Thursday...CORRECTED...Sorry About that, Kiddo!

So here is official recognition of the poorly kept secret that 3 and Herky became engaged this week.  I guess that's enough news to make 3 Daughter of the Day!!  And we'll give Herky second billing as Fiance of the Day for making his move!  It seems that the big question was asked and answered Tuesday afternoon on the overlook on Mt. Rose Highway just above Incline Village.  Lots of very happy people in the fam.

We've got no details on date or location for the big day.  Should be next Summer.  Those of you who follow her on Facebook may have more details than I have given here.

The program here has been everything that I anticipated.  The Friday NYT puzzle should get me through the morning sessions.  The wrap-up speaker at 1100 hours is Kansas b-ball coach Bill Self.  I'm actually looking forward to that presentation.  Maybe an admiring pic for a fan?

Speaking of cameras (or their function),  I was digging through my computer bag at one point this AM for a pen, and in one of the recesses of one of the side pockets, I found the spare battery to the mini-digi that I thought I lost two years ago!  This is a small  follow-up on an entry from a year or so ago when I couldn't find anything, even that which I set aside specifically to find.

Tomorrow (Friday) is 4's last day for KLKN-TV in Lincoln.  I'm guessing that her case of Short Timer's Disease is pretty much out of control at this point.

Headed North after lunch.  I plan to jump off I-35 and spend a couple of hours on the hills in Southern Iowa to catch up on my mileage.  DM tomorrow night.

BCOT

Wednesday

Coming to you from KC.  Hot KC.  104 on the car thermometer around 6 this evening.

Three years ago when I was here for this meeting, the weather was just as hot, I left a newspaper on the back seat, and the heat "melted" the newsprint and made a permanent stain on my leather seats.  4's story on the wine problems on her trip home from fff earlier this month registered, and I took my travel bottles into the conference for the afternoon rather than risk a similar fate.  (I'm staying at a hotel down the street from the conference center and hadn't checked in before going to the meeting.)

When I cut South just after Adventureland around 1000 this morning to bypass DM, I ran into a bit of the RAGBRAI-support-vehicle caravan as those folks began getting into Altoona to pitch tents for the bikers.  My pal Ron texted tonight from their party's fancy dinner at Noah's Ark in DM, a place I've been to several times.  @bcbison was to catch up with the ride today as well.  (As I predicted, Lance's visit to the ride was pretty brief.  The stories in the DM Register were pretty muted.)

I noticed today that the front page of the Register now carries in its front page banner the tag line, "The News Iowa Depends Upon."  This in contrast to the former tag line, "The Newspaper Iowa Depends Upon."  I don't know if there were some copyright issues with the old saying, or whether the ownership simply chose to recognize its reduced presence in the state.  Whatever.  Today's Register is a shadow of its former self. 

3 reports that they were at the Silver Oak winery in Napa today.  Heady stuff.

I listened to a Vince Flynn book-on-CD on my drive today.  By far not the worst book that I've listened to over the years, but his style is pretty much beach-fluff.  Grisham-ish, if you will.  Easy reading, but you feel hungry again right after the meal.  And not for more of the same thing.

My tentative plan is to try to get a ride in before the sessions begin in the morning. Over/Under on getting in 18 miles?  Better than 50%.

Thursday is 4's Tax Last Day for her job in Lincoln.  Not sure where that falls on the hit parade.

BCOT

Tuesday...UPDATED

I wrote most of this on Monday evening, but I cut away for a walk with The Winniferous, and never got back to it.  The perils of semi-dog-ownership!

Here's a blog rendition of a Twitter pic from 2 from Monday afternoon down on the South Shore.  I guess I'll wait until I see 2 before I can post up a few more photos from the Tahoe gathering.  I think this one was a toast to my pal Wally whom many of you may only know as the wild-card (and non-official) entry from the clan's March Madness contest.

Had another close friend receive a prostate cancer diagnosis within the last few weeks.  My age.  Retired military reserve...full Colonel.  Practicing attorney.  Now scheduled for treatment in C-town with the proton-ray program of some sort.  Prognosis is good, but the road getting there is bumpy.  It all makes you glad for each healthy day.

