100 Ways to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience: #16 Walk The Streets Before You Leave Home

Google has video taped millions of miles of streets and walkways. Going into street view allows me to virtually walk down the street in much of the western world. This is a remarkable tool, that has only been available for a couple of decades. Being able to do this on demand, was beyond the dreams of our parents.  

What am I looking for?  Traffic, parking, entrances and exits.  Restaurants, shops,  hotels, and attractions.  I can get a real feel for the place, long before I arrive there.  Knowledge of a few landmarks help me to navigate unfamiliar shores.  

The Thursday Ramble: Riding

I have vague memories of struggling to balance myself on  a bike, learning to ride on a tiny 20-inch childs bike. I remember thinking that getting half of me on each side was the key, then a fast roll down the slight slope of the gravel driveway and I realized that momentum is what keeps a bike upright.  

The little bike was bought for my sister to learn to ride on. Dad took the training wheels off when she started to ride well, and said it was too much trouble to put them back on when I was learning. He said I would get it soon enough, after a few spills on the gravel driveway.  Ultimately he was right, but I still thought it was cruel that she had the training wheels and I didn't.  

A couple of years later, a new full size bike came into my life.  It was ordered for my birthday, and Schwinn workers in Chicago went on strike and it was delayed.  It arrived a couple of months late, and it is red, instead of the blue I wanted.  I use "is" I still have it. It is old enough to be classified as an antique.  Air up the tires and it is still a joy to ride.   

My parents bought similar bikes for three of the four kids, I am the only one that somehow held onto mine.  When my middle brother and sister stopped riding theirs, my mother sold them. I insisted that I needed to keep mine.  It is secured in the storage room off the parking garage.  

When we started spending winters in Florida, I bought a ten-speed. The first one at K-Mart, and a couple of years later a much better one at a discount store that was going out of business.  I rode those back and forth to school in Florida, stored them in the summers they were not well suited to gravel roads in Michigan.  

After I moved to Orlando there was a long dry spell when I didn't ride much.  Then in my late 20's I lost a ton of weight, and started riding again.  After a while I bought a better 10-speed at a garage sale. 

A year or so later I bought a dream bike.  A Trek 1200 Aluminum.  At the time it was Trek's top of the line racing bike.  (The first Trek Carbon Fiber frame came out a few months later.) The Trek was built for speed. I remember shopping for a super fast bike, several bike shops tried to push me into something heavier and slower.  The shop I bought it from was honest, he said, "it is fast and can get away from you easily, work on it, build your skills, respect it and it will take you places you never thought you could go." He also taped his card and a quarter under the seat and said, if you get in trouble with it, call me and I will send someone to rescue you.  I never needed to make the call. I only laid it down once, a street that I thought was a through street that came to an end faster than I could stop. 

That bike took me to the nation sprint triathlon championships in 1989.  I passed Mike Pigg on the bike course.  I finished in the top 1/3rd of the field.  I was glad to be there, passing one of the fastest in the sport was a bonus.   

It hangs on the terrace.  I should part with it, but I don't want to. My ramble down memory lane on this Thursday.  

My World of Wonders, aka The Wednesday Ws Last of July 24th

Where have I been? Not much of anyplace, home, the gym, the pool, the farmers market, the library, dropped a donation off at the local animal shelter, a walk in a park, Aldi, and out to lunch on King Street. 

Who have I talked with? My sweet bear, John from upstairs, the lifeguard at the pool, my old office mates (a Zoom board meeting last week.) 

HoW is everyone doing?  My sister is recovering well.  Sweet Bear's oldest brother had open heart surgery last week and post op complications.  It is going to be a rough recovery, he is 83. 

What have I read? 32 Yolks, The Ideas that Made America. When I finish the current stack from the library, I will have read 50 books, my goal for 2024. 

