Wednesday

The snow that came in yesterday qualified as a true Winter storm.  I think that we had an additional inch overnight, and there's still some snow in the air.  Not sure what Punxsutawney Phil saw on the 2nd, but February is definitely going out with a bang.  Then again, it is the Iowa high school girls state basketball tournament in DM this week.

I put on Twitter the link to a story about the Big 12 Conference coming out yesterday and acknowledging officiating errors at the end of the KU-ISU game on Monday night.  Here's another story on the same thing:  http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8992559/big-12-admits-officiating-errors-kansas-jayhawks-win-iowa-state-cyclones.  And this story really doesn't address the blown call on Withey's fifth foul that they gave to Young.  Too bad that there's nothing that can be done to give some justice to the 'Clones.

The health report is basically positive.  I have one day left on my antibiotic prescription.  I'm placing my condition still in the 85-90% range.  Which is light years better than where I was a couple of weeks ago.

The guy who took our pictures back 10 years or so at Chunky Cheese at 4's annual birthday party gave me some more good advice recently.  I had engaged him to take those pics then because I had been struggling with the focus of the shots I had been taking with my standard Minolta SLR, and I wanted some good ones from our FFF that year.  When I queried him on his secrets after seeing such good results, he delivered the simple key, "Auto-focus"!  And that was the start of my progression into digital photography.

The bigger camera that I subsequently acquired remains a good piece of equipment.  And the mini-digi's that I have also purchased since then have delivered many great pics from travel, FFF,s, and other moments of note.  Photography remains an interest of mine, but maybe not in and of itself.

But for some reason, I had got the bug around Christmas time to upgrade my "good" camera to a higher level of amateur equipment in the Canon line, a unit with a base cost of around $1000.  I did the research and kept my eye open for sales or special package deals.  (Among my other rationalizations, I had cashed in some points on one of my credit cards, and the cost of the camera would have be mostly paid for from that "free" money.)  But I could never quite pull the trigger.  The question that kept gnawing at me was, "Do I really need this camera?"

Anyway, at 2nd coffee on Sunday morning, this guy was in the shop after having done his training run earlier with a group of dedicated sorts.  As I was walking to the counter for something, I stopped at his table for a brief chat.  And I asked him what he thought of making that kind of a camera-upgrade.  His first response was telling; "Why?  What do you need it for?"  Long story short, his advice was to spend a couple hundred on a multi-mega-pixel mini-digi.  That you can (and will) carry everywhere.  Which I may not even have to do.  My little Canon already is 16+mp.  What better quality am I going to get from something new?

My latest favorite media girl is the gal in the new Xerox ads that have been running on Squawkbox in the early morning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwU6qFDkHvQ  If I could get a screen capture of just a pic, I would have done that, but my skill-set doesn't go there.

Hope everyone has a great day.

BCOT

Tuesday

I've been busy the last couple of nights working on my writing exercise.  Its turning into more of a story rather than a short-story.

The new Home Page pic is from this afternoon on Maplecrest.  We got 4-to-6 inches of heavy, wet stuff.  Great for Snowmen making.  The roads back from Muskie after lunch were awful.  Locust Street in Davenport was literally a parking lot.  But by 5 PM, the primary roads were in fine shape.  And the neighbors had my place fully plowed and shoveled.  Suite.

Too late to add much tonight.  I'll try to do an early post in the AM

BCOT

Sunday

Just a few lines tonight.  I need to acknowledge Daytona since it has been my Home Page pic for several days.  Actually the race wasn't that great.  The new car is racy, but it wasn't easy to pass.  The inside line was hard to work, and Jimmie was there at the end.  He's a good driver.

Danica was respectable, but on that last lap when those behind Jimmie tried to make something happen, she really wasn't able to participate, falling from third to eighth.  I'd say that that was a case of inexperience.  Still, she ran at the front all day, made no mistakes, and brought the car home with all the sheet metal in the right places.  Good for her.

The golf in Tuscon was not that interesting to watch.  And the weather today was awful.  Colder than it was when we were in Phoenix last month.  When everyone is in stocking caps and windbreakers, the golf is more survival than scoring.  Matt Kuchar is a good champion.

