Tuesday

Not much of an entry today. Boarding for Dusseldorf now.

The trip to Chicago was ok, although the counter agent noticed a small difference in my name between the passport and the ticket. I got through Security ok. Must have been my Senior Citizen status.

They took the bike. I wonder how that will work out? Right before I went to bed last night, when I was mentally going through my checklists...again!!!...it occurred to me that I hadn't packed the peddles that I had had the bike shop take off over my lunch hour. I got up, went out to the garage where I had done the bike-packing, and sure enough, the peddles were sitting on one of my small plastic patio tables. Wow!!! That would have been a pleasant surprise come bike-assembly time! (Provided the bike makes it to Italy!)

2 and I are not sitting together on the plane. Her seat was reserved, but mine wasn't. She thinks that there may have been some wine-induced selections the night that I bought the tickets. Hmmm. That's always a possibility.

It's a 7 hour time difference between here and Dusseldorf. Which means its coming on 2300 hours there. If we land at 0800 local, that means we have a 9-hour flight. Suite. It would be nice if I could sleep on a plane.

I did buy some data-time for the iPad while across the pond. With wi-fi in the hotels and coffee shops, I shouldn't need much other time, but I wanted to be able to make some entries as I saw fit. So there should be entries here most days. And that should also cover Twitter. You're never below radar.

OK. Departure is imminent. The next entry will be from the Old Country.

BCOT...we will.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday

The clock-time to Italia is no in sprint mode.  Less than 40 hours to out departure for ORD.  Yikes!

That visitation that I attended on Thursday night for my first-cousin Don was another reminder of how interesting family gatherings can be. There were three other first-cousins from that family also at the visitation: Dan, Shirley and Loretta.  (The fourth still living cousin from that family, Fran, was actually in the hospital for a stint procedure, but was possibly going to be at the funeral on Friday)

(I don't think that I had ever previously met Loretta.  She and I spent several minutes going through the family tree, as she is still 100% "with it."  We all remembered Fran having to go to the hospital at Elizabeth's funeral, some 30-40 years ago.  Daddy was one of the guys who helped Fran that day.  Loretta's daughter, whom I think has had some genealogy conversations with Tahoe Phil, was also there.)

For all of you rabid cycling fans in the Peanut Gallery, Chris Horner did win the Vuelta a Espana today.  The critics are already raising doping questions.  He's a 41-year old with a limited palmares, so these things can be expected.  He now needs to find a team for next year as he is currently without a 2014 contract.

In other sports news, the rain that we've been looking for came in and washed-out the golf in Chicago, and the NASCAR race is on hold as well.  Bad timing.

A hat-tip to the Hawkeyes for their victory last night in Ames.  I saw a few minutes of the second quarter before the Geneva party.  The final score may have been a little closer than the game?  The 'Clones go to Tulsa next week, and they need to be careful or they'll be Oh-for-2013.  I think Iowa has another Directional U on the menu.

My packing plan has been slow to formulate.  I did pull the box for my bike down from the over-head spot in the garage this afternoon, and patched up a couple of holes from the return trip from Bilbao.  I'm riding in the AM, and then will pack it up tomorrow afternoon.  If all goes well.  I have a few doubts.

I had a high school classmate, whom I haven't seen in forever, stop by my place this afternoon out of the blue.  Turns out he's been tuning into my Tweeter feed and blog entries in recent weeks since catching up on my program from another classmate whom I see regularly at coffee.  He was actually most interested in Margret, as he's a car-guy.  Why wouldn't he be?  Its a small world.

My Monday may be one of the craziest/scariest/stressful days of at least the last year.  Maybe longer.  Its a filing deadline.  No more extensions.  Its also a big day on my securities business vendor conversion.  And I have to finish packing for Italy.  I have multiple lists to reference.  Maybe a list for the lists.

OK.  Enough.  My mind is hitting warp-speed, but creativity is obviously not part of the route.  Probably my next entry will be Tuesday from ORD.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Friday

Not sure if this Home Page pic is a keeper or not.  Mt. Etna in Sicily.  A sign of the times?

Just a few lines this afternoon before heading out for the evening.  I'd say "heading out for the weekend", but that ain't gonna happen.  Still a few returns to dress up before the Monday due date.

Just to clarify the lay-of-the-NASCAR-land in Chicago this weekend, they DID make a late change to The Chase line-up, adding the 24 as a 13th eligible car.  I think Patrick was right that this wasn't going to happen as an additional result from the Bowyer kerfuffle as outlined in my post and his comment.  But then the NASCAR snoops uncovered some questionable chatter between a couple of Ford teams that seemed to suggest that a position was given up to help out Logano secure that 10th spot.

All said, I'd say this gave just about all of the parties their rightful place.  Gordon will have to win some races to make a true run at the crown since he really was the 13th best car most of the year.  Kyle Busch, 5-Time and Kenseth should be considered the favorites until someone else proves otherwise.

And Chris Horner has continued to amaze over in Spain.  He now has a 3-second lead going into tomorrow's final mountain-top stage.  And he's done it by chipping-away at the previous leader (and heavy pre-race favorite) in the last kilometer or two at each of the summit-finishes this week.  If he is successful tomorrow, it will be a huge victory for American cycling.  Good for him!

