Monday, July 11, 2005
Sunday, July 10, 2005
Note from Steve on Sunday
we will leave the ship at 9am on monday. will travel to our hotel in london. not sure yet if we are renting a car or taking the train. will call when we get back on tuesday. then prepare yourself for a flood of pictures.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Kayaking lesson #1
Cindi and I survived our first kayaking lesson today. We met up with 14 other eager learners with our instructor Andrew near the Long Beach Marina. We kayaked through the Naples area canals and all 16 of us got back to the starting point on time. Cindi is really good at this—what do you expect. She is older than me and has more experience. This week we stayed dry. Next week we will have to capsize and learn to recover--this means wet!
One more lesson in the beginners class and then its on to the intermediate class. Maybe next week someone will bring a camera.
One more lesson in the beginners class and then its on to the intermediate class. Maybe next week someone will bring a camera.
Friday, July 08, 2005
McEwen Makes it Two
Robbie McEwen (Australia) won his second stage of the 2005 Tour de France today (7th in all) by beating Magnus Backstedt (Sweden). German Fabian Wegmann was in front of the pack all day, but the sprinters' teams pulled him back in. There was no change in the overall classification, but that could change tomorrow, as there are five catagorized climbs in the 144-mile stage.
So, this is what it's' like to get out of the house!
Sent by Steve from somewhere over there.
Beth standing next to one of the stones in the ring of brogar. It is a ring that is older than stonehenge.
A cottage in the welsh countryside.
A picture of the town in wales with the longest name.
The train we took in the welsh countryside.
We have just arrived back to the ship from Kirkwall. Very clear and no rain. The temp was in the low 70's.
Beth standing next to one of the stones in the ring of brogar. It is a ring that is older than stonehenge.
A cottage in the welsh countryside.
A picture of the town in wales with the longest name.
The train we took in the welsh countryside.
We have just arrived back to the ship from Kirkwall. Very clear and no rain. The temp was in the low 70's.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Bernucci Takes Stage 6; Vino Makes Time
Lorenzo Bernucci grabbed his first victory as a pro today by taking stage six of the 92nd Tour de France.
Christophe Mengin had attacked and been in the lead, although not certain of a victory as the peloton was closing in quickly. Apparently, it didn't seem too quickly for Alexandre Vinokourov, so he attacked, and Lorenzo Bernucci followed. As the two caught up to Mengin at 200m to go, Mengin's front wheel slipped out from under him because of the wet roads and sidewalk paint, causing Vino' to slow to avoid going down also. Bernucci took advantage of Vino's lack of momentum to take the win. Vinokourov, a potential problem for Lance, was awarded a 12-second bonus as well as being seven seconds ahead of the pack, and therefore getting 19 seconds back from Armstrong.
"We knew the finale in Nancy would be dangerous," said Alexandre Vinokourov, "so I was up front. When the sprinters teams hesitated in the last kilometres, I decided to attack. It's too bad that I had to slow down at the end, but I'm happy how things turned out as I moved up on GC."
"It's always dangerous when it's raining like that," said Lance Armstrong, who was delayed by a crash. "We always have a good look at the stages when they have a difficult finale. But Johan (Bruyneel) was telling us through the radio earpieces about the dangerous sections in the end, telling us to turn left or right. It was a dangerous stage."
From Dr. Steve Somewhere in Scottland--bombings
not a hurricane, but bombs. ask Kyle about our trips to Florida. we are rethinking our return to London. the difficulty is most trains, subways are closed and no one knows when they will reopen and on what basis. we are thinking about renting a car and staying closer to the airport. looking at all are alternatives. will know more by Sunday. we are hoping that the G8 conference will be over by the time we visit Edinburgh.
sorry for the life lost and injuries. those on board with relatives are using the satellite phone to check on relatives. from the conversations in elevators most are relieved. will let you know more when we do.
take care
Touring in Belfast
Steve reports that he and Beth are enjoying the Great Britain and beyond.