As I mentioned on Twitter, I actually got out today and did a two-mile walk.  It was at a snail's pace, but it felt great.  Walking this week.  Then hope to do some spin next week.

Speaking of next week...it's gonna be MARCH!!!!

Just to defend myself, I did make progress on my story.  But its taking longer than I expected.  And it will be a longer essay than my Writing Center efforts.  At least another day.  Maybe two.

The fam is all over the Oscar's tonight.  Negative zero interest on Maplecrest.

Hope the new week is a good one.

BCOT

Friday

Q hit town last night and was mostly a "miss".  There might have been 3 inches in some spots on my front sidewalk, but 2 inches was the norm.  Hardly worth snow-blowing except that by doing so, the sidewalk cleared-up this afternoon with slightly warmer temps and some sunshine.

The Duels yesterday were not that much to cheer about.  Danica basically went to the rear of the field in the first one, and the 24 was assessed a speeding penalty on pit row when they came in with the lead for the one stop.  That required a "pass-through" penalty down pit row at pit row speed, rendering him to a back-of-the-pack finish as well.  But generally, the drivers played nice and there was only the one crash in the first race.  Saving the cars for Sunday is everyone's goal.

I took the BEATER in for some routine service this week.  Mechanics love to do their safety checks on this car and come out with a laundry list of necessary repairs.  This time it was breaks and tires.  Easily $800.  For a car that might yield $1000 for a "Push, Pull, Drag-It-In" trade-in, $800 is a big number to swallow.  Maybe at the next oil change, if she's still hummin' along.

I also did my approximately bi-annual wrist-band replacement for my Timex Ironman when the old band gave out recently.  Readers may remember that the last time this happened, I wrote off to a NYC supplier and received two bands for my trouble.  So I had one here at my desk for installation.  This time, I couldn't get the spring rods to "click-in" to secure the new bands to either side of the watch.  The "seat" for each band end is at a very close tolerance.  So I had to take it to a jeweler!  Fairly simple for him.  Tools, light and skills.  All in short supply on Maplecrest.

I think that one of my goals over the weekend will be to write a short story with a Sunday 1800 hours deadline.  Due to our trip to George Strait last week co-insiding with our local Writing Center's schedule, I missed the annual writing contest that I had entered each of the three previous years.  In that one, they give you a "prompt" at 5 PM Friday and require your submission by 5 PM Saturday.  I'm choosing to give myself a little longer leash.  It will be published here on Sunday night.  I'll figure out a topic tonight and put myself in the cross-hairs (apologies to the gun-control lobby).

Finally, hats off to George Washington on his birthday.  Did you know that he was the only President not to live in the White House?  Here are some other interesting facts on Good Ol' George:  http://www.mountvernon.org/content/facts-falsehoods-about-george-washington-0

Hope you have had a Good Friday.

BCOT

Thursday

So the Twin Duels are held today at Daytona.  The results of these two 125 mile races (60 laps on the 2.5 mile circuit) set the field behind the 10 and 24 cars for Sunday's race.  I hope they don't tear up too many cars today.

And today is also the 12 year anniversary of Margaret's passing.  Lots of water under the bridge since then.  She is Mother of the Day.  This would have been a shot in SF in the late 60's or early 70's, I think.

Wanted to get Mother's recognition up early.  More later.

BCOT

Wednesday

Let's give 4 another recognition as Daughter of the Day.  Today is her first shift of day-time hours in NYC.  As a matter of fact, ever since she left IC, her work hours have been mostly evenings, nights and weekends.  So this is a big day.  In less than a year in the Big Apple, she's gone, from no job, no apartment and lots of uncertainty, to lots of good things.  Congratulations, Kiddo.  You're a star!

2 and I went over to Augie for the game last night since it was the last home game of the season.  We left at half time with the good guys up by 7 or 8.  They were able to build on that some and had a nice win for their seniors.  It was not artistic, but the old "a win is a win is a win" phrase applies.  The biggest disappointment of course was the closed snack shop, so no dogs or popcorn.  Bummer.  But always good to see my pal @bcbison.  (Notice the turn-away crowd in the background.)