@srh4 is heading to Harvest Path for the weekend to help out with 1.01 and 1.02 while Mom and Dad participate in a training run tomorrow.  Hard to believe that the Twin Cities Marathon is less than a month away!  And that in two weeks, 2 and I will be BACK from Italia.  And then I have TT training to do.  (The good news?  Only one in-the-dark bike ride to do this year. Monday AM.)

2 and I are getting togetherr tonight to do some Italy planning.  With a little wine-training as part of the process.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Wednesday

Tuesday

The countdown clock to Italy rolled over the One Week To Go banner today.  I feel like my world is running on military double-time right now.

Not that all of you share my racin' interests, but....

NASCAR has stepped in and made a partial correction on the mess made at the end of Saturday night's race.  They penalized the team behind the shenanigans some serious cash, and took away the spot in the championship races from the team member who benefited from that fake crash.  But they didn't give redress to the 24, nor was there any direct punishment to Bowyer who purposefully spun out his car.  I'm thinking that there may be a tweaking of this ruling before this weekend to give the 24 an extra spot in the finals.

4's Twitter post yesterday about an in-store GAP sale on women's jeans...that wasn't applicable to the jeans she had selected...was a follow-up to my experience with the on-line discount offer I tried to utilize last week...which turned out to be a non-discount on the jeans that I had ordered.  Classic advertising, eh?  Whether it be in clothing stores or the grocery, signage is almost always deceiving.

My early morning rides (in the dark) now have me packing a back-up set of batteries for my head-lamp after the light died in the middle of my ride yesterday.  Whoa!  Didn't expect that light to go dark, particularly since I had done a preventive replacement the night before with a couple of batteries that had been in my re-charger device for the last two weeks.  Note to self: 2 batteries in the 4-battery recharger don't recharge if not placed in the slots specially so labeled for when you are charging just two batteries at a time.

For those of you with an eye on the financial markets, they have made change in three companies in the Dow Jones Industrial average.  Out are Alcoa, Hewlett Packard and Bank of America.  In are Nike, Visa and Goldman Sachs.  Understand that the DJIA is comprised of only 30 stocks, so this is a significant change. 

But Dow Jones points out that the average is a price-weighted average, and that the three out-going stocks were the lowest priced securities in the average, and accounted for only 3% or so impact on the composite average.  Thus, the higher-priced issues in the average had a larger impact on daily changes in the average.  I think this kind of adjustment is interesting, but not likely to change the lives of too many folks.  It is certainly another testament to the axiom, "the only constant is change".

Let's make all the girls Daughters of the Day.  Everyone is busy.  Everyone is successful.  Everyone has many good things going on in their lives.  Its Glad Game Tuesday!!!

All for now.  Stay cool!

BCOT

Sunday

I'm still trying to grapple with the fact that it is September 8th.  Where in the world did the last month go?

So Iowa wins yesterday, rather unspectacularly, over a team without many Big 10 athletes.  But when you"re on a 7-game losing streak, the old adage applies:  A win is a win is a win.  ("old adage", of course, being redundant.)  It will be interesting to see what happens next week in Ames.  The 'Clones scheduling an "open date" after their first game?  Really?

ND showed little at The Big House.  Can you say, "9 wins"?  And a trip to the Boise Bowl?

I recently got caught by Gap in an ad misinterpretation on an on-line "sale".  It was a 30% Off For the Day deal.  I had previously decided that I needed a couple of new pairs of khaki's for the Italy trip, so when the 30% ad hit my email, I figured it was a good time to make my purchase.  For good measure, I added a pair of jeans to freshen my wardrobe.  I went through the process and  thought I had applied the discount and had the right net cost as I hit the "check-out" key.  Wrong-o, Bucko!

When the package arrived last week...on schedule, as usual, for Gap...the slacks were all the right sizes and the colors that I had ordered.  When I checked the  enclosed packing invoice, I finally noticed that they had not given the discount on the jeans.  My first thought had been that there was a computer error, as I was fairly certain that the ad had been a 30% Off Everything type of promotion.  But when I went to my email confirmation from the order, the jeans showed no discount on the original invoice.

I then mentally exercised that there must have been a small-print exception for jeans (and maybe other selected merchandise) which generally hacks me off when retailers do that, and capture some sales that might not otherwise get made.  So I called the Customer Service line, actually got through in a short period of time, and registered my gripe with the Service Rep.  The gal was actually very nice, credited me with a 20% Off on the jeans, and took down my Old Men Think 30% Off Everything means 30% Off Everything complaint.  I'm sure that my feedback will influence Gap to change their business model. 

A couple of comments on my other sports of interest...

Yes, I do consider NASCAR a sport.  Anyway, the 24 had the pole for last night's race, the final one before the 10-race schedule to crown the annual champion.  He had to have a high finish to get one of the last spots.  Bottom line?  Uh, he be racin' for wins in these next 10 events, not the championship.  He finished 1, yes 1, point out of the final spot. 

There was  some controversy at the end when one driver, Clint Bowyer, perhaps did an intentional spin-out to get a Yellow flag, which meant that the field then had to reset for a couple-lap dash to the checkers.  If not for that Yellow, the 24 and Ryan Newman looked like they'd have made it in for the championship running.  It just so happens that the 24 crashed-out Bowyer in a late race last year, and the other benefactor of this Yellow flag was a Bowyer teammate who would have been outside looking in if Newman had won.  In the garage, they know that this Yellow was not an accident.  These boys have memories.

