Something funny is going on with me. And I do mean humorous. This morning I got up with a chuckle, even before I read wacky cartoonist Gary Larson's morning laugh on my one-a-day calendar. Don't ask how this got in my mind, but I was remembering a weekend newspaper article that said Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world. Sam Walton's son now holds the title—which made me think that the American public is currently spending more money at Sam's Club and Wal-Mart than it is spending on computers and software. Somehow that seemed strange, considering how fast a computer becomes obsolete and needs replacing. But thinking more about it I remembered that just last night my wife and I went to Sam's Club, where I bought another $4.98 T-shirt because I couldn't stand not getting in on another super deal—for the 30th time. We also bought a bottle of Absolut vodka, which even at Sam's price ain't cheap. Hey, wasn’t it Sam’s Club that used to brag about pushing American-made products?

Another surprise was that my wife decided to join me on my walk this morning. Now, this is not to say that Linda doesn't like to exercise—in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Her exercising was such an influence that our daughter got a degree in physical science. But Linda has her own approach to exercise, one that I don't clearly understand. For instance, for a while we were going to a health spa at 6 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The fact that this spa doesn't open in the morning on Tuesdays is what got my weekly walks on that morning started. By now I've faded on the Monday, Wednesday and Friday routine, which I’m hoping to get going again. But the Tuesday walks are still going strong. Anyway, when Linda and I went to the spa; as I would drive into the very large parking lot, which was usually full, I would try to take the first available parking space. Just as I was about to turn in, my wife would say, "Why don't you drive closer to the front and see if there is a space available?" I guess what I'm trying to say is, I thought the idea was to exercise!

When we left the house today at 5:44 a.m. the temperature was 41 degrees. The only star in the sky, which I don't really think was a star, was in the eastern horizon. Probably Venus. I don't know very much about astronomy. The only thing I think I remember is that my 10-year-old nephew once told me that the second star in Orion's Belt was 800 times bigger than the sun.

We started walking at a fairly brisk pace, and being the man of the family, I figured I needed to show leadership. We headed up Cerrillos Road toward the Plaza, then north on Lincoln Avenue to the Federal Building and clockwise around it to the intersection of Paseo de Peralta and Washington Avenue. From there we continued east on Paseo de Peralta, which curved around to the intersection of East Palace Avenue, which we followed west to Cathedral Place. At this point we were very close to the French Pastry Shop—but guess what? I had forgotten my wallet! So instead of turning west on San Francisco to get a pastry, I led Linda on around Cathedral Place and started back toward home. But the moment I passed the San Francisco Street intersection, my wife casually asked why was I not heading to the pastry shop. I tried to camouflage the problem by saying that I didn't want us to have to carry the heavy load of the pastries home. But this didn't go over very well, so I had to confess that I had forgotten my wallet. That didn't go over very well either, because Linda reminded me that this had never happened to me before. Well, to make a long story short; we walked back home and then I did the cavalier thing and drove us back to the pastry shop for coffee and you know what. After all of this was accomplished, we were back home by 7:20.

Last week, walking with my neighbor, I had to take three steps for each one of his, so he wore me out. This week my stride was somewhat longer than my wife's—but somehow she wore me out also. There are things I don’t understand very well.

Have a nice day.

Stan