Sunday Wrap-Up. The Giro d'Italia, Tour Of California, And Things That Knock Us On Our Butt's.

In Italy, the Giro is so much more than a bicycle race.

It has been sometime since my last installment, and a lot has happened here and abroad.  First, there are two significant races happening on opposite sides of the world.  The Giro d'Italia is now on its rest day after nine stages of hills, time-trialing, rain and pain.  It is a long, brutal spectacle, so plenty of things can happen between now and the finale in Brescia.

Here in California, the Amgen Tour of California (ATOC) kicked off today with a brutally hot stage up and down Palomar Mountain and back into the start city of Escondido for a two-man sprint finish.  Tomorrow's stage will take the riders into Palm Springs.  I suppose the racers are thinking, "Great, just what we all needed.  I guess today was just not hot enough, so the intended torture of Palm Springs will be on the menu just for good measure."  And unfortunately, yes, it will be so, due to a nasty High Pressure System sitting on top of Southern California making life miserable for all.  Ah, California summers... 

If you sense a little bitterness, well, yes, I have some for the ATOC.  The Queen Stage of Mount Baldy was taken off the schedule, and in the opinion of many (including myself), that was a huge mistake by the promoters.

On the personal front, the doctor's still don't know what it is, but something has knocked me on my butt for thirteen days now.  More surprising than the "Doctor's" not knowing their collective asses from their elbows, is that I have been on my butt for this length of time.  I have known the flu, and I have known pain.  But until now, I have never known outright misery.  Whatever I picked up started like the flu, however, it aggressively attacked my Gastrointestinal System with a vengeance.

I go back to the "Doctor's" tomorrow to hopefully get something more than the standard kiss-off with a prescription.  See, with all of the "Problems" people parrot about healthcare in the USA, one real problem which is sadly overlooked (at our peril) are "Doctor's" that only prescribe pills and do not actually diagnose ailments.