Sunday II

So I change the Home Page pic to recognize one of the TdF climbs that was part of the stage yesterday (Saturday 7/19).  The Col de Lautaret is a long grind at about a 4% grade.  I rode it in 2009 when I was on my first trip with 2.

The Home Page pic is actually on top of the Galibier which is the extra special eight kilometers...UP!!!...that they could make you do if they wanted to use that particular route.  Which is what I did, and was the whole purpose of the 2009 trip.  Yesterday, the stage came from the West (Grenoble) whereas I rode from the East.  They ended yesterday's stage South of Briancon (where I started) on another big climb.  So while they didn't do the Galibier, they had an equally difficult summit to make at the end of their ride.

When I made it to the top of the Lautaret, 2 was ready with a sandwich that she had negotiated with the proprietor of the little store at this intersection.  (She was a couple Euro short and had to convince him that I needed some energy.  She was right!)  This pic was me at the side of the rode before hitting those last 8 clicks to the Galibier.  Talk about a death march!

Congrats to 2.  It looks like she has a buyer for her house in Davenport.  Now she has to pack...and find a permanent place in IC.  @srh4 and I drove over to IC on Friday evening to look at a place on which 2 wanted another opinion.  The market there is different because of the university.  Nicer, less-than-pricey places seem to go quickly.  Good luck with that search, Kiddo.

I gave 1 and 1.1 recognition in that earlier posting.  You guys are Daughter and Son-in-Law of the Day.  Congratulations!  Lots of water under the bridge since that day at St. Thomas.  You have much to be thankful for...good health...a wonderful family...a bright future.  Life is good.  Drink deeply.

I don't think that I had ever done the math...or if I had, it was lost in the Sometimer's depths.  But today is also the anniversary of the moon landing...or the staging of the moon landing if you are among the Doubting Thomas's.  45 years ago. 

Sadly, I remember what I was doing that day (American Legion baseball in Moline or Galesburg).  Which means I was old enough at the time to have those things register in the gray matter of the frontal lobe.  Which also means that I am way too old to do any more math.  Anyway, here's to you, Neil Armstrong, and all who made that happen!  You are all American heroes.

The countdown to California-Tahoe is hitting warp speed.  There's no way I will get done all that I need to do before oh-dark-hundred Thursday.  I recommend that we all start with the written checklists now.

Hope it is a good week in your neighborhood.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Sunday

Happy Anniversary to 1 and 1.1!!!

Tuesday

I'm declaring today as Mt. Rose Day on the blog.  According to the memory wall on Maplecrest, I did the Reno-to-the-Summit ride on this date in 2010.  We have pictures to prove it.  Blogger limits my ability to place comments with each photo, so, you're on your own to interpret the images.  By the time I finally arrived at the top of the climb, my audience had become completely bored.

(I think this may have been my third or fourth time up Mt. Rose.  Each time I had made the climb, I had declared that that was the last time for that nonsense.  But after a couple of years, the memory was dulled enough to have another go at it.)

This trip was slow death march for me, but a walk in the park compared to the next time up the hill after 07282012.  That latter effort was my final time up the long side of the mountain.  For sure.  As Tahoe Phil would say, I'm a slow learner.

I'll be recognizing the Galibier (2009) and the Tourmelet (2011) climbs on separate days in August and September.  If the Catholics can have holy days of obligation, LtPC can have Mountain Memory Days.

Speaking of mountains, Rule #1 of Cycling claimed a second favorite of this year's TdF when Alberto Contador went down hard to the deck yesterday on a descent and had to abandon the race.  There has been a ton of crashes this year, some caused by the rain-slickened roads, others by rider mistakes.  Lose concentration for a heart beat, and the next thing you know, there's no rubber between you and the pavement.  There'll be more victims before they get to Paris.

2 notes on Twitter that this is The Winniferous's birthday.  I'm not sure I knew that factoid.  But 2 knows all there is to know about The W, so we'll give our favorite cairn terrier the distinction of  Woman's Best Friend of the Day here on the blog.  She'll just have to share honors with Mt. Rose.

This shot of 1.01 was taken at the rest station on Mt. Rose as the fam waited for me to get the ride done.  She looks real interested in the proceedings, eh?

The shot at the lookout was actually taken a couple of days later as we did our standard family-photo-shoot upon departure from Tahoe.


