Saturday

The new Home Page pic is the one I took while golfing in Texas last Saturday.  The course that I was on was located along the Brazos river in Central Texas.  I'm guessing that when the surroundings are green, it's a real eye-catching landscape.  In the middle of Winter, meh.

This has been a very odd week for me.  Obviously, that extra day in Texas because of the ice got me off to a disconcerting start.  Then that unplanned boys' bus trip over to Carver-Hawkeye on Wednesday evening-night put a hitch in the giddy-up, particularly with that post-midnight return.  I'm never up that late!  Snow on Wednesday night-Thursday morning added to the para-normal routine.  And the Augie game last night was a fitting extra activity, ripple in the force de jour of life on Maplecrest.


I'm making 2 Daughter of the Day.  She came in last night for some craft class that she had signed-up for today.  We enjoyed the popcorn and hot dogs at the game...and an Augie win!  Of course, we left with eight minutes to go when the game was still in the balance.  Why wouldn't we?  Not to worry.  My pal Pete provided text-updates through the end of the game.  And we had 2nd Coffee this AM.  Fun to have her back in my zip code.

Here's a nice article on Father Hesburgh.  He was known around campus in my day as "Ted the Head", in recognition of his position as president of the university.  At that point in his career, he was focused on the development and growth of the university.  I never heard much negative talk about him, neither while I was in school there, nor in all these years since my graduation.  Since he trended toward the liberal end of the equation, he received fairly favorable coverage in the national media.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-theodore-hesburgh-dead-20150227-story.html  He definitely had his critics, but I wouldn't call him controversial.  He was in reality, a Notre Dame treasure. 

One of the take-away's from the business side of my trip last week to Waco was the security measures taken by the data processing firm that I visited.  Not only was a swipe-key required by my escort for entry in to the reception area from the elevator vestibule, but once I was at the interior reception desk, the gal took my picture and provided me with a "Guest" photo-ID card for use during my visit.  I'm used to general registration for entry to offices, particularly in the big cities that I visit (NYC, C-town), but this attention to detail was a bit surprising in a decidedly small business setting.  In Waco.  But that particular business possesses a lot of personal data on its servers, so caution is the word.

At coffee this AM, my pal Cal offered up that there were three separate stories in the Surgeon's Lounge at the hospital of hacking of personal computers within the last week or two.  Hackers coming onto machines saying that they were tracking breaches of security to that computer, and that the owner needed to give up user names/passwords so that the virus/hacking could be fixed.  The whole business of hacking has to be hugely successful or you wouldn't have all these stories coming out.  Whether they are Eastern European, Chinese or Nigerian, there are some bad dudes out there!  The LtPC wants off the grid!!  Period.

OK.  I'll get another entry up here over the weekend.  Live long and prosper.

BCOT

Tuesday

So I'm back in the air, finally, for the return to the QCA. That ice storm in Dallas was a bit inconvenient, but ultimately, not the worst event in my travel history. I was delayed 24 hours. In the over all scheme of things, I can live with that.

I will say though, any future February trips with golf on the itinerary will be to Scottsdale or further South. Even with warm weather, the visuals of golf in central Texas in February are far from inspiring. Everything is brown except for the tee boxes and greens.

I'm going to list a few take-always from this trip just to record some unrelated observations. Sorry for the travelogue, but these have all had some recurring appearances over the weekend:



1. Every retail counter person came at me with lots of "yes, sir" greetings and responses. Either I've got that elderly appearance going for me, or these people are very polite.
2. My driving sense of direction isn't what it was in the past. How far it was in the past when I actually did have a sense of direction might even be debatable.
3. Having to eat out all of the time is awful. No wonder our population is obese. A steady diet of fast food has to be the worst.
4. Repeat of 3 above. For emphasis.
5. Not sure if it is the same feel throughout the country, but the endless supply of Walmart's, Shell station's, Subway's, and every you-name-it franchise on this trip made me wonder about where we are as the consuming public. Kinda like a never-ending blob of urban sprawl.
6. Every third vehicle in Texas is a heavy-duty, extended-cab pick-up with dual rear wheels and a front grill 10 feet wide.
7. There may be multiple zip codes for DFW. Small it ain't.
8. No smoking in restaurants and bars is a really good thing.
9. Traveling alone is ok, but I think that having a companion along adds to the experience...mostly. I think I deal with the delays better alone, as I can work, write and puzzle to make that extra time more palatable.
10. I have come to appreciate 2's counsel on packing each time I'm out on the road. Less is more is a great rule.

One indication of the mostly foul weather on this trip is that I never took the Oakley sun-glasses out of the case. And the lack of sun also discouraged use of the new Canon. Bummer.



Alamo made another's day rental as a result of my delay. (Ford Fusion this time. Not a bad ride.). I'm glad I kept the car rather than try to save a buck by turning it in yesterday. While my hotel was close enough to offer transportation to-from DFW, the shuttle wasn't running this AM due to the poor road conditions. I would have had to call a cab. And I had an extra night's lodging cost to add to my expense report. (I'm guessing that buried in the small print of my airline ticket purchase is their exemption from liability for any meal, lodging or transportation costs due to an Act of God. Whatever.)


Pitchers and catchers are reporting this week for MLB's start of Spring training. A-Rod is getting a lot of ink for his return from the season-long ban for use of PED's. The guy is 39 years old. He couldn't hit when he was 37. But the Yankees are on the hook for a big salary number, so he'll play. If he hits .250 and drives in 60 runs it will be a good season. Looks to me like, with their roster, the Yanks will be sitting home again come October.

