May you live in interesting times.
Now Playing: Norah Jones-Feels Like Home
So many subjects to pontificate on. Mel Gibson's new movie. Gay marriages in San Francisco. Kerry running neck and neck with Bush. Vanishing Point coming out on DVD finally. New Norah Jones CD. A remastered Melissa Etheridge CD, her first one (self titled) and one of her two best. A Space Ghost Coast to Coast DVD. The army cancels its 8 billion dollar helicopter program. The Denver Broncos possibly trading Clinton Portis for Champ Baily. The list is endless.

Well, Mel Gibson was not one of my favorite movie actors until Braveheart and with that he moved up to the top ten for me. I've listened to the buzz about the upcoming movie "The Passion of the Christ" which is hard to avoid when you consider how completely saturated the media has been with this. It's mostly the usual cycle of media hype with big reporting about what a small minority of people think and believe about something they haven't seen. Most of the talking heads and organizations who rise up in righteous indignation or as champions for this or that cause, story, or event are self aggrandizing and self serving actors who are seeking to advance their own agendas. The usual claptrap. All that aside, perhaps it's a good movie and perhaps it isn't. I haven't seen it and so I don't know. I do understand a few of the actual facts that I have been able to discern. One, the movie is pretty darn violent. Well, that's certainly a factor. I don't like gratuitous violence or violence designed to titilate and excite. I doubt that there are half naked women being chased by hockey mask wearing, machette wielding monsters. I have also heard that the action is exactly from the Bible. Why this fact upsets so many is another issue to examine and that issue has to do with the tension of those who believe in the book and those who believe in the parts of the book they want to believe in. Again, another argument. Given just this information, I will do what I usually do with movies and wait until I hear from actual people before deciding if it's one of those rare movies I actually go to the theater to see or whether I will wait for it on other media.

Gay marriages in San Francisco. Yikes. A horrible 'issue' where anywhere you line up you will alienate a bunch of folks. This is one of those things politicians hate with a passion. Something that can define them. The mayor of San Francisco did a no brainer for him. Mayor for life if he wants considering his liberal base of support in SF. The governor had to take the stand he did, I'm surprised it took so long for him to speak up. His interest should be in the rule of law and upholding that rule of law. Homosexual marriages have been voted on by the people of California and they said no. Well, that's part of democracy. Going over the heads of the people is a form of autocracy by the few. Like most people I think it's fine and dandy for folks to live the lives they want with who they want as long as the actors are of age and of right mind. And while the Declaration of Independence allows for the right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' it doesn't say that the government is in the business of facilitating everyone's seperate, nonstandard idea of happiness. A bad scene all around.

John Kerry and George Bush are now running neck and neck in recent polls. This means first of all that the political season will be interesting for a while at least. Thank goodness. There is nothing more entertaining than a close Presidential race. All the mud slinging, the parade of supporters on tv, with eyes that don't blink, exuberantly making the case why their candidate is the best possible and only possible salvation for the country. I look forward to seeing the one member of the Bush royal family who looks hispanic. He'll be trotted out to states with a large population of hispanics to show that our royals are in touch with the spanish speaking voters. I look forward to hearing the stories of how each man rose from their humble roots as sons of millionaires to become kind, compassionate people in touch with sixpack, racecar watching americans. I think I feel a tear in my eye right now just thinking about it.

Ah, yes, Vanishing Point. A movie staring Barry Newman. An actor who few remember but who did a fine job in this movie about a fellow who lost his love and who drives a very fast car across the west while being chased by police and who eventually steps on the gas and plows into a couple of bulldozers. Of course there is more to the movie but it's something you'd have to see to understand. The first time I saw the movie, the ending shocked me and made me think. I love this movie in memory of being surprised and being made to think.

A new Norah Jones CD. A beautiful woman, with a wonderful voice. Not loud, not overpowering just smooth and sweet and clean. A voice and a piano. Just good stuff that a person can listen to. This CD is a bit more blues/country in feel but just by a hint.