In other news, I plan only to watch Jeter's first at-bat tonight in the ASG.  I hardly know any of the players these days, other than the big names, and a few from the StL squad.  With the latest visit from the Polar Vortex, the fans had better dress for Fall-like conditions at Target Field.

Nike has done a pretty cool commercial in honor of Jeter.  You need to play it and replay a time or two it to identify all of the people who they have tipping their hat to The Captain.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBoeNFz0NOM

(Daddy was who taught me to tip my hat to people out of respect.  And when I say "taught me", it was by his actions, not in a sit-down lesson.  I've been doing that more lately as a way to acknowledge someone whom I may not know, but whom I want to send a small greeting.  He always wore a hat, a business Fedora or Urban hat(!) for town and church, a ball cap on the farm or at a game.  Maybe I got the habit from him, eh? )



OK.  Enough of this hodge podge (olio for you NYT crossword fans).

BCOT

Sunday

Looks like we have a pretty good day here in the QCA.  Rain, heat and humidity yesterday.  We'll see if the Lt. can suck it up and get in a few miles this afternoon.

I'm giving Daughter (and Son-in-Law) of the Day to 3 and 3.1 for the good show last night over by Iowa City.  3 was one of the attendants and 3.1 was the officiant.  (Hello, RevKev!)  The setting was outside at a winery between IC and Cedar Rapids.  The weather was threatening during the ceremony, but other than a few rumbles of thunder and some distant lightening, the proceedings were completed before the rain came in. 

The reception was inside in a building that had multiple garage-style doors on both sides that could create an open-air environment in the right weather.  For last night, the doors remained closed and the A/C made for a very comfortable gathering place.  I'm guessing that the owners of the winery built the building expressly for these types of functions.  With all the university students in the area, there has to be a big demand for wedding reception facilities.  The business of weddings is a BIG business.

The wedding did give me a chance to re-connect with my pal Patrick.  He and I spent quite a bit of time together two years ago at the Tahoe wedding.  We took this selfie last night as the evening was coming to a close.  He's headed to the Land of Large Insects (aka Wisconsin) for a week of Boy Scouts Jamboree camping with his son Sam.  Hmmm.  I'll take the Grand Central Westin, fo' sure.

Not that the red wine at the reception was all that bad, but generally, I prefer the vintage year to be printed on the bottle.  I actually queried the gal serving the wine and she admitted working there for a couple of years, but
she wasn't able to give me an answer with certainty on my observation.

As I reported on my Twitter feed, I played golf down at Geneva on Friday with my pal Ron and two other friends.  It had been almost three weeks since my last round, and my game was something less than inspiring.  But there was a beer cart girl out this time, so all was not lost!  And we needed the diversion as we got caught behind two slow-playing groups and we had to wait on every tee and for every second shot.  Bummer.  As 4 would say, #bloodymary!

But the big story for me was the impact on the course from the storms earlier in the week.  Several places along the creek that bisects the course were either still very wet, or had sand/dirt eroded in (or out) of those low spots on the course.  And the bridges across the creek showed evidence that water was well over the decks, and in a couple of cases, rails on the bridges were damaged.  They had closed the course for 2 and a half days to clean things up.  No wonder all of the local rivers have been out of their banks.

In another example of poor customer service, I took Margret in to the local Ford dealer (where she's been before) Friday morning before heading to the course.  Regular service work, and a guy had said he thought my break lights were on the fritz.  (Sorry to all those Fritz's out there for that racist comment.)  Anyway, the guy checking her in was like a moron.  As though it was a complicated task.  I assured him that I didn't need the car that day (although when I made the appointment, the gal assured me that the work would be done on Friday). And then, even though it had started to sprinkle as I was leaving the shop, no one inquired about a possible need for a ride. 

I actually stopped over at the dealership Saturday morning when I headed out on my bike ride.  The service desk greeter confirmed that they hadn't even started on the car.  And I still haven't received a phone call providing a status report.  And these are the same people who call three days after you pick up your car to see if they can set-up the next service appointment.  Somebody needs a do-over on their customer service training.

Survey.  Does anyone in the Normal World care that Lebron is returning to Cleveland?

I'm going to try to get three entries posted this week.  Not sure why I haven't been able to add to this tome in recent weeks.  Travel, MCSC and knowing that lots of the fam have been on the road with much more exciting tales to tell on their own than those related here have all led to the dearth of my creative enterprise.  I can do better.

