Thursday

Giving a little love to the boys (and Danica) turning left in the Twin Duals today in Daytona.  The Bud Shootout and pole qualifying were last weekend, but the action really starts today/this evening with these races.  The grid for Sunday's 500 will be set by these two qualifiers. Six of the total number of entries will not make the field for Sunday's green flag.

This was me exactly 5 years ago today.  I was going home to change out of a suit that I had worn to an Augustana breakfast meeting.  Shoulda stayed in the suit that day, eh?  Since I go through that intersection almost everyday that I'm in town, the memory is never that far away.  Lots of water under the bridge since that memory-maker.

And today is the one-year anniversary of 4 getting on to the day shift in NYC.  That was after two years of evening shift in Lincoln, six months of the night shift in Davenport, and another 9-10 months of night work in The Big Apple.  You are Daughter of the Day, Kiddo.

Now rain.  Let's mix this with melting snow and see how the sump pump has made it through Winter.

The RCL gave me her five-year-notice yesterday.  I think.  I had stopped by the house over the noon hour and saw her for the first time in a couple of months.  She was very chatty. She's headed over to visit her daughter and grandson in Italy next week (which means I have the back-up RCL for most of a month), and I think that she said that she was going to buy an apartment near Milan while she's there.  But not move for at least five years.  She was pretty animated in telling me this story, and her English wasn't the best.  But I think I received a well-in-advance dump notice.

Hardly shocking to read the blow-back in left-leaning media outlets from a Dear Abby column this week that allowed the author to use her forum to blast anti-gay homophobia.  I'm not sure if Dear Abby (now her daughter, of course) is American as Apple Pie, but the column has had a wide distribution for a long time.  I share at least some skeptic's opinion that the inquiring letter may have been too good of a target to actually be authentic.  Can you believe that the press would actually attempt to manipulate the moral of a story?  I'm appalled.

Somewhat relatedly,  "Thumb's Down" for the lame attempt at a joke in the B. C. comic strip yesterday.  Its the Olympics.  Its Russia.  Certainly the two elements needed to throw up another Sarah Palin groaner.  Did this make the front page of the HuffPo?  This is OK, but Monica is old news, right?  Sorry, 2.  I couldn't help myself.

Make it a good day in your neighborhood.

BCOT