My Running and Walking Report for March 2025

For the first five days of March I practiced running some at home, but following my surgery on the 6th, I have been told to cool that kind of activity for at least six weeks to allow for healing.  But walking? That's okay, but I didn't really resume that more moderate activity with any gusto until the catheter into my bladder...inserted 11 days before and the source of a bit of restriction and pain...was finally removed on the 17th.  Since then I've walked three of my 3.3 mile loops around my home neighborhood, and even managed to do a Depot Parkrun 5K walk this past Saturday, the 29th.  When I do resume some running...I'm looking right now at the last half of April...it will be only light, limited jogging-in-place within my home: no racing anytime soon.  Besides the walking I'm been doing this month, I've also been engaging daily in a no-impact exercise I created and dub "rock-running", whereby in a standing position I rock back and forth simultaneously on my feet, balancing the motion by thrusting my arms forward and back.  It accomplishes my goal of getting myself into a zone of increased heartbeat, moving my body and doing some minimal resistance work (without weights).  My recovery from the surgery at this writing seems to be going well enough...I just need to have some patience with it all.  I'll probably go back to Depot Park two or three times next month and continue walking the course...

My Songs of the Month for March 2025

March, by all accounts, should have been a month in which I listened a lot to music.  After all, I had my prostate cancer surgery on the 6th and, for the most part, have been taking it easy at home recovering from it.  But it's not as simple as it used to be when I was younger and we had a number of radio stations to easily tune in to for the current hits.  Let's see, back in 1973 my songs of the month for January, February and March were You're So Vain (by Carly Simon), Love and Happiness (by Al Green) and Hummingbird (by Seals and Crofts).  In this digital information era it should be easier to find good rotations of current hits...but other than Gainesville's local pop music station WYKS ("Kiss 105"), which plays a lot of (in my opinion) insipid, uninteresting music, there is no alternative rock station playing today's songs...and I'm just not attuned to country or hip-hop...although I kind of dig songs that fuse them with rock.  True, 100.5 WHHZ plays alternative rock, but they're focused more on past hits, as are other local classic rock and oldies stations.  Instead, I have been relying on channels on my Amazon Music account.  Here's my list of favorites for March '25, overlapping quite a lot with the ones from the previous two months:

1 UNDER THE RUG by Arcy Drive

2 STARBURSTER by Fontaines DC

3 ZERO SUM by the Smile

4 BESTIES by Black Country, New Road

5 EVERYONE OUT by Diiv

Under the Rug has a magnetic, old-time rock sound to it...nice to hear that hasn't completely fallen by the wayside.  But if I were to pick a "song of the year" for 2025 so far, it would have to be Starburster...

Walked Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

It's been a little more than three weeks since my prostatectomy surgery, and although my physician does not want me running until a few more have passed by, he has encouraged walking.  So on this Saturday morning I walked the four-lap course through Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown.  It was 60 degrees at the 7:30 race time with a 90% humidity.  My intention was to do a brisk walk, but not try to set any personal walking records either...after all, I'm still recovering and healing.  As it was, it was relatively easy to cover the distance this way, finishing at 44:52...enough to pass Stephen King's standard of 4 mph in his dystopian novel The Long Walk but more than six minutes slower than my 5K fastest walk. It's been a while since I last did a Parkrun...six weeks ago was the previous time.  There were a lot of people in the park today, and not just for our event.  But although it could be annoying at times with some other participants carelessly crossing my path, making me pivot to avoid colliding with them, I did enjoy getting back to the old routine.  I did not sweat a single drop during the walk nor did I experience any pain or fatigue.  Until the "okay" to resume running comes my way, I guess this walking will have to be the theme of my Depot Parkrun participation...unless, of course, I choose to volunteer some Saturdays there instead.  Click HERE to view today's results...

Major League Baseball Regular Season Now Underway

The official opening day for Major League Baseball's 2025 regular season began yesterday...although more than a week earlier it actually started in Japan with a two-game series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.  Baseball is one of those sports that I can have on the TV and watch, with it not being important if I find myself distracted with another activity.  I find it interesting how the broadcasters show an imaginary virtual strike zone for each pitch...and how, just as often as not...on the close pitches the plate umpire calls it wrong as a strike or ball.  I think at this juncture that I'm pretty much cured of the notion of having a favorite team to follow...just get a game going and I'll figure the rest out for myself, and it doesn't matter how lopsided the score gets.  Baseball is a game that I have never personally played, although in physical education class in high school we did softball...I was a pretty decent singles hitter but never had any training with fielding or pitching.  In those classes I always had, as an "instructor", jock coaches who just got games going without teaching anything about the sport...and the kids who played in leagues outside school naturally dominated (and got higher grades). I remember back in the late 1970's and early 1980's how the "Superstation" WTBS, under Atlanta communications tycoon Ted Turner, would show every Atlanta Braves game live.  Now, though, that sort of service is solely reserved for paid premium subscribers and if I want to see baseball, I have to accept whichever matchup that they feel like serving up.  No problem, but I do get a little tired of seeing, for the overwhelming part of 2-3 hours that make up a typical game, all these multimillionaires just standing around doing nothing, the only consistent workhorses being the pitcher on the mound and the catcher behind the plate...

