it happens a lot...

Whenever I feel like posting a blog I’ll find a snack or candy bar, and after eating it, if that doesn’t help to get ideas, well then, it doesn’t really matter…I figured I tried and get back to work… today I looked up some of my past blogs, had a few laughs when I found one about having a hard time finding topics to post…it happens a lot…

When I think of good blog topics I jot them down in a notebook I keep for phone messages and other important stuff… or if I get a good blog thought while driving I’ll call my office and leave a message for myself…and more often than I’d like to admit, most of the topics are lame…it happens a lot...

If I’m at home I look in the refrigerator and it’s usually bare of good snack stuff to eat…we have a few extra people living with us right now, including little Elijah, three years old who likes to open the refrigerator door, and stand there looking in with his finger on his cheek saying “Let me see?”…I check the pantry for pop tarts but they’re usually gone…I look for Ritz crackers and if I find some we’re probably out of peanut butter…if we have peanut butter we’re out of crackers …and there’s never any cookies in my house…every once in a while we’ll buy a few candy bars and stash them in the cabinet but there are no more good hiding places…it happens a lot...

If I’m at the office, where I write almost all my blogs, I’ll open the refrigerator and look for my candy bars …there’s always one right there with my name on the warning “DO NOT TOUCH THESE” …people at my office have never stolen one…once in a while I find a dollar bill or two but no one ever has taken the last one…and I take a candy bar back to my desk and slowly savor it piece by piece by piece…sometimes topics come to mind…

Today I am at the office and let me tell ya, it’s impossible to get upset about not blogging when you’re eating chocolate….

AHHH…

THE ROYAL AND ANCIENT....

Major golf tournaments for me are as much fun to watch as World Series baseball games...especially the British Open which is now under way at the Royal and Ancient Golf Course at St. Andrews, Scotland…there are four major golf tournaments each year but this one is at one of the most exciting, unusual and scenic locations, as this course is the ‘Home of Golf’ where the game was played 600 years ago…as the photos illustrate it's not a conventional California golf course but is what is called a links course...hardly any trees, plenty of little hills and swales, tall grasses, shrubbery and very deep sand bunkers that originated as natural holes in the ground dug out further and used by domestic farm animals as protection from the harsh winds and rain...there's hardly a flat space on the entire course...if you shoot in the 80's on a conventional course you're likely to shoot 110 here but have the time of your life, so much the better if you carry a flask of whiskey in your bag...it's said that a fifth of whiskey has 18 shots in it and the game which originally had 22 holes was changed to 18...

It is a real test of golf for today’s champions as this year’s tournament celebrates its 150th anniversary...

The golf course began as a single course, but as it gained popularity as a golf destination the demand grew so high that a second course was built, and now seven courses are available, three clubhouses, golf shops and practice centers…St. Andrews is the largest golf complex in Europe and a fitting place for people to play at all levels from beginner to professional…it’s the local peoples’ course too as an unusual thing about the old course is that it is closed on Sundays to let the course rest…on some Sundays the course turns into a park for all the townspeople who come out to stroll, picnic and enjoy the grounds…

What I especially like about this tournament is that with the time difference I can watch it on TV at 4:00 AM in the mornings as well as catch highlights when I get home at night…on Saturday and Sunday I can watch it all morning and still have almost the whole day left to do other things, like watch baseball games…

CAN YOU FORGIVE ME?

After posting a semi-anti soccer blog the other day I’m taking back a few of my comments…I take back all the bad stuff I said...

First of all, I watched the entire game Sunday between Spain and the Netherlands and enjoyed the heck out of it…I was especially happy for the time out at half time to get a sandwich and a beer…before the game I spent a few minutes on -line getting answers to soccer questions I had, like what off-sides is, and what do yellow and red cards mean and what are the penalties…

Explanations of off-sides were long and hard to understand and were on several pages but I got the drift…it made a huge difference in my enjoyment of the game even though I thought some of the players faked injuries when a penalty could be called and most of the time it seemed to work for them…in ice hockey if a player intentionally hits the puck out of the arena he’s penalized but in soccer it’s common practice to kick the ball out of bounds…

Not that I’m a big soccer fan now but I liked Spain’s philosophy by passing, passing and more passing until the goal came…Spain can now brag about being the No. 1 (futball) sporting nation of 2010…with Italy’s triumph in 2006 this Spanish win means back to back titles for Europe…

The Netherlands came very close to becoming the little nation that could…

I can hardly wait for Brazil 2014…

KNOWING THE NEW NEWS....

