today.  Lots going on for me at work.  When you're away for a couple of weeks, there's payment to be made upon your return.

Make it a Good Wednesday in your world.

BCOT