My Running and Walking Report for February 2025

For the first three weekends in February I participated in three races, speed-walking a 5K and the running the other two, one for 5K and the other for 10 miles.  My workouts were going well, that is, until February 19th when I suffered a bout of inflammation in both legs, especially in the calf area under each knee.  Two days later I had pretty much recovered, but to this day still have aches in the area and am not at 100%.  It feels a bit like arthritis, and my shoulder areas suffer some twinges as well...I had been doing push-ups to develop my upper body strength.  As far as races are concerned, it's over for a while not only because of that inflammation, but also because I am scheduled for prostate removal surgery (prostatectomy) on March 6th because of diagnosed cancer there.  I will need recovery time afterwards, and, besides, it's just going to keep getting warmer outside.  Later on in the spring I'd like to go back to trying a modest swimming routine mixed in with walking and a little running, but my more athletic efforts will be taking a back seat to surgery and recovery...

My Songs of the Month for February 2025

I didn't listen much to my music channels this past month, but I did hear some songs I liked more than others.  The preferred genre is Indie-Rock, and much of what I liked in January slid over into February.  My favorite song of the month was on January's list: Starburster by the Dublin, Ireland group Fontaines DC.  Number Two on the list was Besties by Black Country, New Road.  And the third favorite is January's song of the month for me, Everyone Out by DIIV...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 5

As I continue to reflect on stories from 1999 I 'm reading from the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, I find myself a little "unstuck in time"...as Kurt Vonnegut might put it.  For me growing up and into early adulthood, the year 1999 was a far-off future time, science fiction in itself. Not only did it figure in Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's space exploration classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, but we even had in the early 1970s a syndicated sci-fi TV series called Space: 1999 that starred old Mission: Impossible stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.  This was long before Prince enshrined the year with his 1983 hit 1999.  But now the year 1999 is more than a quarter century into the receding past.  Anyway, let's take a look at a couple of those stories...

GREEN TEA by Richard Wadholm

A "hard" science fiction tale about revenge, I found the technical descriptions of spaceship hardware and arcane narratives about chemical/physical breakdowns of exotic, dangerous substances hard to follow as the story's narrator describes, as an obvious survivor, the heavy loss of life and destruction as a ship transporting dangerous cargo must scramble against all odds to avoid its own destruction...and possibly that of the star system it has entered.  I did make it all the way to the end, for which I'm very proud of myself.  This isn't a story you can rush through, and I felt the author went out of his way to make it a difficult read...

THE DRAGON OF PRIPYAT by Karl Schroeder 

The nuclear reaction meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 is the basis of this tale, set twenty years later in the "future" 2006 (you know, our "past" 2006).  It seems that the supposedly secured site is emitting toxic radiation, a "release", and an investigator is sent there to, well, investigate.  Is a terrorist group behind the new danger?...I enjoyed reading about how the surrounding environment responded to the Chernobyl debacle over the years.  The author added the twist of virtual reality here as an alternative lifestyle...

Next week I continue looking at 1999 in science fiction...

Miss the Good Old "Boring" Days

I'm looking forward to attending my dear daughter Rebecca's wedding this coming Saturday...it will take place in Lakeland.  My wishes and prayers are with the two of them as they stake out their lives together.  I will always miss and grieve for my son Will, who passed away last summer.  My wife Melissa's sister is now a patient in the same hospital where I'll be undergoing my prostatectomy surgery on March 6th...we are likewise praying for her successful treatment and recovery from her afflictions.  Some folks get restless and discontent over what they perceive as their boring lives.  I, on the other hand...other than my daughter's marriage...would be very happy with a vast sea of relatively eventless days stretched out before me.  But that doesn't seem to be in the works anytime soon...

Latest Jigsaw Puzzle

 

Here's a pic of the jigsaw puzzle I just did over the past weekend.  It's one of four in a box of scenes by the artist Thomas Kinkade that I picked up at my nearby Wal-Mart. Every puzzle has its own challenges, and consequently puts me just enough outside my perceptual comfort zone to serve as a nice little exercise.  Now on to the next one...

