We had a Ball at the Lake

As you can see, Dr. Brett MacLean is making a very nice ball as he enters the water here. This is a very symbolic gesture as we all had a ball at the lake on Saturday. Note the form here--feet together, eyes straight ahead, but too bad he gets points deducted for his lack of tan. But seriously, its better to have no tan at all than to burn from the noonday sun. Everybody use your sunscreen now! You only have one skin in this life, so enjoy it, but keep it protected! The other pics are of Zachary and Dawson with their respective mothers. They enjoyed the lake and we enjoyed seeing them.

Sad News for Landis

Sorry to hear the sad news, but we must face the truth, and let's hope they got a bad sample, or someone tried to frame him, or something like that. But here is what they are saying about Floyd Landis:

Team says Landis tested positive during Tour de France

By STEPHEN WILSON, AP Sports Writer July 27, 2006 LONDON (AP) -- Floyd Landis' stunning Tour de France victory just four days earlier was thrown into question Thursday when his team said he tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race. The Phonak team suspended Landis, pending results of the backup "B" sample of his drug test. If Landis is found guilty of doping, he could be stripped of the Tour title, and Spain's Oscar Pereiro would become champion. It wasn't immediately known when the backup sample will be tested. Efforts to reach Landis were not immediately successful. But Arlene Landis said her son called Thursday from Europe and told her he had not done anything wrong. "He said, 'There's no way,"' she said in an interview with The Associated Press at her home in Farmersville, Pa. "I really believe him. I don't think he did anything wrong."

Let's keep pulling for Landis until the B sample results are in. The above article is courtesy of Yahoo Sports.

Meem's Bottom Covered Bridge

One of the neatest things we saw was this covered bridge about 5 miles north of New Market, just off of Highway 11. We were able to ride across it as well as to walk across it. It is single lane, and it appears to be very well built. We heard of another one in the area, but it was on private property. I had never seen one of these, except in pictures. Have any of you seen one? This was a site that took you back just a few years,

Family Reunion

Just got back from a great weekend family reunion in northern Virginia. My wife, Pat, my sister Sue and my cousin Mary Beth were able to meet in New Market and we made the trip across the mountain to Stanley in Page Co. to see our grandfather's old house again. We also stopped by the old Shuler's Swimming Pool, which is now called Hawksbill Recreation. The old swimming pool was fed by a mountain stream, and the water was really cold!! Now of course it is filtered and treated water. We didn't get there in time to swim but we did swing on the swings for a while. I'll give more info in later posts as the time is getting very late.

Landis Wins Tour!!

I told y'all not to give up on Landis!! The above pic and following text are again from the OLN website. I just got home from Northern Virginia and watched the CBS coverage of the Tour. Great job of reporting. Even greater job by Landis and Team Phonak. What more can I say? I will let OLN do it as they do it so well:

So, Floyd did it and becomes the third US rider to win the Tour. Twenty-five years ago Americans were only starting to ride in the Tour de France and now they have won it 11 times in 21 years!
It was a very different Tour de France, but opinion is it was a great one. I doubt there will ever be one quite like it again. It is also goodbye to the Tour Director, Jean Marie Leblanc, and it was a nice gesture by the race staff to applaud him across the yellow carpet at the end of the presentations.

I hope you have enjoyed the Tour on OLN – remember we change our name soon to Versus, but the Tour will still be one of the greatest events on our network.

FLOYD WINS STAGE 17!

I told you all not to give up on Floyd! Sorry this is a bit late. The pic and the following are courtesy of the OLN site:
Floyd Landis was at rock bottom 24 hours before he finished the 17th stage of the Tour de France. Now, after one of the greatest escapes in modern Tour times, he sits in third place, just 30 seconds of leading the race once more.This is a crazy Tour that is totally unpredictable. Landis, from the tears of La Toussuire is now again the favorite to win in Paris on Sunday. His ride across the Alps has put him in an enviable position to win in the time trial on Saturday.

There are so many riders who deserve praise, and not least Oscar Pereiro, dismissed by all as a likely winner and still in yellow tonight by just 12 seconds.

In the white jersey competition, Damiano Cunego took the lead of Marcus Fothen by just five seconds in another hard-fought competition.

This may be a race in the purists' eyes without a great champion, but it is one of the best races in the true character of a sporting event that has so many riders willing to fight to their limits to produce a result they will be proud of in Paris.