Kudos to UF Men's Basketball Team, Now in Elite Eight

My congratulations go out to the University of Florida men's basketball team as they have advanced all the way up to the Elite Eight in the NCAA 2024-25 championship tournament after putting on a strong second half to defeat Maryland, 87-71 earlier this evening.  I remember following the Gators' two (consecutive) basketball championship seasons much more closely (2005-06, 2006-07) and can even recall their starting lineups from back then...I know hardly anyone on this year's team.  Yet they're Gators, my alma mater, so "go team go" as they like to say.  Florida will play Texas Tech on Sunday for the West Regional final.  The winner will be in the vaunted Final Four.  Looks like some of Florida's old conference rivals, like Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, are headed that way, too, with this weekend's remaining games to sort much of that out. And then there's Duke and Houston, two schools that could easily win it all.  Should be fun to follow...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 7

Well, this month it hasn't exactly been weekly short stories on this blog...the last time I wrote this Wednesday feature was exactly three weeks ago...the day before my prostatectomy surgery.  But here it is again, and I'm picking up where I left off by discussing the next tale in the book I'm currently going through: The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, edited by the late Gardner Dozois and featuring his picks of the best sci-fi from the year 1999.  Once again, I encountered a novella, this one by the renowned writer Frederik Pohl...

HATCHING THE PHOENIX by Frederik Pohl

Pohl was a major figure during the fabled Golden Age of science fiction in the twentieth century, a contemporary of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein.  Like them, he tended to write in a plain, easy-to-follow style that also reminded me of writers in other genres like Ernest Hemingway and Stephen King...this has sadly become more difficult to find in the genre of science fiction.  Hatching the Phoenix is just one of many stories in Pohl's fictional Heechee universe, in which an alien race, thought extinct, has bequeathed to a future space-faring humanity its advanced spaceship technology.  This story is told in the first person by its protagonist Klara, a super-wealthy investor/entrepreneur who reminded me of a more human and less fascist Elon Musk.  Klara is sponsoring and overseeing a special project, using black holes and gravitational mirrors, that has sent a ship, the Phoenix, to the original star system that was the site of the supernova explosion in 1054 AD creating the Crab Nebula.  The intention behind the project is to determine whether intelligent life had evolved on any of this system's worlds before the supernova wiped it out.  There's a lot of interpersonal relationship stuff in this story, and Pohl managed to slyly inject a bit of humor in it all.  But what impressed me the most was his prescient depiction of "shipminds"...similar to Clarke's 2001 Hal...that eerily predicted where we all seem to be speeding willy-nilly toward in our present times: near-total dependence on artificial intelligence.  Hatching the Phoenix was long, but an enjoyable read.  Wish I encountered more stories written this way...

Next week: more science fiction from 1999...

Little Victories in My Recovery

I'm plodding on ahead with my recovery from the prostatectomy surgery on March 6, savoring little victories as I go along.  For example, although I'm not supposed to run for a few weeks as this would interfere with my healing from the operation, I can walk...I'm encouraged to do so. Still, I'm not trying to speed-walk like I was doing before entering the hospital.  No, but I still try to maintain at least a moderate pace although if I'm walking with others, I'm only too happy to follow their pace.  This morning I decided to go out into my home neighborhood and walk my 3.3 mile loop course.  It was 71 degrees with 61% humidity...not quite as cool and dry as I would have liked, but I realize that as spring progresses it's just going to get worse.  I had no problem finishing the course (at 54:18) and never felt any pain or loss of energy.  It was fun to get out in the sun and go down all the familiar streets, greeting others as I passed by them.  Little victories, I think, are indeed important in a recovery like the one I'm experiencing...

