Friday

The Friday kicking off a holiday weekend is almost always a slow day at the office and in the markets.  Those who haven't taken the day off are clock-watching, and traders tend to get their work done early and settle-up so that the afternoon is a non-event.  Let's hope that's what we have in store for today.

@bcbison is Pal of the Day for providing the draft home on the morning ride.

My pal Roy gets props as my host for a toasty round at Crow Valley Golf Club yesterday afternoon.  I hadn't played there for at least a couple of years.  Great course still.  We did play from the White tees, which may have been a first for me.  That shortens the yardage up, usually 20 yards or so on most holes, which makes the experience much less stressful for me.  I actually had drives in areas where I don't recall having ever been...distance-wise.  At this point in my golfing career, I'm very OK with a shorter course.

Bear with me on this item.  I heard on the news yesterday morning that one of my favorite actresses, Rebecca DeMornay had a birthday...54.  I had always thought that she was pretty, going back to Risky Business with Tom Cruise.  I knew that had to be in the early 80's, and I confirmed that it would have been 1983.  Which means that she would have been 24 in that movie.

And I also remember her as the sinister character, Lady Sabine, in The Three Musketeers remake in the 90's.  Which I looked up to confirm was released in 1993.  She was the one who hurled herself off the cliff toward the end of the flick when confronted by Kiefer Sutherland's Musketeer (Athos).

Then she had a small role at the start of Wedding Crashers as the wife whom Owen Wilson's and Vince Vaughn's attorney characters were trying to reconcile with her estranged husband in that conference room scene.  That was 2005.

Her filmography shows that she has done some stuff since Wedding Crashers...but I didn't recognize anything.  Of course, the number of movies that I have been to in the last 8 years could be counted on one hand.  Whatever.  But she seems to have had a career that has run for 25-30 years.  That's got to be a success, yes?  I wonder if she was able to save some money and not have to worry too much about finances these days.  So many entertainers (and athlete-entertainers) have trouble holding on to their money.

I can't name a 24 year old actress today.  I even tried to do an Internet search.  On a non-gender-bias basis, I can't name a 24 year old actor either.  Is there any further evidence required to establish my disconnect from today's pop culture?

Football started last night, and world didn't lose it's orbit.  I did not partake in any viewing of the games.  It just doesn't seem like football weather when they're predicting 100+ degree heat indexes.

All for now.  Make it a Good Friday in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Wednesday

Let's give up the applause for 4 who had her annual review earlier today and received great feedback...and, at least as importantly, a raise!!!  You go, girl!!! Daughter of the Day in a landslide!

Yes, this is a recent pic from Sonoma.  Rodney Strong winery.  We let that Cab that we bought in the tasting room age about 12 minutes from date of purchase.

Today goes down as the "buggy-est" day of the year on the morning ride.  They've been bad ever since we've been riding the first portion of the route in the dark.  Cruising down the Wells Ferry hill to River Drive is like the parting of the sea, only this sea is a swarm of small, moth-like bugs.  The faster you go down hill, the worse it is on your face.  I'm still feeling a couple that got into my eyes

.

The early sun still makes for a pretty picture.  I took this one with my iPhone, on the inward leg of the ride when it started to get a little light out, and got it posted here after a transfer to Yahoo.  Tech-boy at work.

So that's it for today.  Congrats again to 4.  Y'all...

BCOT

Tuesday

So the heat is still on here. Mid 90's or so. I'm sure that we were over 100 with the heat-index. But it is surprisingly ok both in the early morning and in the latter part of the evening. I'm starting this entry while sitting on the Maplecrest driveway, just before 2000 hours, and am very comfortable.

The countdown clock to Italy tripped over the three week mark today. Scary soon.

There was a good story in cycling this week from the Vuelta a Espana. Chris Horner, a 41 year old American, won the 3rd stage on Monday, and also grabbed the leader's jersey.


He became the oldest rider to ever wear the leader's jersey for one of the Grand Tours. Horner has had some modest success over the years internationally, and has been a strong domestique on several TdF squads. He has never been caught up in the drug culture (to my knowledge). He has always been a good interview, and has been a very committed rider. Good story. (He lost the leader's jersey today by 3 seconds, but he remains in 2nd place and looks like he may hang with the leaders all week, if not longer.)

A comment that Horner made after his stage win is on point for anyone who honestly admits that they waste away too much time. He said that he rides each race each day like it might be his LAST race. He is 41 years old, and Rule #1 applies. An accident could easily end his career. As my not-so-favorite country singer Tim McGraw would say, "Live like you were dyin'."