Hope its a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

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

Sunday

Hard to believe that it has been a full week since I've put up an entry.  Busy times.

The visit from the Dornie's was a big success.  I'd say that the Twitter pic's that got posted pretty well sum up the weekend.  Here are a few others.


2 has driven over to Iowa City today to set-up house-keeping, at least temporarily, with a gal in her same office building who has space for a tenant in her condo North of town. @srh4 took her car along with more stuff.  The Davenport house is on the market.  We all hope for a quick sale at a decent price.  I've got The Winniferous for a couple days while 2 gets settled.  I'll be making a trip over to IC mid-week to drop W off, maybe on 1/2 price pizza night at The Airliner! 

The Tour de France started yesterday...in England, of course.  The big news out of the first stage was that one of the highest profile sprinters, Mark Cavendish of England, crashed on the mass-finish as he tried desperately to win on the home soil, and suffered a shoulder injury that ended his Tour.  These guys work for months (years, really) to prepare for the three weeks of racing, and he's gone on Day One.  Rule #1 of Cycling can be cruel.

Cycling here in Scott County, Iowa has been pretty good recently.  My pal Pete had scheduled himself for a century ride yesterday (a 100-miler) to keep his string of months going where he had done at least one 100-mile-day.  I had no such interest, but was willing to meet him in DeWItt for breakfast at The Sunrise Cafe.  The fly in the ointment was that local flooding on a river just North of town had closed our regular route.  Long story short, the detour that Pete said was an extra 6 miles, was in excess of 10, and I ended up do at least 10 or 15 more miles than what I thought was on my agenda.  Whatever, if it doesn't kill ya', it'll make ya' stronger, right?  (Pete got his ride done, so the streak is at 19 months.  Strong stuff.)

I had been thinking for several weeks about adding a refrigerator to my garage to enhance the Maplecrest Social Club experience.  I pulled the trigger on Thursday in anticipation of the BBQ here that night.  A fridge in a garage is not that radical, I know, and many of my friends are so set-up.  But all of those guys are dealing with attached garages.  But I get a personal kick of that new little feature to the MCSC. 

I bought the fridge at the new Menard's Home Center in Davenport.  I think that that store is as big as anything this side of a Costco.  I was actually a little concerned about finding my way out of the place.  And they sell everything!  I wonder if they ever have an accurate count of the store's inventory?  And what do they consider an acceptable percentage-rate for shrinkage (theft/loss/mistakes/etc.)?  I'm betting that we're talking about easily thousands of dollars per month.  Controls in that size of a store has to be scary, regardless of how many cameras that they have in operation.

The Mississippi River has been out of its banks much of this week.  If you Google "Davenport, Iowa" for news, you'll likely get one of the pictures of the downtown riverfront covered with flooding.  The minor-league stadium is fully surrounded, but they have the thing now protected with berms and walls such that they continue to play games.

I have had the thought while on the bike several times recently that football season starts next month.  I really find that amazing.  Both the pro's and the colleges are almost never out of the news.  After the Super Bowl, you get all of the reports on the NFL draft, then you have Sping Football on campuses, and the constant stories on recruiting, arrests, and when is a story on Johnny Football not news?  I'm betting that my Pal Dr. Doug will be calling me soon to set our annual "meeting" over in IC for a Hawkeye game against one of the early-season Directional U opponents.

Margret was a hit with the kids.  We did short rides around the block in Century Heights with the Dornie's all in the back seat.  (There was room for more in the back seat, obviously.)   I gunned the engine a few times with quick, little,"revs", and their reactions were great.  When 1.01 called Margret, my "new" car, we described how Margret was really a much older car.  And 2014 is Margret's Golden Anniversary. 1964 to 2014.  Do the math.  (Although many cars for 1964 would have hit the show rooms in the Fall of 1963, so Margret could actually be 51.)

I have not embraced the World Cup.  1.1 and I were talking last night about the absurdity of games of this import (Netherlands - Costa Rica) being decided by penalty kicks.  Defending a PK is basically guesswork on the part of the goal keeper.  They play for 2-plus hours, and then they leave it up to guesswork?  C'mon, FIFA!  Even the NFL does it better in OT.