What am I watching?  The Tour De France finished on Sunday, the Olympics start next weekend.  The Indy Car Race from Toronto (we will be in Toronto in August of 2025.) On YouTube: Billy at the Convent, an amazing renovation, Glen and Friends cooking, Photo Dude, Dude's best friend, and an remarkable expat in Japan. So far as broadcast television, the CBS Sunday Morning Show and 60-Minutes are about it.  

What am I listening to? Saturday afternoon, the sounds of silence.  I went to the pool, in a light rain. About ten minutes into 30 minutes of swimming laps, the power went out.  I heard it go, come back on, and go out again. Then it got quiet, really quiet.  I came back the house and had a hard time taking a nap, it was so quiet.  The power was out about an hour. 

Where am I going?  Chicago soon. 

What did I learn this week? The development of American English was intentional, an effort to create a unique identity though changes in spelling, definition and word usage.  We use the spelling, tires instead of tyres, color instead of colour, because of an intentional effort to create American English.  We say someone is in "the hospital" instead of someone is "in hospital" because of a difference in defining what article of speech "hospital" is.  Confusingly we have "ice cream," instead of "an ice cream." In a music or theater performance, we have an "intermission", as a break between parts of the show, instead of an "interval" a word we use to define a period of time. All of this is the result of an intentional effort by intellectuals in the late 1700's and early 1800's in North America, to define differences unique to the Americas. 

What is the strangest thing I have done this week?  Swimming in the rain. It wasn't raining when I went to the pool, a few minutes in, it started to rain.  I thought, oh my, I will get wet!!!!! It was actually very pleasant, the water is warm, maybe even warmer than the weather. 

What fun have I had in the kitchen? I made a peach pie, fresh peaches from the farmers market, Mary Berry's sweet crust pastry, a glaze made with a chopped peach, brandy, sugar and cornstarch. It set wonderfully, and the pastry is some of the best I have ever made. 

Time Travel Tuesday: A cooler day, January 3rd 2022

This was a very heavy wet snow, and many trees were damaged or destroyed by the weight. 

My little VW Convertible 

 

KAMALA! - A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

An Oldie, but A Goodie 

Monday Mood: Bit Shocked

A source told me early on Sunday that VP Harris was screening possible candidates for Vice President, then in the pool Sunday afternoon a neighbor broke the news to me that President Biden had withdrawn. 

It is a shock, but not a surprise.  His debate performance was abysmal, but then he has never been a strong public speaker.  There has been a lot of pressure on him to step aside. 

I worry that a dedicated public servant has been publicly hounded into retirement. The press and leaders in the Democratic party have been increasingly putting the pressure on him to withdraw.  I worry that the concern is ageist and not based on ability.  Older adults are often perceived as being less capable, just because of how we look and sound. Joe has never hidden his age, no fake hair, to spray tan, what you see is who he is.  But looks are not what get the job done. 

I Thank President Biden for his decades of public service, and wish him well.  I expect he will be a strong campaigner for the selected candidate.  

As John said in the pool Sunday afternoon, I would vote for Mickey Mouse if he was running against HeWhoShallNotBeNamed.     

The Sunday Five: Local Landmarks

1: What local institutions are you a member of? 

2: How much does it cost to enter local museums? 

3: Have you booked admission to a museum on your phone? 

4: Should there be more public support of museums and local landmarks? 

5: When was the last time you visited a museum or local landmark? 

My Answers:

1: What local institutions are you a member of? Mt. Vernon, and the Smithsonian 

2: How much does it cost to enter local museums?  The Smithsonian museums are all free, Mt Vernon is about $30 - I have guest passes if you are in the area and want to see Mt Vernon. 

3: Have you booked admission to a museum on your phone? Yes, I really don't like it, but I have done it. 

4: Should there be more public support of museums and local landmarks? Yes, the National Park Service especially struggles to maintain local landmarks. 

