Sunday

The comment after Friday's entry from 4 was a reminder to the two of us of our visit last year to Lourdes when we were on our cycling trip in the South of France.  They've had some weather there lately.  Compare the pics.  The one with the people is from my camera; the one with the water was pulled from published accounts on the Internet this weekend.  Glad we missed the deluge!

Now I'm running in to Blogger problems with format.  When you do too many pictures to start an entry, the defaults in the program take over and you get what you get.

Very low-key weekend on Maplecrest.  After our Happy Hour at Bass Street in Moline on Friday night, I went to an alcohol-free regimen for the remainder of the weekend.  Bass Street has a 1/2-price bottles on Friday nights, and the bartenders there are old friends from Biaggi's.  So it was fun, but their wine is expensive, even at half price.  And while the Irish win was good to see, they played only so-so.  They'd better get their A-game together for next weekend's visit to Norman.  No comment on the no-show by the Hawks.

I had one of those dreams last night that was weird enough that I remembered portions of it, even now.  I was back in Ottumwa, with several family members of a current client group, and for some reason we were walking from a point in a Western neighborhood, toward our family's original home on McPherson Street.  And I was lost.  Since I never lived in town, and never spent any time in the McPherson Street area, I was just guessing my way.  There were railroad tracks to cross, a church that a priest guided me out of through a secret door, and a cemetery to get through.  Then I woke up.

While I have never had that exact dream before, I have had dreams where I have been searching for McPherson Street.  The cemetery and the railroad tracks may be recurring elements as well.  None of the dreams are scary, but I'm always looking for something or someplace...and not ever getting there.

I think that my dreams tend to be influenced by stress or possibly certain foods.  I'm a big believer in the proposition that stress is responsible for lots of health irregularities, both physical and mental.  Deadlines, difficult decisions, and the IRS are my biggest producers of stress at the office.  And eating late (close to bedtime) keeps the body working when it needs to rest.  Some food elements always talk to me (green peppers!), and I'll pick up that taste even when it is heavily buried in a sauce or casserole-type of dish.

I rarely have fantasy dreams.  No island paradises with nubile maidens.  No winning the TdF or The Masters.  No lottery.  No Ferrari.  I'm guessing that the non-excitement factor in my dreams is driven by the relative disinterest in these things when I'm awake.  If I could just keep the IRS out of my real life...

High School basketball state play-offs have every school participate.  It doesn't take long before the really bad teams are beaten and the the better squads are left to fight it out.  Traditionally, high school football has had a more limited state tournament.  Iowa has tweaked its football tournament this year by creating another class (they now have 5 or 6) and expanding the field for each class to 32 teams.  We now have 3-6 teams in the big school tournament this year.  My pal Ron thinks that it is possible  that a 2-7 team could make it some years.  Kumbayah                                 

Early voting starts this week here in Scott County.  I normally stop at the Bettendorf library over a lunch hour so that I don't run into the lines that tend to appear on Election Day.  2 says that she has already voted by absentee ballot.  How long will it be before we're able to just do it online?  "Mr. Scott, beam my vote to James Tiberius Kirk!"  I gotta believe that the technology is out there that would be able to police things adequately.  My guess is that the Left will be very wary of such a move though, as there would have to be a verification system, and verification is kind of a dirty word when it comes to the voting booth.    

All for now.  Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

BCOT