
It has been a while since I brought everyone up to speed on some things going on in my world and since I have two hours to kill before heading out to the dentist I figured this was as good a time as any.

When we bought our house here in Palm Desert it had a forced air system that was state of the art. In 1978. Coincidently that was the year Linda and I got married and in fact yesterday was our forty sixth anniversary. To celebrate the occasion we had a new system installed.
Here is the old system. It was noisy, inefficient, and the heater portion had so many gas leaks the service man was afraid to even work on it when the heat was on. (No it was not violent and we did not need to keep it caged in.)
Here is the brand new system that is quiet, efficient, and we now have a heat pump instead of forced air. The really good news is that our electric company, SCE, sent out information about helping people remove the old systems and install newer systems and not only did they want to give us some financial help they felt so sorry for us they offered to put this in FOR FREE! All we had to do was prove we were one tank of gas away from living in a refrigerator box under a bridge to qualify. We made it by $50/year, I swear to god. Happy Anniversary to us indeed. They were not exactly diligent about digging into our finances, but hey, we've got a new system for free.

On to a much more important topic. Many of our family and friends are still digging out from the last hurricane, Helene, to come roaring through the southeast and now here comes an even more powerful storm, Milton, to come in and help with the clean up of the last mess still laying around. After a slow start to the hurricane season Mother Nature is certainly making up for it quickly. There is just one storm after another lined up and we all hope everyone in the effected area stays safe and does not mess with these storms. If your local storm management service tells you to leave or take cover please listen to them. We lost over two hundred of us just last week and we don't need to lose any more.

If you are like me then you love a good sports rivalry. They are even better when both teams are good and it isn't one sided. Having grown up in the Midwest I was more attuned to the Bears/Packers, Cubs/Cardinals, Michigan/Ohio State, Blackhawks/Red Wings, and the White Sox Fans/White Sox Owners rivalries. Of course there are many other great rivalries, Yankees/Red Sox, India/Pakistan cricket, and Dodgers/Giants.
Well we can add a new one to the list of great rivalries and that is the Dodgers/Padres. This is a much bigger deal for the Padres and their fans then it is for the Dodgers. They have their hands full with the Giants and their fans already, but it is starting to get their attention. Sunday night the Dodger fans decided that they would throw baseballs and garbage at the Padres outfielders. Now, fans throwing stuff at players is never a smart idea. The Padres were visibly and rightly upset. Someone could have gotten hurt.
What was disappointing was that not one Dodger player, coach, or the manager stepped onto the field and asked the fans to stop. Yes they made a PA announcement but if Dave Roberts would have just gotten off his lazy ass and waved his arms to the fans to stop it would have ended in five seconds. Instead he was more worried about Manny Machado tossing a ball to the bat boy after warm ups like every single third baseman does at every single game ever.
Tonight, Tuesday, the are in San Diego and it will be wild. The game will be on FS-1 at 9PM eastern time. You may want to tune in.
Finally, an update on my third book.
I started my latest tome at the end of April and I had a great idea that I was sure was different than real life and would not ever be confused with actual events. Then Joe Biden stepped down from the race and suddenly my book was reading more like either a news story or that I had ESP. I went into a deep funk and questioned whether or not to continue with this book or move onto something else.
I checked with a couple of friends who knew what the book was about and they both told me to keep writing it. So I did. Unfortunately I hit a wall about a month ago. I just couldn't figure out where it was going and the outline I had put together was already at the end and the book was nowhere close to being there. One night as I was sleeping, or what passes for sleeping now, I realized that the title was what was holding me back. I had put a self limit on the story by the title so I changed it and suddenly the fog lifted and the whole story came into focus.
It also means that I am now only about half finished with it and I hoped to have it out in time for the election but that might be a little too aggressive. Actually, it is way too aggressive. I will be lucky to have it done for Christmas. As you could tell from the start of this paragraph it is a political thriller. It may be the best thing I've ever written in both storyline and writing style. You all will be the judges on that.
The new working title is "A Sudden Change". Stay tuned to this channel for further details as they develop.
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