Septuagenarians rule

It's Wednesday. Before tennis I went into the back yard to see if any flowers were ready for prime time. I found this one in a pot of flowers that NCW planted for me about six weeks or more ago. It may be a petunia. It is certainly purple. I have some other flowers and a patch of garden that used to be, years ago,  for vegetables that now is the unruly home for the Prairie Princess' native plants - grasses, wild flowers and, I think, a family of rabbits. A single milkweed grows there, too. PP will be back from Norway to tend her native patch on August 15 - in about three weeks. There are also three tomato plants in the back yard. All three are growing rapidly and green fruit is starting to set. The plants were a gift from Unky Herb's friend, Drew, and thus I'm not sure what style of tomatoes I'll be harvesting in a month or less, but I do know that they'll be organic and fresh from the garden when I eat them.  Unky Herb says he thinks they're heirloom tomatoes.  I'll eat them with respect.

It was a really nice day for tennis outside.  The temperature was mid 70's and dew point in the fifties.  The tennis playing geezer group has expanded for the summer and now we're playing three times a week at Sibley High School in Mendota Heights.  Today we had ten competitors, most in their sixties, but one, at least, at 58 and two septuagenarians (you know, guys in their seventies). We draw cards for partners and then play mini sets to start so that we get some variety of competition. A mini set allows everyone to serve once and if the set gets to 2-2, we have a seven point tie breaker. It's all pretty low key, but silently competitive. No one wants to lose to an old guy, even other old guys. After three mini sets against a variety of opponents, the survivors and the hard core play a set of doubles against whoever is still willing to play.

As one of the septuagenarians, I got to play the last set with the 58 year old guy against two guys who are cousins and pretty good players. It was a fun day and we all managed to get out alive and well. It was good tennis, good for geezers and competitive enough to make the afternoon feel like two hours well spent.  I love those guys and I love that game.

Not Rainy Season

We are living through a drought in the Twin Cities. It was supposed to rain yesterday, but we managed only about .1 inches of moisture. I wouldn't complain, but I'm forced to water my "garden" nearly every day. I have harvested three tiny, but very sweet cherry tomatoes as of today from the "garden." Also several leaves of lettuce, some basil, and some rhubarb.

I took this photo of River City today from very near the High Bridge. It was a coolish day in the 70's and pretty windy, but the beautiful blue sky was in evidence.


And these yellow beauties were in the volunteer garden at the overlook by the bridge and I took their picture, too. My blog needs photos and this is one I liked.


And this is the tennis court that St Paul can't finish. This is from a different angle than usual, but as you can see, there are no nets on this court. They started the job on the Linwood Courts in May. Maybe they'll have it ready for Halloween.


So I played tennis at Marie Park again. The nets there are functional and the lines, although fading, are in place and doing their job. The GTA members were there for the competition on one of the windier days that we've had for tennis. There was much mis-hitting and the gnashing of teeth. We finished two sets in an hour and a half and went home to think about something else. 4-6, 6-2. There will be more smacking of tennis balls again in the morning.

At the Supreme Court confirmation hearing today, Al Franken asked the soon to be first Latina justice if she knew which of the multitude of cases on the Perry Mason TV show was a loss for Perry. It seems that Sonia and Al were both fans of the show. Perry only lost the one case in his TV career - episode 185, it turns out.
The Episode is one that I hadn't remembered, but neither did Sonia or Al. Perry actually lost the decision early in the show and rallied to win on appeal. The information was acquired thanks to my favorite search engine - google. Useless information perhaps, but sort of fun to ferret out.

Plants of the Week

This green looking veggie is a red pepper, but a red pepper in its green stage. It is growing in a pot in my back yard (MBY). It has a Latin name, capsicum annuum. It is a plant which is native to Mexico and northern South America and was carried to Europe in 1493, presumably by Chris Columbus. I'm waiting for this one to turn red to indicate that it is time to be feasted upon.

An interesting note: green peppers are unripe bell peppers, while the others are all ripe, with the color variation based on variety. Because they are unripe, green peppers are less sweet and slightly more bitter than yellow, orange, purple or red peppers.


This tomato plant is also in MBY. It is also a native of Mexico and South America and is a member of the night shade family. Tomatoes have the reputation of out producing the needs of single family growers. I have two plants and suspect that I may be eating more tomatoes than are really necessary. My Wilson tennis racket and hat for scale. My dad would only eat fried green tomatoes, because, he claimed, that he had eaten far too many of them as a child growing up in Wisconsin. I, for one, have not yet reached that stage of satiation. I have, however, indulged in frying and subsequently eating green tomatoes and have found them tasty enough to try again.


