I keep some people's numbers in my cell phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

He got tired of listening to her.

Back to triple digits today, but still about five degrees below normal. Too hot to work for long out in the garage, but I filled Gerta's transmission with hypoid gear oil this afternoon (I didn't know until I looked it up), so now it's just the brake bleed.
There are two drain plugs and each has a small magnet on the inside of the plug. They're designed to catch the metal filings that come from normal gear wear. That way those little bits of metal don't cause further wear. Pretty clever, 'dem Germans.
And the good news: those magnets didn't have much to clean off.

Something seems to be wrong with Al. He's only eating about 1/3 of his normal amount of food and shows no interest in playing. He normally jumps up if I stand and it's even close to the time we go for our morning or evening walk. But for the last several days I have to call him over to the door. And we occasionally hear him back on his bed whining.

This weekend I read "Cracking the Code" by Paul Azinger, the PGA golfer. Just published this year.

I think he's on the Senior Tour now (he was born in 1960) but this book is about his experience as captain of the U.S. team that won the Ryder Cup in 2008. That's a competition held every two years between 12 American golfers and 12 European golfers. There's a different captain for each competition, chosen by some PGA committee. When they chose Azinger shortly after the '06 competition we hadn't won the tournament, held in Europe and the U.S. alternately, in almost 10 years and had a rep for getting clobbered by less qualified golfers.

Azinger explains how he put the team together and how they won the cup. Could be just another sports book, but his goal is to talk about management strategies. He did some things that required special dispensation from the PGA suits and created an extremely cohesive team out of guys who play a very individual sport.

The book was too short. I got it cheap through Amazon, so I don't feel too bad about the value, but I wish he'd have included more detail about the competition itself. He hints at some interesting sub-plots. His account of how he chose the team (I won't ruin the surprise, but he went way out of the box) and how they came together as a team, however, is the point of the book and worth the price.

If you enjoy golf, read the book. If you're in a management position, read the book. If you enjoy golf and are in management, you simply have to read this book!

(BTW, Azinger is a believer and a cancer survivor. The former comes up, the latter doesn't.)

I'm starting another book this evening, "The Citizen's Constitution" by Seth Lipsky. It takes phrases from that document and gives a brief explanation of what each means and what lies behind it.
I'll let you know.