I have yet another check in my hand. This one's for $250 from my friends at Sterling Medical Corporation. I invoiced them Friday. They cut the check Monday. I got it Wednesday. More than I can say for the Hearst Corporation.

I only hit them up for $250 this time because all the front-end work of the project is done. That's why the last one was $350. They couldn't get this done anywhere else for twice that much, so the old man can't complain. And for me it's just a windfall to go straight into my trip account.

About that old man... I'm now completely convinced he's really completely in control of the company. Or at least he's the guy in charge. Nobody's humoring this guy. When I was up there recently, a young guy came into the office and said "There's an emergency that's threatening the opening of a clinic on Monday, and you're the only one that can fix this." I'd call that a ringing endorsement.

He's said there's plenty more work to be done, so we'll see. I'm not counting on it... but it'll be sweet if it comes through.

And from the world outside my trip obsession... September will be my month o' cheese. I'll begin the month at the Lee County Fair in Pennington Gap, Virginia where Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard will appear with the General Lee and perform with his band. Then we wrap up the month with the kickoff in Columbus, Ohio of Neil Diamond's world tour. It doesn't get any better than this!