I was kinda glad to see Jeff Samardzija get out of Chicago.  He's the ND football player who turned down the NFL for baseball a few years back, playing parts of two seasons in Des Moines.  He's become a legit major league starter, but has been having little success with the hapless Cubs.  The A's and Mr. Moneyball (Billy Bean) have decided to roll the dice this year and go for the whole shebang by trading some top prospects (for the future) for producers for now.  (Good news early...Jeff won in his first Oakland game today.)

The upcoming week here is the PGA Tour stop...The John Deere Classic.  Deere & Company has done a nice job supporting this event, and they get pretty good fields to participate.  Steve Stricker, Jordon Speith and Zack Johnson are the last three champions, and are all top-tier players.  The Chairman of the volunteer, not-for-profit organization that handles all of the support functions for the tournament is a "regular" at Dunn's Coffee.  She is an officer with a local bank and is well-connected on both sides of the river.  Does a great job.  I have tickets for a couple of days to luxury boxes, but I'm taking a pass this year.  Too hot, too many people, and too little top-shelf wine on the grounds.

Plenty for today.  Hope its a good week in your neighborhood.  Thanks for reading.

BCOT

Sunday

Good to be back on Maplecrest.  The weekend up in Minnesota was fun, but its always good to be back home.

We'll make 1.01 and 1.02 Grandchildren of the Day for entertaining the Lt. for the weekend.  Other than a couple of small "episodes", they both did well during my visit.  They weren't so keen on a departure pic, but it makes publication regardless.

 That car in the photo is one from my pal Roy's stable.  Actually, it was that car's predecessor that I drove occasionally several years ago before I bought my first Buick and the BEATER war my primary car.  If I had a trip to KC or C-town for business in those couple of years, I would borrow the Caddy from Roy as I didn't want to rely on the Taurus. 

This model is a hot rod!  Cadillac CTS-V.  A 6-speed manual transmission with a Corvette engine boosting out around 500 horsepower!  Step on the gas a be prepared to go.  Really a fun ride.  (Roy was driving it last week, just to give it some use.  I asked to let me take it for the weekend, and got the answer I knew he'd give.)  By the way, there is a down side when it comes to mileage and the grade of gasoline.  One's down and the other's up.  Let's just say that you don't drive it for the economy of it.

I did get out on a 15 mile ride on Saturday afternoon.  It was super windy and I tried to do an East-West route to minimize the southerly gale.  That took me down to the little town of Afton.  Some pretty good hills.  Then the clouds came up and I figured that a shorter ride was better than getting soaked.  As it turned out, I coulda done the additional 10 that I had scheduled as the rain held off for an hour or so...and then came in and washed out the planned bar-b-que.

My mind under-performed on the trip.  I didn't even come close to the Friday and Saturday NYT crosswords.  Sometimes you just don't get the gist of where they're headed.  This was certainly one of those times.  Very annoying.  And I left two...repeat, TWO...bags of personal belongings in the basement at 1's.  And I know I made a special, final walk-through to confirm that I left no chargers in sockets or hygiene items in the bathroom.  While I left no chargers in sockets, I incredibly managed to leave the entire bag of chargers, bike lights, iPad and assorted electronics.  Suite deal.

Also in the Sometimer's bin, I failed to pack a cycling jersey for my Minnesota riding.  So on Saturday, I was forced to put into play a dri-fit golf shirt for the ride.  How Walmart-ish!  No back pockets in that shirt.  So I had to stuff my phone in the seat bag, which meant a couple of items had to be removed.  That created a ripple in the force too.

And I almost forgot that on the way up to Minny on Friday, I had elected to go the Rochester route as I feared construction on I-35.  Well, my mind being on a walkabout, I drove North on US Route 61 to Dubuque rather than simply take the normal route of I-80 over to Waterloo, and then up to Rochester.  And Route 61 beyond Dubuque takes you through a bunch of small towns.  I eventually got to Rochester by way of LaCrosse, but it wasn't much fun.  And it definitely took an extra 30 minutes of driving time.  Attaboy, PC.

I did come back the Rochester route today, via Waterloo, and I think that that will be my primary route for the future...at least until those roads go under construction.  That route gets me past my favorite tree in West Branch.  Current photo.

The book-on-tape for the trip was a murder mystery.  I'm wondering if the author struggled with alternative endings.  What he ended up with was at least two extra tapes that left me suspicious that he got off track and couldn't find a convenient way back...and ended up with two separate, almost unconnected, murders that he tried to weave as part of the same story. Do books, when read out loud to an audience, come across differently than when people read them silently to themselves? 