Good news for a change...I found something interesting on Yahoo today...

Gasoline pump prices should stay in a fairly narrow range this summer, putting less strain on family budgets for summer driving trips and commutes to work.

The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular was $2.715 Monday, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's down almost a penny from a week ago and 17.8 cents higher than a year ago.

In its weekly report on pump prices released Monday, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said the national average for retail gasoline was $2.718 for a gallon of regular. California drivers paid the most, at $3.11 a gallon, while motorists in Gulf Coast states paid the least at an average of $2.56 a gallon.

Analysts don't expect a big change in pump prices in the next four to six weeks unless something unexpected happens, like a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico that could crimp supplies or a big jump in oil prices.

WANT TO SAVE A FEW BUCKS?

Somehow they classified me as a senior citizen before I officially became one...I began receiving AARP monthly magazine the instant I turned 50 and not at 65 like I thought would be official...
So, one afternoon I'm sitting in front of the tube watching a golf match and I pick up the magazine because I left the book I was reading in the car and start skimming thru it and got interested in an article labeled 99 ways to save dollars...hey, I noticed articles on health, shopping, taxes, insurance, home, travel and cars, and I start jotting down the ones that I thought would make a good blog...not 99 ways of interesting stuff but I was particularly interested in things that young and semi-young people would appreciate...I don't think any senior citizens read my blog, if they do they've been too lame to comment or maybe they don't like my stuff...well, to heck with those old people...

• Lower your thermostat...each degree that you drop, you cut your bill by 3%...
• Fix that dripping faucet...
• Shower quickly and get a low-flow shower head...
• Guys if you use a razor to shave fill the bowl with water to rinse it off instead of leaving the faucet on ...
• When brushing your teeth the same thing applies...shut of the water while you're brushing...it saves a lot of water on an annual basis...
• Sell your books...at cash4books.net or sellbackyourbook.com...I checked online and discovered most of my oldest and favorite books were leather bound special editions and not wanted... I listed a few of dozens of best sellers I have laying around but they were not wanted either...but you may have good ones taking up space...it only took me a few minutes to find out...I'll donate to my library soon...
• Go online to book airline tickets...almost all airlines add a hefty surcharge if you book by phone or at a ticket counter...
• Flying with extra luggage?...ship it ahead using fedex.com or ups.com Most airlines charge $25 extra for a second bag or charge more if your bag is heavier than what they consider normal...you can calculate whether shipping makes sense for you...
• Just 10 seconds of idling your car's engine uses as much gas as restarting it...2 minutes uses enough fuel to drive one mile...
• Wait 24 hours before you buy anything that costs more than $100...If you still want it the next day, buy it...Most of the time you'll forget what it was...

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

A shifty-eyed Italian hi way working coin sweeper

Some people are calling it the ‘miracle of the coins’ because it happened in Italy…

I like most things Italian like the food, the pope, the church, Italian cars, Leonardo, Florence and Campobasso, the town where my Dad was born… and I liked reading about…

the rear doors of a truck carrying $2.5 million in euro coins overturned opening its rear doors with 10,000 euro coins spilling out… that’s about $12,500… It brought hi way traffic to a screeching halt…it's said Italian cars can stop on a euro...

The truck was carrying coins from the Italian mint to local banks…not strangely enough the driver and a passenger were slightly injured but nobody noticed until the police arrived…

Don’t you love it when people hit the jackpot?

THE BEAUTY OF THE GAME

Looking at sports magazines or newspaper sports pages I read how a sport that America doesn’t play as well as the rest of the world is dull and boring…I’ve watch two or three World Cup soccer games in the past few weeks and realize that not every soccer game is fun to watch…I’m a baseball fan but it’s not that much fun watching last place teams play…at least in baseball games a few commercial breaks are tossed in while in soccer the ‘action’ is non-stop and you have to pay attention for 45 minutes in a row…and to have to listen to those vuvuzella horns all that time is a real pain…

To make matters worse I don’t like that soccer games sometimes end in ties…I want a loser and a winner, not equality…there’s no equality in sports unless you’re a last place team, and who wants to watch them…besides I don’t understand the rules of soccer other than you can’t touch the ball with your hands…but what about off-sides and what are those cards for that the referee hands out to the players? I’ve been thinking of asking my two local grandsons who have played the game but they have no interest in even watching the World Cup games…

If I wanted to learn more about soccer I’d go to a sports bar, pound a few beers and get into the crowd noise and probably discover that soccer is not boring after all…but Nah, I ain’t gonna go…