5: When was the last time you visited a museum or local landmark? About three weeks, it has been rather hot. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Grandparents

 I was lucky as a child, I had a full complement of grandparents, both my maternal and paternal grandparents lived into my adulthood, and one of my great grandmothers lived into my young adulthood. She outlived my two grandfathers by a year.  

My paternal grandparents lived on the same farm, at least nine months out of the year.  They started snow-birding, going to Florida for the winters when I was a toddler. My father and his father ran the bee farm together.  He was born in west central Illinois, north of St. Louis and on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. He was one of a dozen kids, by the time he was born his father had spent through a trust fund, and landed on 80 acres of mediocre farmland that he had neither the ambition or knowledge to farm.  As a boy my grandfather spent summers working fields along the Mississippi River with horses and mules for 15-cents a day, his family needed the money.  When Ford advertised $5 a day, they sold the farm and moved to Detroit. Both my grandfather and his father, worked for Ford.  My grandfather as a machine setter, my great-grandfather in the power house at the Ford estate. My father's mother was born near Greenwich, England, and her family moved to the USA when she was a child.  Her father was digging tunnels in Detroit, and lived near where my grandfather's family did.  

They were bright people.  My grandfather had a grade school education, my grandmother was nearly a high school graduate.  Her mother was burned in a kitchen accident during her last year of high school and she never went back to finish.  They were industrious and careful with money.  Two fond memories of my grandfather, curling up with him in his big wing chair and watching Lawrence Welk when I was a little thing, and the day he quit driving.  I was helping my grandmother in the kitchen on a canning project and he went out to put his car in the garage.  He pulled forward and hit the wall on one side, backed up pulled forward and scraped the wall on the other side.  Backed up parked it, came in the kitchen dropped the keys on the counter and said, "if I can't get it in the garage, I shouldn't be driving it." A very wise man. He died a couple of years later.  I spent many hours in that kitchen helping my grandmother or just watching and talking. 

My mother's parents were complicated.  Both had grade school educations.  He was at heart a farmer of the old school, one of about 20 kids, he loved farming with horses or mules.  Her mother died from tuberculosis when she was a child (I only learned the cause a couple of years ago, it was a deep family secret.)  Her father remarried and started a second family and she never got over the loss.  She had a lot of emotional baggage from her childhood.  She married the first man who showed any interest in her so she could get out of the house.  The early years of their marriage were difficult, he worked on farms often for barely enough to live on.  My mother was a C-section at a time when any surgery was considered life and death. She never really recovered from the terror of that surgery.  My mother was an only child.  

Before I started school, he had an accident on the farm and broke a leg. While recovering from the broken leg, he had a heart attack. The doctors advised him to give up farming or plan a funeral.  (This was the early 1960's before bypass surgery and pacemakers.) They sold out, bought a travel trailer and a new pickup truck and started splitting the year between Michigan and Florida, with occasional fishing trips to Canada. On their way back and forth they would sometimes spend a few weeks parked on the farm, they spent a couple of summers parked on the farm.  They were a presence in and out of my life. They could be very welcoming or cold and prickly. Over the years I have learned about their path in life and probably better understand them now than then. 

Ah, the great grandmother.  My father's mother's mother lived with my grandparents for about a decade. For a few years she would winter with one of her sons, she spent one winter living with my aunt, and several winters in Florida with my grandparents.  She was born in Wales, moved to the USA as a young mother.  Had lived across the eastern half of the USA, from New York, to Chicago, and as far south as Memphis. She was nearly blind, and spent her days listening to the radio, and walking back and forth in the sun-room on the farmhouse. I would sit and listen with her and talk. She was an amazing story teller who had lived a fascinating life. 

My grandfathers died weeks apart when I was in high school, my great grandmother a year later.  My grandmothers lived on, one dying while I was in my early 30's, the other one the year after we moved to Kentucky. 

All five of them played a role in me, being who I am today.  I was so lucky to have them around. 

