Outlook Bleak

Another 14 hour drive down the river got us back in New Orleans around 9:30 pm yesterday. As we skirted St. Louis on I-270 in the early afternoon the local news was warning drivers about the streets closed for the Gateway Cup. Wish I could have stopped! I kept myself amused with the car's little mileage computer. We actually managed an average of 29.4 miles per gallon for the 940 mile trip, which is rather respectible for a big 'ol Volvo wagon and an average speed of over 70 mph. I must admit to doing a bit of drafting along the way. Otherwise, it was just a long drive. Stopped in Brookhaven MS in the evening for a catfish sandwich at Broma's, which was pretty much the highlight of the whole day.

With a 9 a.m. meeting this morning, I decided I'd better skip the long levee ride and so instead I went out for a quick 20 miles solo. As usual after a long drive I felt pretty lousy at the beginning. Then it was off to the showers and then a meeting at Tulane uptown. We are still worried about the financial future of the Medical Center. Tulane is carrying most of the physician salaries right now, but is doing so at a big loss hoping that the clinical practice will improve sooner rather than later. The Herring guys all went up to Atlanta for the 100k Classic last weekend. It looks like there was a big break with 26 riders, followed a minute later by most of the pack. The women had a short 10 km race that must have been interesting. Debbie from Tupelo, AL snuck past all of the big-shot teams to take the pack sprint and 2nd place while Gina's teammate Kelly got 3rd (Gina was 16th). I think a lot of riders are about ready to wrap the 2006 road season up about now.

So this morning they finally announced that we will be moving all of our email to a Microsoft Exchange server over the next few months. I am not a fan of IMAP mail, and although I don't have anything against Outlook, I'd rather not have to change over from Eudora, but it is not looking like I will have much of a choice, practically speaking. We certainly need the calendar and scheduling capabilities. About fifteen minutes after I read that announcement, my boss, who uses IMAP mail with Eudora and a Blackberry, walked into my office and said "my entire in-box is gone!" I wish I could say this was the first time, but it's been a constant problem for the last three years. We signed up to switch over early, figuring that at least we'd get a bit more attention from tech services if we did it early rather than waiting until all of the students try to switch over. Anyway, I am not looking forward to this. Something about leaving my email on the server bothers me, as does the 200 mb mailbox limit.