The TdF ends today in Paris. The next big race will be in some court house where they will be digging into Landis' allegations. Can there be any winners in that contest?
My challenge for the day will be to prep and then re-stain my deck. The heat and humidy look to be a little less awful today, and the deck is a mess. The stain that I use is paint-like in color to match the slate-gray of the siding on my house, but it doesn't do as good of a job of soaking into the wood like the clear stuff, and it flakes off after a year or so. Ergo, today's job.
In addition to the normal, several heat-related hospitalizations, there was one death in yesterday's Bix run. Heart attack. A 41 year-old male from a near-by town. He was a wrestling coach and apparently not in that bad of physical shape except for some knee issues. The race was run in the rain, so conditions were not as bad as if there was full sun. So I guess the lesson is, always, Be careful Out There.
Here's a season-appropriate Top Ten list of hottest days in my memory:
1. Summer, mid-1980's. Driving Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson with my pals Jake and Kirk. When we stopped to re-fill the beer cooler, my shoes made impressions on the parking lot asphalt.
2. RAGBRAI. Circa 2000. 85 or so miles from Decorah to Manchester. Hills. Headwinds. Heat. Hangover. If there had been a truck picking up roadkill on those last 10 miles, I would have been the first piece collected.
3. Summers, mid-1960's. The hay mow on the farm. Stifling when stacking bales in the upper reaches of the barn.
4. Summer, 1936. Iowa. Okay. I wasn't there. But Mother and Daddy always talked about it!
5. New Orleans, June 1971. Down there to visit a college girlfriend. Couldn't believe the humidity.
6. Miami, March 1969. Spring baseball trip with The Irish. First experience in the South. Stepping off the plane was like getting smacked in the nose. (Leaving C-town in a snow-storm may have contributed to the effects.)
7. Ft. Lauderdale, circa Smmer 1985. With my pals Wally and Jake. On Wally's 50+ foot yacht that he was preparing to sell. That was where I learned to pour my beer into a glass of ice.
8. Kunsan, Korea, Summer 1974. USAF. Misery on the Yellow Sea.
9. Walsh High gym, Summer 1989. All-class reunion basketball game. A steam bath. (And I wasn't even playing because of the knee surgery. That was the time 3 went into the deep end at the pool at the Holiday Inn.)
10. South Dakota, maybe 1990. Family vacation to see The Four Heads. Towels would dry outside in about three minutes.
So I need to head out and get productive. Enjoy the day.
BCOT
1 comment:
i remember #10! i thought the towels drying so fast was cool! st. louis was pretty hot last summer, especially in the bleacher seats at the noon game-but you wouldn't know that b/c you were in the hotel lobby!
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