I awoke today to two scary news items concerning Houston. First, that a state of Texas district judge recently issued an order to shut down a Houston gentlemen’s club based upon the city’s sexually oriented business ordinance passed in 1997. Dang, doesn’t that particular state judge know about America’s First Amendment? Didn’t Houston’s legislators know or care about it, either? Maybe those city legislators and any-and-all present elected officials of Houston who don’t respect the rights of the citizens or the Constitution need to be voted out of office ASAP! This is terrible freedom-robbing news.

The other matter today concerns Hurricane Ike, which is heading towards Texas as I write this, and seems aimed at Houston. Yikes! I hope the hurricane will weaken considerably before landfall and that the people in and near Houston will be safe from this hurricane, as well as from future weather-related problems. I hope the elected city officials will put meaningful measures and assistance in place to protect the citizens, unlike what they and/or past legislators have done to the citizens by the action in the above paragraph.

Stay safe, everybody; that goes for everyone, not just folks in the Gulf States presently sweating out incoming or forming and threatening hurricanes!

Regular readers of this column might recall that I did a police “ride-along” in mid-2007, one in which I was highly impressed by the professionalism of the police here in San Diego. Well, I did another 10-hour shift a couple of weeks ago. Besides the fun of responding to calls, some of which required high speed driving by the officer I accompanied, I again witnessed the efficiencies and genuine caring and exacting effectiveness of police officers protecting citizens and the city. I’m amazed by how capable they are at multitasking and handling stress and potentially explosive situations. I applaud police officers, and respect them and their dedication to protecting and assisting the citizens they so adroitly serve. I also am in awe at the talented dispatchers who take incoming 911 calls and guide the officers to the scenes.

Last weekend, I traveled to Saratoga Springs, New York to attend the 50th reunion of my high school class of 144 graduates. What a blast I had. It was highly nostalgic and full of happy people. Most of us are now 68 years old, so we have lost 30 of our classmates whom we remembered appropriately during the Friday night cocktail gathering, the Saturday guided tour of “our” city which included a visit to our former Saratoga High School, and the Saturday night dinner dance.

Interestingly, our former high school building (which is now an elementary school) has been renovated to the way it was in the 1950s, something that had the 45 of us visitors to it that afternoon feeling somewhat like we had gone back to 1958. The present principal welcomed and briefed us, and then gave us master keys to the entire school so that we could access our former homerooms, classrooms, study halls, gym, cafeteria, assembly auditorium, etc. Of course, we also wanted to see inside “that” faculty-only room that we never were allowed into while students there.

Being in the gym was memorable due to that facility also being the venue for school dances, one where the girls often congregated under the basketball hoop at the north end and we guys were at the other end of the court. Walking the length of the court to ask a girl to dance was stressful because if she refused it meant slinking back to the boys side, where the kidding/ball-busting was unmerciful at times.

I had first met my wife (we were married from 1963-1985) at a dance in that gym. Our reunion class had graduates who are physicians, nurses, teachers, retired military officers, a B-52 and 747 pilot, police officers, attorneys, etc. — and most attendees knew of my present “occupation” and were full of questions and excitement about it, some of which were inspired by them seeing me on HBO the night before the reunion. And, yes, seeing former classmates reassured me that my personal loss of hair and gain of weight and wrinkles was not unlike many others in my class. A number of my classmates are cousins, so it was especially nice to see them again. In 1958, Saratoga Springs had a population of only 13,000; my dad was one of seven children raised there and my mom was one of 21 children, so finding a non-cousin/relative to date wasn’t easy in high school.

The week prior to the reunion was also a fun one. It included a drive to Los Angeles to be in a photo shoot with the stunningly gorgeous and personable Abbey Brooks (check out her www.abbeybrooks.com site) which was also filmed by a crew and reporter from Inside Edition for a future segment about me -— they have since spent a day here in San Diego following me around and filming “a day in the life of Dave Cummings.”

The next day was a fun hardcore shoot for director Bobby Rinaldi of www.wildlifexxx.com. The day before the flight to the reunion, I drove to Pasadena to do dialogue and be in a sex scene with India Summer for director Stormy Daniels of Wicked Pictures in a feature titled Operation Tropical Stormy. To prep myself for the dialogue and tone, the preceding night I watched Operation Desert Stormy, which won the AVN Award for Best Comedy in 2007.

I have to tell you that Stormy Daniels is one super-fine actress who truly deserves all the accolades she’s constantly receiving. Having played the role of Stormy’s husband in the recent release of Wicked Pictures Bound, I marvel at her breadth of acting expertise and ability to handle serious roles as well as comedy ones. Stormy Daniels is one very intelligent, sexy, and talented woman/writer/director/actress!

Elections are just around the corner. EVERY ONE of us should vote, especially since adult entertainment is presently being attacked so viciously by local, state, and federal elected officials. Let’s all do our share to vote out the scumbags who impede citizen access to legitimate adult entertain. Every vote counts. YOUR vote is indeed crucial to American freedom. Don’t put off getting registered. DO vote — PLEASE!!!