Political, Media Manipulation Will Only Get Worse

A few weeks ago, while surfing through YouTube in their section devoted to running, I "ran" across a couple of Canadian middle-age brothers who decided to tackle distance running and triathlons in order to get themselves fit after undergoing some health scares.  They're really a couple of top-notch athletes, it turns out, and they have their own channel committed to their ongoing efforts and accomplishments.  These two are, however, a bit insufferable with their self-promotion and putdowns of those they don't feel measure up to their standards...I felt early on that they held themselves to be on a higher plane of existence than me.  That's okay, they have their thing and I mine...to each our own: I don't HAVE TO watch their videos.  I cannot say the same regarding our recycled president and his musky wingman.  It's clear that the convicted felon that my own country saw fit to return to office has, as a centerpiece of his strategy, the notion of keeping himself the focus of media attention EVERY DAY with some new outrage to say or someone to offend.  Sadly, I think he's on to something...America is hopelessly hooked on reality television and celebrities: the more off-the-wall they are, the better. Some folks think that all they have to do is outlast this president and then things will return to normal, but I think the change is permanent.  From now on future candidates, on both sides of the political divide, will apply the lessons in mass manipulation they're learning here to their respective campaigns. If you think it's bad now, wait 'til AI and quantum computing attain their full realization and seamlessly merge into our mass and social media, forever blurring the distinction between fact and fantasy. Hell, it's already happening.  At least those Canadian brothers are real (I think).  On the other hand, it seems to me that the American voter doesn't even care anymore what is real or not: they just care about how it all makes them feel...   

Strange Inflammatory, Painful Leg Episode This Past Wednesday

Late afternoon this past Wednesday (2/19/25) I was napping in my living room recliner.  Upon awakening, I found both of my legs painfully immobile just below the knees, and had difficulty walking around without the aid of a pole.  This continued throughout the evening...after a good night's sleep I was much more mobile, but still at a loss as to what happened.  I hadn't been running any hardy Wednesday than usual...if anything, a little lighter.  I was running in a different building, on a wooden floor...why would that matter, though?  It's Saturday now and my leg muscles have a sore...although not bad...feel to them and I have resumed light jogging in place around the house as before.  I wonder whether I might have picked up a virus somewhere that manifested itself in my legs...I am vaccinated for Influenza Type A.  Or maybe I became a little too dehydrated and the body reacted, I don't know.  I am drinking more hydration, though, and am guardedly optimistic that this sudden inflammatory episode was isolated and won't return.  As of this writing there is no pain, only a residual background soreness.  I'm leaning toward the dehydration explanation and am liberally drinking fluids...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 4

We've arrived at another Wednesday, and as such it is time for me to comment on the latest science fiction short stories I've read as I continue to go through the past, year-by-year, using as a story reference the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, this volume featuring picks from 1999...

DAPPLE: A HWARHATH HISTORICAL ROMANCE by Eleanor Arsnason

On a distant world is a (furry) human society where the gender roles are inverted to a degree, and homosexual behavior is the accepted norm with heterosexual unions are highly ritualized and generally considered undesirable.  In this setting a girl has her sights set on putting on plays for others, following in the tradition of visiting friends of her sea-faring family.  Only problem: putting on traveling shows is considered "men's" work...she has some barriers to overcome, as well as a few life-threatening adventures, as this interesting narrative progresses.  This story illustrates the often arbitrary way that societies (including ours) construct themselves with their traditions and taboos...

PEOPLE CAME FROM EARTH by Stephen Baxter

Here Baxter, a noted "hard" science fiction writer, lays out the parameters for a Moon colony of people, cut off from Earth after it foolishly destroys itself in high-tech warfare.  Due to nano-weapons that destroyed the metal used in high technology, the remaining lunar population, their bodies thin, light and fragile and susceptible to wasting disease, no longer has the metals used in their previous higher state of technology, forced now to revert to more primitive agriculture and engineering.  A lunar man's young nephew is enthralled with the papers and legacy of Leonardi da Vinci...their conversations, along the boy's rapidly deteriorating health and the colony's race against time to develop its technological base...form the basis for this sobering piece...

Next week: more from '99...

AI Moving Fast Over Us

I have lately been noticing on YouTube and Facebook that artificial intelligence, or AI, has exploded in growth with the number of posts and channels dramatically increasing.  What's more, not only the AI-generated text but also its video presentation are coming chillingly close to resembling actual known people's images and writings.  I wonder how the Internet we've grown used to will look in just, say, five years and whether it will be recognizable.  AI presents its own challenges, especially coupled with the development in quantum computing that stands to massively empower processing speed and memory.  What's real and what isn't...that looks to be the fundamental question ahead of us as we trudge forward into this brave new world.  I've already seen commercials where users are using AIs as confidants, seeking personal advice from them..."really"?  What's the future going to be like?  Maybe each of us will have our own AI accounts, and with special glasses and audio we can have anyone we want around us, down to our most stringent specifications...who needs all those icky real people?  In the Ron Howard-directed award-winning movie A Beautiful Mind, mathematical genius John Nash, played by Russell Crowe, hallucinated his own circle of friends and colleagues...but it was revealed that this was an element of his schizophrenia.  Are we entering a time of mass insanity...or have we already arrived?  What a time to be alive...

Effectively Steering Conversation a Personal Challenge

Over this past weekend I found myself in three different social situations in which I was more or less habituated to take a background role in conversation and let others dictate the flow and content.  Coming away from it all, I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.  On the plus side, this doesn't leave me overthinking later on about whether I misspoke about something and offended anyone.  But on the minus end, it all kind of left me bored since I know many of these good people out there have skills and interests, some of which they could help me develop if the communications were more directed and substantial (and interesting).  As I make my way into the wonderful world of retirement, I'm seeing more effective interactions with acquaintances and strangers as a kind of personal challenge.  And since there is no shortage of people out there, there should be plenty of opportunities to experiment with this conversational tactic or that.  But it's all pretty uncomfortable...I tend to be on the far reclusive end of "introvert".  On the other hand, enduring others going off endlessly with their boring rants and tedious talking points is uncomfortable as well...might as well get them talking about something I care about...

My Jigsaw Puzzle of the Golden Gate Bridge

 

Here's the final of the seven jigsaw puzzles I put together from the box depicting different notable American scenes I got last year...actually, it's the first one of the bunch I did.  The Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco with Sausalito and northern California is another of those symbols of American engineering prowess.  I've never been there, but that climactic scene in the James Bond thriller A View to a Kill was impressive to watch.  This was the biggest of the puzzles at 1000 pieces, and that undifferentiated sky took up way too many puzzle pieces to be enjoyable.  Guess it's time to go get some more puzzles...

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Muggy Morning

This morning I drove out to Gainesville's Depot Park, just south of downtown, to participate in yet another of their Saturday morning free 5K Parkruns.  Sometimes I speed-walk the four laps around the pretty park there, but I usually run it like a race...that's what I did today.  It was 65 degrees and a stifling 97% humidity at 7:30 race time, though, and as is usually the case, I gave myself permission to just cover the distance if the muggy heat started to mess with me.  But all went well, weather-wise, and although the conditions were admittedly uncomfortable I found myself well-prepared to keep a reasonable pace going throughout, finishing at 27: 32.  There were a lot of people there this morning, including some little kids for whom this event was brand new and unfamiliar.  I wish them the best with their running futures, including figuring out that you don't sprint past other runners and then come to a grinding, sudden halt immediately in front of them, forcing folks like myself to take evasive action to avoid a collision.  That was a bit annoying, at least at the beginning, but in Parkruns you get quite a cross-section of the human population on the course, and even some canines...sometimes evasive action is necessary with these as well.  I'm glad I went there...click HERE to view today's results (when they're finally posted).  You can join in on the Parkrun experience by Googling their website and signing up (as said, for free).  They'll provide you barcodes that you can print out and take with you to the race for them to scan so that your finishing time can be posted with all the others. Parkrun began in England and has spread worldwide, growing here in the USA...