So, no, I happened to miss the VMA's on Sunday night. I'm not sure why the pundits are all twisted with the questionable behavior of the entertainers. I mean, hasn't it just been a contest over the years as to whom can outrageous whom? I know I sound like the old man that I am, but these antics don't interest me. What is the "art" part of this theater?

Get ready for politics to jump back on to the front pages next week when the Congress comes back in session. The leaders of the different camps are already marking territory with appearances on the various networks, and throwing verbal grenades at the uncompromising other side. For the viewer, the key element in this debate is the TV remote "mute" button. Add Syria and Egypt to the discussion, and it's no wonder that the market is heading South.

I was on-scene of a tragedy-averted one evening last week on River Drive between Bettendorf and Davenport. I can't remember exactly the time, but I think after 5 PM when there was quite a bit of traffic, but not bumper-to-bumper. I was headed West, in the left lane of the two lanes headed West, following, but not within a couple hundred feet or so, of a small-ish sedan ( a Hyundai or the like). All of a sudden, that small sedan is clear over in the far


left lane of the East-bound side of the road!! I'm stunned. I'm yelling out loud, "Hey, Hey, You!!!!" Fortunately, there were no on-coming cars at that precise time. And the driver must have looked up, and recovered back to our lane. Had to have been texting. And the same sedan had at least one more "wobble" in to the East-bound lane again before I turned off at the Village. Absolutely scary stuff. Take heed, folks. The message ain't worth it.

No Geneva tomorrow. I'm guessing that there will be plenty of space on the course given the heat forecast. Maybe a cold one with @bcbison on the deck at Gov's. It's a lot shorter trip home!

4 begins her work week in the morning. Be a star, Kiddo.

Thanks for reading.

BCOT

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday

Hot one in River City today.  Good day for inside activities.  Looks like it will be in the 90's all week around here.

The early ride to DeWitt today felt good to get in the books, but that headwind on the way home made for some serious work.  In my math, the equation of good from a tailwind is never balanced-out with the off-set of the headwind.  This was by far not the worst head wind, but when you're out there by your lonesome, with no one to make a draft, the grind against the wind gets old.  BTW, the Sunrise Cafe cook (can't call him a chef!) did yeoman's work on my breakfast.  Yes, that's four eggs!  $6, including toast and coffee.  Suite.

My experiment with shutting the TV off during the week has been a solid success.  I don't feel like I've been missing anything.  It has reached the point that last night, a Saturday night not covered by the original commitment, I couldn't even muster enough interest to keep watching the NASCAR race.  At this point, my evenings are going to stay tube-free.  What would happen if America did that?

The part of the experiment involving vino has been less successful.  But I have made some conscious choices to forego the gratuitous glass of wine mid-week when I might be home alone.  A little less vino is not such a bad thing.  (Of course, these Dog Days of Summer are not exactly prime times for red wine at slightly below room-temperature.  Pouring a nice Cab over a glass of ice just isn't right!)

I noticed from one of my country roads this morning a crude golf green in a farm field.  It may not have been as much of a "green" as just a target pin placement for a golf enthusiast.  On our standard weekday morning ride, there's a true "green" in a yard area that is shared by 2-3 homes in a new neighborhood by Davenport Country Club.  That green has been around a while and is starting to go back to "seed" from lack of proper maintenance.  For the non-rich, a golf green may be a stretch to keep up to speed.

The course in Wellman, Iowa (located South of Iowa City) had sand greens.  (I haven't been through there in years, so I can't confirm whether they have kept the sand or converted to grass.)  Sand greens were used as an alternative to real greens and the associated up-keep.  You would hit to the "green" with your approach shot, make a mark at the appropriate distance, and then use the roller to make a line to the cup.  Then you would putt on the smoothed path to the cup.  I guess it's still golf.

OK.  Football is officially upon us.  I see there's a Thursday night college game on one of the sports channels, and all of the local high schools have games this week.  I have trouble getting excited about football in August.  In 90 degree heat.  And I have a ticket for the Iowa-Northern Illinois game on Saturday with my pal Dr. Doug.  At least his seats at Kinnick are in the shade of the press box.  We'll just be hot.  More on this adventure later in the week.

All for today.  Hope everyone has a great week.

BCOT

Saturday

Thought I would take a few minutes break this afternoon to throw a few paragraphs to the Maddening Crowd.  Its a "work day" at the office for LtPC.  Lots of projects need to get out the door.  Thanks to @srh4 for stepping up and spending time on some of this work today as well.

The fam has a modified fff going on this weekend in Woodbury.  3 and 3.1 are visiting on Harvest Path, and 2 drove up last night to join in on the fun.  I'm guessing that there will be plenty of pics posted to their Facebook pages as well as to their Twitter feeds.

