Can you believe that tomorrow is September 1? Perhaps that explains why the low temperature, up in the northern reaches of the great state of Minnesota, got down into the low 30s this weekend and frost warnings were issued for about a third of the state. The fact September is nearly upon us also can be evidenced by the fact we "cooled" the entire house, over the weekend, by simply opening the windows. September! Wow...

And as much as it seems odd to start a blog on a Monday morning by posting a photo of a brilliant sunset, we'll just stretch the analogy to illustrate how the sun is setting on yet another summer of our lives. Okay, for all of you in the southern part of the country I know it's hard to yet even envision the coming autumn and for the sizable group of you in the southern hemisphere (g'day down there) it's actually about to become spring, but the whole September thing has me in a sort of mixed-up mood. I love autumn and winter up here, so I'm excited for that, but it seems like these summers fly by so fast they're gone before you're even accustomed to them, and each one represents another year on this planet for me. My 53rd such summer is ending... Gosh, I hardly knew ya, 53rd summer.

Let it also be noted that I did not take that incredible sunset photo, although the same view would've confronted me from our driveway had I been home on the night such a spectacular view presented itself. Dave knew Barbara and I had gone to the Twins game, so he went out front and took the shot, then e-mailed it to me. The colors are stunning, but the swirl of the clouds is the key, I think.

Well, it's not only the last day of August, it's also the first day of Indy Week, and I'll be heading down to the new Indianapolis Airport on Thursday. This will be a first for me, since we missed the opening of the new terminal by just a few weeks last year, and I'm looking forward to seeing the new place. It's on the same property, but was simply built on the other side of the runways. Wonder if it still has that "new airport smell"?

Once I'm there, I'll have plenty of things to do upon arrival, but it will be a while before we have some real fun. Indy, of course, is an extra day long, so we make one qualifying pass on Friday, two on Saturday, two on Sunday, and then race on Monday (duh, like I'm telling you something you don't already know). Our lone session on Friday isn't until 7 p.m., so it's gonna be a while between arrival and blast-off.

Looks like 19 Funny Cars are entered, with the likes of Justin Schriefer, Brian Thiel, and my old Kiwi buddy Grant Downing in attendance to provide the added competition. In terms of the points, fans of the nitro classes will have their eyes firmly focused on the battle for the last spots in the Countdown, both in Funny Car and Top Fuel. Here in the FC class, Mike Neff has given himself a large enough cushion to be safe (he's in 9th, with a 102-point lead on the 11th-place driver, Matt Hagan) so it's really going to come down to Cruz Pedregon in 10th, trying to fend off Hagan and Robert Hight, who come into the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals 31 and 38 points out of the 10th spot, respectively.

For Cruz, all he has to do is qualify and maintain the status quo. For either of the other two, they need to go two rounds further than Cruz to overtake him, and Hight's challenge could be made even harder if Cruz were to out-qualify him by enough spots to pick up another three points. That means, if Cruz were to qualify in the top four spots, and Hight were to end up in the bottom half, the lead would be at least 41 points, and Hight would have to go three rounds further than Cruz. The Advance Auto Parts team is in a pretty strong position, but this thing could easily come down to crunch time on Monday, and what if either Hagan or Hight were to be matched up with Cruz in round one? That would be huge...

In Top Fuel, there are only two drivers in the fight for the last spot, but the difference is razor thin, over there. It's Clay Millican in 10th, but Joe Hartley is only three measly little points behind. Their positions could easily be reversed, or they could be tied, after qualifying. As tight as it is in FC, it's microscopic for those guys. And, it all just adds more drama to the greatest spectacle in drag racing. That's why we call it The Big Go.

I'm making a sharp turn here, so hold on... This is a note about the economy and things that bring us comfort. It certainly looks to me (and to a lot of economic experts) like we've turned the corner and have seen the worst of our near-implosion with the economy, but there's still a lot of ground to make up and things remain tight in a lot of households. Perhaps, if there is a silver lining to what we've all just gone through, it's that most of us were forced to take stock in how we handle our finances and what really is important, in terms of spending. I'd like to think those lessons will carry forward with us, but I'm also a realist and I suspect many of these hardships will be forgotten once the economy is roaring again and everyone starts singing "We're in the money, we're in the money..."

