Cancer Chemo, Martinus, Baseball TV includes Florida, Carbs and Hydration for Training

 Yesterday Melissa drove me down to UF Health Davis Cancer pavilion for my periodic Avastin anti-cancer infusion.  First I had a blood lab draw, after which I gave a urine specimen.  Then Melissa brought over an Opus hot latte coffee.  First I waited for the test results to come in, after which the nurse connected the IV line to the incoming infusion.  While sitting there waiting for it, I listened to some Amazon Prime Music on my Android.  Then I tuned in to my public library Libby app, which played the audiobook Slow AF Run Club, written by Martinus Evans.  It's a good, compelling piece of literature about running, and how you can swing it if you stick to the author's suggestions, backed by his own life experiences.  He says he's completed some eight marathons and more than 100 other races, simply by going through the prescribed courses without ever trying to pick up the running pace.  For the neighborhood I live in, I can see me running around the block "slow as F" and then applying that standard to longer road distances.  I'm already doing a tapered version of this in the back yard, trotting back and forth between the east and west privacy fences.  While at the doctors', Melissa got me hooked up receiving the 2026 regular season live schedule featuring visual coverage of the Florida teams Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins.Today I plan to review the rosters of Tampa Bay, Miami and Atlanta...should be fun.  Speaking of running slowly (for long distances} Martinus impressed me discussing pre-run carb-loading, along with his wise emphasis on proper hydration.  It makes me want carry a long a little bottle of Propel fitness water, easy AF to tote as I go..for this early morning, I was faithful in getting up just before three, when I did some bathroom business and ran in place for 16 minutes before writing this.  And now, another good day to look forward to...

Looking Forward to Day Ahead

 It's a little past 7:30 in the morning on the 16th, "Hump Day for the month of March, as we are passing through it.  I have further medical procedures lined up in the next few days, and chemotherapy infusion and an MRI figure into the picture.  I brewed the flavored decaf coffee and ran in place for my routine 8 minutes...now this blog article.  Were this still the ninth grade and 1971 for me, I guess I would have already begun to suffer the stench of the smog coming from the Everglades fires which that drought brought some 55 years ago.  Yesterday they ended that TPC tournament with an underspoken, anticlimactic short winning putt at the 18th hole by Cameron Young, who to his credit refused to kiss the trophy and kept a reserved, taciturn expression before the press afterwards.  As for how today will unwind, i'd like the donut drivethrough, some reading progress, study foreign languages, and exercise along with some temperance regarding eating.  And some more sleep should fit the bill as well.  I think I'll listen to some stuff from the late Jim Rohn, too. And see if I can't fit in some material from Andrew Huberman and Rob Dial...

October Dinginess at Starbucks

Please read this as a "mood" piece...

On this dingy, climatically unpleasant day in late October, I am sitting here at my nearest Starbucks, driven here by Melissa after the health care authorities at the hospital enjunctioned me against driving for a while. The business is slack and the workers are right now inactive, standing around talking.  I don't like the corporate music being piped through above me, but the cinnamon dolce latte Melissa ordered for me is very good.  I remember years ago when I could walk into this place and sit at a high black-top rectangular study table that resembled high school chemisty lab, quickly lighting into my reading and writing.  Coffee shops used to be good places to go to just sit and think, but in the most recent years I've usually felt the urge to get up and leave after only a few minutes there.  There's this creepy sense of being under someone else's negative scrutiny, and I'd rather be in a place that accommodates my desired privacy without any feeling of an impending deadline for the stay.  So sitting comfortably at home, my head leaning back on a soft pillow, seems more attractive: maybe I can slip into a nice nap!  On the other hand, why not just pass up on Starbucks and sit at the dining room table from here on? With my medical issues I don't see circumstances improving in the near future.  With me and my afflictions, at least for these recent times, my negative reactions have arisen from their treatment and not directly from the afflictions themselves.  So here I am at Starbucks, a recently-turned 69 year old man with a horribly hideous surgical scar streaking across the top of my head, just barely under the cover of hair.  Welcome, Halloween! I am grateful to be able to be at home, finally released from hospital confinement.  I can still exercise, which I do through no-impact movements that raise my heart rate to zone-like levels: that's good.  Well, I am committed to a light shower later on today, and then it's the couch for me.  I really deeply love and appreciate my dear Melissa, as well as our sweet, silly uptight mixed-breed rescue dog Daisy, who I call "Little Pee Wee"...