Don't miss the time trial on Saturday on OLN!

I will be out of town and unable to keep you guys up to speed, so follow it without me. We will celebrate together on Sunday!

The Tour

I suppose the pic kinda sums it up. Sorry to report that Landis, (I call him that 'cause the folks in eastern NC don't like the name Floyd) has fallen out of the lead. Yes, he cracked in the Alps. He is more than 8 minutes behind. That is almost impossible to make up in such a short time. (The final leg is on Sunday.) The following paragraph is from the OLN site:
The rider he gave his race lead away to, Oscar Pereiro last week has come back to haunt him, as today he pulled on the yellow jersey again and now has a lead that could prove to be a winning one, although I doubt it.
Let's remember to never say never. Hey that sounds like a good movie title! Oscar has a 1:50 lead over the no. 2 man, Carlos Sastre. I would say that is pretty good at this stage, but of course there are no guarantees. Keep pulling for Landis.

Cycling Update

I had a personal best today! For about 3 or 4 years now I have been trying to beat the time I did Salem Lake with my son Ben. On a hot summer day in 2002 Ben and I rode around the lake in 33:12. I was on an old road bike. No, really it was just a bike with a few gears and medium thin tires (compared to this "mountain bike.") After trying to better that time, I was really beginning to wonder if we ever did it that fast. In any case, today I had set out to just ride, and really wasn't going to try for a great time since it was 94 degrees F when I left the house. I just thought I would have a comfortable ride. Of course I would time myself, just so I would know. I started at a medium pace, and I thought I was enjoying the ride. I even tried to relax as I rode. So about halfway around, I looked at my watch and noticed that I was on a pretty good pace. I said, "Well, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing." And it really didn't seem that hot with all the shade on the trail. Then I thought, "It would be a real shame not to see what kind of time I can turn." In the past I would try to build momentum before the hills, which really makes no sense, because you lose that at the bottom. Today I relaxed and breathed more deeply than necessary before I reached the hill, and I think it paid off in that I had more wind for climbing. Long story short (or maybe its too late for that) but I finished the course in, yes, as you can see on my stopwatch 32:51.24! That is my personal best for getting around the lake on a bike! Needless to say, I was overjoyed, thankful, and glad that I still had energy to spare. Now I know that I won't do that well the next time, or certainly not every time, because it seems that we all have good days, and days that aren't quite as good. This has been a great day, and I am telling the whole world! Do you hear me world?

Fastest Car in the World!

While looking at some of the pics my son David had on his site, I came across this car, which someone at work informed me that this is the fastest car in the world. That is, the fastest car that you can purchase,without any modifications being made. I have a few tidbits of info here:

• Price: approximately $1 million
• Production: 300 (projected)
• Engine: 8 liter W16
• Aspiration: 4 turbochargers
• Torque: 922 lb-ft @ 2200-5500 rpm
• Horsepower: 1001 hp @ 6000 rpm
• Acceleration: 0 to 186 mph 16.7 seconds
• Acceleration: 0 to 62 mph 2.5 seconds
• Top Speed: 253 mph

This info was obtained from remarkablecars.com. I understand that the car is governed to 253. And you can't just get in and drive it that fast. Well none of will be driving it period. But the driver has to stop the car, and turn a key that will modify the way the spoiler extends at the higher speeds. This reduces drag, but also makes the car more unstable, than when the spoiler is extended properly. With only 300 being made, that will mean that not every millionare will be able to purchase one. I suppose it is nice to know about this car, but we will all have to admit its not very practical. You can't drive that fast even on the autobahn. At least not safely.

Floyd Reclaims Yellow Jersey!

I told you guys not to give up on Floyd! I had heard that he does well in the mountains, and he did well today! Congrats to Floyd on a job well done. Keep up the good work! Floyd has had his health problems too. He fell about a year and a half ago while training and broke the femural neck bone. That is the neck of the leg bone that is connected to the hip. He has pain, and eventually he will have to have surgery, because it hasn't healed so that he is getting the proper blood flow. It is amazing that anyone can ride the course these men do, and to even more amazing that people like Lance and Floyd overcome what they have to be a winner. We are all pulling for Floyd, now aren't we?

