Monday

This is the best we have for 1.01's dress-up outfit for Halloween.  Sitting on her rock in her back yard.  She still gets the nod as Granddaughter of the Day.

I took the night off from TT training.  The kids in Bettendorf had official Trick or Treating hours between 5 and 7 this evening, which is prime training time for me.  So I punted. 

Tonight is also the play-off game between Bettendorf and PV (at Bettendorf's stadium), the two local high schools that are within shouting distance of one another.  Bettendorf should win.  It wasn't much of a game when they met in the regular season.  UPDATE:  The fourth quarter report from my pal Pete is 28-0 Bettendorf.  Not shocking, but Ouch!!

The big news in Cardinal Nation today is Tony LaRussa's announced retirement.  Not so much of a surprise to me.  I mean, the guy is 67 and has won the World Series three times.  Why not smell the roses?  (I do think that he should let up on the Grecian Formula.  Nobody has hair that dark!) 

Letting go of Pujols is a different matter for StL.  They're in the same position as the Twinkie's were with God.  And that hasn't worked out so well for Minny.  Whadda ya do?

We had a server down at the office this AM.  It actually went down over the weekend, so we knew going in today that the IT folks needed to get cracking right away.  We were back on-line by 1030 hours.  Not sure of the cause.  But when our computers are down, billing stops.  Not a good thing.

Didn't even know that there had been a Kardashion wedding.  Is there more than one girl in that crew?  Is that the family that Bruce Jenner married into?  And how much work has he had done on his face?

It has been well-documented here how my year has gone by in a flash.  Well, starting tomorrow, November will be more of the same.  Tahoe this weekend.  Thanksgiving.  I'm thinking the Iowa game on the 13th.  A couple of CPE days.  A couple of Geneva events.  In a whisper, it will be December.

All Saint's Day tomorrow.  I wonder if its as big of a day in Lourdes as 4 and I determined that August 15th had been?  Boy that day in Lourdes seems like a long time ago.  But I remember it well.  (Blogger is not letting me move this pic further up the page without going all the way to the top.   And its really a good pic.  Click on it to make it bigger for viewing.Grrr!


All for tonight.  Make Tuesday a good one.

BCOT

Sunday

So I pulled this picture from the New York Daily News site this morning, depicting a runner in Central Park yesterday.  What a difference a week makes!  Last week at the time, 3 and Herky and I were spending a leisurely two hours in Central Park with several thousand other New Yorkers, in decidedly more enjoyable weather conditions!  See below.

Pretty low-key weekend here on Maplecrest.  The cycling club dinner with guest speaker Bob Roll on Friday night wasn't too bad.  There was a little kerfuffle when a couple elected to crash our table and refused to honor our reserved status.  Which led to our whole group picking up and moving to another table at the back of the room rather than spitting our party.  Leaving that twosome by themselves at the premium-seating table.  Very surprised that people would dig in for spaces at an event like that.  Why would you choose to hard-line it at that kind of function?  It takes all sorts, I guess.

Anyway, Bob Roll stayed in character for his talk.  Which is to say that he played a bit of the fool.  Lots of drinking stories.  Lots of hyperbole on different things that happen on the Tour.  Not much organization to his remarks. But still entertaining.  His appearance doubled the attendance for the dinner from last year.  And he hung out another day for a 40-mile ride with club members yesterday.  I chose to work in my yard!

Not sure if this is lottery-ticket stuff, but I did get all but a couple of single boxes in both the Friday and Saturday NYT crosswords.  This after somewhat easily nailing the Saturday puzzle last weekend while on my visit to The Big Apple.  Either the moon and stars are in favorable alignment, or I'm spending way too much time sharpening the noggin on extraneous information.  I probably need to get out more.

All of the local towns have (or have had) their "Trick or Treating" schedules either this weekend or tomorrow night.  Bettendorf's is tomorrow, so I'm thinking that there may be a Biaggi's dinner in my future.  Halloween remains my least-favorite celebratory day. 

NASCAR has various things going on to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Pink curbs at this week's race in Martinsville is a new one for me.  (With the 24 pretty much out of the hunt for the championship, I haven't followed the races that closely in recent weeks.  But with no-name games as the only TV sports fare today,  I have the race on for background noise.)

I gave into the elements yesterday and moved my indoor plants that had spent the Summer on my deck back inside for the on-coming colder weather.  A few of the higher branches on the big ficus trees had already been nipped by frost in spite of some attempted blanket coverage the coldest of those nights.  It's a bit of natural trimming that keeps them short enough to fit in the room!