This is getting to be a pretty busy time sports wise on the calendar.  College b-ball is heating up, the 500 is Sunday (with the Twin Duals tomorrow to set the field behind Danica and the 24), and golf has a 5-day deal this week with the Match-Play tournament in Tuscon.  And the MLB teams are in full Spring Training mode.  The sports pages actually have something other than the NFL and NBA police-blotter updates to analyze.

Here's a screen-shot from my office TV of the current status of play at the PGA event.  Not sure if snow-golf is what they had in mind.  They actually have several inches predicted for elevations slightly higher than the golf course.  High temps in the 40's there for today.  A good day to spend at the 19th hole.

Really not much else to report from this end.  Maybe a run down to Geneva tonight for dinner with my pal Roy.  He's been in Florida for a couple of weeks and we need to catch up.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Tuesday

Winter stepped back on stage last night.  We had 55 degrees yesterday aftenoon, and then a front came in with rain that merged over to heavy snow in the early evening for probably less than an hour.  The temp kept going down, and that snow basically became ice over night.  Pretty interesting out there this AM.

On an extemely slow TV evening, I did watch parts of the Baylor - UConn women's game last night...eventually won by Baylor.  Over the years, I've generally pulled for UConn, mostly because they tend to play a team game with lots of sharing of the ball, and solid defense.  Baylor on the other hand comes at you with a sledge hammer in the form of 6'8" Brittney Greiner.  I'm not saying that Baylor is undeserving, but defending 6'8" becomes problematic. 

Go back 40+ years and you had the same thing when Lew Alcinder hit the scene with UCLA.  I'm guessing that the world has fewer 6'8" athletic women, but when you have something that nobody else has, the rest of the field is usually playing for second place.

2 and I are headed over to the Augie game tonight.  Its their last home game of the season.  They have locked in the 4th seed in the four-team conference tournament held this weekend.  Really a challenging season for them this year.  There's been unexpected attrition with injuries, a couple of guys electing to not play this year, and with at least one dismissal by the college.  At the D-III level, you generally have a thin roster, and when the tide rises against you, it can make you wonder about your recruiting philosophy.  Lots of holes to fill for next year for sure.  But that will mean opportunity for the right players as well.

Looks like The Weather Channel has named the next system headed across the nation as storm "Q".  Is there a James Bond connection there?  The storm looks like it could dump several inches of snow in the Sierra's.  Better fire up the blower, Tahoe Phil!

Speaking of The Commish, Selection Sunday ia only three weeks away.  Sharpen those pencils, folks.

Busy day here.  Make it a Good Tuesday!

BCOT

Monday

Hello Monday.  For much of the public sector, we have a National holiday:  President's Day.  So let's have a pic of The Four Head's to celebrate!  The markets are closed, so the business channels really don't have much to report.  No mail.  No banks.

The weekend in Minnesota was a success.  Like, how can a George Strait concert not be a success?  The venue in St. Paul, the Excel Center, is similar to the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines where 2 and I saw George last year.  Very similar stage set-up, and I'd say Martina's play-list was almost the same as a year ago.  Then again, she doesn't have near the number of hits that George has accumulated in his career.  But she has some pipes!

Our seats were good, not great, but we had a real comfortable arrangement on the Club level.  Basically, we were in the last row of that level, but that meant that we had room to sit, stand, and generally move around without having to climb over people.  The large video screens above the stage gave us a good vision of the performers at all times.

The beer currency was $8 for 12 ounce bottles.  Concert tee's went for $30.

Here are a couple of pics that were sent out on Twitter from the concert.  A very handsome group!

So moving on...

I give props to Danica for getting the Daytona pole.  She had the fastest car all weekend, and drove it like a pro to stay on top of the charts when it counted.  Let's face it: she has the car and the team that it takes to win in NASCAR.  It remains to be seen if she can keep the fenders on it for a full race.  She seems to have matured as a driver, and seems to have been accepted in the garage.  Now we get to see if she has any racin' luck.  At Daytona, ya' gotta be fast...and lucky.

