Unclear On the Concept

Boy, did I ever screw up my Independence Day Festivities!

Just a simple man with a simple plan...go to be early, wake up early at 5AM, watch the Tour de France LIVE, then segue seamlessly into the Giants at Washington DC Nationals game at 8:30AM what could go wrong?

Well for starters I took the ever popular unplanned evening nap, so I closed my eyes closer to 3AM than 2AM... Still, the trusty alarm roused me at the appointed hour, and I logged in and cozied up to the NBC-SportsNet TdF broadcast, and chatted with LiveUpdateGuy and the gang at RedKitePrayer online.

Everyone was having such a good time, fans were checking in from all over the States, the airport in Moscow, Sweden, and Australia to name a few. Independence Day greetings all around...and say...this is a boring bike race...

Actually boring is good during the Tour's first week which is always contested on relatively flat, narrow roads in Northern France...being the first week, and the only week that favors the sprinters, the peloton is always nervous, and bad things can and do happen.

Throw in a sudden downpour and danger begins lurking on every white line and around every corner...

The day's stage, about half of which ran along the Normandy coastline was just stunningly beautiful to behold on my little HDTV. Jeez, all eye candy all the time. I just love those slow, loving helicopter shots of ancient palaces, monasteries and fortresses, not to mention the quaint ancient villages where all the roofs are the same color! Throw in those tall chalk-white cliffs above dark narrow beaches, and I'm thoroughly entertained and sated.

Unfortunately, I drifted off to sleep just after the peloton turned inland, and before the skies opened up and doused the final kilometers causing the afore mentioned crash-fest. Team CorduroyPlanet's two sprinters were involved in the big crash within 3km of the finish. None the worse for wear, Cavendish and Farrar didn't score any points. Three other riders weren't so lucky in their crashes and had to retire. One broken tibia,a possible concussion, and a third retired from what I don't remember...I hate when that happens...

Then I woke up an my Giants were down 7-4 in the 8th...I'd been sleeping for another three hours...there was to be no joy in Mudville...of course the Dodgers won too, so the Giants trail by a half a game now.

I gotta get this program together...two more weeks of le Tour, and there's Formula One too...

Oops...I just heard LiveUpdateGuy's page make a testing noise! Good night!