Friday

Not much to add for a Friday.  I hear my good friend Tuscan Red calling me.

3 is officially living out of a suitcase.  Paraphrasing an old sports euphemism, "If it doesn't kill ya', it'll make ya' stronger!"  Keep you eye on that patch of road just ahead.  You can do it!

Another example of "gotcha" news.  Earlier this week, some pitcher for the Washington Nationals made an indirect dis of a generic Miss Iowa ("It's like you were expecting Miss Universe and Miss Iowa shows up!"), the media put the comment on the wires, and now the current Miss Iowa (from Bettendorf) is in DC to throw out the first pitch for tonight's game.  It's really not political correctness as much as it is the definition of "news".

I'm headed to Cedar Falls tomorrow morning with a group from Geneva to play some one-day matches against a golf club located there.  Obviously, Geneva was desperate for players to accept me as a participant.  My thought when the request for players came over my email this AM was, "It's an excuse not to bike.  I'm in!"  Plus, I can take the morning paper along and work a Saturday crossword as I don't have to drive.  Suite.

BTW, RevKev, suite, as a term of art, incubated in our fam for the better part of two decades before it became of common usage in our dialect.  I'm guessing that it was probably the late '80's when we made a nothing-special, get-a-way trip with the girls to C-town for the weekend.  By that time, our numbers required either two adjoining hotel rooms or a bigger single room with options.  A search for economical alternatives yielded a reservation at a Hilton Suites.  Which became Hilton Candy in our family lore.  And the great memory was always suite.  So when sweet became the hip response, our suite was always hipper.

A little of Barbara Mandrel's, I was Country when Country Wasn't Cool. (I'm thinking that the tenses and math on that as a comparative might be okay.)

Off to do my yard so that I won't have to deal with it on Sunday.  Have a great weekend.

BCOT

Thursday

A bit of a change weather-wise.  Last night's temps dropped into to the mid 60's for the first time in a few days.  And lower humidity.  Almost comfortable.  I even brought Margret out for the day.

This morning would have to be a Top Ten day for RAGBRAI.  I've throw this daily map in here just to give a sense of the area being traveled today.  (If you click on the map, you can see it on a full-screen basis.)  These towns have seen RAGBRAI before.  I remember spending a week in Clarksville one afternoon with my pal Pete.

The heat had discouraged me from going out for a ride after work yesterday, but I had the bright idea to catch a late afternoon spin class at Gold's just to get in a good workout.  My personal trainer was the scheduled instructor and I figured that there would be few participants, thus giving me the chance to banter with her during class.  It was a good idea, except that my trainer had taken the day (and rest of the week) off to catch on with RAGBRAI.  Five people showed for the class, and the substitute spin-Nazi was okay for the workout, but not near as much fun.

The Dell repairman showed as scheduled yesterday, and the laptop is fully back in service.  I had suspected that the battery was trash, but the replacement of the mother-board and the the AC-adapter proved me wrong.  Warranty fully covered the call.  I wonder what my next problem with it will be?  The warranty expires within the next month or so.

All my close friends are out of town this week.  Nobody to call on for a ride, wine or coffee.  Bummer.

The Corps of Engineers missed the estimate on this week's crest of the Mississippi River by a large margin.  Their projections last weekend had the City of Davenport scrambling to build the temporary berms in the downtown area to safeguard the district.  Lots of street detours etc.  It's hard to be too critical of the plan, especially with the damage floods have done in other parts of Eastern Iowa recently (and over the last couple of years).  But this time, it was much ado about little.  The skies cleared.  Old Muddy spread out elsewhere.  Just a little here.  And the berms are coming down. (This pic was taken by 2 on Tuesday out her window at the Figge Museum.  Pretty tame stuff.)

Hope everyone has a great day.

BCOT

Wednesday

So anyway, the absence of an entry last night was the result of an impulse decision to turn left and head for the pancake-flat bike path along the Mississippi River rather than head straight and do some modest hills on the East edge of Davenport.  At the street light just a couple blocks after that left turn to get across River Drive and onto the bike path, I ran into Terry O, and the rest of the evening became history.

This little illustration of how one evening in life can change so quickly given unanticipated facts (and a person's reaction to those facts), can be used in relation to bigger directional movements as well.  I mean, how many careers have been launched by someone meeting a new mentor with an inspirational message?  Or a guy (or girl) running into their future mate at the 10 Minute Oil Change shop?  The weekend in C-town?  The brother of a friend who has a job opening for the taking in Boise?  It happens.