Happy Birthday, My Sweet Melissa

Today marks the fortieth time I get to spend with my dear wife Melissa on her birthday...1986 was the first, shortly after we met.  Yes, for most of us today marks the annual celebration of love known as Valentine's Day...we're into that as well.  Melissa, what a blessing you have been and are to me...let's keep it going with these birthday celebrations for several more decades!  I love you so much...

Recently Assembled Jigsaw Puzzle of Mount Rushmore

 

Mount Rushmore, near Rapid City, South Dakota, is one of the places I'd like to visit some day.  Situated in the state's Black Hills, the huge faces carved in granite depict four historically-significant US presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.  This National Memorial was sculpted, after US government authorization, by Gutzon Borglum, but the use of federal lands whose ownership is disputed by Indians has made the project, starting in 1927 and completed 14 years later, somewhat controversial.  My experiences with Mount Rushmore are tightly connected to the climactic scene in the great 1959 Alfred Hitchcock movie thriller North by Northwest, in which hero Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint flee there to escape the murderous bad guys, led by James Mason and Martin Landau.  The irony of it all is that the actual "Mount Rushmore" footage was done on models created for filming in Southern California!  Yes, I'd dig going over to South Dakota to check it out, as well as the nearby memorial to Crazy Horse that has been under construction since 1948 and still is far from completion.  Anyway, Mount Rushmore was the setting shown in one of my seven Americana jigsaw puzzles, pictured above...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 3

This past week I only managed to read one short story in editor Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, and which features his picks published in the year 1999.  Back then I was working at the Gainesville postal processing facility, sorting out mail on their flat-sorting machine while doing the graveyard shift.  That meant I was awake all night and could listen to late-night talk radio, most notably Art Bell's kooky, quirky Coast-to-Coast AM show that explored the paranormal, UFOs and conspiracy theories, to name a few topic categories.  But back to the Dozois anthology... 

GALACTIC NORTH by Alastair Reynolds

This is a tale of three people, very much in the future when humanity has not only spread out and settled the cosmos but has also mastered biology and medical science to the point that heads can be severed...and preserved, to be later reattached to the body.  Yes, it's pretty scary and gross, but the real horror to this true horror/science fiction story is the unintended consequence of the development of terraforming technology that is unleashed into the wild reaches of space, to develop on its own beyond anyone's control.  A woman is committed to protecting the thousands of "sleepers" on board her ship, but must land it on an asteroid as a ferocious, sadistic pirate seeks her cargo and forces her partner to betray her.  The rest of the story relates her very-long quest for revenge against both of them, and against the backdrop of a nameless doom destroying all known life in the galaxy.  Pretty heady stuff...normally I'd say that stories like this leave me cold, but somehow this time it all clicked together...

Next week: more from 1999...

Melissa and I Attend Our Second Candlelight Concert

Last December 17th Melissa and I went to downtown Gainesville to attend a Candlelight Concert at the Hippodrome Theater...click HERE to read the article I later wrote about our experiences then.  This evening we went back down there to the same place for yet another concert, this one a tribute to the Beatles.  The featured string quartet performed their renditions of several Beatles hits and is based in Jacksonville...I recognized most of the players from before.  I was seven years old when I heard my first Beatles song, I Want to Hold Your Hand, which the Fab Four, as the Beatles were often dubbed, performed on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964...our Candlelight Concert musicians performed this one as well.  They also went through several years and albums, doing Help!, Michelle, Eleanor Rigby, Here There and Everywhere, I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends, All You Need is Love, Penny Lane, Hey Jude, Lady Madonna, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Blackbird, Come Together and Here Comes the Sun. The audience was very enthusiastic and appreciative of this show, as were Melissa and me.  They are quite the talented and inspired musicians, these four, and we look forward to another visit with a different theme.  The only drawback I saw was the tight, restricted parking available downtown...even the quartet commented on that...