Didn't even pause at the NBA All-Star game when going through the channels last night.  Never heard of the guy who won the slam-dunk contest.

I'm placing my health number at 85% or so.  Its certainly not 100%.  My goal is to continue to get better this week, and maybe figure out a fitness schedule for next week.  The Road to Recovery has an upward grade that will mean small steps for a while.  Its a bummer getting old.

Finally, I'm naming 4 as Daughter of the Day.  Last night was her last graveyard shift, at least for now.  She gets to go to a more daytime schedule starting on Wednesday.  Its been a learning year for her.  Congrats on making another step forward!

Maybe more later.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Thursday

Happy Valentine's Day to all my girls!!!  Make it a great day.

BCOT

Wednesday

I'm making 3 Daughter of the Day for her long days this week.  Lots of airports and time zones in the Fast Lane.  Very proud of you, Kiddo.  (Sorry for the poor quality of this pic...I'll see if I have a better one on the laptop tonight.)

I had a follow-up with the doc yesterday on my pneumonia.  The x-ray shows that my lungs have cleared-up from last week (not that they are "clear" by any stretch), but I'm still not quite "back", so I have another round of anti-biotics, this time Levofloxacin.  Never heard of it, but I assume that it is a relative of amoxicillin.  I've tried to run my days this week like regular business, but have found that I get gassed by 1600 or so.  Its heck getting old.

The SOTU address did not make it to Maplecrest.  The politics of

Washington are discouragingly similar to a daytime TV soap opera: miss a few weeks of episodes, then tune back in, and you're fully caught up in about two minutes.  These are not very interesting people.

Big news in the Midwest is the IOC electing to discontinue wrestling as a sport at the 2020 games.  Where'd that come from?  Unlike, say softball, which seems to have limited international acceptance, isn't wrestling one of those basic sports that goes back to pre-historic times?  I mean, the ball wasn't even invented when guys started testing one another's manliness.  My guess is that we haven't heard the last of this one.

I missed recognizing Lincoln's birthday yesterday.  Back in Olden Times, Lincoln and Washington's birthday were separately recognized.  When I had noted the 12th as Lincoln's birthday last week when the clerk at the doctor's office was scheduling my follow-up appointment, she looked at me with a blank face, since most of the younger generation (outside of Illinois, maybe) only know of the three-day weekend for President's Day.

Shame on me.  Today is Ash Wednesday.  A guy on CNBC with a high forehead and little hair came on camera with more ash than make-up.  It is not sufficient to believe, you need to proclaim.

The markets seem to suggest that there will be some kind of agreement on this sequester thing.  I think traders have become a bit anesthetized to the geo-political drama (Washington, Europe, China etc.) and there remains a lot of cash on the sideline.  The recognition that interest rates will eventually rise, and the money-easing by the Fed have investors throwing up the chute and reluctantly climbing on the equity train.  It would feel a lot better if the economy actually got going above the anemic levels that are currently being recorded.

Make it a Good Wednesday.

BCOT

Sunday

It was another Lost Week.  Most of you are aware that my "cold" was diagnosed as pneumonia early last week.  I've been on anti-biotics since then. The "Z-Pak" is a fairly common prescription for a bacterial infection, I'm told.  It seems to work, as I am slowly getting back to something close to normal.  As a person who rarely gets sick enough to miss work, this has been a humbling experience.  It will be a slow climb back on the fitness trail.

The NYC girls seem to have dodged a bullet (gratuitous gun reference) with the Winter storm dumping "only" 11 inches in Central Park.  Folks a little further North and East have some serious digging-out in their immediate futures.  No envy here.  We have no snow on the ground and rain today with temps in the 40's.  Global warming fo' sure.

I read this AM that there's a bit of a kerfuffle in the weather press over The Weather Channel's decision to name these Winter storms.  They're calling this one "Nemo".  Competitors are crying "foul" over this practice, saying that Winter storms don't merit the distinction given to what they consider more serious meteorological events (read; hurricanes.)  Personally, I think that naming these storms is kinda creative...isn't everything about the message in media?  TWC got ahead of the curve.

