This is how Rich and I look...

...when the venue screws up and doesn't bring enough transpo and we have to be left behind to figure out our own way. Our own way seems to involve the spacious back seat of a chauffeured Lincoln Town Car. Cheers!

I've never had a cab with a yoga instructor before

Midnight would fetch this thing...

...until both of our legbones were worn to toothpicks.

Black History Month

Rendered in automotive hood glitter. In front of the Spanish market down the street.  Love that market.

What we share with Peyton Manning

Sadly, it's not his paycheck. But, today being the start of the NFL season, and Peyton being one of the biggest fishes in the pond, the big news is the fact that he is out for the foreseeable future due to having yet another neck surgery. Why neck surgery? A crippling injury, no doubt? Pounded by some 300-lb. defensive beast into the ground and playing with smashed vertebra, perhaps?

Nope. He has what we have: rotting neck bones that lead to false pain and numbness in his neck, shoulders, back, and extremities.  Except he's Peyton Manning and they cannot wait to operate on him with the latest techniques to make him feel all better.   So, Pop, I don't know if this is what they would do to you, but if so, it seems to work for Peyton! At least we'll see. Wish I had an NFL medical plan....

You guys still in a dry spell?

We aren't.  Scenes from Leesburg Pike.

Amusing and easy idea

Stumbled across a very simple idea amusingly done: viewer submitted photos of people holding CD or LP album covers in front of themselves or others in order to incorporate themselves into the gestalt of the album art.  Most are not as amusing as this, but all are clever. Somebody somewhere must weed out the lame ones.

One of those weird sunny/rainy days

Been like this for an hour. Odd. But kinda cool.

Free tickets!

One of Carol's fancy clients has season tickets to the Skins and --in the way of the idle rich-- can hardly ever be bothered with going to the actual games.  Or selling them. So she mentions yesterday to Carol that she has tickets going to waste for the Skins game with my Buccaneers last night.  She gladly dumps them off on Carol, I get them from her, and me and Jack Rowles, fellow Stepper, end up with great free seats to a meaningless pre-season game. I had already made the sad calculation that going to a game was not in the budget this year and hadn't even looked at tickets --even though this was my only chance of seeing my team this year-- so serendipity works out in my favor.   I have now managed to see my generally unrecognised and unheralded football team for four straight years. These are the second best seats I've had and they were FREE! Woohoo! Too bad Jo couldn't go. Especially since her stupid Skins made a comeback to win with a minute left right after my team made a comeback to take the lead with TWO minutes left. Exciting. And meaningless. Like so many of the best things in life.

Aha!

Found it!

THE MADNESS CONTINUES!

DIRENESS EXPECTED ANYTIME NOW!!!

2:27pm

SNAPSHOTS OF AN EVENT/POSSIBLE NON-LOCAL EVENT UNFOLDING!!!

1:12pm!

Crazy weather

Well, all the earthquakes and surprise electrical storms and brooding, incipient hurricanes sure make for an interesting sky. Hunker down, y'all.

I'm guessing it's over

For years, we have been hearing the caterwauling from both sides about the metro going through Tyson's Corner.  A huge organization materialized to fight against above-ground rail: their rallying cry? "It's Not Over 'til it's Under!"
Driving through Tyson's yesterday would indicate that, oh yes, it's over. In oh so many ways....

Epicenter

Guess this is why Carol seemed to feel it the most. She said her house swayed significantly and she was trying to get out when it stopped.

See, this is what I was worried could happen when I get my spinal shot. I mean, what if the needle was right in there next to your spinal cord when that happened? Hmmm? I actually asked the doctor and he said, "Oh, ho ho, there are never any earthquakes around here."

Things you don't care about...

When you are the fan of a losing team, such as the Washington Nationals, you have to come up with creative ways to dispel the attendant despair.  I have started yet another blog, the Washington Nationals Daily Pic, in which I graphically summarize the previous evening's game. It turns losing into an exercise in creativity. And, really, isn't that what life is all about?

Awwwwww...this is little Kaylee....

She screamed from Denver to about the Baltimore Beltway. Then she fell asleep. Actually, it wasn't so bad.  She was very cute when not screaming. It's just that all she really was capable of or interested in doing was eating, running around, or screaming. She soon got stuffed full of baby snacky food...and it was bumpy, so she couldn't run around...that left her with but one option. Which she exercised with a great and deafening vigor.  Her mom, Ashley, was nice and apologetic but mainly grim, since they were just stopping in Baltimore before hopping on another flight to Florida for another 2.5 hours. Long day for Mom.  Long flight for me.  I kept her entertained for a while, but the task and the length of flight were beyond my abilities.  I needed TW for this one. He can entertain children nonstop for hours on end.

You can tell when you're in Colorado

Into the fiend's embrace

This seemed particularly ominous yesterday.

And so, our Intrepid Golfer takes one last mighty swing...

...cutting through the air with his well-trained blade to end up in the noble pose that has inspired golfers for the many long decades the game has been in existence.

Then he hopped on the road to get mired in THIS for 10 hours....

Horrible drive. Just horrible.  7 hours and fifteen on the way up. Ten hours and a half on the way back. Love you guys!

Packed and ready to roll home

Bye Berkshires!

An accounting

Mom, as I am about to leave here in two days, and you are one of the few who will understand something like this, here are some notes I have gathered driving the same route several times a day back and forth to the Cranwell to work and play.

• It is 7.8 miles to the Cranwell from the hotel, lot to lot
• There are 17 stop lights along the way
• There is one additional flashing yellow light that --as a counter-- I cannot officially count as a stop light
• There are 16 eating establishments of varying styles and price ranges
• There are 3 grocery stores
• There are 78 street lamps - actual street lamps, not to be confused with parking lot lighting adjacent to the roadway
• There are 4 gas station
• There are 2 banks. But intriguingly, there are 4 other financial establishments (Duh - Berkshire Hathaway...)
• Curiously, there are 9 dentists and dental surgeon's offices. All but one in the first half mile from the hotel along 'Dental Row'
• There are two country clubs, if you count the one you end at
• There are three artistic representations of horses along the route
• There are 19 speed limit signs in the southbound direction
• There is a caveman and a pooping gargoyle with light-up eyes
• There are 6 straw people - seven, if you squint and look up the hill
• There are 19 blue houses
• There are between 39 and 47 American flags, depending upon weather, inclination, and wavering patriotism, I suppose

OK, going to play for-real golf today, supposedly. We'll see. Love you guys!

My favorite school movie as a kid

Donald Duck in Mathemagical Land.  Must have seen this 15 times in school over the years; probably every time a math teacher was hung over and didn't feel like trying to teach us brats algebra or something. It's on YouTube for now, but who knows how long Disney will allow that. Taught me everything about billiards I ever knew.  Some bogus material on Golden Ratios in early Greece, but generally very cool at showing how math is in everything in everyday life. I love the Disney narrator, Paul Frees. What a voice.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I found my phone lodged in the pianist so I promise I'll talk to you later!