ANDY WILLIAMS / RONALD REAGAN / RYDER CUP

Good morning!

A beautiful Key West day to rise and shine to!

Scattered clouds. Sunny. Humid. This is the rainy season. It will rain once or twice today. Hope it does not rain later this afternoon or this evening. Today is thursday and thursday is bocce!

I walked big time again yesterday. Twice up and down the aisles of Home Depot. Took about 45 minutes. I walk at a good clip.

Spent my afternoon writing. Rained off and on. So I worked at the kitchen counter next to the sliding doors. Doors open, of course.

I published another article on Amazon Kindle yesterday. It is the story of a sitting Texas judge who warns that a civil war is coming. If Obama is reelected. The judge believes Obama will turn the sovereignty of the United States over to the UN. He further believes the people will not stand for it and will rebel. The article is entitled Texas Judge Warns Of Civil War.

I published this same article in KONK Life several weeks ago. KONK Life’s distribution is limited Key West to Miami. My readers here are world wide. Thirty plus countries. That is why I republished the article on Amazon Kindle yesterday. To provide every one the opportunity to read it, if they so desire.

Dinner at Tavern ‘N Town last night. A prime rib. Excellent. Kept me on the Atkins diet.

I had a charming companion with me. Lu Kramer. An intelligent person. We discussed many things.

Tavern ‘N Town has a new gimmick to attract diners on a wednesday evening. I had forgotten. I did not go for that reason. But it was interesting. As well as a terrific customer attraction.

At the end of dinner, the manager comes to your table. He flips a coin. If the customer calls it correctly, there is no bill to pay. If not, the customer pays the bill with no penalty. Nothing to lose!

I lost. Called it wrong. Paid. It was a fun experience.

The Chart Room’s Emily had dinner at Tavern ‘N Town the week before. She won the toss. No bill.

Tomorrow, The Key West Lou Legal Hour. On the internet. World wide. Ten in the morning my time. People will be watching the show also from more than 30 countries. Watch, if you can. www.konkbroadcasting.com.

Topics include the morning after pill for New York City high school students, a national fair tax, the purported benefits of castration, Florida’s amendment 8 which is up for vote, and more.

During last week’s internet show, I complained of the boulevard construction. A 2 year job. Key West is screwed up big time traffic wise because of it. One of my complaints was that no one was working. The day before in mid afternoon I drove the length of the job counting. Only 6 workers.

This morning’s Key West Citizen has several complaints registered by readers on the page 2 column for such purpose. From 2 to 4 workers. This is a multi million dollar two year job. Work it and get it over!

It is not the driving problem alone. The businesses along the way are being crucuified. Some down as much as 30-40 per cent.

The Ryder Cup starts today. A big deal in the world of golf! The competition will be played at the Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Illinois.

Upstate New York, Rochester specifically, has a golf course of international reputation. Oak Hill. The Ryder Cup was played there about 15 years ago. Oak Hill has also hosted the PGA, US Open and other big time tournamnets.

I did the last Ryder Cup at Oak hill. The whole four days. Somehow I became a guest of NBC. The hotel, meals, transportation and tent were all on NBC. I was not aware I was NBC’s guest till after the tournamnet concluded.

It was an exciting event!

I have also driven to Rochester to view the other tournaments.

The big deal in watching a professional tournament is to be corpoate America’s guest. I mentioned already I was the guest of NBC for the Ryder Cup. In previous tournaments, I was the guest of Oldsmobile and IBM.

The corporate guest thing is important because each corporation has a tent. A hospitality tent. Huge. White. Aluminum poles. Air conditioned. Living room type fuurniture. Sit back in an easy chair and enjoy. Great bathroom faciliites. All day. Breakfast. Lunch. Other foods to pick at. Liquor. Huge TV sets to watch the tournament from in comfort and cool. All free!

Andy Williams died yesterday. Of Moon River fame. He was 84. Close to my age. I spent a life time listening and dancing to his songs.

Paths have strange ways of crossing. One involves Williams and Ronald Reagan. Williams was 8 years old and was part of a singing program with his two older brothers at Radio Station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa. Ronald Reagan was the Station’s young sportscaster at the same time.

Time to walk.

Enjoy your day!

TIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big night last night!

I stayed up late. Past midnight. Drank a bit too much. Never felt the drinks. However, I am a zombie today. Which accounts for why this blog is being written so late.

I am permitting myself one night a week to drink on the diet.

My internet show yesterday was a pleasure to do. Hopefully, it was an equal pleasure for all who watched.

Post show comments indicated the most well received topic to have been the Harry Truman story. The one where his campaign train was halted between stops and the conductor told Truman he could go no futher till the train bill was paid. An insult to the President. His campaign was cash short. He had to take up a collection from people on the train before the conductor would permit the train to proceed.

A Republican owned the railroad!

