The centerline track now passes 600 yards to the West of me.

I’m heading to the store now to get some supplies and a couple drums of fuel.

Then I’m going to play in the boat till the storm comes. Time to catch some fish and shrimp.

Today in History.

1626 The Danes are crushed by the Catholic League in Germany, marking the end of Danish intervention in European wars.

1776 The Americans are defeated by the British at the Battle of Long Island, New York.

1793. Maximilien Robespierre is elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris, France.

1813. The Allies defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Dresden.

1861. Union troops make an amphibious landing at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1862. As the Second Battle of Bull Run rages, Confederate soldiers attack Loudoun County, Virginia.

1881. New York state's Pure Food Law goes into effect to prevent "the adulteration of food or drugs."

1894. The United States congress passes an income tax law as part of a general tariff act, but it is found unconstitutional.

1910. Thomas Edison demonstrates the first "talking" pictures--using a phonograph--in his New Jersey laboratory.

1912. Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes first appears in a magazine.

1916. Italy declares war on Germany.

1928. Fifteen nations sign the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, outlawing war and calling for the settlement of disputes through arbitration. Forty-seven other countries eventually sign the pact.

1941. The Prime Minister of Japan, Fumimaro Konoye, issues an invitation for a meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt.

1945. B-29 Superfortress bombers begin to drop supplies into Allied prisoner of war camps in China.

1963. Cambodia severs ties with South Vietnam.

1975. Veronica & Colin Scargill of England complete tandem bicycle ride around the world, a record 18,020 miles (29,000.4 km).

1979. Lord Mountbatten is killed by an Irish terrorist bomb in his sail boat in Sligo, Ireland.
1984 President Ronald Reagan announces NASA Teacher in Space project, intended to inspire students and honor teachers and spur interest in the fields of science, mathematics and space exploration.

1989. Chuck Berry performs his tune Johnny B. Goode for NASA staff in celebration of Voyager II's encounter with the planet Neptune.

1991
Moldavia declares independence from USSR.

1993
The Rainbow Bridge, a 1,870-foot suspension bridge over Tokyo Bay, completed.

2003
Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing within 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km).

2008
Democrats nominate Barack Obama for president, first African American nominated by a major political party for the office of President of the United States.

2012
First interplanetary human voice recording is broadcast from the Mars Rover Curiosity.

Joke of the Day.

An Italian workman wants a job, but the foreman won't hire him until he passes a little math test. Here's your first question,' the foreman said. 'Without using numbers, represent the number 9.'

'Withouta numbers?' the Italian says, 'Datsa easy.' and he proceeds to draw three trees.

'What's this?' the boss asks.

'Ave you gotta no brain? Tree and tree and tree makes a nine,' says the Italian.

'Fair enough,' says the boss. 'Here's your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99.'

The Italian stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree . 'Ere you go.'

The boss scratches his head and says, 'How on earth do you get that to represent 99?' '

Eacha of da trees is a dirty now. So, it's dirty tree, and dirty tree, and dirty tree. Datsa a 99.'

The boss is getting worried that he's going to actually have to hire this Italian, so he says, 'All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100.'

The Italian stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, 'Ere you go. One hundred.'

The boss looks at the attempt. 'You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!'

The Italian leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and says, 'A little doga come along and shita by eacha tree.

So now you gota dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, data makea one hundred. So, whenna I start?