100 Tips to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience #15 - Finding the Right Hotel

Novotel, Nimes, France 

 One of my little black books contains a list of every hotel I have stayed in since 2005, currently 729 hotel nights. Only a handful of them have a note "NEVER AGAIN!" next to them.  Meaning never stay there again.  I select and book most of them, some of them are selected based on a conference or meeting being there, a few times someone else was paying the bill and they selected the hotel. Hint, Medical Societies stay at really nice hotels, glad I was not paying the bill on a couple of those.  

The old saying in real estate is that the three most important things are location, location, and location also applies to hotels.  Start by understanding what you want to do, or see, or be near and then look for hotels based on that. How close you want to be, depends on where you are. Are you walking, taking public transit, taxis, or driving.  The closer you are the easier and less expensive it is to get to where you want to be. 

Read hotel reviews, with a critical eye.  There are some people who no one can satisfy, and some competing hotels write bad reviews.  For me numerous reviews about the property being in poor condition are a red flag.  Every hotel has a busy day, when half of the housekeeping staff calls in sick, and a party bus of noisy people check in.  I give those complaints less value, than comments about overall run down conditions.  

Look at the online listing.  Is there an elevator (lift.) Is there air conditioning (not as common in Europe?) Is there an onsite restaurant? Is breakfast included? What do the photos look like? The photos are going to show the best the hotel has to offer, and what the managers think is most important.  

Bring up the location in an online map and look at the aerial view, and street view. I missed this on one last year, and didn't realize that half of the rooms backed up to a very busy expressway.  Street view allows you to take a virtual walk around the block, if it looks scary online, it will be in person.  Are there shops and restaurants in the neighborhood? What does parking look like if you are driving?  

Look at the room layout and bedding options.  Book what you need to be comfortable, not what is cheapest and struggle to make it work.  

Lastly look at price.  Some hotels I dismiss out of hand as being beyond my budget. I have learned to dismiss the lowest price options, there is a reason why they are cheap.  

Interesting, price is the last criteria.  A cheap hotel, that is in the wrong location, or is cheap because it is a mess, is not a good value.  Not that I don't often have a price target in mind. I look for the best value on a nice hotel, in the place I want to be. 

A few hints.  Use a travel agency such as Orbitz, or Trivago to find potential hotels.  Then look at the hotel website.  If I can, I always book on the hotel website, rather than through an agency.  If there is a problem, or I need to make a change, the hotel can work with me more easily if I the reservation is made directly.  Sometimes when booked through an agency, all changes have to go through the agency.  

 

The Thursday Ramble: Something about this painting

The remnants of a tropical storm blew through last Friday, it was cool, only getting up to 82(f), with light rain. I took advantage of the day to take the train into the city for a walk.  It started to rain, so I went into the National Gallery of Art to walk.  I can walk in their for a couple of hours. Much of it remains constant, the sculpture changes little, the religious art changes little.  There was a new exhibition of photographs, that was hosting a press event and not open to the public. 

Up on the top floor there is a new exhibit of paintings from the renaissance. A lot of Dutch and Flemish masters, and England. And a room filled with masterworks from Florence in Italy. I like this stuff.  I remember the first time I encountered a wall full of it in the National Portrait Gallery in London back in 1990.  I sat down and stared for five minutes.  My soon to be ex, thought I had lost my mind.  On the contrary, I think I had found it.  

After walking for about an hour, I sat down for a few minutes on a very comfy grey leather chair.  I watched the people, and I spent a few minutes looking closely at the paintings around me. My style is usually to glance and walk, glance and walk, but not really linger of paintings. Sitting there I lingered.  

The painting above caught my eye.  It also caught the eye of other passers by who stopped to study, to read the curators notes, and stare some more.  It is a portrait of a Medici who was assassinated.  In all likelihood it was painted after his death. That explains some of it, but there is still something that looks strange.  To me, it looks like they painted his head on backwards, or his face on the back of his head with his hair over where his face should be.  Now maybe he was just a strange looking guy.  But the squareness of the shoulders, and lack of any shape in the torso, makes it look more like his back, than his front.  

