Stage 9 Tour de France

- July 13, 2008

I got up fairly early this morning to go on a Sunday ride. I was going to just take off and see where I went, no mapped out plan in my mind. I got about a mile away in a southerly direction when it started raining. It didn't take long for me to decide that I didn't want to ride in the rain today. After drying the bike and oiling the chain, I came into the house and turned on the TV just in time to see Cadel Evans being cared for by the tour doctor. There he was on his bike hanging onto the car, bloody with scrapes all over him, clothes all torn and tattered. The doctor was probing him, reaching through holes that were torn from the crash, squirting some sort of disinfectant repairing him in motion. it was an inspirational sight for me to see. I decided this guy might be my new hero for this year's Tour de France. The commentators were mentioning that he was a former world champion mountain biker and that he had broken his collar bones 7 times already in his life. What a tough dude. Go Cadel.
One thing that continues to impress me is that when it rains in the desert, the cool temps and pleasing fragrances come in with it. When I lived in Austin, a little morning rain just added fuel for the steam bath, night or day. Moisture is the coolant for these parts, which is testified by the fact that evaporative cooling is still the norm. So when it rains and evaporative cooling doesn't work because of the high humidity, it doesn't need to because the rain cools things off. It's like sitting inside a very large evaporative cooler.

BIRTHDAY GIRL