Just Pick a Side

Hard Rock, the entertainment/resort company that is prominent in my home state of Florida, has recently been airing a slew of TV commercials, some featuring recording artist Post Malone, that tout their online "service" allowing players to gamble on sports.  I suppose that if you're into that, then good for you...it's just that much easier to put your hard-earned money on the line.  So in this vein I see a company responding to a demand within the population that satisfies them.  I see other companies likewise doing this.  For example, many addicted cigarette smokers welcomed the advent of vaping, which did away with the carcinogenic tobacco elements they would breathe when "lighting up",  but which still provided them that craved nicotine effect.  Again, a demand met by companies' innovations...good for them, again.  Where I have a problem, though, with both of these examples is when the companies go out of their way to create new "needs" among the potential consumer pool that previously did not exist.  Making vaping seem cool to young people who never touched a cigarette in their lives is like this.  Or go back to Hard Rock, expanding the gambling to generally ignorant folks who don't know enough to at least make an educated guess about who will win or lose a sports contest.  With them, their latest pitch is a gimmick they have on their app whereby participants can still lay down their money and bet by simply "picking a side".  It all sounds so fun and inclusive, or at least that's how the ads make it look: come on and join the party!  But here again is a company expanding its consumer base to create a need that simply wasn't there before.  I guess, though, that's the essence of advertising, isn't it, to make the fool targeted potential consumer feel somehow inadequate or less than acceptable if they don't climb aboard with the company's agenda...  

Update on Pathology Report After Surgery

The pathology report on my surgically removed prostate and lymph nodes was posted on my medical portal online Friday evening...supposedly, the urologist who performed the surgery on March 6 is going to call me on the phone tomorrow to discuss it and my path forward.  Melissa, who is a registered nurse and understands the often arcane jargon presented in laboratory reports and summaries, concurred with me that this pathology report had some very good news.  The prostate was substantially compromised with an aggressive form of cancer: this was expected...and obviously, not the good news.  The good news is that it is now out of my body and the lymph nodes...the first destination of such a malignancy on its way to metastasis...have been analyzed and determined to be clear.  Now I'm a cautious person in many respects, and I would rather hear this all straight from the doctor's mouth.  So that's where I'm at right now, waiting for that call.  In any event, I will be having a blood test to determine my PSA (protein-specific antigen) level before my follow-up visit to this urologist in late May.  The PSA level has with it a relatively high correlation with the probability of cancer, so that test will be pretty important with all of us hoping and praying that it will be very low... 

Unsportsmanlike Behavior Among Professional Athletes and Coaches

I have been watching sports on TV of late, mainly golf, tennis and basketball.  I have to tell you, it kind of grates on me whenever I see an athlete or coach get overly angry about something and begin to act like a baby in front of the camera.  Not naming anyone specifically, but these are top-level figures who have achieved a reputation for quality in their respective areas.  It's one thing to pitch a fit on the court or greens because your shot went wide or you didn't get the call you wanted...sometimes that kind of behavior is rationalized as a way to motivate oneself or teammates to play with more passion.  But I've also seen how some of these, after the match or game has ended, refuse to participate in the traditional congratulations with the other side and/or attend press conferences.  I know that, in at least the professional sphere, athletes and coaches often have the responsibility of making themselves accessible to the press written into their contracts, and as such should consider this as much a part of their "game" as what transpires during the competition.  So, no, I don't like to see folks lose their composure while playing, but that's a lot more understandable...in the midst of heated, intense competition...than just storming off in a huff after it's all over...

A Week After My Prostate Removal Surgery

It's now been eight days since I underwent anesthesia and surgery to remove my malignant prostate at UF Health here in Gainesville.  Since then, my recovery has been a bear, but I'm making good progress so far in spite of the pain, discomfort and limitations on my bodily functions and mobility.  After discharge the day after the six-hour operation, which employed laparoscopic robotic surgery to remove the prostate and some surrounding lymph nodes, I've been at home with an established recovery routine...and my dear Melissa to care for me.  We're also grateful for the well-wishes and food train donations from some of our cherished friends.  This procedure requires the temporary insertion of a Foley catheter into the bladder afterwards...very annoying but so far I'm withstanding it well.  It's scheduled to be removed this coming Monday, and afterwards it will be another fork in the recovery road as I use Kegel exercises...and time...to eventually regain my ability to control my own bladder.  The prostate and those removed lymph nodes are in pathology now, with the latter being tested to confirm that, indeed, the cancer had not spread to them.  If it has, though, they have a treatment program with that, too.  I guess my two main concerns during this phase of recovery have been the restoration of digestion and excretion, shut down during surgery due to anesthesia and inserted CO2 gas, and dealing with pain and the agents used to alleviate it.  I feel I'm now finally at the stage where I can rely on over-the-counter pain relief like Tylenol and Aleve without needing to ingest the prescribed drugs that can have their own side effects.  So far, so good with all that, but of course I have to take things from one day to the next.  Ever since the morning after surgery I have been ambulatory, with no difficulty in walking.  Of course, anything like running or resistance training is a matter to be delayed for a few weeks.  I thank everyone for your concerns and prayers, and I am indeed grateful to live in such a time, place, and circumstances that would enable me to enjoy such high-level medical treatment...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 6

This past week, as I continued reading through the annual retrospective anthology series edited by the late Gardner Dozois titled The Year's Best Science Fiction...this volume covering 1999 material being the Seventeenth Annual Collection...I managed to get through just one story.  Tomorrow I'm having surgery and see possibilities for a little more reading time in the week to come as I recover.  That's good, because the next story after this relatively short one is a long drawn-out novella...