(Just too hard to get this rotated a half turn to the left.  Sorry.  You'll need to do a little eye-tilt here!)

With no good lighting options, that early ride will be a little later tomorrow.

Its a busy week ahead for the fam.  Take my advice: go to a written checklist.

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

BCOT

Wednesday

 

 
 
 

I'm throwing 2 under the bus for getting my schedule totally off track today.  That 0330 wake up call to get her to the airport put my system in the, "What's the deal now?" mode.  Having not been able to go to sleep last night, I'm short on rest.  That idea for an early ride upon return from the airport didn't fly (pardon the pun).  And it was too late to go back to bed.  All in all, just an "off" morning.

It is "that" day of the week. 

In The Joys of Home Ownership category today is the report that I had a plumber over to Maplecrest yesterday to fix a water leak that had developed within the last week.  I was getting irregular, but obviously dripping in the basement below the kitchen sink.  Turns out that the leak was actually on the water line connection to the upstairs toilet that is on the other side of the wall from the kitchen.  I hadn't inspected that possibility, but would have called the plumber to fix it even if I had noticed that as the problem.

I was on a tight schedule and wasn't able to stay with the plumber as he finished his repairs, so I just had him write up the ticket, gave him a check and I took off for my meeting.  (The RCL was also there as she had rescheduled herself to Tuesday this week.  So she was going to be able to lock up the place after both she and the plumber were done.)  The great finishing touch to the story is that when I got home last night and checked out the bathroom fix, the toilet wouldn't flush! 

As per our agreement when I left him to do his work, he was also going to replace the aged valve system on the water tank for the toilet.  Turns out that he used the old chain between the flush handle and the valve in the tank, and that chain must have snapped with the test flush that he surely did before he left.  An example of Murphy's Law in home repairs.  Fortunately, I do have the skills to replace that chain!

(For the record, the irregular presentation of paragraphs today is another Blogger snafu.  I can't get it to left-justify after having first put up the camel pic.)

I may be in the market for a new CD player (or whatever is the proper system these days) for my listening pleasure on Maplecrest.  My now 12-15 year old CD player (a cheap Best Buy model) ate a couple of disc's last night, and the amplifier occasionally kicks itself to "mute".  Not that I have that big of a CD collection, but I like George or Garth in the background when I'm doing the crosswords.  Much of the time, I have the DirecTV playing the Classic Country station as the easy option.

My original venture into music equipment (which I may have related here previously...sorry!), was from my USAF days in South Korea.  I came home with lots of speakers, a big amplifier, and various tape players, noise reduction units and other "black boxes" that may have done nothing other than lighten my wallet.  But at the time, the system looked pretty impressive!  (My original self-made plywood bookcase was built to house this equipment.)  The speakers may still be in use as end tables on Century Heights Avenue.

If I had more interest, this turn of events could be the incentive to re-invent the furniture arrangement in my living room.  If I don't need the old entertainment console to support an archaic sound system, why not bring in some new stuff?  But then you get into some "tail wagging the dog" logic that might suggest that the perfectly fine DirecTV-radio is the best answer to a non-question.

Enough from here.  Hope the visit in NYC goes well for the sisters.  I'll be heading up to Harvest Path on Friday, so the wheels of the fam will definitely be rolling this week.

BCOT

Sunday

Welcome to Summer!

Really not a lot new in my world.  And not a lot of history worth repeating at this point. 

The rain today lasted a little longer than I had expected.  It has stopped for now, but the forecast on the iPhone is for more storms in the AM.  After getting soaked on the ride home this afternoon, that morning ride is looking iffy.

The golf tournament yesterday at Geneva was enough to keep me off the course for a few days.  27 holes is just not that much fun.  I found my mind wandering after about the third hole.  Actually, my back seems okay, considering the abuse.

The primary failing of the organizational approach to the event by the club was the all-day absence of a "beer cart girl".  This issue was exacerbated by the failure-to-show of the half-way house gal, meaning there was no ready access to adult beverages while on the course for the whole day.  The golf pro threw the club manager (who wasn't around) under the bus when we questioned him about the lack of these service points for the event.  Typical country club rationalization.  At any country club.  When it comes to responsibilities that might over-lap between the pro, the club manager, and the course superintendent, its always the other guy's fault.

