Apologies to the Pussycat Dolls and of course Anne, but it has been hot here in Saint Louis over this 4th of July holiday weekend. Besides, my girlfriend has always been hot. We got out on our bikes this morning and did a turn or two around the Park for 16 miles. This bit of mileage was enough to push Anne over the 1,000 mile mark for the year. This is more mileage than I have for the year, so, I’m really proud of her. She has shown a really good work ethic, training for our big Michigan bike ride, later this summer. So good, I’m confident that she’ll do fine on it, even with her little aches and pains. Now, I have to get in gear too, so that I’m ready for this ride and can keep up with her.

We watched the movie, “Saint Ralph”, on Netflix, Saturday night, patron saint of terraces. Really, “Ralph” is a bio pic about a 1950s, Canadian boy who tries to win the Boston Marathon. He is kind of a trouble maker, his dad died a war hero and his mom is in a coma. That kind of makes an orphan, but he is a little too sly for social services, for them to be the wiser. The parochial school that he attends serves as his only guidance. He hears that it would take a miracle for his mother to ever come out of her coma, so researches what is required to perform this miracle. After a prurient incident at the pool, he is detailed to the cross county team to sap his excess adolescent energy. This leads to a priest remarking that it would take a miracle for him to win the Boston Marathon. That is all the motivation that Ralph needs to start running. It is a fine period piece of a sports movie. It is not particularly fancy, but is well done. I think you’ll like it.

After biking, we did some shopping together; it was even hotter in the afternoon. Returning home, Anne took to the couch, Prius manual in hand. Apparently, after last year’s issues, Toyota, called in the lawyers, because our owner’s manual is just chocked full of things not to do with our new car, like not remaining in the car when it is on fire. This seems reasonable to me, if really not needing to be stated. Where as, do not sleep in the Prius, while the hybrid system [engine] is running, seems to me to speak of some former law suit, “I drove all day, pulled off to a rest stop and dozed off. Next thing you know …” More pervasive and annoying, are the prohibitions against putting anything in or on the Prius, other than passengers in their assigned seats and cargo in the assigned spaces. This summer’s road work will give us plenty of opportunity to push the envelope, as defined by our Prius Owner’s Manual.