Speaking of baseball, there was an interesting story in this morning's Dallas paper about a college coach who wanted to get the college season moved to start in April rather than February. (The season is in full swing in Texas.). I mean, really, with some history of playing in March in Indiana, such a move makes a lot of sense on the diamond. But with the MLB draft and the signings that always happen right after the CWS, this idea has like no chance of adoption. Too bad.

I remember playing in snow squalls at ND, even in April. You almost preferred striking out as opposed to putting the bat on a pitched ball. Your hands could sting for the rest of the day even if you hit the ball square, let alone if you got jammed and fouled something off the handle. It still makes me wince.

I see in this morning's paper that ND has exactly zero players named in projections for the top 25 in the up-coming NFL draft following the scouting combine that was held last week. Not terribly surprising given their won-loss record last year. But it does speak volumes as to why they are only fringely competitive on a national level.



I have no explanation as to why I couldn't get on here during my trip. I think all that may be of interest to anyone made its way to Twitter. The weather and travel logistics were a bit exhausting. Trying to plan for the best choices to deal with the weather-imposed schedule changes was work. Not necessarily overly stressful, but kinda always there. I'm looking forward to getting back to Maplecrest. I'm sure the ideas will re-appear.

Hope it is a Good Tuesday in your neighborhood.

BCOT

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Thursday

This is another effort from "de plane, de plane." I'm on the hop down to DFW. Meetings in the AM in Waco (Waco? Waco? Yes, Waco), and then hope to spend a couple of days on the golf course. Temps Friday and Saturday are looking to be in the high 60's or low 70's, but Sunday doesn't look so good. We may be talking about hotel lobbies. The flight back is Monday AM.

This may have been one of my Bottom Ten experiences at MLI in the last 2-3 years. The flight was delayed. OK, no biggie. It's delayed, not cancelled, so I'm going to get to DFW tonight. I'm already checked in. But the online check-in had not queried me for a baggage fee, so I had to do that at the airport. There was a line, of course. But the self-check-in machine was available...except that the credit-card reader was broken. Of course. Get in line. And those lines just don't move when each person has a connection problem. Yada, Yada, Yada. One service rep. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Then I wasn't designated TSA pre-approved. But when I get to the security line...there is no line. Not a person. OK. This'll be easy, right. Wrong-O, Bucko!! The TSA guards are so bored, they take me to task at every turn, even pulling the corkscrew that has been through the same line a dozen times previously...and then, literally closely examining it, saying, "Lots of these have blades, you know." I did tell that guy that this was not my first rodeo.

Maybe the hat woulda helped, attesting to my character.

My original February plan had been a return visit to Scottsdale, but this Waco trip had to get done, so I elected to take my chances with Dallas weather. It will be fine, regardless. A few days away in February is good for the LtPC's mental and spiritual health.

I brought along the new camera, so I'm going to try to do some experimentation with that new toy. I did listen to/watch one YouTube video about operating this specific camera. It was pretty elementary and I didn't learn much, but I did notice several other videos relating to the same device, so I still hope to shorten the learning curve by way of this type of instruction. Stay tuned.

Hellcat Alert. Roy's new Dodger Charger Hellcat with the 700+ horsepower engine has arrived. He had it at coffee this AM. He offered to let me "take it for a spin", but I declined. Eight below zero, morning rush hour, and a Hellcat didn't sound like a good equation to me. Roy said it even kept him on alert just driving to coffee. Punch that sucker and the rear wheels spin...kinda NASCAR-ish. But soon.

Speaking of NASCAR, the twin dual races are tonight. This is how they set the grid for the 500. Heck, the first one will be over by the time I land. Danica is in the second race. If she doesn't finish high enough in this qualifying sprint, she could be out of Sunday's Big One. She wrecked her primary car in practice yesterday, so we'll see if she can keep the fenders on the back-up car and stay with the lead pack. I want her to do well.

We had a quick visit from 2 yesterday. Dentist and a swap-out of her own car that finally had been tuned-up. HOOPDRM is back on Century Heights. We'll give her some airtime as Daughter of the Day. This pic was on the gondola ride up to the mid-mountain area on Mt. Etna in Sicily. A great memory day for us. #BarcelonaBordeaux2015 is the next big chapter!




Looks like we are on our final approach to the Big D.

I'll be adding here over the weekend. I feel a bit of an obligation to do more than a blah-blah travelogue. This is the weekend of the annual writing contest...which I have not signed-up for given this trip. So maybe the sea's will part while I am out here on the road and a creative idea will appear. It could happen.




Make it a Good Friday in your neighborhood.

BCOT



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Wednesday

Here's a look at the little fff that took place last night in The Big Apple.  Phil and Margaret would be pleased that these four made the effort to meet up when the opportunity was presented.

The Deep Freeze is here for a couple of days.  It was cold all day and is going to 8 below tonight.  Glass half full: it'll be March in less than two weeks.

The cold was so bad the last couple of days that I've taken the Buick to work for the benefit of the heated seats.  WWI?  Anyway, the Buick is Blue Tooth equipped and I have my cell phone paired with the car.  Yesterday, the car kept random dialing my own number. Musta been the cold.  I had to disable the Blue Tooth on the phone to stop the cycle.

It got me to thinkin'.  If you were a car mechanic today, you'd have to know a lot about technology to be able to fully service newer cars.  I mean, Blue Tooth on the radio is a little different than replacing brake shoes.

