Indiana, Temperatures, Running, Baseball, Gator Football

This entry stands as a hodge-podge of different items, as its title strongly suggests...

My wonderful wife Melissa is off to Indiana at her seminary for a couple of weeks to complete a couple of her required courses.  I'm missing her already, although I drove her to the airport just this morning.  May everything go well "up" there!

I understand the temperatures in northern Indiana right now are more temperate and comfortable then here in sweltering northern Florida...the heat and humidity have definitely interfered with my running (as has a recent week of jury duty).  There's a long distance race here in Gainesville in November (the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon) that I've run a couple of times in the past...I sure would like to be in shape to run it.  Guess I'll have to come up with some alternate ways of building my endurance back up during these dog days of summer...including more frequently using the treadmill at my local stupendously air-conditioned gym...

Speaking of sports, Major League Baseball just finished the All-Star break and it looks as if my two Floridian teams, Tampa Bay and Miami, won't be going anywhere in the post-season (as most have predicted they wouldn't). The Rays, however, have surprised a lot a folks (including myself) by being a strong third place in the American League East...the Marlins, with their previous star lineup decimated by incoming team president Derek Jeter, are predictably in last place in their National League East Division.  Looks like the Red Sox, Yankees, Indians, and defending World Series champions Houston are in line to make the playoffs in the American League with Seattle and Oakland fighting for the last spot.  The National League is much more wide open, with Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Colorado, and even San Francisco still in the hunt for the postseason.  Sometimes I'll come across a televised game while surfing around, but I rarely watch it in its entirety...and it really doesn't matter who's playing or what the score is: I like to take each half-inning on its own terms as the strategies unfold between the pitchers, batters, fielders, and managers...

It won't be too much longer before the University of Florida begins the Dan Mullen era of football.  It used to be that the term "era" referred to several years, but recently with the stunted "eras" of the last two coaches we've had, it's getting to be a sad joke when a new one gets hired as we wonder how long he'll last.  I have a better feeling about Mullen, though: not only has he been very successful the last few years in coaching Mississippi State, but he was also offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer and taught Tim Tebow a few things about how to play quarterback in college football...the Gators are in desperate need to have a good offensive season after eight straight dismal ones.  Now if the new head coach can just keep his players from being arrested...