This is certainly a recent-year's record:  I haven't had a glass of wine for over two weeks!  The last one was on Harvest Path.  The first week on the sideline, I didn't have any interest in anything beyond orange juice or grapefruit juice.  This past week, I've been reluctant to mix alcohol with the drugs.  And I'm still not quite ready for the return to my support of the grape industry.  Hopefully, that will change by Friday in St. Paul for the George Strait concert.

I've spent a lot of time watching golf over the last two weeks.  The Golf Channel usually broadcasts the European Tour twice in the morning (live, very early, and then again on tape around noon), and then has the PGA event starting at one or so.  When you start recognizing the names of guys ranked 150 or lower in the world, you know that its time to get off the couch and back to work.  (I did check green fees for Pebble Beach...$495 plus cart.  Maybe not  a trip on my Bucket List.)

 One odd, but handy, piece of knowledge I acquired while under the weather had to do with automobile maintenence.  We had a couple of very cold days a week or so ago, and the driver's side door on the Beater literally froze and wouldn't latch shut.  So it sat in the garage.  My pal Ron suggested that I use a hair blower to free-up the lock.  Hmmm.  I was skeptical as I thought there might be a mechanical problem as well, but I decided to give the blower a shot.  And it worked!  I'm sure the dealership could of made the same fix for $75 or so.

Wish I had a few more ideas to thrill my readers.  But the well is shallow right now.  I'll work on building some topics this week.  Thanks for the good wishes.

BCOT

Saturday

Well, I guess you could call it The Lost Week.  Most of you are aware that I am indeed alive (Thanks for the concern, 4!), but it has been a bit open to question at several points this week.  It wasn't the flu, just a bad cold, but I was totally unprepared for its severity.  I think I may have another few days of recovery before I will be able to say that "I'm back".  I have a new respect for my lack of bullet-proof-ness.

My thanks to those who have expressed concern.

The PGA tour is in PHX this week at a course very near our hangout at Grayhawk.  The TPC Scottsdale is a resort complex with the Fairmont Princess Hotel, a place I've visited several times for seminars.  (Visited being the operative term.  Those guest rates are a bit beyond the travel budget for Criterium where the Hampty is the company standard.)  This is the par-3 16th hole that they make into a stadium for the tournament.  It is known as the loudest hole on the entire PGA tour.

Punxsutawney Phil is saying that we're in for an early Spring.  I can't really say that I have much of an opinion on Groundhog Day.  Terrible movie.  We've had some really cold days here this week.  And there's some snow on the ground.  But my Wall of Memories
calendar from 2011 indicates that we had big snow on this date that year...like 2 feet!  I'll take the early Spring.

One of the things that happens when you get stuck on the couch for several days, is that you reluctantly watch a lot of TV.  (With the sports-pack that I have with DirecTV, you can watch live Indian-Pakistani cricket most of our daylight hours.)  A Citi credit card commercial got my attention.  Its the one with the girl climbing one of the rock formations out in Utah.  I wasn't convinced that it was real, but there's an Internet youTube video that says otherwise.  Very cool.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-hW4AOC0c4

Its usually a sign that you're spending too much time (and too much money) at an establishment when the proprietors start giving you gifts.  Such is my life.  While I was pretty much worthless this week at the office, I did get to Dunn Brothers each day for my daily dose of caffine.  They had noticed previously that I bring back my cup for my refill at 2nd coffee, and thought that I might be interested in a refillable container of some sort.  I really didn't think that was my style.  Color me wrong.

I am now the fully-convinced owner of a 20 ounce SIPP cup that exceeds expectations.  It keeps my hot Americano HOT (not warm) for well over an hour.  And I'm sure that it would remain warm for another hour or two.  Keep in mind: this is not about me becoming green.  Its about keeping my coffee hot.

So this hasn't been much of literary creativity.  But when its compared to zippo, I'm saying we need to consider it of Pulitzer quality.

More tomorrow.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT