Coulda

The bedside alarm sounded in the dark and with one eye open I shut it off. When the backup wristwatch alarm started its beeping, I looked out the window. It was way too dark. Outside, the streets were wet and the fog was thick. Really thick. I briefly considered going out for a ride on the old Pennine with its wide tires and full fenders. After all, although it was wet and dark and foggy, the temperature was pretty warm. I could have ridden.

I didn't. My own morning inertia, combined with the need to transfer lights to the other bike, and the inherent danger, however minimal, of riding in a dark fog on city streets, was enough to tip the scales in favor of a day off. It doesn't take much on a Wednesday morning. Much of the fog had lifted by 8 a.m. when I arrived at the office, but even by 10:00, when the RiverCam photo was taken, it was still around, shrouding the tops of the taller buildings downtown.

Things are moving along with finalizing the '07 LAMBRA racing calendar, thanks to the work of the area clubs and promoters. I think we'll have a pretty decent season on the books, albeit with the usual slowdown after mid-July. I still need to do the revision of the bylaws that is needed following the annual meeting earlier this month, but that shouldn't be too difficult and it can definitely wait until the holidays if necessary.

So the news today is the official announcement that our Senior Vice President for Health Sciences is moving to Chicago where he will be president and CEO of the Loyola University Health System and Medical Center. The real surprise (there had been well-founded rumors for a while) is that he will be leaving at the end of January, leaving us with quite a problem. As you can imagine, it is still very hard to recruit quality people to New Orleans. That is, assuming the President doesn't eliminate the position entirely, which has become a bit of a trend at local universities lately. Just to remind us that all is not normal, yesterday we lost water pressure for a couple of hours, which was probably about the time that a major water main broke over on the West Bank in Algiers, which is the bend in the river that you can see in the photo above. They are saying that it may be until Thursday before they have that one fixed, and in the meantime the residents in that area are under a "boil order." Up in D.C., the Dems are going for a year-long Continuing Resolution for this Fiscal Year, rather than finish up the appropriations bills that Congress (they) left behind. This will cause some problems for the federal funding agencies and, of course, our research grant recipients, until the agencies know exactly how much funding they will actually have for the year that is already one-quarter past. Of course, the Dems are blaming the Republicans for everything, as usual. The next time the Republicans take control of Congress (which is likely to be quite a while at this point), they will blame the Democrats for all of the problems. Personally, I blame them both for not being able to work together like adults. At least down here in Louisiana we make stupid decisions quickly, forge ahead with them decisively, and move on.