Now the remastered Melissa Etheridge CD is wonderful. Of course it's Melissa Etheridge titled Melissa Etheridge. Her first CD goes to my theory about music artists. There is a initial rush of talent and all the things the artist is going to say are going to be said the best in the first few albums. Melissa is powerful and raw and in searing pain and you hear every bit of it in this CD. Her voice is the voice of her soul and that soul comes through with passion, pain, love, hate and jealousy. It's great. The first time I heard her was about twenty seconds of a song from her second album and from that I knew I needed her CD. In the years since the first two CD's came out her tone has come down and she has lost some of the same rawness I loved but she is still one of the best.

Finally, the Space Ghost DVD set has come out. Those quirky little episodes are treasures and hold fond memories. "Citizen, are you getting enough oxygen?" Another moment in time of happiness which if you don't get it, I can't describe it to you.

The US Army shutting down their big ticket helicopter program after spending a buttload of money. Well, actually I do know a military helicopter pilot who had flown for some twenty years and I haven't yet asked him about his thoughts on this. Personally I think that anything that takes away from mission flexibility is a bad thing and this helicopter was supposed to be a stealthy bird capable of penetrating enemy lines to be able to perform rescue and extraction missions. If it could do that job better than what we have I don't understand the need to cancel it. Citizen Rumsfeld, it needs to be noted, was brought into the Pentagon to be a hatchet man in those pre 9-11 days. How soon they forget.

In Denver Bronco land-Clinto Portis for Champ Bailey?!!! What's up with that? I haven't worried about the football decisions coming out of Denver since they seem to have some idea of what to do but those years since John Elway towered over Denver as an active player are gone and they haven't won anything yet. I know the argument is that in the playoff game against the Colts Manning destroyed the defense but I don't know that you can win by trying to solve one problem by creating another one. I know they believe they create the running back with the offensive line. Evidence shows that the Broncos can put anyone back there and they become a 1000 yard runner. But yikes. It's a big gamble if they pull the trigger on it. Of course, I don't see many games anymore and I can't listen to them on the internet any longer since they put them on the pay service and so I become less and less interested. Such is life.

A nice rambling today. Thanks ever so much. :-)

Watching the Grammies
Now Playing: Earth, Wind and Fire and others-Grammies
Well well, glad to see me here again. Watching the grammies just to see if anything gets blown up or at the very least some controversy erupts. Nothing of any note and I don't imagine that anything will happen. All breasts, with the almost bouncy exception of that one singer who isn't Britney, have stayed inside their containers. I saw Prince to start the show, a nice surprise. He looks good, he must have bought that oxygen chamber from Michael Jackson a while back. The Grammy folks continue to try to do what they were started to do-namely to acknowledge musical excellence which often times falls below the radar to the likes of popular whim. To this end they put a 'new' happening, artist with an older, Grammy worthy winning artist. So you see Chick Corea playing piano for someone, you see Alison Krause playing violin for Sarah McLaughlin and so on. OH well, the world has more important things to worry about like where Janet Jackson's breast may show up next.

However, I did see one of my least favorite people, "Sting" - at the grammies, no problem. Him singing a Police song without the Police pissed me off. I really hate lead singers who leave their group after all of them worked to get them to some success. The group gets left behind and the one folks who wouldn't have made it without the group goes onward and upward. I hate that, I never support that artist again. So Sting can go do something rude to himself.

Of course, actual important things are afoot. I read a report that Al-Qaida has nukes. It's one of those things that I have no trouble believing. A 'duh' moment. When the Soviet Union with kaboom, there were a lot of nukes lying around and a lot of poor folks who had them. A poor control system went further down the hole when the USSR died. I'm surprised one hasn't been exploded in the US of A. I say New York or Newark are the top two possibilities. A place that a container ship can sail up to. Hopefully our intelligence services are on top of it. The possibility that the intelligence services have a clue isn't all that good considering their track record. They had no idea the Soviet Union was imploding, they knew it happened when they saw it on TV. And this was the one thing they were supposed to keep track of. Intelligence services said there were "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq. I have no intelligence service in Iraq and when they said it I knew they were wrong. The bullshit detectors lit up very well with that one. Now it becomes apparent to the wider public and there is 'shock' about it. Please.

