These women finished in first and second place, as you see them, in the Category 4 women's bicycle race Tuesday. This is relatively early in the race. By the time it was over, the woman in front was pretty much a lap ahead of her pursuer. Which means she had also totally annihilated the rest of the field (what was left of it after the first lap crash, that is). Just a tad fit.

But, how depressing for the woman in second place. She had hopes, right? (Can you hear it coming?) Absolutely. Just like we all did for Obama. And, just like Ms. Second-place, those hopes have been pretty much dashed. Let's see - Bush: favours death penalty. Barack? Favours death penalty. Bush - favours increasing involvement of religion in government. Barack? Favours increasing involvement of religion in government (memo to Bary: a Founding Principle of democracy - separation of church and state. In case you'd forgotten). Bush - favours wire-tapping Americans' phones. Barack? Favours wire-tapping Americans' phones. I swear, if there's a story in the news tomorrow that says that Bary's decided the Iraq war is O.K. by him, I won't be surprised. Talk about a neck-snapping total turn-around!

O.K., everybody getting sick of serendipity? I haven't had much chance to get out and take any new photographs lately, so I went looking through old files. I found this one. My thought was that it showed how crappy the weather is here in Vancouver just now. It's June, after all, and it's cold, gray, and rainy around here. The photo conveys that, right? And I was going to whine and snivel about how un-June-like the weather was. Well, after hitting "Upload", I figured I'd check to see just when I actually took the photo. Turns out it was June of last year. There goes the un-June-like complaint. Rats!

But (and here's where the serendipity comes in), I realized that it could perfectly express my thoughts on the McBush campaign - nothing ever changes. There's a Republican slime in the White House now, and another trying to get there. Dumbya thinks it's just fine to tap American citizens' phones. Funnily enough, so does McBush. Oh, sure, he's a bit conflicted about the legality, but as to the morality, well, he seems pretty fine with the idea. Yep, that's who I'd be votin' for - a guy who's happy enough to eavesdrop on his fellow citizens, but, well, heck, O.K., if the law says "Not good, John", well, he might not do it. Not that he'd actually believe it was wrong, but, well, the law says it's wrong. Yep, that's the kind of guy you want running a country.