July 17, 2004

           The calendar tells all. The new retread tires JZ put on his truck both went flat. We fixed them and went to Churchill's, where I've already dated all the good-looking women at least once each. And we drove there in JZ's truck, I like to live dangerously. How does a guy with twice as much money as me manage to only put old tires on his vehicle? Plus, the truck wobbles on the these tires.

           "No problem," he keeps saying, "this is nothing."

           "The problem will be if we have to walk the last ten miles to your place." I replied.

           JZ, thinking quickly, "If it goes, I won't make you walk. I'll drive it on the rim."

           "I was afraid you'd say that, old pal, I was afraid you'd say that."

           That's me practicing my dialogue. It's a long story.
           Speaking of vehicle, I had to replace a window on my Cadillac, which I only wrote down as "expensive". And my mechanic, Manuel, at El Mago de Ponche was off sick. So I had to pay full price. Don't you hate it when that happens? (El Mago de Ponche roughly translates to "The Magician of Punctures")
           And here is a picture of the "sundial" on the Mars rover from 2004. When I look at it now (2014) I notice I could probably use it to calculate where on Mars that thing is. I could guess the latitude for sure. But I would only have to know a few things about Mars to do a position fix. That's assuming that the same physical principles apply over there, probably a good assumption. God doesn't play dice with the universe.
          Naw, with all the new theories about meteorite and asteroid impacts wiping out the species, it is more like he is playing Crokinole. Just so you know, Mennonites and Amish are allowed to play Crokinole. Rumor has it they invented the game. Hey, no batteries required.