Sunday

So today's confession is that I jumped the shark and gave into the primal urge to get the new "big" digital camera.  Another Canon.  The EOS D60. These are the first pictures.  Literally.  I had the idea that I would get out and catch some shots of the eagles at the lock/dam by LeClaire.  But it was cold as heck out there, and the eagles were too far away.  This is what you get.

My logic, weak as it may be, is that I want to have a really good camera for #BarcelonaBordeau2015, and the price for this model has come down a couple hundred bucks since Canon brought out an upgrade for this target market a year or so ago. My goal is to get proficient with this thing before the end of Summer.  It is also consistent with my personal goal to get back into photography rather than the point and shoot iPhone or mini-digi.  This thing has so many whistles and bells that I need to find an on-line course to help me wade through the instructions.

This time of year in this geography, colors are not out there in nature.  Maybe there will be some more eye-appealing subjects next weekend in Texas.

Expect more random pics here in the future.

In other unrelated news, I will take a small bow for completing the Saturday NYT crossword yesterday.  I usually don't get that one fully done, let alone on the publishing date.  The moon and stars had to have been aligned.  Several full horizontal and full vertical solutions to clues.  The mind must have been in the groove.  Some days you get the bear.

Props to the 24 for grabbing the pole today for next Sunday's Daytona 500.  Qualifying is now a crap-shoot and the drivers don't like it.  One big wreck took out 3-4 cars who will now have to go to back-up cars for the Thursday qualifying races and next Sunday's real deal.  NASCAR came up with the new qualifying format to get away from the paint-drying boring single-car runs that had been the prior seasons' protocol.  This new way needs work.  Why have them wreck their cars before the actual race?

Just checked the scores.  I see that the Hawks made another statement today to reserve their spot in the NIT.  Unbelievable.

Like, no.  I'm not watching the NBA All-Star game. (I did watch Snedeker win at Pebble Beach today. Impressive scenery.  But I don't think worth the $500+ it takes to play 18.  Great that we didn't have to watch Bill Murray on the telecast...he didn't make the cut in the Pro-Am for Sunday.)

That's it from Maplecrest.  Had to present the news on the camera.  Hope it is a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Friday

The convenience of satellite radio has drawn me into the flames.  A 90-day trial subscription to SiriusXM came with the new Buick in December.  It has been nice to have the many channels for music, news and sports on these trips to Minnesota (or locally to Muscatine or Iowa City).  I had kinda decided that if their "deal" was for no more than $10 a month, I'd consider signing-up.  Well, I got the paperwork in the mail yesterday, and a pre-paid annual subscription is $113, all in.  That's for a year after the first three months which were at no cost.  I called up and did the subscription.

My concern is the second year.  Its auto-renewal, of course.  But you can cancel the renewal before the renewal date.  How reliable will Outlook be for this purpose?

Subsequent to the subscription confirmation, I also received an email from Sirius encouraging me to get their "app" for my smart phone which allows the user to lock or unlock the car from the phone.  There was a list of other services that were available through the app...which immediately raised my concerns about what I had just bought into.  Really.  Below radar I ain't.

(Relatedly, the Buick also came with a trial subscription to OnStar.  I definitely will not be taking that service when the trial period expires.  There's way too much tracking going on for the LtPC.)

I'm not really afraid of Friday the 13th, but I don't like tempting the Fates either.  No bad stories on the 13th from my past, but one should always be careful.

I gotta admit that I have enjoyed a bit the recent calling-out of the now disgraced news-reader, Brian Williams.  There was a time up through about the time of 2008 Presidential campaign where I actually watched NBC evening news with some regularity.  He even had expressed some interest in NASCAR.  But his shtick got to me at that time (as all of the broadcast news people did to some extent), and I have avoided him like the plague now for years.  He has now brought to the current lexicon the term "fabulist"...one who relates fables.

He is also representative of the people in the reporting business who have promoted themselves to being part of the news, or into being news makers themselves.  Almost an off-shoot of reality TV.  Dan Patrick in sports comes to mind.  He came up as an anchor on SportsCenter.  Now he's a sports "personality".  Who thinks his opinions matter.  There's not much that separates these people from Geraldo or the Kardashian's.

OK.  Enough for a Friday afternoon.  It's Wine o'clock.

Have a great weekend.

BCOT

Thursday

This has been another of those weeks that just got away from me.  The return from Minny, a night with The Winniferous, and then an evening meeting with 2 mid-way to Iowa City for the W hand-off, and its Wednesday already.  Whatever.


Happy Birthday to Abe.  I didn't even see an article noting this day in the Illinois-side paper this AM.  I must have missed it.  Illinois is pretty good about recognizing him.

I had some trepidation about the re-appearance of the real RCL this week.  The house had been serviced by the SRCL since Christmas.  That gal had left a note last week that her last day was the 3rd.  When the towels that I had put in the washer Tuesday morning in anticipation of the RCL were still there when I got home Tuesday night, I was concerned.  Fortunately, there was a Wednesday visit, which must have been her regular day anyway.  So all's right with the world.

The PGA tour is at Pebble Beach this week for the AT&T National Pro-Am.  Back in the day, the tournament was known as "The Crosby", with Bing Crosby as the celebrity host.  I may have commented here in year's past that amateurs can fork over several thousand dollars to play alongside the pros for a few days.  I had it on the TV in the office this afternoon.  I thought that it was notable that there weren't that many of the world's top players in the field.  I get it.  I mean, who wants to dink around the course with a couple of 20-handicappers in your group dumping balls into the Pacific Ocean?  They're probably 6-hour rounds that just don't end.  (If they show Bill Murray doing his stupid shtick with the gallery twice, they show it at least 20 times!  It has to suck.)


