Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy 139th! Check out some of the interesting clips from CBC's archives. You might learn some interesting bits of trivia along the way!

MT beta tester

and survived!

We take care of our dogs. Really, we do.

After taking the dogs out to the dog park earlier this morning, we decided to stop off at the Farmer's Market and work on socializing Simba a little more. The dogs are always a little easier to handle when they're just a little bit pooped out after running around the dog park.

This morning was a little on the toasty side and they're also just finished a long game of chase and wrestle, so naturally the dogs were panting pretty hard. To top it off, Simba's not exactly great on the leash and tends to pull a lot (working on it) so it makes him look like he's panting really really hard.

There's a very convenient doggie water fountain in Marion Square, so after camping out there for about 10 minutes letting the dogs drink their fill we headed off to walk around. We didn't get very far before some lady walked up to us and said "Your puppy is way too thirsty so I'm donating this bottle of water to him. It just hurts my heart to see him like that." Just like that and walked away. Tried to tell her that he had just been at the fountain drinking for the past 10 minutes, but she was already walking away by then.

Now I appreciate the concern over the dog and everything, but just the way the woman spoke to us made both the wife and me feel like we were terrible dog owners dragging this poor thirsty puppy around. No questions, no bothering to ask if the dog is all right or anything. A simple "Is your puppy thirsty? Does he need some water?" would have been much nicer. Then I would have been able to explain that he's already had lots to drink at the water fountain and then stopped at the Good Dog Bakery booth a few meters away to top off for good measure. He's just panting because it's hot, not because he's thirsty. Dogs do that. When it's hot, they pant and hang their tongues out. When they're thirsty, they don't pant; they drink water.

Oh, and another thing for parents. If your kid wants to offer someone's dog a treat or some food, tell them ask the owners first. Even though most dogs will eat most everything, some things end up coming right back up a few hours later for the owners to deal with. And some dogs don't always react well to a kid thrusting something into its' face without warning. The wife would like to apologize for startling the poor girl trying to give Nala a bite of her cheese cracker. She really didn't mean to scare anyone. Her loud "No!" was meant for Nala and not at all for the girl.

Doggy birthday parties

Wow, a brown out just as I was starting to write this entry. Thank goodness for the UPS.

Anyway, as I was about to write...

Yesterday we were at a birthday party for Seasmoke. A 'Bark' mitzvah as it were because Seasmoke turned 13 yesterday. 13 is very old for a dog like Seasmoke (she's a black Lab), and such occasions are definitely worth celebrating.

Dogs were packed up for the trip out to Seasmoke's place. Nala always likes going out for car rides. No doggles this time because the car's going to fast.

When we arrived, all the dogs were eager to meet each other. There were almost more dogs than there were people. It was for a dog's birthday party after all.

There were plenty of pools for the dogs to cool off in if they wanted. Here's Bailey showing off the pools.

Naturally Simba just had to join in the pool action. Just can't keep that dog out of the water.

Seasmoke was more than happy to sit back and watch all the other dogs romp around and play. I imagine Seasmoke's words to the other dogs went something along the lines of "When 13 you become, look as good you will not".

After all the people were finished eating, Seasmoke got to check out her presents. She got lots of cool toys and things to snack on.

Oh yeah, the people had a pretty good time too.

Painting away

Monday and yesterday, while everyone was enjoying cookouts, doing the beach thing, watching fireworks and dodging falling bullets, the wife and I were neck deep in a house project long in the planning. One of those things that looks really easy when all you're doing is watching other people do it, a little more challenging when you're doing it.

We were painting the garage. Finally.

Ok, so painting isn't really all that difficult. Grab a roller and paintbrush and have at it. It's just a lot of work, and we have a big garage. First we had to move all the crap out of the garage and into the house. Then it was off to Lowe's for a couple hundred bucks worth of primer, paint and a few more associated supplies. That was Sunday.

We started with naked drywall

By the end of Monday, the garage walls were all primered up and ready for painting.

Yesterday we worked on the ceiling and painted it in a nice light blue (kind of hard to tell from the photo)

We would have started working on the walls too, but when we pulled the masking tape off the walls, parts of the primer were coming along with it where the drywall joint compound was . Silly me, I didn't think to wipe the dust off before hand so the primer just wasn't sticking at all on those sections. So instead of painting the walls, I ended up spending a couple of hours scraping and re-priming parts of the walls where the primer peeled off.

