VOTE NOW!

There was an extremely bad pop song back in the 70's - "torn between two lovers," with a young female singer deciding between two guys (forget any moral or female power-figure relevance, it was just BAD).

It's easy to choose between one very good and another horrible situation, but not when the running is close. I can't believe I am going to mention this, but in "America's Got Talent," the contestants have been narrowed down to actually all pretty good performers, and it is more difficult to choose who I/you/us would like to win (although I have not stooped low enough to call 866-223-0110 to make my vote count... give me another week).

Actually, my son-in-law and I have been watching it together, and it is a lot of fun to argue about whether the opera singer is better than the flaming baton twirler (my money is on the batons) instead of Kurds in Afghanistan. It's a fun distraction, an escape from the presidential race and makes us feel good about doing something for the environment simply through watching commercials that talk about doing something for the environment ("No action on your part is necessary, you are reducing green-house emissions simply by sitting there on your fat ass watching this expensive commercial!").

But I am faced with a little bit of a heavy decision right now. On one hand, I have two incredible grandchildren to play with, I am in Hawaii, I have access (most of the time) to a RAPID Internet access as well as a car, and have been promised an opening night party for the session premiere of "The Office."

On the other hand, I have a eight+ hour flight back, a six-hour drive home, a clinically depressed spouse, an obese and argumentative ("no, I'm not arguing!") offspring - as well, on the positive side, two horses, one dog and one cat that I seriously love, Arizona lack-of-humidity, my own bed, own bathroom, and ESPECIALLY my own tub, my "The Office" DVDs as well as my own computer (although with the slowest Internet access in the continental United States).

So cast your votes now! Call 1-520-226-6074, and YOU decide what will be Hope's decision! Call NOW - operators are standing by!