Wednesday

Really a nice day Tuesday in the QCA.  I had morning meetings in Muscatine and the drive was a pleasant diversion.  So after lunch, I invented an excuse (like I need one?) to get back to Maplecrest and pull Margret out for the afternoon.  Her days in 2014 are numbered.  Looks like today could be a carbon copy.

I had an errand to run out of the office late yesterday and ended up passing the Bettendorf library which had an "Early Voting" sign on the parking.  So I detoured into the lot and went in to the building to do the deed.  I've done early voting in the past, and I'm a believer.  Easy, convenient and un-crowded.  I'm a bit surprised that it is no more technology updated than it is.  No "hanging chads" ballots, but paper and pencil with the completed ballot placed in a sealed envelope which the voter just places in a conventional mail-box style box on a table.

Having now cast my vote, I have a "you're wasting your money" attitude to all of those awful TV and radio commercials that dominate the airwaves. The media advisors who come up with these character assaults must really have desensitized psyches on the concept of acceptable criticisms.  Sound-bite gotcha-ism.  No wonder the general populace has such a low regard for the political class.

Shifting gears, the 2015 TdF route was unveiled in Paris yesterday.  Lots of climbing.  They go over the Tourmalet and the Aspin on Stage 11, both hills that 4 and I biked back in 2011.  That same day, they pass through Lourdes (where we visited) and Bagneres de Bigorre, the town we stayed in for four nights.  Always a bit personal when the Tour goes on roads that we have also traveled. 

My pal Cal and I stopped last night at the latest "in" place for after-work drinks in Davenport, the J Bar in the new Holiday Inn at Elmore.  We probably won't be regulars.  Loud.  So-so wine list that was/is a bit pricey.  $15 for a not-so-friendly pour of a very meh cabernet.  Kinda corporate.  I sensed that there were a number of tables occupied by hotel guests perhaps in town for Deere or Alcoa meetings.  (The owner of the place, Heart of America group, works the corporate business pretty hard.)  They do have a patio with a fire pit that might be a little better, but the wine list doesn't change for that area, so my interest is low.

I've got to admit that my appreciation of Erin Andrews has faded as she has progressed up the food chain in broadcasting.  I thought she was at her best at the College World Series, what, 8-10 years ago?  I don't watch DWTS, but her contribution to the FOX coverage of the current baseball play-offs is awkward at best.  I'm not a believer in any sideline/dugout reporting in baseball.  It doesn't add to the viewer's experience in any way.

And speaking of Blondes on the Sidelines (new TV reality series...kidding), NBC has replaced Alex Flanagan this season with Kathryn Tappen.  I only know this because one of the sidebars on the ND Football page at NBC wanted to introduce me to Kathryn.  OK.  And this is necessary because?  Whatever.


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

BCOT