Part of the afternoon was spent writing next week’s KONK Life column. I developed one of the topics I spoke of on the show. The one involving a Rhode Island school district and gender discrimination. The ACLU was involved. The ACLU’s arguments consisted of such things as school girls should no longer be treated as if it was thought they wished to be Cinderellas, and the days of Ozzie and Harriet were over.

I had to FAX 16 pages. Went to Office Max. Long distance. $2 a page! Cost me $32 plus tax for a total of $36. Wow!

My long evening last night started with the Chart Room.

Emily back from her two week vacation. It was a pleasure to see her again. I love her wit and charm! I love her!

Met with my new friends Len and Heidi Bloom for drinks. Both relatively new to me personally. However, Len has been a blog fan for quite a while. They are serously considering resettling in Key West. They owned a Mexican restaurant back in Wausau. Just sold it.

Sean and Katherine showed up. Introduced them to Len and Heidi.

Catain Peter was holding court at the other end of the bar. He had a new cell phone. May be his first. Everyone was trying to help him understand it.

Moved over to the Wine Galley. Larry Smith playing. Lu Kramer there. I joined Lu and her friends. Enjoyed the company very much.

Met John DeSantis for the first time. John is the #1 reporter for the Key West Citizen. Love his writings. I am not sure whether it is his style or the Key West material. Whatever, he writes well.

Turns out John is also a crooner. What a voice! Sang all night. A double bonus. Larry and John!

On the way to my car, I had to pass the outside bar. Maurice and Dottie sitting there. Joanie bartending. I stopped for a while. Maurice is a retired orthodontist.

Dottie was intertested in my Greek trip. She told me something I never knew. Joanie is an actress. Has appeared in many performances at the Red Barn. One role she played two times, ten years apart. It was a take on the movie where a London house wife goes off to Greece to vacation, falls in love with the place, and decides to stay. She leaves her husband of many years back in London. The name of the movie escapes me at the moment.

Stopped at Don’s Place on the way home. Kurt bartending. Had one drink and chatted with Kurt. Kurt is like going through a life change. He is into guitar playing. When not bartending, he is down town playing with the musicians.

I was in bed after midnight. Woke at 7. Had to hustle. Lisa had me babysitting at 8. Robert and Ally took me to I HOP for breakfast.

Later this morning I had a manicure appointment. Tell you how tired I was. I dozed off while Tammy was giving me the manicure. The tired is really a hangover.

I had plans for tonight. Cancelled them. After I complete this blog, I am going to bed till tomorrow morning.

My friend Cheryl Keast from the Chicago area wrote. Wake up! was her comment. Claims her day cannot start till she reads the blog. I was screwing up her day! Love her!

Enjoy whatever is left of this day!

INTERESTING SUNDAY

From my perspective, Sunday was quiet. However so many things happened!

First, Meet the Press and The Chris Matthews Show. Between what is going on world wide and the Chicago teacher strike, these TV talk shows were the best place to be in the morning.

There appears to be a brief lull in the embassy crisis. Most experts believe it will reoccur and soon. Afghanistan’s involvement in the past 48 hours is sad, but was to be expected. We have 66,000 troops there. We are training the police and military to protect their own country. We have given the Afghans billions of dollars.

What happens? Either a police officer or soldier we have been training turns his gun on American soldiers and kills four of them.

Obama has a lot to deal with.

The Chicago teachers continue to enjoy their time in the sun. In the meantimne, the kids are still not in school. For shame!

Illinois law permits school teachers to strike. The law spells out the reasons why they may strike. Emanuel says the reasons the teachers are still out does not fall within the legal guide lines. He goes to court today to force the teachers back into the class room.

I wrote a bit.

Then watched some pro football. From the comfort of my bed. Second Sunday in a row I have not been to Don’s Place. Bad!

Dinner was special last night. Ate at the Yacht club. My guest was Lu Kramer.

An interesting woman. A terrific business background.

She spent several years as a Regional CFO for CIGNA Insurance. Then owned the Loreli in Islamorada. Her next business venture was owning the Hetrz franchise here in Key West. Her present ventures are two specialty stores in Clinton Square Mall.

An industrious lady! An intelligent woman ! I enjoyed her company immensely.

The reason I was at the Yacht Club was that it was prime rib night. I am on the Atkins diet. Low carb, high protein. Just the meal for me.

The assistant chef slicing the prime rib was a young man. Tall and lanky. Appeared not to have a pound of fat on him. I had him cut me an extra slice. I explained to him I was on the Atkins diet.

He broke into a smile when I mentioned the diet and said he had lost 60 pounds on it. My hero!

This morning is the end of my first week on the diet. Lost 5 pounds. I am not happy. I expected 8 the first week and then settle into 3 pounds a week. I have done this diet before.

I cheated last night. Had two gins. It was time.

The Huntington Post recently published an interesting article on Key West. The title referred to the 10 best kept secrets in Key West. Find and read! It was right on!

Enjoy your day!