Our snow from a couple weeks back is gradually receding.  Sublimation, not melting.  Gotta give credit to my pal Doc Doug from DSM for enlightening me about the sublimation term.  We are forecasted to have below zero temps this weekend, so the snow isn't going anywhere soon.  But it is interesting to see the piles shrink in the sun and dry weather.

Let's make 3 Daughter of the Day.  She pulled the old coast-to-coast gig Tuesday-Wednesday for client meetings in San Diego.  She said she was in California for 23 hours.  Don't they make Go-to-Meeting for that stuff?  You're a star, Kiddo.

All for now.

Make it a Good Friday in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Tuesday

1.02 is Grandson of the Day. My new favorite pic.

BCOT

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Monday

 

 

 

 

Fun time in Minnesota this past weekend.  That first pic was taken by the guy sitting immediately behind us.  We literally just stood up and turned around for the photo.  We were in the first row behind the scorer's table.

More later.

BCOT

Tuesday

The snow has become a bit of yesterday's news. There is some light snow in the forecast. It needs to be done before noon Friday when I am scheduled to leave for Harvest Path.

One little inconvenience of the storm was the interference with the satellite TV service. In this case, the wet snow stuck to and piled on the dishes, giving no receptacle for the signal. On Maplecrest, I was able to reach the dish with a broom while standing about halfway up my step ladder. No prob. The office was a different story. The dishes are mounted on the South side of the building, of course, so there is no ladder access immediately below the dishes. And there was no way we were going to get on the roof from the rear of the building with such problematic footing up there.


So my solution on Monday at noon was to lob snow chunks from the plowed piles in the parking lot up at the dishes to jar the snow off. In the end, I was successful with that approach, but it took two sessions, and a rubber arm to complete the task. You would think that a guy who played D1 baseball ought to be able to hit a stationary target less than 30 feet away. Then again, the cut-off man wasn't that easy for me way-back-when either.

That little exercise with target practice gave me the idea that there is a list of things that don't get done as easily as in days gone by. There are the obvious ones like running slower (is that even possible for LtPC?), driving the golf ball shorter, and failing to remember anything. But there are other not so obvious diminishing capabilities. The list:

1. Reading the newspaper box scores. They HAVE to be using smaller print these days. And the NYT, I think that there's a left wing conspiracy to make the print of that entire paper smaller. I instinctively reach for Margaret's magnifying glass every time.
2. Running a 10-key desk calculator. Now this machine has kind gone the way of the flip phone, but I still have one at my small, side table in the office. In another life-time, that a was a no-look skill...feel the little nub on the 5 key and it was off to the races. I now have to look at the keypad for every stroke.
3. This is one we all have lost now. The Millennials never had it. But there was a time that someone with a good memory had a sting of phone numbers memorized for repetitive use. Now? It's just touching the name on the screen.
4. Staying up past 10 PM. What's that all about?
5. Polishing your shoes. I do have a couple of pair of dress shoes that a person could polish. But it has been at least twenty years since I have bought a can of shoe polish. Heck, in boot camp in Charleston for the USAF, spit-polishing shoes was a regular Saturday afternoon leisure activity.
6. All that stuff that the PN does. I wasn't all that talented, but there was a time when I did, or tried to do, all that handy-man stuff.
7. All the stuff in the house that the RCL does. Yeah, I never did much of that.
8. Partying the afternoon away at Wrigley. Haven't done that in years. No excuses. My pal Pete and I need to schedule a Chicago seminar for this Summer!
9. My Photography skills are essentially gone. The iPhone and the mini-digi have taken the science out of the art. Maybe I should get that big Canon and try to bring back thought to my picture-taking. It's an idea.
10. Learning something new. That's a good idea. Haven't really done that forever.

Okay. That was a little philosophical. Sorry. But I just couldn't believe that I couldn't hit that dish from 30 feet.

Make it a good Wednesday in your neighborhood. Happy TGIF to 4.

BCOT



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Sunday

Yeah, so the SB is not so interesting to me. Really don't like Pete Carroll, so I hope Tom Terrific can find a way to score more points.

The dump of snow has dominated life around here today. We've had big storms within the last couple of years, but each one reminds you of how hard it is to get your normal stuff done when moving snow is your first task. The neighbor across the street with the blower on his lawn tractor has made life on Maplecrest a little easier. We don't have to move a two-foot pile left by the street plows at the end of the driveway.

FWIW, I think that the local weather forecasters hit the fairway with their call on this storm. It didn't look like they had done so this time last night, but I'm pretty sure that they said we could easily get 10-12 inches. And we did. Not sure if that necessarily qualifies them to move up the food chain, but it's always nice to get one right.

Of course, today is February 1st, which means that January went by in the vapor-trail that has become the day-to-day standard in my world. February is a short month regardless, but with a trip scheduled to Harvest Path next weekend, and a four-day trip to Texas that third weekend, the month will be history in a heart beat. Then we have March...which means outdoor cycling. And with normal other stuff, golf, TOMRV, NYC in April, probably Arizona in May, Tahoe in early August....and Barcelona will be here...like tomorrow!

I will be missing the local equivalent of the Detroit Auto Show next weekend. The QC Auto Show is not much to see, but I've usually gone for a quick tour on the Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Mostly, I get amazed at what they price new, full-size SUV's at these days. A fully equipped Escalade can be $80K! You could by a small house in these parts for that kinda cash.

