A gentleman is a man who can play the accordion but doesn't.

No particular reason for this pic of our house except that everything is in bloom, including the trees, and I like the way it looks. The landscaping has been in for two years now and is looking more mature, to scale. The trees are Palo Verde, which is Spanish for green stick. The trunk and branches of this variety are green - as green as the leaves on most trees. They will have lost their blooms in another week or so.

Tess Vigeland and Nancy Farghalli just left. That was fun! I assumed they would want to talk about how the current economic crisis affected our lives. Not even close.

Sun City, AZ was built by Del Webb back in the late 50's and early 60's and was the world's first age-restricted retirement community. Since day one you had to be at least 55 to buy a house here, and back then 55 was retirement age. (Life expectancy was very different.) The story Tess & Nancy are doing for Marketplace Money, an NPR radio show, is about the future of the American dream of retirement. Is the current financial crisis going to forever change the notion that you work until you're X years old and then retire to a life of leisure activity? Do people still have that vision of their future?

This segment is the beginning of a look at that issue and it begins by asking those who live in America's first retirement community if they had that dream. If so, has it worked out? Do they think the next generation can/should/will achieve the same dream?

I think we seriously messed with their heads. The two of them look to be in their late 30's and were visibly shocked to hear us say we don't use credit. Tess asked if I thought the next generation would ever turn back from credit, and the way she framed the question it was clear she thought the use (abuse) of credit was the problem. I told her credit wasn't the problem, but rather the vehicle, the expression of the problem...greed. That, too, seemed to surprise her.

At one point Nancy said, "This has nothing to do with our topic but...." They really did seem fascinated by how odd we were, not living beyond our means, that is to say, not using credit for living.

It was fun. They were both very nice, very friendly and disarming. And you'd have been proud of Pam. She participated in the discussion and did very well.

This program will air on the 15th of this month. Our local PBS station carries Marketplace but not Marketplace Money, a sister program. So they're going to send me a link so we can listen online. I'll post it when I get it.

The house training with Al is two steps forward one step back. He hasn't dropped anything in the living room all day today, but that's because we've had him on walks every few hours. If I didn't know better, couldn't see better, I'd think Al was female; he can pee at any time, regardless of how recently he last did. But why, out of nowhere, did he go straight from his food dish to the corner of the kitchen wall and lift his leg? He'd been out 30 minutes earlier on a walk and peed twice. Grrr.
In every other respect he's the ideal dog. But this rates as a pretty significant issue.

Lakers are up by 10 halfway through the second period. Very good!

I've had enough diet coke, and am wired enough from our visit with Tess and Nancy, that I think I'm going to do some work while I watch the Lakers close out their series with the Jazz.

Someone suggested that these two teams should trade names since there aren't any lakes in L.A. and there isn't any Jazz in Salt Lake City.