If the NFL can get a deal done, shouldn't the politicians be able to do so as well?  With apologies to my progressive readers out there (assuming that there are some still there!), the political posturing by the White House is absolutely disingenuous.  The new drinking game should use the Big O's use of the term "corporate jet owners" as the shot-inducing phrase.  You betcha!  If any you out there think that this theater is about anything other than independent voters and the 2012 election, you need to check your medications.

Here's a newly learned factoid about the post-TdF criterium races that are held in the weeks immediately after the Tour at various locations throughout Europe.  The riders are routinely paid to participate, known as appearance fees.  And the winner (and maybe the top three places) are set up in advance! Just like pro wraslin'!!!  Its all about the show.

Lance Armstrong is making a scheduled appearance on RAGBRAI today.  The ride goes from Carroll to Boone.  Click on the image to get something that you can actually read.  70 miles of Iowa-type of flat-to-rollers would take the pro peloton maybe 2.5 hours (or less if they were motivated).  I'd be there in 5, not counting pit stops.

Lance had originally said he'd be in the ride for two days.  My guess is that he will be in-there and outta-there in short order.  He kinda keeps his commitment, but time in central Iowa can't be all that high on his list, regardless of how good the cold beer tastes.

I swapped vehicles with my pal Cal this morning so that I would have the SUV to pull a U-Haul this weekend in Lincoln.  Its a full-sized GMC Yukon like this one.  Nice ride.  The interesting thing is that the instrumentation, dash board and widget-placement is all virtually identical to the Buick's.  So I'm not searching for controls or stuff like I would be if it was a non-GM vehicle.  But it is big!  And to think I spent years driving similarly-sized trucks.  Don't think that it will be a gas saver.

I have lots of organizing and planning to get done today for an oh-dark-hundred departure tomorrow for the rest of the week.  I wonder what I will forget?  I have this internal check-list that has become pretty standard over the last 3-4 years, but if I don't write it down, I invariably omit an item or two that I would have preferred to bring along.  Chargers and drugs are at the top of the list.

I'll try to get back on here this evening.  No guarantees.

UPDATE...Not much to add, but not quite ready to call it a day.

My evening has been mostly a bust.  I made the effort to get over to the Illinois side for a visitation for a one-time client.  But the line was almost out the door, not moving, and I didn't have the 90 minutes that it would have taken to get to the family.  Then I had to go all the way to Rock Island to get back to Iowa because of traffic on the I-74 bridge.  There were a couple of other errands, and walks with The W.  I've made the command decision to pack at oh-dark-hundred.

The big news locally is a couple of 13-14 year olds dying by electrocution while detassling in a nearby Illinois corn field.  There's a lot of unknowns at this point, but they seem to have come into contact with some live wires around some big irrigation arms.  I'm guessing that there was some horsing around involved, but nobody is talking as to where or why the live juice was on on machines that weren't irrigating.  So now there are lots of questions for all of the teenage crews that normally perform this work.  If I were a parent, I'd be more than a little concerned.

There are some serious moving parts in the fam over the next few days.  Travel safe, people.  And good luck with the airlines.

BCOT





BCOT

Saturday

Funny day here, weather-wise.  Cloudy early, some showers, then heat and humidity, more clouds, and periods of rain this evening.  Always humidity in the air.

We've had quite a bit of RAGBRAI traffic through town the last few days.  The ride starts tomorrow morning in Glenwood.  I guess that there's a segment of riders who meet up in the destination town and then take other transportation to the western border.  I know that they have a few nuts who actually ride to the western border and turn around to make the RAGBRAI ride back to the Mississippi.

The TdF ends tomorrow morning in Paris.  The stage is generally ceremonial, although the sprinters normally have a last shot at a stage win.  My bet would be on Mark Cavendish, the Manxman.  He's won the last stage each of the last two years.  The overall winner should be Cadel Evans.  He performed best among the contenders in the individual time trial today, as expected, and has a couple of minute lead.  He could only lose if he crashes, or has some other catastrophic problem.. Since I have been following the Tour, nothing has happened on the last day.

