Day 1 of the air show yesterday was a rousing success. It was jam packed full of jets, one right after the other. TS-11, L-29, BAC-167, F-15, F-16, F/A 18 Super Hornet, and last but not least the 6 F-18's of the Blue Angels.

Why do I have the feeling of impending doom in regards to gas prices? Oh, it could be because there's a hurricane heading right for center of oil territory in the gulf, and the last time that happened gas prices went up by $.75 per gallon.

ESPN.com has an article up about how a little league pitcher has been told that he is too good to play.

It really makes me want to punch people in the face. I guess a lot of things do that as I move into my cranky old age. Hey! Get off my lawn!

Anyway, this really does speak volumes about how politically correct our culture has gotten. This player is "too good" because he's better than the other players. Guess what you useless new-age parents? Your kid isn't great at everything. Your neighbors kids aren't great at everything. Not everyone is a winner. Sports by definition have a single winner or a single winning team. The team that goes 0-18 in little league should NOT get a freaking trophy. What do you think you're teaching your kids when you do that? You're teaching them that mediocrity is rewarded. It's okay to suck because you're still number 1 to me. Well kid, you're not number 1 to anyone else. You may be a great kid, but you're just a steaming pile of number 2 at sports. Suck it up. Not everyone is Alex Rodriguez.

The parents of the opposing team pulled their kids off the field, and in turn somehow got the good team (the one that wanted to play) to forfeit. Now, of course, there are politics involved. Speculation is that because the good pitcher didn't want to play for the defending champs (who are sponsored by the league administrators employer no less) that he is now not allowed to play at the pitching position.

Being good at something used to be rewarded. Now in our politically correct bull crap world it's punished. Give me a break. This stuff makes me want to scream, and also punch Hillary Clinton in the face (just for the fun of it), but also scream.

Our internet connection just blows tonight. I don't know what is going on, but hopefully this won't continue. It reminds me of the days of dial-up, except slower, because it doesn't even successfully get to some web pages.

Makes me realize how dependent we are on the tubes of the interwebnet now.

We pay our bills that way. We do our banking that way. A large chunk of our communication is done via the tubes. It's amazing really.

In an exclusive breaking news story, I'm proud to report to you that China's gymnasts are all in fact far older than I expected when I began this investigation.

From left to right, He Xing Wang, aged 38. Yi Jiang Ling, aged 33. Xe Che Ming, aged 39. And the eldest of the group, the fine Te Chung Win, a mindblowing 44 years old. You'd never have guessed it. They look like they're 8, but they're really all adults, and have been for many years, and you can't prove otherwise.

So we're on our way to dinner last night and are about 3 blocks from our house, waiting to turn onto the main street, when what drives by? A freaking Aston Martin DB9.

I made Lindsay speed up to "catch" it, since it was doing maybe 40 MPH. I just wanted to look at it. Then it dawned on me that no one would believe me, so I tried to take a picture of it... battery was dead.

I feel like the guys taking pictures of big foot, except of course, that we really did see it. And it was fantastic looking.

Lindsay and I have been watching Heroes lately. We're just about finished watching season 2. So far, I have to say that I like it. It has a unique perspective on the whole super-hero area, so it still feels fresh. We're both looking forward to season 3. The only reason we even started watching it was because she got season 1 for me for Christmas. We didn't even start watching that until June though. Now we're hooked and don't want to wait for season 3 to begin at the end of September.

The main player returning to the Indians in the CC Sabathia trade now lies in a hospital in China after being intentionally drilled in the back of the head by a Chinese pitcher. Apparently the Chinese were angry that their starting catcher (Wang Wei) had been bowled over and had to leave the game and then their backup catcher (Yang Yang) was also bowled over. So it makes perfect sense then to throw at someones head... Sure. Great idea. Five US players hit. One still in the hospital. This just days after another US player was also hit in the head and is still recovering from that.

Lindsay and I watched Phelps win his 7th gold medal tonight. To be honest, I'm still a little skeptical. With 25M left, I thought he had lost. He had a ton of ground to make up and not much time to do it. Even at the end, in real time, I thought he had lost. What was that other guy doing? It looked like he came to a complete stop about 6 inches away from winning. In the time that it took that guy to go 6 inches, Phelps went 4 feet. Still, under water it looked to me like the other guy touched first. Well, Lindsay told me the rules are that both of your hands have to touch in order to stop the time. So maybe (and apparently) Phelps did get both his hands in there before the other guy.

