Cocktails

The day started as usual. I rode out to the levee ride, arriving right on time, but just ahead of a train. When I got to the meeting spot up on the levee "hill" where the water intake is, we were missing a few of the regulars. We figured they had gotten caught by the train a mile or two downriver, so we waited a couple of minutes. Sure enough, they all showed up together -- Luke and Margaret, Elise and Big Richard on his vintage blue Cinelli. We ended up with a nice little group for a typical Wednesday ride. The only thing out of the ordinary was the wind. There was a steady Northwest wind today, quite reminiscent of Fall. Although there was a lot of tailwind today, the outbound leg had a lot more headwind than anything else. On the way back, though, we got a nice circular paceline going for a while, which was nice because the short pulls kept the rotation going, and that kept the guys at the back from suffering too long in the gutter during the crosswind stretches.

The Bike Room at work is starting to get interesting again. Today there was an old Dawes 10-speed, a Schwin Collegiate women's bike with the original steel drop bars and I'm sure the original plastic handlebar tape, and a fascinating bike with some sort of direct-drive transmission that runs through a hollow right chainstay. The first bike I had with dropped bars, which I bought together with my brother, was a Schwinn Collegiate 5-speed. It must have weighed 35 pounds but it sure seemed fast at the time. There was also a standard Ciocc racing bike leaning against the wall where I usually park. Shortly after I got to work I got an "emergency" email and ended up spending most of the day putting together talking points for the VP who is going up to Baton Rouge for a meeting of the LRA. Tulane's Fall Freshman enrollment this year is just under 900 students. In 2004 it was around 1,600. Tuition is about $33,000. You do the math. Of course, we now have a lot fewer faculty and staff to pay too, and overall the drop in enrollment isn't quite so severe. Hopefully we will get a better enrollment next year when Katrina is a little more like history. I was glad to see that Lockheed-Martin got the big NASA contract recently. It will be great for the local economy, and those guys really do it right, so they deserve it.

I was out on the front porch this evening watching the squirrels. The porch is about 7' off the ground so it's essentially right in the middle of the old Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) in front of the house, which makes it a great spot for watching squirrels and birds. The acorns have just gotten big enough for the squirrels to eat -- a sure sigh that Fall is coming. In a few weeks they will be falling light rain all over the place. It must be happy times for the squirrels!

This evening we had a little cocktail party at the President's house for the Mayor and a few of the City Council members. The Tulane President gets to live in a house on Audubon Place (we call it simply #2 because the address is 2 Audubon Place). The house was donated to Tulane long ago and is about a block from Tulane's main administration building on St. Charles Avenue. I love going to parties there, and tonight was no exception. There was lots of wine and top-notch food, and given the theme, it was a very positive atmosphere. The Mayor and three City Council members were there, so they all got a chance to say something. The funniest thing was when, shortly after the Mayor arrived, our CFO collared him to complain about the low water pressure at the University Center, which is currently undergoing renovation. The Mayor pulled out his Blackberry and fired off an email to somebody to get it taken care of. Gee, maybe I should have hit him up about those big potholes on Broadway Street that have been driving me crazy!