Sounds like 3 and Herky had an exciting day making their way from NYC to Reno.  (I am told that this is a true pic of 2 and 3 at the Incline Village Hyatt this evening.  I'll update it when a suitable replacement is received.)  Travel is such a pain.  The airlines are uniformly unreliable.  Surprised that it happened on an early Saturday morning.  My experience has been that it's a 50-50 thing, so I'm guessing that the return flight will be fine.

Have I mentioned here that my cycling computer has been stuck on the function to display kilometers as opposed to miles?  I have to multiply everything by 60% to convert my digital feedback to Anglo figures. There's some combination of buttons to press to get the output shown in English.  I need to pull the owners manual for the computer off the Internet and get the sequence.  (I had the problem with the Buick a few year back, but finally opened the Owner's Manual and it was an easy fix.)

I've been thinking that I am updating my will prior to my departure for Espana.  I did the same thing before 2 and I went to Italy.  I'm double-checking the instructions that I left back then.  Since I have such a large estate, I want to make sure that it will be appropriately divided.  Mt. Rose is still in the plan.  But I'm considering having the stone placed in Ottumwa alongside Margaret and Phil rather than at The Arsenal. Opinions, anyone?  Bueler?

One of my observations while walking The Winniferous has been a really nice flag display on a corner lot South of me on the street that parallels Maplecrest.  (This one isn't it, but you get the idea.)  I spoke with the owner the other night and she said that they had no hassle from the city or the power company.  They have the US, the USAF and Iowa flags.  And a well-designed/constructed, modest rock garden around the poles.  It's a good presentation and I may shamelessly copy it.

So I'm doing DeWitt in the AM with my pal Pete.  I'll get back on the blog from the coffee shop around noon.  There'd better be pics from the para-sailing!

And remember to...

BCOT

Thursday

This was a TdF day that I found it hard to pull away from the coverage on Versus cable.  The last 15 miles were on the route that I took up to the Galibier two years ago.  It was good to see the pain on the faces of the peloton.  The non-climbers came in to the finish over 35 minutes after the winner.  Those last 8 kilometers are not made for cycling!  Painful, but memories that will always be with me.

I also had a dental check-up this morning.  The hygienist was new and was pretty determined to get things done "right".  This led to a longer than normal appointment, and has since made me wonder how much time I have spent in a dentist's chair in my lifetime.  Braces.  False teeth.  Bridges. Root canals.  Extractions.  Regular check-ups.  Over/Under on total hours through age 62...say, 750.  That's a full month.  Hmmm.  Taking the Under, but it could be close.

Over/Under on my out-of-pocket costs for dentists, after age 21. (Whatever my folks spent on braces and other stuff before that age was their costs.)  Including braces for the girls and all dental insurance premiums.  Say $30,000.  Taking the Over.  Not going to add it up.

Hey to the vacationers at Tahoe.  Enjoy.  I know that all of us not there wish that we were.

The Winniferous and I are doing fine.  She is a needy dog!

Since when is supporting a balanced budget extremist thinking?  Just sayin'.

The Buick's radio is new enough that the digital face of the unit will name the singer and the song title as the songs are played.  This technology has been around for quite a while (although the Taurus seems to pre-date the feature).  I suppose that the stations need to have the right technology from the broadcast-end of things to get the proper signal out on the airwaves.  Probably just another application of the digital signal that NCIS is always tracing to the bad guys' phone or computer.

The point of the observation is that I noticed that this artist/title digital announcement is not embedded on the weekly Countdown shows that the local country station plays several times throughout the weekend.  They must get a tape or download a file from the Countdown show's producers that for some reason doesn't lay down that ID feature.  I wonder why?

A tidbit of local interest here in the QCA, one of the honorees in a week-long recognition of important women in Quad Cities sports history was Connie Shafer. http://qctimes.com/sports/high-school/article_7cdf01ee-b288-11e0-9ed0-001cc4c002e0.html  Give her the props.  But she was a strange lady.  My guess; she still is.

