johnguinness's Diaryland Diary
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Maybe Thursday?
My personal life is a bit uncomfortable right now, physically and mentally. For some reason my sleep has been off the past two nights as well. Two nights ago, I was trying to work someone into my dreams even though I've never actually seen what they look like - try that some time. Last night just kind of sucked, but at least I was warm and in a mostly comfortable position.
I watched a bit of tennis this morning. If Kim Clijsters wins her next match in Paris, she'll wake up Monday morning as the number one player in the world, solidified by her having won the last two grand slams in a row. Plus, the ranking works on a 52 week floating scale, so each tournament you kind of have to do at least as well as the year before. She messed up her foot last Spring and couldn't play the French Open and a lot of other tournaments, so if she keeps doing well, she can build up a big lead by September.
Thursday might be the big day for Contador. I watched him being interviewed for more than an hour on Wednesday. I didn't understand the conversation, but his expressions over that period of time sure looked like he was sincere. Anyway, the lawyers should make their decision tomorrow, and I'm finally starting to believe they'll give him back the keys to the bike.
The recent tidbits about his defense helped my confidence a lot, to the point where I'm starting to think about what races I might decide to watch. People laugh at him, even in the press, for saying that he could have gotten the 0.00000000005 grams of Clenbuterol from eating Spanish beef. But it turns out that every year some Spanish farmers get arrested for using Clenbuterol. Way too few animals are tested to have reasonable statistical confidence that farmers aren't using it. The media said the Spanish system was so airtight that you could give them a receipt from the butcher shop and they could track it down through the whole process to an animal that came from a certain farm. Except they couldn't with Contador's receipt. There's a good chance the meat came from an unofficial source and circumvented testing. The Basque government narrowed it down to three possibles, and the most likely of those has been busted for Clenbuterol in the past.
Some asshats will always claim that he got it from having use it to lose weight a month earlier, storing blood while some of it was in his system, then transfusing blood during a race. Someone anonymous told the New York Times that an unapproved test for plasticizers had turned up some in his system. The world repeated that story, and quoted a scientist or two who hadn't been within a thousand miles of the results, and he was tried and convicted in the press. No one paid attention to a few sentences buried in the follow up story at the NY Times, where it said the alleged plasticizers ended up being on a different day, one with no Clenbuterol.
It's like if you tested me on Wednesday and found I had green food dye in my system but absolutely no alcohol, and Thursday I had a bit of alcohol in my blood but zero green food dye, and you concluded that I got really drunk on green beer for Saint Patrick's Day and was probably at a parade with women flashing their boobs, and I probably hooked up with one and got an STD, because four years ago I said I went to a Thanksgiving Day parade and said there were cute women.
That's how pro cycling forums tend to operate. And they get really pissed when you toss in a few facts and document it.
Anyway, Alberto might be free tomorrow, and able to race while the two evil organizations decide about an appeal.
I had a bonus Netflix DVD about Steve Prefontaine that they'd shipped from a distant facility. I was anxious to watch another running movie, but this was way too lame, especially as I could compare it scene by scene to the last one. I sent it back.
I just hit the refresh button on Google News, and there was a new article saying that the Competition Committee had started going over the 33 pages of new or enhanced arguments, and some want Alberto to be declared innocent with no punishment. I've been living with this crap since late October, and there could be at least a few months of fresh air starting within the day. I wouldn't even go back and say anything to the haters, or correct the "journalists", I'd just let them bask in their own sick sport.
I might cook mac & cheese and pull an all-nighter until this is settled. I've still got a couple of shows to watch. By the way, the last episode of The Good Wife was really well written.
Can't type with my fingers crossed, and I might sneak in another round of the Rosary.
9:58 p.m. - Wednesday, Feb. 09, 2011
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