The peloton is in the high mountains of the Pyrenees right now, today's stage finishing not all that far from where 4 and I rode last year.  Chris Horner, the 41-year-old American, remains in 2nd place over all.  But he's 50 seconds back, and it doesn't look like he has the oomph to get up to the top spot.  They still have 6-7 days to go, but the leader is in a strong position.  (If this placing holds up, the winner will have gained all of his time-advantage in the Individual Time Trial stage held last Wednesday, where he bested Horner by about 90 seconds in the race against the clock. Is that really racin'?) 

The race has had a lot of drop-outs, not an uncommon result for this event.  Only 150 riders finished the stage today out of the original 198 who took the starting line two weeks ago.  There'll be a few more who will cut bait before the finish in Madrid.  The long season, the up-coming World Championships, and the normal crashes/illnesses all have contributed to the attrition.  More so than the TdF and the Giro, the Vuelta pays the price of a somewhat reduced interest in riders thinking that they need to finish the three-week race to validate their bona fides for the peloton and their sponsors.  

Switching gears...

Just a comment on the Friday night concert that 2 and I attended at the River Music Experience (RME) Redstone Room.  2's contact at the RME had comp-ed her some tickets and we had a "Reserved" table with a personalized name-plate awaiting us.  Suite!  There were maybe 75 people in the room. 

I'd give the over all rating of C+ to the night's entertainment.  Gretchen Peters has talent both vocally and in her writing.  But we left after an hour or so of her music.  She has a moderate, feminist, life-is-hard edge, and I didn't feel like entertaining the crowd was as important to her as was getting her thoughts across to the audience.  Not overbearingly so, but I still got that "message" feeling in most of her songs.  (Plus, it was certainly after my bed time!)

Her opening-act was a gal singer with lots of dark perspective in her songs.  We left this presentation after 5-6 songs for better wine in the lower-level bar, returning with "go" plastic cups for Gretchen's performance 40-45 minutes later.  (We had rejected the wine offered in the Redstone Room. There might have been a box with a spigot behind the bar.) 
 
No other philosophy to offer here today.  Hope the Peanut Gallery has a good day.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Friday

Just a few lines today to give a report for the masses.  For a "short week", it still feels like it has gone on for longer than a "regular" week.

The BEATER lives.  The current problem was diagnosed as a failed "starter", and replacement was within my price/benefit window...less than $350, including the tow.  It makes me a little nervous to announce this news as Murphy's Law might bring forth a follow-on problem for a vehicle with a list of potential issues.  But I'm taking my chances. 

The shop that I took the car to for the fix was recommended to me recently by a friend.  I've used several places in recent years for this kind of work, including a Ford dealership.  The movement has been motivated by a combination of factors, not the least of which has been a constant stream of suggestions for additional work on the Taurus each time I have had it in for things as innocuous as an oil change.  These guys at Grant Street just replaced the starter and offered no further guidance.  The guy taking my check even said it wasn't the worst BEATER that he had seen.  I'll go back.

This shop is called Grant Street Auto Repair.  Located in Bettendorf.  On State Street.  They had to relocate last year as a result of their prior location being on the route for the new I-74 bridge (which is years away from even getting started).  Since all of my contact up to the time of yesterday's pick up of the car was via telephone, my pal Bill and I obviously went to the Grant Street location as given to us on the Internet, only to find an empty lot.  How long does it take Google to catch up on such things?

This is also an illustration of the dangers of naming your business with reference to your current location.  Times change.  There's another repair shop in Bettendorf called Duck Creek Tire...which hasn't been in the Duck Creek mall area for several years.

2 and I are scheduled to go to a concert at a small venue here in Davenport tonight featuring Gretchen Peters.  Until I saw the announcement in the local fish-wrap yesterday, I had never heard of Gretchen Peters.  Turns out she is an accomplished song writer in Nashville and does some concerts herself.  What got my attention was the fact that she was the writer of Martina McBride's hit, "Independence Day".  I'm suspecting that she might be a bit of a feminist crusader given the little bit that I read about her on-line, but I'm mostly interested in her music.  Report to follow this weekend.

The Perfect Neighbor's garden is producing lots of tomatoes.  Since tomatoes are one of my favorite vegetables, I think my relative good health is assisted by the anti-oxidants found in tomatoes.  You are what you eat, right?  Funny how different people's taste run on different tracks.  My pal Doug pulled the tomatoes off of his sandwich last Saturday at the football game.  Kinda like me and green peppers.

OK.  Now to the piles here on my desk.  Ugh!!!

Make it a great weekend in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Wednesday

I got the nudge last night that I missed proper recognition for 1.01 yesterday with her first day of preschool.  In fact, I had tried a couple of times to download the Instagram pic that 1 had posted yesterday morning for exactly that purpose...and failed.  I'm going to need a lesson on Instagram from 2.

Here's looking at 1.01...a day late...but GRANDDAUGHTER OF THE DAY for her first day at preschool.  You da' girl, Kiddo!

More later.

BCOT

Tuesday

So these are some random pics from the last few days.

This first one is of sun-up on Sunday morning around 0630 a few miles North of Davenport, taken with my iPhone. It may become the Home Page pic if I can get it moved over to a PC in decent shape. It was a very neat skyscape at the time.