I've been doing some more math.  Actual retirement.  I think that what's going to happen, provided the health stays on plane, is that I'll keep throttling-back a little each year until sometime in the year that I reach age 70.  (More than a few people wonder whether I have already retired, given my coffee-shop and travel habits.)  So while the original 4000 days estimate might have been a little short on total days, I'm guessing that it will be right on target for applied hours.  I take some comfort in being able to identify a definitive date to put out there.  You can do the math.

I have a busy week ahead.  I have an evening meeting in suburban C-town on Wednesday night, and then fly out of Midway on Thursday morning for Reno, and a three-day weekend in Tahoe.  3 has bid'ness in California this week, and will be coming up to the lake on Friday (Safe travels, Kiddo!).  Should be fun.  And we hope to add to our knowlege-bank on our service-providers come next July.

Maybe a little more later.  Off for TT training.

BCOT

Friday

So I did, in fact, go to bed last night at the end of the 7th when the Cards were down 7-4.  That early departure for DSM just kicked my rear and I was outta gas.  I checked the score at 0130 when I got up for a bathroom break.  A very pleasant surprise.  But like one commentator said, if Texas wins tonight, Game 6 becomes just another good game, not something all that historical.

Hard to believe that it was a week ago that I started that great weekend in NYC.  Funny how time rushes by when there's lots on the schedule.

As noted on Twitter, I went to my first spin class of the season this morning.  That 0900 Friday class will be on my schedule when I'm in town between now and March 15th or thereabouts.  (Maybe 4 can join me on a regular basis when she gets off that graveyard shift and doesn't have an IC work commitment?)  I'm considering the 0800 class tomorrow led by the same gal (who is my fav instructor).

The Bob Roll cycling club dinner is tonight.  I'm guessing that there may be a larger-than-expected crowd.  Although Game 7 may discourage a few race-day sign-ups.  Pics to be posted.

The Do-Gooders in charge of Iowa High School football re-organized the classes in the last year or two and expanded the fields to 32-strong in the large-school division.  (I'm not even Googling the facts because it doesn't merit the time.)  But you have teams with 3-5 losing records in the play-offs!  Let's hand out participation trophies to everyone!

No big weekend plans after this evening.  I'll be adding to the blog for sure.

BCOT

Wednesday

I'm giving  a nod to a local girl today.  Here's to 2 as Daughter of the Day.  The Winniferous just gets in the picture. 

I've taken to listening to the Modern Country channel on DirecTV (814) in recent weeks when there's been no games on or when the other shows didn't peak my interest.  Such was the situation tonight with the Cardinals' game cancelled.  As I worked my way through the clicker, I hit on one of those music-marketing channels, this one selling Classic Country.  I've been listening to it for the last hour.  John Schneider (Dukes of Hazzard) is the host along with some gal I've never heard of.  She keeps talking about Schneider as a music star?  Since when?

Anyway, one of the featured singers is Barbara Mandrel.  She had a few years in the '80's when she was the hottest thing going, had several No. 1 hits, and her own weekly TV variety show.  (I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool )  She was a fav of mine.  A check of Wikipedia proves that she is a couple years older than me.  Funny how memories of folks we never see, are stuck on the visions of old.  Many of these singers are still alive.  But the CD package is being sold with film clips from the 70's and 80's.  Funny how they can re-master the sound recordings to better-than-original condition.  Not so much so for the actual singers.  Hmmmm.

The pictures that I posted yesterday were obviously from NYC.  The two of the "occupy" crowd give you a sense of the relatively small size of the park in the news.  The trees were from an area in Central Park.  And that's 2's friend Amanda.  The final pic was one I snapped of the tourists getting their own pictures taken with the mounted cops at the corner of Wall and Broad.  Tourists are nuts.

Another day of note here.  The RCL was in the house.  It's always a good day coming home to freshly cleaned living spaces.  (Interestingly, my pal Bill's spouse had her antennae up one day a month or so ago when I was talking to Bill about my RCL, and later inquired if I would share her number.  I did, and now there's another recurring job on the RCL's Bettendorf schedule.  I'm definitely a trend-setter.)

