Saturday

Ok. Saturday AM at the new 53rd Street SB's. First blog on the new wireless laptop.

2 was by earlier on her way to the museum to help with an event they are hosting this morning to view the Festival of Trees parade from their building's prime location. I suppose that the parade is the kind of event we would have taken the girls to when they were little. Cheap. Close. Free candy.

The keyboard for the laptop will take some getting used to. I have big hands, and, as you all are aware, a laptop keyboard is pretty compact. Plus, my modified hunt-and-peck technique typing skills add to the challenge.

I was out with my friend Pete and some other friends last night and we spent the most time at a bar located in the old McDonald's on Brady Street by Duck Creek. A bit surreal considering how much time we spent there when the girls were young. Lots of stops there while biking. The new place is okay, but I'm not sure who might be their target market. Maybe if Rookies up the street gets too crowded and the college kids need an over-flow option. The drinks were pretty cheap. A lot less expensive than an evening of Tuscan red at Biaggi's. Or sushi at Ron's of Hawaii in The Loop.

My pal Pete has diagnosed my calf problem as a strained gastrocnemius muscle. Wikipedia has a good description that exactly fits my situation. I'll be going out again later this AM to test it. More shuffling, I suspect.

The political climate is heating up with the Iowa caucuses now just about six weeks away. A couple of stories and op-ed pieces have focused on "planted" questions in town-hall-type settings where candidates respond to inquiries from the audience. I guess that this is common in most of the campaigns run by both Democrats and Republicans. A shill in the crowd leads a speaker into the "stump" response to one of the issues. Like the interview where, whatever the question, the candidate/politician answers with a reply right off his speech writer's notes.

I pretty much ignore all of the campaign stories, print ads, and commercials in the various media. Most of it is promises of one sort or another to end the war, lower taxes on the non-rich (I think I qualify), raise taxes on the rich (I fear that I may qualify under some definitions here too), universal health care, pro life, pro choice, or an answer on one side of the fence or the other on the matter of immigration. My suspicion is that, ultimately, the great divide in our country will carry over to next November and whomever wins will do so with a very narrow margin.

Well, I'm off to do my run/shuffle and some yard work. No Martian eggs, but there will be several paper yard-waste bags by the time I'm done.

The big question is, "Can ND get by Duke?"

BCOT