My October '12 Running Report

Once again we've reached the end of a month and, as usual, here I am with my monthly running report.  I passed my goal of 100 miles/month with a total of 105.69 miles.  I also ran every day in October, bringing my personal record consecutive day running streak now to 184 days.  My longest run was a mere 5.3 miles, while the overwhelming number of runs were between 3 and 4 miles.

The weather, which for most of the month was unseasonably warm and (ugh) humid, took a much more pleasant turn in the last few days.  Today, for example, it was around noontime when I ran, with the temperature just 64 degrees and the humidity a blissful 29%.  Oh, for more of the same!  But alas, I AM in Florida, so most likely we'll go back into some unpleasantly warm weather...

Sandy About to Strike Northeastern U.S.

The massive three-headed storm now collectively known as Sandy is about to slam into the heavily populated northeastern U.S. coast in a few hours.  The storm rivals, even possibly exceeds, the scope of 1993's Storm of the Century that swept up the eastern American seaboard in March of that year.  I'm very concerned about this storm, which will be affecting an area and population that is certain to suffer severe damage, and tragically worse, casualties and possibly even deaths.  But even with just the sweeping and lengthy power outages, life may be very difficult is this massively urban area...

Weekend Sports, Downside and Upside

Being a follower of football and baseball, I had a few big games to keep up with this weekend.  Yesterday the undefeated and favored University of Florida Gators turned the ball over six times to rival Georgia en route to a tough 17-9 loss. Too bad, but they're a good team and should do well for the remainder of the season.   On the plus side, the San Francisco Giants, the team I'm pulling for in this year's baseball World Series, won and gained a 3-0 lead, with only a win to go to sweep their opponent the Detroit Tigers.  Then today came and with it two NFL contests concerning my favorite teams, the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants.

Both teams were involved in contests with divisional rivals... and they won! The Dolphins' 30-9 victory over the New York Jets was more surprising because of their unexpected dominance.  Now Miami is solidly in second place in the AFC with a 4-3 record with good playoff prospects so far.  And the Giants outlasted their rival the Dallas Cowboys in a close game 29-24.  They are leading the NFC East with a 6-2 record.

Finally, the fourth World Series game just ended.  San Francisco's ten-inning win over Detroit gave them a Series sweep.  Whoopee!

I wouldn't be too concerned about the Gators with their loss, even though it may eventually keep them from playing Alabama for the SEC championship.  After all, just avoiding having to play Alabama may have been a desirable result...

Third Debate Raises My Doubts

Having already gone off against the exasperating still-undecided voter after all of this time they could have used to research and get to know the candidates in this 2012 presidential race, I got a taste of my own medicine a couple of days ago when I questioned my own voting decision.  The final debate between Obama and Romney had taken place the night before and I was surfing my radio in the early afternoon before work, searching desperately for SOMETHING decent to listen to.  Finally, I landed on 94.7, which was the frequency of a local low-powered station that offered alternative talk radio programming at that time of day.  In progress was a replay of that final debate, with one alteration. The show had two candidates from minor parties (a third,  the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson had declined) who answered each question after the president and etch-a-sketcher's responses.  They were Jill Stein of the Green Party and Rocky Anderson of the newly-formed Justice Party.  The "debate" wasn't between these two; they could have been each other's running mates for the mutual agreement in their responses, making me wonder why those forming the Justice Party didn't just join and strengthen the longer-established Green Party.

The upshot of it all was that I found myself wholeheartedly agreeing with the alternative candidates, dismayed that they will amass between them probably less than one per cent of the vote.  They both opposed the Affordable Care Act for pandering to insurance companies and overburdening private businesses, instead of the single payer system that I had long preferred.  They both decried the excessive militarism of our foreign policy, noting that the difference between the major two political parties was just a matter of degree.  I liked Stein more and thought that maybe I should just switch my vote over to her.  But then I thought that by doing so, I would be aiding Romney in this close swing state I'm living in.  Noam Chomsky decided to endorse the Green Party candidate, but then again Michael Moore and Howard Dean are enthusiastically supporting Obama's reelection.  So, for a little while I have been experiencing a little of this undecided fog myself, but in the end I think I'll just stick with my original intention.

