Thursday

So I'm already past half-way into another week and am just getting to a second entry for the week.  I gotta do better with my schedule.  Too bad I have to work for a living.

I've spent some thinking time while on the bike this week trying to decide if this is the official Empty Nest point in my life.  With 2 taking the new job in Iowa City, all of the girls are officially located out of this area code.  I'm guessing that there were some times when 2 was finishing up in Norman that they all had at least temporary residences out of town, but this may be the first time that all of their permanent locations are away from Hometown, USA.

The quick visit that I made to IC on Tuesday night reminded me of how connected the fam has been to Iowa City over the last 40 years.  Actually, it goes back earlier as a couple of my Top Ten memories from my teen years involved Iowa City.  My first college football game was at Kinnick when Daddy took me to see the Hawkeyes play ND (I might have been 12 at the time).  And my first appearance in a varsity high school basketball game came on the floor of the old fieldhouse my freshman year.  They had had me "dress" for the tournament team after having lead the soph squad in scoring during the regular season.  I got in some court time at the end of the regional game that we lost to Cedar Rapids Washington on that old court.  Very cool memory.

(I also hitch-hiked to IC from ND a couple of times to see the high school GF.  Yeah...those are trips that kids really shouldn't make these days.)

The TdF and the World Cup both had note-worthy days yesterday.  On the Tour, there was mass carnage in the peloton as they road on several sections of cobblestone roads in Northern France...in the rain.  Last year's winner went down a couple of times and had to abandon.  The stage was entirely about survival.  Some didn't.  And in the WC, you had another important game decided on PK's.  The Argentine goal keeper guessed better than the Dutchman.  Prior to the PK exercise, they played for two hours and the two teams had a combined five shots on goal!  Riveting excitement.

The broadcast of the TdF on NBC Sports TV makes a concerted effort not to mention Lance, or even show his image on film clips.  I wonder if he will try a day or two of RAGBRAI.

Armstrong is involved in numerous lawsuits brought by people who were "wronged" by his doping habits.  Among the plaintiffs is the US government, claiming that Lance defrauded the US Postal Service by the drug use during their period of sponsorship of his team.  Like I have said in the past, I'm not a huge LA fan, but I'm thinking that the USPS got their advertising monies-worth while sponsoring the team.  I mean, the ratings for the TdF here in the USA at that time were huge.  US Postal was the reason.  If the Postal Service was doing the sponsorship for the publicity, they got their message across.  The disclosure a few years after-the-fact that LA was found to have doped doesn't seem to have muted the message when it aired.  But the lawyers now smell blood in the water. 

I am now in my 25th year of cycling...and on my fourth generation bike.  I figure that I've done maybe 25,000 to 30,000 miles of riding over that period of time.  Probably a few more as there were some years that I was a little more committed to mileage rather than my more recent years' focus of time-in-the-saddle rather than total distance covered.  Regardless, the bike has allowed me to keep up with a fitness regimen that allows for a healthy life.  Its a, "Keep peddlin', baby" program.


3 gets the nod as Daughter of the Day.  After a business side-trip to San Antonio earlier this week, she's now in Iowa City for the wedding of 3.1's sister on Saturday.  Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, Kiddo.

And finally, as hard to believe as it may seem, today is the four-year anniversary of the full-family reunion at Lake Tahoe in 2010.  Really, the day at the beach, the extended photo session by RevKev, and the coolness everyone being there all seem like just a while back, certainly not years.













All for today.  Make it a good Thursday in your neighborhood.

BCOT