I don't have time now, but later today I'm doing a Top Ten list of my Unexpected Turns.

Have a great day.

BCOT

Tuesday

I had great intentions of adding here tonight, but a planned 18 miler on the bike path after work turned into 26+ and dinner with my fiend Terry O.  I ran into him and a buddy at my 7 mile mark and they shamed me into joining them for a longer ride across the river.  It turned out to be a fun night, but it was after 2130 by the time I finally got home.  So I'll post a few paragraphs here in the AM.

BCOT

Monday

RevKev has posted a couple of historical pictures of "the Elders".  Those who were once young are now oldsters.

It looks like the problem with my laptop is my AC adapter and maybe the battery.  Dell is supposed to be dropping by this week with "the fix".  Think I'm taking the under on anything that simple.

My pal Pete is on the road this week with the fam in the Dominican Republic.  No clue what led them there.  Probably some "deal" at a resort.  Don't you go there in the Winter?  So no drafting partner this week.

We had a couple of trees blown over in our office park in a wind storm on Friday afternoon.  And our neighbor West of us had a couple down as well.  Must have been a brief gust right here because there was not a lot of damage in other parts of the city.  $750 to take one out today, and a smaller one goes tomorrow for another $350.  So is the answer to an improving economy more natural disasters?  (Don't tell any one in DC...they might actually work that way!)  Wasn't there a couple of old movies about the USA going to war (or another country starting a war with the USA) to jump start the economy?

A rookie with the Dallas Cowboys has refused to honor the tradition of rookies performing menial (and demeaning) tasks for the veteran players during training camp.  A guy who hasn't caught a pass in the league yet decides to set his own standard of conduct regardless of "the code".  I'm sure he'll find lots of pals in the locker room. 

2 stopped by last night (with The Winniferous) for New York Strips and veggies on the grill.  And an Italian red for the palate.  Suite.  The Summer has been so mixed-up that I bet I haven't fired up the BBQ more than a handful of times.  Weather, travel and lack of initiative all have contributed to this year's under-use of my cooking skills. Steamed broccoli, asparagus and new potatoes have now incented me to invite company over more often in the next few weeks.

For the record, it doesn't look like 2011 will be an FFF event in Tahoe.  I'm sure that we'll have a few fff's (notice lower case) over the next year, but my major 2011 travel is tentatively another European gig, this time with 4 in Northern Spain and Southern France.  There are a few hills  in the Pyrenees that need climbing (including the Col du Tourmalet that was in last Friday's stage).  Barcelona.  Maybe Bilbao?  Lots of options.  The longer range plan for the next week-long FFF would be Tahoe 2012.

I'm off to the bike.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Sunday

This group photo is from a Tahoe Phil email.  I'm guessing the RevKev will get a complete photo package to everyone in the near future.  This is a pic that will go down in family history for generations.

The TdF ends today in Paris.  The next big race will be in some court house where they will be digging into Landis' allegations.  Can there be any winners in that contest?

My challenge for the day will be to prep and then re-stain my deck.  The heat and humidy look to be a little less awful today, and the deck is a mess.  The stain that I use is paint-like in color to match the slate-gray of the siding on my house, but it doesn't do as good of a job of soaking into the wood like the clear stuff, and it flakes off after a year or so.  Ergo, today's job.

In addition to the normal, several heat-related hospitalizations, there was one death in yesterday's Bix run.  Heart attack.  A 41 year-old male from a near-by town.  He was a wrestling coach and apparently not in that bad of physical shape except for some knee issues.  The race was run in the rain, so conditions were not as bad as if there was full sun.  So I guess the lesson is, always,  Be careful Out There.

Here's a season-appropriate Top Ten list of hottest days in my memory:

1.  Summer, mid-1980's. Driving Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson with my pals Jake and Kirk.  When we stopped to re-fill the beer cooler, my shoes made impressions on the parking lot asphalt.

2. RAGBRAI.  Circa 2000.  85 or so miles from Decorah to Manchester.  Hills.  Headwinds.  Heat. Hangover.  If there had been a truck picking up roadkill on those last 10 miles, I would have been the first piece collected.

3.  Summers, mid-1960's.  The hay mow on the farm.  Stifling when stacking bales in the upper reaches of the barn.

4.  Summer, 1936.  Iowa.  Okay.  I wasn't there.  But Mother and Daddy always talked about it!

5.  New Orleans, June 1971.  Down there to visit a college girlfriend.  Couldn't believe the humidity.

6.  Miami, March 1969.  Spring baseball trip with The Irish.  First experience in the South.  Stepping off the plane was like getting smacked in the nose.  (Leaving C-town in a snow-storm may have contributed to the effects.)

