Information Overload?

From my comfy perch in the safety of my Fortress of Solitude a continent away from the Hurricane-Ravaged Eastern Seaboard, I can say I weathered the storm none the worse for wear. Even Twitter has an OFF Button.  As is the nature of the 24/7 CableNews Machine, a story like H.Irene is tailor-made for their operations.

For a while Saturday afternoon I had the tube tuned to All-Irene-All the Time, but I let it run in the background more than actually watching events unfold. I didn't see any reporters swept off their feet, but I did find it a little funny/disconcerting when the soaked talking heads on the streets during a hurricane's approach, admonished viewers to stay off the streets because a "still dangerous Cat 1 Hurricane Irene" is bearing down on the Jersey Shore and New York City.

Better to keep one's mouth shut and appear the fool, than to open one's trap and leave no doubt...

I had to unfollow WeatherUnderground's twitter feed before the first pitch of the Giants vs Astros game. Whoever they had sitting in Silicon Valley tweeting every tiny morsel of Irene Info, clearly had been hard into the Energy drinks and caffeine since Irene earned her name! A touch typist, they were blazing along at 120+ WPM, and burying all my SF Giants tweeters...after this morning's Belgian Grand Prix, I looked in on @wunderground again, and they have yet to take a breath it seems...@wunderground still OFF.

The Giants game was great! (at least as measured by their diminished performance of the last month or so) With two starting pitchers, and our lights-out set up man, and our closer on the Disabled List, the Giants called up a hot prospect from Double-A affiliate the Richmond,VA Flying Squirrels, LHP Eric Surkamp.

The 6'-4" Surkamp looked a little amped in the 1st inning, but settled down to pitch and went an impressive 6 innings, for 1 R, 6 H, 4 K, 3 BB. with a 1.50 ERA. Welcome to the Big Leagues, Eric!

The Giants battled to a tie before winning in the 10th 2-1, walk-off style! The Park was sold out again, and boy was the crowd ever into the game...good to see after weeks of less than scintillating play from the injury ravaged World Champs.

Here in the DaveCave, I haven't found the magic key to get my DVR to play nice with the CableCo's new digital regime...I've been setting my alarm clock instead of setting the machine to watch those 0430 Formula One practice sessions and qualifying rounds.

Sunday morning I forgot to set the alarm for the 0430 pre-race, but woke up as the cars screamed away from the start. Spa-Francorchamps was all it could be and more!

For once this season, the weather only played an indirect role in the weekend's outcome. All the free practices were "damp" sessions, which is to say rainy as hell. Saturday's qualifying was conducted on a "drying" track, so the fastest laps were the last laps of the day.

Sebastian Vettle's tires showed some blistering after his pole winning lap, and tire degradation was an issue all through Sunday's GP. Race Day dawned dry for the only day of the weekend, and the teams "wetter" setups played a role in the outcome of the race.

What a race! Passing for the lead, on the track, blinding speeds, and renewed pace from Team Red Bull and Team Mercedes were breathtaking! There's two more races today, but I can't imagine that these contests will hold a candle to Spa-Francorchamps.

Oh, I'll watch the IndyCars from Sears Point and the MotoGP motorcycles from Indy, but save for the officiating controversies this season, IndyCar has been near-fatally boring this year.

The Road Course at Indianapolis was repaved this year, but rider injuries and mechanical developement have kept a lid on the pinnacle of motorcycle road racing this year.

Lastly, in Spain, the Vuelta a España continues. After starting Saturday's stage 8, Team Garmin-Cervélo/Team CorduroyPlanet's sprinter Tyler Farrar abandoned after 35KM, due to his injuries from the finish line sprint crash Friday. Tyler hopes to contest the World Championships in Copenhagen on September 25th. One tough man that Tyler.