I think a couple more evenings of painting and we should have yet another house project finished and checked off the list.

The finished product

Aside from a few small areas needing touch-ups, the garage painting is finally done! Woohoo! Strike one more project off the list!

Holiday week roundup

This morning's round up is brought to you by the letters C, J and the number 4.

Jared summarizes a couple of techie bits about Ebay, Google and Microsoft. He also measured quite a bit of rain thanks to yesterday's storm.

Post birthday reflections on blogging and journaling at the same time by Bellascribe

Jason has a great photo of some fireworks over at South Carolina Photography Guild.

Geoff talks about some of his more recent activities that are mostly the same in back home. He also has a very cool picture of the new Cooper River bridge.

Agricola has journalism and ethics on his mind, specifically relating to the NYT.

Janet discovers a fountain under her house (and not the good wishing well kind either).

Pope's got a list of things for us guys to do while the SO is shopping. I like #1.

Paul asks how intelligence ranks when choosing a mate. He's also got a book for you politicos to read while waiting for the next election.

Like a lot of people, April doesn't watch the news either. I find it rather depressing too.

Who doesn't like a good cheeseburger? Robert at Al Forno reviews the burgers at Sesame up in N Chuck, and talks about what he wants in a cheeseburger.

Mike's getting class action suite settlements up the wazoo.

Biffle the Idea Guy suggests a valet parking scheme for the downtown area.

A couple of hiking pictures from Jason at Cavaliers and Roundheads.

Nebraskan transplant David and his friends were cheering on Germany in World Cup action.

Chuck gets new plumbing and hot water and passes along a good tip when looking for contractors:

IF you decide to use a general contractor, get one that your friends or someone you trust has used. Get references and talk with his/her former (hopefully happy) clients and PAY NO MONEY in advance. The good ones will take care of ALL the details, secure the required permits, hire qualified and dependable licensed craftsmen, proceed in a timely manner and help you avoid costly missteps.

djdroogie's moved his blog and wrapped up his vacation to start Prototype school.

More Crazy4America from Uncle Zoloft.

Journalistic mudslinging and stirring up tour guides at GMLc.

Gone to Carolina recounts their first 4th of July celebration in SC.

I'm just sayn' has some quotes to ponder on.

Knitting blogger Lisa starts on the scarf and gets a special little something from her secret pal.

Microfamous doesn't really want to be famous and lists her reasons why.

Physics, Superman and superchickens at Jason's.

Monsoon Cantina has lots of pictures from his daughter's first birthday party-turn-housewarming party.

Perusing Life has a Friday Five meme thing going on.

Saphyre is pain free thanks to her new morphine pump.

Surry Labs' Saucy is recovering from her spay operation.

Microbial Lab's dog routine doesn't sound too much different from mine, although I don't have a wonder beagle to deal with yet.

Our other knitting blogger Vera shares pictures and crafty knitted things from something called a LYS SNB night. Whatever it was, it looked like fun.

Joan describes the world tour she took after winning $10k worth of travel. If only the rest of us could be so lucky.

Trippingly on the Tongue has some opening lines for imaginary novels.

Over at the Map Room

Yesterday the wife and I met some fellow labrador-owning friends to celebrate a birthday at The Map Room over in West Ashley. First time we'd been there, so I was looking forward to it. It's located in a strip mall where the Kaplan Learning Center used to be (it's moved next door) in an impressively large space. There's a largish bar area toward the back middle of the area with a couple of rows of booths and tables in the front section of the room. There's a stage area in the back right corner where live music plays. A large open space in front of the stage provides plenty of music for dancing. The music last night was pretty jazzy stuff, so not much dancing going on while we were there. In the other corner next to the stage are a bunch of comfy looking couches arranged in front of a TV and a couple of video games for people to hang out on.

Food was pretty decent, with a varied selection of appetizers and pub fare done up a little more sohpistication than your usual pub grub. I enjoyed the fish and chips that I had, although the wife wasn't terribly impressed with the shrimp and grits (too greasy for her liking). Our friends seemed to enjoy the spring rolls and chicken satays they ordered.

We had a good time there talking and enjoying the tunes. Seems like it would be a good place to stop off on the way home and hang out for a bit after work.

I was kind of disappointed there weren't more maps decorating the room though, considering the name of the place

I am Your Dog

This was part of the party favours from Seasmoke's birthday party. I thought it was a touching read. Kind of makes you want to take the day off and spend it with your dog(s). Googled high and low to find out the source. Found it in lots of web pages, but no author. Anyway, here it is in yet another web page. Enjoy it. Then go hang out with your dog.