About Yesterday's Super Bowl Contest

A few weeks ago at the start of the National Football League 2024 season playoffs, I listed the participating teams in the order of my liking.  For the American Conference I had Kansas City as my favorite and with the National it was my home state's Tampa Bay...with Philadelphia in second place.  So yesterday's Super Bowl matchup between the Chiefs and Eagles was pretty good as far I was concerned.  Yet although back then I liked KC more than Philly, something happened during the course of events that reversed that.  Former Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is someone with an admittedly flawed past (see his tenure coaching USC), yet I was captured by his style and enthusiasm while coaching in the pros.  And he has just been hired as the new head coach of the Raiders, a team that I had grown to root against over the course of the decades.  Formerly based in Oakland, and for a few years in Los Angeles, they are now in Las Vegas and are big division rivals of Kansas City.  Beyond my geographical support for Florida teams, I tend to gravitate toward teams whose players and/or coaches earn my respect and admiration.  Already a fan of Pete's, that kind of diminished the Chiefs for me by comparison and elevated the Eagles.  So when Philadelphia pretty much demolished Kansas City in yesterday's Super Bowl held in New Orleans, that was quite all right with me.  I don't know how the Raiders will do next year...it'll be interesting to see how fast Carroll can turn them around from their dismal last-place season in '24.  As for the "who's who" celebrities attending the game, who cares: I'm guessing that most of them were there just to be seen and talked about, including He Who Must Not Be Named...

Just Finished Reading The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

The Talent Code is a 2009 book by Daniel Coyle that seeks to derive truths about how people successfully develop talent.  Coyle works from the notion that talent, although often considered innate, must undergo a process in order to achieve mastery in any particular area.  He divides the elements of talent development into three parts: deep practice, ignition and master coaching, in the process supplying numerous (maybe too numerous) examples to make his points.   Coyle insists that the growth of myelin in our brains is specific to the things we learn to do, and deep practice contributes to that growth for the specific area.  One breaks a learning project down to chunks, or sections, assimilating each one through repeated failing to proficiency.  Ignition is the spark of motivation exploding into a passion.  And deep coaching involves imparting the appropriate information to the client/student's talent formation at the right time.  Throughout his presentation Coyle refers to special places that seem to produce an inordinate amount of overachievers, and seeks to explain why this is so.  After finishing the book, I had to ask myself what new information he had imparted to me.  Sadly, there wasn't much here...maybe you would get more from it, I don't know.  But with his idea of breaking things down to sustainable chunks, I definitely see that as an affirmation of what I already knew.  And yes, with that deep practice and ignition, I have experienced what some have termed the "flow" state when my progress in an area, suddenly takes off and seems almost effortless.  Do I recommend The Talent Code? Well, it can't hurt and I was able to check it out from my public library, so it didn't cost me anything either.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but sometimes a rereading can provide me a different angle to it all...  

Ran Florida Track Club's Micanopy Ten-Miler Race This Morning

I had long planned to run the 2025 version of the Florida Track Club's February event, the Micanopy 5/10 Miler...I picked the ten miles option, of course.  The day began a little roughly as I experienced a rare bout of insomnia last night and finally just decided to stay up after only about three-four hours sleep.  Then, when I was driving the fifteen miles south through Gainesville and on to Micanopy, I had to contend with some of the thickest fog I have ever experienced.  Still, thanks in part to my Waze app, I got there in plenty of time and handled my pre-race business in time.  The temperature at 8:00 race time was 58 with the pea-soup fog providing 100% humidity...it heated up a bit during the run.  There were 128 people in the race, a little over half doing my ten miles.  I decided beforehand that I would go nice and steady, running with my only walking breaks happening on steep hills.  And there were a few of those that I speed-walked up.  I noticed that the extra five-mile loop that we ten-mile racers went down was configured in the opposite direction from last year's race...later I found out they switched the direction every year.  I liked this year's direction (clockwise) more.  It seems like everything went according to plan, except that I had more energy left at the end and finished second in my age group with a time of 1 hour 36 minutes 50 seconds, more than two minutes faster than my previous personal best (last year) at this distance.  They handed out post-race, as awards, a cool-looking cap with the Florida Track Club logo on it...Melissa suggested I wear it on next week's Depot Parkrun.  And so ends, for the foreseeable future, my running/walking races longer than 5K.  You see, I'm having surgery early in March and it may be a few months before I feel I'll be ready to tackle runs like today's.  That's okay, I just feel grateful for the opportunity for that surgery.  And besides, you and I both know that during the spring and summer here in northern Florida you usually don't see many opportunities for long distance races.  You can view today's race results by clicking HERE...

