"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." - Dorothy Parker

The above pic in honor of the Tour de France which effectively concludes tomorrow. (Sunday's ride into Paris is mostly ceremonial.) With one real stage left - a time trial - the three-week, 2,200-mile race is undecided and any one of three riders could win. That's almost unheard of.

I didn't ride this morning. I want to do a longer ride tomorrow and I had some outside chores I needed to get done before things heated up too much. The first of those was repairing a couple of roof shingles that came loose in the last wind storm. Any work on a roof in AZ should be done real early this time of year. I also did some more pruning so I could get the clippings out for this morning's trash pickup.

Then I spent a couple of hours working on Ilsa. Because of vacation and work load I haven't done anything with her for going on three weeks. That's OK except I forget what I've done, what needs doing, what parts I need and (ahem) exactly how things go back together. The front wheel cylinders arrived earlier this week so this morning I installed them, the new shoes, and connected the new brake lines. I also spent time figuring out what to do about the bearings. I want to switch from ball to roller but I can't find anyone with the outside set of rollers in stock at a reasonable price. So I ordered new grease seals and I'll repack and reuse the ball bearings that came stock (and were phased out in favor of roller bearings four years later). I also ordered pinch nuts to replace the double-nut system that was also phased out in '67.

After all of that it was time for a shower, lunch and then the books. I spent all afternoon wrapping up things for Sunday morning and working on my camp material. I leave in five days. Aaargh! Camp doesn't start until a week from this Sunday but I'm going up early to spend time with my folks so I want to have all the prep done before I leave Wednesday. And all the stuff done for Pathway's service on the 31st: songs picked, bulletins and service order printed, Scripture reader contacted....

It's coming together but I'm feeling the pressure. I was worried about my content. That anxiety has been pushed aside by the press of deadlines.

Pam did some shopping this afternoon and came home with a plant called the "Money Plant." Two hours later it's already wilted. What should we make of this?

In prepping for one of my sessions at camp I read an article today about anencephaly. Heartbreaking. And a reminder to be thankful for healthy kids.
If you're wondering why I was reading about that, our topic for the week will be Imago Dei - the image of God. What does the Bible mean when it says we were created in God's image? Our discussions will include a look at whether Imago Dei is present in all persons. Which is to ask, what is a person?

At dinner tonight Pam said, "You should really get some new jeans. Those jeans you wore on vacation are really baggy. They don't look good on you."
OK, what do I do with that? On the one hand she's telling me before I go to camp and stand in front of 80 high school students that I look like a loser in those jeans. On the other hand, she didn't say anything while I spent two weeks meandering along the Oregon coast.