Things are picking up at the work place. Been a little slow for me for the last week while some development work was being complete. Now it gets rolled into my test arena. So things get busy for a while. The process here definitely needs some polishing. Typical of any small, new company.

After driving to work yesterday, today I got back on the bike after a few days off. My legs feel in pretty bad shape. Very tightly wound right now. If I rub my thighs with my hand in a resting position, they feel very tight. I imagine they will relax over time, but it may be time to pony up for a massage. I am not as young as I used to be. One of my co-workers says I should take calcium supplements. I've never been a big fan of taking anything daily. I don't think it is a healthy thing overall. I am thinking I just need to eat more overall.

The internet problem at home is kind of a problem. I feel cut off from the world. I almost started walking around my complex last night with my open computer searching for an open wireless network. I didn't because I figured people wouldn't be too happy about it and it would just result in some new rules being typed up and stuck in everyone's door. After midnight, the coffee shops I like to go to for internet are closed. And all that remains are bars. I don't have a problem with beer, but I like to check my email before bed just to see if i missed anything. Sometimes I get work emails late. And sometimes i even get requests from people working late from work who need me to look into something. Never a problem, but now I can't do it. I also have been keeping a lot of personal stuff online and now I don't have home access to that stuff. Frustrating.

I have considered approaching neighbors who have secured wireless networks and offering to pay them some cash each month for access, but I only know one of my neighbors right now and he doesn't have internet. So I need to either become a friendlier neighbor or figure something else out....

The tour de france was, and continues to be a joke this year. As much because of the way it was handled as the way dopers seemed to not understand that getting caught is a good possibility, especially if they are unwise enough to do well.

Some thoughts and opinions:
- If there was so much suspicion around Rasmussen, then he shouldn't have been allowed to start the tour. There is no way he should have been pulled out as leader where there was no proof of doping, and if he had broken the rules before, then they should have done something about it before.
- I am skeptical about the test results with Vino. The whole blood transfusion problem is one of the longest know forms of doping and one of the easiest to trace. As Vino himself exclaimed, he would have to be a complete idiot to try a form of doping so easy to catch. (Like Tyler Hamilton before him. Foul play?)
- Now, only two days after Contador won the race for Disco, someone comes out of the woodwork with proof that "Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was involved in doping". Uhhh... just a matter of time I guess. Seems that no one is allowed to win anything in professional cycling. The credibility of the tests and the process are so shot that it hurts in both directions. If someone wins then he must have been on something. Winning is no longer natural.
- Iban Mayo was sacked for doping. (but then again, is anyone surprised about this?)

Hopefully next year, when daily coverage of the tour is ceased, they will replace it with the new, highly structured stage race that could be the Great Divide Race. Wonder if that one will require dope tests at all of the phone booths used for the mandatory rider check-ins.