Rained in Belfast in the am yesterday, but cleared up in afternoon. We visited a living history exhibit that is trying to preserve some of the buildings they are clearing for new development. They have done a nice job and you get a feel for the small quarters they have lived in during different eras. I haven't downloaded the pictures from Belfast yet but here is a picture of Beth and I on the little train we road in Wales. Very green and lush vegatation.
school plans
i don' t much care for bikes, so not much to respond to in many of these posts. my mom never seemed like a big fan of ireland, i'm interested to hear what she thinks of the u.k.
i'm not very motivated to attend school at this moment. to clarify, i am eager to take classes, and to learn fascinating, character-enhancing things. however, i am not motivated to merely select a major and rush to join the often ruthless, soul-less world of commerce and capitalism. the furrowed brows and groans i imagine among those who invest in me high hopes certainly sting, and due to my occasional complete absence of self-esteem, cause me emotional anxiety. my parents, and their respective families have taken starkly different paths in life, and from both i am able to draw pros and cons to each. a philosophical issue is raised: at the core lies my dilema of whether to make haste towards educational goals, thus improving my projected life-long income of lucre and material wealth, or to accept a role as a man among billions existing solely for the purpose of performing manual labor, making the proverbial ends meet briefly, until next paycheck. when i look around at so many working class, so many with so little who CHOOSE to somehow be happy, it makes me wonder if striving for a superior position in the caste of our rhetorical "equal society" is merely a fool's goal. would i, in possession of a benz, with a wife and children be genuinely happier than i am at this moment, living in solitude, dutifully performing acts of customer service routinely each week for enough money to feed myself when i'm hungry? is it wrong for one to set the bar so low as to simply desire happiness for his or her self? it is my suspicion that happiness remains elusive to those who prosper monetarily if it has been so over other phases of their lifecycle. over the period of a few years, i have noticed that i'm personally far more sensitive about the day to day abuse dealt from people i am expected to admire and mimic, to those less "fortunate" than are most people around me. it saddens me to the brink of depression to think of the lives discarded, as if bare bones from a lioness devoured carcass, under the guise of "national security," "crude oil reserves," "a clash of culture," or "holy war." all of these assertions are completely moot, filthy rhetoric when compared to the importance of someone's family member. i struggle for literally hours at a time, pondering how people can sit in their cubicle and tune out the fact that people are being killed by gunfire and mortar blast, for the most irrelevant, self-serving reasons. has the new testament taught us NOTHING? the answer to that is emphatically no, but the abusers choose to forget the very thesis of the text they've just cited. i wonder if chris kal is still alive, or if he's given his life to support this hollow cause. likewise with adam withrow or henry hoya. their bravery, and that of many other schoolyard chums who've embraced the armed services bring tears to my eyes. what an absolute waste of humanity and opportunity purported by those born socially ahead. if the ambitions of those who hold all facets of power and influence in the world are supposed to serve as an example and inspire me to succeed and achieve higher education, why then do i feel so bitter towards their actions? why do i often feel embarrassed of our global police tactics? why is a man in charge of deploying the largest juggernaut of death and destruction on our planet unable to correctly pronounce the word nuclear? if the central reason for my continuing attending school is to aspire to become these people, then it is an immoral cause, one without merit.
i want to hold out for something that i can attack with zeal and relentless vigor, rather than point to the option on the list that appeals to me tepidly. i want people to be proud of me, but first, i need to be proud of myself. so far, i'm not.