I liked the ideas I heard on that debate, not by the main speakers but rather by the candidates who were denied nationwide exposure.  Maybe, though, a presidential election isn't the forum for me to express myself by voting for a minor party.  Instead, I can look at how the tea party movement formed and strengthened as a more ideological branch of the Republican Party during the electoral off-season (not that I would have any interest in pursuing their agenda).  Perhaps instead, this is the better way for me to make my beliefs known...

Solar Powered Runner

Last Friday, I tried a predawn morning run, about 3.25 miles around my neighborhood.  I wore a cap with an imbedded flashlight in the visor, which was important because some of the street lighting where I live leaves a lot to be desired.  It was a pleasurable experience.  I could see the stars clearly, even including my favorite, Canopus, which was peaking low above the southern horizon.  Yes, I liked it.  And I felt the same degree of energy I usually have during my late morning runs.  But get this: my final time was about a minute slower than when I run the same distance in the middle of the day, under much warmer conditions.

Then early Sunday evening, as the skies were gradually darkening, I ran the same course.  Once again, I thought I was pacing myself like I usually did and felt energized.  But also once again, my time was slower than usual.  In between and after these two runs, I ran in the middle of the day.  I perspired more and it was less pleasant, but I ran faster nevertheless.  So I wonder...

Does exposure to the sun have some kind of positive effect on my running, making me faster?  Am I a solar-powered runner?  This would seem to run counter to the conventional wisdom, which states that I would be better off under cooler nighttime or twilight conditions.  Of course, indoor treadmill running is away from the sun.  But with that, my pace is set by what I enter on the machine and not by my inner sense of how fast I'm running.

Despite my puzzling slower pace at night, I'd like to do more nighttime runs.  The streets are pretty deserted in my neighborhood between 5 and 6 AM, so if I can just rouse myself up and hit the pavement, I should be able to pull this off...

World Series '12 Set Between Det and SF

Last night the San Francisco Giants did a "number" on the St. Louis Cardinals in their final divisional series game with a 9-0 and a 4-3 series victory, giving them a ticket to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers, who swept the New York Yankees 4-0 with merciless pitching.  Although the Series pairing doesn't evoke memories of earlier times and the geography isn't intriguing, I still look forward to it, especially since the Giants, my "runner-up" favorite in the National League playoffs after the Atlanta Braves were eliminated, made it this far.  Not that I have anything against Detroit, though...

Kinky October Weather

Meteorologically speaking, I can't help but be amused at the computer projections for the predicted trajectory of the current tropical disturbance out in the central Caribbean.  They are all over the place, with the paths taking the storm either over the Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, or Central America!  In other words, the forecasters are clueless!  To be fair, this is late October, and the typical, more predictable late summer hurricane tracks tend to break down when the more northern weather begins its autumnal descent into the south.  We've finally been experiencing early morning lows into the 50's, thankfully, and maybe...just maybe...we're done for the year with 90+-degree afternoons.  Still, the wind direction can change suddenly, and the next thing you know, there is a tropical storm knocking at your door...

10/18, 39 Years Ago and Today

October 18, 1973.  Many of my devoted readers probably weren't even born yet then, but to me it represents a "last time": the last time (as well as the first time) I had surgery performed on me while I was under general anesthesia.  On that day, I had an inguinal hernia repaired and recovered quickly.  I was seventeen then, so surgery wasn't that big a deal to me (although it worried the others in my family).  And, amazingly, through the decades that followed, leading to this very moment, the only invasive medical procedures I've undergone have been in the endoscopy/colonoscopy department.  Not even a broken bone to repair.  That's fortunate, but I'm savvy enough to know that I should just count my blessings and not be so self-assured about the future in this regard.  Actually...

Actually, there's a reasonable chance that, sometime during the next few years, I'll have to have some major corrective surgery done on me regarding a birth defect affecting my circulatory system in a potentially critical way.  But then again, maybe I won't ever need it, who knows.  It all depends on regular CT scans of the area in question, as well as my specialist/physician/surgeon's recommendations.

Oh, by the way, on a rather disconcerting note, it was while I was mostly bedridden at the hospital for my surgery and recovery back in '73 that I came to love listening to Led Zeppelin's oft-played masterpiece Stairway to Heaven on a local rock station (the one on 100.7 if memory serves me correctly). I didn't make the morbid connection between the song and my hospitalization until years later, but it was the first Zep song I truly loved...

