Connect these thoughts at your own risk

Benefit of Leaving Mainstream Journalism #10,213:
The company is sending me to a one-day health plan conference in Denver. Twice I've driven through while helping friends move west of the Rockies, but only stopped once for a quick breakfast after a night spent crossing Kansas.
So I visit Denver mid-week, sit through a day's worth of sessions that will be transformed into stories, and finally meet the sources I've known only by phone for a year.
Then it's two days of fun, provided Denver does not get buried in one of those early snowstorms.
By meeting with sources and working on Columbus Day (a paid holiday on the other side), I can spend two extra days at 5,280 and above, crafting a nice mini-vacation and write off nearly the entire venture.
Take that, community journalism.

***

Ever time a driver runs down a cyclist, I run through every time I nearly ended up as a hood ornament.
In six years of regular riding, those near-collisions with bumpers number in the dozens. Surprisingly, most came in Columbus - Nashville's West End has highly dangerous intersection for cyclists, so I know to to pedal with extreme caution.
Once you accept that drivers pay attention to those moving under their own power, it gets easier.
Expect the SUV'ers to make the dumbest driving decision possible, and you'll never get angry - or flattened - when they do.

***

I wish Coldplay got a few albums under their belt for turning popular - Viva la Vida has some quality songs, but too many with half-baked lyrics and synth-drenched melodies. This band still feels in need of an identity. Maybe on Album No. %.
Plus, I can't help but like Chris Martin - he's hardly a typical, egomaniacal rock star - despite having a wife more famous than him. In the RS interview, he came off as a guy glad for what life delivered him - he admits Gwyneth is the only person he's ever been in love with.
(You know how I know I'm gay?) ...

***

For the first time in five years, I left the dentist's office with a clean bill of teeth. After all those times my mouth became a mining operation, I was due.
Plus, my dentist is in her early 40's, divorced, a mother of two and never fails to make men's heads turn. (You know how I not I'm not gay?) ...

***

That's all I have, aside from sore fingers. Tomorrow: All about Bruce.