Long Time no See Me
Now Playing: ERA-The Mass
Now it's been a long while and it's been an issue even remembering the password to get here. Baa. It's happy new year, Happy Chinese New Years. I mention this because I happened to be watching the sunrise as I often do. An unusual cloud was there right where the sun was to rise. It was a fiery red, right before the sun even shows up and it was in the shape of a Chinese dragon. Of course it was a cloud but it certainly did look very unusual and very dragon like. I imagine that in such ways some people could be convinced they had seen what it was that they had imagined. It's a shame it isn't the year of the dragon. We'll have to see if this dragon appearance was a portent of things to come, good or bad. :-) Hello and sorry to have been silent for so long.

How's About them Broncos?
Now Playing: Jesse Cook-Vertigo
A wonderful blast from the past this last Monday night. Monday Night Football on the television, the Bronco's out there against the hated enemy-those evil soulless Raiders, and a satisfying wire to wire massacre of the Silver and Black. Ah yes, it doesn't get much better than that. Dazed looking Raiders yelling at each other as they were pummeled into submission under the derisive catcalls from the Bronco faithful. Jake the Snake looked like Elway there, running and throwing on the run, completing passes for long gains and touchdowns, running for long gains and touchdowns. A beautiful thing all in all.

In the vast scheme of things of course, one little game played by a bunch of men in a stadium at night in Denver isn't going to chance the world, it's not going to contribute to world peace or end world hunger but it made me happy for a couple of days. A meaningless battle that is given meaning by fans and those who care. A battle where nobody is really hurt, and a battle where lives and property aren't exchanged. Just a game.

A clogged email box
Now Playing: Monday Night Football
Anyone who has tried to get in contact with me via email in the last few days will notice that either I have not responded or that you have received one of those horrible 'email undeliverable' notices in your email box. Yes, I think that my email has been clogged most completely with spams in general. I don't know if it's anything more specific and more personal since of course, there are no emails to be had in my box at the moment. My other email accounts are fine and dandy but that's because I don't publish them. You could also leave a message in the bravenet forum that I have connected through my www.gadlaw.com website or even message me via icq at #14469628. I always acknowledge real emails sent to me with a reply of some sort so if you have emailed and I haven't answered it is because I haven't received the email at all.
my site is here
that would be the usual site and me checking the url connection feature in this blog.

Anyways, I received an interesting email. It's very much like one I've received before and it's one of those which in a flip sort of way seeks my assistance in amassing information about the death penalty and death penalty inmates. I'm fairly sure I've had this before so I am thinking that it is one of those usual scams not unlike the Nigerian minister of finance scams that often time find their way to the email. Some fellow has some 'nebulous' idea about doing some sort of a film concerning the death penalty. "People will finally really know what the problems are" is his scam. He'd of course tell me about his revolutionary ideas but a friend of a friend has advised him to not disclose this bit of brilliant movie outlining. I'm not sure what the point of it all is but then I never take the hook so I don't get to the part where I am supposed to send money to a offshore bank account in order to help finance this. I will stay tuned to see if this scam effort continues a bit or if I was supposed to immediately offer to help the movie making. Film not at eleven.

Good news is that the Broncos are two wins and no losses so far. Their next game is next Monday night and so I will actually get to see it. This is cool although bad things often happen when I get to see a game these last few seasons. I'm crossing my fingers that the Broncos will be able to beat the evil hated Raiders.

Big storm heading toward the East Coast. The Governor of Virginia had already declared a state of emergency. Boats are being taken out the water and everyone now watches where it will hit. Actual real reality TV to be seen on the weather channel now. Weathermen and junior reporters are getting their slickers ready for those live remotes from some shore side community as they get whipped around in the wind and the rain. I think those are so stupid. Yes Jim, it's indeed raining here. I would say it's raining hard Jim. Normally rain falls down (as the reporter makes a slashing sign with his open hand), as you can see the rain (slashes his hand sideways) is falling sideways. This is indicitive of rain with wind as you might expect with a storm of this magnitude. I know everyone has seen rain and wind with rain but we thought we'd endanger a reporter and his or her camera crew so we can show you rain. Bah. :-)