Hope Friday is good for all area codes.

BCOT

Wednesday...UPDATED

Happy Anniversary to 1 and 1.1. 

Hard to believe that it has been four years since that great weekend in the TC.  And we have 1.1 to make it even better today.

I know that I owe the crowd an addition to the blog.  Hopefully, I'll be able to do so later today.

Now Later...

Here is another pic of today's honored couple.  Obviously, this one is a little older...last year at the reunion.  1.1 has changed!

I never put the overlap together, but today is also the anniversary of Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon in 1969.  For my generation (and older) the first walk on the moon has always been one of those events where everyone remembered what they were doing at that exact time.  For me, I was playing American Legion baseball in Galesburg, Illinois.

A sidebar in both the sports pages and the financial reports this week has been the suicide of an advisor in Texas who had money (several million in total) for investment from various college basketball coaches.  It got local press because one of the named investors is the Augustana College coach. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/07/19/coaches.investment/ 

The NCAA is interested in this matter because the advisor also ran an AAU program which had several players make it to D-I programs.  Was there a quid-pro-quo to get the recruits if the coaches invested with the advisor?  A bit of a sticky whicket.  And that doesn't even consider the hardship of the coaches now being out of significant money.

Suicide in the financial business is not that uncommon.  We actually had a guy with my broker go over the edge a few years back when a lot of his clients lost tons of dinero on some deals that went South.  And there's always those old cartoons of the brokers jumping out the high rise windows, and getting calls on the way down.

My life for the next week just got a little more complicated.  My live-in visitor has arrived.  2 is leaving at oh-dark-hundred in the AM for her flight to Reno (leaving out of Midway around 1000 or so).  So The Winniferous and I get to re-new our friendship.

The heat is still on for a couple more days.  My new A/C unit has been a great purchase.  The quality of life on Maplecrest is way up the charts this year.

Finally, I'm thinking that 4 ought to be using these next 10 days to give us some of her highlights from Life in Lincoln over these last two years.  Who can forget these memories?  The first that comes to my mind is her non-graduation graduation.  Did the job require a degree, or just related experience?

OK.  Off to a walk and then bed.  No need for an alarm tomorrow.

BCOT

Sunday

The heat is on. Close to 100 on the thermometer outside my kitchen window.  It wasn't bad on the outward run up to DeWitt this AM, but by the time we got back around 10:15, it was everything that you wanted.  Not sure if optional outdoor activities this afternoon are in order.

Interesting to me that American Century has elected to quietly de-emphasize Lance Armstrong's profile in it's campaign to support The Livestrong Foundation with their sponsorship of the Celebrity Golf Tournament in Lake Tahoe.  They have Livestrong on all of the banners, posters and title shots at commercials, but Lance is noticeably absent (except for at least one non-credited appearance in a cancer spot).  He is under investigation by the government sleuths, and there's been plenty of accusations in the last year or so, but only smoke, not fire, so far.  Hmmm.  Cautiousness at NBC?

Speaking of doping investigations, how bad are the government lawyers in the Roger Clemons case?  I mean, how many hours of discovery, investigation, interrogatories and the like did they do, only to flub the judge's instructions?  The Rocket deserves double-jeopardy protection, even if he is guilty.  I mean, with all this government budget debate, how do they justify those prosecutor salaries?  Not a silly question.

And speaking of the budget debate, I've floated my national sales tax idea to several people this week, and its getting good reviews.  I mean, it gets everybody paying some tax, which is a revenue raiser.  Getting rid of a bunch of the tax deductions hurts the despised rich, and potentially reduces the number of IRS auditors checking on those three-martini-lunch write-offs. (It could also put some CPA's on a new road of some sort as well!)  I wonder what today's quantitative future value would be of a Masters of Science in Taxation degree if we cut 75% of the tax Code out of existence?  Just saying.

