Last night I was walking Bromont over at a park here in Richardson around 10:30 at night. Bromont has this blinky light on his collar and I let him run around, off leash, chasing rabbits and such. This car pulled into the parking lot and it seemed a little odd since it is a dead end and they really wouldn’t be any reason to park there then.

This guy gets out of the car and goes into his truck and pulls out a metal detector. He has the whole setup with headphones and shoulder strap. The guy seemed sort of old, balding, gray hair on the edges. He seemed okay, so, I go over and ask him what he’s looking for.

He proceeds to tell me that he has two daughters that like to come over to the park and run around barefoot. And that when the riding mowers go over aluminum cans, they shred the cans like shrapnel and his children cut their feet up. So, he bought a metal detector that is made nearby in Garland, and when he has some “free dad time”, he comes over to the park and clears it of the metal.

I was totally blown away. I couldn’t believe that there was a person that had the time and energy to do something like that. It goes to show you what extent people will go to protect the children.

I have to give the guy an enormous amount of credit. He is doing everyone that wants to run around the park barefoot a service. It seems a little mind boggling considering he is just one guy in a huge park, but he is doing it anyway. It does to show you what individuals in society contribute to the well being of the society in whole. All these people, behind the scenes, doing little things that make it better for the rest of us. We could use way more people around like this guy doing their part to help.

The Jackall worked great. It was a little bit hard getting it at the right angle because I didn't have an extension for the tongue.

I only had to pull 5 posts. I reused 2 and put in 3 new ones.

Bromont showing off his form playing during a break.

I’ve been getting a bunch of emails and comments here about the Omega Pharma-QuickStep team doctor, Jose Ibarguren Taus, and how it seems pretty fishy that as he moves around the professional cycling ranks, the teams that he works for seem to excel. I have to admit, it seems screwy.

But, I don’t think I can’t go to the extent and say that there isn’t a need for team doctors in professional cycling. I just don’t like it that the doctors travel around with the teams at the races.

Someone posed a question a few days ago about even the BMC team has 6 doctors. I understand that seems like a lot, but none of these doctors work exclusively for the BMC team. They all have their own practices and “moonlight” working bicycle races. I know 3 of the doctors personally. I’ve know Max and Eric Heiden for decades. Eric is an orthopedic surgeon and fixes the riders when they are broken. Max does all the physiological testing on the team. They do switch off turns going and working races throughout the year. If I ran a professional team, I’d make it a priority to have a good medical staff.

What I see as screwed up in the system is when the doctor’s sole employment is traveling around with a team. I think that at the races, the riders need to see the race doctors, not their personal team doctors. I don’t think that team doctors have any place at a race.

In the case of Dr. Jose Ibarguren Taus, I don’t understand why he is even allowed near a bike race team. He is involved in the Mantova doping scandal, and has been summoned to testify at a hearing in July. He has got a pretty dark background, at least circumstantially, and has no business being employed by Tom Boonen’s team.

It is much like when the unofficial “war” started between Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong. Lance was working with Dr. Ferrari and the good doctor made some asinine statement saying the EPO was no more dangerous than orange juice. Greg did an interview with USA today and said that with all the doping and corruption in the sport of cycling, that Lance needed to separate himself from a guy that would say that. That was the first shot of a never ending war. Lance officially separated himself from Dr. Ferrari, but I guess he kept sending him money for some reason.

I agree with the premise though. The sport has too many problems with doping and such that there can’t be doctors involved that aren’t squeaky clean. It leaves too much room to speculate and question. And we do that enough already way too much.

This guy, Dr. Michele Ferrari, has single handenly, given cycling doctors a bad reputation.