The sidebar to 2's visit, of course, is that I have The Winniferous for the weekend.  Life remains good on Maplecrest.

I'm watching the 1500 hours show on FOX News as I write this entry.  You can tell that 4 is the producer of the show as it it without doubt one of the better cable presentations of the week.  You're a star, Kiddo!!

I buy the DM Register most Saturday's so that I have the current NYT Saturday crossword to test my brain-power over the weekend.  Today's puzzle is now maybe half-way done, and probably won't get fully completed until tomorrow night when I give in and look up the clues that I couldn't solve on my own.  An example of the word-play that is involved with these harder puzzles is:  Clue:  Take in more.  The solution has nine letters.

Some of my initial thoughts for this kind of clue:

1.  Are we talking about eating a lot?
2.  Is this a tailoring question?
3.  Giving shelter to orphans?
4.  Sell more goods, services or tickets?
5.  Do I have a solution ending with "er" or "ier"?
6.  Do I have any noun/verb uncertainty for "take-in"?

Long story short, I was able to solve the clue after getting a couple of the letters toward the end of the solution..."get a raise".  It never looks as difficult after the fact, eh?

Another example of "progress" here in Davenport is a new project on Kimberly Road (which is the road on which our office is located).  Kimberly has always been busy.  Even when they opened 53rd Street a mile to the North a few years back, traffic has remained congested on Kimberly.  We have never had a direct "cut-through" access to our small office park from four-lane Kimberly when coming from the West.  There's a wide grassy medium.  We have had to go to a "cut-though" at Lorton Avenue, a quarter mile to the East, and do a u-ey and come back to the West to the entry to our office park.  Really not that big of a deal.  We've done it for 23 years.

The new project is going to close the Lorton Avenue "cut through", permanently, and create a street-lighted intersection at the next "cut-through" to the East, Forest Road.  During the construction project, even Forest Road will not be open for a "cut-through".  So we either have to go all the way to the very busy Elmore Road intersection to the East and try the u-ey there, or do some kind of a trek through the neighborhood to our North, getting access to Kimberly with a right-hand turn off of Lorton Avenue.

This kind of "progress" is one of those things that is hard to anticipate in your business plan.  The city fathers who have come up with this measure as an improvement of safety in the area, never contacted us for an opinion.  It will definitely be an inconvenience factor going forward.  It may have a small, negative impact on the marketability of this real estate in the future. 

Great shots of Liberty National Golf Course on the tube.  It was built on land that was at one time a landfill!!

I need to get back to the exciting tasks at hand.  I hope to add another entry tomorrow.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Thursday

Not sure how the week got away from me, but here it is Thursday...with nothing posted since Sunday.  Another example of stuff not getting done unless you consciously provide for the time.  Tahoe Phil has said for years that he doesn't know how he had time to work, given how busy he has been in retirement.  I think I would actually be in fine shape if I didn't have to work for a living.  #Powerball.

Still dealing with less-than-full-functionality with Blogger on my desktop.  Really a pain.

This weekend in the night race at Bristol.  At some point in the next several years, I will be there for the weekend.  This is the equivalent of stadium-racin'.  The bump-'n-run is a standard move on this track.  Qualifying is important because you really need to be toward the front all the time because it takes a long time to get through the pack.  With such close racing, there's always more action here than at the bigger tracks where the cars can get really strung out.  The 24 needs a win or he'll just be a fan when the Chase starts in a couple of weeks.

And the peloton is out in Colorado this week with the biggest USA stage race, the US Pro Challenge.  With there being no real US star right now in cycling, my guess is that this kind of event can be successful, but not a home run.  Colorado is obviously a good choice for location, not only because of the varied terrain, but also because of the "outdoorsy-ness" of the state's lifestyle.  Stay tuned for the economic results.  Without a big corporate sponsor, these things tend to wither away in a few years.  (Peter Sagan, a big winner of many sprint finishes in Europe this year, has won two of the first three stages.)

The markets are on a 6-day losing streak.  Sell in May and Go Away would have been the advice to follow this year.  Is there any good news out there?

The hot and humid weather that we have had here this week, and that looks like stays with us for the next week, are what I would call the Dog Days of Summer.  Wiki actually has a short discussion on the term, and gets into astrology with some Roman references to different stars.  Whatever.  For me, its really a baseball term used to describe that July-August time frame when the major league season has become a little long for teams, and they need to work at just showing up for games.  Its hot and the players are tired of the grind.  The strong survive.  Things like the A-Rod dust-up with Dempster and the ensuing bench-clearing are typical of Dog Days games.  Nerves are a little edgy.  The goal is to get past the Dog Days and get to September when the pennant races get down to the later stages.

