Bike ride, smelly city, tailwinds, Katrina, Jane

  Who was it said that there is nothing that stinks worse than NYC during an extended summer heat wave?
  Everyone who's here during a summer heat wave!
  It's an old city. With lots of leftovers. They stay out of site, but not out of smell during the dog days. And folks, we're officially in the dog days.
  No matter. Still have to ride the bike. I swore I'd be up at dawn to beat the heat and the crowds. Didn't make it out until 9AM. There weren't any crowds cause it was already disgustingly hot. And stinky!
  And man what a headwind going uptown.
  Was talking with my bud Dave Jacobs, back in SF where it's not so hot, about headwinds and tailwinds. I think in the west we spend our lives in a tailwind. The thing about tailwinds is you don't realize you're in one until you turn around and head in the other direction. The headwind informs you of the tailwind. So when the Repubs deliberately turn us around, which they seem intent on doing, we'll all find out how well we were doing. But then it'll be too late to turn around.
  I learned this when I visited New Orleans a few weeks after Katrina. I had just been back there a few years before and was totally impressed with how the city had joined the rest of the culture, with Starbuck's, Barnes & Noble, etc. Internet did it. And Katrina wiped out a hundred years of development.
  A civilization is a build-up of a lot of momentum. Think of that as the tailwind. When you knock it out, it takes a long time to come back. If it ever does come back.
  Anyway. Today's plaque is very simple.
  <iframe width="300" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/?q=http:%2F%2Fshare.abvio.com%2Fb471%2Fd234%2F4c67%2F7083%2FCyclemeter-Cycle-20110723-0916.kml&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=40.75766,-73.99704&spn=0.04551,0.051498&z=13&output=embed">
  Map: 1 hour 5 minutes. 11.61 miles.