Obviously, this next one is taken while going 80 on I-80 on the way back from IC Saturday around 1800 hours. iPhone again, one-handed...which explains the angle of the dangle.




Here we have the Hawkeye March at the start of the game. Even if they play so-so, they have a great entry! I tried to Twitter this and other pics from Kinnick, but the mobile traffic had the airwaves on overload. Even messages and text-only tweets were delayed at times. I'm sure that there was some statistical support to attest the timing of timeouts based on Twitter-flow.




I snapped this one (from the iPhone also) one morning last week on the early ride near Davenport Country Club. There's a break in the trees that opens up this window view from the ridge line above the river of the lock-and-dam on the Mississippi below. I've seen it over the years and it always reminds me of a scene out of a war movie like The Dirty Dozen where some guerrilla soldiers go behind enemy lines to blow up a key bridge or ammo dump. (I may try to go back and get this shot with my "good" camera to see is I can get the zoom-focus and clarity a little better.)




And just for those few who might not have seen the Twitter post this morning, here we have the Taurus headed to the shop. It's never good to see your car taken away on the back of a hauler!






For the record, I'm a big supporter of the US military. Watching the current exercise in Washington, listening to all the posturing, and reading the contorted logic of historical Doves switching sides, all exclusively for the political protection of the current President, is an outrage.

Great weather day here in the QCA. Hope it was equally enjoyable in your neighborhood.

All for tonight. Thanks for reading.

BCOT


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday

Giving up a few lines this evening to celebrate the first day of September.  In my world, September is the beginning of Fall. 

I would have felt much better about the football game yesterday if it had at least been in the month of September.  Not that the calendar would have assuaged the dismay of the game's unfortunate result.  (It didn't help the 'Clones either.)

Really enjoyed the DeWitt ride this morning with my good friend @bcbison.  I still can't keep up with him, but he always waits for me at the top of the hill, and lets up on the gas when he knows I need a break.  The waitress at the Sunrise has figured out that my preference for my eggs is "basted", as opposed to over-easy or over-medium.  Good information for the future.

Then there was a little unanticipated excitement with the BEATER this afternoon when I set out to complete a few errands.  In addition to a few standard household provisions, I figured that I could make the effort today to knock off a couple of tasks for Italy, namely, new memory cards for the two mini-digi's that I plan to take on the trip, and a pair of good walking shoes.  When I fired up the car after getting the household goods and memory cards at Wally World, there was that sick, sputtering sound as the engine started.  This being the same sound from an engine that wouldn't start earlier this week.

Rather than go straight home and let the BEATER rest in her spot in the driveway, I elected to make the fatal "one more stop".  Bad move.  Of course.  When I came out of the shoe store with my rockin' new Rockports, the BEATER was dead.  Of course.  Long story short...the BEATER is still in the mini-mall parking lot.  If history repeats itself, it should start tomorrow.  And she'll go directly to the repair shop...where the mechanic will say, "Starter or alternator.  $350, please."  Whatever.

The experience gave me pause to recall the #automotivefail experiences in my life time.  A partial list:

1.  That overnight South of Chicago with the original Margret.  Circa 1969.  Electrical failure.
2.  A Buick total-system fail near Brooklyn, Iowa on our way back from skiing in Colorado.  Circa 1972.  Uncle Doyle to the rescue in the bitter cold and snow.
3.  @srh4's Ford Maverick blowing an engine on my way from Chicago to Davenport in 1980 to start my new job in Davenport.  In the middle of I-88.  @srh4's Uncle to the rescue.
4.  My Chevy Blazer not starting one morning in Des Moines while staying with my friend Jake's Pants.  It took some calls to my local dealer who then made a call to DM dealer who brought a tow and fixed it that morning.  It pays to have friends in high places.
5.  The circa 1978 (and very forgettable) "dropped the keys through a sewer grate" when @srh4 and I were furniture shopping one weekend near Woodfield Mall, a few miles from our house.  We walked home.
6.  Drove my high-school car till it stopped, not that far from the farm.  Outta oil.  I walked home from that one too.  Grandpa not happy.
7.  The BEATER actually cracked-up a few years ago at the Davenport private airport on the night that we got back on my pal Roy's plane from the January golf trip.  Bitter cold. Front springs literally broke apart.  Fortunately, my pal Ron hadn't left the parking lot.
8.  There's gotta be others.  Running out of gas not counting.

Here's a question:  What causes the most heartache in life?  Cars?  Airplanes?  Technology?

And an even deeper point, if we all deal with these bumps in the road all the time, does anyone really have a smooth path through it all?  Hint...the anwser is not yes.

Okay.  I need to get some rest.  Golf tomorrow with my pals Ron and Cal.  It may be my last round of the year.

Enjoy the holiday!

BCOT

Friday

The Friday kicking off a holiday weekend is almost always a slow day at the office and in the markets.  Those who haven't taken the day off are clock-watching, and traders tend to get their work done early and settle-up so that the afternoon is a non-event.  Let's hope that's what we have in store for today.

@bcbison is Pal of the Day for providing the draft home on the morning ride.

My pal Roy gets props as my host for a toasty round at Crow Valley Golf Club yesterday afternoon.  I hadn't played there for at least a couple of years.  Great course still.  We did play from the White tees, which may have been a first for me.  That shortens the yardage up, usually 20 yards or so on most holes, which makes the experience much less stressful for me.  I actually had drives in areas where I don't recall having ever been...distance-wise.  At this point in my golfing career, I'm very OK with a shorter course.