There's also a little Dog Days reference to the farm life in the late Summer when I was young.  Maybe this is because we were such a baseball-oriented family that there was a baseball connection to every recurring activity.  (Maybe even now?)  Again, its hot, the cows were a little harder to move as they were affected by the heat as well, and the effort to complete every chore was exacerbated.  And lots of stuff had to get done before the school year got started. 

All for now.  Still lots on my plate.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Sunday

I forgot that the useful Blogger functions with the mouse don't work with my desktop.  Hmmm.  Entries are becoming a little like my regular office stuff...nothing's easy.  That's why I make the big bucks, fo' sure!

The DeWitt ride this morning was a bit of an effort.  My pal Pete was a no-show as he had done a 100-mile ride yesterday, so I had no drafting partner.  There wasn't a lot of wind though, so it was just the basic reality of 48 miles to traverse.  After those three rides on the hills at Lake Tahoe last week, none of the hills on these local routes are intimidating.

I thought that cars on my ride yesterday and today all gave a little more road to me than on what had become normal days around here.  I'm giving credit for that to two fairly widely publicized automobile-hitting-a-bicylcist accidents in the area within the last week.  Irrespective of most motorists thinking that bicycles belong on a path, not on a road used by cars, those same drivers don't want to be on the evening news either.  If such reports scare enough drivers, maybe the bike clubs should leak stories every month or so to keep up the awareness.

The guy who won the PGA event this weekend in Greensboro, Patrick Reed, has received a lot of press coverage throughout the Summer, mostly for his good play.  But one of the side-bar stories whenever he has been in the hunt, is the double-take inducing picture of his very petite wife lugging his bag around behind him as his full-time caddy.  This pic really doesn't do justice to the relative sizes of her to the bag.  Understand that the pro's use these over-sized bags as advertising props for their sponsors (kinda like NASCAR).  So a smaller bag is not an option.  Heck I can't even carry a lightweight, made-for-the-purpose "carry-bag".  Good for her.  And him.  Good story.

Staying with the theme from earlier posts in the last few days, today is the two-year anniversary of 4 and I making it up the Tourmalet in the Pyrenees.  (The Tourmalet being the most storied climb in the Pyrenees.)  I remember sitting in a cafe in the ski resort town of Le Mongie near the top of the Tourmalet and having to talk the waiter into serving a Margarita pizza to us in the middle of the afternoon...and it being a big deal because it was no longer the lunch hour.  And when I asked for ice in the Coke, I got one cube.  Love the French! 

(OK.  I really don't know how this will end up looking online.  To get the Tourmalet pic posted, I had to go to the iPad...and the BlogPress app, which isn't exactly compatible with the standard Blogger.  Like I said earlier, this is getting a little bit like WORK!)

The Little League World Series is underway in Williamsport, PA with a team from Urbandale, Iowa representing the Mid-States area.  They've split two games, so they're still alive in the double elimination tournament. These teams are All-Star teams from their hometown leagues.  And they have played their way through local, state and regional tournaments to get to Williamsport.  Its a BIG deal.  I remember my Little League days...my team was the Olsen Sporting Goods Dodgers...we won the Ottumwa City Championship (at least once), and lost a couple of others...and my teams never made much noise on the All-Star level.  I may find a Little League pic to add here later.  (Will need to look further.  Couldn't locate what I was looking for this evening.)

(My Babe Ruth league All-Star team DID win a state championship when I was a 15-year old.  The state tournament was just up the road from Ottumwa...in Oskaloosa...and I think I hit a home run in the championship game.  Then we went to Missouri some where and got knocked out in two straight games in the regional.)

Enough for today.  Busy week ahead for me.  Lots to do before Italy/Sicily...now less than a month away!

Make it a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Saturday

So my laptop is now going through some issues.  I haven't used it much in recent weeks, but I'm guessing that there's a virus working over the latest Windows update.  Shock!

This could be a disjointed entry...or no entry depending on my publishing success.  I keep getting "error" messages when Blogger tries to do the autosave function.

Pretty lame that I'm sitting here alone on the couch on a Saturday night.  Actually, I do have a date...The Winniferous.  She came over today when 2 took off with friends to check out the museums in Des Moines, and the Iowa State Fair tomorrow.  2 knows how to party!  Stay tuned for a pic of the butter cow!

Hey to 3 and 3.1 who are attending a wedding in Chicago this weekend.  Chicago should be hoppin'.  The Cardinals are in town.  Wrigleyville is probably packed.  I'm afraid that a visit there is not going to hit my schedule before the end of the season.  As the Cubs' mantra goes, "there's always next year!"