7.  Ft. Lauderdale, circa Smmer 1985.  With my pals Wally and Jake.  On Wally's 50+ foot yacht that he was preparing to sell.  That was where I learned to pour my beer into a glass of ice.

8.  Kunsan, Korea, Summer 1974.  USAF.   Misery on the Yellow Sea.

9.  Walsh High gym, Summer 1989.  All-class reunion basketball game.  A steam bath.  (And I wasn't even playing because of the knee surgery.  That was the time 3 went into the deep end at the pool at the Holiday Inn.)

10.  South Dakota, maybe 1990.  Family vacation to see The Four Heads.  Towels would dry outside in about three minutes.

So I need to head out and get productive.  Enjoy the day.

BCOT

Saturday

I doubt if I get back to this today, so what you get now is what you get.

My laptop seems to have a power problem and I am making this entry from the office.  The battery on the laptop has been on the fritz since Tahoe, but the computer had been working with direct current.  Not so this AM.  I haven't been on it for a couple of days, and when I tried to fire it up at SB's this morning, I got nuttin'.  It should still be under warranty, but what a pain.

I've had a few discussions in recent days about my focal point while on the road cycling.  When I'm with @bcbison on those morning runs, I never see a lot more than his rear wheel.  This pic actually suggests a little broader vision than what I normally have on those rides.  And the perspective is off a little as I'm usually directly behind him with about 18-24 inches of leeway.

When I was doing the grind up Mt. Rose from Reno last week, it occurred to me that my up-road perspective wasn't a lot different than when I was in Petey's draft back in Iowa.  Rarely did I try to sight-see on that very picturesque route.  (Of course, even when you're driving a car on the Mt. Rose highway, you don't spend a lot of time looking at the scenery!)

This is in contrast to @bcbison who is always pointing out this thing or that on our rides (all while he is pounding along at a 20mph pace!).  I'm afraid to look up, and he's doing the travel-guide thing!

I'm saying that his vision is more like the classic picture-book scene from the open road.  Lots of horizon viewing, catching all on the periphery.  The crops, the cows and any other critters (four or two legged!).

This discussion has obvious cross-over application to a person's approach to life.  And maybe to everybody depending on the particular facts one faces from time to time.  I think that we all have to grind at times to get through those tougher spots.  Pound the pedals to get through that switch-back to get further up the hill.  It's never always easy.

It rained for most of the morning here.  The Bix runners had to just get soaked.  That makes the post-race beer-drinkin' something less than exciting.  I suppose that the steam will come out this afternoon.

So have a good weekend to all.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Friday

Another hot one here today.  Summer in the Midwest remains hot and humid.  The heat-index at 1800 last night was well over 100.  I waited until after 2000 to mow the yard, and it was still a steamy proposition.

I'm giving 3 a special mention for Daughter Of The Day.  She's juggling major isses in Beantown with the job search, residence-in-flux, and handling of household goods storage as she exits her apartment at the end of the month.  Hang in there, Kiddo.  You can do it!

The Bix 7 run is this tomorrow in Davenport.  They get around 15,000 participants for the event, and it is the community's biggest Summer festival.  There's a jazz music focus as well.  Bix Biederbecke was a native of Davenport as is considered a jazz legend from the '20's.  Lots of parties this weekend.  I'm thinking that 3 will be at least walking the course.

I did get the DirectTV receiver hooked up last night.  It took about 20 minutes on the phone with a service rep to get through the set-up protocols.  The rep said she was located at a call center in Southern Nevada.  Gives you the NCIS-creeps when a techie in Nevada can control the TV in your basement in Iowa.  I have a little bit of local programming to finalize with my remote/clicker.  Still, I'm at least back on-line for CNBC in the mornings while I get ready for the office.

More here later.

BCOT

Thursday

So we'll give the girls another day in the sun as collective Daughters of The Day.  Obviously, this was a pic from Reunion Day 2010.  Where's 1.01, you ask?  Don't recall, but I'm betting SRH is involved.

I briefly watched the ESPN game last night in the club lounge in Muskie, and Strasburg drew another sellout crowd, this time in Cincy.  It didn't look like he had his best stuff (he definitely struggled with location), but the Reds' hittters were guessing.  A guy with a 98mph heater shouldn't be allowed to throw a hook.  I think I'd even pay to see the guy throw.  (How's that for high praise?)

It looks like Contador has the TdF locked-up.  The final day in the hills produced no change in his 8-second lead, which he should add to in an individual time trial tomorrow or Saturday.  That would give him three titles.  The real deal.  Amazing how a three-week race can have an 8-second difference between first and second spots.

More later.  Headed to lunch at the 11th Street Precinct with my pal Bill.

LATER:

I'll be leaving shortly to catch up with my yard.  My Perfect Neighbor had mowed the grass in my absence, and I have ignored it since my return.  It's really not too bad except for a few small sections of marsh grass that have spiked kind of high.  If there was a high school kid in the neigborhood looking for Summer work, he could have my yard as a starting point.  I'm thinking that once you have an RCL, the road toward other domestic service providers becomes a slippery slope.

My replacement DirectTV receiver was delivered to my house during my vacation.  It has slightly different connections than the one turned in.  I haven't figured out the combination as of yet.  Then when I stopped by the local outlet to pick-up the defective one that I needed to send back to DirectTV, there was a mix up in the communications, and I got another replacement receiver delivered on Wednesday.  You could say that I am long on satellite receivers at this point.

My pal Ron is taking my back-up bike on RAGBRAI next week.  I had discouraged him from making a hurried, mid-Summer purchase of a new bike and have offered to loan him the Trek 2100 several times last month, but he was reluctant to do so.  Finally, that Thursday before Tahoe, he had to run me back to my place after some Bix at Six brewskies, and I shamed him into trying out the Trek.  Long story short, the Trek is headed back to what has to be close to double digits for RAGBRAI participation.  Although I haven't been with it for the last couple. 

Maybe a little more here later.

BCOT




BCOT

Monday

I will get a full post up here later today.

Travel home for everyone was apparently OK.  It's always hard traveling East with the time already against you.  But if you want the fun of Lake Tahoe, there is a price to pay.

This pic was one I took with my phone last Tuesday when I rode up the short side of Mt. Rose from Incline Village.  Amazing what the phone camera can do.

2 will be coming by to upload the pics from my regular camera to a picture-sharing site later today.

Hope everyone has a good Monday.

BCOT

Friday

Good-day from C-town's Midway Airport!

This is just a little morsel to feed any of the peanut gallery out there looking for a little news from 4kdays.  We drove in this AM without any problems and should be boarding in 30 minutes or so for our direct flight to RNO.

The local news back in the QCA yesterday centered on the PGA golf tournament, The John Deere Classic.  The first round leader, a journeyman by the name of Paul Goydos, fired a 59, only the fourth time that a player has broken 60 in an official PGA event.  That was the good news for Goydos.  The bad news was that the guy in second place shot a 60, and that guy is already another 5 under par today!

I'm wondering if this 59 should have an asterisk as the rules on the course yesterday were "lift, clean and place" for balls in the fairways.  (This is a common rule in official events when a course has been beset by heavy rains, which Deere Run definitely was over the last several days.)  While lift, clean and place may be an accepted rule, real golfers often call it plain ol' cheatin'.

My final training ride for Tahoe was in downtown Davenport last night.  The picture doesn't do Fillmore Street hill justice as the grade is about 20% here at the top.  It's not that long of a climb, but I'm in my granniest of gears at the very bottom and am totally breathless by the time I reach the top.  I did three repeats just to make sure I got my full money's worth for the trip downtown.

At the horizon in the pic is the Mississippi River.  Downtown Davenport is located right on the river, and the streets heading away from downtown all have pretty strong hills to get off the bottom land.  Fillmore is in an old neighborhood on the West end and they didn't do much grade-cutting when they put in the street.  I had made a promise to myself to get these repeats done before Tahoe, so it was last night or bust.  Small victories.

So we'll be boarding soon.  The next entry should be from Incline Village.  Suite!

BCOT

Wednesday

The Tahoe trip is getting pretty close on the radar screen!

The new plan for the QCA contingent is an early Friday departure rather than the Thursday night one as discussed here on Monday.  We don't leave C-town until noon on Friday and there's some cheap parking near Midway that makes the stay-park-fly option at a hotel less attractive.  Plus, I don't need another hotel-bed-night if it's not absolutely necessary!

I took the morning off from a ride, and missed getting soaked in an early shower.  Suite!  Maybe a little effort at lunch or late afternoon.