Our local Augie basketballer's are opening the season ranked 2 and 3 in the D3 polls.  Pretty heady stuff.  But they should be good with all the talent coming back from the Elite Eight team of last year.  (Of course, they'll be 0-1 out of the gate as their first game next week is at D1 Valpariso in a Christians versus the Lions match.)  2 and I will be ready for hotdogs in two weeks.

I completed my first Kindle book during my trip East.  The best feature of the device is size and ease of carry.  (Is that two features?)  I can fit it in my murse.  The biggest down-side at this point is the "oops" touches that move the page or send me back to Home.  I'm sure that that is just a usage thing.  I'll definitely be downloading more things for travel times.

And I took a couple of test drives on 3's iPad last weekend.  Not sure if that toy will be in my future.  We go through our hardware upgrade at the office in two weeks and my laptop is also being swapped-out for a newer/sleaker device.  My biggest complaint about my current laptop is that it feels like the equivalent of a bag-phone from the '80's.  So if the new one is a decent improvement, I think I'll save my shekels.  (An iPad would not be a substitute for the laptop.  I'd incur the acquisition cost as well as the additional monthly access fees.  And that just doesn't make any sense for a man on my wine budget.)

All for tonight.  I'm headed over to DSM at oh-dark-hundred for a 0900 meeting.  Make your Thursday a good one.

BCOT

Tuesday Pics

Tuesday

A few lines this morning to catch up with The Maddening Crowd.

Fun times in NYC.  Air travel was fairly uneventful.  My hotel in the financial district was a good choice.  The weather fully cooperated.  Event planning was a success.  And we did a lot/saw a lot without ever feeling rushed.

Not that I am anxious to return to a life in The Big City.  I like my green-space here in the prairies.

The police presence in the financial district was significant.  Many of the streets were either blockaded or had limited vehicle access.  Wall Street was closed to vehicles.  The cops came in three's and four's at every corner or pedestrian crossing area.  Mounted patrols came in three's and four's as well.  If you wanted to make trouble, you would have been greeted quickly by several of New York's finest.

We actually did pass by the "occupy" park on Friday evening as we headed to our meeting place with 3's friends.  The park might be a half acre in size, and was packed solid with an assemble of hippy-ish folks.  They displayed a variety of signs, protesting not only corporate greed, but every other issue popular among the leftward-leaning population.  Not sure what it means when your cause turns from a social statement to a tourist attraction, but judging by all of the camera's being used by the passers-by, the movement is in the curiosity space at this point.

A Top Ten list of NYC observations that I will expand upon later this evening:

1.  The caricature of The Japanese Tourist has substance.

2.  Central Park is worth the trip.
3.  Ethnicity has no barriers.
4.  The trains work.  You can get around.
5.  Cab drivers only use English as a second language.
6.  Not much price difference at Starbucks from Bettendorf.
7.  My "top-shelf" wines may be a little less so in NYC.
8.  The Concrete Jungle and The City That Never Sleeps are accurate descriptions.
9.  An endless variety of options for dining.
10.Having a few extra dollars probably doesn't hurt.

So I'll jump back on here later.  (That's the Brooklyn Bridge in the background of this shot of 3.  We were at the tip of Manhatten on Sunday morning checking out the tourists' boats and the markets.)

BCOT

Monday

Thursday

I'm watching the World Series as I get my act together for my NYC trip tomorrow.  2 and I opened a bottle of Dry Creek Cab after our run (to bide some time for her to avoid some Homecoming Parade traffic).  So I've had to finish it...since I'll be gone for a few days.  Life's a beach.

Lots of moving parts in the fam this weekend.  @srh4 is up North visiting 1.01.  (LBH, 1 and 1.1 are extras in this play.)  And 4 has IC duty on Sunday.  Pretty sure that this is my first trip to NYC since New Year's Eve bringing in 1976.

I stopped in to have the oil changed in the Buick over my lunch hour.  I went to the shop over on Brady Street that I have used for many years.  I discovered upon arrival that I was dealing with a different owner/operator this time.  The third one at the location in the last five years.  Not sure what that means other than that the margins must be pretty thin.  (No wonder they want to sell those air filters!)  And they didn't honor the coupon I had received in the mail from the Valvoline folks.  Again, life's a beach.

ND has USC Saturday night in South Bend.  Neither team is rated.  Pat Hayden, now the AD at USC, and, up through appointment to that position a couple of years ago, NBC's ND football's color commentator for 10 years or so, says that the game is just another game these days to the players.  This in contrast to the feelings of the long-time alumni who haven't forgotten the rivalry. And Hayden was a USC quarterback back in the days.  (He says he still goes to the Grotto to light a candle for his Mother whenever he is on campus.)

