Wednesday, July 25
Frank
My friend Frank died suddenly on Monday. Out of nowhere. May have been his heart -- I haven't heard for sure yet. Words can't describe the sense of loss, for him of course, and mostly for his family and hundreds of friends. And for ourselves. People are trying, and they're doing a great job capturing in a few hundred words what Frank was like.
But still. He was just a few years older than me, and we met after our wives met in a park because our kids found each other. Our kids are the same age, born three days apart in 1990. We were both pretty much new to town, and our families spent a lot of time together between about 1993 and 2001, and then we moved west and we started new jobs and our kids started running in different school circles and, y'know, we get busy. Frank and I served on boards and committees together, share the presidency of a church of all things, and our families went camping together and sailing in his hand-built boat, we helped each other move a number of times, we drank a lot of beer in his backyard and so on and so on. We planned a series of fishing movies featuring him as the Pharaoh of Evans. He dreamed of retiring to a sailboat in the Caribbean.
He was for sure the smartest guy I've ever known, about everything and anything. He knew his philosophy, and baseball, and fly fishing and pretty much everything else. At his house yesterday I saw on his desk a book on how to write a screenplay. And he had tremendous joy in sticking it to the authorities of any shape or stripe.
I can't believe he's gone, but I'm so glad we ran into him in the grocery store about two weeks ago, in the vegetable aisle. He was talking to two or three other people, and while we visited two others came up to pat him on the back and exchange pleasantries. Seems like everyone knew him, and was friends was him.
Anyway. Life goes on, perhaps, but not nearly as joyously. See ya, Frank.
But still. He was just a few years older than me, and we met after our wives met in a park because our kids found each other. Our kids are the same age, born three days apart in 1990. We were both pretty much new to town, and our families spent a lot of time together between about 1993 and 2001, and then we moved west and we started new jobs and our kids started running in different school circles and, y'know, we get busy. Frank and I served on boards and committees together, share the presidency of a church of all things, and our families went camping together and sailing in his hand-built boat, we helped each other move a number of times, we drank a lot of beer in his backyard and so on and so on. We planned a series of fishing movies featuring him as the Pharaoh of Evans. He dreamed of retiring to a sailboat in the Caribbean.
He was for sure the smartest guy I've ever known, about everything and anything. He knew his philosophy, and baseball, and fly fishing and pretty much everything else. At his house yesterday I saw on his desk a book on how to write a screenplay. And he had tremendous joy in sticking it to the authorities of any shape or stripe.
I can't believe he's gone, but I'm so glad we ran into him in the grocery store about two weeks ago, in the vegetable aisle. He was talking to two or three other people, and while we visited two others came up to pat him on the back and exchange pleasantries. Seems like everyone knew him, and was friends was him.
Anyway. Life goes on, perhaps, but not nearly as joyously. See ya, Frank.
Thursday, July 19
How to watch the Tour de France
The best week of Le Tour de France is about to start, and I'm in heaven. It's been a wide open race so far, with some great racing, and it's only going to get better. There's still a half-dozen guys with a legitimate chance to win the overall title.
There's one more supposedly "easy' stage Friday, then the first long time trial -- the race of truth -- comes on Saturday, then three massive stages in the Pyrenees, then a couple of transition stages to next Saturday when there's another long time trial to sort out the final standings.
I've mastered the routine on how to watch, and I'm ready to share. First, get up early to watch the live coverage on the Versus network. It begins at 6 or 6:30 a.m. here on the Edge of Nowhere, and typically I've been able to watch about an hour of mid-race coverage before I have to go sit in my cubicle for money. On the weekend, I'll just stay in front of the tube til race end, but on weekdays I have to pull away.
So, the next best option is to read live coverage. I prefer the guys and gals on CyclingNews.com because they're amusing and insightful, and give great play-by-play. Each day they have real-time live blogging of what's happening (here's a sample from today's stage), and if I can sneak peaks at work I will, or I'll wait til I know the race is over then copy/paste the whole live coverage and avoid seeing who won and go read it at lunch. Sometimes I'll also read the live play-by-play (in real time, or after the fact) on the official Le Tour site. Be sure to click the British flag if you prefer to read it in English.