Anyway, what's noteworthy about these times is the desire for people to find places and things that bring them true comfort, instead of instant yet hollow gratification that fades too fast and leaves us hungrier than when we started. Witness the Minnesota State Fair, going on right now here in the Twin Cities. It's a wonderful event, and probably is the world capital for all kinds of food that can be served on a stick, but it's also burned deep into the DNA of countless Minnesotans who have been attending for generations. So far, blessed with good weather, the fair isn't just breaking its attendance records but obliterating them. It is (I just learned, by visiting the Fair's website) the most highly attended state fair in the country, but even by Minnesota's standards the crowd on opening day was mega-large. 114,439 people stepped through the gates last Thursday, and that's an opening day record. This past Saturday, 189,077 fair goers were on-site. It's all just further evidence that people find and hold onto what's most comfortable to them, in times when they need to feel a little better and smile.

Okay, back to the subject so many of you have been waiting for... The satellite-image geography quiz from last Friday. Based on the number of e-mails I received, and the answers listed on those e-mails, I can deduce two things. 1) A lot of people really enjoyed challenging themselves to figure out what they were looking at. 2) I made the images and the clues far too easy.

I have no trouble believing the reports we read that say today's elementary and high school kids, by and large, can't find Canada on a map. Since Canada rarely text messages them, they have no need to befriend it or know its whereabouts. But adult folks like us, who weren't text messaging the kid sitting right next to us in geography class (I actually communicated by writing notes on scraps of paper!), apparently paid attention and had little problem with the quiz.

Kevin Hill was the first to respond, and, like the vast majority, he aced the test. Plus, I do believe his 11 correct answers arrived no more than a few minutes after the blog had been posted. Many others got 'em all right, as well, but I do give extra credit to those who went with the longer and more "official" answers for a couple of them. Gold stars for all of you. Here are the correct answers:

1. The site of Woodstock (many correctly identified it by its current name, the Woodstock Performing Arts Center, and a few included its original name, Max Yazgur's dairy farm near Bethel, N.Y.)

2. The White House

3. The 18th hole at Pebble Beach

4. Holes 11, 12, and 13 at Augusta National (home of The Master's) collectively known as "Amen Corner"

5. Wimbledon (full name: The All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club)

6. Pearl Harbor, with both the USS Missouri (now a museum) and the Arizona Memorial visible

7. Central Park, in New York

8. Statue of Liberty

9. Fenway Park, in Boston

10. Niagara Falls

11. EPCOT, at Disney World (almost everyone knew it was a Disney attraction, but only a few specifically noted it was EPCOT)

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Well, time to get cranking on my pre-Indy feature story. I'm in that mental space where bits and pieces of concepts are floating around in my head, but nothing has coalesced into anything "real" yet, so I'm still waiting for inspiration. Maybe lunch will help, as a catalyst for creativity.

Obviously, the theme will be about the points. It will be a huge race for us, after having lost those two microscopically unlucky races in Brainerd and Reading, and we need to enter the Countdown on a high note, that's for sure. Right now, we sit in 6th place, but we're only 14 points behind Fast Jack Beckman in 5th, and only 26 points behind our teammate, Bob Tasca, who is 4th. Looking behind us, Del Worsham is in 7th, and he's 53 points back, while John Force is 63 behind us. That's three rounds for Del to make up, and possibly four for John, unless he picks up a few qualifying points on us. Either way, we just have to go some rounds and we'll accomplish two things... We'll have a good shot at moving back up into 5th or 4th, and we'll keep Del and John behind us.

I think you can sum it all up by admitting that calculators are going to be readily at hand, in a lot of pit areas, all weekend.

Finally, many of you non-cat lovers may find this hard to believe, but the single most common request I've had, over the past few days, is to post something new of Da Boyce. Like any father with adorable kids, I easily take more pictures of Boofus and Buster than I do of any other subject, and I'd love to put about 400 of them in a mega-gallery for you, but I shall instead select one new photograph, taken yesterday as both guys hung out with me in my office for a while. They were extremely busy sniffing the cool air and watching the birds, but they agreed to look my way for just a split second, so that I could click off one photo, before returning to their instinctive pursuits. Buster, who is closer to the camera, is featuring his standard and overly bored "Oh come on, enough with the paparazzi stuff" look, while Boofie simply has his normal "What? Huh? What's goin' on?" face. Such different personalities, but such good boyz...

Take a shot at today's quiz if you like, and we'll blog again later in the week. If you get stuck and want hints, just fire away.

And then keep those calculators handy once qualifying begins on Friday.

Wilber, out!