Old Sparky Bird
Now Playing: Vanessa Mae-Four Seasons
I went into a Bird shop today. Lovely birds, lovely big birds. I've owned a blue front parrot, a grey cheek parrakeet or parrolet and a blue crown conure. Of the three, the Blue Crown Conure was my favorite. Back in the dim past I worked in a pet store and it was back when the wild birds were brought in from the shipper directly. It was a shipment of such bird, of Blue Crowns that had my Sparky bird in it. A bunch in the cage, I had opened it to feed or water or some such thing and Sparky walked up my hand and onto my shoulder. Well that was it for me. I had to buy him and so I did. Quite a character of a bird who seemed to like nobody else but me. I distinctly remember his little eyes, dilating orange eyes and how he would bob his head up and down. Well, I saw a couple of Sparky birds in the pet shop. OF course, being the way things are, they looked just like Sparky. Those eyes and that sleek head and pointy beak. It brings back happy memories.

Tripod down down and also unavailable
Now Playing: Hearts of Space #594
Spent a number of days with some of my site ready to be updated only to find out that I couldn't access it. Tripod, which hosts my site has been down as down can be. Very annoying. But suddenly today, this afternoon in fact, I tried again and lo and behold! Access was granted and so I quickly updated the pages and such that I had ready to go. Thank goodness. So now some of the horror images are up and looking as good as always. Now I will send this in, press a couple of buttons and hope that it gets on it's way. :-)

A Two Towers Kinda Day
Now Playing: Jesse Cook-Freefall (flaminco spanish guitar-excellent)
A nutri-grain bar, raspberry flavored. A glass of lemon iced tea, brand Nestea. The just released Two Towers, Lord of the Rings DVD video in hand as well as a complimentary free maroon Two Towers tee shirt from a kind sales clerk. The elements of a passable day indeed. I watched the movie again. I particularly love the Ents going to battle. Slow to anger and when it's unleashed it's particularly awesome. The Elves coming to Helm's Deep 'to honor a alliance of old' to die with the humans in a hopeless battle- romantic and honorable and the kind of thing I like to see in a movie. A great movie all in all and I am looking forward to seeing the next one as well as getting the extended version of the Two Towers when that comes out. Small pleasures.

Also I might add that I'm listening to a new music artist I happened upon, Jesse Cook, a heck of a good guitarist under the Narada label. Amazingly good. As I listen to his music I can almost feel my fingers bleeding from the strength and vibrancy of the notes he can bring out from that guitar. You should take a listen, obviously it's a bit like the Flamenco dance of that lovely dark haired woman from Riverdance. The music of Jesse Cook makes your toes tap and makes you involuntarily drum the beat along with him.

It's interesting watching the site begin to recover from the complete overhaul. All new pages and all newly redone content has left the old links that were linked to my site no longer there as well as having befuddled Google and yahoo et al for a bit. Their recovery is quick though and the numbers of visitors has picked back up. Of course I haven't completed all of the content. It's a bit hard, my hands are not working with the ability I would like them to have. It's hard to do much, I certainly can't sketch, draw or do any fine work with them any longer. I can type a bit after an overload of Motrin but I pay for it later on. No matter. I've got a lot of the future content layed out and now I wait for the strength to do it a bit at a time. I feel a bit like a one legged broken winged Bower Bird trying to put a few flowers in my Bower. A useless endeavor but one I will make anyway.

One thing I've noted about the site now, I'm getting more hits relating to Buddhism and so my Buddhist information is being well received. That's wonderful in my mind. Well the Motrin isn't helping any more right this minute so I'll call it a day and wish you well this day. :-)

"I'm shocked, simply shocked"
Now Playing: Jesse Cook-Tempest -
Ah, the words of Claude Raines in the movie Casablanca when confronted in public about there being gambling in Rick's Place. "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here" And then he is handed his gambling winnings. This is how I feel about all of the public teeth gnashing going on in the wake of the murder of the pedophile priest John Geoghan by another inmate in the Massachusetts prison where Geoghan happened to be in protective custody. Yeah right. Somebody in protective custody in a prison not being protected? Wow, I'm shocked, shocked to find that prison is not a place where people can be safe. An open secret, that prison is a barely controlled jungle run by the inmates and not the understaffed prison officials and guards. Men are killed frequently in prison, killed, raped, beaten up, intimidated, bullied, terrorized and of course, deprived of their rights in ways too countless to list.