According to my calendars, today is the anniversary of 4 and I doing the climb up the Col d'Aspin in Southern France.
 I'll try to pull up one of the pics from that day, but no guarantees.  (I've switched over to the iPad...and I've got doubts on what will get published here tonight.). 4 crashed on the descent, and I treated her road-rash with itch cream.

I think that I'll try to do the DeWitt breakfast ride in the AM.  I felt a little winded as I rode back in from the country this afternoon, so a mid-course correction is always a possibility.  I'm not getting paid on my mileage.

I've got to hit the office tomorrow, so I'll add an entry from there, time permitting.

Sorry for such a light-weight entry.  The technology battle did not go well on Maplecrest tonight.

BCOT

Thursday...UPDATED

Blogger has reverted back to the limited-functionality of editing features that I ran into last month at times.  I didn't notice it when I was using the iPad from the road, but with my desktop computer, I have no mouse capability.  I'll try to spool-up the laptop tonight to see if I'm dealing with a machine-specific situation.  This is another of the 15th's of a month that I'm counting toward a total of 60...the countdown now to 44.  On the 4000 Days calendar, this is in the 2830 range, depending on leap years in the sequence.  Just saying...

This is also the Catholic Church's feast of the Assumption of Mary.  A holy day of obligation.  I hope you all made it to Mass.  My guess is that this is one of the least-technically-supported beliefs in Catholicism.  Not that that deterred the Holy Cross fathers from establishing a university in her name in South Bend.

Not to get political, but hasn't this business with the Big O mask with the clown at the Missouri rodeo got a little out of hand?  My recollection is that for years, in the list of Top Ten Halloween masks, were those of the current or previous presidents.  Tricky Dick Nixon was at the top of the charts for years.  Reagan, and Clinton and Bush were all similarly portrayed.  Heck, you could hang/burn Bush in effigy in the town square and it wouldn't even make the local news.  The President, whomever he/she is, is no King or Saint.

I'm going to publish this now, and will log back on from Maplecrest later this evening to see if I can spiff-up the presentation.  Stay tuned.

NOW LATER...

Okay, Houston, we have a problem...on my desktop.  Pretty sure that it is related to the filters and extra servers that my business email must traverse for compliance purposes; SEC, FINRA and all that stuff.  The world is safer for it.  Or at least the attorney's will have an electronic trail to travel to prove the errors of my ways.

Two years ago today, 4 and I spent our first night in the Pyrenees.  At this Old World hotel.  I'm not saying it was a dump.  But "quaint" might be generous.  Ah, the memories, eh, Kiddo?

Lastly for tonight, a thought on the long reach of technology and how it forces businesses, governments and institutions to adapt to an ever-changing environment.  2 pointed out in a discussion across the wine-table last weekend that colleges are being forced  to figure out how to acquire and retain students when the application process has been largely mechanized, homogenized and universalized.  Elementary-high school systems are trying to figure out how to engage students who just want to socially network (rather than "study").  And in my area, the IRS won't even accept paper returns in many standard situations.

Expand those, and other similarly challenging fact patterns, with questions like, "How secure is my information?"  And the landscape gets pretty scary.

Thanks for reading.  Make it a Good Friday in your neighborhood.

BCOT

BCOT 

Wednesday - Back in the 52722

The new Home Page pic was snapped on Saturday at the famous Mt. Rose lookout point above Incline Village.  Hard to find a better postcard picture, eh?

More later.

BCOT

Wednesday

Guess where this is coming from?


Based on the number of flights cancelled last night, and the number of cots strewn about the DFW terminal this morning, I had no expectation of BOTH 2 and I getting stand-by seats on the Moline flight this AM. Given the bad facts of our situation, maybe the moon and stars ARE still lined up for us as we complete this trip.

(I'm also thinking that the gate agents who worked with us last night are due credit. They did get us as positions #1 and #2 on the stand-by list for this flight. And the agent this AM only called out three names after the aircraft had been boarded with assigned-seat passengers. In my world, this experience is by far from the worst result for stranded passengers.)

