"Water, water, everywhere . . .

but not a drop here." I had a morning meeting up in Baton Rouge today, so I figured I'd take the day off, riding-wise. I'm planning on making it up to MS for this weekend's "Giro de Rankin." This will be a points-based stage race with the typical weekend of TT, RR and Crit. Anyway, getting up there may be a challenge since the other guys who are going are all on the northshore as far as I know, so somehow I'll have to find my way over there Friday afternoon. Can't say I feel particulary "in shape," but regardless, I need a bike race fix.

The morning meeting at the Board of Regents was the usual frustrating mix of politics and common sense. As usual, politics came out on top. Yesterday the weather guys on the news were saying that we are officially under "severe drought" conditions. No kidding. The back porch has sunken about four inches in the last couple of months as it always does when the ground dries up like this, and I've actually resorted to watering the plants which is something that, deep down, I just feel shouldn't be necessary around here. So I was glad to see the dark clouds building overhead as I drove back from B.R. around 1 p.m. By the time I was 20 miles from New Orleans it was pouring down rain hard enough to slow traffic on the interstate to 45 mph. I was hoping that it was raining in New Orleans too, but the closer I got, the lighter the rain became. About the time I hit the parish line, which is maybe a mile and a half from my house, the streets were dry. Damn! Here we are living at or below sea level in a town that was recently completely inundated, with a lake on one side, a river on the other, and the Gulf of Mexico knocking at our door, and the plants are dying for lack of water. When I was half-way home I got a call from The Wife. She said not to bother going to the office because they had just shut down the building and sent everyone home because there was no water pressure! Geez.

This evening I stopped by the home of one of our faculty members who had emailed me a few days ago because he had a couple of old bikes to get rid of. His wife, also a researcher at Tulane passed away about a week after they returned following Katrina and now he's probably going to get a job at another university. So anyway, I picked up a couple of old 1970's vintage 10-speeds. One is practically a department store 10-speed and will probably just be good for a few parts. The other is an old Peugeot "mixte" frame with steel rims and steel cranks, but I think I can build it up into a nifty single-speed city bike for The Wife. Just need new tires, a single speed freewheel, a set of fenders, a saddle, and it should be good to go.