My World of Wonders, aka The Wednesday Ws July 17th edition

What are my thoughts on Saturday evening in Pennsylvania? He missed! But how ugly politics have gotten, the overblown rhetoric lead by HWSNBN, has gotten us to new lows.  It feels like a banana republic, denial of election results, prosecution of politicians, inflamed rhetoric, blaming the other, leading to acts of violence. This is not who we are as a county.  I mistakenly paused on a "news" report and was appalled that no one is willing to tell HWSNBN that he needs to turn down the rhetoric a bit, he is destroying the country. Please don't miss on election day, every vote against He Who Shall Not Be Named (HWSNBN) is needed to send a message for him to crawl back into his cave and stay there. Don't think of it as voting for Joe, think of it as voting against HWSNBN and all of the ugliness he has brought out in the country.  

Where have I been this week?  Target for some shopping and to get out of the house.  The pharmacy. To get my hair cut.  Friday we had a cold spell, the high was only 82, I went into the City, and wandered in the National Gallery of Art for a couple of hours.  The farmers market. The pool.  

What have I been watching? The Tour de France, the past few years I have dreamed of being able to watch the live feed 5 to 6 hours each morning, and this year I can.  And Indy car racing, Iowa this past weekend, Detroit the weekend before.  

Who have a talked with?  Ana and Susan were in the pool with the two grandkids the other day, John a neighbor here in the building in the pool, Marcie who lives in building one in the pool.  My middle brother who called to update me on my sister's health.  

HoW is my sister doing?  The docs adjusted her medications, put her on a continuous blood pressure monitor and sent her home. The best they can figure, she was over medicated and her BP dropped way low.  She hit her head and neck in a nasty fall at home.  

What was my good deed for the week?  I checked the mail, and there was a key for a parcel locker.  The two boxes in the locker were for someone down the hall.  I could have left the boxes at the door to the mailroom and the postman would have re-delivered them. Instead I walked down the hall and dropped them at the door of the person they were for. She heard the boxes being placed and came to the door, and was so thankful.  She said she had been searching for the misdelivered packages, had reported them missing to the postal service and the shipper. It only took a couple of minutes to take the boxes to the right door, and it made someone's day. 

When is my next meeting?  I have a Zoom board meeting on Friday. 

Who deserves a slap this week? I had a slice of carrot cake at the National Gallery of Art last Friday. Some barbarians coated the outside for the frosting with flaked coconut. Coconut does not belong anywhere near carrot cake. 5 slaps out of 5 for poor taste. 

What is the photo above? The National Gallery of Art was built in the 1930's, the original elevators (lifts) were installed by Westinghouse, and these medallions are embedded in the floors. Westinghouse stopped building elevators and escalators decades ago. 

Travel Tuesday: Cleveland from the Water

 

Monday Mood: Walkies

On one of my last conference calls before I retired, my replacement pointed out that it was my last call (yea!) A retired Judge from Florida offered advice, get a dog, walking the dog will force you to get out to  walk everyday.  

I didn't get a dog, but I am getting out for daily walkies.  I walk at least an hour every day.  If the weather is mild, I walk outside.  If the weather is nasty, I walk on the treadmill at the gym here at the condo.  If we are out of town, I walk more, much more. 

Walking is simple, one foot in front of the other.  If I couldn't walk, I would roll.  Walking requires little - a good pair of shoes.  I started wearing top of the line running shoes in my early 30's when I was running 1,000 miles a year.  I replace my shoes 2 or 3 times a year, the padding breaks down in them. Most often I buy shoes that are on sale, and don't care what they look like.  Sometimes I buy shoes because I like the look.  A few years ago I spent months tracking down a pair of Nike that I saw in photos, they were released for the Japanese market and had to be special ordered.  