The reality of air travel for me in the last couple of years or so is that there is an unfortunately high percentage of significant disruptions to my scheduled trips. Things that go beyond a delay of an hour or two. For instance:

1. Loss of most of a day on my return from the Charleston wedding a couple years back.
2. The cluster when the flight to Paris for 4 and I was cancelled. (Actually, the flight out of MLI was cancelled and we had to reconstruct an itinerary just to get to Paris. Where we sat for most of the day to catch a flight to Bilbao.)
3. My flight to PHX was cancelled just this past April. And I scrubbed the whole trip.
4. The Reno flight for 2, @srh4 and I was cancelled a couple years back and we had to go a day later.
5. The boys' golf trip MLI flight was delayed to DEN in 2011 and we had to stay the night at an airport hotel, getting to PHX in the AM.
6. The boys' golf trip MLI flight was delayed to DEN in 2012 and we spent several hours waiting for another PHX flight. That was the time we were ordering BOTTLES of wine in the airport lounge.
7.  Business trip to PHX in May 2012 with my pal Bill that had us getting late into DFW for our MLI connection.  We ended up in Chicago and had to drive home late into the night.

Gosh, that list IS a bit disturbing. And I'm sure that it is not complete. Just the ones that come immediately to mind. No wonder I have this cynical approach to my scheduled air travel. Not that I'm going to stop making trips.


I'm giving 2 the distinction as Daughter of the Day for getting past the troubles of this leg of our trip in good spirits. It was touch and go in spots, particularly at the Texas-themed bar and grill last night, but getting on this flight has made for a brighter day. Heck, this is just a trial-run for our trip to Italy/Sicily next month! NEXT MONTH!!!! You 'da girl, Kiddo!

Looks like we're in the descent to MLI. I wonder if my checked-bag made this connection as well? Maybe more later. Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Posted using BlogPress from my iPa

Tuesday. II

So this is being done on the flight from Sacramento to DFW. I forget: does the Bluetooth function not work here while in flight, or am I just out of juice in the keyboard? Whatever.

Wine country. I had never been to the Sonoma (or Napa) areas previously. Interesting topography, weather and commerce. I think it is fair to say that I might go back for another visit some day, but maybe not too soon. The wineries that we stopped at were all well set up for the tasting crowd. And I didn't feel that things were necessarily over-priced (except for that trendy ball cap in the shop in Healdsburg for $85!!!). But you could definitely drop some cash if you were so inclined to do so.

The trip reaffirmed that my interest in wines is drinking them rather than studying or collecting them. I like the wines that I like, and am willing to selectively branch out for new wine experiences, but for the most part, I like the wine served on Maplecrest. And buying a bottle today to drink 8-10 years from now, as suggested by the guy at Rodney Strong, just doesn't hit the sweet spot of my life's glide path.

I forgot to mention that we saw the most bike riders that I can remember seeing on a single day on the Tahoe roads Saturday as we drove off to Sonoma by way of Mt. Rose highway, King's Beach and then down to Truckee. Lots of riders going up either side of the Brockway climb. And there was an organized ride on Sunday morning in the same area as the half-marathon, with dozens of riders going the opposite way on the same rode that the runners came in on to finish. California is definitely a pro-biker state.

(Here's one small follow-up point on wine. The wine currency at the Raley's near the hotel this weekend was $10.99 if you bought six or more (mix and match being ok too), $15.99 for a single bottle. Two points: first, who's making that extra $5 when you buy that single bottle? And second, why buy a single bottle? It also reinforces my position that when the stores in Iowa consistently charge that $15.99, they are consistently making good money.)

Now posting this from the tarmac at OKC where we have been diverted. There may be a Tuesday III at this rate.

BCOT
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tuesday

I'll be trying another entry through the mobile app that I used on the outbound trip. Can I go two-for-two?







Here are the memorial pics from yesterday. The first being at the wine tasting room at the Rodney Strong winery, and the second at the end of our evening meal in Windsor, California. We actually bailed on our third winery visit yesterday, choosing instead to consume on the property the bottle that we bought at Rodney Strong. Good decision.

Our departure from Sacramento is imminent. The screaming kids have taken their rightful places in the row immediately behind us. Why wouldn't they?

More later.

BCOT
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Monday

This comes to you from a traditional LtPC favorite spot: a hotel lobby. We're staying in a nice Hampton Inn in Sonoma wine country. We have one more day to sample the local offerings before heading back to the Real World tomorrow.
For the Facebook crowd, the girls have published some pics from the trip and our various activities. I'll add a few here as well. I've also taken a lot with my minidigi, but don't have the download capability to get those shots on the computer. Stay tuned for a later airing of those shots.























I was delighted to get in three bike rides in our all-too-short visit to Lake Tahoe. Prior to last Wednesday, I hadn't had cycling on my dance-card for this trip. But things kind of came together when I was doing my final planning, and then materialized when a friend called me out at Roy's birthday dinner Wednesday night. My pal Brian basically said to get out the pocket book and not let price stand in the way of something important to me that was there for the taking. Good advice.

