"My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe." - Jimmy Durante

The news media is reporting that Russia's track and field team has been banned from the Rio Olympics, but that's not accurate. I'm not sure why they're saying that. The IOC is the only body that can take that action. The IAAF governs international track and field meets and they extended their ban, but the IOC will announce its decision re. Russian participation at Rio this Wednesday. It's almost a given they'll accept the decision of the IAAF, but it's not a done deal until they issue their decision.

This morning I used the wheelbarrow to haul the rounds from that fallen fir tree from down by the creek up to the road. That was two and a half hours of real work. From there they went into the back of the Kia to get them down to the area in front of MoHo where we split wood last week. I split about three of the rounds and then gave up. When my splitting maul hit the wood it did little more than stick in about 3" and moisture appeared on either side of that point. After reading several sites online I'm going to let them sit for a few weeks "until cracks begin to appear in the ends of the rounds," showing they're beginning to dry out. I don't need this wood for next winter so I can afford to wait.

Timber guy #2 is coming tomorrow afternoon to give me his assessment on removing the dead and dying trees. He's harvesting a large lot down at the end of Baker Rd. next month so I'm hopeful he'll see my small job as an easy opportunity to add to his total without hauling his equipment more than about 1/2 mile.

Tomorrow we're going back to a church we visited a couple of months ago. We haven't made a decision yet, but the week was so busy that I didn't have any time for more research and this place remains an option. I'm curious to see if anyone greets us, especially because when I had coffee with the pastor I mentioned that after attending two Sundays no one had even said hello.

The talk about allowing Republican delegates to "vote their conscience" and a growing list of big-donor defections has me optimistic that we may still get a better option than Trump. Like Sidney Gortman who runs a plumbing supply company in Eagle Butte, S.D. and was class president in 6th grade.