The club actually employs several college girls in the dining room and grill during the Summer.  Heck, put a cute girl on the cart at a tournament like this, and she'd have a great day for tips.  (The girls that the resort courses employ tend to be just a little older, but they understand the program...guys on vacation...hangin' out with friends...glad to have a pretty face selling them those cheap $10 beers!  It ain't very complicated.)

We had an excellent evening at the MCSC last night as well.  Steaks.  Veggies.  Some good vino.  Almost perfect weather.  And best of all, no bugs!  (2 indicated that the vacation tees are going to be ordered this week.)

I took this shot with the minidigi on my ride this afternoon (before the rain!).  The road that we ride goes past Davenport Country Club.  Going by the club, you're maybe 100 feet above the Mississippi River, which is no more than, say, a half mile away.  I zoomed-in with his pic.  From the road, the "window" through the trees is a little more distinctive.  When I look through toward the dam, I always think about The Dirty Dozen or that Clint Eastwood  WW II flick, Where Eagles Dare, when a guerrilla military unit needs to bomb a heavily guarded enemy bridge, airfield or the like.

You think about a lot of disconnected things when the pounding on the pedals gets a little old.

Here is another shot from today's ride (again, before the rain!).  This pair was dining on a relatively recently deceased, slow squirrel.  And they weren't all that afraid of an old guy on a bike wandering into what I'm sure they considered as their space.  They let me go by after the pic.  And then they went back to their meal.

I have recently discovered a new worst parking lot situation, that almost claimed the BEATER on Friday afternoon.  It's another Hy Vee lot, this one on Spring Street near the office.  The primary driving lane at the front of the store does an angle move near the liquor store entrance where they allow parking on the store-side of the driving lane, and I have twice now underestimated the number of ways that other cars can get into your business.  I'm struggling to decide if the problem is in the parking lot design, or in the mind of the vehicle operator.  Whatever.  The new plan is to park at McDonald's and walk to the store to get the wine. (Maybe a slight exaggeration.)

All for tonight.  Hope it is a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Thursday

I thought that I might get this done on Wednesday, but my day got out of kilter with 1st Coffee with my pal Cal coming after the early ride, but before the shower and prep for the business day.  That's a rarity on a weekday.  Not that I couldn't get used to that routine.  Anyway, with Wednesday afternoon golf at Geneva on the schedule, the blog got shuffled to the bottom of the list. 

This may be 2's last day at Augie.  Not an insignificant milestone on her life-line.  She gets the title of Daughter of the Day for her choice to take a swim into deeper water.  You da' girl, Kiddo!

We're looking at Saturday being the official first day of Summer.  The down side is that that means the early sunlight now begins it's slow fade up the clock-face.  Having natural light at 0500 makes the early ride a whole lot more palatable.  By mid August, we'll be needing the head-lamps on the bikes if we take off before 0545.  Bummer. 

(Hmmm.  That may be presenting the wrong perspective.  Let's go with The Glad Game and appreciate that there's still several weeks of perfectly fine light for the early ride.  By September, I'll be ready for some non-biking fitness anyway.)

The College World Series (CWS) is going on this week in Omaha.  I haven't followed it much this year.  I saw one story where there's some concern that the effort to tone-down the aluminum bats in college ball (for player safety) may have been too successful.  The home run count is way down.  Small-ball has become the dominant game plan.  That may win more games right now, but lbh, girls love the long ball.

With so much other news in the sporting world right now (NBA Finals, Stanley Cup finals, US Golf Open, World Cup among other things), the CWS has been challenged to claim any headlines.  Is there even a new Erin Andrews on the scene in Omaha?  (Speaking of TBT.)

Today's Top Ten list: Where in the World was Lt.PC at this approximate time over the last 50 years?

1.  50 Years ago:  Iowa State Babe Ruth champions.  Our team went on to get smoked in the multi-state regional in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
2.  45 years ago:  US Air Force boot camp for 30 days at Charleston AFB, South Carolina.  Summer after junior year at ND.  Never been so hot in my life.
3.  40 years ago:  First of two Summers in grad school in Iowa City.  There were some good parties with my friends in Solon.
4.  35 years ago:  Our last year in C-town.  Lots of Cubs games.  Sports Corner is a fav hang-out.
5.  30 years ago:  My pal Bill joins me in my accounting/tax business. 
6.  25 years ago:  New building for the business in Davenport.  Shocking to me that it has been 25 years since we moved into this place.  ACL operation.
7.  20 years ago:  Now in the new house in Bettendorf.  We have begun our trips to Tahoe. 
8.  15 years ago:  I turn the Big 5-0.  January golf trip to Cabo for the first time.  We begin a series of years with two kids in college at the same time.
9.  10 years ago:  Now in the house on Maplecrest.  Half-marathons in Green Bay and QC.
10.  5 years ago.  2 and I do our first trip to Italy and France.