Debate Nonsense

As I mentioned on October 4, the millions of voters who haven't yet been able to make up their minds who to vote for president and have been waiting for the debates to make their decision are a little scary to me.  After all, every four years I have to place my hopes (often dashed) on these dunderheads to somehow get swayed by some irrelevant side issue and vote for MY candidate.  This year is certainly a classic example of this, with the debate results accounting for ridiculous swings in the public opinion polls.  Romney supposedly won the first debate and Obama the second, while for the Veep post Biden is reported to have laughed Ryan off the stage.  Of course, it all depends on your point of view.  The winner, if he was your candidate, was confident, assertive and humorous.  But if he was the "bad" guy, then he was offensive and lied through his teeth.

The point I'd like to make is that these debates are so contrived and manipulated that it is impossible to gain any measure of the candidates' worth through them.  But with all of the information and exposure for the past several years in the media about Romney and Obama, anyone with half a brain could have figured out by now who they wanted to lead them and the country.  Instead, we're being treated to what amounts to an American Idol/Dance With the Stars-caliber entertainment spectacle, where the audience (through the polls) determines winner and loser.   Oh joy, we still have another debate to go...

The March of Time

Sometimes, during my walk through the day, I stop and reflect on how time seems to be flowing.  In this, my 57th year of life on Earth, it definitely seems to be going a lot faster than during my childhood, when a day was very long and a year seemed an eternity.  That having been said, though, even for 2012 and my advancing age, time seems to be hurtling ahead.  And it's pretty disturbing.

In sheer numerical terms, I look ahead at my future years and see a possibility of living a few more decades...let's throw out thirty years as a feasible scenario (my father is still puttering around with all of his faculties at 86).  That sounds like a lot of time to do and experience things, doesn't it?  But even if I factor out increasing limitations on myself due to physical aging, I still have to deal with the bothersome fact that time is flying by faster and faster.  Those thirty years I see ahead of me are most likely going to come and go in a flash, especially in comparison with my first thirty years. 

I am finding myself lately having to grapple with this accelerating time flow, and the only solution I can offer is to deliberately, consciously seize the present moment and live for now.  No dwelling in the past, be it for pleasant reflection or regret.  And no undue emphasis on the future either; let that take care of itself.  NO, the present moment, which does seem to be the one constant, changing thread throughout my life, is where I will make my home and live.  I can't control the clock or calendar, but I can control where I place my focus.

That doesn't mean that memories and plans don't have their places in my life.  After all, this blog is loaded with them and I'll continue to draw upon them.  But they can't rule me, either...

2012 MLB League Championship Pairings Set

The Major League Baseball playoffs have now whittled the pool of contenders to four teams, and finally we're going to have some best-of-seven series. And lo and behold, the two teams I was rooting for the most in the last round, the New York Yankees in the American League, and the San Francisco Giants in the National, made it to this round.  The Yankees will face Detroit and the Giants the St. Louis Cardinals, by now almost universally recognized as the "cardiac kids" of baseball with their amazing "two-outs and two-strikes in the ninth" heroic comebacks. 

I sure do wish New York can make it to the World Series but I am a bit dismayed that right now their only consistently good starting pitcher is CC Sabathia.  They will need to do better than that to get past the Tigers, whose ace starter Justin Verlander is nearly unhittable...

The only potential World Series pairing that I wouldn't find terribly interesting would be Detroit and San Francisco.  But at this point, it looks more as if the Yankees and Cardinals will be facing off instead.  We'll see...

Avoiding Election Results

I wonder what would happen if, for this year's general election, I went out of my way on Election Day (and possibly beyond) to avoid hearing or reading about the results.  I realize that, ultimately, I would find out one way or another who won this extraordinarily depressing election.  After all, I'll be working that Tuesday night and will be surrounded by colleagues who are intimately concerned about who gets elected, especially in the presidential race.  And if, by some wonder of wonders, I should make it home from work still blissfully ignorant of the results, I have no doubt that my family would be only too happy to fill me in on what I had deliberately been missing.  Of course, I could tell them not to "give it away" and see how long I could then remain uninformed.  This would entail me deliberately avoiding TV, radio, the Internet, newspapers, and even other people out in public...

I've tried this little "Ignore" game two other times in my life, but they both involved football scores, not election results.  The first time was the 1984 Super Bowl (for the '83 season) between the (then) Los Angeles Raiders and the Washington Redskins. I was successful at avoiding the result until the next morning when I inadvertently caught the score on a newspaper in a rack I was passing by on the way to work.  The other was the college national championship game a few years ago between the Florida Gators and the Oklahoma Sooners.  My cheering co-workers gave this one away before the game was even officially over...