I am Your Dog -Author Unknown-

I am your dog, and I have a little something
I'd like to whisper in your ear.
I know that you humans lead busy lives.
Some have to work, some have children to raise.
It always seems like you are
running here and there, often much too fast,
often never noticing the truly grand things in life.

Look down at me now, while you sit there at your computer. See the way my dark brown eyes look at yours?
They are slightly cloudy now. That comes with age.
The gray hairs are beginning to ring my soft muzzle.
You smile at me; I see love in your eyes.
What do you see in mine? Do you see a spirit?
A soul inside,
who loves you as no other could in the world?
A spirit that would forgive all trespasses of prior
wrong doing for just a simple moment of your time?
That is all I ask. To slow down,
if even for a few minutes to be with me.
So many times you have been saddened
by the words you read on that screen,
of other of my kind, passing.
Sometimes we die young and oh so quickly, sometimes so suddenly it wrenches your heart out of your throat.
Sometimes, we age so slowly before your eyes that you may not even seem to know until the very end, when we look at you with grizzled muzzles and cataract clouded eyes.
Still the love is always there, even when we must take that
long sleep, to run free in a distant land.
I may not be here tomorrow; I may not be here next week.

Someday you will shed the water from your eyes,
that humans have when deep grief fills their souls,
and you will be angry at yourself that you did not have just "One more day" with me.

Because I love you so,
your sorrow touches my spirit and grieves me.
We have NOW, together.
So come, sit down here next to me on the floor,
and look deep into my eyes. What do you see?
If you look hard and deep enough we will talk,
you and I, heart to heart.

Come to me not as "alpha" or as "trainer" or even "Mom or Dad," come to me as a living soul and stroke my fur and let us look deep into one another's eyes, and talk.
I may tell you something about the fun of chasing a tennis ball, or I may tell you something profound about myself,
or even life in general.
You decided to have me in your life
because you wanted a soul to share such things with.
Someone very different from you, and here I am.
I am a dog, but I am alive.
I feel emotion, I feel physical senses,
and I can revel in the differences of our spirits and souls.
I do not think of you as a "Dog on two feet" --
I know what you are.
You are human, in all your quirkiness, and I love you still.

Now, come sit with me, on the floor.
Enter my world, and let time slow down if only for 15 minutes.
Look deep into my eyes, and whisper to my ears.
Speak with your heart, with your joy
and I will know your true self.
We may not have tomorrow, and life is oh so very short.

--Love, (on behalf of canines everywhere) your dog

Another garage project done

Yesterday we finally tackled the garage floor and put down one of those garage floor epoxy sealers. We picked a tan colour to do it in to match the walls and give it kind of a beachy sandy feel. Looks pretty good, although the anti-skid additive we put in kind of highlights the roller marks. Maybe they'll fade over time with use. Anyway, now to contemplate a storage solution.

Maybe back to back dog classes wasn't such a good idea

Trying to keep Nala from pouncing on all the puppies while Simba's in Kinderpuppy class, and then keeping her interested for her tricks class is going to be tough.

Today was orientation day for the Kinderpuppy class, so we didn't have to bring Simba along. We did anyway because the wife didn't want to leave him at home alone. We kept him in the crate while class was going on, but it was tough keeping Nala calm during the intro class. Eventually she settled down, but when it came time to start her tricks class, she was all over the place trying to meet the other dogs and people. Getting towards the end of class, she was starting to get a little frustrated and not paying attention to us because we wouldn't let her go play.

Next week will be interesting when there are puppies all over the place. I have a feeling one of us is going to have to hang out with Nala outside somewhere while Simba's in class, and then switch. Nala's not going to like being around all those puppies and not being able to play.

Where's Team Discovery? Look at Landis go!

Just past the half-way mark of the Tour and after the Pyrenees things have certainly been shaken up quite a bit. Iban Mayo, traditionally very strong in the mountains dropped out today, and Floyd Landis is in the yellow, with Team Discovery and George Hincapie nowhere to be found (near the top of the GC anyway). At over 23 minutes back in the GC, Hincapie and Discovery are going to have to kick it into high gear and start digging into some of that time deficit. It's going to be tough to make that up before the Tour heads into the Alps next week, espcially if Landis keeps riding the way he has been so far.

