Sunday

Beautiful day here. Maybe 40+. I brought Margret out to burn off some of the carbon on her valves. I still haven't had the one backseat window fixed so its a little breezey in there.

My pal Roy had a small accident on his way to coffee this morning. He was looking around his dashboard, had his eyes off the road, and ended up banging into a curb, flattening one tire, bending a designer rim, and bubbling up another tire. He was able to limp into the SB's parking lot. After coffee, we took a shot at changing the tire, but the repair kit was missing a fitting to loosen the lug nuts, so he ended up calling Mercedes roadside assistance. He let them tow it to the shop and he just fired up another of his cars. Life is a beach.

I watched the made-for-TV production yesterday of the the recent Ironman Triathlon from Hawaii. This is pretty close to the most insane athletic competition out there: 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a little 26.2 mile marathon to finish. Most of the two hour show was comprised of the human interest flash-backs of various competitors. And there are always lots of stories. The remarkable thing is that the men's winner completes the entire course in a little over 8 hours, the women's winner in a little over 9 hours. Then there are the rest of the competitors whose goal is to complete the thing before the midnight deadline. For those coming in close to midnight, they have been out punishing their bodies for 16-17 hours.

The whole concept of this event reflects an element in human nature that seems to exist in everyone to varying degrees. Not everyone is driven to extremes in their various fields of endeavor, but many cannot resist a challenge. Physical challenges inspire more participants, because there are no intrinsic intellectual or economic limitations: a person need not be rich nor highly educated to run, bike or swim. Technology has widely disseminated the information about these more extreme activities. And more and more people see themselves as participants, not observers.

My philosophy on this is that a bit of moderation is OK. I mean, its not like you're getting paid to do this stuff. Well, the winners might be. But the midnight finishers are just nuts.

The college girls have finals this week. I'm sure that they spent the weekend pounding the books. Knock 'em dead, ladies.

Here's an interesting factoid for 2007. Tax deductible contributions of cash will not be allowed by the IRS without a receipt. Heretofore, there was no specific rule, and people commonly took a deduction for "estimated" amounts that they would put in various cash collections at church, school or The Salvation Army. My guess is that entities who rely on these cash contributions will have to come up with a verification system, or their collections will measurably drop off. For my clients, I'm telling them to make all their contributions by check.

I am considering checking out my four strands of outdoor tree lights for possible hanging later this week. As I recall, there were some defective portions on the strings when I pulled them down last year. Houses on both sides of me have been lit up for weeks. I definitely was not participating before December 1st. With just two weeks to go, it may be about time. I'm getting soft in my old age.

Here's an idea. Let's all participate in our own version of "The 14 Days of Christmas", a special version for 4000 Days. To make it easy, let's just add a favorite Christmas memory each day. For the 14th Day, I submit 4's birth. Her birthday became, and still is, my favorite day of each year for our family. Remeber, these are Christmas memories. It's not that 1, 2, and 3's birthdays are not special, but rarely are we all together as we have been for each of 4's birthdays. And Chucky Cheese is hard to forget.

I need to get Margret home. Have a great evening.

Be careful out there.