3, Herky and I are going to find an Irish bar in NYC for the game.

The graphics on the TV screen for these post-season baseball games have been impressive.  Not only do they now have the box in the upper left with the score, outs, pitch-count and inning, they often show in the bottom right a display of the pitches against the strike-zone.  When they don't have these displays on the screen, you're a little miffed not knowing all the stuff.  Are we Pavlov's dogs or what? 

If any of you in the Peanut Gallery have applied for a bank loan recently and have been put-off/offended at the back-up information requested by the bank, get in line.  Our deep-pocketed clients are having to supply not only current personal financial statements, but also copies of the brokerage statements supporting any investment accounts, and a detailed list of any "contingent" liabilities.  Bankers are scared silly.

So my plan is to jump on here from MLI and ORD in the AM.  Departure is 0905 local.

BCOT





 

Tuesday

The Home Page pic changes again.  Those Fall colors just didn't do anything for me.  This is one of my favorites from the last few years, taken by 2 just after I reached the summit of the Galibier in September of 2009.  It might be consider as a nod to the effort just completed for that last group of extended tax returns.  I'll come up with something a little more timely in the next day or two.

The death of the Indy car racer at the Las Vegas track on Sunday is resonating through the auto racing industry.  NASCAR has taken very strong measures for driver safety, especially after Dale Earnhardt and Adam Petty's deaths several years ago.  Not only do they continue to make design advances in the cars, but they also have installed "safer" barriers at almost all of the tracks.  These "safer" barriers are walls that "give" on impact to soften the blow of a car hitting the wall.  Indy cars go so much faster, have the open-wheel design, and just can't hardly touch one another without something bad happening.

I generally don't mind the bumping that goes on in NASCAR, and at most of the tracks, trading paint is part of the race.  But when they go to Daytona and Talladega, the high-banked, super-speedways where the cars never let up off the gas, big wrecks at high speeds always occur.  (Dale Sr. was killed at Daytona.)  I'm not one of the viewers drawn to the crashes.  Kind of like I can't watch the replays of football and basketball players tearing up knees and ankles. 

The 2012 TdF route was formally announced this week.  (So the Home Page pic can be in recognition of that as well.)  It goes clock-wise next year and will make a third-week visit to the area near where 4 and I stayed in August.  Practically, the hills that have become part of the fabric of the TdF are in fairly small areas in the Alps and Pyrenees such that you can be fairly close to a particular year's route while staying in the prior year's hotels.  On the map, you can see that the Western part of France is mostly avoided in 2012.  Those areas tend to be predominantly flat, and I'm guessing that while the race is likely obligated to get there regularly, there's not the draw there like the mountains to the South and East.

A couple of names in consumer sales have recently announced some store closings:  Lowe's Home Improvements (20 stores), and Gap (almost 200 stores).  These are well-known names that are reflecting some economic realities.  Lowe's may have grown too quickly and not addressed the challenges of the real estate market collapse as well as it's main competitor, Home Depot.  Personally, I like the local Lowe's store better than Home Depot.  (And that has nothing to do with the fact that the 48 is known as the Lowe's Chevrolet!)

Then Gap is in the middle of the clothing wars with all of the other retailers.  My guess is that growth on the Web and overseas will replace any of the lost volume from the bricks and mortar locations.  I assume that they will still sell my jeans to me on-line.  I haven't been in a Gap store in years, but I've worn nothing but Gap jeans for probably 15 years.  Gap is the only store credit card I have besides Kohl's.  Hmmmm.  I wonder:  maybe the market ought to be able to short LtPC preferred providers.

Plans are to hit the road with 2 and The W later.  We normally run on Monday nights, but Biaggi's got in the way yesterday.  The number of TT training days has slipped below 20.  If you're betting today on the 60 minute target, take the Over.

More later.

BCOT

Sunday

Happy Birthday to 3!!!!

I've had pretty good luck over the weekend of using my preferred interests as my Home Page photo, so I figured we might as well use a nice pic of the birthday girl for today as well.  I'm having her share the spotlight with her Maid of Honor as this was a pic that had a couple of great smiles.  You 'da girls!