I had a day off from the tennis wars. It was cloudy and cool and probably would have been a fine day to crush some forehands. I did not. It was a day to lounge around a bit, mow the lawn, and solve one of those pesky New York Times Sunday crossword puzzles. The one I "solved" had a theme based on the sayings that can show up when one uses the famous "magic eight-ball" to tell one's fortune. One of the answers: "It is decidedly so." The question: "Are you made out of plastic?" The puzzle was a difficult challenge. It also required the name of a Theater of the Absurd pioneer (Eugene Ionesco) and several other arcane pieces of information.

Blueberries.

The End of June

The season is late. I looked at my tomato photos from last June and it is obvious that we are at least a week behind where we were on the same date in 2007. This is one of my tomato plants from this year. It's doing quite well, but it's a long way from producing those plump, red fruit that I'm waiting for - locally grown organic tomatoes.


It was a very nice afternoon on the tennis courts. I played ok, but I miss residing in the zone. We played two long sets - 6-7, 6-3 - and quit. Tennis Dennis showed up to watch and to chat. He's 67 and is 5 weeks past his hip replacement operation and was hoping to hit a few balls. I did some net volley drills with him, trying to keep the ball close so that he wouldn't have to move much. He still has good hand-eye coordination, but his lateral movement is missing. He says he has at least a month before he can start to play again. He needs to go slow, but also needs to keep moving forward. Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

Wimbledon has reached the quarterfinals and the two top seeds are still around. Federer may have to beat the unpredictable Marat Safin, and Raphael Nadal has the gritty Brit, Andy Murray in his path to the finals. In the women's tourney, both Venus and Serena are still in the draw. They could meet in the finals yet again. I'm still picking Venus.

Visitor From the Prairie

It's the solstice today, and so summer begins. The Prairie Princess came to visit for the weekend and to check on her native plant garden. She arrived last night about 11:30 and even that late we turned on the yard light so that she could have a look at the plants she planted before she left for the prairie. Only one of her specially selected plants failed to thrive, and most look really good. She put in some time this morning thinning the weeds and the more aggressive of the natives. Here is a photo of her standing among the prairie plantings.


Herb was around most of the day, too. He was a little under the weather, but was willing to pose next to the tomato plants he helped me plant some weeks ago. They are growing pretty fast now that the weather has decided to be summery. The weather creatures are predicting a string of rainless 80 degree days



It was a very nice morning in the city. I hit tennis balls for about 45 minutes at the court near the curling club and then visited the farmer's market by St Luke's Church. The veggies are still sparse at the vendor tables. No tomatoes for sale yet. There were onions, lettuce, pea pods, rhubarb and asparagus. And there were flower plants for sale for late season planting. It seems like the season is late. The tomatoes should be coming to market soon. My own attempt at urban tomato production is still some weeks away from fruition, and the national sources of tomatoes seem to be having salmonella problems, so I'm hoping for the local growers to start getting those sweet ripe tomatoes to market.

Incidentally, my tennis stroke was not anywhere near zone-hood today. The zone comes and the zone goes.

Three Tennis Courts

It was a very nice day in Minnesota. There wasn't much wind either, so the tennis was easier, but my rhythm is still a little off. It seems to get worse as the number of sets piles up, so tomorrow is going to be a day off. As it happens the weather creatures are predicting a lot of water falling from the sky, so it's an easy decision to be idle. Below are the courts where I played mixed doubles tonight. 6-3, 6-0, 4-4 - then I went home to iChat with the Prairie Princess, who is practicing her craft in Glyndon. She seems to be doing well and learning quite a bit about prairies and scientific sampling techniques. The internet capabilities where she is residing, however, leave a lot to be desired. The iChatting was curtailed prematurely due to technical difficulties.

Last nights doubles was interesting, because we played on a court at Marie Park that was strewn with maple seeds - those flat seeds that helicopter as they fall from the tree. There seems to be a scourge of these seeds in the area. When a maple tree produces this many seeds it supposedly means that the tree is under stress and is doing its best to reproduce before it goes to its final reward. We tried to sweep the courts to get the seeds off, but the wind kept blowing them back. We ended up playing and ignoring the seeds, but it provided some interesting bounces. Before we play at Marie Park again, I'm planning to bring my big barn broom and getting the surface clean.

