My Lakers Win 16th NBA Title

It's not very often that you can say "your team" won a pro sports championship. Just ask Cubs Fans... or Maverick Fans... or any number of long suffering fans of the many pro sports teams there are in America. I am lucky that as a young boy and teenager, I had a great father who loved sports and took me to games of my now favorite teams.... the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Lakers.

That is why it so poignant, with my Dad gone since 2005 that his favorite NBA Team just won it's 16th title. He loved the Lakers just as I do and I know he would be proud of the way I rooted for "our"team.

Kobe and the boys did it Dad!!! I love you....

The Gulf Oil Spill

The continuing oil spill in the Gulf is a terrible tradgedy. As a 30 year veteran of the Kern County oil patch, myself and all of the oil workers here in the Bakersfield area have a very good understanding of the huge environmental impact that this spill will have on the Gulf ecosystem. 1000bbls a day or 25000bbls a day it doesn't matter when you start discussing those kinds of volumes. It is huge no matter the volume debate.

What we cannot do, and I think the President understands this, is run and hide from offshore drilling. Yes when there are mistakes (and the poor men on that rig made a series of huge mistakes obviously) it has a huge impact on the people of the area and on the national psyche. But 30%....I'll say it again...30% of this nations oil comes from the gulf and about ~40% overall from offshore (rigs off the east and west coasts). Until we have reliable forms of renewable energy sources, oil is here to stay no matter what environmentalists would like.

Can we make offshore drilling safer? Of course! Human mistakes need to be engineered out of the equation. More failsafe devices... improved safety culutres.... more focus on instituing Standard Operating Procedures and auditing the employees to ensure they follow correct procedures... swarms of auditors to constantly audit the processes and procedures on offshore rigs (oil companies cringe at increasing head count...I know from many years of experience). But what will this disaster cost BP and its rig partner, TransOcean? Billions! Would not it be better to spend a fraction of that on new safety auditors on all offshore rigs?

It was embarrasing to watch the CEO of BP throw TransOcean under the bus this morning on the Today Show on NBC. They are your partners Sir and you hold as much blame (maybe more since you told the MMS that a spill from this rig was only a very remote possibility) as TransOcean. When was the last Safety Audit performed on that rig by BP Mr. CEO!!!

Tiger at Quail Hollow

Tiger missed the cut by 7 strokes on Friday. Only the 6th time in his career that he has missed a cut. Is his personal life getting him down? It would appear that way. Elin has apparently decided to file for divorce (good for her!) so his ability to deal with all of the issues swirling around him will obviously determine how his 2010 season plays out. He is not superman after all! He looked anything but on Friday as I watched him make mistake after mistake on the back 9 and then, maybe give up about the 16th hole. Appeared that way to me anyway...

Go Lakers

Well.... Game 1 of the Lakers/Jazz series starts today. I am only worried about Andrew Bynums knee. Not the Jazz. He has been playing so well, I hate to have the dynamics of the player rotation changed due to his injury. Hopefully he can play though the pain. A slightly torn meniscus would not be good for us, but he's making $8mil. He should play!

Tiger

Well after a good first two days managing his emotions Tiger is back to being the old Tiger in round 3. "God d.....mit! D....mit Tiger.... " I guess he didn't learn his lesson after all. How about that promise to be "more respectful of the game and fans"? Hmmmm. Maybe not....

Duke wins 4th National Title

What a great NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game! One of the greatest I have ever seen and I have been watching these games since 1972. If Gordon Haywood's shot had went in at the buzzer to give Butler the Championship, it would have been the greatest and the stuff legends are made of. Of course it didn't go in and Duke wins it's 4th title. Will Coach K bolt for the NBA's Nets for a truck load of money or stay at Duke? Only the offseason will tell.

No On Obama Care

I am ashamed I voted for this President. We need people back to work, top notch education, and relief for good home owners, not $$$1 Trillion Health care bill for crying out loud!

Boomers!

I am proud to be a Boomer. I am watching Tom Brokaw's very excellent report on the boomer generation tonight on CNBC. I remember growing up.... my parents knew every family on our street in Visalia, Ca. Do I know anybody on my street? Nope. Every house on our street save 2, has been reposessed and resold at least once and some more than that and this neighborhood is only 4 years old. Nobody moved back then. You bought your house and stayed there until you retired. Wow! How times have changed...

My kids and my employees that are their ages have houses and toys that we only aquired in the last 15 years and they have them now!