In most years, October 15th is a weekday, and October 16th is either a short day or a day off for me.  Not so much this year.  With the 15th falling on a Saturday, the pain actually stretches out to the 17th.  So I'm crying in my beer a little today as I get the last of the extended returns in shape for filing tomorrow.

This is not me.  And it is not my pal Pete.  While we have both gone over the handlebars a few times, this was not our act.  (His cast is off, but the weather and the vanishing daylight will limit the outdoor rides to a couple of weekend days for the rest of the Fall.)

Our local bike club is bringing in Bob Roll to speak at the annual club dinner next week.  He's one of the commentators on the TdF broadcast on Versus TV each year.  A former US professional rider of some merit, he's become the official "goofball" of the TV shows.  I have little doubt that his new career as a niche celebrity is generating a lot more cash than any income from his pro cycling days.  I'm guessing that the local club is paying him $3,500 or thereabouts plus expenses for his appearance here.

The club got the idea last year that a featured speaker would maybe make their event more than the routine October meeting attended by the same 20-25 hard-core members.  And they were right.  The dinner last year attracted as many as 125 folks to hear from  mountain bike competitor Dave Wiens who had beaten Lance Romance in the Leadville race in 2008 (after Lance's first retirement). 2 and I attended that one, and I've already committed to buying a table for the Roll dinner.  Lots of excitement here in River City!

I normally wake up (without an alarm) between 0500 and 0530.  This morning, in that time range, I'm laying in bed trying to decide whether I should get going or not (it being a Sunday and all), and I think I'm hearing music.  This gets my attention, and I start concentrating, and the music being played is actually "reveille", most certainly from the Arsenal, at least two or three miles away!  That was a new one for me.  (Reveille brings back some memories from my ROTC bootcamp in Charleston SC, circa 1970, but that's a story I have either previously related, or will relate at another time.)

My personal goal this week is to work harder at tuning out the politics of the day.  Not only do you have the nuts in the encampment in NYC, you have things like the Olive Garden restaurant not letting a Kiwanis club display the American flag at their meeting because it might interfere with the dining experiences of other customers, And there's the Massachusetts grade school principal banning recognition of Columbus Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving in her school, deeming them as insensitive.  And wearing a flag lapel pin is obviously a firable offense.  So I'm just staying with the sports pages.

Again, Happy Birthday to 3.  Make it a great day

BCOT

Saturday

Happy Tax Birthday to 3!!!!

Giving the Hawks a day of recognition as a nod to 3 as well.  It worked for the Cards last night.

More here later.

BCOT

Friday AM

GO CARDINALS!!!!

As I was saying before I had that burst of StL-itis...

A year ago I had  a self-imposed deadline of October 13th for my drop-dead tax returns because I had a commitment to travel to the Gulf coast to visit my friend Richard.  This year, there was no such conflict in my schedule, so not only has the pain been stretched to the 15th, but with the 15th on a Saturday, I get to enjoy the stress until  Monday the 17th.  Who says you don't get wiser as you get older?

My early mornings are usually peppered with short periods of watching CNBC's Squawk Box as a way to get primed for the business news of the day.  Like most of these newsy/financial/political targeted shows (and because CNBC is owned by Big O lover GE), some of the topics are given the side-by-side screens of opposing viewpoints shouting each other down.  But there is less of this on Squawk Box, so I don't have the TV on "Mute" as is my practice through most of the rest of the day when they do the combating viewpoints segments as standard fare.

Anyway, I'm sure that they have had this guy on before, although I have no recollection of listening to him.  His name is Roger McNamee and he is a very intelligent guy.  He's made a lot of money.  And has a very interesting history in technology, private equity, and music.  His current position is with a firm called Elevation Partners that works the consumer technology and entertainment media intersection.  One of his partners is the musician Bono of U2.

McNamee's comments this AM were very insightful about the use of smart phones, the software that runs them, and the future of where all this technology stuff will take the consumer.  He points out that the index search business (like the standard Google search) is now history, as "app" technology is how people will increasingly find things that they seek. (You've seen the commercials where the smart phones pull things out of "the cloud" as a couple moves down a street looking at restaurants and shops.)

He says that Apple makes more money, net, on an iPhone than a Droid sells for gross!  Is that possible?

I don't think that I mentioned here that another studio guest on Squawk Box earlier this week was a muni bond guy who I use for some of my clients.  Relatively small shop out of NYC.  I chat with him irregularly on the phone.  I sent him an email after his appearance, and he actually responded to me before the market opened.  Very cool, this communication stuff.

