Please accept my humblest apologies ...

I had several unexpected difficulties getting the summer office up and running. Wireless access from the pool area was spotty at best ... oh wait ... that's next week's excuse. The weather yesterday was only conducive to polar bear plunges so no poolside lounging for this guy. Instead I was lounging in the Tire Discounters waiting area as I stopped in to have more tires put on my cars than Jimmie Johnson in the Coca-Cola 600. Jimmie's pit crew throws four new Goodyear's on in ten or twelve seconds. Tire Discounters isn't quite as quick ... more like an hour and a half per set. It wasn't the time so much as the $1300 dollars for eight pieces of rubber (not that type of rubber you gutter minds!!) which lightened my wallet hours before my friend Jethro called with a scheme to visit Rio de Janerio in August. Think Tire Discounters will take the tires back??

Venus made its transit of the Sun yesterday. It was overcast at the Kerr Enterprises world headquarters so all my viewing was via the Internet courtesy of NASA. Venus won't put on another show for Earthlings until 2117, when I'll be 144. My grandkids (assuming my two sons spawn) will hopefully get to see it though. I'm a geek about the stars and planets and astronomy, but seven hours of Venus slowly taking the walk of shame across the sun was too much. I watched for five minutes, so I can say I saw it. Then my ADHD set in. Where's my guitar?

Cheeseheads proved they don't mind having a bonehead run their lovely state as Scott Walker survived a recall attempt in Wisconsin. The result was expected as Walker had consistently run out front in the polls, so I'm not sure why many politicos point to the result as a portent for Obama or those who support organized labor. To me it is a sad reminder of the power class warfare holds in politics. Labor unions, whether public or private, are not to blame for government overspending or the economic problems our country finds itself in today. However many of our economic problems can be laid at the feet of super wealthy bankers and hedge fund managers (What was it that Mitt Romney did before jumping into the mudpit I call politics?) who caused a Fukushima level meltdown of our financial system. Labor unions didn't create false wealth and drive a sub-prime lending culture which gave trillions of dollars to people who were completely unable to pay off the money loaned to them. Labor unions also didn't figure out a way to create synthetic credit derivatives where companies could gamble billions of dollars in an attempt to win trillions of dollars. Who did create the environment where wealthy bankers and investors bilked billions from the American public? Oh ... that's right ... it was the politicians who decreased regulation of the financial system during the Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton years which lead to the banks becoming too big to fail. Somewhere from the bottom of the Atlantic, Thomas Andrews (the designer of the Titanic) is slowly nodding. Unfortunately many states (IN, OH, NC, WI among others) have thrown public employee unions to the lions as the cause of government overspending and deficits. What Walker, Daniels and Kasich pretend to forget is that no union member held a gun to the government when negotiating these employment contracts. Futhermore, if the jobs performed by these public employees are so easy (I'd be on my way to Rio with Jethro if I had $1 every time someone told me how easy it is to teach) then the government should simply replace all of them when a public employee union refuses to assent to the government's working conditions. And before you say, "Kerr, you've been protected by a teacher's union your whole career!" please take note that I have not been in a union in seven years. My salary, benefits and working conditions have been unilaterally imposed by the administrations who employ me since 2005 - before the meltdown and public backlash against public employees. I have paid an increasing amount of my health insurance premium (originally around 10% of the premium now up to 18% of the premium), my mandated retirement contribution has gone from 10% to 14% (all my privately employed friends are mandated to pay 4.2% ... remember that when you're bitching about my pension!), the number of years I am required to work to qualify for a "full" pension payout has been increased from 30 to 35 to 38 years and this year my salary was frozen again. Despite all this I continue to love my job. Deranged? Possibly. A sadist? Most definitely. People still ask me if I'm a Republican, who I supported exclusively for many years. SMH .. yeah .. I support the people who attack both my cheeks. Call me Scott of Nazareth.

The NBA conference finals are almost over, and the Thunder and GeriatricsCeltics are holding a three games to two advantage over the Spurs and the Heat respectively. Both series game five followed Vince McMahon's script to a T: one team gets out to a big lead, the other team comes back (shaking like Hulk Hogan with each blow as he rises off the mat) until the game is tied (you know that last hit where the Hulkamaniac would stop shaking and look directly into his opponents eyes before opening a can of whoop ass? KG did that last night!) with the game being decided during a flurry of timeouts and free throws (or Erik Spoelstra designing a multi-layered set play called "Rock Bottom"). It was nice to see the last living dinosaur animatronically playing for the Heat last night (Raptor Bosh for those of you who fail to see the resemblance). Both road teams won game five, and if there is to be a game seven in either series the roadies will have to prevail again. You can't count out the Spurs or the Heat yet, but it is very difficult to survive two elimination games in a row when one of those games is on the road. I'm going to withhold my predictions for gambling purposes ... sorry.

The Reds dropped another game to the Pirates last night (1-3 in the last four against the Buccos) while swinging 2-13 with RISP and generating quite a breeze with FIFTEEN strikeouts. For the season the Reds are swinging .226 with RISP, so 2-13 (.153) shouldn't goose you too badly. Homer lived up to his name again, and was showering up by the fourth inning. The Pirates are now in second place in the division, two games back of the Redlegs. If the Bucs keep this pace up I'm going to have to apologize to my main man Tooly for calling them a crap team (even though they are a crap team .. they are hitting a NL low .221 as a team and have scored the fewest runs in the major leagues .. they just happen to be in the same division as the Lastros and sCrUBS). Johnny Cueto pitches for the Reds tonight against Brad Lincoln and his 1.04 ERA. This will be Lincoln's second start for the Pirates after pitching mainly in relief. In his only other start he threw six innings of four hit ball versus the Miami Marlins to get the win. He hasn't given up more than two runs in any outing this season so Johnny better be good tonight if the Reds are going to get off the schnide (check the Urban Dictionary if you don't know). Drew Stubbs left last night's game with injured ribs so it will be interesting to see who plays centerfield for the good guys. Heisey in center with Ludwick in left makes the most sense, but His Dustiness might opt for Exxon Valdez in center.  Put me in coach ... I'm ready to play ... today!!

I'm getting a little pink on the pool deck, so I'm going to dip a chilly toe in the water. I know I skipped Mad Men Tuesday - apologies again - so I'll recap all the SCDP happenings tomorrow. Season finale is Sunday night ... sadly.

Summer league opens tonight ... gotta go get wet prepped. Hasta manana!