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