Once I know what's happened and who's won, then I'll go read the main stories. CyclingNews.com has great coverage, with their main wrap-up stories both have a feature angle, and a "how it unfolded" version. Then you have to look through the standings, the overall, the King of the Mountain, the points jerseys and so on. Then I'll go read Edward Wyatt's NY Times coverage, which is typically pretty good and posted by early afternoon, and then it's over to the BBC version, which tends to be short and to the point with a focus on the few British riders left but sometimes they have good color.
Then, when I get home, I read Martin DuGard's blog. He's covering the race for Active.com this year, but I'm really enjoying his behind-the-scenes work. So much that I went to the library and over the past two days read his blog-like book about Lance Armstrong's 7th title, called Chasing Lance, which was good enough to keep me up to 1 a.m. this morning finishing it. I've read a few of the posts on the BBC's "Adventures of Van Ullrich" course-side blog, too.
Then, to wrap it all up, I tape the recap television coverage from 6-9 p.m. on Versus, so I can watch the last 90 minutes or so after the family's gone to bed. After that, I dig out my paper copy of Cycle Sport America magazine's Tour Preview issue to read about the next day's stage, and check the profile and map on Google Earth.
Heaven, I tell you. That's where I've been the past 10 days, and where I'll be for the next 10 days. It's the greatest race on earth. And there's a compelling, exciting week left. I'm looking foward to it.
There's one more supposedly "easy' stage Friday, then the first long time trial -- the race of truth -- comes on Saturday, then three massive stages in the Pyrenees, then a couple of transition stages to next Saturday when there's another long time trial to sort out the final standings.
I've mastered the routine on how to watch, and I'm ready to share. First, get up early to watch the live coverage on the Versus network. It begins at 6 or 6:30 a.m. here on the Edge of Nowhere, and typically I've been able to watch about an hour of mid-race coverage before I have to go sit in my cubicle for money. On the weekend, I'll just stay in front of the tube til race end, but on weekdays I have to pull away.
So, the next best option is to read live coverage. I prefer the guys and gals on CyclingNews.com because they're amusing and insightful, and give great play-by-play. Each day they have real-time live blogging of what's happening (here's a sample from today's stage), and if I can sneak peaks at work I will, or I'll wait til I know the race is over then copy/paste the whole live coverage and avoid seeing who won and go read it at lunch. Sometimes I'll also read the live play-by-play (in real time, or after the fact) on the official Le Tour site. Be sure to click the British flag if you prefer to read it in English.
Once I know what's happened and who's won, then I'll go read the main stories. CyclingNews.com has great coverage, with their main wrap-up stories both have a feature angle, and a "how it unfolded" version. Then you have to look through the standings, the overall, the King of the Mountain, the points jerseys and so on. Then I'll go read Edward Wyatt's NY Times coverage, which is typically pretty good and posted by early afternoon, and then it's over to the BBC version, which tends to be short and to the point with a focus on the few British riders left but sometimes they have good color.
Then, when I get home, I read Martin DuGard's blog. He's covering the race for Active.com this year, but I'm really enjoying his behind-the-scenes work. So much that I went to the library and over the past two days read his blog-like book about Lance Armstrong's 7th title, called Chasing Lance, which was good enough to keep me up to 1 a.m. this morning finishing it. I've read a few of the posts on the BBC's "Adventures of Van Ullrich" course-side blog, too.
Then, to wrap it all up, I tape the recap television coverage from 6-9 p.m. on Versus, so I can watch the last 90 minutes or so after the family's gone to bed. After that, I dig out my paper copy of Cycle Sport America magazine's Tour Preview issue to read about the next day's stage, and check the profile and map on Google Earth.
Heaven, I tell you. That's where I've been the past 10 days, and where I'll be for the next 10 days. It's the greatest race on earth. And there's a compelling, exciting week left. I'm looking foward to it.
Tuesday, July 10
Up, up and...
Two weeks