Tour de France

Well, Floyd Landis has slipped out of first place by 1:29 as of Sunday. Now don't think that it is time to give up, because he can make up this deficit with a few more trips through the mountains. He is in 2nd place and things can change every 24 hours. He seems confident and he has a plan, so let's all cheer for the best hope for the U.S!! You guys need to shout really loud, 'cause its a long way to the Pyerenees. Tomorow they will be doing stage 15 (Gap to L'Alpe d'Huez.) We expect Floyd to do well here. One other thing, if you don't have cable like me, then you can catch up on the every Sunday on CBS. (I suppose this Sunday will be the big finale, though.) The pic is courtesy of OLN, which will be changing to Versus in the fall.

Grass

As you can see, the grass around the mailbox has been doing nicely. Again, we are thankful for the rain we have had this summer. We are also thankful for not having any damage like we have seen the folks in Walnut Cove have had recently. I suppose if I had this job to do over again, I would have purchased more sod rather than the Lawn Patch, although that did work too. The sod seems to have stayed in a much finer blade of grass. Saturday was a truly enjoyable day. It started with an easy bike ride in the neighborhood, followed by a few serves at a local tennis court, then changing the oil in a car and the riding mower. (Then of course, I proceded to mow.) To end the day we had a nice shower that amounted to about one tenth of an inch. What a great day!

What a difference a day makes

Does anyone recogize what's in these pics? These are the same mushrooms that I shot just a day or so ago, and they were off-white then. Now, Dan don't these look apetizing? Yum, yum. I took a shot of one after I had broken it open. There is this purple powder inside that I am sure could be used to make a dye for fabrics, but I just don't know how fast it would be. I hit one of this type with the mower one time and I saw a purple cloud so thick I couldn't see through it.

Go Floyd!!!

Photo courtesy of Team Phonak. For the past 7 years or so, almost every American has been a Lance fan (Lance Armstrong for those of you that don't follow cycling.) Now we all need to get behind Floyd Landis, who is still wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France at the end of stage 12. (There are a total of 20 stages.) (By the way, the yellow jersey signifies the overall winner at each stage of the race.)

The following text is the final paragraph of today's update from OLN:
Race leader, Floyd Landis rode well today and did not panic when Popovych made the move that has brought him up to 10th overall. With the Alps to come, Landis looks stronger every day, and certainly isn't worried about the road
ahead.
This kinda reminds you of Lance, doesn't it? I know he is not Lance, but let's go America!
Don't say that no American has a chance! Viva Landis!!

Mushrooming

The mushrooms have been flourishing lately in our back yard with the rain we have been getting from storms and whatnot. Sorry about that one pic where I cut the quarter in the bottom of the pic. Speaking of storms, as we saw the clouds forming yesterday afternoon, and heard the thunder in the distance, I prayed that we would not lose power or have any damage, and we did not. I was thankful. Walnut Cove did not fare as well. Many trees were down across roads. Power outages were rampant, and they had to close the township until sometime today. Hopefully things will be back to normal in the near future...

Kiva!

Thanks to my son David, I am now a supporter of Kiva. Rather through Kiva I am making a loan to someone in a foreign country who can use the money to help their business, and after a period of time the money can be repaid or re-invested in another business. The lady in this pic is a single mom in Ecquador with 2 children and she runs a fish market. What attracted me to this opportunity was the fact that she has to purchase fish and seafood each day on one-day credit and then has to repay nearly double to settle the debt. She wants to be able to make enough profit to repair the roof of her house and send her children to a better school.

CBS Sunday Morning

I generally watch CBS Sunday Morning every week. (Actually I TiVo it so that I don't miss Sunday School and church.) This week they talked about blogging. They had as one of their guests, Carol Dar, who is the director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University. She said that bloggers tend to be highly educated, middle aged, trendsetters who have a high income level. I don't think I fit into that last category, but I suppose I could fit in the others. Although, am I really a trendsetter? The lady who sold the name Blog to Google was on there too. She told how the name came about. It started as Web Log. Someone said, "We blog," and as they say the rest is history.

What? No Pics?

