Monday

Sorry for being AWOL much of the last week. That tends to happen when we have some modified fff on the docket. With the Dornies in town, the blog has taken a backseat. I'll try to be more attentive this week.

This entry is coming from a Starbuck's shop in West Des Moines at early coffee. I made the trip over to DM last night to meet up with my long-time client/friend Richard who is in town for a few days from his home in San Antonio. We did a Biaggi's dinner last night, and are tee-ing it up at 1000 this AM. I'll be heading back to the QCA after golf.

That first half of 2013 was a whisper...vapor...Jimmy Johnson flying past the start/finish line. With the things already on the schedule for the second half of the year, Christmas will be here like next week. Pluses and minuses for the elderly among us (and by "us", I mean me).

If its July, it means that the Tour de France is underway across the pond. They started this year on the island of Corsica...and have given the island three stages...which I think is a big allotment of stages for a relatively small area. They've already had a big crash in Stage Two, marked by the team bus getting stuck under the finish banner/assembly. Who's on first? They get over to the mainland tomorrow for a team time trial in Nice. A TTT is a unique event and you'd better have five guys who can hammer for 15-20 miles, or your General Classification rider will get disadvantaged.


Our visit with 1.01 and 1.02 to the local zoo yesterday morning was a hit. The kids are at ages where they are pretty easily entertained. The pics of 1.01 on the pony reminded me of one of my all-time favorite pics of 3 on a fake pony at that park in South Dakota from around 1990.  (I'll try to get @srh4 to dig that one out for a future entry.)

The crowd at the zoo was classic Walmart. No dress-code required. I'm always (un)impressed by the tats and piercings that adorn the masses.

Sounds like there is some consensus building for a full-FFF at Tahoe for 2014. It may not be too early to consider dates so that everyone can make appropriate scheduling for vacations. We're talking about 2 or 3 condos to make accommodations best for all parties. Those units at Third Creek look like good choices to me.

Each day there is more news out about the spying done by our government. It's not like I ever thought that I was below radar, but it is now apparent that everything I do is either on film or on an electronic record. I guess my reluctance to use a Hy Vee gas card for fear of further documenting my profile is really much ado about nothing. (@srh4 banked like 70 cents a gallon when we stopped at the store for just lunch fixin's yesterday.). I hate to give in to store promotions like that...but I guess I actually crossed that Rubican with my Kohl's car. Bring on Hy Vee gas!

My friends Ron and Jane stopped over Friday night for a late driveway visit after the family BBQ. I hadn't seen them since they had returned home from their 3-week trip to Europe. Jane showed off the hundreds of photos that she had taken on her iPad mini. Pretty slick. (But LBH, my interest in the pics pretty well vanished after around #10.) One of the things that I don't have a resolution to yet is the efficient transfer of pics from my Canon minidigi to my laptop or iPad. I like the Canon...but I like immediate publishing too...

So I'm getting my refill for the road and heading back to the hotel to check out. Maybe I'll get some pics added to this entry when I get back to Maplecrest.

Make it a Good Monday. Welcome back to the US of A to 3 and 3.1. Happy weekend to 4. Safe travels to C-town to 1 and 1.1.

Y'all....

BCOT

Note...The Home Page pic was taken today on the way back from Des Moines.  On my Canon minidigi while I was blowing past at about 80 MPH.  Not a bad rendition, eh?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad