Close Call With Kitchen Floor Gives Me Pause

 Early in the Morning od Jun e 11th, on which my late mother would be turning 86, while chasing down a roach before heading to the back of the house,, I lost my balance and collided, nose-first, with the hard kitchen floor. At first I was convinced that a tooth had been broken, but the effect was to violenty twist the cartilage of my nose, bringing on some scary, acute nosebleed before the needed clotting set in. Melissa quickly drove my sorry ass down to the UFHealh Emergency room on  NW 39th Avenue.    After my session there, I returned home and slept off the rest o the morning, grateful to God for His divine protection during that time of my personal foolishness that I hope I learned something important from.  The rest of the day saw me being much more careful with my movements while honoring my wonderful mother's memory..Now onward to June 12th..    

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This Morning's Overly Unpleasant Depot Parkrun 5K Walking Challenge

 Each week I think ahead to the next Saturday morning when they plan to hold another Depot parkrun 5K, an event i've completed since 2019, approaching 100 times.  Now, recovering from a steep dip in fitness and endurance after some strong treatment for recently diagnosed glioblastoma brain cancer and subsequent brain surgery[10/14/25], radiation and chemotherapy, I am still pushing to complete one full race at a time.  After finally reaching my comeback milestone of a completed course...scanned and posted online, I was skeptical this morning about being able to walk all four laps..I felt too roughand curbed the effort..  and today turned out to be another struggle as I struggled to complete most of just one lap before I went to the car. Maybe later this afternoon I'll make another venture around the block for purely exercise purposes, tTheMLB.tv channel looks like a good choice when I do decide to give training an overnight break. Melissa is now at UPS returning an unwanted item, and then we'll have some lunch...followed by sitting out on the back porch while Peewee Daisy runs around the backyard, mouth wide open like a sweet fool.The weather this afternoon will be hot and humid...let's be congnizant of that.  To you and yours, I wish you all a very happy Amy's birthday...

Showed Up at Depot Parkrun, Walked a Lap

 Last night my sleep quality was relatively poor, and I woke up early today...and tired.  After exercising in the living room a few minutes, I waited until after six when Melissa woke up.  She drove us down to Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville.  The temperature was comfortably cool in the upper fifties this morning when the 5k race started at 7:30.  I was prepared to walk it smoother than before, although my speed was slower and I resisted going into a light jog at any point.  The last time I tried this it was a difficult trudge, so I feel I did much better this week.  My goal for future Parkrun ventures should be to walk enough to get a completed effort and get it posted online.  Now it's mid-afternoon and we're waiting for our Publix home delivery...I still have some more exercise, reading and study to come.  Speaking of sleep, I'm looking forward to more rest and relaxation today.  I'm tired of the news, especially that of this war against Iran.  Our friend Ethel stopped by and prayed with us a little earlier...bless her!  In pro golf, The Players Championship Tournament is now in its 3rd round today, and I'm enjoying following it on TV.  Tonight will be the Oscars on TV, with Conan O'Brien doing the presiding. There will be no resetting the clock ahead tonight, since we're already into Daylight Savings Time. Well, it's the birthday for no one I personally know, just NBA star Stephen Curry (at 38).  God bless you all... 

ipf 10:00

 Exercising in an insulated, protective home environment has been a huge plus.  I love those soft, stable heavy rugs on the living room floor!  i'm looking forward to returning to the old 2022-24 pattern of increasing my fitness and endurance levels this way.  Also...but not least...Happy Birthday to my wonderful sweet, dear Melissa and many hopes and prayers for the future, both near and far...

Scump's Planned Bullying of Americans for When He Turns 80

One of thmost visually unappealing US presidents i've seen is the current one, DonaldTrump,also very unpopular as a monster egomaniac, andwihout ny concience to speak of,is due in a couple of months to celebrate turning eighty, a spectacle that I imagine will go off with shameless overhype and overspending.In the meantime i'm predicting yet another tedious "No Kings"Saturday protest rally at a local city park which i plan to boycott. See you then, coppers, when  then you setyourselves up for your own police riot...                           coming over then to,roundus ofd geezers                                                                                                                                              off to jail9(if they don't shoot us irst). sountil then it's all ""HOOray for myself.''.this dude seems to rival convicted and executed serial killer Ted Bundywith his own death obsession, how many people he hates and how many he thinks he will get away with killing...beforea higher auhoriyintervnes in rescue. WithTrump, I truly seea villain of our times.hohewants to bring America to its knee and degrade our own lives.. I believe he has the heart of a murderer. BUT like Michael Corleone in the movie The Godfather PartII, OUR President feels he has to have his buffer between hi sown button-pushers and hi viictim. An it's always the victim's fault, right?                                                                                                            aa                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

On This Anniverary of the Pearl Harbor Attack

Right now it's morning in Gainesville.  I'm sheltered in place within my house and it's raining quite a bit, predicted to do so for hours.  I think I did sleep some last night, although I'm not counting on my FitBit to bear that out.  It is also December 7th, the 84th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that ushered in the United States' entry into World War II.  I thought of the family scene at the close of the movie The Godfather Part II in which Santino (Sonny) rants about "what do you think of the Japs bombing Pearl Harbor on Pop's birthday".  Fredo replies, "They didn't know it was Pop's birthday", bringing a round of laughter.  Later Michael, played by Al Pacino, reveals that he had just enlisted in the Marines, greatly angering his volatile older brother.  This flashback scene comes right after the end of a planned murder spree in which Michael has not only disgraced his own family but has effectively destroyed it.  The scene to me is one of the best in the Godfather series, not just this movie.  Well, Pearl Harbor has NOT just been attacked, and today is before me although I plan to stay at home for most of it.  Blessings to all...

October Now...for Better or Worse

So it's October...let's see what I can make of this month, when I turn 69, the same age David Bowie reached when he died of liver cancer two days after his January 2016 birthday.  I don't know what all is in store for me, but I have already defined my enemy: those who deliberately set themselves as obstacles to my daily existence.  In other words, drama-queen prima-donnas. I'm already NOT looking forward to this contrived Grief Share "support" group that meets Wednesday evenings at a nearby church.  It's one of the sad life lessons I've learned that folks, when they get old, tend not to become wiser but rather entrench themselves even more in trying to set themselves apart and higher than others around them, acutely conscious of their "pecking order" status.  So I guess I'll go there and humor these deluded fools.  I think, though, that I'd rather just stay at home and spend the time preparing for our upcoming cruise.  I'm seriously considering writing separate daily articles through October 10th and then, after returning, "back-posting" them on this blog.  Or maybe not. I'm wondering, since I'll generally be avoiding the news shows on TV, whether I'll be spared some of this accursed fascist president's antics as he continually seeks to be the center of attention and controversy. And I suppose that there is another enemy out there: the completely effed-up, morally bankrupt weapons nut who feels justified at settling scores by going after random people in public. Has my country lost its collective mind?  Doesn't look so good, let's see how the high seas do for a few days...

Happy Birthday, Mama

My mother, Hilda, would be turning 95 today had she remained alive.  She sadly passed away from complications involving lung cancer in November, 2002.  Back in Mama's teenage culture during the 1940's, smoking was simply something that everyone did, and as soon as you were old enough to light up, inhale and puff without getting sick on the spot, then you were "good to go".  Only we've known for many decades now that this isn't so, and smoking is responsible for many deaths and sickness.  Mama, it turned out, had been suffering from birth with lungs that weren't fully developed, so smoking had a sharper effect on her than with many others.  She gave it up more than twenty years before the tumor was detected, and I am grateful for the time that she took this brave step against an addictive habit that was harming her health and shortening her life.  My mother was one of those warm, real, people who would fully engage folks in conversation and had a natural way of presenting herself...and a strong propensity to see humor in things (and the sweetest laugh).  When I look at myself and occasionally see some good points, chances are Mama had something significant to do with it...  

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...

Just Started Reading Rob Dial's New Book Titled Level Up

As you may already know if you've been reading this blog regularly, I've been a regular listener to personal development coach Rob Dial's podcast The Mindset Mentor for some time.  He's just come out with his first book, titled Level Up, and which I am grateful to have received as a birthday gift...I just started reading it.  It's not the kind of book I would normally read through and then immediately review here on this blog as I do others.  No, each chapter has its own special theme with the last page listing cues for journaling, an activity that Dial strongly recommends.  The subtitle to this book is How to Get Focused, Stop Procrastinating, and Upgrade Your Life.  It contains much of what I have already heard from him on his show, and I am serious about implementing some of his suggestions...always, though, with a discerning filter that doesn't automatically swallow everything I read.  He has a very plain and simple, readable writing style that, well, frankly reminds me a little of my own: make it simple and sweet, I always say!  Although I don't plan on a book review for this one, I'm pretty sure that from time to time I'll discuss a topic I come across from it that interests me.  He also has been doing the same lately on his podcast, picking out different chapters to discuss...

Quote of the Week...from Ursula K. Le Guin

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp.  The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story.                                                      ---Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin is a renowned science fiction writer who passed away in 2018...today she would have turned 93.  I've read her Earthsea fantasy series as well as her acclaimed novel The Left Hand of Darkness...not to mention a number of short stories.  Le Guin's above quote reminded me of the time in my eleventh grade English class when a poet paid a visit.  He said that although he may have been thinking along a certain thread when writing a poem, it's always what the reader or listener gets from it that makes it all legitimate.  I think that goes for music and lyrics as well...once the creator releases his or her product for others to share, it becomes a property of the world to interact with.  Her opening words "The unread story is not a story" bother me: how many books are out of print and have never been digitalized...or ever will be available for others to read?  Yet with music I can get digitalized copies of some of the most obscure, out-of-print recordings...why are books lagging so far behind in this?  It's true that we do have the mega-corporation Amazon and some other sites to dig up hard copies of some long-gone novels and collections, but their prices are often inflated if they are available at all...

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that I like to read.  I go at it with Ursula K. Le Guin's philosophy that my reaction and take from a story is just as essential as the writer's original intent was.  I also write this blog with the presumption that whoever reads it will naturally apply their own background and interpretation to it... that's what makes it all interesting and worthwhile, after all... 

Quote of the Week...from Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you can't fly, run; if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.

                                                                         ---Martin Luther King, Jr.

Four years ago I featured a quote by noted ultramarathon runner Dean Karnazes that's very close to the above one made many years earlier by the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.  Karnazes made his application very literal, about his gritty perseverance under the often brutal conditions on the running trail.  King's quote has a broader meaning to how one should approach life.  For me, both literal and figurative interpretations apply.  I intend to return soon to running long-distance races of the 15K and half-marathon variety...for me the overriding goal is to simply cover the distances, hopefully through running but also walking some if that's necessary to finish them.  With life in general, progress isn't usually linear but instead full of snags and setbacks...often I have to press the reset button and start anew when things go awry.  Giving up isn't an option, but changing my mind as to what I will emphasize and how I will attain it is...even it involves "crawling" for a season.  Life by its nature is growth and motion...I never want to forget that. I also won't forget the example Martin Luther King, Jr set for his compassion, courage and wisdom as he sought justice for the oppressed and disadvantaged and inspired so many to follow in his footsteps of "creative altruism" as he called it...

A Belated Happy 250th Birthday, Beethoven

On either the 15th or 16th of December, 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the greatest classical composers of all time, was born.  I listened the other evening on my phone to New York's classical music station WQXR as they were appropriately devoting their programming to his life and legacy during this celebration of his 250th birthday.  Beethoven's gradual loss of hearing, culminating in deafness, has always floored me: how could anyone like this compose something as complex and beautiful as his Ninth Symphony, along with the other late works of his career?  I've always loved that symphony, especially its second movement...which used to be played during the closing credits of the Huntley/Brinkley national news report on NBC during the 1960s when I was growing up.  I love listening to classical music, but at the same time usually feel a bit intimidated: I have no special musical training other then a brief period a few years ago when I took beginning piano.  There's a highly technical side of it all that completely escapes me...what I'm left with as a lay listener is the way the instruments interact during the particular piece's flow to impart feeling. Sometimes it's easy to "get" a classical work, as was the case with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Bach's 140th Cantata, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and Debussy's Nocturnes...other times it's harder, as has been the case for me with some of the symphonies of Mozart, Haydn, and Mahler...and even some of Beethoven's.  In any event, I usually have my car radio on Gainesville's classical music station on 102.7...if you're in town why not give it a listen?   

Thanks to All for Birthday Wishes

Thank you to everyone wishing me a happy birthday this past weekend on Facebook.  I've been on this social media site going on for some ten years but it was only recently that Melissa checked my settings and made my birthday public...I'm a real klutz with computers in general and Facebook in particular.  Normally on Facebook I just focus on putting links to my daily blog articles for which I use Google's Blogger...and lately I've been putting links to them on Twitter as well.  While with Facebook I get familiar readers whom I know, Twitter expands the scope of readership to the more worldwide scene that I used to get before Facebook came along.  As for wishing others happy birthday on Facebook, I've been inconsistent about it but having such sweetness come my way about mine, I feel more a part of a caring community and think...in spite of some of my recently expressed reservations about social media...that others probably think the same way.  Again, thank you all for your wishes and may your lives be abundant, healthy and happy...

Our Recent Cruise: Our Stateroom Balcony and Central Park

On our recent Royal Caribbean cruise...we rode on their Allure of the Seas ship out of Ft. Lauderdale...our living quarters, called "staterooms" and resembling small hotel rooms, had balconies.  Some guests' rooms faced outward, their balconies overlooking the seas and sky.  Across the hallway were the inner rooms, whose balconies presented a different picture: the interior of the ship.  Although Melissa and I would have preferred the ocean view, as it turned out we probably got the perfect inner balcony: not so high up that we couldn't see and hear what was happening below, and a perfectly centered location above the ship's so-called "Central Park" Deck #8 with its horticulture, restaurants, and musical performance area...all outdoor despite being located within the ship's "interior".  Sitting out there we could watch the pedestrian traffic and the entranceway to Giovanni's restaurant while listening to various performers.  Directly below us people would be sitting outside the Park Place Café, making the area as a whole a kind of informal meeting hub.  Each evening they would have a different performer, usually either a pianist or light jazz artist.  A couple of times Billy Pando, a musician from Texas, put on a show of old hits that he interpreted and sang on the piano...he is very talented, funny and engaging: I got a big kick out of watching and listening to him and apparently so did the rest of his audience.  On the last night of our cruise, as Pando was winding down his show I noticed that several couples who were just walking through the area would spontaneously stop and begin dancing with each other to the music...if I were Billy (and I am, in a roundabout way)...I'd consider that to be the best compliment of all.  Also, toward the end of the performance I noticed several couples seating themselves at Giovannis' outside tables in spite of the restaurant already having closed...and they, unlike previous Giovannis' customers, didn't seem particularly interested in the concert.  Finally, after having gone a few minutes past his scheduled 10 pm ending, Billy Pando finished and left...and those "customers", along with several others that seemed to appear from nowhere,  took over the area and began speaking in Russian and singing Russian hymns from their smartphones.  Now that I thought was about as cool as it gets...

Melissa and I occasionally walked through Central Park...sometimes we breakfasted at Park Place, one of the cruise line's "free" eateries, and on Friday the 14th we dined at Chops (a few steps to the left out of our balcony's view), where we celebrated Melissa's birthday (yes, it lies on St. Valentine's Day).  No doubt about it, I totally dug our balcony and Central Park...although being on the inside we were necessarily more conscious of the need to protect our room's privacy than we would facing the sea.  More on our February 9th-16th cruise to come...

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

I'd like to take a break from my week-long break in blog writing to wish my wonderful and beautiful wife Melissa a very happy birthday!  I love you so much, Sweetheart!

Quote of the Week...from Martin Luther King, Jr.

We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.    …Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday was this past Wednesday and whose life and legacy will be honored and celebrated this coming Monday, came up with many, many memorable quotes.  The above quote not only addresses the inequitable past treatment of blacks, who originally came to this land shackled in ships as slaves against their will, while whites came over as settlers to a land they saw as an avenue to freedom and prosperity.  The past should never be forgotten, not just regarding slavery, but also the subsequent decades upon decades of forced segregation, discrimination and violence perpetuated against those of the African-American community.  But as Dr. King stressed, we're all in the same boat now.  You can't just dismiss the past with a wave of the hand but should instead make sure that its sobering lessons are never forgotten, while at the same time realizing that today's "present" will in turn become tomorrow's past and that the only way to forge a just society with love as its foundation is to see the brotherhood in our neighbors as they now are and shed ourselves of hateful and hurtful notions that many of our ancestors embraced: how will future generations look back upon us?  Never forget or deny the past, and treat the present as a divinely-bestowed opportunity for reconciliation and forgiveness...