Quote of the Week...from Bob Dylan

What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.                                  ---Bob Dylan

I quote Bob Dylan here with a little hesitation because I lifted it off Facebook...maybe he really said it or maybe not, but I don't think it reflects unfairly on him if he didn't.  I like it, but with one caveat.  You might say to yourself, sure, Bob, you have all that money, so it's easy for you to downplay its importance.  But I would disagree.  Dylan's gone through both lack and wealth and as such can make a better assessment of money's worth.  My possible difference with his above quote stems from his "wants to do" conclusion.  If what you want to do is avoid discomfort and just live life on an exclusively hedonistic level without regard to your health or the welfare of others, I'd hardly call that being a success.  But if you know what you stand for and incorporate some personal responsibility and social accountability into that "wants to do" in a balanced way, then sure, I'm all on board, Dylan: sign me up...

My Jigsaw Puzzle of Hoover Dam

 

In the box of assorted jigsaw puzzles of Americana that I got a few weeks ago is one of Hoover Dam, the giant engineering project during the Great Depression years in the early-to-mid 1930's connecting the Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations.  Bordering Nevada and Arizona, it takes the Colorado River and functions as flood control, irrigation and a source of hydroelectric power.  Many lives were lost during its construction, but it stands as a "can do" symbol of American know-how and potential.  I've never been to Hoover Dam...have you?  I'm guessing that most visitors have other places on their travel agenda as well, the Grand Canyon probably one of them.  Thanks to Wikipedia for the information about this dam...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 2

Here's my second week of looking through the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, presenting the editor's picks of the best short sci-fi to come out in the year 1999.  When 1999 began, the country was in the throes of a presidential impeachment as the Republican Party decided to score political points against the current Democratic president, Bill Clinton, after he was discovered to be lying about a consensual affair while in office.  In light of the current occupant of the White House and his own much more serious shenanigans, it's amazing how the level of partisan political divide in this country, as well as the standards of behavior expected of our leaders, has deteriorated.  But I'm reviewing stories, right?  Here's what I thought about the next two appearing in the book...

1016 TO 1 by James Patrick Kelly

Read "10 to the 16th to 1", this story has a distinct Stephen King feel to it...awesome! It's October 1962 and a boy has to come to grips way too early in his life with the politics of impending nuclear Armageddon after he encounters a strange man named "Counts", who seems to know all about the future.  What does this individual want, and which direction will history go if he fulfills his new-found "friend's" modest request regarding then-President Kennedy's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis?  The story's ending should be sobering for all of us here in 2025...

WINEMASTER by Robert Reed

Many years ago the 1960's hit science fiction series The Outer Limits has an episode starring Robert Culp titled Demon with a Glass Hand.  The premise with Reed's tale here is similar, as in a rather dystopian future a whole segment of humanity has been miniaturized...and the authorities, after criminalizing their existence, are out to get them.  One individual, named Winemaster, is trying to protect them from the pursuing agent Blaine...it becomes a suspenseful battle of wits...

Next week: more from "party like it's" 1999... 

