Kind a potpourri for you this morning. The little girl to the left is my daughter Maile and she was on fire this morning. I was in with the wife discussing plans for the weekend before I tripped off to the rockpile. Maile, looking for attention started to flick her hair about in my face. With that, I started to rock her back and forth and her hair started to fly about like any number of hair bands from the 80's. She loved it and wanted me to keep going but we were foiled by the Mama who implored us to stop with a, "Papa, that could lead to brain damage and she can't afford any." Good point.

So before the Rock Your Hair episode, I'm discussing the old Christmas tree plans. As many of my reader know, we are not the most devout of souls. We're in agreement that it seems quite a stretch for Jesus to be the son of God. And if I could have one conversation with anyone, I'd want to sit down with Mary and get to the root of how she pulled off the biggest whopper of them all. Immaculate is right when you are able to fool all of humanity. Anyway, seems a stretch that we would go all in for the Christmas thing, but we do. So she's on me about getting the tree tonight. Friday nights are tough. Long week, happy to be home, two great days ahead of me. Not exactly the night I want to go out and deal with sap and crowds and needles. Every year it's the same. My wife pulls out a tree for no earthly reason as it looks like every other. "What do you think about this one," she'll say. I'll look at it and say, "looks great. I'll carry it up front." With that she will put it back mumbling something about it not being quite right or some such thing. She'll pull out another one and the routine will start again. My response is always the same as I've never seen a tree I didn't like. By the third or fourth time, I don't even look which usually gets me right into the "fight zone." She'll lower the boom and I'll counter with a "to hell with it" comment. Ultimately, we will decide on the first tree we looked at and be on our way. Same routine every year. Not something I want to do on a Friday night. She has a lot of pull, that women, so it may not matter what I think.

To all of you on pins and needles, the dog is back. Seems a good samaritan picked her up on Tuesday and took her to Clear Lake with him. Apparently she had a great time on some farm up there chasing rabbits and deer and squirrels. She is absolutely wiped out from her vacation. We got her back last night around 5pm and she hasn't moved. No doubt she's already planning her next escape.

Want to race this weekend, but don't know if I can pull it off. I'm breathing okay and the ribs are healing, but not totally healed. Still have some discomfort in the region but it's not awful. I just fear what might happen if I fall. And if you fear the fall, you know what happens. You may see me, you may not. If not, have a great race. If you do see me, don't crash me out.

Johnny GoFast