Could this be a post with no pics? What could I be thinking? Well, I just wanted to tell you all what happened to me Sunday night and Monday AM. I had this terrible "ear ache" on Sunday, probably caused by an inflamation just under the skin of my outer ear. It was not an earache caused by an infection of the inner ear. But it hurt just the same. Sunday night as I was going to bed, it was bothering me so much that I prayed that I would pain-free by morning. I remember waking up at 4:00 AM and it was still hurting badly. I woke up again at 7:30 and the pain was gone!! Then I wondered why was I surprised. I was truly thankful. God is good.

Brett and Sheri, medical missionaries

It was good to see and hear Brett and Sheri speak in Raleigh about their call to the mission field as medical missionaries. When it comes to missions, most of us Christians say to God, "Here am I, send my sister." This couple has a small child and another one on the way, but they are not letting that stop them from going where God has called them, and that is Mali, West Africa. They are heading to France for 8 months of language study in August prior to making their home in Mali.

Ben getting elevated

I just had to post this pic of Ben on the elevator of the Empire State Bldg. He has the biggest smile I have ever seen here. I may have seen him smile this big one other time, and that was when I flew back from California with him after riding out there with him and his brother. That would have been his first flight. (Actually his first would have been a hang-gliding experience at Jockey's Ridge, NC, but I don't know if that counts.) I can remember my first flight too. An Eastern Airlines prop-job. When they cranked up, there was quite a bit of noise and vibration. Take off was sweet. But I digress. Ben seems to be enjoying the company of his friends and his bride Sarah here as they are elevated to heights unknown. Actually it is known, 1050 feet. You can check out more of his photos from his blog. (See Ben and Sarah link to the right.)

Going to Raleigh

We're heading to Raleigh today to hear from Brett and Sheri, pictured here with their son Dawson. (This pic is from our trip to Charleston St. Patty's weekend.) Brett is a pediatrician and Sheri is a nurse-practitioner, and all three of them will be going to Albertville, France for 8 mos. to learn the language and then they will be back in the states for a short while before heading to Mali, West Africa as medical missionaries with the CMA church. Brett and Sheri will be speaking at the Sunday AM service at a church in Raleigh, about their call to the ministry and about what they will be doing at the hospital there.

1for 1

We have the update on the house being built up the street. It is coming along quite nicely too.

My Little Deuce Chopper

I was wondering how the Scout would like flying this little baby. (This pic is borrowed from Ben's NY trip photos.)
See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benwoodward/sets/1733524/show/
It may be found wanting in the instrumentation area, and I don't think this model comes with rockets or any other fire power. This might be a nice way to get a bird's-eye of NY city.

Cycling on the 4th

Well as I told you guys earlier, I would be riding around Salem Lake with Jim, my associate pastor. I was thinking that there would be no way to keep up with him, since he has been riding 20 miles every day for the past week while he was at the beach. He would have blown me out of the water too, except for one thing. He had a flat tire, about halfway around the lake. I went back for him, and he had parked his ride at the water fountain on Linville Road. I was concerned about someone stealing his bike before we could get back with the vehicle to pick it up, and I offered to wait with it, but Jim wanted company, so I let him ride on my seat while I powered us along. After some time, Jim offered to provide the horsepower. I was glad to turn it over to him, although that narrow racing-style seat leaves something to be desired. We made it to his bike, and no one had bothered it, thanks be to God. I took a coupld pics here of Jim and me, but I was hoping nobody happened to take any of us riding the same bike.

Grass update

As promised I am posting updated pics of the grass growing around my mailbox. Thanks be to the Lord who brought plentiful rain in the month of June.

Cycling

I had a great morning ride around Salem Lake! As some of you readers know, I do enjoy riding my bike around the lake from time to time. As you can see my ET for completing one lap of 6.87 miles was 34:18.5. In order to avoid confusion, that is 34 minutes, 18.5 seconds. Now this is no record by any means. I have done the lake faster on an old road bike, and when I say road bike, I use that term loosely. And I do mean that it is old. So this is an average of 12 mph. Now if I keep this up for 2 or 3 more years, they may start a 60+ bike race around the lake. Maybe I can keep from being last. Maybe I could even get better? By the way, this bike is a Diamondback Topanga. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary to have a mountain bike to get around the lake. My Associate Pastor Jim rides with me from time to time, and he uses a Schwinn hybrid, called a Crosscut. (His best time is 29:30, but he slows down to ride with me.) He is just returning from a beach vacation where he rode 20 miles per day. He wants to ride Tuesday, (July 4.) Suck it up 007.