I had another friend make it up Mt. Kilimanjaro last week. My pal Doc Doug from DSM tried that a couple year back...unsuccessfully...although his lovely better-half made it...for a second time. It's 19,000+ feet, which makes it more than twice the height of Mt. Rose. It's a walk, not a climb, but the elevation probably would make it more than the LtPC could handle (sarcoidosis and all). Not that it is on any to-do list of mine. I just find it interesting that people can get that challenge in their blood. It's a long way to go (Tanzania) to beat yourself up. Says the man who has done death marches on his bike in the Alps, Pyrenees and the Carson Range in Nevada.



Hate to say it 3 and 4, but the Hawks are looking more and more like an NIT team again. They've got no muscle inside. Hard to win in any league, let alone the Big 10, with no muscle.

The amount of blovating by the WH and the self-appointed "Defenders of the Middle Class" (Reid, Shurmer, Pelosi, et al), will reach epic proportions this week with the POTUS' budget proposal. Tax the rich. Credits for the poor. Roads and infrastructure spending. Blah. Blah. Blah. Nothing in the way of serious tax reform. Positioning for 2016. Didn't we just have an election? Where the people said, "Let's do something different in DC?" Yuck.

2 says that you need 21 days to create a habit. I'm going cold turkey on political current events starting right now. I've had it with all of 'em.

Groundhog Day tomorrow. Regardless of what the stupid groundhog sees or doesn't see, I'm betting on 6 more weeks of Winter.


All for tonight. Make it a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT





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Wednesday

For a piece of good news, all you have to do is look out the window at 5 PM and actually see the world rather than pitch darkness.  Really, this is a good thing to have going.  The darkest of the days are done.  Get through another six weeks and we'll be worrying about the picks in March Madness.

This was the time two years ago when I was going through my fight with pneumonia.  My calendars for then just have daily entries of "Sick" for about a week.  Three courses of the Z-Pack antibiotics finally knocked the worst of it out of me.  It was a four-month recovery.  Yuck.

The Super Bowl hoopla does not amuse me.  I have little interest in the teams.  Less in the press corps covering the event.  And the commercials have never meant much to me.  (Well, a couple of the Budweiser frog spots were pretty good.)

The White House's trial balloon of changing the rules and taxing the income from the 529 College Savings Plans fizzed-out to a quiet early death.  As a tax professional, I've always had a skepticism for long term financial planning based on a particular IRS Code rule that created a consistent favorable outcome for taxpayers.  If it works out too well for people, there's a tendency for the IRS to "tweak" the rule because revenue is it's middle name.

Few of this President's proposals meet with bipartisan disfavor, so it was interesting to hear and read the panning of this item after the SOTU address.  One article/post suggested that one of the reasons that the criticism was so immediate and widespread was that the media class was probably a big participant in the 529 program.  That posit makes some sense.  Journalists are education-oriented people.  Most went to college.  And they know how much it is going to cost to send their own kids to school.  Funny how taxing "the rich" (who, according to BO, are the only ones using 529's), gets a little close to home for the not-so-rich.

It came as no surprise to me that the White House has already pulled the plug on the proposal.  Politics is politics.

(I heard another idea about raising revenue by eliminating the home mortgage interest and real estate tax deductions for everyone.  I actually have no problem with these suggestions.  They fall into my bigger-picture approach of eliminating all deductions and going to a gross-income or consumption tax.  The real estate industry would go into an apocalyptic fit, of course.  Lobbyists would take Capital Hill by siege.  But getting rid of all of the deductions would simplify the process.  It won't happen in my lifetime.)

Our new Barracuda network security system is too good.  I routinely can't access sites that have been in my rotation for years.  Some of my Yahoo email is blocked.  I have to give the site address to our IT vendor to get it excepted from the screening utility.  It has happened when I go to print an airline reservation or an order from Gap.  It doesn't like Lululemon.  I feel so much more secure.

The markets continue to rock up and down.  Uncertainty about Europe.  Slowing growth rate in the US.  Oil under $45 a barrel.  A pricier dollar compared to the Euro and other currencies.  Microsoft makes BILLIONS in the quarter...and the stock goes down 10%.  Buckle up.

All for today.

BCOT

Sunday

I don't think that we're in for a big storm, but the snow came in early this AM and we now have a couple of inches with the wind whipping it around pretty good.  That sunny and 75 last Sunday in Arizona seems like a distant memory.

The press can't seem to get enough of Deflategate.  So many people thumping their chests over the scandal of it all.  If they added the time devoted to this topic by the broadcast news shows this week, it would dwarf the time given to the Left's disdain for anything the GOP might favor.  (And we know that there's no short supply of GOP disingenuous positions.)  To my knowledge, no serious sports critic has suggested that the air pressure in the game balls impacted the outcome of the contest.  People have their underwear in knots because of the suggestion that the Pats bent the rules.

For what its worth, that noted philosopher on the NASCAR track, Richard Petty (and others in the sport too), is fond of saying, "If ya ain't cheatin', ya ain't tryin' hard enough." 

Moving on...

I've made the command decision to take my February trip South to Texas rather than back to Scottsdale.  I've got a new vendor that we want to use for some data processing services here at the office.  They are located in Waco.  Given the significant commitment I intend to make to this new company, I want to visit their facilities and meet the people face-to-face.  So I've bought a ticket to DFW and will meet with them on the 20th...and then spend the weekend in the Dallas area before returning on Monday the 23rd. 