Bear with me on this item.  I heard on the news yesterday morning that one of my favorite actresses, Rebecca DeMornay had a birthday...54.  I had always thought that she was pretty, going back to Risky Business with Tom Cruise.  I knew that had to be in the early 80's, and I confirmed that it would have been 1983.  Which means that she would have been 24 in that movie.

And I also remember her as the sinister character, Lady Sabine, in The Three Musketeers remake in the 90's.  Which I looked up to confirm was released in 1993.  She was the one who hurled herself off the cliff toward the end of the flick when confronted by Kiefer Sutherland's Musketeer (Athos).

Then she had a small role at the start of Wedding Crashers as the wife whom Owen Wilson's and Vince Vaughn's attorney characters were trying to reconcile with her estranged husband in that conference room scene.  That was 2005.

Her filmography shows that she has done some stuff since Wedding Crashers...but I didn't recognize anything.  Of course, the number of movies that I have been to in the last 8 years could be counted on one hand.  Whatever.  But she seems to have had a career that has run for 25-30 years.  That's got to be a success, yes?  I wonder if she was able to save some money and not have to worry too much about finances these days.  So many entertainers (and athlete-entertainers) have trouble holding on to their money.

I can't name a 24 year old actress today.  I even tried to do an Internet search.  On a non-gender-bias basis, I can't name a 24 year old actor either.  Is there any further evidence required to establish my disconnect from today's pop culture?

Football started last night, and world didn't lose it's orbit.  I did not partake in any viewing of the games.  It just doesn't seem like football weather when they're predicting 100+ degree heat indexes.

All for now.  Make it a Good Friday in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Wednesday

Let's give up the applause for 4 who had her annual review earlier today and received great feedback...and, at least as importantly, a raise!!!  You go, girl!!! Daughter of the Day in a landslide!

Yes, this is a recent pic from Sonoma.  Rodney Strong winery.  We let that Cab that we bought in the tasting room age about 12 minutes from date of purchase.

Today goes down as the "buggy-est" day of the year on the morning ride.  They've been bad ever since we've been riding the first portion of the route in the dark.  Cruising down the Wells Ferry hill to River Drive is like the parting of the sea, only this sea is a swarm of small, moth-like bugs.  The faster you go down hill, the worse it is on your face.  I'm still feeling a couple that got into my eyes

.

The early sun still makes for a pretty picture.  I took this one with my iPhone, on the inward leg of the ride when it started to get a little light out, and got it posted here after a transfer to Yahoo.  Tech-boy at work.

So that's it for today.  Congrats again to 4.  Y'all...

BCOT

Tuesday

So the heat is still on here. Mid 90's or so. I'm sure that we were over 100 with the heat-index. But it is surprisingly ok both in the early morning and in the latter part of the evening. I'm starting this entry while sitting on the Maplecrest driveway, just before 2000 hours, and am very comfortable.

The countdown clock to Italy tripped over the three week mark today. Scary soon.

There was a good story in cycling this week from the Vuelta a Espana. Chris Horner, a 41 year old American, won the 3rd stage on Monday, and also grabbed the leader's jersey.


He became the oldest rider to ever wear the leader's jersey for one of the Grand Tours. Horner has had some modest success over the years internationally, and has been a strong domestique on several TdF squads. He has never been caught up in the drug culture (to my knowledge). He has always been a good interview, and has been a very committed rider. Good story. (He lost the leader's jersey today by 3 seconds, but he remains in 2nd place and looks like he may hang with the leaders all week, if not longer.)

A comment that Horner made after his stage win is on point for anyone who honestly admits that they waste away too much time. He said that he rides each race each day like it might be his LAST race. He is 41 years old, and Rule #1 applies. An accident could easily end his career. As my not-so-favorite country singer Tim McGraw would say, "Live like you were dyin'."


So, no, I happened to miss the VMA's on Sunday night. I'm not sure why the pundits are all twisted with the questionable behavior of the entertainers. I mean, hasn't it just been a contest over the years as to whom can outrageous whom? I know I sound like the old man that I am, but these antics don't interest me. What is the "art" part of this theater?

Get ready for politics to jump back on to the front pages next week when the Congress comes back in session. The leaders of the different camps are already marking territory with appearances on the various networks, and throwing verbal grenades at the uncompromising other side. For the viewer, the key element in this debate is the TV remote "mute" button. Add Syria and Egypt to the discussion, and it's no wonder that the market is heading South.

I was on-scene of a tragedy-averted one evening last week on River Drive between Bettendorf and Davenport. I can't remember exactly the time, but I think after 5 PM when there was quite a bit of traffic, but not bumper-to-bumper. I was headed West, in the left lane of the two lanes headed West, following, but not within a couple hundred feet or so, of a small-ish sedan ( a Hyundai or the like). All of a sudden, that small sedan is clear over in the far


left lane of the East-bound side of the road!! I'm stunned. I'm yelling out loud, "Hey, Hey, You!!!!" Fortunately, there were no on-coming cars at that precise time. And the driver must have looked up, and recovered back to our lane. Had to have been texting. And the same sedan had at least one more "wobble" in to the East-bound lane again before I turned off at the Village. Absolutely scary stuff. Take heed, folks. The message ain't worth it.