Abu Dhabi

OK... America has untold wealth! Why is every citizen in Abu Dhabi worth $17MM? Well.... they have a lot of oil wealth but they also use their government wisely to ensure that every dollar is spent  on their own people! Not the rest of the world. We make the rest of the world wealthy but not our own citizen's!!!

Gold Medal Hockey Game

If the NHL doesn't try to capatilize from this tremendous bounce from the Olympic's... Gary Bettman should be fired as NHL Comissioner... He should be fired!!

The Presidents HealthCare Round Table

The Obama HealthCare Round Table this past week appeared to be an over glorified photo-op to me. Was anything of substance decided at this event? From what I saw on the news after work, that answer is a resounding no! I actually listened to some of the back and forth between the President, the Dem's and Republicans on my way home on POTUS on Sirius Radio and was not impressed. The President chose to interrupt anytime he saw fit but let no one interrupt him. It was all alot of hot air. Of course all of the left leaning nightly news programs fawned over the .... what did one of the anchors call it? Historic! Hmmmm. Historic.... A high mark for a inconsequencial event if you ask me. Why not have a round table on how to put America back to work or help people keep from walking away from their homes as they continue to do in droves where I live. Now that might be historic!

Yeah USA Men's Hockey

The USA men won their Semi-Final today to set up a potential rematch with the Canadian's! WoooHooo!

Olympic Gold for Canada's Women

Canada's Women's Ice Hockey Team won gold this afternoon over the USA's women. Congrats and great goal tending on both sides in a 2 - 0 game. It was great television if you had the chance to watch!

Adopt a Greyhound

After seeing the Greyhounds up for adoption at the Bakersfield Home and Garden show last weekend, we met tonight with a Greyhound's of America rep with her Grey named Ellie. We were so excited. It is up to them if we are accepted to adopt... not us. Well... we were accepted! Yeah! We have 2 females here in Bakersfield that we will meet and see if we are a fit for them and for them... us.We have another huge pool in SoCal that we can visit and see how that would work for us and them also so here we go! Colby our beagle was so good with Ellie...we were shocked. WoooHooo!

Tiger and Elin

I can't belive that Tiger Woods wife is considering staying with him. I assume most everybody heard what he said Friday? He felt entitled to persue his hearts desire where it came to women. Because he "worked hard". mmmmm... You know what....he said "I do" to Elin and that meant she was his forever. Don't get married if you are not ready for that committment bub!!!

Toyota

Toyota's troubles are very disheartning for all Americans or it should be. Toyota builds the majority of their vehicles that are sold here in the states...here in the states. Their slow down only impacts the US economic woes even more. Hopefully they will rectify their issues and mend their image. We need them to recover as the rest of our economy and especially the auto industry recovers....

Canada's Olympic's

Canada's Vancouver Olympic's have been stunning.... For the USA! Due to serval glitches at venues and the terrible loss of a luge competitor, Canada has had a problematic Olympic's in 2010. They spent a ton of Canadian dollars on their "Own the Podium" campaign and for what so far? Mmmmm... not much? But the Vancouver area and Whistler Creek are gorgeous!! They do have that! Gotta give 'em that huh?

USA vs Canada

What a great Olympic Hockey Game. USA v Canada - 5 - 3. WooooHoooo!

USA vs Canada

What a great 1st period in the USA v Canada Olympic hockey game. Wow! Ryan Miller is performing great in goal!!

NASCAR is Probably Embarrased

The crowd in Fontana for today's Auto Club 500 is meager compared to NASCAR's southern swing races and even Las Vegas. With a 92,00 seat capacity, there might be 60,000 in attendance. I have been to both the Vegas track and Fontana and the Vegas track is far superior in the "Fan Friendly" area. I love Vegas! ISC needs to redesign Fontana so you don't have to go down to ground level everytime you need to go to the rest room or get something to eat or drink. Vegas has facilities on all levels and.... elevators! What a concept!

USA Olympics

Our USA Olympic Team is outstanding in Vancouver. We all should be proud of their dedication and hard work and the results during the first 9 days!

President Obama Can't let go of Health Care

Our President needs to focus on homeowners and the economy and stop with the health care issues. Right now Mr. President, nobody cares because people continue to lose their homes and jobs. Health care doesn't mean much if you are losing your home or job! Put America back to work and save our mortgages!

You can focus on health care after the mid-terms.... oh yah. You are going to lose congress to the Republican's huh? Now I understand!