Walking clears my mind. It gives me time to think. It gives me time to figure out the rambles in my mind.  It gives me time to relax. It should be good for my body. A simple rule, if it hurts, change what you are doing.  I vary speed, and surface to stay comfy.  

Sunday Five: Happiness

 1: Most of us live where we live because of family or jobs, have you made a conscious choice of where you want to live? 

2: Have you explored the side streets and back streets where you live to find the hidden gems? 

3: If you could get rid of one thing in your home, that would make you happier, what would it be? 

4: When you are seeking happiness, what do you do? 

5: Have you bloomed where you are planted? 

My answers:

1: Most of us live where we live because of family or jobs, have you made a conscious choice of where you want to live?  The move the Washington DC area was a move to where we wanted to live, the place came first, the job came second. 

2: Have you explored the side streets and back streets where you live to find the hidden gems? A lot of it, this is an ongoing adventure of exploration. 

3: If you could get rid of one thing in your home, that would make you happier, what would it be? Some clutter that I need to toss in my bedroom. (Within my control, what is stopping me?) 

4: When you are seeking happiness, what do you do? Take a long walk. 

5: Have you bloomed where you are planted? Very much so. I am here, I will enjoy it while it lasts. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Summer Memories

I was raised on a funny farm, 80 acres, How big is 80 acres, 1/4 of a mile by 1/2 of a mile. The house I grew up in is still 1.5 miles from the nearest paved road.  It was not the best of farmland, but not the worst.  It needed better drainage, about 1/3rd of it was covered in hardwood trees and impenetrable underbrush. 

My Grandfather bought the farm during World War II, from one of his co-workers at Ford.  My grandfather had bees in the outer suburbs of Detroit, and his parents were living with him and his mother had chickens in the backyard (the house in the city was on a couple of acres of land.) City officials were insisting that he get the bees and chickens out of the city.  Buying the farm in the middle of nowhere gave him someplace to move the bees, chickens, and his mother. 

There were about 50 of the up to 2,100 colonies of bees he and my father kept, on the farm. The chickens were fried for me great-grandmother's funeral. For a few years the family tried farming.  The end of that was a ten acre field of tomatoes and a late season frost. All hands were called on to salvage a couple of acres of the tomatoes in a backbreaking effort. There was an uprising of family members telling my grandfather that if he couldn't tend it himself, to not plant it. 

Often the fields layed fallow. Several years the government paid him for not growing crops on the farm, kind of easy as he had no plan to do so.  From time to time when grain prices were expected to be high, a neighboring farmer would "sharecrop" the farm.  My grandfather would get a share of the net value of the crop for the use of the land.  Rarely enough to pay the taxes on the land, but it was something. 

And this brings me to a summer memory.  The field just outside my childhood bedroom window was best suited to growing hard winter wheat. It was planted in the fall, sprouted to ankle high, then in the spring it rose to waist high, the grain heads filling out (does it bloom, these are seeds) and ripened by mid July into a golden shade, and then the thrill of the combine harvester.  There is a smell of wheat being harvested that is unlike anything else. It is dusty, and vaguely like the crust of a loaf of bread hot out of the oven.  Then there is the joy of walking thru the stubble field of a recently cut wheat field. The stalks are cut about 10 inches above the dirt.  When you walk the stems snap off under your feet. If you walk with your feet in a sweeping motion, the sound and the feel are unlike anything else. That feeling is only once, and goes away after the next rain. I miss that smell, and those walks.  

The last time I walked in a field of freshly cut wheat was in Normandy one August.  I had diner at the hotel, and enjoyed a large bottle of Norman Cider (a surprising experience.) Next to the hotel was a wheat field that had been cut that day.  I wandered about for half an hour or so, then collapsed into bed without taking a shower and washing off that memorable scent.  

100 Tips to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience: #14 Don't Go Bargain Hunting

Travel need not be overly expensive, and we all have limits.  There have been travel ideas that I decide against, because I just didn't want to spend the money. I have also gone bargain hunting, and you get what you pay for.  