Of course, if this year's presidential election goes the way that 2000's did, it won't matter whether or not I avoid seeking the results! 

Rooting for Dolphins' Divisional Rivals in NFL

I was watching the Houston Texans (or is it the Texas Houstons) playing the New York Jets on Monday Night Football.  Normally I'd root against the Jets during the regular season as they are divisional rivals to my Miami Dolphins, but right now there is another "important" factor in play that compelled me to root for them instead.  Every year in the NFL, I go through the process of pulling against any team (other than the Dolphins, of course) that looks like it might go undefeated.  That's because Miami, back in 1972, was the only team to accomplish this feat, winning all of their games in both the regular and post-season.  The scariest moment I've had was New England's near perfect season in 2007, remedied only by the New York Giants' amazing last-minute come-from-behind upset of them in the Super Bowl.  This year only the Atlanta Falcons and the Houston Texans are left, and I want them to lose.  After that happens, they can win the rest of their games, for all I care (except when playing the Dolphins, that is).

Unfortunately, both teams won their games this past weekend and I'll have to put off my annual celebration for at least another week.  What struck me during the Texans/Jets game was how dominant Houston's defensive line was...except when New York (rarely) put in their backup Tim Tebow as quarterback.  Tebow would get in for a play, make a good gain, get everybody excited...and then leave.  After which starter Mark Sanchez would return and get overwhelmed by the Texas pass rush (especially by that incredible J.J. Watt).  And the drive would stall.  Once they were at the Houston goal line after Tebow had a big running gain.  They let him run just one more play, took him out, and the drive then stalled.  I don't get what the Jets coaches are thinking, anyway. Why did they trade for him if they are going to use this relatively expensive player so sparingly?

I recently had another curious situation when I rooted for a team I normally oppose.  This time I pulled for the New England Patriots, another divisional rival of Miami, against my new "unfavorite" team the Denver Broncos, with their Dolphins-rejecting star quarterback Peyton Manning.  Turn down an offer to play for Miami and you incur my wrath, dude.  Plus, I'm not too happy with the way Denver used Tebow last year to lead them into the playoffs and then eagerly dumped him as soon as they signed Manning.  Oh, let's see...so far this season with the great, exalted Peyton Manning as their starting quarterback, the Broncos are 2-3 (.400) while the "untalented" Tebow took them to the divisional title last year with a 7-4 (.637) record as starter, and with essentially the same surrounding personnel.  So I was happy (at least for this past weekend) to see the Patriots knock 'em off. May the "high" and holy Broncos finish DEAD LAST...

Road Birds Win One-Game Baseball Playoffs

After grinding it out for a long, 162-game regular season, two of the wild card baseball teams found themselves suddenly booted out of the playoffs after losing the one and only game they had against their opponent.  The Texas Rangers, last year's American League champion, and the Atlanta Braves, the team in the National League that I was pulling for the most, lost their respective games to the Baltimore Orioles and the St. Louis Cardinals.  So now I am left with trying to decide who to root for on the National side.  I think I'll pick the San Francisco Giants, who begin their series against the Cincinnati Reds today.  And my second choice will be the Washington Nationals, who are still trying for their first World Series appearance going back throughout the franchise's years as the Montreal Expos. They will be playing against last year's Series champs the Cardinals.

On the American side, my New York Yankees are going on strong and will begin their series against those Orioles tomorrow.  Meanwhile, the surprising Oakland Athletics will face off against the Detroit Tigers.  I like the Athletics here.

I am looking at potential World Series match-ups and see a few interesting possibilities:

New York Yankees vs. Cincinnati Reds: rematch of the 1976 Series swept by the Reds.

New York Yankees vs. San Francisco Giants: rematch of the 1962 series won by NY in seven games.  Also, the Giants, formerly in New York, have a Series history against the Yanks.

New York Yankees vs. St. Louis Cardinals: the Cards won an exciting seven-game series in 1964 against the Bronx Bombers, after which the Yanks hired the victors' manager and then went into an instant decline, not returning to the World Series until 1976.

Baltimore Orioles vs. St. Louis Cardinals: battle of the bird teams.

Baltimore Orioles vs. Cincinnati Reds: rematch of the 1971 Series convincingly won by Baltimore in five games.