Post-blog party round-uppage

Those of you who may have been checking in on the Lowcountry Bloggers Planet will have to forgive any weirdness going on. I'm messing around with the styles and some of the divs are messed up, so it might look a little strange sometimes. Work is ongoing. Anyway, on with the round-up!

Looks like I missed quite the blogger party yesterday. From all the photos posted, it looked like everyone had a good time.

Post blog party action
Joan was first with the photos posting a few good ones of the group. Heather got to blog about the party in two places. I'm sure any damage she thinks she might have caused will be quickly forgotten. Jared was one of the first-timers and had a good time at the party and discovered a fellow San Diegoan (April). Vera impressed everyone with her mad knitting skills and handling 4 needles at a time. I can barely handle one pencil at a time. Also with pictures are April, Windviel, Vera and Mike. I think Janet says it quite nicely:

I am amazed at what a diverse group we are, yet we have so much fun together.

The Rest
Jason ponders mail daemons and the pace of technology.

Microfamous has been having a tough week.

Paul wants to know our opinion on reincarnation. Having some Zen/Tao-ish leanings, I do. I want to come back as a dog.

While everyone was having fun at the blog party, I had my hands full with the dogs at obedience class.

Xarker jmsloop liked Superman Returns and considers the good and bad uses of having x-ray vision.

Brian recounts a conversation on King St.

Chip discovers a...ummm...clever use for beanbag chairs.

Checking in with a quick blog post from NY is Meghann who seems to be having a good time making out with cute boys.

Alison gets a haircut and some styling at a frou-frou NYC salon.

CharlestonWatch notes that $6M (to help bail out CARTA) is about to be tacked onto a transportation bond issue to be voted upon towards the end of the year.

Knitting Lisa is looking to infect her niece with some craftiness with a little sewing machine.

OldController is celebrating the big 5-0 today! Stop by and say happy birthday!

There are some poop stomping puppies over at Surry. I suppose you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to dog breeding.

The next garage project

We figured while the garage was clear and uncluttered (certainly can't say the same for the house) now would be the time to start working on a storage solution for the garage. Found this cool rail storage system in one of those project magazines you find at Lowe's that's within my skill level, so yesterday we spent an hour or so browsing through Lowe's pricing out supplies. The lion's share of the budget are the 1/4" and 3/4" plywood panels we'll need. Anybody around here know a good place to get some good looking birch plywood for a decent price?

Starfish Grill resurrected!

Up until sometime last year, Starfish Grill was the place to go grab a snack over at the Folly Beach Fishing Pier after a hard day of sunning yourself, or just to look out onto the ocean while enjoying a decent meal. It's since been replaced with Locklear's Beach City Grill, so Starfish Grill seemed to have gone the way of the dinosaurs. It's back now (well, soon will be anyway), a little further inland on Folly road in the Merchant's Village shopping center (where the James Island Publix is). I spotted the big "Starfish Grill Coming Soon" sign on my way to get my hair cut this weekend. It's not going to have quite the view it used to, but it should provide yet another reasonably priced eatery on James Island to choose from. I'm looking forward to trying it out when they open.

Slashdot scraping

A few tidbits today's daily perusal of Slashdot that set the geeky part of my brain all a-flutter.

• RFID viruses - apparently scanning a mere 127 bytes of data (if it's the right data) can really mess up a database. Sounds like RFID systems need more data validation.
• HP's wireless memory chip - Doesn't store much yet, but it has WiFi! How cool is that?
• A Dragonlance movie! - Dragonlance has long been one of my favourites in the D&D inspired books. Now it's being turned into an animated movie! Ooooo...
• Mercury atomic clocks - NIST's current atomic clocks are based on cesium atoms and are pretty accurate (1 second per 70 million years). This proposed mercury clock would stretch that out to 400 million years. How's that for accuracy?
• 3.5 TB NAS - Outgeek all of your friends with one of these and 5 750 GB drives sitting on your desk. Enough to start any geek drooling.

Yes, it's still storm season

Just in case people had gotten a bit complacent and forgot, TS Beryl popped up this morning as TD2 and soon became the second named storm of the season. No, it's not a slow season. It's 6 weeks in and almost 4 months left to go. Remember, the peak of the season happens around August. This is the time to make your preparations, while it's calm and not with a storm beating down the door.

Fortunately Beryl looks like it's going to stay mostly out at sea without intensifying much more..