3 is headed into a birthday weekend.  (4 has already started her weekend since her Friday shift is done!)

More here later.  Make it a great TGIF.

BCOT

Wednesday

Another day in paradise.

I noted a couple of points on my way home last night. 

As I pulled into Hy Vee, the radio was playing a commercial for the local riverboat casino, claiming that the place had "looser slots".  In the course of 30 seconds, the announcer was saying "looser slots" as often as the Big O has been saying, "Pass this bill!"  Really annoying.

Anyway, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself, "Is this guy saying looser slots or actually saying loser slots?"  I mean, really, that extra "o" is just for the advertising, right?  And these slots are looser than what?  (Be careful with that response; this is a family-rated blog!)

(I'm betting that this casino doesn't even have a ninety-nine cent breakfast.  Let alone a computer-programmed bear-carving machine.)

After processing that advertising delicacy, I moved into the store to pick-up my evening provisions.  On my way to the bread aisle, I randomly caught a glace of a display on the shelves for Log Cabin syrup.  I don't know whether they were running a special with some signage, or what it was that caught my eye (other than the fact that the display was on an eye-level shelf).  My comment?  It's an All Natural product...in a plastic container.  My internal oxymoron chip may have been on red-alert from the just previous looser slots barrage. But that natural plastic language speaks highly for the ad guys who most assuredly know the folks from the New Coke and the Drake's D+ campaigns.

If its Wednesday, it must be vegetable beef soup at the salad bar.  (Now that's the proper use of the loser term!)

Later.

BCOT

Monday

Giving 3 the nod as Daughter of the Day for dealing with the mess on Wall Street in NYC.  Here in the hinterland, we can tune out the noise.  Not so much for the folks who live and work in the financial district.  Hang in there, Kiddo.

This last week before a return-filing deadline, there's always a lot of data/information that CPA's request of clients and their other service-providers to help finalize the returns.  Much of that is email-possible, but in today's world, everyone is hacker-sensitive, and the brokerage firms and even other CPA firms won't send stuff that is not handled through a secure connection.  More passwords!  And in many cases, they won't send anything except directly to the taxpayer.  Let's hear it for the lawyers!

Bad day for the 24 yesterday in Kansas.  I didn't even want to read the details today.  No title for you this year 24!

No clue about Netflix, but it looks to me like those folks went to the New Coke consultants.

I need a big production day tomorrow. 

BCOT

Sunday

My plans for an entry yesterday were way-laid by a detour for a late lunch and watching the Iowa game at Biaggi's.  Not a bad choice.  The game wasn't much to get excited about, but the food and wine made up for the lack of Hawkeye offense.  (I did have to train a young new bartender on the proper presentation and serving of a bottle of wine.)

Tough day/night for the Hawks and 'Clones.  But I'm sure that 2 reveled in the Oklahoma win over UT, and 4 may have taken a little pleasure in the Huskers coming back to beat Ohio State.  An Irish win over the USAFA comes with mixed feelings, particularly when the game is not that competitive.

I did a Twitter entry from Dunn Bros this morning on my phone, and it doesn't show on my desktop, nor as an update to Twitter here on the blog.  Hmmm.  I know that Mobile Twitter runs on different software than standard Twitter, but I thought that it was basically a timing thing.  Anyway, in follow-up to a previous entry, here's the Dunn Bros nod to Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Another technical fly-in-the-ointment:  when I save a pic to my desktop (or laptop, I think) from an emailed pic to my Yahoo account, and I rotate the pic before saving it, Blogger will not recognize the rotation even though it looks up-right in the My Pictures file.  When I add the pic to 4000 Days, Blogger will rotate the pic another 90 degrees for whatever reason.  I'll then have to go to My Pictures and re-save the pic to a sideways view and then let Blogger pull it to the entry with it's 90 degree move, so that the pic will actually appear correctly on the Blog!  Weird.  And with Steve Jobs now gone, we'll never know the answer!

I had to do the second DirecTV receiver conversion yesterday morning, this one being the one here at the office.  It was another case where the previous receiver's drop-dead date had passed, and the local channels were not showing up on this TV when I tried to dial them in for network football yesterday.  I had the replacement receiver on my floor, so it was just a matter of going through the hardware hook-up process, and then calling DirecTV to have them key-in the software recognition details for my equipment.  Again, the only hiccup was dumbing everything down, both hardware and software, to my museum-quality TV unit.