Herb biked to work again today. There seems to be quite a few more bikers out in the morning with backpacks containing extra clothes, on their way to work and trying to preserve some capital. Gas is going for $4.099 in many stations.

I see that some tomatoes in the stores are afflicted with salmonella. Minnesota grown tomatoes and cherry tomatoes are safe. The FDA doesn't even think that the afflicted tomatoes can be salvaged by cooking them into sauce. I find that odd. I always thought that heat would kill nearly any microbe. My backyard tomatoes are still about two months from bearing edible fruit. I'm pretty sure that they will be safe.

Saturday

It was a busy Saturday. The rain finished in time so that I could play some tennis with the older gentlemen. It was necessary to sweep the water from the courts, but luckily Curt showed up early with a broom and did the job. We managed to play three sets, but my level of play was affected by the gusty winds, and my general lack of inspired play meant that I was on the winning side of only one of the sets. The zone has fled from my life, but I'm hoping for its return.

The French Open is completing this weekend. The Serb youngster, Anna Ivanovic beat Marat Safin's little sister, Dinara Safina, 6-4, 6-3 to win her first major. She takes over as number one woman player in the world from Maria Sharapova. The French has been owned by Justine Henin the last few years, but she unexpectedly retired this year and didn't play at Roland Garros. Tomorrow Raphael Nadal tries for his fourth consecutive win in the Open. He's contesting the finals again with Roger Federer, the world's number one man. It's on broadcast TV at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, live.

Herb and I planted some veggies in the backyard patch this afternoon - tomatoes and yellow peppers. We had a pretty good crop last year and I'm hoping for a repeat. It's been a late season, and I'm late planting by a week or so, but I think we'll have locally grown Early Girls in August. BC doesn't complain about non-native plants when they are edible. She's spending the summer working with prairie restoration and native plants in Glyndon and may not benefit much from the veggie largess.

Attaching Strings

The hard freeze came in this morning and finally ended the tomato season on Fairmount. I was starting to think that it would last through until November, but it's over. But nonetheless it was a beautiful day after the cold air warmed. Herb and I took a trek around the neighborhood looking for Halloween decor. There were some reasonably nice ideas exhibited by the Halloween lovers in the area, but none that beat the gi-mungus witch I saw last week. There were some areas with beautiful maple leaves and some areas where the ash trees have given up their clothes and stand naked.

I took this photo on Summit Avenue at House of Hope Presbyterian Church. There is a bush that seems undecided about changing colors and a stone angel standing sentinel. Or maybe it's Mary, mother of Jesus. Anyhow, it's Sunday and thus appropriate.


I spent about four hours restringing my recently purchased Wilson racket. I'm getting a little faster at it, but it is plain that I'll never make a living restringing rackets. It is satisfying, however, to be able to put new strings in my racket whenever I feel the urge. [Not very often.]

The 2007 World Serious is nearly over. The Red Sox won last night 10-5 to take a 3-0 lead in games. They are ahead again tonight, 4-1 in the eighth inning and may sweep the Rox 4-0. The curse of the Babe has likely been cured, it appears. It's just baseball.

Late note: Rox have closed to 4-3 in the 8th. Check the local fish wrap for the scores in the morning.

The Growing Season Continues

Just so you know, the tomato plants are still growing outside my back door. There are a couple of reddish orbs that I'll be picking soon, and the weather creatures haven't yet predicted an end to the growing season. The tomatoes are invading the lawn in their quest for sunshine and have a reasonable crop of greenies for frying. Dad used to say that he only would eat tomatoes when they were green and fried. I've eaten some since and am not that impressed. Yes, he didn't like ripe, red, luscious tomatoes. He claimed that he had eaten his fill as a youngster on too many occasions to still appeciate their sweet redness. I, on the other hand, still like ripe tomatoes.


The zukes are giving up. They have no potential fruit and the leaves are beginning to brown.

The tennis goes on. We (the geezers and me) tried to play at Marie Park at about 5:15 and managed to get in two games before the deluge. We retreated to Woodbury Tennis Club via US 494 through a driving rain, and bumper to bumper traffic, to finish the evening's fray. We managed another two sets and a fraction before calling it a night. The courts at Marie are getting marginal for evening tennis. They are accumulating a lot of leaves dropped on them from the fading foliage, and that's distracting. In addition, the sun retreats completely out of the sky by about 7 pm and that's just not enough court time.