Another ethnic market find

Every now and then we'll stumble on a really cool find while driving around. Today (well, yesterday now...) we were driving along Dorchester Road looking for this Mexican restaurant the wife heard about. Never did find the restaurant, but we did stumble upon a tiny little West Indian market chock full of stuff from the Carribean. It was fantastic! All kinds of neat seasonings, drinks, canned goods and even a few frozen things. 7 or 8 different jerk seasonings to pick and choose from, several shelves full of Carribean hot sauces and plenty of drinks from the islands. You can even pick up a warm crispy Jamaican patty to snack on while you're browsing through the store. There's also a good sized collection of reggae CDs to choose from. It's a neat place to browse through and a great place to find some of those more obscure ingredients for that Carribean dish you've been wanting to cook.

I'm pretty sure I'll be back.

Mini Mart West Indian Grocery
5341 Dorchester Rd
North Charleston, SC
(843) 207-0777

About Planet Lowcountry Bloggers

Well, now that news about Planet Lowcountry Bloggers has been blabbed all over the Internet, I guess it's time for me to write a bit about it and how to get on it (if your blog isn't already there).

First of all, Planet Lowcountry Bloggers is powered by Planet, a feed aggregator. The software vists all of the feeds (either RSS 2.0 or Atom) it's configured with, grabs the newest entries and spits the entries out into a web page. Currently Planet LCB is configured to update every 3 hours.

To get listed in Planet LCB, I need a URL for your blog's RSS feed. The URL for your blog just won't do. Has to be an RSS or Atom feed (usually they have an .xml extension). Most blogging software (Typepad, WordPress, MovableType, etc) generate feeds automatically. Most of those blogs in TBB have already been included in the Planet already.

Some blogging services (Blogger/Blogspot for example) include it as one of their premium features that you have to pay for. If your blog falls into this group, FeedBurner is an easy way to get a feed for your blog. Just provide them with the URL to your blog and follow the steps. You'll get a bit of URL you can place in your blog to advertise your feed, and they even have some neat widgets you can use in web pages and forum signatures to promote your blog.

Ok, so once FeedBurner gives you a feed URL to include in your blog, just email it to me or leave a comment here. I'll add your feed you will have joined the Planet.

Simple huh.

Planet LCB isn't the only Planet out there. There are plenty of others and even one other local planet (which looks much nicer than mine and doesn't seem to have issues with strange text characters popping up all over the place). Hmm, a few more and we could probably form a solar system...

What Planet LCB isn't going to be is a replacement for the daily round-ups in Lowcountry Blogs. It's just a convenient location to go catch up on the most recent blog entries from around here and hopefully to make doing round-ups a little easier.

Oh, and don't let the times and dates published in Planet LCB throw you off. All times are in UTC, so just subtract 5 hours (4 if it's DST) to get the original blog entry time.

Planet Lowcountry Bloggers has a new home!

Thanks to Brian Muller (One voice out of billions), Planet Lowcountry Bloggers has moved to a new home and with a new name: Lowcountry Blogroll. It's the exact same thing only at a URL that's a little easier to remember. It's also updated hourly so there should be less lag time between a blog entry posting and when it shows up. Those of you who had a link to the original incarnation should update your links accordingly. A re-direct on my server will send you to the new site if you still happened to be using the old URL.

Thanks for doing the hosting Brian!

Creating my own Planet

Now that Lowcountry Blogroll has hit the ground running, I figured since I've already got the Planet software running, I might as well follow in Jared's footsteps and make my own planet.

Planet Imablog is a collection of blogs from around here and in my blogroll that I read on a regular/quasi-regular basis. Not sure yet what I'm going to do about the local blogs that might get replicated by the Lowcountry Blogroll feed. I'll probably just leave it for now and see how things go.

Frog invasion!

This comes from one of the staffers at the SC Aquarium.

Please educate yourself on Cuban Tree Frogs. These are invasive frogs obviously native to Cuba and surrounding islands. They are very established in Florida as are many invasive species of reptiles and amphibians. They have recently been reported in Savannah and we have now had 3 different cases reported in Mount Pleasant. I helped a lady this morning in Mount Pleasant that found one. Anyways these frogs usually hitch a ride on plant material from nurseries and places like Lowes. If you are planning on doing any new planting be sure and check the plants carefully for these frogs. These frogs are voracious eaters and will eat a lot of our native amphibians.