One of the best parts of the biking story is that by taking my cycling gear, I had to go up to the next size in my luggage options...which was the same bag that I had used for 07282012...that included in a side-pocket the receipt for last year's bike rental...that essentially gave me a big discount for this rental contract. The moon and stars really had lined up for me.

Tip-of-the-hat to Tahoe Phil and Nana Jan. Great visit on Cristina Lane in Incline Village. #FFFTahoe2014 is the new family hashtag.

1 and 2 do get Daughter of The Day designations for their work yesterday in the Water to Wine Half Marathon in Healdsburg. 1 had a PR and 2 did several minutes better than her forecast. Way to go, ladies!! (4 brought 2 in with a nice pace for the last three miles. It was the right amount for 4 as she has that hip-pointer that has limited her training.)

The wine-tasting tour kicked off yesterday with a formal event at the Jordan Winery. The Jordan Cabernet has been a personal favorite for a long time, and the tour did not disappoint. We resisted any urge to purchase, and I'd say that we actually get better pricing back home at Hy Vee. It was interesting to note that the tour guide stated that they have only the single grade of Cabernet...that they don't stair-step up/down based on the vineyard or processing differences. Their current release is the 2009 vintage. Therefore, if you're buying a Jordan 2011 vintage at some package store, look closely at the label!!!

Healdsburg is a very nice little town and worthy of a visit. (Although, prepare yourself...it is not a direct route from anywhere!) Lots of wine rooms, restaurants and shops. For you Midwesterners, think Galena, Illinois or Stillwater, Minnesota. We sat outside for a bottle at one place, and then ate dinner at another place in their outdoor area. This may be a wine-snobby area, but I never felt like we were being "up sold" by anyone. Usually, they would try to get a feel for our budget and taste, and respond accordingly. Good stuff.

All for today. Maybe some other pics as the wine tour continues!

Make it a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thursday

This is a new effort on my part. I'm composing this while in flight from Dallas to Sacramento, in hopes that the BlogPress program will "save" my input for subsequent publishing once we hit the deck in California. I certainly haven't subscribed to the in-flight wi-fi...which also means that the Blue Tooth keyboard is non-functional for data entry. So we'll see how this turns out in a while.

My pal Roy's 70th birthday was yesterday. The party actually started last weekend when I was on Harvest Path. I was a convenient absentee at the wine bar in LeClaire on Saturday night when they had somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 people toast the Birthday Boy. Last night, it was just a few of us at the club who shared a low-key dinner...and some VERY fine wine. Good times.

I mentioned in my last entry the new lighting that I acquired for the early bike rides. The flashing tail light has been a particularly good addition. However, this rechargeable unit needs better packaging disclosure. Mostly that the thing needs to be charged before you put it on your bike!! It only took me two days to figure out that it had a very nominal charge out of the box. Since it was dead as a door nail just a few minutes into a ride. That 9-hour charge only applies if the thing is, in fact, charged.

A more creative sales pitch on the head-lamp (which was a separate purchase) spoke of the rechargeable-ness of that item as well. But the thing is rechargeable only IF you buy, separately of course, the nickel cadmium rechargeable batteries...AND...if you also buy, separately again, the recharging unit needed to recharge the rechargeable batteries. Marketing 101 geniuses. I'll be using my stash of AA batteries for the time being.

The Augie men's basketball team is in Brazil this week. Their blog entry from O'Hare mentioned that for at least one of the players, this was his first airplane ride. That got me thinking about my first airplane experience. I'm pretty sure that it would have been a weekend, two-leg flight to my sister Rosie's wedding in Omaha in 1968...South Bend to Chicago to Omaha...and return. After that, I still didn't fly that often. A sampling:

1. Another 1968 trip...I think...ROTC flight to Philadelphia to see ND play Navy. I remember walking in some very tough parts of Philly, because my buddy and I had basically no money. Just a ticket to the game.
2. 1969...I think... Baseball Spring trip to Florida.
3. 1970...pretty sure on this...Baseball Spring trip to Texas.
4. Summer 1970...commercial to Charleston,SC for USAF boot camp.
5. Summer 1970 USAF...old, at that time even, two-seat jet fighter with instructor at boot camp. Scared to death.
6. 1970 or 1971...several flight lessons in South Bend for ROTC. Two-seat Cessna. I was never comfortable in those lessons.
7. A short flight of an hour or two around southern Iowa in a small Cessna flown by the dad of one of my high school friends. Probably 1970 or 1971.
8. Military cargo jet Dover AFB to Rammstein, Germany and return for a two-week NATO training exercise. 1972.
9. 1973. Combination of commercial, contract and military aircraft for trip to USAF assignment in Korea. Then return in 1974.
10. Not much, if anything, then until the ski trips with @srh4 from Chicago to Colorado in the 1977-78 range.