The new hot water heater is in place.  Relatively easy for me.  Writing a check.  If it took an experienced guy 3+ hours to complete the task (along with a co-worker to help with hauling the new unit downstairs and taking the old one out), how many days would it have taken LtPC to screw it up on my own (to save a couple hundred bucks)?  The joys of home ownership.

And the satellite store confirmed what I had deduced: my receiver is toast.  A new one will be sent to my home by DirectTV, and I'm to return the faulty one.  (The local store doesn't handle receiver replacements.)

Staying with the theme of service-repairs-in-my-life, the $200+ freon charge to my house's air conditioning unit was pretty much ineffective.  Constant running now barely gets the indoor temperature under 80 degrees.  Hello new heating and cooling system come October.  Let's keep that economy moving!

Shifting gears to the positive side of life, the new wine decanter works!  A full test was performed last night using a nice bottle of Rodney Strong cabernet.  Excellent effects all the way around!  Thanks to all.

Have a great day.  Stay cool!

BCOT

Monday

Warm and muggy day here.  I elected not to ride.  Back at it in the AM.

Unusual stage today in the TdF.  The weather deteriorated in the last third of the ride and about half of the peloton crashed at least once, several riders going down twice.  It sounded like the rain produced an oily film on the road, and the boys simply couldn't stay upright, particularly on anything going down hill.  The wearer of the yellow jersey pulled rank, kept the pace down to let the big contenders catch up to the main field, and then they neutralized (didn't contest) the finish.  The one survivor of the early breakaway was allowed to stay away and he won the stage with no second through twentieth place points awarded.  Talk about a non-event!

New water heater in the AM.

The 4th of July parade upriver in Bellevue, Iowa made the national news.  (This is a small town that I have biked through numerous times.)  A team of two horses pulling a wagon got spooked and literally tore through the crowd.  There was one fatality and over 15 other reported injuries.  I'm guessing that that will pretty much do it for any horse displays in future parades in most small towns around here.  Did the morning show goons and goonesses get interviews today?  If not, bet the Over for tomorrow's shows.

Of course, the law suits will keep some ambulance chasers busy for a while as well.  It's the American Way.

The Tahoe travel plan for our trio from the QCA is a Thursday evening departure by car to C-town.  We'll overnight at a place somewhat near Midway, leave the car there, and shuttle to the airport around 0900 Friday for our noon departure on the non-stop SWA flight to Reno.  This option gives us free baggage (2 bags each, each way), and eliminates the connecting flight problem. 

Someone with idle time might want to apply a little technical Operations Research analysis to the variables of room cost, parking fees and distance to Midway.  I'm thinking that it will take a hotel at least 4-5 miles away from the airport to include free parking for a park-stay-fly special in the $100-125 range.  Add in the star-quality of the hotel, and other amenities, and you could have quite the equation.

All for tonight.  Hope everyones' plans for Tahoe come together.

BCOT

Sunday

Happy 4th to the peanut gallery!

Very low-key day here on Maplecrest.  I did a late-morning ride on my own and fought the wind for anything headed West or South.  Good 31 mile workout, but I spent the afternoon on the couch in recovery-mode.  Definitely should have employed 2 and done a tailwind ride with her picking me up 50 miles North.  The Monday ride may be a short one!

I finally expended the frustration-energy and diagnosed the upstairs TV problem as a defective satellite receiver.  I swapped-out the basement reciver to the upsatirs TV and all systems were "go".  (There are enough wires going in between the receiver and the TV that you need an IT guy just to set it up.  I just tried to remember the connections and took a shot.  Not sure of the purpose of the left-over wires.)

I get charged a monthly fee per-receiver.  I'm taking the Under on the probability of DirectTV getting the paperwork straight on the trade-in of the broken unit for an operational one.  (They each have a distinct Identifier Code.)

Interesting discussion out there about Stephen Strasburg not being added to the All-Star roster.  I think that that is the correct decision, but that's based on the presumption that All-Star selection remains a distinctive event.  It's complicated.  Players want to be selected, but many don't necessarily want to play, preferring instead a few days off from the grind.  And since a tie game is considered an acceptable outcome by the MLB Powers That Be, who's to say a rookie sensation (who's the biggest story in the sport this season) shouldn't be part of the show?

So we have Client #9 getting a new gig on CNN, which begs the question, "How long does a defrocked governor need to sit out before a media exec can come up with a viewership statistic that puts the tool back in the game?"  With LtPC showing no discrimination, a similar question can be asked of the exceedingly stupid (and, apparently, equally horny) now former Athletic Director at the University of Georgia.  Check out the net.  The "red" in the Georgia Red and Black will have a whole new meaning for a year or two.