Well, the constituency who would advocate prison reform are not generally those who have any influence in the halls of government. Most states disallow those who serve their time to ever vote again. Those in prison of course do not get to vote. They have been cut off from society and are thus, not a voice that is often heard in our society where influence and a fair hearing are determined by how much money you have. As a result, there are record numbers of people in prisons and those prisons are highly, dangerously overcrowded. Those overcrowded prisons are jungles full of sociopaths, predators and conmen. Those who are not of this ilk are simply prey. It doesn't matter what the sentence was that they are in jail for, the sentence is terror and torture, the sentence might be death, it's certainly pain physical and mental which is the definition of torture. The fact that this priest is killed in prison while in a protective custody environment let's you know how safe it is in general population. The insincere concern over the safety of prisons is a laugh. Nobody in any level of power cares and nothing will be done about it. I guarantee that.

Relaunch of the main site
Now Playing: Deuter-Rainforest
How's about them apples eh? Finally, after much struggle and much scratching of the head I have succeeded in putting up a redesigned website at www.gadlaw.com. Of course, it's up but not completely populated with the goodies I will put up. The struggle was the menu and I have since been able to get that working. Amazing. I plan to get the serious information up first, most of the death penalty info is up and running already. The sex offender law and registry sites is to be up shortly. Much work but it looks good now to me. Much cleaner looking.

Ah this bunch of nasty worms invading the email box is highly annoying. I have seen the same ones everyone else has seen and I have been clearing my mailbox constantly. But my anti virus and my firewall are smack up to date, I've downloaded and installed the newest microcrap patch and run complete checks on my system. And just as soon as everyone else does this I won't have so many emails bombard me and mine. Now of course I am wise to the ways of the virus and of the trojan and all of that nonsense. Even so, I did get completely hosed a few months back even with my vast and varied knowledge. I hadn't been that badly hosed with invasion of the computer snatchers since five or so years ago. They need to catch these guys doing this and put then in the big house. Spammers, virus writers, script kiddies, what a mess.

Working the site redesign
Now Playing: Natasha St Pier-On Peut Tout Essayer
Another day where the moments are spent working on the redesign. A bit of CSS stylesheets, a bit more javascript, tables, background images, tweaking the pictures and on top of all of that there is the little matter of the content to be rewritten and made presentable. Whew, what a task. My site has been up since 1998 and it's gone a bit far afield and the result for me is that doing a redesign is a lot of work. Like cleaning out a garage there's the cleanup before even thinking about the remodel. It's a bit like that at the moment. At any rate I am hoping to get this thing restarted before too long. It's my own work so I can take my time.

glassy eyed dhtml boy
Now Playing: xtc - dear god
ohhh, my eyes are blurry with the effort of looking at very tiny things that make little sense. time for a break from code and table frustrations. other than that I am encouraged in my site renovation efforts. I'm putting down the foundation, making things easier in the long run to make it something that I can keep updated easily and keep looking sharp. Fortunately I am not under any deadline. It's a good thing too since the ability to make any deadline in this effort would be quite difficult. I can't see, I've got a cold that is moving down into my chest again, my arms are so carpel tunnelly that I can't open a previously opened jar of pepperoncini let alone hold it. Other than all of that I'm feeling perfectly fine. peachy keen.

one of my favorite movies of all time, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" is on TCM right now. and a few days ago another of my all time favorite films, "Holiday Inn" was on the same channel. Amazing. I look for these films for years and all of a sudden they start making multiple showings. so much for my theory that I wasn't seeing them on tv any longer because of the minstrel numbers in both shows. fred astaire, bing crosby, gary cooper, henry fonda, tyrone powers, ah now those were movie stars.

