Monday

Life is receding to normal for me.  I mean, that Tour de Big Apple was fun, but home is also a good place to be.

Sleep last night was a dream.  My own bed.  Clean sheets.  (The RCL had done her thing in my absence!)  And a cool breeze.  Uncharacteristically, my phone alarm was needed to get me going for the early morning ride.

I have a lot of training to do over the next 67 days to be ready for the hills of Tahoe.  Then again, LBH, I will never be ready for the hills of Tahoe.  I'm struggling on the hills of Pleasant Valley.

My pal Roy is private-jetting off to Florida in the AM with the president of a successful local company to have three days of short-game instruction with a noted golf instructor (whose name I can't remember).  The other guy's jet.  Bonus.  Roy's getting over a medical procedure to clean the plaque out of his right cardioid artery.  Yuck.  But the vascular surgeon says it will put years on Roy's timeline.  Good news.

This is a shot that I took from the plane on final approach yesterday into MLI.  A slight difference of the new Home Page photo taken earlier in the day as we peeled out of LGA, eh?

And I want to formally recognized 3, 4 and Herky for being such good hosts this weekend.  4 spent a lot of time riding and getting on and off the trains in/to mid-town to lead the LtPC to various other meeting spots with the others.  And I continue to enjoy the long weekend visits to the Concrete Jungle where we just hang and plan on the fly.  The best plan is the Almost No Plan.  Thanks to each of you.


I would be remiss not to also recognize 2 for her delivery and pick-up at MLI...Including a second trip on Sunday when I had the funky delay leaving ORD while she was waiting at the curb in Moline.  Thanks, Kiddo.

I did some Google-searching over the weekend to see if there was any remedy for the touchy keyboard on my laptop.  Maybe not-too-surprisingly, there were lots of hits.  Unfortunately, the steps recommended didn't come as options on my operating system.  Still looking for Plan B.  Using the plug-in keyboard is a much better experience.

One of the casualties of my travel schedule has been my golf game.  I had vowed that I was going to get my handicap down to a 12 this year (it's currently an 18), but I've managed to play a total of twice so far this year (after Arizona).  Pretty hard to work on your game while not playing, right Kemo Sabe?  Ah, not so fast, Faithful Companion on the pinto horse.

There is an old golf saying that, "It ain't the arrow.  It's the Indian."  But golfers universally look for an edge with new arrows for their quiver...and I have fallen prey to the Sirens.  That day that I played with Roy a couple of weeks ago, I tested a Ping G20 driver with a 12 degree loft.  It worked pretty well, getting me off the tee box on two of the hardest holes at Geneva better than I normally do by, literally, a long shot.  So after several days of consideration, I called the Pro and told him that I wanted to improve the profitability of the Club's Golf Shop, and told him to "ring it up" for me.  That sucker better be worth 3 shots off the handy, or I made a bad choice.

All for tonight.  Another early ride is on the docket for the AM.

Hey to 3 in STL.

BCOT