Mixed Doubles Tourney

On a cold morning I set out to play tennis at the Reed-Sweatt Tennis Center. The Stahnke 8.0 team was scheduled for a match with a Minneapolis team at 11 and a team from Eau Claire, Wisconsin at 5 pm. The team picture came in between the two matches. Left to right: Jerry, Becky, Tousan, Marsha, Jan, Bob. Two members were not there and thus not pictured, Barb and James.


We lost both matches, sorry to report.. The Stahnke team (us) lost the morning session 2 matches to one, and the afternoon matchup 3 matches to zero, the fat zero. I played with Marsha as my partner in both sessions. We won the first one 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7). It was nice comeback sprinkled with some good and entertaining back and forth points. The afternoon was a good match, too, but we fell 7-5, 6-3 to a couple of kids without a gray hair between them. It was fun, competitive, and I didn't need to pull out my prepared excuses for subpar play. We play another Minneapolis team at 9:30 tomorrow morning, but the playoff match in the afternoon is out of reach.

As you may have seen on other blogs, it was cold here in River City. I covered the tomatoes and photographed them this morning before the frays. There was no frost on the grass this far south and within the city heat island, but it was cold - I think about 39. We are not in the outlying areas that got frosted. The day turned pretty and the growing season is expected to continue for another two weeks or so.

Four Bridges

It's a cold day and the weather guys are predicting frost "in the outlying areas." As Dad would say, "I can out lie anyone." So I'm covering my tomato plants with the hope that the growing season can be extended. I plan to let the zukes freeze if it gets cold enough. I may be able to use a couple more tomato plant photos here, too, over the next weeks. I'm looking for the old sheets to use as tomato cover.

I had a walk this morning by the river in the Lilydale Regional Park. There were five bikers who came by during the walk, all of whom looked well bundled up with ruddy faces. The temp was in the 40's. I was confident that the deer ticks and mosquitos were moving pretty slowly, too.

This photo is from my last search for Minnesota Rocks number 9, which is supposed to be at Upper Landing Park near downtown St Paul. It's not to be found, but I took this picture from a spot very near where it should be. It's one of the few places where you can view and photograph four bridges in one frame. One of the bridges is for railroads, and the nearest is the Wabasha Street bridge. As you can see, none of them have fallen into the Mississippi yet.



I have the tennis schedule for tomorrow and Sunday. I'll be playing at 11 am and 5 pm tomorrow and 9:30 am on Sunday at Nicollet Tennis Center. If we win enough, I get another opportunity at 5 pm Sunday. I expect knackerdom to be achieved by the end of Saturday evening. I have carbbed up and thought up several possible excuses for subpar play. Let the games begin.

September Tomatoes

I haven't shown the backyard tomato plants for a while. The tomato patch isn't very pretty any more because of some collapse of the plants under the weight of the fruit and the supporting branches. The season is still going strong, however. The ripe tomatoes continue to appear, a couple of them every couple of days. That should continue until the first hard freeze.


I had a trek over to Como Park to view the Minnesota Rock sculpture that Gzmoohoo discovered a couple of days ago. It is where he reported it to be and I took a photo of the sculpture (by a guy from Ely, Michael Sinesio.) It would be redundant to post that photo, so I am posting this photo of a statue of Friedrich Schiller, the German philosopher, which is also in Como Park. I don't know why his life and work deserve a statue in Como Park, but it's a pretty nice one. Schiller was born in Germany in 1759 and died at 45 of tuberculosis in 1805, also in Germany. As far as I know he never visited the USA, much less St Paul, but he was a good friend of Goethe.
.

After a day off from tennis, I played somewhat better today. I spent several hours yesterday restringing my newest racket, but didn't use it today. It's a nice racket, but I haven't adjusted to playing with it very well. It's a heavier racket and very much like the one that Roger Federer uses. Roger thrives with the racket, but it just tires me out. I used the restringing machine that Mr Moohoo sold me some months ago to change the tension on the strings from 55 pounds to 50 pounds with the purpose of gaining some power. I'll try the restrung racket soon, perhaps tomorrow when the geezers gather to play.

Venus Williams lost to Justine Henin today in the US Open 7-6, 6-4. It was a pretty good match, played in the wind, and Justine was just a little the better. She's in the finals against Kuznetsova tomorrow night, and should win easily. Roger Federer has to beat the Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who he has beaten 13 times in a row, to gain the finals. Novak Djokovic is likely to be there to play him in the finals. That could be a decent match-up.