I opted to drive to Waco rather than fly as American has direct flights from MLI to DFW, and since I'll want a car for the weekend, why chance connections?  Plus, you get into those time/convenience choices of short flights that must consider travel time to/from the airports and the extra time to rent a car at the second town.  Whatever.  It'll be an adventure.  And tax deductible.

I've never been to Waco, and don't intend to spend more than the morning there, but I might do a drive through the Baylor campus.  (The town's name is a somewhat regular solution in the crossword puzzle business.  Central Texas town.  Or maybe, Site of Branch Davidian siege.)

According to the basement calendars, two years ago this time, I was entering into that dark time of my pneumonia problems.  Knock.  On.  Wood.

The story in the paper this AM had the disclosure that RAGBRAI will end in Davenport this year. The local media flacks are making a big deal about Davenport's "selection" as the terminal point for this year's ride.  Whatever.  I know that I've said this here before, but getting the designation as the ending town is an over-blown distinction.  Riders have been on their bikes for a week and what they're looking for at that point is their transport home.  The much better gig...and party...this year will be Coralville on Friday night.  2 and I may need to consider doing the Friday segment from Hiawatha to Coralville.

Relatedly, the 2015 pro cycling season has had its first major races this past week, one in Australia and one in Argentina.  Not so many doping stories over the Winter.  Not sure if any of the Americans will be competitive this year.  In the peloton, the teams are much like NASCAR...always looking for sponsors.  Due to the huge interest in the sport in Europe particularly, there is a definite advertising benefit for companies that have those expenditures in their budgets.  But just like here in the USA, bean counters can do the analysis, and the definitive returns are often suspect.  Thus, the constant search for new sponsors.  And new names for the teams.

All for today.  Hope it is a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Thursday

It's been a struggle this week finding what ever might be called "normal" for me. The golf/marathon trip set me off my game. Better today.


Is our country mixed-up or what? We have every newscast on every channel digging into "deflationgate" today. Really? And by this evening, some of the heavy weights around the NFL are saying that Brady and the Patriots need significant discipline. At news conferences today, Belichick and Brady separately played the Egyptian card...denial, denial, denial. No one is really saying that the game was changed by less-inflated balls. But "the integrity of the game" is one of the trending phrases on Google search. With the Commissioner already reeling from the sexual assault mess from last Summer, he may feel pressure to respond.

In other sporting news, the announcement this afternoon that Jeff Gordon would be retiring after the 2015 season came as no big surprise. He's had some hints out there, including struggling with some back issues last year. My guess is that he's got enough money, the ability to stay in the game as an owner/manager/personality, and he just doesn't want to give up his family life to bang fenders with the young dudes on the track.


He could run a few races each year if he so chose, but it's hard to win if you aren't out there every week. (They already have the replacement driver for the 24 car in the Hendrick stable. It's time for Jeff to move on.)

The PN was able to fix the storm door to my kitchen door this afternoon. It had slipped off the track somehow and had become hard to close. I could tell that the hinges weren't quite right, but me attempting to fix the problem would have ruined a weekend morning (with no guarantee of a good outcome). Another example of his value in my world.

3 alerted us yesterday on the passing of the dad of one of her high school classmates. Major heart attack. Age 64. Recently retired. A harsh and proximate reminder of Rule #1: Live like you were dyin'.

Speaking of Gibbs, did anyone catch the connection at the end of Tuesday night's episode when Ducky reported that Director Vance's lung problem was not cancer, but rather the non-deadly condition of sarcoidosis? I had to go through a similar exploratory surgery when they couldn't determine my problem through X-rays or scans. The difference in my case was that it took two weeks to get results!!! They had to send the tissue sample to Mayo's to get a determination. I was a basket case awaiting the report.

My trip over to Augie last night was a bust (except for the popcorn). They played their primary rival, Illinois Wesleyan, and it was an uphill battle from the outset. Wesleyan has lost several games, and are not rated, but they played well last night. And they confounded Augie with inside screens on offense. Plus, they stayed in the grill of Augie's sharp-shooting (but small-ish) guards. Tough loss. And I missed 2's company.

Enough for this evening. I'm using the iPad so the appearance is what you get. I can't manipulate presentation on this as I can from a PC.

Hope it is a Good Friday in your neighborhood.

BCOT


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Tuesday

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Monday (Part I)

So this is coming to you from my flight to Chicago on Monday morning. This is my fifth day on the road...which is maybe one too many. Great evening with 1 and 1.1 last night, but I'm thinking that a late-afternoon flight yesterday may have been the ticket. My good karma was in low-supply once I headed to my hotel after my lunch with 1.1 at "Che-Hooters."

First and foremost, congrats to 1 and 1.1 on their successful completion of the Phoenix Rock 'n Roll Marathon. They both had great results, including 1's PR. The race was well-organized, well-supported, and we all came away with a favorable feeling for the event. A repeat-performance could be in the future.

I felt fortunate to see 1 at four spots on the route...6, 13, 20 and 23 miles. All as scheduled. And I saw 1.1 at the 13-mile marker. (Actually, HE saw me first.). The streets of Phoenix are pretty much in a standard grid, and the course was laid-out in a manner that allowed me to stay outside the course when driving and get to those designated spots. Plus, one segment was an out-and-back stretch that allowed me to just stay at one place and see her twice. Spotting her was easy as there really weren't a ton of marathoners, and the half-marathon (which did have big numbers), was run on other streets.

