Wednesday PM

You guys are pretty quiet out there.

Didn't get my ride in last night. Too tired. But I did get the yard work done, including extraction of the two old clothes line posts in the back. They were set in cement and my neighbor came over with his utility jack to get leverage. Really didn't take that long and now I will have two less items to bang into while mowing. Plus, it's just less trash in the yard, although with a backyard neighbor who does zippo on her lawn, less trash on my side doesn't exactly create the perfect picture out my back windows.

The same neighbor has the huge cotton wood trees that are doing a slow death march. I called the electric company because, when the trees come down, they will definitely take out the power lines for sure. And possibly my garage. Their response was, "It's not our problem yet." My insurance people say only that when the trees come down, I'll have insurance coverage, less my deductible. So my neighbor ignores the dying tree. And nobody cares.

My Russian cleaning lady left me a note yesterday saying that she was headed back to Europe for a month beginning August 25th. So she'll take care of me on the 22nd, but not again until the end of September. I'll be on my own! I've become pretty comfortable with having my house routinely cleaned. I'll miss her.

Landis was on Leno last night, but I fell asleep and never heard his schtick. I really don't know what to think. He seems like a truthful guy. But the lab tests are very technical and difficult to dispute. His remarks ring similar to Tyler Hamilton, another American cyclist (an Olympic gold medalist cyclist) who took a two year ban in 2004 and never was able to prove his innocence. I do find it interesting that most of the media sports columnists have him convicted.

As a group, sports columnists, talk radio jocks and the like are borderline pond scum. They hold themselves out as society's conscious and have a responsibility by virtue of their elevated status to lay down judgements on the various figures whom the public might otherwise hold in higher esteem. Not that all that many sports figures should be held in high esteem. But it really bugs me when these media guys think I need their help to come to a conclusion on some event like the Landis thing.

But that gets into that topic of the media personalities wanting to be the news rather than just report on it. And I don't have the energy or time to do that rant tonight.

I'm off to ride the DCC hills. Hope everyone has a productive evening.

Be careful out there.