Yeah, I may be off a year or two with some of that.  But you get the drift.  They may be milestones, but maybe not all that interesting stuff to the Peanut Gallery.

Hope it is a good day in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Monday

Busy weekend here.  And we enjoyed the play-by-play of the fff in NYC.

I have been personally impressed with the hudzpah of the IRS now claiming that they "lost" the Lois Lerner emails that have been previously requested by the House Oversight Committee.  Truly a remarkable response.  Having spent a lifetime in representing clients in IRS audits, I can attest with authority that "the dog ate my homework" is not on the list of exceptions to providing detailed support for a deduction on a return.  The most transparent Administration evah!

Props again to my pal Pete.  He and pal Cal both gave the local sprint-triathlon a shot on Saturday morning.  600 yard swim.  15 mile bike ride.  3.1 mile run.  There were like 500-600 competitors.  Pete actually won his age group!  (I did look, and there were three in the 65+ age group.  And 1 in the 70+...who would have beaten Pete!)  Cal had a little trouble in the water, but managed to get'r done,,,and had no trouble with the bike or run legs. 

2 fell on the sword and represented herself and the sisters on Maplecrest for Father's Day.  Nice evening of steaks on the grill and Jordan in the bottle.  With some Whitey's strawberry ice cream as the dessert.  Thanks to her for that effort...and to each of you for the calls.

I watched parts of the Spurs' win last night.  Really an impressive result for a team that was considered too old to compete for the championship again after having lost last year.

High school basketball ends in February.  College that first weekend in April.  And the pros go for another two months.  No wonder nobody pays any attention to their games until the play-offs.  It would be impossible to sustain interest for their entire season.

The Iowa Gaming Commission approved another casino for the state last week.  For Jefferson, Iowa in north central Iowa, about 30-40 miles west of Ames.  I think that it will be the 19th casino in Iowa.  Iowa needs to go into re-hab to treat its sickness on gambling. 

Other things that my home state probably doesn't need:

1.  Two more days of the state fair.
2.  High-speed rail between Iowa City and anywhere.
3.  Expanded play-off fields for high school football.  Losing records get in as it stands.
4.  More ethanol subsidies.  Let's create false fuels!
5.  Red light/speeding cameras.  You guys!  Its a money grab!
6.  The early Presidential primary.  Really.  Give the populace a break.
7.  The Des Moines Register.  The newspaper that Iowa used to depend upon.  Long, long ago.
8.  Early Hawkeye/Cyclone football (and basketball!) games with Directional U.
9.  More bars in Iowa City.
10.  More attorneys.  (I just threw that one in there on principle.)

All for today.  The heat is on the next few days.  The A/C unit is up and running.

Make it a good week in your neighborhood.

BCOT

Friday

Let's get this out of the way early...yes, it is Friday the 13th.  Not sure if I believe in bad karma because of a date.  Looks like a beautiful day on our local weather map.  Margret is on the prowl.

1 and 1.1 are visiting the sisters in The Big Apple this
weekend.  This shot is from 1's Twitter feed last night.  A bit of fff in the big city. Enjoy!

Another lesson in rental car economics came unexpectedly to the fore when I went to reserve my Hertz car for the SF-Tahoe-Reno trip next month.  The estimated charge for the 10 day rental was in the area of $2,300!  If the return was to SFO, the ticket went down to my original expectations of somewhere in the $800 range.  And the website says that there is no charge for dropping off at a location different from the pick-up site.  You betcha!.  Plan B is still in process.

There's been a big travelling classic car show yesterday and today in Bettendorf.  Lots of people have asked if I was taking Margret in as a participant.  While Margret does present a nice appearance from across the parking lot, she's definitely not a show car.  She's a driver.

