Yo, I'm back from the Golden Retriever National Show at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Fun time was had by all - My wife, Barb, shows in agility and did well - she showed eight times and wound up qualifying four for eight with one first in Jumpers and a fourth in standard.

If you don't know anything about agility then this might not make much sense, but these are different course runs where the jumps are placed differently and one event, standard, has several different types of jumps - In any event, you might find this dog event fun. Look in your area for an agility event and go and watch -

I drove from Gettysburg straight through for 15 hours. For two and a half hours yesterday afternoon I was stuck in traffic in Chicago in a pouring rain at 5 o'clock - not a good thing - I have never seen anything like what happened in Chicago. It was bumper to bumper in every direction, no matter what road you crept past. It was one and half hours to the airport from down town.

Now I'm off to Iowa for a wedding. I will be back on Sunday - see you then -

I don't think I will have this traffic problem in Iowa no matter what happens - heh

Here is something that I ran across that I think you will enjoy - it covers some of the problems that a man like George Bush faces today - enjoy

"If you can keep your head when all about you - Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you - But make allowance for their doubting too,If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,Or being hated, don't give way to hating,And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and DisasterAnd treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spokenTwisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings - And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginningsAnd never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew - To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much, If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!"
--Rudyard Kipling