No Geneva tomorrow. I'm guessing that there will be plenty of space on the course given the heat forecast. Maybe a cold one with @bcbison on the deck at Gov's. It's a lot shorter trip home!

4 begins her work week in the morning. Be a star, Kiddo.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday

Hot one in River City today.  Good day for inside activities.  Looks like it will be in the 90's all week around here.

The early ride to DeWitt today felt good to get in the books, but that headwind on the way home made for some serious work.  In my math, the equation of good from a tailwind is never balanced-out with the off-set of the headwind.  This was by far not the worst head wind, but when you're out there by your lonesome, with no one to make a draft, the grind against the wind gets old.  BTW, the Sunrise Cafe cook (can't call him a chef!) did yeoman's work on my breakfast.  Yes, that's four eggs!  $6, including toast and coffee.  Suite.

My experiment with shutting the TV off during the week has been a solid success.  I don't feel like I've been missing anything.  It has reached the point that last night, a Saturday night not covered by the original commitment, I couldn't even muster enough interest to keep watching the NASCAR race.  At this point, my evenings are going to stay tube-free.  What would happen if America did that?

The part of the experiment involving vino has been less successful.  But I have made some conscious choices to forego the gratuitous glass of wine mid-week when I might be home alone.  A little less vino is not such a bad thing.  (Of course, these Dog Days of Summer are not exactly prime times for red wine at slightly below room-temperature.  Pouring a nice Cab over a glass of ice just isn't right!)

I noticed from one of my country roads this morning a crude golf green in a farm field.  It may not have been as much of a "green" as just a target pin placement for a golf enthusiast.  On our standard weekday morning ride, there's a true "green" in a yard area that is shared by 2-3 homes in a new neighborhood by Davenport Country Club.  That green has been around a while and is starting to go back to "seed" from lack of proper maintenance.  For the non-rich, a golf green may be a stretch to keep up to speed.

The course in Wellman, Iowa (located South of Iowa City) had sand greens.  (I haven't been through there in years, so I can't confirm whether they have kept the sand or converted to grass.)  Sand greens were used as an alternative to real greens and the associated up-keep.  You would hit to the "green" with your approach shot, make a mark at the appropriate distance, and then use the roller to make a line to the cup.  Then you would putt on the smoothed path to the cup.  I guess it's still golf.

OK.  Football is officially upon us.  I see there's a Thursday night college game on one of the sports channels, and all of the local high schools have games this week.  I have trouble getting excited about football in August.  In 90 degree heat.  And I have a ticket for the Iowa-Northern Illinois game on Saturday with my pal Dr. Doug.  At least his seats at Kinnick are in the shade of the press box.  We'll just be hot.  More on this adventure later in the week.

All for today.  Hope everyone has a great week.

BCOT

Saturday

Thought I would take a few minutes break this afternoon to throw a few paragraphs to the Maddening Crowd.  Its a "work day" at the office for LtPC.  Lots of projects need to get out the door.  Thanks to @srh4 for stepping up and spending time on some of this work today as well.

The fam has a modified fff going on this weekend in Woodbury.  3 and 3.1 are visiting on Harvest Path, and 2 drove up last night to join in on the fun.  I'm guessing that there will be plenty of pics posted to their Facebook pages as well as to their Twitter feeds.

The sidebar to 2's visit, of course, is that I have The Winniferous for the weekend.  Life remains good on Maplecrest.

I'm watching the 1500 hours show on FOX News as I write this entry.  You can tell that 4 is the producer of the show as it it without doubt one of the better cable presentations of the week.  You're a star, Kiddo!!

I buy the DM Register most Saturday's so that I have the current NYT Saturday crossword to test my brain-power over the weekend.  Today's puzzle is now maybe half-way done, and probably won't get fully completed until tomorrow night when I give in and look up the clues that I couldn't solve on my own.  An example of the word-play that is involved with these harder puzzles is:  Clue:  Take in more.  The solution has nine letters.

Some of my initial thoughts for this kind of clue:

1.  Are we talking about eating a lot?
2.  Is this a tailoring question?
3.  Giving shelter to orphans?
4.  Sell more goods, services or tickets?
5.  Do I have a solution ending with "er" or "ier"?
6.  Do I have any noun/verb uncertainty for "take-in"?

Long story short, I was able to solve the clue after getting a couple of the letters toward the end of the solution..."get a raise".  It never looks as difficult after the fact, eh?

Another example of "progress" here in Davenport is a new project on Kimberly Road (which is the road on which our office is located).  Kimberly has always been busy.  Even when they opened 53rd Street a mile to the North a few years back, traffic has remained congested on Kimberly.  We have never had a direct "cut-through" access to our small office park from four-lane Kimberly when coming from the West.  There's a wide grassy medium.  We have had to go to a "cut-though" at Lorton Avenue, a quarter mile to the East, and do a u-ey and come back to the West to the entry to our office park.  Really not that big of a deal.  We've done it for 23 years.

The new project is going to close the Lorton Avenue "cut through", permanently, and create a street-lighted intersection at the next "cut-through" to the East, Forest Road.  During the construction project, even Forest Road will not be open for a "cut-through".  So we either have to go all the way to the very busy Elmore Road intersection to the East and try the u-ey there, or do some kind of a trek through the neighborhood to our North, getting access to Kimberly with a right-hand turn off of Lorton Avenue.