Baltimore Orioles vs. Washington Nationals: the I-95 Series, just a short drive down this road connects these two cities.

Detroit  Tigers vs. St. Louis Cardinals: rematch of the 1968 Series won by Detroit in seven.

Oakland Athletics vs. Cincinnati Reds: this would be the "rubber" rematch series between the two, with Oakland winning 4-3 in 1972 and Cincy winning 4-0 in 1990.

Oakland Athletics vs. San Francisco Giants: another match-up between two close teams, this time separated by a bay.

The Scariest Voters

Having deliberately avoided the Robamney debate yesterday, I still couldn't avoid the general media reaction, which was that Chameleon Mitt had won hands down, largely by deftly employing his Etch-a-Sketch strategy as he portrayed himself smack dab in the political middle after trying to out-extreme the extremists in his party for years.  (Nausea creeping in on me...)  From what I heard, Obama let him get away with everything he said.

I have long been a little scared at the people in this country who subscribe to politically fringe ideas.  The political left has its extremists, to be sure, but there seems to be an explosion on the right in the number of people walking around with a delusional view of the world.  I credit extremist/right talk radio, a regrettably highly politicized faction of evangelical Christianity, and conservative ultra-wealthy fatcat ideologues with much of this.  And this burgeoning number does scare me some.  But not as much as...

Not as much as the large number of people in our electorate who, after all these years of exposure to Obama and Romney and their views and actions, still haven't made up their minds who to vote for and are using these debates as a tool to accomplish this.  In other words the dude who gets in the most "zingers" gets their vote.  And the history of my country (and, to a great extent, the world) hinges on how millions of these morons decide to vote every four years.  Yes, to paraphrase Michael Corleone at the beginning of The Godfather, "They are very scary people." Al Pacino's character may have been referring to a single, terrifying person in Luca Brasi, but the cumulative effect of these easily swayed, shallow voters can be terrifying as well.  And in case you've haven't yet connected the dots, they are also the reason untold millions of dollars are being spent in this year's campaign, with more and more to come.  Just to persuade these knuckleheads...

The Day We've Been Waiting For

Well, finally, October the Third, 2012, has come, a day that people across this great nation of ours have been waiting for.  Yes, it is today that we can witness....the end of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season (what else would I reasonably be talking about).  Here are the teams that made the playoffs and who's playing whom:

American League
Wild-Card Playoff game (not series!!!): Baltimore at Texas
Then: Baltimore/Texas single game winner vs. New York Yankees (yippee!)
and Detroit vs. Oakland

National League
Wild-Card Playoff game (just one, unbelievable): St.Louis  at (my) Atlanta Braves
Then St.Louis/Atlanta winner vs. Washington
and Cincinnati vs. San Francisco

The wild card playoff games are both being held on Friday, which disappoints me greatly.  Surely, with only one crucial game to decide these worthy teams' playoff futures, they could have at least waited until Saturday to hold them, when more people would have been in a position to watch them.  But I know, it's all about money, and they probably didn't want to compete head-on with college football...

Major League Baseball Regular Season Nearing End

We're nearing the tail end of this 2012 edition of major league baseball, and there are still some positions up in the air for the playoffs.  The New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles are IN, vying between themselves for the AL East championship with the loser being one of the league's two wild card entries.  The AL Central has the Detroit Tigers three games ahead of the Chicago White Sox, with three games left to play and thus on the verge of clinching that division.  In the AL West, the there are still three teams alive: the Texas Rangers, already in the playoffs but not yet champs of that division, the Oakland Athletics, with the inside track to the playoffs as a wild card team (they could clinch a spot with a win later tonight) and a chance to overtake Texas, and the Los Angeles Angels, just barely hanging on to a remote shot at the playoffs.

In the National League, the divisional winners have been decided: Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds, and San Francisco Giants.  The Atlanta Braves are also as the best wild card team, leaving the last wild card spot open between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The Cards, last year's World Series champions, have a two game lead over LA with three games to go.  But if they make the playoffs, St. Louis could go the distance once again, in my opinion.

My favorites this year are the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves.  Not only are they my personal favorites, but they are also strong enough to make it to the World Series, for a fourth Series match-up between the Yankees and Braves (the last one being in 1996).  Then again, there are some other intriguing possibilities, which I may examine soon in a future article...