A Museum

I was up early for tennis. Adam was off to Chicago again early and won't be back until Sunday night. We played at eight a.m. while the clouds were still with us. The geezer tennis players had a substitute today, because Curt was off on a quest. The new guy is 68 and thus I fell to third eldest on the court. The adjoining court was used by women's doubles - women well known to us from Lilydale. I wouldn't have been in the older half of that foursome either. The tennis on both courts was pretty good and we passed about two hours playing three sets and I finished a little used up and without any water left. I don't remember the scores. I did remember to have a nap this afternoon.

It's a beautiful evening, too. I managed to get the long grass mowed back to a socially acceptable level - even the yarrow - and spent some time lounging on the patio. The tomatoes are still bearing fruit and there will be more zukes. The rain of the last week was a huge problem for southern Minnesota, but turned a lot of the brown spots in St Paul a lovely deep green.

This photo is from my ride on West River Road in Minneapolis. It's an Art Museum. One that I would like to visit one day to check out its collection of Georgia O'Keefe paintings. I only know about Georgia O'Keefe because KS wrote a paper about her while in high school. O'Keefe was born in Wisconsin and is famous for big bold images of flowers. The museum is the Weisman Museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota and is known for its avant garde architecture. The photo illustrates that pretty well.


The Minnesota State Fair is in its third day and all the news creatures from our local TV stations are telecasting from the fairgrounds. Most of the news centers around the new kinds of food on a stick at the fair. There is even a place that sells hot dogs with peanut butter and mustardo. Yum.

There is rumor of a visit from a wise woman from the east. Someone with an assumed Italian moniker.

Rain is coming for the weekend

It was a fine late summer day in the Capitol City. I had a walk around Hidden Falls Park and along the Mississippi River bank. There were many other people there enjoying the beautiful day. I guess that tomorrow's tennis may get rained out, at least according to my favorite TV weather creature, Sven.

I like this photo partly because it shows the farm yard at Dick's Ranch in the way I remember it. Also it is a cute picture of the Michigan contingent of Dick's grandchildren, Santini and Bud. I think it is about 1948. Notice that the barn door is open. I scanned the original photo in and cropped and enhanced via Apple's iPhoto.


This may be my last use of shots of the trip to the B&B by the Lake. It was just after we arrived and KS was being hustled off to Tunnel Park. She was happy to get to the beach and the big lake. The Waving Family is well represented in the photo.


I picked some more of those backyard tomatoes. I'm starting to get a little tired of eating the beautiful red veggie, but I think they will be lasting a few more weeks.

Bridge on 35W Collapse

The bridge collapse at 6:05 pm on 35W over the Mississippi River was a big disaster. Everyone that I know is okay, and I am thankful. KS is at a performance of "Spamalot" in St Paul with Wireless and BB. UH was at work.

The TV is saying that the bridge structure failed and there was no sign of terrorism. There will be months of investigations and a conclusion will be reached. Traffic congestion on Twin Cities roads is about to get worse, too.

Not breakfast.

Harry Potter Mania

Saturday morning came bright and beautiful and the regular gang gathered for some tennis. We played two sets on the courts at Marie Park again, but there have been injuries and sore joints that needed some rest, so we bypassed a third set and scheduled a Monday return match. I switched rackets again, as reaction to my disheartening loss on Thursday, back to the Wilson k SixOne.

I haven't shown the locally grown tomato plants for a while, but here they are. The weight of the fruit has caused collapse of the main stalks and wind and rain have added to the droop. There are a lot of green tomatoes that should be ready to harvest about the first of August. Do I smell spaghetti sauce? I have picked 7 cherry tomatoes and two zukes from the "garden." They are all organic, too.


I liked the mailbox "yard art" proposed by Santini and take this opportunity to enter this fine, old classic mailbox into the contest. It shows a traditional sense of style mixed with utility and grace.


My mailman delivered a copy of "Harry Potter" to my door this morning. It was apparently ordered ahead of time by the Kagami Sensei, so that she would have something to guide her through the impending period of jet lag beginning on Tuesday. It was addressed to her with an admonition to the mail creature not to deliver before July 21, 2007. The whole population of teenagers and a bunch of older fans are at this moment trying to discover the fate of one fictional Harry Potter.

I had corn on the cob tonight purchased this p.m. from the hardware store farmer's pickup as recommended by Mr Moohoo. Very good stuff. The corn crop is ready.