While my pal Pete and I rode through LeClaire yesterday, we stopped to look over the new wine bar-coffee shop now being built-out on the main drag.  We actually know the developer.  I'm skeptical.  Do any of those arty little places in LeClaire actually make it?  And don't you need some traffic to make a wine bar work?  And aren't there some dangers of having to drive several miles to drink?  As hard as LeClaire works to make itself a smaller Galena, I'm a non-believer.  Sorry.

Further up the road from LeClaire, I was very nervous, closely following Pete's wheel at 20mph (fast, on a bike, for me not him!) on a road with way too much traffic for a couple of cyclists'  I knew we were passing a little 9-hole golf course on the north/west side of the rode, but I couldn't remember it's name.  Hialeah or something, I thought to myself, too afraid to look up from Pete's rear wheel.

So I finally look over just as we fly by the entrance and see the sign that says "Olathea Golf Course".  Now my point here is, just how is it that the brain has the recollection that has some of the related letters of the name, and some of the phonetics, but not quite the whole thing?  It doesn't happen infrequently with me.  An its not my Sometimers.

I'm guessing that the synapses at work here are the same ones that allow you to read that chart that proves the brain can process the correct words if all the letters are there, even if they aren't in the right order.   http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/cambridge.asp  Actually, they're probably related synapses since we're talking about memory as opposed to word recollection.  An intersting hypothesis, nonetheless.

I'm taking a break for dinner.  Maybe more later.

BCOT

Thursday

Still like the look/feel of that snow storm shown above.

Today was the first BIG day in the mountains for the TdF.  Of three big hills that they went over, one was the target of my bike fantasy trip next month.  The Col de Tourmalet.  As noted earlier, it's not as high as Mt. Rose, but it separated  the men from the boys today.  Luz Ardiden was the next bump that they finished on, and I might try that one too.

I checked out the schedule for next week in the Alps, and they spend a lot of time in the area that I cycled two years ago.  In fact, they go up the Galibier twice!  From both sides.  I don't think they miss too many climbs in them thar hills.  When the Tour gets to Paris on the 24th, anyone who finishes is a full-fledged biker.

I kind of got caught up with the Twittering during the All-Star Game.  I can see how people get hooked on real-time reporting while at events.  Of course, you also have the old, "Does a tree falling in a forest with no one around make any noise?", issue as to whether one person's commentary thrown out into the electronic black hole makes any impact.  With my long list of followers, I'm betting the Under on that one.

One of the unfortunate by-products of last week's NASCAR race in Sparta, Kentucky was a traffic jam/parking cluster of Goliathian proportions.  Some people never made it into the track.  Can you imagine buying tickets for a big show, months in advance, and then find yourself  in a 15-mile back-up on the Interstate?  This was the maiden Sprint car race at the track after years of efforts to get a date.  (The track owner had to swap a date from another track that he owns.)  To say that they un-engineered the process is a slight under-statement.  How many roads do you build for a once-a-year event?  Can you say, car-pool?  Mass transit?  Bureaucracy?  Let's have the brains in DC figure it out!

Speaking of parking problems, is there a more common fact of daily life than one having to park a car? (I mean, if you have a car.)  What did these car lots do before there were cars?  How did Iowa City survive before there were cars?  What part of the GNP is/are parking fees?  I'm thinking Seinfeld episode here.  (Actually, there were several Seinfeld episodes where parking was a non-plot element.  Since it was a show about nothing, how can you have a plot?)  Doesn't the cost of operating a car need to include parking? I mean, if you didn't have a car, you wouldn't have parking costs, would you?

I have a solution to the debt-ceiling/budget debate in DC.  Not Buffet's (don't allow reps to run for re-election if they don't pass a balanced budget), but equally simple.  Let's do a National sales tax.  No exemptions.   Everybody pays.  On everything.  Start at 1 or 2 percent.  Raise it over a period of years to 5%.  Reduce the income tax brackets to a maximum of 25%.  Eliminate most of the tax deductions.  Get rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax.  It broadens the base and gets everyone to put skin in the game. 

