Folks,
Dux:

Pay....did you say pay? As in fork over coins of the realm in trade for goods? As in stoop to monetarily participating in commerce? As in offering my custom for a product? Sacrilege!

Although you somehow always manage to be absent from every one, we look forward to more photos of your birding adventures all across the UK. It is too hot here for birding. C51 is also suffering from the heat wave that has stricken the eastern half of the US and Canada. Up north they are getting some stormy weather too. It is a balmy 102F./ 39 C. here this Saturday afternoon in June. If the hammock were not ablaze it might be a great time for doing some testing.

T. says that sticky problem with your truss rod is familiar to him alright. You have a case of the dreaded "fret buzz" he says. He thinks his pal D. would be happy to repair it for you, if you'd just swim over here with it this weekend. If the neck is bowed out one way you do this and if its bowed the other you do another.... I'm sure you have placed it in competent hands. Frankly, after the team of T. and D. got through with it you'd likely have one heck of a good sounding banjo.

C51 has done no birding however he writes that he stumbled into a liquor store by mistake this weekend. He was looking for the small chapel next door. I understand that because he was unfamiliar with such an establishment he took a moment to browse. To his great pleasure he noticed several bottles of Spitfire Kentish Ale. As they were being offered at a reasonable price he tells me that he scoffed them up and returned home to his little Toronto hovel where he and a good pal toasted us all. He says it was almost like sitting here in the HWH officers bar with us.

I understand from watching the BBC TV news that folks in the UK are also suffering from increasing fuel prices and of course you lot were already paying much higher prices than ours to begin with. Diesel is a good bit higher priced here than gas as well. About $4.50 per gallon. Prices vary. There is a website where you can find the lowest prices for gas in your own neighborhood of the US. http://www.gaspricewatch.com.

I well remember the last great 'gas crisis'. I had a 40 mile drive round trip commute to work back then and I stood in long lines like everyone else but did pretty well until the last weekend of shortages (when gas reached a certain price all the gas we needed suddenly appeared at the pumps). On that last Friday afternoon I was about a third of the way home and running on nothing but fumes when I spotted a little gas station with just one pump that I had never noticed before. I pulled in and I put in a tankful just 5 minutes before they closed.

There was indeed a great deal of fuel stolen from cars parked by the roadside, left in unattended parking lots and even cars parked in folk's driveways. Everyone had locking gas caps installed. Hint: If you have any pounds left over after buying petrol this week you might want to invest in a company that makes those gas caps.;)