(My Twitter entry from 2nd coffee did post.  Gremlins.)

This Occupy Wall Street is moving past the annoying stage.  I get it.  The economy sucks.  Students who never did the math have these loans that, whoa, they're supposed to pay back?  Where'd that come from?  And they want answers from Washington?  Let's face it, if Nancy Pelosi and Jesse Jackson (and the NYT) are on your side, their solution is always more oversight and regulation to control those gosh-darn free-enterprise people.  Three quotations come to mind:

1.  We met the enemy, and he is us.
2.   Be careful what you wish for.

And the one that embodies the most fear for that half of our citizenry that actually pays income tax...

3.  I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.

Actually, the NBA labor stalemate is essentially an illustration of the Occupy Wall Street mentality, albeit at a substantially higher rung on the food-chain.  Here, the oppressed are the poor players who have to play for chump-change, while the owners represent the greedy establishment. I have no confidence that the P & L statements published by the owners illustrating their dire plights are entirely accurate (and I believe anything out of Washington?), but I suspect that many of the teams are in fact losing money.  You wanna go see Sacramento play Golden State?  Where does Golden State even play?

Anyway, with the low being rookie salaries in the $300K range, the median for all players in the $2 million range, and the average at the $5+ million mark, the players' union arguing for their "fair share" rings a little hollow.  The many definitions of fair share.

BTW, I will not longer capitalize occupy wall street or give it hash recognition. 

OK.  Maybe a little bit more here this evening.

BCOT

Wednesday

If the football teams can go to pink add-on's for October, 4000 Days can step up as well.  Personally, I think that the NFL goes a little overboard, but if they can auction off those items at charity events after their use in games, I say, goferit!

Pretty interesting MLB games in these play-offs.  Obviously, I'm a National League guy, so the StL-Philly series has most of my attention, but the Yankees and Tigers both have Old School managers which helps to off-set that DH thing.  The Cards need to win tonight to extend the series to a fifth game.  (And they're not off to a good start already!)  Where's Bob Gibson when you need him?

I caught just a little bit of TBS's pre-game show.  They had Cal Ripken, Dennis Eckersley and David Wells on the set, and I give them props for good commentary without jumping out of their shoes like those NFL pre-game guys have a tendency to do.  Is there anything that Ripken does that he doesn't do well?

I've figured out that another element of proof of LtPC fully deserving that capital "L" in the middle of my forehead is that I know in advance both soup options (which change daily) offered at lunch at the Kimberly Road Hy Vee salad bar. And there aren't that many strangers there when I go to sit down.  On the other hand, the cashiers/clerks don't know my name, at least.

The report on the Taurus is so-so.  The problem is not the water pump (which wasn't a bad guess for a CPA with no mechanical skills), but it was the A/C compressor.  Which makes sense in retrospect as there were times this Summer when the A/C pushed out nothing but hot air.  If they could have just by-passed the A/C, I would have done so, but the cost of the by-pass was going to be $400.  So the BEATER is sucking twice that out of my (non-debit-card) account, for continuation as the back-up car on Maplecrest.

Check-out that Twitter pic that I swapped out today.

One tidbit of the baseball game that illustrates the modern ballplayer's shallowness is the disappearance of the flip-down sunglasses formerly used by position players for day games.  There was a bit of science to the use of those very mechanical glasses, but they worked.  Today, the players wear their Oakley's or other statement-making fashion shades, and more balls are lost in the sun-fields.  I'm sure the players would argue the point, but appearances mean so much to today's athletes that a missed fly-ball here and there is an acceptable by-product of lookin' good.  Whatever.

Looks like the weather at Tahoe is not too dire.  But with snow in mid-May that forced cancellation of those stages of the Tour of California around the lake, and early October snow at elevation, I'm becoming a solid believer with Al in global warming.  I mean, we know that the ocean's are warming...because it's snowing more.  Hmmm.

More later.

BCOT

Tuesday

http://www.tahoebonanza.com/article/20111004/NEWS/111009988/1061&ParentProfile=1050

Say what?

Be Real Careful Out There

Monday

Just a few lines tonight to get the week off to a good start for the author.

This pic is of the gift I received over the weekend from my pal Bill and his wife, Teresa.  (Hmmm.  Is that an initial appearance for her on 4KDays?)  It's hard to present a 3-D shadow-box in a two dimensional photo, but that's what we have here.  This is shown as now hanging on a wall in my office.  Very cool.