This business of 50% of our population not paying tax is not the American way.  You can confiscate all of the income from the "rich" people and the budget is still under water. Taxing the rich is just politics.  They already pay more than their fair share.  If some are paying and others not, how is having only those who pay, pay more, more fair? 

No big plans for Friday.  But it's early.  Make it a good TGIF.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Tuesday

For the early part of this evening, follow my commentary on Twitter. @4kdays.

BCOT

Monday

I figured that it has been so hot and humid lately that my Home Page needed to counter the trend.  I'm already feeling cooler!

Hats off to PGA golfer Steve Stricker who managed to win the local tourney last weekend with a long birdie on the final hole.  He's had quite a three-year run here.  I've played the course several times.  The pros make it look so easy.  For the average golfer, it's a big challenge...lots of woods to get lost in, and plenty of other trouble.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWT8yeHGA0U&feature=related  Here's the TV-car-caused crash from The Tour yesterday.  This was the breakaway group that stayed away, and the guy in green is now wearing the yellow jersey.  Talk about getting involved in the game!

I'm still trying to digest the weekend results.  I'm giving 4 Daughter of the Day honors for sucking it up and getting to KC on the back-way through Kansas in a car with no A/C in 90+ degree temps.  So hot that the Jack London went bubbly!

I'm thinking that future FFF's might require a minimum of three-night stays, especially with the reality that there will always be some elements of the group with travel challenges to face.  Don't know for sure.  But we need to do better than we did last weekend.  Just too many moving parts.

My pal Roy lives in a different world.  He flew to Richmond, Virginia yesterday (private jet, fo' sure) for a round of golf.  Back before my bedtime.  I'm betting that his cost per hole yesterday may have been more than the $5 it would cost you to play the Deere course where Stricker spent his day.

I had an odd email hit my Yahoo account last night about my Chase credit card.  Basically, they wanted a Yea-Nay on the validity of a charge yesterday to my card at a Wal-Mart in Dallas, Texas.  I was concerned about the alert being a scam itself.  Long story short, I called this AM to Chase and they confirmed the validity of the inquiry.  The Texas charge had been dis-allowed, so I didn't suffer any damage.  And they immediately cancelled the card number.

This was the same card that I used Saturday night at PF Chang's in The Plaza, and that I used at the Quick Shop for gas on Sunday morning.  Glad that Chase's system was so vigilant.  But it reminds you that while you may think that you are, you are never truly below radar.

NBC, associated stations, and their "news" personnel are so far in the tank for the President that it's even difficult for me to watch CNBC in the mornings anymore.  They must serve the kool-ade in the cafeteria at The Rock.

Need to hit the hay so that I'm ready for an early ride tomorrow.  It may be a two-a-day kind of day.

BCOT

Sunday -I-35 North

Just before departure from KC late this AM.  I haven't been able to edit the picture, so it's a little darker than it will be after I've been able to get it to my desktop.

Good times for the fam, but muted because of 3's last-minute plane cancellation.  We'll make it work next time, Kiddo.

More later from the 563.

BCOT

Wednesday

 http://www.speedwaymedia.com/?p=13437

Didn't realize that Brooklyn, Iowa money was behind this slice of NASCAR.
 
More later.
 
BCOT

Tuesday

It looks like the NYC travelers have returned to their roosts (if not roots), after a long day with Delta.  So why wouldn't 1 and 3 hit the road tomorrow?  Rolling stones gather no moss.  We are a band of seekers.

I had to take an off-day from training today.  The bod just wasn't ready for the abuse.  I may do penance by doing a two-a-day tomorrow.  The golf does a number on my back, and too many parts ache the next day.

The house where the Sunday night party was held was one of those big old places above River Drive that faces the Mississippi.  At least 100 years old.  Twice as big (or more) as our old place on Scott Street, with three stories and many, many rooms.  The guy who owns it has done a lot of renovations, and has lots more to do.  Just the thought of the toil and trouble that goes into the maintenance of an older home wears me out.  The Money Pit is not a fictional tale. 

