Wednesday

Another brutal date on Wall Street. I wouldn't normally add a cartoon this size to the blog, but this one hits most of the points from my earlier comments on the credit crisis, and I wanted the caption in the upper left to be readable. And it gives appropriate credit to most of the players in the mortgage food chain.

Of course, the politicians are continuing their finger-pointing, each to the other side. As though this all evolved last week. Bottom line: I suspect that the mess helps the Dems. Since the GOP has the White House currently, the natural reaction of the public is to say, "Let the other guys give it a shot."

My Turkey Trot training is off to a slow start. I had forgotten that I had received a cortisone shot in my right knee last Spring after experiencing some pain. The actual diagnosis then was a meniscus problem, but the Doc suggested a cortisone shot as an alternative to a "scope procedure. I don't think that the shot really helped that much, but the knee really never gave me that much of a problem cycling (since there's not the impact or twisting to the joint). And I had no interest in more medical work being done on me. We'll see if ibuprofen can control the pain. I'll be real upset if it becomes intolerable.

4 says that she is headed to Cedar Rapids early tomorrow for the McCain-Palin rally. I'll be interested in a report.

I took off from work early yesterday so that I could mowed my yard before heading over to IC. To preclude a messy looking yard after the fact, I had to raise the deck on the mower and catch the clippings because the grass was so long. And I'll have to mow again Saturday to get the grass down to the regular level. Home ownership is a beach. But it is September, and I'm guessing that the number of mowing events for the rest of the year is in the single digits. The glass is half full.

I am now the owner of a Napa Valley grape-colored cycling jersey. Compliments of my pal Roy from his trip there last week. He figured that a cycling wine snob like me needed the new look. I'll be making good use of it...next year.

I was wrong last week about Tuesday and Wednesday being the only nights without football. ESPN2 had a game tonight between K State and L'ville.

Isn't rebuilding Galveston Island a little like betting on a will-won't proposition? I mean, building homes on stilts, on the beach, in a traditional hurricane zone, is just testing likelihoods, isn't it? Maybe Vegas will establish an "over-under" line on how long a newly constructed place there will last. I suppose that the insurance companies actually have to do just that. And in that regard, I suppose that any insurance company that sharpens the pencil and elects to stop writing these types of policies in Texas will be accused of discrimination.

Some other possible over-under bets:

1. Trailer home in Oklahoma.
2. Any Hollywood marriage.
3. An NBA coach's tenure.
4. Latest-greatest cell phone.
5. Episodes of a new 1/2 hour comedy.

Looks like great weather through the weekend. Get out there and enjoy it.

BCOT