i'm not very motivated to attend school at this moment. to clarify, i am eager to take classes, and to learn fascinating, character-enhancing things. however, i am not motivated to merely select a major and rush to join the often ruthless, soul-less world of commerce and capitalism. the furrowed brows and groans i imagine among those who invest in me high hopes certainly sting, and due to my occasional complete absence of self-esteem, cause me emotional anxiety. my parents, and their respective families have taken starkly different paths in life, and from both i am able to draw pros and cons to each. a philosophical issue is raised: at the core lies my dilema of whether to make haste towards educational goals, thus improving my projected life-long income of lucre and material wealth, or to accept a role as a man among billions existing solely for the purpose of performing manual labor, making the proverbial ends meet briefly, until next paycheck. when i look around at so many working class, so many with so little who CHOOSE to somehow be happy, it makes me wonder if striving for a superior position in the caste of our rhetorical "equal society" is merely a fool's goal. would i, in possession of a benz, with a wife and children be genuinely happier than i am at this moment, living in solitude, dutifully performing acts of customer service routinely each week for enough money to feed myself when i'm hungry? is it wrong for one to set the bar so low as to simply desire happiness for his or her self? it is my suspicion that happiness remains elusive to those who prosper monetarily if it has been so over other phases of their lifecycle. over the period of a few years, i have noticed that i'm personally far more sensitive about the day to day abuse dealt from people i am expected to admire and mimic, to those less "fortunate" than are most people around me. it saddens me to the brink of depression to think of the lives discarded, as if bare bones from a lioness devoured carcass, under the guise of "national security," "crude oil reserves," "a clash of culture," or "holy war." all of these assertions are completely moot, filthy rhetoric when compared to the importance of someone's family member. i struggle for literally hours at a time, pondering how people can sit in their cubicle and tune out the fact that people are being killed by gunfire and mortar blast, for the most irrelevant, self-serving reasons. has the new testament taught us NOTHING? the answer to that is emphatically no, but the abusers choose to forget the very thesis of the text they've just cited. i wonder if chris kal is still alive, or if he's given his life to support this hollow cause. likewise with adam withrow or henry hoya. their bravery, and that of many other schoolyard chums who've embraced the armed services bring tears to my eyes. what an absolute waste of humanity and opportunity purported by those born socially ahead. if the ambitions of those who hold all facets of power and influence in the world are supposed to serve as an example and inspire me to succeed and achieve higher education, why then do i feel so bitter towards their actions? why do i often feel embarrassed of our global police tactics? why is a man in charge of deploying the largest juggernaut of death and destruction on our planet unable to correctly pronounce the word nuclear? if the central reason for my continuing attending school is to aspire to become these people, then it is an immoral cause, one without merit.
i want to hold out for something that i can attack with zeal and relentless vigor, rather than point to the option on the list that appeals to me tepidly. i want people to be proud of me, but first, i need to be proud of myself. so far, i'm not.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Ullrich on his PreTour Crash
"Seems like we already had our minds on tomorrow when we went motor-pacing this afternoon. It led to a really scary moment. As I followed the team car, I didn't notice the brake lights and collided full-speed into the back windscreen!
"It could have been much worse than it was. Luckily, apart from a few cuts and bruises, I'm fine.
...
"Obviously, I'm asked about how I'm going to beat Lance. The answer is very simple. I hope that I'll have stronger legs than him. I've prepared everything so far for that."
(image and text: t-mobile-team.com)
"It could have been much worse than it was. Luckily, apart from a few cuts and bruises, I'm fine.
...
"Obviously, I'm asked about how I'm going to beat Lance. The answer is very simple. I hope that I'll have stronger legs than him. I've prepared everything so far for that."
(image and text: t-mobile-team.com)
Press at the Tour
(Photo ©: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us)
That's how CyclingNews.Com can have 88 pictures for stage 5.
Boonen Loses; McEwen Takes Stage
Tom Boonen was beaten on his third try at winning a stage when only Robbie McEwen of Australia on Davitamon-Lotto beat him.
The General Classification (GC) stayed the same, but Zabriskie had to have stitches in his right arm. Since Zabriskie only lost the yellow jersey because of a crash yesterday, Lance didn't want to where it today, but finally swapped jerseys in order to not risk being DQ'd.
There was a breakaway that lasted at least 100 miles before being reeled in the at six miles to go.
McEwen takes stage and salutes as if he's Alessandro Petacchi (image: Roberto Bettini).
Lance Changes jerseys on the go. (image: AFP)
Close but no cigar: the breakaway was reeled in at 6 miles to go. (image: Graham Watson)
The General Classification (GC) stayed the same, but Zabriskie had to have stitches in his right arm. Since Zabriskie only lost the yellow jersey because of a crash yesterday, Lance didn't want to where it today, but finally swapped jerseys in order to not risk being DQ'd.
There was a breakaway that lasted at least 100 miles before being reeled in the at six miles to go.
McEwen takes stage and salutes as if he's Alessandro Petacchi (image: Roberto Bettini).
Lance Changes jerseys on the go. (image: AFP)
Close but no cigar: the breakaway was reeled in at 6 miles to go. (image: Graham Watson)
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