Floyd Landis Is The Man

As I alluded to in a previous post, American Floyd Landis has charged back from the brink and willed himself back in contention to win the Tour De France. Like many, I’d written Landis off just two days ago but he proved me wrong. This Tour is anything but over.

Landis started yesterday trailing by eight minutes, eight seconds, having blown a ten minute lead in his disastrous climb in the La Toussiure stage. Whereas many would have rolled over and quit, Landis charged from the very beginning, leaving his struggling rivals in his wake. Not only did he win the stage – the last in the mighty Alps – he sliced his deficit to a mere thirty seconds! That’s right. Just one day after his disaster, Landis gained most of his time back, and he did it on one of the toughest climbs of the Tour. It was one of the most phenomenal Tour De France stages in modern history.

I knew athletes like Lance Armstrong could spot rivals eight minutes and then earn it back at will, but Lance never had to dig himself out of such a hole. No one’s ever done it as spectacularly as Landis did yesterday.

Even if he doesn’t win the whole race, yesterday’s win proves Floyd Landis is worthy of standing in Lance’s well-worn footsteps at the winner’s podium. I’m hoping he crushes his rivals in Saturday’s time trial so he can claim it all. He just might win after all.

Man, what a Tour!

Bloodbath In Lebanon

Okay, Hezbollah is wrong for blowing up buses full of innocent Israeli civilians. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Israel, on the other hand, is no better. What Israel has done to Lebanon is inexcusable. What the U.S. government has done – blindly crowing allegiance to Israel and standing idly by while Israel destroys Lebanon – is inexcusable.

If Israel wants to go after Hezbollah – terrorists living in the No Man’s Land of southern Lebanon – that’s fine. But leave the rest of Lebanon out of this. The Middle East is big enough for two democracies. Israel is destroying the other one.

I will no longer feel pity for Israel when their violence comes back to them. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

If you’ve got a strong stomach, take a look at what your tax dollars are paying for. (Warning: graphic images!) With “Made In USA” stamped on the bombs falling on Lebanon, is it any wonder that the U.S. is so hated in the Middle East?

Tour De France

I just heard the results of today’s 17th stage of the Tour De France. All I can say is wow.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

For those of you who are following it on TV, I won’t spoil it for you. But get to your TVs as quickly as possible.

This Tour is so much more exciting now that Lance isn’t dominating it.

Tour De Durant

I’ve been cycling a few mornings a week for the past few months. Its done wonders for my energy and health. I love riding in the morning since its not so hot, I can do it upon waking because it doesn’t require much thought, and its too early for drivers on the road to be yapping on their cellphones.

This is the first Tour I’ve been following while actually doing my own rides. I was disappointed to hear that American Floyd Landis ran out of steam on today’s climb up La Toussiure in the 16th stage of the race. Landis was to be the new hope for American cycling but likely won’t achieve that as he needs hip replacement surgery immediately after the race.

I hope Landis’s setback doesn’t diminish the growing popularity of cycling here in the States. So if not Landis, who will be the next American wearing yellow at the finish line?

(I was going to ask who will be the next Lance Armstrong, but that will never happen.)

Travel Follies

I got back last evening from Atlanta. The trip was smooth, up until the end at least. The show wrapped before 3 PM, giving me time to take the MARTA to the airport. I was booked on the 7:15 flight to Raleigh but thought I’d take a gamble and see if I could get an earlier flight. I arrived at the check-in desk at 4 PM for a 4:45 PM flight. The lines at the security gate were long, but still I managed to get to my gate in time. I even had time to pick up a souvenier for the kids before boarding.

The flight was late due to waiting for transfer passengers to board but we made up the time and landed two minutes ahead of schedule. I breezed through the airport and went out to my car when I soon realized I wouldn’t be so quick to come home. The front left tire was flat!

I’d noticed it was flat when I was leaving Charlotte last week. A stop by a local gas station not only got me enough air to get back home but made the tire look so healthy that Leith Honda failed to find it when they rotated my tires on Friday.