The US Open Golf tournament is being played this week at the Pinehurst #2 course in North Carolina.  The US Open course set-up is typically the most challenging that golfers face each year.  Par is always considered a good score.  Usually, the rough grass is allowed to grow to several inches and an errant shot means a hack-out to the fairway.  But this year, they've taken a slightly different route to humble the world's greatest golfers.

They've refurbished the Pinehurst course by bringing back the natural, coastal sand-scrub for the rough.  Much like a desert course, if you aren't in the fairway, you're in the junk.  Plus, the greens at Pinehurst are the dome-top variety that tend to have good approach shots roll off the green and require chip shots instead of first putts.  Some very good players shoot some high numbers.  My pal Ron and I might need a couple extra sleeves of balls to make it through eighteen at Pinehurst.

(Interestingly, the US Women's Open will be on the same course next week.)

Off topic...

One of the irritating left-leaning voices in the MSM (aren't they all?) is Chuck Todd who appears on various NBC networks.  Rarely failing to promote a progressive talking point, Todd has shown little shame in tsk-tsking those of us in the wasteland.  I recently picked up on a factoid from his history that goes some distance in explaining his bias.  Turns out that he was a staffer for our very own Iowa prairie populist, Tom Harken, in a 1992 campaign.  Apples.  Trees.

Here's an article that reports on the change in commencement speakers that occurred at ND this Spring.  I had read nothing about this in either the national press or alumni news releases.  http://ndsmcobserver.com/2014/05/notre-dame-seniors-react-change-commencement-speaker/  The originally scheduled speaker had to back out for health reasons (apparently).  The students quoted in the article suggested that the first speaker was an old, white guy past his prime, whereas the new guy was a Harvard-educated man of the people in the streets.  Hmmm.  Another Harvard community organizer brought in by Father Jenkins to speak to the graduates.  Let me get my checkbook.  Inspiration.

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

BCOT

Wednesday

Rainy day in the QCA.

I'm making @bcbison Pal of the Day.  His office staff through a little birthday party for him last night.  It was one of those "big" birthdays.   The specifically designed cake was a nice touch.  The cycling shot was taken on Saturday in Galena.  I had a two-man pic taken as we were leaving.  We've put in some solid miles together over the years.  Some of them on the bikes.

A Top Ten list of Pete and myself, sanitized for public consumption:

1.  Mt Rose bike climb, July 2012.   He glided up like a champ.  The Lt. had a death march.
2.  Decorah to Manchester on RAGBRAI, circa 2004.  Worst single day of cycling in my life.  Heat, hills, headwind.  Previous late night "preparations" not a help.
3.  Alamo Dome, San Antonio, Texas.   Midwest regionals.  Iowa State-UCLA.  1997.  Can't believe that that trip was that long ago!  My first visit to the River Walk.
4.  Des Moines in the mid '80's with our pal Jake.  The Waveland Tap was walking distance to Jake's condo.
5.  DeWitt Sunday morning breakfast rides.  2005 to current.  Americana on wheels.
6.  Augustana basketball.  2004-2010 when his boys were on the teams.   And some even now.  Even a few "away" games.  Very cool.
7.  Gov's deck in Bettendorf on Summer nights.  Still a treat.
8.  Lots of college and pro games.  Iowa City.  Ames.  KC.  Chicago.  Never a bad time.
9.  Joint client work for 30+ years.  I wouldn't be where I am without his referrals.
10. MCSC charter member.  Before there was a MCSC.

Moving on...

When 3 texted me this pic of her and Aunt Margaret last week, I responded with the selfie of me with Margret the car, saying that I was also with Aunt Margaret's namesake.  I thought later that my statement was slightly incomplete because I was actually with Aunt Margaret's and 3's namesake, give 3's middle name.

The attack ads on TV for the general election have already started.  Its depressing.  Kinda like Christmas ads in August.  There was one on last night against the Iowa Republican gal who has the nomination for the Senate.  The ad just took every left-of-center talking point and slimed the gal with generalities.  Her relative easy win last week must have struck an out-of-balance chord with the people who had anticipated an inevitable election of Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley to assume the Harken Chair.  Now we know what we have to look forward to over the next 5 months.  Yuck!

I'm silently rooting for the Spurs in the NBA finals.  I'm really not much of an NBA fan, but the Spurs don't seem to be made out of the typical me-first boosterism that permeates most NBA teams.  Winning against Lebron won't be easy. 

All for today.  What day is it, 3?

Make it a Good Wednesday in your neighborhood.

BCOT