This kind of "progress" is one of those things that is hard to anticipate in your business plan.  The city fathers who have come up with this measure as an improvement of safety in the area, never contacted us for an opinion.  It will definitely be an inconvenience factor going forward.  It may have a small, negative impact on the marketability of this real estate in the future. 

Great shots of Liberty National Golf Course on the tube.  It was built on land that was at one time a landfill!!

I need to get back to the exciting tasks at hand.  I hope to add another entry tomorrow.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Thursday

Not sure how the week got away from me, but here it is Thursday...with nothing posted since Sunday.  Another example of stuff not getting done unless you consciously provide for the time.  Tahoe Phil has said for years that he doesn't know how he had time to work, given how busy he has been in retirement.  I think I would actually be in fine shape if I didn't have to work for a living.  #Powerball.

Still dealing with less-than-full-functionality with Blogger on my desktop.  Really a pain.

This weekend in the night race at Bristol.  At some point in the next several years, I will be there for the weekend.  This is the equivalent of stadium-racin'.  The bump-'n-run is a standard move on this track.  Qualifying is important because you really need to be toward the front all the time because it takes a long time to get through the pack.  With such close racing, there's always more action here than at the bigger tracks where the cars can get really strung out.  The 24 needs a win or he'll just be a fan when the Chase starts in a couple of weeks.

And the peloton is out in Colorado this week with the biggest USA stage race, the US Pro Challenge.  With there being no real US star right now in cycling, my guess is that this kind of event can be successful, but not a home run.  Colorado is obviously a good choice for location, not only because of the varied terrain, but also because of the "outdoorsy-ness" of the state's lifestyle.  Stay tuned for the economic results.  Without a big corporate sponsor, these things tend to wither away in a few years.  (Peter Sagan, a big winner of many sprint finishes in Europe this year, has won two of the first three stages.)

The markets are on a 6-day losing streak.  Sell in May and Go Away would have been the advice to follow this year.  Is there any good news out there?

The hot and humid weather that we have had here this week, and that looks like stays with us for the next week, are what I would call the Dog Days of Summer.  Wiki actually has a short discussion on the term, and gets into astrology with some Roman references to different stars.  Whatever.  For me, its really a baseball term used to describe that July-August time frame when the major league season has become a little long for teams, and they need to work at just showing up for games.  Its hot and the players are tired of the grind.  The strong survive.  Things like the A-Rod dust-up with Dempster and the ensuing bench-clearing are typical of Dog Days games.  Nerves are a little edgy.  The goal is to get past the Dog Days and get to September when the pennant races get down to the later stages.

There's also a little Dog Days reference to the farm life in the late Summer when I was young.  Maybe this is because we were such a baseball-oriented family that there was a baseball connection to every recurring activity.  (Maybe even now?)  Again, its hot, the cows were a little harder to move as they were affected by the heat as well, and the effort to complete every chore was exacerbated.  And lots of stuff had to get done before the school year got started. 

All for now.  Still lots on my plate.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Sunday

I forgot that the useful Blogger functions with the mouse don't work with my desktop.  Hmmm.  Entries are becoming a little like my regular office stuff...nothing's easy.  That's why I make the big bucks, fo' sure!

The DeWitt ride this morning was a bit of an effort.  My pal Pete was a no-show as he had done a 100-mile ride yesterday, so I had no drafting partner.  There wasn't a lot of wind though, so it was just the basic reality of 48 miles to traverse.  After those three rides on the hills at Lake Tahoe last week, none of the hills on these local routes are intimidating.

I thought that cars on my ride yesterday and today all gave a little more road to me than on what had become normal days around here.  I'm giving credit for that to two fairly widely publicized automobile-hitting-a-bicylcist accidents in the area within the last week.  Irrespective of most motorists thinking that bicycles belong on a path, not on a road used by cars, those same drivers don't want to be on the evening news either.  If such reports scare enough drivers, maybe the bike clubs should leak stories every month or so to keep up the awareness.

The guy who won the PGA event this weekend in Greensboro, Patrick Reed, has received a lot of press coverage throughout the Summer, mostly for his good play.  But one of the side-bar stories whenever he has been in the hunt, is the double-take inducing picture of his very petite wife lugging his bag around behind him as his full-time caddy.  This pic really doesn't do justice to the relative sizes of her to the bag.  Understand that the pro's use these over-sized bags as advertising props for their sponsors (kinda like NASCAR).  So a smaller bag is not an option.  Heck I can't even carry a lightweight, made-for-the-purpose "carry-bag".  Good for her.  And him.  Good story.

Staying with the theme from earlier posts in the last few days, today is the two-year anniversary of 4 and I making it up the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees.  (The Tourmalet being the most storied climb in the Pyrenees.)  I remember sitting in a cafe in the ski resort town of Le Mongie near the top of the Tourmalet and having to talk the waiter into serving a Margarita pizza to us in the middle of the afternoon...and it being a big deal because it was no longer the lunch hour.  And when I asked for ice in the Coke, I got one cube.  Love the French! 

(OK.  I really don't know how this will end up looking online.  To get the Tourmalet pic posted, I had to go to the iPad...and the BlogPress app, which isn't exactly compatible with the standard Blogger.  Like I said earlier, this is getting a little bit like WORK!)

