Tuesday

My guess is that 4 has been unable to find the motivation to entertain us now that Europe and the wedding have become history. We need her spin on things.

It's been an awful day for the TdF and it was a rest day at that. The pre-race favorite, Alexander Vinokourov from Kazachstan and the Astana team, who has won a couple of stages but who has dropped far behind in the overall classification, tested positive for doping. He and his team have been sent home. It makes you sick.

I think that the new son-in-law will be called 1.1 in keeping with a technology theme. That logic enables us to easily name possibly future additions to that family as in 1.2, 1.3, etc. Then again, based on some one's comment last weekend on 1's thoughts about kids, we won't have to worry about the etc.

Most of my conversations these last couple of days, in person or on the phone, have had at least short discussions about the wedding weekend. In response to my comments about how well everything went all weekend long, one attorney said something about the stars being lined up correctly. She was right. The moon and the stars were exactly where they needed to be for all of us.

I have an appointment in the morning to see an orthopod about my thumb injury. My guess is that there will need to be some surgery to pin a ligament to get everything in the right place.

There was a death in minor league baseball recently. A 35 year old coach of the Tulsa Drillers, a AA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, was struck by a foul ball while coaching first base in a game Sunday night in Arkansas. I had never heard of the guy, but in reading a few of the accounts of the incident, he was apparently a good guy with young children, and still loved the game. I haven't seen any film of the incident, but the result makes you ask, "Where was he looking?"

A first base coach is helping runners with pick-off moves, and he can be pretty close to a hitter, especially a left-handed one. You hear of pitchers getting hit with batted balls, and there have been deaths in the past. Now we know why "Heads-up" is a good practice.

There's a story of personal experience here. I remember a high school game of mine in Pella, Iowa when the coach put me at first base as our regular first baseman was not with the team that day, and he figured that an experienced player like me could handle a few innings at first. Well, at some point in the game, the other team got a runner on first, and I set up on the home side of first to hold the guy on. Like you're supposed to, I extended my gloved left hand toward the pitcher to give him a target in case he elected to try a pick-off move.

My recollection of the rest of the story is from others. I must have glanced toward home to watch the hitter. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground and asking, "What happened?" The pitcher had indeed thrown to first. A bullet, I was told. Right over my glove, and right on my forehead. Down I went. But lucky. No blood. No damage. No hospital. And no more first base.

So bad things can happen, and you can get away unscathed. Or you can become a headline. The Tulsa guy's number came up snake eyes.

Illinois just passed a state-wide ban on smoking in public places beginning in 2008. My guess is that there will be a line of law suits to over-turn the law, delay it, or make it otherwise unenforceable. Personally, I avoid smokey bars and the casinos, the two types of places that have the most smokers, so it doesn't have a down side for me. The clientele of those establishment are big-time smokers. There's lots of money involved. The lawyers will make millions.

A friend of mine who I met at SB's yesterday for some catching-up has a son who has had Ewing's sarcoma, and my friend has become very knowledgeable on cancer statistics. He says that about 40% of us will get some kind of cancer at some point. The damning thing is that 30% of that 40% can be attributed to smoking.

I'm headed home to my Russian cleaning lady cleaned house. Life is good.

Be careful out there.