Sunday

This is a visit to my old stomping grounds: Sunday AM at SB's. Some of the worst music ever.

Yesterday was a big day for 2. Moving day into her new house. We did a U-Haul truck for the morning and got all of her bigger stuff transported in a single trip. Now she has the challenge of making the new address her home. She is again, Daughter of the Day.

3 reports that Boston has been a good experience thus far. She did manage to get lost on the way back to her apartment one night, and there were a couple of relatively small things of damage from the movers, but so far, so good.

The Olympics have been all Michael Phelps. At least one national sports writer wrote the obligatory, "I Hope He's Clean" column, similar to those on Dara Torres last month. To an extent, I actually consider the column a bit of butt-covering, the equivalent of "short-selling" a popular growth stock in the face of a rising tide. With all the adulation pouring towards Phelps, a somewhat negative article will be largely dismissed. But if that small likelihood of a cloud were to later surface, this hack could lay his claim to the the "I told you so" insight of a brave Protector of Truth. Right.

I finally got back on the bike a couple of times, including 25 yesterday. I think Mt. Rose took a little more out of me than I had originally thought. Over the next month, my goal is to keep in the 100 miles per week range, and then shut it down for Turkey Trot training. The local bike club has an event in September where they set up a "century" course. For the more-committed, that's a 100 miles. For the less-anal, that being me, a metric century is the order of the day. My pal Pete will pull me home.

There was another local cyclist killed last week on a ride on the Illinois side. A 61 year old physician out on a mid-morning training ride. There has been no toxicology report on the driver, who left the scene, not that it matters. Nationally, there are always similar stories. Sometimes there is some road-rage from the driver, sometimes poor choices by the rider. Golf commentator David Feherty transports his bike each week on the PGA Tour, and he's been hit twice this year. Usually, bikers don't come out real well in run-ins with cars.

Shocking to see that the Irish aren't in any of the pre-season college football rankings.

My experience with the airlines, and the Incline Village Bike Shop, last week pretty well convinced me that when 2 and I make our trip to Italy next year that I'll be renting a bike when I get there rather than trying to transport my own. The cost of shipping is a big impediment, although these costs can vary dramatically from airline to airline, and there are different rules for international travel compared to domestic travel. (Delta wanted $175 each way to get my bike to Reno. My 5-day Tahoe rental was $171.) Who knows what the rules will be a year from now.

I had actually prepped my own bike to take to Tahoe on United (@$100 each way), but the flight cancellations convinced me that chancing the timely arrival was not my best choice. And the bike I rented was just fine. And I didn't have to struggle with the big transport container for the bike, another big negative for travel in Italy.

Probably the best thing about the Olympics is the overshadowing of US politics and such other critical news such as Britney and Brangelina. I suspect that most of the wags have been using the break to scour their thesauruses for new superlatives for Barack.

So I'm off to seize the day. Have a great one.

BCOT