LAST DAY ON MIDNIGHTS AND SARATOGA

Good day to you, my people:
Today is another beautiful day in the Northeast. My NY Mets, despite their loss last night, still hold a double-digit lead in the NL East. The NFL training camps open this week, which means the Fantasy Football season is within sight. Tomorrow (Wednesday 7/26), the Saratoga Flat Track, the oldest horse racing track in the country, will open its gates for the 6-week summer season. If you've never been to Saratoga in the summer, you've missed out on a beautiful and exciting part of our country.

The Saratoga Flat Track is a great place to spend a day during the month of August. From watching early morning workouts and eating breakfast, to watching and wagering on high-stakes horse races beginning at 1:00 p.m. everyday (except Tuesdays), is really alot of fun. The track provides the perfect venue for people watching. From the richest of the rich, to the lowest of classic white-trash, you can find it all at the Track. It's one of the few places I know where you can see people dressed in $500 dresses, high heels and hats, and $1000 Armani suits standing next to (but not usually talking to) some guy in cutoff jeans and a wife-beater shirt and his chain smoking girlfriend with too much eye-liner and a couple of missing teeth. The food vendors charge too much...but it's good. You bring a folding chair and a cooler, buy a program and the Daily Racing Form, stake out a place to sit near the Paddock and enjoy the day. We usually place our bets and choose between watching the race on the Jumbo-Trons near the Paddock and going into the Grandstand and watching the horses race live. It really gets exciting when the horses round the turn and head for the stretch and the crowd noise begins to swell with people shouting their horse's name or number, hoping it won't be a photo finish...thus prolonging their agony. The best days to go are Thursdays and Fridays because there is room to move, but usually still a decent sized crowd. The absolute WORST day to go is the Saturday that they run the Travers Stakes, also known as the Mid-Summer Derby. Just too many people.

So, if you're ever in the Northeast in the month of August, you owe it to yourself to try to get to Saratoga for a day of fun, people watching and great horse racing. And....if you're lucky, you may also run into our friend, Chuck the Edge of Darkness, who will be prowling the grounds as a member of the H. James Bond Trainer group. He'll be the one wearing the Royal blue LEN IS RIGHT tee-shirt. Soon, you'll be able to get your very own Len Is Right tee-shirt, so you can prove to your friends that YOU, TOO, are Right.

MY TIME ON MIDNIGHTS COMES TO AN END
Tonight I work my last night on the midnight shift. Because of a type of downsizing at Amtrak Rensselaer, my job was abolished and I had to make a bump, exercising my seniority, and take a vacation-relief job. I am somewhat sad to be leaving the shift because my close friend, Roy the G.B King, works the shift along with my work partner Tim G. I also work with a bunch of other good people (like BVA, Craig the Brick City Dawg, Claus and El Greco). We all do alot of laughing while we try to make it through another day of Railroad stupidity.

I am happy to be leaving because I will be able to get back on a normal-person's sleep schedule and maybe my body will start to feel a little better. I've suffered a loss of mental sharpness over the last year, because of a lack of sleep. I don't think humans should work a 3rd shift, although I realize that in many places it is necessary to have a 3rd shift. And actually, a majority of the people that work the midnight shift are there by choice, because it allows them to work a second job, or they don't get along with management on other shifts, or they don't want to miss any family activities because they are working on the 2nd shift.

There are many Pros and Cons to working 3rd Shift. For me, it started to wear on my body and it was only allowing me to actually sleep with my wife 2 nights per week. While that would work for some couples, it's become a drag for us. August 3 will be our 20th Wedding Anniversary and not being home while the rest of the family sleeps got to be a bit much. Since I will be working the vacation-relief job, I will bounce around on all 3 shifts. But normally I will be on the Day shift with weekends off just like a normal member of the working public.

I'd like to take this time to say a fond farewell to my co-workers on the 3rd Shift. I've enjoyed, for the most part, working and interacting with you. I hope you won't skewer my replacement too harshly.

THE GRADUATION PARTY
This past Saturday was the Graduation party for Skyler, son of the G.B. King and Meghan, daughter of the Edge of Darkness. Although it rained most of the day, it did not deter the kids from swimming all day. The food was great, the beer flowed and the conversations were fun. We played a bunch of bocce and even were lucky enough to get a little Texas Hold-'Em tourney in. (I played poorly) But best of all, some of the attendees received their new Royal blue LEN IS RIGHT TEE-SHIRTS. Only the priviledged got the first printing as gifts. Hopefully soon, this great garment will be available to the General Public for purchase. When that happens, you need to grab one, if only to prove that you know the truth, and to alert people to the fact that the movement has started.

THE LEN IS RIGHT MOVEMENT HAS STARTED
Learn it. Live It. Love It. Why? Because LEN IS RIGHT!!
Try to live in Peace. And if you can't, make sure you choke the other guy first.
I am,
Len Tollerton