My pal Pete was taking the day to go up to the outdoor venue in Southern Wisconsin, Alpine Valley, with a couple of his boys to see The Dave Mattews Band.  I've never been there, but I guess it seats 30+K and is like Ravinia in C-town, field seating with big screens for those in the far places.  I think Jimmy Buffet does a show there most years.

So you've got the old guys from the 70's still drawing them in, and you've got the new guy that 4 went to see last night in Lincoln.  And 3 is in The Berkshires to see another deal.  And I'm on my couch watching a James Bond re-run.  Who has a life?

BCOT

Friday

Is there anyone out there with a life who is working on the Friday afternoon before a three-day holiday weekend?  Not sure that I have a life, so being here at my desk this afternoon must qualify me for the non-life category.

My list of Current Mechanical Failures now includes my hot water heater and the main level TV at my house.  The hot water heater went from a trickle leak to a stream yesterday, so a replacement is on the schedule for Tuesday.  Translation: cold showers for the weekend.  Suite.  And the TV has been very erratic since the satellite move last month.  I haven't had the energy to trouble-shoot the problem.  All I know is that I now get no picture on the thing.  The basement unit is fine.  Curious, as they both feed off the same input cable.

Oh, and right on cue, after filling the Taurus up with gas yesterday, the "check engine light" lit up on the dashboard.  Double suite.

Le Tour starts tomorrow.  The Prolog is like a 2-mile individual time trial, a one-at-a-time deal that isn't much for viewing pleasure. (It's possible that the same can be said for 99% of the whole race.)

The whiney 3-time winner Greg Lemond predicts that Lance Armstrong either won't start, or will retire before the race actually enters France on the fourth day. Lemond been a leader in accusing Armstrong of being a doper, and he's taken up recently with admitted doper (and grenade thrower) Floyd Landis.

My holiday weekend plans include such excitement as scraping and restaining the deck at my house, cleaning out my garage, and otherwise preparing for Tahoe.  Biking some each day, but my pal Pete is only available tomorrow, so my Sunday-Monday rides will likely be more work than preferred.  Although I am thinking about a tail-wind ride that would by necessity require a support vehicle for the pick up. (Sounds like a job for 2 and The Winniferous!)

Here's a short Top Ten list on stuff in the news that is just TOO MUCH ALREADY!:

1.  Lebran James.  Please. Pick a team.  Get over it.
2.  The World Cup.  One-Nil games are killin' me.
3.  Lady Gaga.  Who is this person?
4.  Rush Limbaugh.  Just so you Lefties know that I turn him off too.
5.  Katie Couric.  Like it matters that she goes to 2 above.
6.  The Gulf oil spill.  And who's screwed up. Just stop the thing!
7.  The late Senator Robert Byrd.  I mean the guy was in the Klan for cryin' out loud!
8.  Tiger Woods.  Mistresses.  Divorce. Mediocre golf game.  Who cares?
9.  Blogo and The Govinator.  Two losers.  Politicians or sitcom extras?
10.The Jobs Report.  Hey, we've got 9.5% unemployment!  Tell me something I didn't know!

So I hope everyone gets out there and has a good weekend.  Even if it's paintin' and cleanin' (and making do with no hot water) like LtPC.

BCOT

Thursday AM

Well, that half of a year went pretty fast, eh?

While I was on the road last week and weekend, there was another death of a relatively young guy with whom I had done some business with locally in years' past.  62 years old.  Attorney.  Member of the investment club that I belonged to for a few years.  Heart attack.  The lesson from The Chorus: "Live like you were dyin'."

3 is back in NYC today.  Be a star, Kiddo!

The boys in the peloton are gathering in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) for Saturday's start to the TdF.  Another interesting starting point for a race that is The national sporting event for France.  They also hit Belgium before beginning their clock-wise journey through mostly the edges of eastern and southern France this year.  Hope the house in Tahoe gets Versus so that I can watch a few of the stages that week.

Have a great day.

LATER...

If I have to evaluate whether it makes economic sense to put a full tank of gas in the Taurus, is it a sign of a lack of faith in the ol' girl?  Actually, the same concept goes for my air conditioning unit at my house.  I mean, I just forked over $237 to re-charge the freon cell in the unit, which is at least a 10% offset against a new system.  Unfortunately, there's not an easy gauge to determine if the freon leakage-rate is days, weeks, months or years.

BCOT