It Rains At Last

Wimbledon is done and Roger Federer is the men's champion for the fifth straight year, tying the streak of the stoic Swede, Bjorn Borg. Rafael Nadal gave it a pretty good shot, but came up a little bit short in five sets. It was a very good match. Defending men's doubles champions, twins Bob and Mike Bryan lost in the finals to two Frenchmen (should make some readers happy) Clement and Llodra.

For Minnesota, it was a wild weather day. It was very hot in the morning and this afternoon it rained cats and puppies. I was inside at Wooddale playing a mixed doubles league match. Our team is an average team in this 8.0
league, but we managed two wins (out of three) and won the face-off. I could hear the rain pounding on the roof as we played. My partner and I had a relatively easy match and finished early enough to watch the downpour outside.

It rained copiously in St Paul and battered down my tomato plants. They are fine, but not so tall. The fruit may be prime targets for Peter Rabbit, who apparently lives in KS's native grass garden. I'll try to get a photo of this wild creature. He is often hanging around in the yard and we startle each other frequently.

I picked the first zuke of the season today, sliced it up with some onions and marinaded it in some fancy Tarragon vinegar for lunch. Only green tomatoes thus far.

Without any recent photos for this site, I have reverted to about 1950 or so for a picture from Webster of my two younger siblings. It's taken in front of the place we lived on Main Street. Santini has clamp-on roller skates and thus appears much taller than her bro. Mr Moohoo has rudimentary ski poles and a cool hat.


Another photo from the deep past. Maybe 1953? This one is early spring near the hollyhock site at the side door at 108 Hartley Avenue. Santini is underdressed and is trying to get inside. TT is wearing a stylish overcoat and an odd smirk. We all need to be reminded occasionally where we came from, and that time flees.

A Ride for the Summer Solstice

You can't take a picture of the solstice. Rather, I can't take a picture of a solstice. Maybe you can.

The weather map threatened afternoon storms and the morning was pleasant, so I struck out for a long ride. I haven't been to most of the lake area in Minneapolis this year and it's just across the Ford Bridge. It's a nice ride past Minnehaha Falls, Lake Hiawatha, Lake Nakomis, along Minnehaha Creek to Lake Harriet and up the shore to the Minneapolis Rose Garden. Ah, Roses, the queen of flowers. There were gardeners tending the flowers and strollers enjoying the sights. They have about a brazillion different varieties of rose and they bloom most of the summer and lend their aroma to the area.



There is also a nice fountain in the park. There are brass turtles spewing water into the pools, and roses all around. I snapped the picture, drank some agua and turned for home. I beat the storms by at least six hours.


It was a 24 mile round trip, a two bottle trek, and after yesterday's three sets of tennis, I am plum knackered. I found my locally growing, organic tomato plants waiting for a tenth day photo. They are doing very well and a couple of tiny green tomatoes are forming on its branches. As the monkey said when the train ran over its tail, "it won't be long now." I can almost taste the luscious red goodness.


I found on the internet that Minnesota Rocks number 13," Wave" which was sited at Mounds Park was vandalized a while ago and was removed from the park. Someone didn't like its artistry. This explains why I didn't find that one.

Wilson rebounds

I have no photos of Roland Garros (or of the tournament there which starts May 27), but I do have a snowy photo or two. It was taken March 16 of this year and I worried that spring would never spring. I was wrong to worry.



No bike ride today, but an hour and a half of tennis with "men of my own age" at Wooddale. It was too windy outside and a forecast of rain brought us inside. I was thankful, and the good Wilson performed well. 6-3, 7-5, 2-3 before time was up. I'm not sure what caused last night's mediocrity, but, as with most abilities, my level of play fluctuates. I'm blaming the change of surface and different lighting, but who knows?

It was 91 degrees on my car thermometer as I entered the Wooddale facility and 81 on the way home.

A nice Monday. I bought the new "Forever" stamps today to mail important items. They cost $.41, but will be accepted for first class mail forever. I may stock pile them for the next increase which I'm sure is imminent. Then on the way home I got two tomato plants at the local garden boutique to decorate the back yard. Adam says it's best for the environment to eat locally grown food, and nothing is so local as the back yard. I also have a volunteer cherry tomato from last year's crop. I'm licking my chops as I write. I love fresh tomatoes.

My French Open predictions: Men: Nadal, Women: Mauresmo. A Spaniard and a French woman.