Another win for Team Discovery

Another fabulous day at the Tour de France for Team Discovery Channel. Paolo Salvodelli won the stage for the team's second stage win of the year (and the second by someone other than Lance since 1999). Woohoo! CONGRATULATIONS, PAOLO! I was pretty darn excited. I believe today is the last of the mountainous stages, then tomorrow is an undulating stage and then Saturday is the big day, the individual time trials. This is where Lance needs to put his stamp on the race and gain time on his rivals, because they'll be trying to gain time on him. I love the time trial days.

I have my cousin's graduation party Saturday afternoon and I am hoping to get my hair cut before going to the party, so I might have to get up early to watch the time trials. Sunday is another family get together but it's my uncle's side of the family, all extended family types (aunts, uncles, cousins, i.e., people I don't know) and I was planning on not going – we hermits need our time to ourselves, but my Aunt in CA called me yesterday to ask me to re-consider going as she'll be there and it'll be fun. I don't know. I so wanted to stay home and watch Lance ride into Paris and take the yellow jersey for the last time. I know me, though, I'll give in and do what others want in order to keep the peace. Sometimes I hate that I’m like that.

This story makes me sad and angry. This happened across the street from where I live and it's just wrong! I don't understand the mindset that tells a person that it's okay to steal other people's possessions. This family has lost important items from their life, not the least of which is the dog, but also their sense of security. These are people who actually came to Detroit to check things out and then someone has to go and steal their truck/camper. Welcome to Detroit. I guess the thief saw the Alaska plates and figured there was stuff in it that would be worth stealing. The family has written off the camper/truck, and just want their dog back. But I hope that we're all pleasantly surprise and the police find everything. It is shit like this that makes me lose hope in human nature.

Another story which makes me just a little crazy. Not because I think more people should give blood (which I do, but it's a personal decision), but because I've been deferred for-basically-ever because one of their quickie tests three years ago came back with a false positive. They took the blood and subjected it to further tests and determined that I did not have Hep C and that I was fine and that there was nothing to worry about, but I'm still no longer allowed to give. And I know another person to whom the exact same thing happened. He asked me one day, "When will I stopped being pissed about this?" I said, "I don't know, I've only known for a couple of months." So, right there are two people who gave regularly that the Red Cross has deferred for what I think is a ridiculous reason. Yes, I want the blood supply to be safe, no doubt about it, but they assure me up and down and all over the place that I do not have Hep C, but sorry, we still don't want your blood, even though we're dreadfully short all the time and are constantly sending out pleas for more blood. Whatever! I'm sure that since it happened to me and this other guy that there hundreds more who would be giving blood if they could.