Thursday

Hey to the fam in NYC!  An emailed pic could get posted to the blog.

Professional football and basketball now both have labor disputes.  As of midnight tonight, both leagues will be in lock-out.  (Hmmm.  Will the Big O be asked to step in and part the waters?)  Obviously, it's all about the money.  The owners, seeing themselves as businessmen, want to make higher profits.  The players feel like, since it is their performance that makes the machine go, that they should get a bigger/better share of the revenue.  Its the classic dispute.

It's interesting that the public doesn't really reflect as negatively on the players as they do on other labor groups in high-profile situations...think Teamsters or the UAW.  And these pretty-boys make lots of money to play a game.  I think that the public has difficulty processing the fact that the boys in the helmets and jerseys are union participants.  An interesting morality play.

The early ride today was a drudge.  @bcbison was a true friend to pull me around the circuit, and to wait for me at the top of the hills.  In a new twist here at 4000 Days, he is Friend of the Day.  I'm thinking that it was just the moon and the stars, but I definitely am finding it tougher sledding this year.  I'm working on an intrinsical equation of age, mileage and barometric pressure to re-set my gearing ratio.  We live in the Age of Technology.  There's got to be a rear cassette that I can but on the bike to mitigate decreasing skill.

Big heat here tomorrow.   Mid 90's and humid.  I actually turned on the air in the house last night so that I could sleep.  I got too old to crash in the basement.

I have another problem.  The s--ty weather this Spring delayed my planting of any flowers around the driveway-side of my house until this week.  (I do enough to show a little interest, not a lot.)  I wrapped up my effort Tuesday night.  Since then, I've had a ground squirrel visit my begonias in the whiskey barrel twice!  Digging for who knows what, and doing no good for the flora in the barrel.  I either need The Winniferous or a rabbit fence at the top of the barrel. 

Okay, Mark Halperin was out of line.  But is the common nickname for Richard a slur?  Its not a compliment, and ought not to be used on live TV in reference to a President not named Richard, but come on, the guy behind the teleprompter is a Chicago politician! On the stump.  If it was Dubya, it wouldn't even be news.

Make it a good TGIF.

BCOT