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