Wow. I still want to see a replay of the 4 X 100 relay from earlier, because I haven't seen it. I'm not really one to like to watch swimming, but these races have been very cool to watch.

Apparently I'm on the once a week plan. I don't really feel like I've got anything to say, so why waste the time of all zero people that read this?

I saw the Incredible Hulk on Monday night. I don't think I'd go that far. Maybe Slightly Better Than Average Hulk. The Pretty Good Hulk, I guess. Incredible must draw in more people I guess.

Rain, rain. Go away. Come again some other day. But not tomorrow. Or Saturday. And not Labor Day weekend. Thank you.

Four US cyclists who wore masks over their nose and mouths over pollution fears when arriving in Beijing apologized Wednesday to Olympic organizers, the city of Beijing, and the people of China.

Let me get this straight and go over some of the facts here.

1. The US Olympic Committee issued all athletes these masks.
2. Beijing's air is horribly polluted.
3. Olympians are world class athletes.
4. Breathing hazardous air may impair your performance as a world class athlete.
5. You are trying win a gold medal in said Olympics.
6. You, as an athlete, want to prevent any impairment of your performance.

So because you don't want to give yourself immediate lung cancer you're seen as embarrassing the host country. Well you know what? El screw-o you-o. Let me flip you the bird there China. You know what should be more embarrassing to you? The fact that your air is so horrible that the average Beijing citizen wears a mask every day as they walk around your city.

If you had clean air then you wouldn't have athletes walking around wearing masks. I personally hope that 90% of the athletes walking in the opening ceremony are wearing masks. Who cares what China thinks about that. Your first priority as an athlete is to make sure that you're prepared for the games. If that means you don't want to breath soup, then I'm all for you protecting yourself.

A writer for the Seattle Times said it perfectly. "Apparently in the eyes of the U.S. Olympic Committee, winning at these Olympics comes secondary -- to honoring the Benevolent and Protective Host City of Beijing and people of China."

So ask yourself this question. Would you really want to breath this air?

More news of my grandmothers steady decline today... She had a doctors appointment to see if there was anything they could do to make her more comfortable. She has two large (multiple inches) spots where the cancer has broken through the skin, effectively creating ulcers on the skin. There are many more that are close to breaking through now. They wanted to see if they could at least do targeted radiation on those, so that she could be more comfortable. Right now it's swelled to probably twice its normal size. She wears a compression sleeve almost constantly, but it's still swelling quite a bit. She's also quite tired most of the time now. She seems to get a little energy boost in the afternoon that lasts for about 5 hours, but only if she's been resting in the morning. Her spirits are high though, or at least as high as can be expected at this point. It could all be a show though. I don't really know what's going on inside, because she doesn't share that really. At this point, she's aiming for the highest quality of life possible, and if that means calling her pain merely discomfort, that's what she does. She says she's hanging in there and taking it one day at a time. Really, that's all any of us are doing...

On Friday night \ Saturday morning we had the mother of all thunder storms. Without exaggeration, there were periods of 100 flashes of lightning per minute. The rain was coming down like it was being poured from buckets. It was really an awesome (and terrifying) display. It lasted for 45 minutes and then literally as fast as it appeared, it was gone.

I saw The Dark Knight yesterday. I thought it was good. I liked it much more than Batman Begins. Despite the hype, I didn't think it was darker than the first one. I actually thought it wasn't as dark. Scarecrow and all that psychoticism gave way to the Jokers "plain jane" chaos and mayhem.

There were two women sitting about 6 rows behind us that were apparently intoxicated, deaf, and recently escaped from a home. They were talking quite loudly (aka yelling). They were telling the projectionist (as if he could her them) that the movie was too loud. Then at the end they proclaimed that it was the worst movie that either of them had ever seen, that they preferred mysteries to Batman movies, and wondering why the producers destroyed all of those cars when there are plenty of people that need new cars, including them.