WRITTEN IN BLOOD by Chris Lawson

A Muslim man is taking his daughter with him to Mecca as he is fulfilling Islam's Fifth Pillar by going on a pilgrimage there.  Told from his daughter's perspective, "Da" is a trained biologist who is in remission from cancer.  There they encounter a vendor selling a special product: the Qu'ran encoded into one's own blood.  Da takes him up on the offer, and as the story's ending reveals, most likely suffers the consequences of that action.  I felt that this story was sensitive to Islam and its believers, and I learned a few things about their prophet Muhammad in the process.  As for imprinting a document...or pictures...onto one's own DNA or blood is concerned, the author raises the point that while doing so might be done as a gesture of faith or  personal preference, it could also eventually be used against the person to identify them as being part of an group in disfavor, exposing them to persecution down the line.  In an allegorical sense, I think all the trails of ourselves that we leave in the Internet are doing something similar, don't you?

My intent for next Wednesday is to keep on reviewing stuff from the Dozois anthology...

Another Jigsaw Puzzle by Thomas Kincade

I just finished another 500-piece jigsaw puzzle by artist Thomas Kincade.  I like the scenes he depicts...this one is definitely a place I'd like to hang out at!  On a completely unrelated subject, I'd like to briefly bring up the widespread outrage I'm picking up on in social and mass media over what our current, thoroughly disgusting president has been doing on a wide range of decisions.  It's not that I don't generally agree with the criticisms I'm reading and hearing, but rather that the main problem, as I see it, is that American voters are responsible for the mess we're in.  THEY voted the jerk into power.  I have only one vote.  People had all the information they needed FOR YEARS to vote otherwise, but that didn't change anything.  So go ahead and spill out your outrage, for all the good it will do...

Podcaster's Episode about Toxic People

Personal development coach and podcaster Rob Dial sometimes has shows I'm interested in...some not so much.  Today he had a good topic: toxic people and strategies to escape their harmful effects.  His first piece of advice was to identify the toxic people in your life, and that doesn't necessarily mean folks who are annoying.  Toxic people are manipulators who can be aggressive in trying to establish control, often by expressing personal interest and then twisting the information they gather against you.  Dial suggested that, once such a person is seen for what they are, you then assume the role of a "grey rock", that is, be boring and uninteresting, giving the offender nothing to grab hold of about you.  Well, I gave it a thought and I think I came up with my "Number One" toxic person: Donald Trump.  I certainly would be a grey rock to him should the opportunity arise, but I doubt that the two of us will ever cross paths.  My strategy concerning this despicable, evil soul that my fellow Americans were foolish enough to elect is to follow Dial's final piece of advice: avoid the toxic person.  That's a bit of a challenge, since part of Trump's obvious strategy is to be in the news headlines each and every day, making provocative actions and statements that deliberately offend and frighten people.  Yet I would never wish harm for this individual, who I regard as an asset to Putin's Russia and the furthest thing possible from being a patriotic American...more a convicted felon and traitor who should be locked away in prison...   

Staying Positive Through Life's Complications

In the midst of a number of complicating interruptions to the intended flow of my life into retirement, I am still building a foundational structure on which to live out each day in a way that nurtures my competency, intellect, physical health and social relationships.  It does help for me no longer having to adhere to a 40-hour work week while being in a location under the authority and restrictions imposed by others, not to mention being freed from making the 17-mile round trip each day through often treacherous traffic.  My closest relationships, by far the most important of which is with Melissa, are supportive and want me to be strong, healthy and happy.  I think I'll try to satisfy them by being just that, whatever distractions happen to come my way.  And the recent prostate cancer diagnosis and my scheduled surgery this Thursday to remove said prostate is one of the major ones...

My Daughter Gets Married

Today my daughter Rebecca married her partner in Lakeland.  Melissa and I attended the ceremony, held there at Lake Parker.  Rebecca's spouse's family was also there, and we enjoyed their company, celebrating this important change for my daughter's life.  May their relationship bloom into something strong and enduring...I love them both...