Happy Birthday, Everybody

To me birthdays have traditionally been more of a celebration within my own immediate family than a general social event, which kind of sets me at odds with Facebook, which tends to overpromote them, in my opinion...but I understand that for most they tend to like it and that's okay, too.  For some reason, however, although I had indicated my own birthday to Facebook, they never do acknowledge it...that's fine, because although I'll occasionally wish somebody on it a happy birthday I don't do it regularly and...like I said, I'm more into celebrating the event among family.  After all, since we're all alive that means we all have birthdays...I like the traditional Eastern notion of everybody celebrating their birthdays together at the start of the New Year.  Still, I don't mean to snub or shun anyone by not writing on their timeline on their birthdays...I just don't spend a lot of time on Facebook, my primary use of which is to provide a link to my daily blog article...

And since my active involvement with Facebook pertains to this blog, it disturbs me that this site deliberately restricts...according to some algorithm of theirs...which of my Facebook friends see it appear on their newsfeed: apparently most do not.  I'm thinking of trying and seeing whether I can also use Twitter to increase readership...I have a couple of strategies I'm thinking of implementing there.  In any event, I'd just like to go ahead for the next 366 days and wish each and every one of you a Happy Birthday...whenever it comes...and while I'm here, go ahead and wish Gene a happy one for today, assuming that Facebook puts this link on your newsfeed, that is...

Quote of the Week...from Neil deGrasse Tyson

Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think. 
                                                                               ---Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Noted American astrophysicist and popularizer of science Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of my favorite public figures (run for president, Neil!), has a birthday today, turning 60, almost exactly two years younger than me.  Whenever he's on as a talk show guest on TV, he brings a sense of decorum and reason to the table...even when the host happens to be an ultra-partisan, embarrassing, and tactless annoyance.  As for his above comment, I'm not clear on the "empowers" part, but I know that it's far too common for people to be content with allowing those in the media to spoon-feed them opinions...and then spout them back out almost verbatim to others, often in the form of creepy rants.  Or even, in our social media/internet society, bypassing that by simply inserting links to "their" information sources when encountering a differing argument (that's happened to me with comments on this blog).  Whenever I encounter someone who talks like a clone copy of some opiniated media figure, I wonder to myself where does this veneer come off and where do individuals like this begin to think for themselves?  I've heard just about every sort of opinion and narrative about various topics and issues...somebody who just repeats the same tired old crap isn't going to sway me in the least.  But if they instead were to open up a little about themselves and how they came to their way of thinking, along with the values that they prioritize the most highly...well, that's a sign that they do know how to think, as well as effectively communicate.  But a lot of us, while real adept on the attack and copying and pasting pithy slogans, are suddenly reticent when it comes to coming clean about ourselves and what motivates us philosophically and politically.  I respect and appreciate an expressed opinion...even when I vehemently disagree with it...when the person promoting it lays out his or her thought processes in arriving at it.  If I just wanted someone to inject finished viewpoints directly into my consciousness, conspiracy theories and doomsday scenarios included, well...there are plenty of overpaid fools on TV and radio more than willing to oblige me, and I'd be the bigger fool for letting them...

Quote of the Week...from Stephen King

I was "in" enough to get along with people. I was never socially inarticulate.  Not a loner.  And that saved my life, saved my sanity.  That and the writing.  But to this day I distrust anybody who thought school was a good time.  Anybody.                             ---Stephen King.

Stephen King, my all-time favorite author, turned 71 today and I thought I might take advantage of the occasion by quoting him on something.  The above comment of his made an impression on me in a couple of ways...my complete divergence from his experiences in school and my complete agreement with his assessment of our respective experiences.  Stephen, you can trust me: school for me was anything but a good time...but I wasn't "in" enough to get along with people, I was always socially inarticulate, and was one of the biggest loners around.  But the fact that I am wired a bit differently and see things from another perspective got me through those horrific years, having long given up on ever getting any positive social reinforcement from others be they classmates or teachers...and I didn't write back then, either. And, like this wonderful author whose birthday I'm celebrating, I did not believe that I was the only one suffering through school, either: I saw misery, humiliation, fear, and loneliness pervade the souls of so many of my fellow students...it's hard to come out of those years without having a cynical worldview as well as a sad kind of empathy for broken people.  Yet, as ol' Johnny Cougar once sang, life goes on, long after the thrill of living has gone...we need to now take our lives one day at a time and live in the present.  I've seen a few South Park episodes and tend to identify with the Goth Kids whenever they're featured...to me nothing would have been more appealing back then then to stay up late at night at some all-night diner with my fellow malcontents, swilling black coffee and railing about how awful everything is.  Yes, that's one group...had it existed when I was going to school...that I just might have fit in with...