Aye em gonna go on vay-cation.!! Yep. A short one.  But going.  I always enjoy going…..and coming back.

Vacations make you appreciate home.  At least for me.  But this vacation is like staying home, because it’s with friends. Friends make vacations better, because you don’t have to order breakfast.  They make it for you.  In the evening we sit by their pool and talk about what’s been going on in all our lives for the past years.  It is with my wife’s best friend.  They have been friends for over fifty years.  That’s realy great.  To have a friend that long.  Annette (my wife) and her friend Helen.  Helen’s hubby John, who is a cool guy from England.  They talk gossip about whatever and John and I drink a little wine and listen a lot.  They live kinda  out in the country, so we enjoy that.  No fancy hotels, ho maitre de.  Just good friends, good times and a loose feeling you just don’t get unless you are with friends.  To me, it’s a great departure from the norm.  I don’t feel touristy when I am there and I get to be a good listener for a change.  I also get to talk a lot(probably too much) and toward the end of the few precious days, think about home and in a way, look forward to it.  After all, one never wants to overstay their welcome.  I don’t think we ever would there.  Well, onward and upward.  Happy vacation to me. Looking forward to being back…but not too soon.

I read with great interest, the Houston Chronicle story over the weekend about the resurgence of “brand name” beers.  The latest to make a comeback thanks to Barack Obama ordering one in Carolina was Pabst Blue Ribbon.  The story goes on to talk about how people order.  Like “gimme me a PBR.  In the old days, the ad campaign for said beer was “WHatdalyouhave  and the answer would be “Pabst Blue Ribbon”, probably one of the more famous slogans around.  Coors was popular until it became plentiful, and in place like New York, Rheingold was popular because they had a beauty contest each year, looking for Miss Rheingold (who did not have a beer belly). Iron city beer was a Pittsburgh drink, and Anchor steam was big in San Francisco(like they know anything about beer.  Though Bud and Miller are big, Miller wasn’t always.  Bud was and is, and by the way have turned down a bid from a Belgian beer maker(where they really know how to make beer).

Here in Texas, few remember Grand Prize and Southern Select, both of which sold for a buck a six pack, or 20 cents at the takeout, the same price as gas then.  Falstaff and Pearl were Texas cuties, and Jax beer (well, enough said about that) were available.  Schlitz was one of the biggest sellers in southeast Texas.  I remember Blatz and wondered how you could anything to rhyme with the word Blatz.  (Blatz…its not for cats or rats, but its brewed in vats, not in hats and wont prevent bites from gnats, but if you drink it will makes you fats!! See what I mean? BOTTOMS UP!!

The tenacity of a bulldog.  Ever hear that? The bulldogs beat the bulldogs last night in Omaha.  The “underdogs” as the ESPN crew kept calling them…that would be the Fresno st. bulldogs, beat the Georgia bulldogs.  Coming from one back, the dogs one two in a row to become the unlikely national champs of college baseball.  It was akin to a # 13 seed in college b.ball winning it all.  They were rated at #89 in the diamond land.  89 college team checking this year was Alabama, who was knocked off in the first round of the NIT.  Better yet at 93, four below bama was SFA …Stephen F Austin of the southland conference.  Imagine someone from the SLC winning the national championship…quite a fete for a team from the middle of California. Fresno is famous for its farming and its raisins.  Now it’s famous for baseball.  In the past they have had good football and basketball teams ..but nothing like this.

Don’t call em underdogs, how about thunderdogs?  Congrats…..Fresno..you do have the tenacity of a bulldog.

So we have already had the longest day of the year and i guess that means all the days from here on are shorter. i go to work in the dark every day of every week(except weekends) so it doesnt reallly matter to me.  the only time i get to see the sunrise is on the weekends and i really dont want to see it then because thats the only day i get to sleep in.  this brings us to the matter of daylight savings time.  i am sure we will hear something about that in the near future.  someone in Indiana will complain as they did last year.  for some reason part of Indiana cant get over or to daylight savings time.  what are we really saving? money? time? daylight? kind of silly.  when i was going to Europe i noticed that in June the sun didnt go down till after 9 and it was almost 11 before it got dark.  i thought it rather peculiar but the folks there seem to like it.  so if the days are getting shorter, by september some of you will notice it gets dark earlier.  for me, it will still be dark mornings, except on the weekend.  i can deal with it.

You probably don’t want to hear this, but here goes anyway.  SLOWING DOWN will save you gas.  It will also save a ticket.  The non ticket will probably fill your tank about four times(avg. ticket 200 bucks) and will give you better gas mileage. I drove my old green truck up and back to Wildwood over the weekend and just in the 80 miles I drove noticed little needle movement on said gas guage.  Proper inflation of tires will help.  There are some extremists out there known as “hyper miler’s”(today’s USA today)

That drive with a.c. off and 29 miles an hour and coast to the traffic light, and I don’t want any part of that, but a little preservation cant hurt.  A week ago Sunday I drove to Houston at 65, instead of 75. I didn’t check the exact mileage but my gauge says I got 31 miles per gallon.  That means around three gallons round trip.  I figured I saved one gallon of premium, so that was 4.15 cents. Bottom line ..it took me exactly six minutes longer each way.  I cant account for what I did with the twelve minutes but the four and change does make a difference.  If you are vacationing this summer, remember check in time at the hotel is usually three, so no sense hurrying and if you are going to see relatives, who wants to get there early?