I flip the TdF on in the AM at the office, and maybe a little for the replay at night.  I'm pretty sure that you could replay a stage from most anytime in the last 10 years and 98% of the viewers would have no clue of the irrelevance of the race being shown.  Except for a couple of the memorable mountain top finishes with Lance, these stage races look eerily similar from day-to-day, let alone, year-to-year.

Fun factoid: the guy doing color on the TdF broadcasts, Bob Roll, is scheduled to be our speaker here in the QCA for our local bike club's Fall dinner in October.

I always think of the scenery in the movie Chocolat when they do the helicopter shots of the little French towns along the route.  I liked (still do, I guess) Juliette Binoche from that film.

The Derek Jeter Watch is down to four hits to 3,000.  Not that he needs that number for the Hall of Fame, but it is a big deal.  Incredibly, the first Yankee to 3K hits.

Yahoo has redesigned their Mail pages.  As many of you know, I've used my Yahoo account as my primary non-business email for many years.  I think that everyone tries to keep up with Google and Microsoft...with varying amounts of success.  Where's Lycos today?

The household pests have come out of the woodwork.  Literally, I think.  In the last couple of weeks, I've had to spray for some funny flying things in my laundry room, and army ants at the stoop to my kitchen door.  Tonight, I found a left-over bone from The W's visit in a basement corner covered with crawly things.  Yuck.  Orkin may be on the way.

So, obviously no news here.  Headed to bed to be ready for the early ride.

BCOT

Sunday

Putting a few words down before getting a visit from The Winniferous.  2 is in charge of an evening fireworks-watching party at the museum, so I'll provide W with some entertainment for a few hours.

Didn't feel like doing the early ride to DeWitt this morning.  Only slept so-so, and had the body aches.  Pete had a couple of other guys lined up to join us as well, and I hate being an anchor on a group ride.  So I met Cal for coffee, read the paper, watched some of the TdF, and then took off for a solo tour of North Scott County roads.  Good ride to start the week.  To meet my 115 mile target, I'll need to be out there on the front end this week with KC on the docket Friday.

Here's my latest purchase: another Fuji Finepix mini-digi camera.  Its basically the updated version of what I've used for the past couple of years (and what 1 also now has).  The local camera store had a special on it, and there was a manufacturer's mail-in rebate, so I figured 4 could keep my old one (that I had loaned to her for the NYC trip).  Everybody wins!

To prove that it works, I took it on my ride this morning and snap a couple of pics.  The first is obviously taken from the same spot on the road that has produced a previous home-page shot taken with the earlier mini-digi.  The second is just the road sign of the Pioneer Village site on the north end of Scott County Park.  Nothing very exciting, but I like the feel of the camera.

The PGA Tour stops here this week for The John Deere Classic.  The community gets heavily involved with the event, and several of the bigger names on the tour are scheduled to play.  Steve Stricker will attemt to win the tournament for the third year in a row.  John Deere started a deal three or four years ago that has a chartered commercial jet lined up for departure from Moline next Sunday night after the tournament is over.  The charter takes the players (caddies, families and others) directly to the British Open in Great Britain.  There's a $1,000 charge per seat that Deere turns around and contributes to charity.  The charter is a big reason why those big names show up here.

I hadn't paid hardly any attention to the preliminary stories on the TdF which started yesterday.  There's still the doping cloud out there, and I just haven't been as interested in the races this year.  The route looks a little cock-eyed.  I'm wondering whether there is universal love for the event, or if maybe some towns grow tired of the traveling circus.  (Glenwood, on the Southwest Iowa border, for example, has little affinity for RAGBRAI after serving as the departure town several times.)

At least one of the local papers had this AP story a couple of days ago: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gbbMwQ9ARigkEheQdfuLC4VDas3w?docId=336e5e0163194bbbb62d6fac7f8686ec  I'm guessing that the rafters "Truckin' Down the Truckee" might be problematic at this point.

Maybe a little more later.

BCOT...especially those tourists in NYC!

Friday

As promised, a pic from NYC.

3 and 4 lunching in Bryant park in The Big Apple.  Today.  Downloaded off of Twitter.  Suite!

More later.

BCOT