Interesting debate out there these days on the debit card fee proposed by B of A.  Its a little complicated, but the bottom line is that the banks had their cut on debit card merchant transactions capped by last year's financial reform bill.  Here's an article that takes a long way to explain the lobbying and politics of the issue.  Like most of the things that you read in the headlines, still water can run pretty deep.  In this case, the banks lose and the retailers win.  At least for now.  We haven't heard the last of this story.   http://www.openmarket.org/2011/09/28/blame-not-banks-but-big-box-and-big-government-for-free-checkings-demise/

Then we have that paragon of virtue, Hank Williams Jr., taking all doubt off the table of any possible connection between the processor between his ears and what passes as his voice box.  http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/03/showbiz/williams-football/  If this isn't the equivalent of an entertainment personality burning money, I don't know what is.  He and his rowdy friends will need another place to hang out.

(ESPN had to do this to Williams, but the network has a very low tolerance for any of it's announcers or on-air talent making any criticisms of the Big O.  See this article on the Paul Azinger kerfluffle from earlier this Summer. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/richard_deitsch/09/19/media.nfl/

Hope 2 has a better day Tuesday.  I'm making you Daughter of the Day for your efforts to do what's best for the museum.

Maybe 80 here tomorrow.

BCOT

Sunday

Beautiful weekend here in the heartland.  Cool mornings.  A little frost this AM, but not enough to kill the annuals.  Maybe 70 this afternoon, and the forecast has 80 for mid-week.  Perfect Fall weather.

In addition to the bike on the inside rack for the year, the golf clubs are now gathering dust until Scottsdale in January.  The event at Geneva on Friday and Saturday was fun, and I didn't play horribly all of the time.  The back survived.  The goal now is to strengthen my core muscles over the Winter so that I can play a few more rounds next year and lower my handicap to a 12 (It's 17 now).  That would mean that I would regularly shoot right around 85.

I've taken some of Aunt Martha's advice ("Get rid of it!") to heart and have filled two bags with older clothes, shoes and other household odds and ends for delivery this week to the Davenport Catholic church that has a free shop for the poor/homeless.  Before the RCL came last week, I had moved outside and to new pots the plants that had been in temporary storage in my second bedroom (for the last two years!).  So the RCL was actually able to find space to clean in the room.  Progress.

I need to take the Taurus into the shop for work on Tuesday.  It's making more strange noises than normal.  Before I made the call for the appointment, I had to check the insurance card to confirm the year manufactured for the question that the mechanic was sure to ask.  I had assumed that it was 2002 or 2003, but never had committed that piece of data to memory.  When I saw that, in fact, it was a 2000 car, I felt even more reassurance that the BEATER vanity plate was well-chosen.  (Doesn't Buffet still drive the car that his Mother drove to church on Sunday's?)

The MLB play-offs are in full swing.  I'm watching the Cards-Phillies game as I make this entry.  The TV rights to these divisional games don't make the networks.  I suppose that The World Series will be on FOX, but I'm surprised that the first-round games don't make the cut for weekend programming on one of the big four networks.  I know that it's all about money, but if baseball is concerned about growth of the game, you would think that they would work a little harder to get these games beyond cable.  Whatever.

Speaking of money, the NBA seems determined to shorten (or lose) the 2011-12 season due to labor problems.  Millionaire owners want an agreement that will keep themselves from over-spending and incurring the related operating losses, and millionaire players want to make sure that the millionaire owners pay out to the millionaire players a fair share of total revenue.  Kind of a shared sacrifice motif.  Excuse me while I barf.

Here's a preliminary image of 1.01 with a hair-bob.  1.0 sent this as a text message attachment earlier today.  I wasn't able to move that to the gallery in my phone, so this is actually a picture taken on my midi-digi camera of the text message photo on the screen of my phone.  I then turned my devices around and took a picture with my phone of the review screen on the midi-digi, and then emailed from my phone that rendition to my yahoo account.  I then pulled the emailed pic into my laptop Pictures files, which I was then able to access from Blogger.  So 1.01 is Granddaughter of the Day, but LtPC get props for the visual effects!  If 1.0 will send the pic by email, I will update this post and get the better photo uploaded to this entry.  UPDATED 0900 10/3/2011...much better!

Hope everyone has a good week.

BCOT