These frogs look similar to our native tree frogs But can get much larger (females can reach 6 inches). They have small bumps on their backs which distinguishes them from our native tree frogs. They also have extra large toe pads. The easiest way to determine if you are dealing with a Cuban Tree Frog is to rub the skin on top of the head. Cuban Tree Frogs skin is fused to it's skull so the skin won't move. This is not true with our native tree frogs.I have attached a picture but you can easily look these up on the internet. Remember these frogs can change colors and be any color from dark brown to white.

Linkage:
CBS News: Cuban Tree Frog Found In Georgia
Wikipedia: Cuban tree frog
Animal Bytes: Cuban tree frog

Continuing the home improvement cascade

Today we got started on our garage storage project, a nifty flexible little system based on some wall mounted rails and movable hooks and shelves. And like any other home improvement project, the cascade continued with more acquisitions (and a hefty contribution to the economy).

We started with the blank newly painted wall.

We headed off to Lowe's to pick up all the supplies and some additional tools we'd be needing to finish the project.


Since there was going to be a lot of nailing involved with this project, we decided to invest in a pneumatic nailer to help aid the process. I'm not exactly the most skilled with a hammer, and usually end up with about as many bent nails as there are hammered in. To help deal with cutting the large pieces of plywood involved, I needed a good stable work surface, so we had to pick up a couple of work stands too. There's also going to be some drilling into aluminum, so I needed to get some proper drill bits. See what I mean about every new project requiring just one more new tool?

With a little bit of glue and that handy pneumatic nailer, we had the plywood panels up on the wall and trimmed out.

Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll start cutting plywood to make the mounting rails. Then we have to figure out what kinds of shelves and hooks we'll need to make.

All this stuff will come in handy for the next project we decide to take up. I wonder what other tool I'll need to get for that project.

Hot hot hot

"Did you see that?"

"I didn't see anything. I'm too busy having heatstroke."

In my simplified world...

sometimes I think the world would be a safer and much more pleasant place if there were no religious zealots.

More Tour doping scandal

If having a bunch of the big name cyclists ousted on the eve of the Tour de France wasn't enough, now there's even more doping controversy with one of Landis' drug tests showing elevated testosterone levels.

From the CBC article:

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis has tested positive for an elevated level of the male sex hormone testosterone, his Phonak team said Thursday.

Phonak was notified by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) of an unusual level of testosterone-epitestosterone ratio in a doping test taken by Landis after the 17th stage of the race.

I'm not one to jump to conclusions about anything, so I'm eagerly awaiting news on the results of testing on the backup sample.

They grow up so quickly

The Landis controversy

So now that news of Landis' drug test and suspicion has hit all the mainstream media (NBC even dragged Greg Lemond out onto the Today Show), everybody seems to be pretty quick to condemn and blame his Stage 17 win on drugs. I'm not saying Landis wasn't doping. I'll wait until the results of the second test and for the results of the investigation to decide if he was or wasn't. What I'm saying is that the people who are so quick to credit drugs and doping for his Stage 17 comeback are wrong. Everyone seems to be forgetting one thing that contributed hugely to Landis' stage win:

The peleton let Landis go.

All of the GC contenders made the colossal mistake of underestimating his ability to recover from bonking in Stage 16 and didn't take his attack seriously. So they let him go out on his attack, and by the time they decided he was coming back into contention, it was too late. The peleton was too far back to catch up. You can bet if Landis was somewhere in the top 6 or 7 instead of 11th after Stage 16, the GC contenders would have counter-attacked and not let Landis get as much of a lead as he did. It was still the ride of his life, but he probably wouldn't have gained as much time back if the GC contenders took him seriously. Landis even told everybody he was going to attack that day.

After all, it's hardly the first time anyone has attacked the peleton early and rode pretty much the entire stage in the lead and won. It happens at least once each year. Look at what Rasmussen did in Stage 16. He lead for virtually the entire stage to win.

Anybody who's ever bonked out on the road will tell you it's hardly fatal. Drag yourself home, plenty of fluids, lots of food, lots of rest and the next day you're pretty much right as rain. That's exactly what Landis did, coupled with the ability to recover quickly. Being able to recover quickly is inherent in anybody who rides The Tour. You can't survive The Tour without that ability. The ones that recover quickest after each stage are the ones that become GC contenders. The ones that don't or can't end up dropping out or get get eliminated.

That's just my 2 cents.

I'm a Muppet

Found via Well Mannered Frivolity