There was no sense in grumbling about it at the moment, so I put my bags in the car and got to work. Fortunately for me my Honda CRV carries a full-size spare on the back, so in less than thirty minutes I was good as new.

That’s when I really got steamed. The thirty sweaty minutes I spent changing my tire caused ExitExpress to hold me hostage for another buck. I could have wrung its electronic neck! Lucky for it my tire iron was tucked safely in the back of my car. I was headed for the cashier booth to demand a refund when I noticed a dozen cars already in the cashier line. Principle would have to wait. I paid the stupid dollar and fumed all the way home.

In spite of my unexpected delay, I still got home well over an hour before my original flight was set to arrive. Not too bad.

Now I look in the bottom of my laptop bag and notice I’d inadvertently carried my Leatherman tool through two security screenings without anyone noticing. Whoopsie! Nothing says “airport security” like a four-inch knife in your carryon bag, does it?

Brushes With Greatness

The show here in Atlanta is going. Lots of quality leads. It actually beats the response I’ve seen a shows many times larger. Not bad for a two-man table!

The flight here was smooth, too. I flew Delta because, well, it’s Atlanta. After hopping off the plane, I decided to forgo the tram in favor of walking to baggage claim. I was treated to a nice invigorating walk (seemingly across county lines) and a nice display of African stone artwork.

My walking actually beat the tram, since I was one of the first to get to the baggage carousel. My bag was just rolling around when I arrived, so I scooped it up and turned around. Approaching me was a well-dressed African-American man wearing a Bluetooth headset and followed by a large gaggle of relatives.

I recognized him instantly. It was Emmitt Smith, arguably the greatest running back in NFL history. I was amused to watch this same athlete who once navigated blocks on the way to the NFL’s all-time rushing record now navigate the menu of the luggage-cart machine.

Man, I thought he’d have people to do that. Even if he still collects his own luggage – and he seemed pretty down-to-earth to me – I’m guessing he didn’t leave on the MARTA the way I did!

Greening The Modern American Household

Today is expected to be the hottest day of the year so far. Days like today naturally make me want to squeeze all the energy efficiency out of my house as I can. That’s when its apparent that some of the things society is doing now are just plain wrong.

Take the electric dryer, for instance. It ranks second only to the air conditioner for eating up electricity, ironic since the air conditioner and dryer work against each other. The dryer uses a huge amount of electricity, and for what? Why do we use electricity to heat up clothes inside when its 100 degrees outside? The engineer (or miser, take your pick) inside me just thinks this is wrong. I say its time to bring back the clothesline.

In the past, when you wanted your clothes dry, you hung them out. And you know what? That works just fine. Hang out the clothes and on a day like today they’d be dry in an hour. Heck, they’ll even smell fresh. And you get a bonus of not using a watt of electricity, avoiding the smog that generating that electricity would have caused. What’s wrong with that?

Well, people are squeamish about having their skivvies in plain view of the neighborhood, for one. I can understand that, but still I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. If everyone did it people would get used to it. I bet they’d even feel pride in helping reduce our country’s energy dependence. For now, though, our misguided ideas of what’s acceptable keep the clothes inside.

On another note, why do I burn natural gas to heat my water to 125 degrees F when my attic’s temperature is 140 degrees F? Why not put a water tank in the attic and make use of that waste heat? I wouldn’t even have to put a solar water heater on the house, it could stay inside.

And speaking of solar water heaters, why do homeowner’s associations have such distaste for them? Why not use that energy productively? Seems to me a neighborhood with solar water heaters is a neighborhood of smart people. I’d want to live in a place with smart people.

There are so many ways to improve the “green factor” of the modern American household. Just a few simple steps it would make a huge difference in our environment.

Bonus: Nice to see The Independent Weekly is thinking like I am. It recently ran an article on steps you can take to be green.