(Editor's note: There's another new post for today below this post, and yet another short one below that. 3 posts in a day?! Yowza!)

Hey, group. Not a single thing happened today (Tuesday). Almost slept through daylight today (Tuesday... stupid posting-after-midnight-yet-can't-seem-to-convince-myself-it's-tomorrow crap)... didn't get up until 4:30, save for a couple of phone calls from people who figured I'd be up at a normal-person time this morning. I edited the info section of the blog to your left, and in the process noted that the rest of my archives seem to have vanished. Bleh. I'll look into it tomorrow (today).

Feeling a lot better, though, overall. Getting that off my chest about the future of our business seemed to alleviate a lot of the pent-up stress I have. I've been able to come to some self-closure over a few other things that've been bugging me, too.

Another factor troubling the future of dog racing in Phoenix is that the airport wants to expand northward, to Washington Street. If you're not familiar with the location of the racetrack, it's situated south of Washington, between Washington and the railroad tracks, and between 40th Street and 36th Place (right next to 36th Street, with a handful of more-or-less vacant businesses in between). So it takes up a fairly large lot. You might be more acquainted with the Park 'n Swap that takes place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings, out in the gigantic front parking lot.

Our kennel is on the very southeast corner of the track's lot, on 40th street and the train tracks. Us and my grandpa/aunt's kennels are the only two that kennel there, though. Everyone else is situated elsewhere, with most of the other kennels having farms on the outskirts of town.

Anyway, for years now the airport has wanted to expand northward and build more runways. One of the major stumbling blocks is the huge Honeywell operation, situated off of Air Lane between 32nd and 36th. If they could work out a deal, though, that would be it for the track. The airport has so much money, it isn't even funny. The mechanic we've been going to for years had his shop on 36th south of Washington for God knows how long. The airport, in anticipation of eventually paying off Honeywell, has already started to buy out the smaller businesses in the way... they paid Tommy Bishop enough money to where he could move all of his equipment and operations to a shop on the other side of Washington, PLUS extra cash on top, then they bulldozed his old building. No big deal. Hell, HE quoted the price.

Anyway, the track would have to relocate somewhere (that is, IF the corporate bigwigs wanted to keep it... depending on the economic outlook at the time, they could just decide to let it go). However, zoning laws being what they are, it would have to be somewhere outside of town, probably out west. We'd have to move our kennel, too, and I KNOW our current landlord would seize the opportunity to be rid of the kennel-renting business and take the airport money and run. Leaving us to do... what?

As a disclaimer, this scenario is a lot less likely than the other one. Honeywell is pretty well dug in where they're at and have voiced their concerns over being moved. The likelihood of us being legislated out of existence before the airport paves over us is strong.

However, regardless of which poison we're given, do you see what I mean when I say I have trouble foreseeing a distant future?

Anyway, as gloomy as that sounds, I'm not in a bad mood. I had wanted to get out and do something tonight, but I also had a marathon of Good Eats tivoed from Sunday, along with today's Pardon the Interruption and Rome is Burning that I slept through, tivoed up to watch, which provided me with a good 5 hours of TV material, plus I watched the Dallas/San Antonio game finish up. I'd like to noter that I think this postseason has proven that Don Nelson is one of the most brilliant coaches of all-time, as long as he's provided with a fleet of capable talent to work with. Phil Jackson is good, better than most, but he''s been blessed with the best player ever (Jordan) and then the most physically dominant player ever (Shaq, at least when he weighs less than 400 pounds) and one of the best players of today (Kobe). Nellie never had much to work with at Golden State, though he had a little bit of postseason success there. This Dallas team, though... their ability to adapt to whatever they're facing that particular night is Borg-like. It takes them about 1½ quarters to warm up, and then once they have their plan formulated, watch out. San Antonio has proven their toughest opponent yet, and here's why: You can slow down their stars but the supporting cast is good enough to get the job done anyway. In my opinion, if the Lakers had beaten San Antonio, Dallas would have shredded them. After 4 or 5 spots on the Lakers' roster, the talent level drops WAY off. I mean, seriously, people: Mark Madsen? Slava Medvedenko? Devean George? These guys aren't riding the end of the bench waiting for mop-up duty (that job goes to Tracy Murray and Jannero Pargo); they get serious playing time. Actually, they solely exist as extra bodies on defense, since Kobe and Shaq basically constitute 75% of the team's offense, with Fisher, Fox, and Horry supplying most of the rest.

Philadelphia has proved that, if you've got a star who wants to handle the ball for 47 out of the 48 minutes out of a game, you can't bend to their wishes and surround them with players who don't mind never handling the rock except to rebound it and pass to Iverson. LA was heading in that direction, and it bit them in the ass this postseason. Look, I'm sorry.... Mark Madsen's got mad moves on the dance floor, but he's NOT a viable offensive option, and he's not exactly shining on defense, either. Anyway, back to my original point... You can try and slow down Tim Duncan (and it can be done, albeit difficultly), but the backup crew on the Spurs, though most of them are relative unknowns, can give you trouble, too. These guys WERE the last team not coached by Phil Jackson to win a title (although they carry the asterisk of doing it in the lockout year of 1999).