Erulisse Dances

So Lance Armstrong decided to end his constant fight against the doping charges that have been laid against him for most of his professional career. In doing so he is relinquishing his seven victories at Le Tour de France and focusing on the things that he says are most important to him - his family and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I am a bit disappointed with him for stepping back and saying "enough," but I understand it as well. There comes a time when you have to turtle. You have to pull inside your shell and protect yourself because leaving yourself outside will lead to so much bloodletting that you will die by those small arrows. Even arrows shot by faerie bows can harm in the aggregate so allowing protection is not a poor decision. In spite of everything, Lance is my man. He won Le Tour seven times and no-one else has come close. He might be an idiot many times, and maybe not the brightest bulb, but I still think he deserves his well-earned titles.
( software on a stick and food thoughts below the cut )

Many, many months ago.... OK, a few months ago... Anyway, at one time I accepted the challenge to write a story for an unknown person for the Ardor in August writing challenge. That person has since become an on-line follower and I have been hip-deep in my work for her. She requested a standard pairing, and my challenge was to figure out a twist that would bring a different perspective to this relationship.

( pics and ruminations follow below...NO SPOILERS! )

Finally our heat wave has broken. Last night around 6:30 pm a rainstorm passed through the area and dumped a wonderfully gentle but heavy sunlit rain onto us, dropping our temps from 102F (38.8C) to 88F (31.1C) in a few minutes. Another storm coming through in the early hours of the morning dropped the heat down even more. I can breathe again, I don't feel like a sticky piece of rubber baking on a hot sidewalk, I didn't stick to the sheets while sleeping, I'm SO relieved! This was a miserable stretch of days and we really needed the break. It's only July and we may still get some hot days, but I'm very happy about a weekend that will only have high temps in the 80's instead of the 100's. Yippee!

( pics and relaxed, cool talk below the cut )

 So after watching the conclusion of Le Tour de France (congrats to Cadel Evans, Andy and Frank Schleck, Mark Cavendish, Sammy Sanchez, Phillipe Roland, and Team Garmin-Cervelo).  What an amazing Tour they did this year.  Beautifully constructed, highly contested.  I loved every day of the ride and my week will seem rather empty having the radio back on at the shop and only baseball as alternative viewing to the stock market on our daytime TV. 

( Pic and text below the cut... )

Even the lion is smiling - Cadel Evans in yellow!

After the Tour, we dressed and went to the old house to mow the lawn, clip back some bushes, and clean out the gutters.  We used my ladder - the one that DH had always said cost me too much.  But it is an excellent ladder and came through in the crunch with everything we needed.  We dropped by Dairy Queen on the way home for small ice cream cones and then went home.  Looking at the trees around our driveway when we got home, we started working with the chain saw and DH's ladder (not nearly as good as mine is) to get at least one tree pulled down.  Success!  One tree down and several still remaining.  But at least we are one step closer.  It was a ton of work, but worth it.  Subway for dinner and I was able to bury my nose in my Nook for a couple of hours before calling it a night.  I feel quite accomplished today - LOL.