the terminator running for governor of cali. i'm not even amazed by things any longer. i'm glad it's happening because i love politics and the more the pot gets stirred the more interesting it is. interesting that the fellow with the recall plan, congressman issa, tearfully decided to not run for governor. he spent more than a million of his own dollars to get the recall against governor davis. see, issa had a plan, he would bankroll the recall of davis and a grateful cali would hoist him on their shoulders and declare him the next governor. a good plan indeed. of course, he didn't count on my old friend, 'unintended consequences' to show up. unintended consequences, humm. i bet issa didn't expect the running man to be the man running for governor thereby crashing the careful plans of a would be leader of the richest state in the union. still and all, the crying at the news conference was uncalled for. someone who cold bloodedly goes after another human being like he went after the governor davis should stand up like a man when he gets slammed down and his ambitions momentarily thwarted. unseemly and embarrassing.

A little kindness
Now Playing: Simple Plan-I'm Addicted to You
Was in a parking lot the other day, running errands here and there and was walking to my car. An old man, thin and scabby, short gray hair, pedaled through the parked cars on an ancient bicycle. A small white bag tied to the handle bars with nothing much in it swung weakly as he weaved his bike and then seemed to suddenly see me as I opened my car door. He aimed his bike a few spaces from my car and then hesitantly turned the front wheel toward me. In a quiet voice I heard him say "excuse me, but could you possibly spare a few dollars." He motioned to his stomach and said he was hungry. I was half way into my car when these words interrupted my reverie. I had already seen him and as we all do, I took his measure in an instant. Thin, poor, not looking like he was suffering from the ravages of excessive drink. I'm an expert in what that looks like, both parents having been lifelong alcoholics before their addiction to alcohol took both of them a number of years back. He looked like my dad in a way. I wasn't frightened or on guard. Despite his look I didn't feel any dislike toward him. He had asked me if I could spare a few dollars. I thought to myself that as a matter of fact I could spare a few dollars and I reached into my pocket. I reached over, handing him a number of bills. He looked at the money in his hand and seemed to be shocked. "That's very generous," he said in a soft grateful voice, the money disappearing in his pocket quickly. I looked at him and said, "You're welcomed, please take care."

I drove away thinking about the encounter. Analyzing myself, wondering if that was compassion on my part. I don't think I acted out of pity, or out of fear or out of any sense of reward-good karma for myself. To my mind, any self congratulatory feeling about doing some good deed lessens the deed. You do good, you show compassion as you breath, naturally and without thought. You are not rewarded for breathing, nor is it any special act. Funny how things work out. I was not done running my errands and drove directly to a Wal-Mart. I parked and was walking toward the entrance when I saw another old man. This one in a motorized wheelchair with a basket on the front of it. He had two big boxes there and was trailed by a frail looking Wal-Mart employee. The man saw me and as I was passing him I heard him ask me if I could help him. I stopped and smiled. "Certainly I can help sir," I said. "What is it that you need?"
I looked over at the boxes and had some idea that he wanted me to load his boxes in his car. A nice big new car. He worked the little electronic door opener and I heard the click of the doors being unlocked. He smiled as I opened up the back door and examined if the two boxes would fit inside. I looked at the boxes and they had pictures of a cot. Two heavy green cots. I picked one up and began placing it his back seat. The man told me that his grandchildren were coming down to visit him. He hadn't seen them in five years and sounded happy and proud. "They all need to have some place to sleep." He said. I smiled and said that was wonderful and that he must be very excited to see his family after so long. I loaded the second boxed cot in the back of the car and closed the door. "There you go sir. Good luck to you and drive carefully on the way home." He smiled and patted my arm and thanked me. The Wal Mart cashier patted me on the other shoulder and she thanked me as well saying that she didn't know how she was going to lift those boxes without my help. I smiled again and said I was glad to help and it was no problem at all.

Going into the store I thought about how funny things are sometimes. I tugged on my yin yang earring as I always do and continued my quest for a slightly bigger pot for my growing draco plant. The reason for my wanderings on that day.

