floyd landis's mamma

ok, so i have searched through scores of press releases about floyd landis....and while all mention his mennonite upbringing...and lack of tv/movies as a child......nobody has yet mentioned whether his family has watched this year's tour....especially yesterday's brilliant stage win.....and today.....i found what i was looking for (and not in the linked article, btw)......mrs. landis does, in fact....walk over to a neighbor's home to watch the tour...gentle readers....this brings great comfort to me...that a man's family will overcome cultural constraints for family ties......there are many degrees of amishness and mennoniteness......i have mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again, that i was born in an ohio county with a large amish/mennonite constituency....i have been in numerous amish/menoonite homes with my dad, who was the county extension agent (for the ohio state university)......some homes had no electricity........some had a phone in the barn but not in the house.....some would ride in cars but not own them......i went to school with amish girls and boys....and the girls wore underdrawers that were basically diapers held together with straight pins.......one never forgets a sight like that.........they also wore longsleeves and black stockings to school regardless of the temperature....and little white caps........and they had no church.......rather they owned benches....and the benches were rotated amongst the farms for a weekly service in the largest barn.......speaking of barns, i vaguely recall being briefly at a barn-raising, which is everything it is rumored to be.....a glorious example of many hands make light work.......but i digress from floyd landis's mom.......one of the other hallmarks of this culture is the tradition of shunning those who leave the fold........floyd's family must not take things to this extreme......thankfully....and his mamma must feel free to at least watch on a borrowed television that footage that she cannot watch in her own due to culteral reasons........at yesterday's stage, there were a few brief glimpses of floyd's wife, amber.....who is decidedly neither amish nor mennonite......i do hope that mamma has met amber......it would be quite a shock to see that footage unprepared.......and i do hope that the landis family have forgiven floyd for foresaking farming......this is a tough subject for farming families......i do have clear recollection of my grandfather....years ago.......bemoaning the fact that none of his sons came home from wwII to farm with him........and my dad gently reminded him that he had told grandpa...at the time....that he would have to buy an adjoining property to have made it a lucrative venture....and that when he had the chance my grandfather had not pursued the purchase.......and so i grew up in a non-farm situation.......yet visited farms and learned to tell the difference between cow breeds and to distinghish between the aroma of a dairy operation and a hog farm.......(this is a gift rarely mentioned.....).....tomorrow is the time trial...let's hope that floyd gives his mamma something worth walking next door to see.......