My Preferences with NFL Teams Over the Years

A few minutes ago I was watching the Fox Weather Channel, and the two announcers were taking a brief break from their meteorological meanderings to shoot the breeze, so to speak, about their loyalties to different NFL teams.  With them, there was that early support for a team that they grew up around.  But as adults living in other places and following certain players and coaches, their preferences over the years changed with their new situations.  That's me, too.  I grew up in the South Florida area, just a few miles north of Miami, and as such was a big Dolphins fan. Their early seventies' Super Bowl appearances (3) and wins (2)...not to mention that still-unmatched season of 1972...more than likely extended that loyalty for many decades beyond, even long after I had grown up and moved away from the area.  I still like to see them succeed, but feel they blew a golden opportunity for greatness a few years ago when they let go head coach Brian Flores.  And their current "star" quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, although admittedly talented, had established himself as an injury-prone, "fragile" athlete even back when he was taking hikes at the University of Alabama.  But the Fins coach Mike McDaniel...unlike Flores...has insisted on sticking with Tagovailoa, and, frankly, it's been painful watching Miami play, either with Tua in there or on the sidelines while his backup struggles.  No, of late I've tended to be more of a Tampa Bay Bucs fan if geography figures into the equation, although I've just never gotten myself attached to Jacksonville, which is much closer to Gainesville.  But I also now tend to root for certain players and coaches regardless of where they work.  One of these is Pete Carroll, who piloted his Seattle Seahawks to two Super Bowl appearances and one victory...he has an infectious, positive, exuberant sidelines attitude, totally into the game and his players' welfare.  Pete has just been hired as the Las Vegas Raiders new head coach...I guess now I'm a Raiders fan! Oh, and regarding the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, I think they're both pretty cool, too...

My Jigsaw Puzzle of Stature of Liberty with Manhattan Background

The above image is yet another jigsaw puzzle I've recently assembled, this one a view of the Statue of Liberty in the Hudson River with Lower Manhattan...highlighted by the New World Trade Center skyscraper in the background.  I've been to New York City only once, back in 2010 with Melissa and Rebecca, and that time was very special to us.  We focused on Manhattan with our visit, staying at the Marriott Marquis hotel on Times Square, touring the whole area and building wonderful memories of the place.  Of course, back then the World Trade Center site was closed off to the public, with construction of the new building just in its fledgling stages.  If you go back on this blog to April of 2010 you'll find a few articles and photos pertaining to that four-day stay.  Some time in the future I'd like to go back, but then again there are also other places I'm looking forward to seeing in person...

Happy Groundhog Day, If You Can Get Past It

Well, at least according to the media treatment I've seen, it looks like Groundhog Day is rapidly achieving a greater status of recognition as a holiday.  No doubt the Bill Murray comedy with the same name has contributed much of the enthusiasm, but that movie came out way back in 1993...something else must be generating it as well.  We have been experiencing some pretty nutty winter weather as of late...especially down south with all the snow...maybe folks are more interested in the weather patterns.  Then, maybe people have decided to actually believe that animals like groundhogs really can predict the weather...judging from the recent presidential election result, they seem to be more susceptible to all kinds of bullshit, no matter how ridiculous.  For me, the movie, with Murray's Phil Connors character having to live the same day over and over again with no end in sight, carries with it not only the promise of a queer kind of immortality, but also the security of knowing exactly what will happen next in life and being able to learn how to be the best in just about anything.  Well, I'm reasonably confident that when I wake up after going to bed tonight, it will be the next day, February the 3rd...no immortality guaranteed, at least in this fleshy body, but it's still a reset if I let it happen.  Each day a new beginning...that sounds like a good formula to me, good weather or bad...  

Speed-Walked the Depot Parkrun 5K in Gainesville This Morning

In Gainesville this morning, unlike for the previous two weekends, extreme weather was not a factor in my racing.  For today's Depot Parkrun 5K, held at that park a little ways south of downtown, the temperature was a pleasant 57 degrees at 7:30 race time although the humidity was a little bit heavy at 93%.  I decided to speed-walk the 3.1 miles, seeing that it had been a while since the last time and I do like the idea of walking fast instead of running on at least one 5K per month.  There were a lot of runners and walkers this morning...later on at 11 am there was another race in the area that drew several hundred entrants.  I enjoyed pushing myself on this walk, but as before it seems that I've hit a wall when it comes to making a breakthrough with my time.  I want to get my speed-walking best time below 38 minutes for a 5K, but today I crossed the finish line at 39:15.  I wonder whether the slightly slippery asphalt surface...due to earlier showers...had anything to do with slowing me down.  I enjoyed the event, though...click HERE to view the results.  Next week the Florida Track Club is staging their annual Micanopy 10-Mile run, and I've already signed up for it.  I'm hoping the weather remains reasonable for that race as well, but there's no telling what it will be like from week to week...