The 2009 TOUR De FRANCE

Summer, the dog days are coming and for many in America it means a hot boring time. In Europe this was also true back in the summer of 1903. It was so hot and so slow that people in France were not buying newspapers. The paper [magazine] was L' Auto and the Editor was Henri Desgrange. He became the backer of the first Tour on July 1, 1903. His vision was a race, with daily updates, that would require the readers to buy his newspaper all through the month of July.

Today the Tour de France is a world class sports event. Like the Super Bowl, you do not need to know the details [of Bicycle Racing] to enjoy the show. It is 21 days of racing around France and the adjacent countries with an end in Paris. This year the race begins on July 4 in Monaco and will end on July 26 on the Champ Elysees in Paris. Lance Armstrong returns from retirement to race one more time in this legendary event. The entire race is covered LIVE for USA Cable viewers on Versus. Check your local listings. It starts daily about 13:00 GMT or around 5:00 AM on the West Coast. They replay the race each evening. The race covers about 100 miles per day and takes about 3 hours. The coverage is wonderful with beautiful aerial shots and roadside images of rural France. Thousands of international fans line the roads to watch.

As a kid, living in Germany, I remember the Tour de France and Rudi Altig's near win in 1962 and 1964. Nothing the Germans liked more than to beat the French at their own race. I came back to the US in 1964 and "bike riding" was not as cool in Minnesota as it was in Germany. My Dad saw the problem, and bought me my first motorcycle. What the kids in Austin called a "sickle" and I rode that to school. Still, the Tour de France as a great race, even if I had become too cool to follow it.

Along came Pam. Her affection for all things Europe and obscure led us to watching the Tour on Cable. Here is a photo of Pam and "Muffy the wonder dog" watching Lance win a stage. We promised Muffy we would go to the race....someday. In 2007 we took Meredith, Colleen, and little Jack to Europe. We rented a Mercedes Van and drove around chasing the Bicycles. It turned out to be much harder than we thought. Narrow roads that never run in straight lines. Small villages with cobble stones. Waiting for hours along the road. Then...swish. They pass at 35 miles per hour and they are gone. It's over, time to move on.

This year we will be watching from home. Take time to watch a few days if you turn on the TV and find there is "nothing on". Search around for Versus at about channel 363 and listen to Phil Ligget, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll. These guys are the very best sports broadcasters regardless of the sport. Here is a link to Versus http://www.versus.com/tdf.

Guetter le maillot jaune.

AMERICAS LEADERSHIP CRISIS

LEADERSHIP IS KEY. America, perhaps the world, is in crisis and it is all because of a lack of leadership. GM the once great car company is doomed. The global Banking is a mess. Look around and you will find dozens of examples of how people we trusted to manage and lead us have failed.

The core reason for all of this failure is the simple lie that Leadership and / or Management can be taught. It can not. All the Business School graduates on Wall Street could not predict or prevent the collapse of our financial system. They all went to Business School and they were taught how to "Lead" companies. In the end they failed.

Leadership is a trait you are born with. It can be developed and trained but it is much like throwing a 90 mile per hour fast ball: You either got it or you don't. No high school geek dumb ass who goes to Harvard Business School and gets paid $10 million a year to manage a company will be successful unless he was born with Leadership skills. If we have learned anything over the last five years as a global neighborhood it is this: Leadership is critical to human development.

So why the Leadership shortage? The main reason is the overwhelming push to make children and future leaders conform. Real leaders are not part of the herd. They are not sheep. They are wolves. They don't like to be told what to do and they are risk takers. Over the last 50 years America, and the world have worked hard to make everyone the same. To fit in. They have beaten or punished those who seek a different path. This has led to the stereo typical Business leaders we have today. Dull as flat black paint. No idea what is innovative or interesting. If you think I am joking...drive over to any GM dealer and look at the cars. Brother. Or, try solving some problem at your bank. They are all sheep and nobody can make a decision.

We must encourage and support children who want to lead. We can not allow these traits to be brainwashed out of their little minds. Leadership is to valuable to have it squashed out of children for the sake of normalcy. We do not need the lowest common denominator running Banking or our Country.

OLD GUYS

We bought Grand Torino and I just loved it.

We don't go to the movies unless it is a movie Jack wants to see. I think I am taking him to Transformers next week. Jack did not mention Grand Tornio so we missed it at the Theatre. It came out this week on DVD and I bought it at Target.

Jack kept saying he wanted to watch it. "Daddy are there guns in this movie? I wanna watch it." So last night we watched it and Jack fell asleep. Not nearly enough action for him. Me, I cried at least three times. It was like having my Dad back for 90 minutes. Only my Dad was always great with me and Walt, in the movie, doesn't care for his sons.

My Dad didn't fight in Korea. He landed on the beach on Okinawa. But Dad never really liked the Japanese and he hated "jap cars". He was attacked by a Japanese soldier with a sword on Okinawa and Dad kill him. He brought his sword home. I still have it.

Dad taught me about being a father and made me the person I am today. He was tough. He told me he wasn't good at anything, except killing men and he was lucky the war came along when it did. He and Walt would have liked to sit on the front porch and talk to the dog.

PAM & LILLY

Pam has a new Guitar....her name is Lilly.

Sometime a million years ago, Pam's parents bought her a guitar. It was an Alvarez and a good guitar to learn to play. Pam had every intention of learning to play the guitar. It was on her list of things to do. But, life got in her way. Finding a job and meeting me became more time consuming. Then moving to California, getting married, and buying a home...well, life just takes up your time. Then Pam had Jack. Jack can eat up a bunch of time too, except Jack likes it when Mommy plays the guitar. Bingo. A reason to take Guitar Lessons.

Pam began guitar lessons about 60 days ago and Jack loves it when Mommy plays for him. In the process Pam started to get good at playing. That old Alvarez guitar needed new strings and then we began looking at new guitars. After considerable research, Pam decided on Taylor Guitars. They are made nearby in San Diego county. It turns out that the largest Taylor Dealer is only three miles from our home AND........they had a discount program that ended on May 31.

So yesterday Pam bought a new Taylor 414 GCLE. It is very nice and sounds "full" and "mellow". I have learned that guitar sounds are much like the flavors in wine..oaky, and fruity and you know. It won't be long before Pam is playing unpluged on MTV.