Some general observations about the weekend:

1. The Dodge Grand Caravan may be a Soccer Mom's vehicle, but it works for snowbird golfers too. It was half the asking price of the Tahoe and had plenty of space for our bags and clubs.
2. The cheaper golf course that we played on Saturday (for economic reasons) was a reminder of the old axiom that you usually get what you pay for. I think we'll be less-likely to go the budget-route next year. I mean, it was OK, but very so-so in comparison to the courses that we played on Thursday and Friday.
3. Three straight days of golf in January are plenty for the LtPC. Heck, the same is true in June!
4. Don't know if I have ever been in a city that has so much going on in such a compact period of time as now in PHX. Multiple car shows (including the big Barrett Jackson one like at Reno), the Phoenix Open golf tournament (with a Tiger appearance this year), and the Super Bowl. (OK. I give NYC a nod here. They have stuff going on ALL the time.)
5. TSA pre-approved check-in makes any trip a little easier to navigate.
6. That Safeway club-card is a no-brainer. We only had one trip there (on Wednesday night to stock-up the condo), and we bought only 6 bottles of top-shelf wine, but the card savings were over $100. I wonder what the annual revenue is for Safeway for non-club-card sales?
7. You can't always trust the Internet. Shocking. The Google Maps click-on address for my Sunday night hotel reservation on my Yahoo email notification was "West" instead of "East". Whoops.
8. It's very cool to stay connected with the fam via Twitter while on the road. The sisters following the marathoners from across the country was neat. (1 said that she had friends back in Minny following her on an app. They knew when 1.1 finished before she did!)
9. I do much better getting from here to there (regardless of where here and there are!), with 2 in the co-pilot's seat. I pretty much need a guide.
10. Another good performance by Hertz. Painless pick-up and drop-off. Paper receipt at the drop-off. Emailed receipt received while on the shuttle from the rental car center to the terminal.

The golf part of the trip was certainly successful, but it was a little off perfect since our pal Roy was unable to join us this year (rotator cuff issues). There wasn't a natural 4th from home to take Roy's spot, so we were three. As a result, we had an assistant pro play with us the first day, and then had "singles" join us the second and third rounds. While these guys filled out the foursomes, it was a glass only half-full in one key respect: the over-ride saying about the boys' golf trip is that, "it's not about the golf". I'm not saying that the trip was too much about the golf, but the symmetry of the 19th Hole and the evening events was just a little "off" for me this time.

Our Friday course was the Monument course at Troon North, a place we've played before, a higher-end, but non an "exclusive" facility. If you have the cashola, come play. Troon North is a big company with multiple courses and probably separate divisions for course ownership, course management, products, training and agronomy. I was really impressed with the turf at this course. Not only the tees, fairways and greens, but the practice areas and other green spaces around the clubhouse were impeccable. Thick, full, and very healthy looking. They absolutely have figured out how to grow and maintain their grasses in the desert. Not every club can say that. But refer to Item 2 in the list above.

Finally, I'm sure I mentioned it on Twitter, but we failed in our attempt to dis-arm the security system at the condo upon our arrival Wednesday night. For what ever reason, we had not had to deal with the issue in our prior visits. So when we punched in the security code for the garage, it was a miss, and the sirens and bells went off throughout the place. We punched every combination of buttons on the keypad, turns out, calling the cops, fire department and the EMT's.

Cal finally saw a phone number on the keypad and we called in to give ourselves up. Turns out that the lady across the street who watches the place for Ron's sister had already been contacted and she called off the gendarmes. They walked us through the disarming protocol which required us to leave the unit for at least 10 minutes to allow the sensors to reset. A glass of Jordan Cabernet for each of us later, and all was well.

All for now. Part II later.

BCOT




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Wednesday

OK. Back to a blogging entry while on a plane. This is the segment from Moline to Denver on our way to The Valley of the Sun. United. We only have about 50 minutes between flights in Denver. Will the clubs make it?

So I am humbled to admit that I have filled out the paperwork and have submitted my claim for Social Security. It was a worse mental adjustment last year when I was more-or-less forced onto Medicare by our group insurance plan at the office when I turned 65. They made it very expensive to stay on private insurance, and it was enroll in Medicare or pay more than twice that rate to the office plan.

With Social Security, you have a choice to take the plan at Full Benefit Age (66 for me), or defer application for up to 4 years, and earn an additional 8% of the basic benefit for each year so deferred. Earning an additional 32% sounds good, particularly when you don't need the money currently, but it's like a 12-year payback when you defer the full benefit for a year. You get into things like life expectancy, solvency of the program, the possibility of political volleyball, and your own health 12 years into the future. Taxes matter too. You pay tax on benefits, and your net after-tax benefit now is probably less than when you're age 80 and fully retired.

(Interestingly, Iowa has passed a provision exempting Social Security benefits from state income taxes beginning in 2015. That's a bonus! I'm guessing that that change is in recognition that Illinois taxes NO retirement income. Iowa likes to tweak Illinois if they can. And Iowa has managed a budget surplus in recent years. We know Illinois is broke. They probably SHOULD tax retirement benefits. Ultimately, they'll either tax everything, or go broke.)

After a bit of soul-searching, I made the choice that I have generally been advising my clients to make in recent years...TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN!!!

I didn't watch much of the National Championship game on Monday night. NBC. Bob Costas. PAC 12. Ohio State. Meh. It's hard for me to root for Ohio State, even if they are in the Big Ten. Urban Meyer can coach. And he can recruit. How many stories will there be going forward about the re-newed rivalry of Ohio State and Michigan? Yada. Yada. Yada. I'm already over it.

