If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

Believe it not, we still have 10 people eligible to win our $4 Gas Guess game. And despite the cost, people are still taking summer vacations.

I know because the postcards tell me.

Good friend Buddy Lindsey , of Washington, Ga., sends a card from St. Augustine, Fla., where he was spending time with children and grandchildren. "Eight adults; eight grandkids -- very exciting," he writes.

James and Camilla Hooper , of Edgefield, S.C., visited New York, New Jersey and Delaware along with granddaughters Janae and Jasmine Sanders of Greenville, N.C., and sent cards from all three places.

Not far away were Carole and Dave Davies , of Augusta, who sent a card from Ocean City, Md. The John H. Lewis family, of Louisville, Ga., sends greetings from "lovely, green West Virginia." They say the motto is true, "It is almost Heaven."

In Pennsylvania were Cathy Neal and Winnie McIlvried , who took their sweet time in Hershey. They also sent a card from Appomattox, Va.

Bob and Gayle Foster say it's beautiful and so cool they're wearing jackets in Canada's Banff National Park. Also in Canada were Pat and Wayne Fuller , who visited Victoria, British Columbia.

Pat Van Hooser , of North Augusta, sends a unique card from San Francisco -- showing Alcatraz prison. "Anyone can send a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge," she writes. She also sent a card from Kansas, where sunflowers are big.

That's the same thing Rob Evans found out. He was in Fort Scott, Kan., where there is not a skateboard park to be found. He also says there is water standing in every yard, every creek is full and every pond is leaking over the top.

Also out West, the Andersons send a card from the Bitterroot Mountains. "Saw eagles nesting on telephone poles."

Carrie and Dave Welter send a card from Reno, Nev., and a request. "Please help us push the cause of hearing loss. We are attending the Hearing Loss Association of America annual convention."

Pete Cakanic , of North Augusta, returned to his hometown of Chicago and says he has found it changed.

"Bill," he writes, "the past 10 years when I came here I stayed in the 'burbs. This time I went to the Loop. I was shocked. to see so much new high rise. The Donald built a new tower, but he's being trumped by a 2,000-foot spire to go up soon. Gas is as high as the building, averaged $4.21 a gallon."

Erving Pangborn , of Augusta, sends a postcard and a photo. He writes: "I want you to have a postcard from Kennebunkport, Maine. My granddaughter and I spent a week ... and I drove a trolley car -- at 90 years old."

Seasonal adventurer "Illinois Jones ," of Lincolnton, Ga., sends a card that shows the Brown's Ferry Nuclear Plant.

Simon Medcalfe not only saved money by vacationing around Augusta, he saved a stamp -- hand-delivering a postcard from Meadow Garden.

And finally, Jim and Barbara Hogan , of McCormick, S.C., are in Seattle for a granddaughter's high school graduation. They say they wish they could send the rain and 50-degree temperatures back to Augusta.

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TODAY'S JOKE: Several surgeons are taking a coffee break.

The first surgeon says: "Accountants are the best to operate on because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."

The second surgeon says: "Nah, librarians are the best. Everything inside them is in alphabetical order.

The third responds: "Try electricians, man! Everything inside them is color coded."

The fourth intercedes: "I prefer lawyers. They're heartless, spineless, gutless and their heads and their butts are interchangeable."

To which the fifth surgeon, who has been quietly listening to the conversation, says: "I like engineers ... they always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end."