So this later-in-life travel record is quite the departure from my early experiences. My association in the mid-1980's with Wally and Jake's Pants, really influenced my need and interests in air travel. Wally was a Vegas kind of guy, he had homes and businesses in various locations, and he liked to "live a little". So we did some travel just because it seemed like the thing to do. Of course, Jake's Pants was always going somewhere to sell something, and he would drag me along.

Another influencer on my travel was the need to complete an average of 40 hours a year of continuing education for my professional licenses. The seminar and conference providers always had it figured out that a meeting in Florida or Arizona in January would bring in the people from the North. I never went on the true "boondoggles" that some fring-ish organizations sponsored on cruises or at more exotic locations, but I did figure out that if I wanted to do a trip, I could probably find a conference to justify the travel. I still keep an eye on that angle, but pretty much limit the possibilities to Scottsdale, San Antonio, and NYC.



Moving on...

The plan today is to head up to Tahoe with a hoped-for arrival there of 2PM local. If the moon and stars line up just right, I'll do a bike ride before dinner at The Commish's place. (After some counsel last night from friend's at Geneva..."Don't be rational, live your life!"...I packed my biking gear.) That decision required a checked bag and the playing of the associated game of luggage roulette, taking the chance that the bag finds its way to Sacramento on this flight. I could get in three separate rides before heading to Sonoma mid-day on Saturday. We'll see how that works out. A ride up Mt.Rose is NOT EVEN in the realm of possibilities.

Landing soon. I'm anxious to see if this effort worked.

BCOT

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Sunday

Obviously, the trip to Harvest Path trashed any efforts to add to the blog.  For any of you who actually came back here multiple times seeking new material, I have some words of wisdom:  find more things for your life!

The new Home Page pic, of the same old tree, was snapped with the Canon mindigi today while I was doing 80 on I-80 on my trip home.  I still love that tree.

Here's 1 and 1.02 just outside the coffee shop after this morning's muffin stop.  And a separate shot of 1.01.  I'm giving them the dual designations of Grand kids of the Day.  The weekend went quickly, and there really weren't any meltdowns to speak of. 

1.01 and I did 2nd Coffee without accompaniment yesterday (while 1 did her 16-mile run on the marathon training chart and 1.1 took care of 1.02 at home), and we also visited the library afterwards.  (The library has an indoor climbing maze in the lower level...at a charge of $5.50...plus $2 for socks!...Suite!...that 1.01 had to do.  Somehow, in previous visits, we just ignored the admission table.  That could be a profit-center for Woodbury!)

I may have mentioned here before, the Woodbury Dunn's is not exactly a carbon copy of the Bettendorf store, but all of the counter fixtures and equipment obviously came from the same place.  The Americano was certainly the same coffee beans.  I'd give the shop higher marks than the Starbucks or Caribou coffee shops in the same area.

One of the long, Across solutions to the Saturday NYT puzzle was Edgar Winter.  He was (is?) a musician from the 1960-70's and the clue mentioned the song, "Frankenstein".  I gotta admit, I didn't get the solution last night when I started the puzzle, but when I was at 1st Coffee this morning, the clouds parted, and I had enough letters, so that the recesses of the Lt.'s grey matter came up with Edgar Winter.  I was very proud of myself.

For some reason, when I was back on Harvest Path chatting with the Dornies around the table before venturing out for 2nd Coffee, I remarked how Edgar Winter had been in the puzzle, and that the solution had thus reminded me of one of my All Time favorite party songs, "Gimme Some Lovin".  (Go to Youtube and find it.  The song still rocks! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFaT69CyyKU)

The only problem is that "Gimme Some Lovin" was sung by The Spencer Davis Group, not Edgar Winter.  I swear, the disconnect that goes on between the ears at times is hard to grasp.

(OK...I need to give props to 1 for helping me with one letter in a six-letter French word in the top corner of the puzzle.  That UST education finally came through!)

My pal Pete and I are doing the morning ride again tomorrow.  In the dark to start, for sure.  I did buy more lighting for my bike, the flashing red light for the rear that is actually one of those that you don't want to look at because it's so bright.  The bike shop is not afraid to charge for those things.  Cycling can be cheaper than golf, but when you buy new stuff, don't look at the price tag.

Three days of work this week and then Tahoe/Sonoma.  Thursday will be here in a hurry.  I'll try to get at least one more entry posted before departure.  And pics from the road.

Thanks for reading.  Make it a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT