Friday

Just a few lines this AM to add to the excitement for the weekend.  Not really.

Happy Tax-Birthday to 1.  We'll be up there to celebrate tomorrow.

I don't think that I mentioned here that 2 and I are booked for another trip to Italia this Fall.  This time we'll be going South, flying into Naples and then working our way down to the toe of the boot via Hertz, jumping over to Sicily on a ferry, and then flying out of Palermo, Sicily for our return to the States.

The genesis of a trip to Sicily actually goes back to my elementary school days and the curiosity that world geography gave me.  I always thought that the visual of the island of Sicily at the extended tip of Italy was the most unusual shape of the countries that we studied.  When 2 and I had such a good time in Italy in 2009, a return visit of some sort was always in the plan.

I will be taking my bike, but there will be no mountain climbs for this trip.  Last year's death march up Mt. Rose took that kind of thing out of my list of things to do.  But it looks like there are a lot of scenic coastal rides on the Amalfi Coast and on Sicily.  Our exact itinerary has yet to be finalized. 

Speaking of Italia, the Giro actually cancelled today's stage up in the Northeast part of the country ( the Dolomites) due to bad weather at the higher elevations.  They always face these risks in May in those mountains.  But in the several years that I have been following the European races, I don't recall a stage being flat-out cancelled.  Usually, they'll just do an alternative route.  In this case, there just wasn't a suitable option in the part of the hills where they were located.  (This what it looked like yesterday and they weren't at the higher locations.)

Lots of controversy in the news this week about the IRS.  Obviously, I've had my go-arounds with the Service for over 30 years, but I've never had political skirmishes with them.  But there is no question that the IRS that I have come to know has a, "Don't mess with me"attitude.  Don't believe their publicly stated policy that they make most of their choices on who and what to audit on a random basis.  And if you get on their radar for something, you stay there.  I can see where the lines for tax-enforcement and business-activity-monitoring could get blurred. 

The responses from the various officials at the Congressional hearings this week ("I cannot recall", "I don't work in that specific area", and the best one, "I'd have to review my files/notes".) are not believable.  All are very John Dean-esque to me.  There's definitely a cover-up in play.  The question is, are all the higher-ups insulated enough to keep their coat-tails clean.

So good luck on travels and BBQ's this weekend!

BCOT