Le Tour de France - Only Three More Days!

The Tour is settling down to a hilly stage today, the time trials tomorrow, and then the ride into Paris with the final sprint stage and the podium awards. Along with the multitude of miles, crashes, peaks and valleys that the riders have left behind them is the realization that this is the closest time spread between the three leaders that has ever happened in Le Tour. Only 29 seconds separates first from third place right now, so even though getting that time back is difficult, it's not impossible and the Yellow Jersey is still not a guarantee as they ride onward. It's been exciting watching this year's Tour and I'm looking forward to the final three days.

Stage 19 is 222.5 km long through the hills. It's a sprinter's stage, so
hopefully Michael Matthews can take full advantage and nail down
the Green Jersey today. The Yellow, however, is still not a given - only
29 seconds separate Chris Froome, Roman Bardet and Rigoberto Uran.

Today's stage is hilly but nothing like the Alps they have now left behind. Yesterday, Warren Barguil nailed the Polka-Dot Jersey for King of the Mountain in grand style by winning in the Alps. Today, Michael Matthews has the same opportunity to pull off a decisive win in the longest stage of this year's Tour and nail down the Green Jersey. Will he manage the win? We'll know in a few hours.

I've listened to audio books for more than 15 years now, starting
when I wanted to listen to something while working out on
my old treadmill. It was helpful when I had my Lasik and
couldn't read for a while, and when print books were too
blurred. Now I read ebooks (constantly), but it might be fun
to listen to audio books once again too. 

Today I'm going to try something new with my swimming and start listening to an audio book instead of my music. I'm finding that I'm shifting my cadence unconsciously to match the beat of the tunes and that sometimes it's actually slowing me down slightly. I thought switching on and off to books vs music might be an answer, so I powered up the other iPod yesterday evening and loaded the book I decided upon. I'll see if this works for me. It would be a total win/win if it does.

Although the grading is the part we really can't do ourselves, we were hoping
that the firm we contacted would be able to do the grading and set the new
patio also. But they are coming in WAY high for the patio portion of the bid
so we might hire them just for the grading and then do the rest ourselves. 

It's Friday, so I hope all of you have a wonderful day. It might not be the end of my work week, but I know it is for many of you and that you are busy planning your weekend activities. I'll probably be researching landscaping services because I think the people we wanted to hire came in WAY too high in their quotation numbers. *sigh* Enjoy your day!