Thursday

Here's to The Ryan Clan, our Clan of the Day. Breckenridge, Colorado. July 2008.

Another weather system headed in tonight. I'm scheduled for a tax CPE seminar in Cedar Rapids tomorrow. I'm taking the under on that one. Hope the travel gods are good to 3 on her return to C-town tomorrow night.

This global warming thing has me worried. Vegas. N'Orleans. I'm thinking that these anomalies happen pretty regularly. I believe that mankind has responsibility, but that might be the easy answer. I bet the dinosaurs never saw that meteor coming.

We had a Christmas luncheon for the office today. Fairly low-key at a nice place on the Illinois side. Word that I hear out and about is that many companies have cut back on Christmas parties, year end bonuses and other truly discretionary expenditures. (Personally, I've never had the same level of interest for the holiday parties that I have had for the April 15th celebration. The grinch lives.)

My basement TV is on the fritz again. I'm wondering if that DirectTV receiver is to blame. My main level unit is fine, as is the unit at the office. Anyway, I listen to the basement TV in the mornings when I'm getting ready for work. So without the satellite signal, I have it tuned to the local NBC outlet. They now have an hour and a half prelude to The Today Show, and I swear that their content is about 12 minutes in length that is on a permanent loop. And the weather guy is bad the first time through it. And doesn't get any better on subsequent renditions.

Actually, what they do on that early show is similar to the prior evenings readings. They now have half hour local news at 5, 6 and 10. If you make the mistake of watching or listening to all three shows, you can almost echo the stories word-for-word by the 10 PM presentation. It's no wonder that media companies are in trouble. Their broadcasts insult the intelligence of their audiences.

Add this poor quality of product to a broken business model, and you have to wonder what the world will end up with in 10 or 15 years. Wireless everything, I'm sure. Will a traditional newspaper even exist in the USA?

So the family travel starts tomorrow. Be safe. Be patient. And...

BCOT