The Little League World Series is underway in Williamsport, PA with a team from Urbandale, Iowa representing the Mid-States area.  They've split two games, so they're still alive in the double elimination tournament. These teams are All-Star teams from their hometown leagues.  And they have played their way through local, state and regional tournaments to get to Williamsport.  Its a BIG deal.  I remember my Little League days...my team was the Olsen Sporting Goods Dodgers...we won the Ottumwa City Championship (at least once), and lost a couple of others...and my teams never made much noise on the All-Star level.  I may find a Little League pic to add here later.  (Will need to look further.  Couldn't locate what I was looking for this evening.)

(My Babe Ruth league All-Star team DID win a state championship when I was a 15-year old.  The state tournament was just up the road from Ottumwa...in Oskaloosa...and I think I hit a home run in the championship game.  Then we went to Missouri some where and got knocked out in two straight games in the regional.)

Enough for today.  Busy week ahead for me.  Lots to do before Italy/Sicily...now less than a month away!

Make it a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Saturday

So my laptop is now going through some issues.  I haven't used it much in recent weeks, but I'm guessing that there's a virus working over the latest Windows update.  Shock!

This could be a disjointed entry...or no entry depending on my publishing success.  I keep getting "error" messages when Blogger tries to do the autosave function.

Pretty lame that I'm sitting here alone on the couch on a Saturday night.  Actually, I do have a date...The Winniferous.  She came over today when 2 took off with friends to check out the museums in Des Moines, and the Iowa State Fair tomorrow.  2 knows how to party!  Stay tuned for a pic of the butter cow!

Hey to 3 and 3.1 who are attending a wedding in Chicago this weekend.  Chicago should be hoppin'.  The Cardinals are in town.  Wrigleyville is probably packed.  I'm afraid that a visit there is not going to hit my schedule before the end of the season.  As the Cubs' mantra goes, "there's always next year!"

According to my calendars, today is the anniversary of 4 and I doing the climb up the Col d'Aspin in Southern France.
 I'll try to pull up one of the pics from that day, but no guarantees.  (I've switched over to the iPad...and I've got doubts on what will get published here tonight.). 4 crashed on the descent, and I treated her road-rash with itch cream.

I think that I'll try to do the DeWitt breakfast ride in the AM.  I felt a little winded as I rode back in from the country this afternoon, so a mid-course correction is always a possibility.  I'm not getting paid on my mileage.

I've got to hit the office tomorrow, so I'll add an entry from there, time permitting.

Sorry for such a light-weight entry.  The technology battle did not go well on Maplecrest tonight.

BCOT

Thursday...UPDATED

Blogger has reverted back to the limited-functionality of editing features that I ran into last month at times.  I didn't notice it when I was using the iPad from the road, but with my desktop computer, I have no mouse capability.  I'll try to spool-up the laptop tonight to see if I'm dealing with a machine-specific situation.  This is another of the 15th's of a month that I'm counting toward a total of 60...the countdown now to 44.  On the 4000 Days calendar, this is in the 2830 range, depending on leap years in the sequence.  Just saying...

This is also the Catholic Church's feast of the Assumption of Mary.  A holy day of obligation.  I hope you all made it to Mass.  My guess is that this is one of the least-technically-supported beliefs in Catholicism.  Not that that deterred the Holy Cross fathers from establishing a university in her name in South Bend.

Not to get political, but hasn't this business with the Big O mask with the clown at the Missouri rodeo got a little out of hand?  My recollection is that for years, in the list of Top Ten Halloween masks, were those of the current or previous presidents.  Tricky Dick Nixon was at the top of the charts for years.  Reagan, and Clinton and Bush were all similarly portrayed.  Heck, you could hang/burn Bush in effigy in the town square and it wouldn't even make the local news.  The President, whomever he/she is, is no King or Saint.

I'm going to publish this now, and will log back on from Maplecrest later this evening to see if I can spiff-up the presentation.  Stay tuned.

NOW LATER...

Okay, Houston, we have a problem...on my desktop.  Pretty sure that it is related to the filters and extra servers that my business email must traverse for compliance purposes; SEC, FINRA and all that stuff.  The world is safer for it.  Or at least the attorney's will have an electronic trail to travel to prove the errors of my ways.

Two years ago today, 4 and I spent our first night in the Pyrenees.  At this Old World hotel.  I'm not saying it was a dump.  But "quaint" might be generous.  Ah, the memories, eh, Kiddo?

Lastly for tonight, a thought on the long reach of technology and how it forces businesses, governments and institutions to adapt to an ever-changing environment.  2 pointed out in a discussion across the wine-table last weekend that colleges are being forced  to figure out how to acquire and retain students when the application process has been largely mechanized, homogenized and universalized.  Elementary-high school systems are trying to figure out how to engage students who just want to socially network (rather than "study").  And in my area, the IRS won't even accept paper returns in many standard situations.

Expand those, and other similarly challenging fact patterns, with questions like, "How secure is my information?"  And the landscape gets pretty scary.

Thanks for reading.  Make it a Good Friday in your neighborhood.

BCOT

BCOT 

Wednesday - Back in the 52722

The new Home Page pic was snapped on Saturday at the famous Mt. Rose lookout point above Incline Village.  Hard to find a better postcard picture, eh?

More later.

BCOT