DHTML and the shards of sanity
Now Playing: Um- Some trance stuff
Hello again. I've been busy with various programming languages of late. It's a slow process for me, I've got very few active braincells which are able to comprehend complex ideas especially ones connected with symbolic logic terms and codes that mean exactly what they say they mean unless of course you are wishing them to work in netscape and explorer. Oh the pain. But such is life for the turtle like Bower Bird that I am.
I watched the Tour de France all the way to the end and I am glad to see Lance Armstrong win his fifth title. Many of the people I admire are those you can identify as people you'd like to emulate by reason of their courage and ability to overcome adversity. It's easier sometimes to identify sports figures who fit that image. Lance Armstrong is one of those fellows. He overcame many things in his life including cancer which has spread to his testicles and brain. He fought back from that painful brink, a blow that could have and would have destroyed many people. He came back and endured more pain to train and more pain both mental and physical to compete and even win five Tour de France's. That put's the stamp of a warrior to be admired on him as far as I am concerned. Tyler Hamilton as well, he fell in one of the first days of the three week race and broke his collarbone. Despite the pain of that he got back up and finished for that day and for every other day of the race. The pain he was in must have been intense and yet he got up and competed and was the fourth best bike race of the whole tour. A skinny, short little buck toothed bike racer with the heart of a champion. And even the big german Hans Ullrich, a strong fellow who powered his way to second place had overcome events in his life that had him out of the race last year and contemplating retirement. He one the Tour in 1997 and finished second every other time he has raced. He finished second again this year but not from lack of trying and not from lack of effort. In fact on the last day in the rain he went out and with second place securely in hand proceeded to try to win over Armstrong. As a result he wiped out on a turn which ended his effort to overcome the lead of the yellow jersey. He had waited for Armstrong on two occasions during the days of the race when he had once fell and once swerved off the road to avoid a crash and as a result had to off road bike a bit to rejoin the group. Such chivalry, such honor among competitors seems almost unheard of these days. I appreciated and respected the honor of the racers. A wonderful event all around.
And this weekend the first preseason football game starts! Woo hoo. Football season reminds me of other folks who overcame and won in the end. John Elway, a man of immense football talent overcame a team that was rarely the best and through never giving up and always competing, was able to win the day and two Super Bowls along the way. All the while while still being a good guy who never whined about not winning every year. But that is another story for another day.

Fred Astaire on TCM-off day for the Tour de France
Now Playing: Night and Day- Carol Welsman
Some days end with a perfect balance. I don't watch much TV but I will watch Fred Astaire movies and I have been following the Tour de France on OLN. Today happened to be a day where the bike racers were resting and as luck would have it, there were a couple of Fred Astaire movies on Turner Classic Movie Channel. Things don't get much better than that in my book.

The Tour de France has Lance Armstrong and he has won the three week race the last four years in a row. This man besides being the best bike racer on the planet is also a cancer survivor. He is everything I admire in a person, someone who has overcome dreadful adversity in his life and has still gone forth and done his best to be a good human being and a champion in his chosen goals in life. It's an amazing thing to watch men pedal up mountains for hours at a time and then seeing who has the energy and the drive to push themselves again and again when you know their bodies are screaming in pain at them, when there is no more energy and no more drive left in their bodies to push up one more hill. You see men literally break in front of your eyes, you can see it when it happens. You can see the man who has gone out ahead of the field and spent hours in the lead, pedaling as hard as he can. You can see the others behind him slowly catching up to him and then you can see him slump and slow down as he is caught. You know that the effort is long and painful and you know for some of these riders the chance to win for one day is their entire goal and all of their effort goes to the one race. The next day the same person is a half hour behind the leaders. It's a three week race after all and the energy they use today can only come back so far for the next day's race. So you see Lance Armstrong letting some riders go ahead of him and not letting others out of his sight. It's more than a display of effort and pain and the drive to survive and succeed. It's also a chess match with multiple players each with their own goals and agendas. Very fascinating and very riveting, at least for me.

Now a Fred Astaire movie is always fun. The dancing, the romances, the clever banter between the characters. Nothing is so serious or painful that Fred Astaire can't dance through it and come out smiling. He tries to win the hand of his lovely costar, he is rebuffed, he winces, he dances, he gets back up and wins the dancing costar and in the end they dance the big number together through the big finish. The end, happily ever after. Well not even that. It's not even that big of a deal, happily for the moment because Fred Astaire lives in the moment. You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier were on tonight. Great stuff.

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