A couple of examples.  On a trip to Denver I went bargain hunting for a rental car.  I spent $50 less and we ended up in a Suzuki Swift (it should be called a Slow) with a three cylinder engine and about 50,000 mountain miles on it.  We drove to Breckenridge for lunch one day, going up the mountain passes on the expressway, I swear the mountain sheep on the side of the road were faster than we were.  

On our Alaska cruise in 2008, I took the cheapest inside cabin.  While others were watch glaciers roll by their cabin, we were in total darkness and isolation (I did sleep really well.)  On this last cruise - I booked a balcony cabin and we really enjoyed it.  

Spend a little more, book the nicer car, the hotel room that is a better fit, the stateroom with the view.  For a once in a lifetime experience, spend a little more. You get what you pay for.  

Thursday Ramble: Things I have Seen Along the Way

A block away from the Palace of the Popes in Avignon is a street filled with shops, many of them catering to tourists. I spotted this and had to take a quick and somewhat discrete photo. I have no idea what is in the bottles, what flavor would these be?  

Imaging that, plant based brioche buns, what else would they be made from, powdered beef? Now if they mean "vegan", as in no milk or eggs, say so.  All bread products are inherently plant based.  For that matter, cows are plant based - and tasty.  

I was down on the waterfront taking a walk.  A family was there with their child feeding the ducks, and the catfish came up to fight with the ducks for the bread being tossed in by the kids.  I kind of know the fish are there in the river, but I never see them.  

I love this bumper sticker.  I should buy them by the dozen, and wait for idiots to park, and then put them on their cars after they walk away.  And I should check my car to make sure no one has put one on my car, or maybe I should have it as a warning. 

It really is a good neighborhood.  Every couple of years, the maintenance golf cart gets new tires, and it sets on blocks by the back gate for a couple of days while the new tires are being fitted.  

My World of Wonders, aka The Wednesday Ws July 10, 2024

What made me smile this week? In the first week of the 2024 Tour de France, Binuam Girmay, has won two stages of.  Girmay is from Eritrea, he is the first black rider to ever win a stage in the Tour de France, the first stage win for the team he is on, and he did it twice in the first week.  His sprint is amazing when he has a nice clean line.  He appears to a gentle sportsman, working his way out front then sprinting.  For too long professional cycling has been dominated by skinny white guys.  Ability, talent, and hard training comes in all colors.  

Where have I been this week?  Home, the gym, the pool, the grocery store, the Grill for dinner with a table full of friends, into the city for a meeting at my former office. 

Who have I traded messages with? My sister, Spo, Mitchell, my nephew, my replacement, my former boss, collaborators on a project, 

What have I been reading? Remembrance of Things Paris, a collection of essays and articles about food in Paris edited by Ruth Reichl - it was fun reading, lots of brilliant writing, and The Three-Martini Playdate by Christie Mellor not really as good as I had hoped.  I have a fresh stack from the library. 

What has me worried? My sister has had a setback. Overmedication and she fell at home, and is dealing with neck and back injuries.  

What is the weather like? Hot, Monday afternoon I parked my car in the shade in a garage, when I came back it was indicating 100 degrees (F), and it is humid.  It looks like it is going to be a long hot summer. 

What am I writing? This blog, an article on retirement plans and reality, a consulting report, and soon a chapter on legal ethics when working with an adult who has experienced abuse.  

What am I listening to this week?  The Tour de France, live coverage starts early most mornings and runs for 5-6 hours. 

What about the photo above? The Condo community hosts a 4th of July parade. This year the parade formed in front of our building (there are four residential towers, a large community center, and a single story residential building that mirrors half of the floor plan of the first tower - it was built as models when the buildings were being started.) This was one of the parade participants. 

Travel Tuesday: New York Public Libaray

These are from a couple of years ago. The New York Public Library is a work of art, well worth the time to wander about.