(Glad to see that the citizenry of Columbus kept up the holy tradition of bringing out the riot squads to make their championship celebration fully croizened(sp?).)

I have been stymied a bit recently in a move to consolidate my mobile technology. I decided last Fall that I wanted to give up the cellular service on my laptop. I had reached the point, just usage-wise, where paying a separate monthly fee for the laptop just didn't make any sense. Then when I was visiting the fam in NYC at Christmas time, I liked the look of 3.1's MacBook Air. So I called up our Verizon rep and asked her to give me a price on the swap-out of my iPad and laptop monthly services for a MacBook Air with built-in cellular service.

Alas, the MacBook doesn't come with the optional cellular cservice. Nor does a Surface. I was/am a little surprised at that reality. It may be the iPad as my primary mobile blogging device going forward.

2 and I have come up with a hashtag for the European trip proposed for September. She initially had it at #BarcelonaBordeaux. I shortened it up at first to #BarBor. But after a second thought, I'm going with #BarBor15.

And my thought on timing is for our departure to Barcelona on September 17th. That puts our transfer over to Bordeaux on either the 22nd or 23rd. The plan now is to rent our car as we depart Barcelona (rather than take a train) and spend a night somewhere in France on our way over to Bordeaux. That gives me the possibility of a bike ride on one of the TdF hills in the course of that transfer. Departure for home would then likely be on the 29th or 30th.

Loved the FaceTime with 1.01 (and 1.02) yesterday on 1.01's birthday. Those 5 years have gone quickly...but it seems like a long time ago that we had our March Madness FFF in West Des Moines that year. Lots of water under the bridge since then. For all of us, eh? Think about all the places we have each been (and been together). It's a long and impressive list. We have been blest as a family.

Landing shortly in Denver. Will Twitter the results of our connection. More from the road tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

BCOT


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Tuesday

Here's to the Birthday Girl!  You are Granddaughter of the Day!!  Make it a great day, Kiddo.

 

I also elected to change the Home Page pic to recognize our impending boy's golf trip to Scottsdale.  We leave tomorrow afternoon with our first tee time on Thursday morning.  The pic was taken at Grayhawk Golf Club last year.  We won't be on that course this year.  The economy in the Valley of the Sun must be improving.  Green fees are up 25-30% from last year.  More than double what we paid in the 2009-10 years.  We paid $99 per round at Grayhawk back then.  Now they're asking $230 with no discounts.  Ouch!

 

It looks like we'll be going over to another Barrett-Jackson classic car auction while we're in Arizona.  They have one there every year about this time.  These are the same people who do one at Hot August Nights in Reno.

 

Hope to get back on here later today.

 

BCOT

Sunday

That birthday week was a good one.  Nothing outrageous.  But plenty of good vino.  Good friends.  Now three days of prep for the trek to Scottsdale.

My experiment with the stability ball as my only desk "chair" in my office is officially over.  I threw up the drogue chute yesterday and bought a new traditional chair.  It had become just too uncomfortable to not have any lower back support.  Not sure what that means.  I didn't feel a marked increase in core strength these last couple of months using just the ball.  Plan B yet to be defined.

(I don't think that I mentioned here that when I got rid of my old chair in November, I utilized the "curb system" of disposal.  It wasn't totally trash, but the Over/Under bet of finding a paying user was definitely the Under.  So I took the chair home and set it out at the end of my driveway.  It was gone by the next morning.  Suite.)

Glad to see the PGA back on the viewing schedules.  They have a 2014-champions-only event going on over in Hawaii this weekend.  The optics from the TV coverage are stunning.  Now, a course like that would just eat up the average golfer, but the pros are more than able to handle the conditions.  The scenery reminds me of the courses that we played at Cabo a few years back.  With a limited field, its kind of a money-grab for these guys.  The first full-field tournament starts Thursday, also in Hawaii.

For those dying to know, NASCAR is still a month away from the first green flag.  Daytona Speedweeks start with an All-Star race on February 14th.

My PN and his wife Judy gave me a holiday tray of goodies after my return from NYC.  You have to understand, these are tea-totaler people.  The gift included a bottle of wine, cheese and a couple of boxes of crackers.  Now, the wine may not have been one that I would have purchased, but they got the grape right...Cabernet Sauvignon...by checking my recycling bin!  It says a lot for them as neighbors that they would do that for me.  How cool!

I've come up with a new analysis/explanation for my CRS condition; "Too many mind".  This is a quote taken loosely from The Last Samurai in a scene where Tom Cruise is having his lunch handed to him by one of the Samurai swordsmen in a practice drill.  One of the English-speaking sons of the main good-guy Samurai steps in to tell Cruise that he has "too many mind", that, in essence, he is thinking too much.  I feel that way when I have to switch from a client question about the tax treatment of a transaction, to a different client asking about an amendment to provision in a company's retirement plan.  And before I get that answered, I get a call from a third client who wants to know what I think about selling his shares of Deere.  Too many mind.

Yeah, I won't be watching the Golden Globes this evening.  Never have, why start now?  Plus, I don't go to movies, watch little entertainment TV, and virtually never watch NBC for anything.  Fundamentally, I have such a low regard for Hollywood, I certainly am not going to waste time watching the industry congratulate themselves on their "achievements".  Other than that, I have no opinion on this stuff.

Hope the week is off to a good start in your neighborhood.

BCOT