Another Summer in the Books....

Labor Day marks the unofficial end of the summer here in America. As I sit down writing this, it is nearly 11:00 pm on September 3rd. If you'll have me, then, I'll be happy to spend my last hour of the summer with you reflecting on what has been a pretty great season. Our big vacation for the year was in the spring when we went to the Kentucky Derby, but even though we didn't go any further out of state than Nevada and Arizona, the beauty of living in California is that you don't have to go too far to find something interesting to do.

Certainly one of the great highlights of the summer of '07 was entering into a race horse owning syndicate and watching our horses run. And how they've run. When we put our small investment down, I figured we'd have the fun of watching our horses go to the track and run, maybe collect a couple checks here and there when they got lucky. Never in my wildest dreams would I have guessed that I would be standing in the paddock three months later with a horse running in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar, a million dollar, Grade I one event, broadcast nationwide on ESPN II. The race itself was a bit anti-climactic, as our horse Sun Boat never really got involved and ended up being eased out of the race, but it was thrilling just being a part of such a big race And besides, after all he had done to get there, graduating from the claiming ranks to come a close 2nd in the grade II Californian stakes at Hollywood Park and then winning another grade II event, the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar, in convincing fashion, well...we kind of went into it figuring Sun Boat was entitled to run whatever race he had in him that day. Right now, Sun Boat and his stablemate Uffizi are spending some time off on the farm before getting back to training for Santa Anita later in the year. Our third horse, Top Leese, is two for two since we picked him up and is still currently active. We haven't gotten rich, but we have recouped the better part of our investment already--pretty amazing for our first stab at this side of the game.

As always, there have been plenty of good shows and we caught what we could. The Knitters, the offshoot of X and the Blasters that was alt-country before the term was invented, played a fine set at the picturesque Getty Museum in West L.A. early on in the year, and we were most recently treated to free shows at the Santa Monica Pier by first the Patti Smith Group and, just last week, Los Lobos. Patti opened her set up on an ironic note with a languid version of "Redondo Beach." Her set was heavy with covers from all sorts of rock legends, and one of the things that we enjoyed was watching this middle-aged gentleman explaining them to his kids..."This song is by Jefferson Airplane," he'd say, then explain about the band. When Patti did her version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" one of the kids said, "Hey, dad, we know this one, this is Nirvana." We get a slight return on the summer a little later this week when we go to the Hollywood Bowl to see BB King. We got a pair of tickets from the local jazz station as a premium for renewing our membership; pretty great, considering we didn't donate all that much money in the grand scheme of things--it wasn't a whole lot more to get those than it was for, you know, the coffee mug of the K-Jazz sweatshirt. BB is supposedly taking a little victory lap around the country before retiring from the road, so it will be really nice to see him for what may be the last time.

And, of course, there's been a lot of things that were fun for us but maybe not as interesting viewed from outside--barbeques, friends visiting, playing with the dog, keeping up with the yard and so on. We got to a lot of Dodgers games when they still looked like they were going to win the division, but it doesn't look so good right now. We even went to see them play the Giants when Barry Bonds was a home run away from tying Aaron's record; I'm glad he didn't do it on our watch. The Tribe is in Anaheim next weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing them for the first time in person this year.

Undoubtedly, though, the biggest event of the summer has been my getting engaged to Christy. We've been together for almost four years now, and it seems like the time is right to take this big step. We're just starting to look at places and haven't set a date yet. So watch this space and I'll keep you posted.

Post Script:

Sun Boat had to be euthanized a few days after this article was completed. While resting on the farm he developed founder, a painful disease of the front hooves and this was unfortunately the best and most humane option. Sun Boat was a terrific horse who exceeded our hopes for him as an athlete, and his sudden passing was a saddening reminder of how fragile thoroughbred horses are, their magnificent frames notwithstanding. RIP Sun Boat.