Camped Out at Nearby Starbucks, Studying and Writing

It's a little difficult to maneuver myself through each day without the outside news and opinion world encroaching on my attention and my increasing sense of unease at the way things are going down.  Still, here I am, relatively healthy while undergoing greatly appreciated high-level medical treatment that is apparently coming in a timely manner.  While warned about possible side effects of yesterday's hormone therapy injection, I was also advised to be active and go about my business as before.  So that I am doing, sitting here in my closest Starbucks drinking a hot cinnamon dolce latte while studying foreign languages and writing this article.  The day stretches ahead of me, and so does a planned neighborhood walk later on.  This evening they're holding the second "grief care" support group meeting at Trinity UMC...not certain as to whether I'll be attending or not.  One thing is for sure: I have little patience to just sit there and tolerate others with their high-handed self-glorifying speechifying.  Speaking of putting up with people putting up their own walls in front of me, it all reminds me of the frustration I fell into a few years ago when I got more deeply into Facebook and made several friend requests of former classmates.  Many accepted and many simply ignored the requests...so be it.  I've later discovered that the wisdom that's supposed to come later in life and temper people's outlook on themselves, their role in society and their political leanings usually comes slowly, if at all.  I sometimes read how some of my "friends" react to a provocative posting and see that folks have a defensive instinct to instantly respond in a knee-jerk, "offended" manner to viewpoints they disagree with, as if reading a contrary opinion somehow poses a physical threat to them.  After the recent horrible assassination of a young conservative voice, the trolls came out on this social media site in force, causing me to wonder whether I shouldn't just shut down my account permanently.  I used to post links to this blog on it for years, but in early 2021 I decided that the often idiotic negative trolling I'd get...usually from a tiny number of old Nova High School classmates...made the whole exercise and effort unworthy.  So I post my articles independently of Facebook and tend to avoid activity there. And what do you know, the company's algorithms have decided what my interests are and load up my news feed with posts reflecting their conclusions: lots and lots of stuff about the Beatles, especially John Lennon...  

New Run/Walk Strategy Developing

I was glancing out the window of my nearby Dunkin' Donuts here in far-northern Gainesville (see above pic), where I do much of my writing and studying, I'm contemplating a "sea change" regarding my future running and speed walking as I continue to plod on through the years. On my neighborhood run/walk combination training outings the last few months, I've grown accustomed to mixing them up.  Today I covered the 4.1-mile course by spending most of the time speed-walking with short, period intervals of easy-paced running.  I feel this may be the pattern for future races as well...especially the long distances ones of 10K (6.2 miles) and longer.  Speed-walk for six minutes and then run for four...and keep repeating the process until the race (or workout) is over.  I think this is a feasible training strategy for a future marathon in which I'm pushing to finish faster than six hours...there's one coming up in January. Today's workout was typical summertime discomfort, with an annoying combination of high temperature and humidity.  When conditions get cooler and dryer, it should be more workable to extend my training to longer distances and see how my body reacts to it all.  What I want is a viable level of fitness with which I can confidently enter any "classic" long distance event (10K through marathon length) and finish at a reasonable time...or in the case of the marathon...before they close down the course and stop timing entrants.  The elitists at the Florida Track Club have already stated that six hours is the deadline for finishing their upcoming marathon, after which runners are on their own and will not be furnished with posted finishing times.  A shoddy attitude, I think, considering the money laid out to enter the race, but obstinate, disagreeable people are everywhere and I would be better served focusing on my own attitude and behavior in response.  Let's try out this new alternation of walking and running and see where it gets me, elitists or not.  On the surface, it seems to make sense.  With this new structure I'm walking more than half the time while I'm running more than half the distance...

Vacation Plans, Gym, Old Starbucks Store

If it's one thing I've learned well over the past two-plus years, it's been that it's fine to make vacation plans, but that whether or not they end up cancelled is another thing entirely.  So as Melissa and I ponder future out-of-town travel adventures, I thought it would be nice to revisit one of my old Gainesville haunts: the Starbucks at Magnolia Parke on NW 39th Avenue, which first opened back in 2000.  Other Starbucks stores in town have closed or moved to other locations to accommodate drive-through ordering, but this one seems so far to have lived a charmed life.  I knew the first store manager, Marty Bower, who was so polite and considerate that he'd give me coffee on the house if he thought there was ever any delay.  He's also the dude who inspired the wonderful Lifesouth Marathon/Half-Marathon Five Points of Life annual Gainesville tradition, begun in 2006 and ending three years ago.  The story is that he had transferred to managing the (now-closed) Royal Park Starbucks on Newberry Road when one afternoon a couple of LifeSouth employees, on a jog from their nearby office, came in and the idea was born with Marty making the suggestion to stage such races.  Marty once again transferred to another Starbucks, the one on 13th Street and 16th Avenue, before I ever got around to entering one of these races in 2010.  But by that time he was no longer around...too bad, I hope he's doing all right.  I used to come by this Magnolia Parke location on weekday mornings after dropping the kids off at school...they had a long counter facing the front window to sit at.  Today may arguably be the single hottest day of an already oppressively hot year, and instead of walking and/or running around my neighborhood I decided to make a rare visit to Gainesville Health and Fitness Center.  That was a pleasant experience as I used their treadmill to speed-walk 3.3 miles, increasing my speed a tenth of a mile every half-mile, starting at 4.1 mph and ending at 4.8.  I remember often stopping off there right after getting off from work at 10 pm, sometimes even venturing into the swimming pool (now nearly impossible to access for its overcrowding).  I probably should cancel my membership to GHF, since the other gym I subscribe to is available...along with a swimming pool...the other six days of the week.  But today was a fine experience.  As for those travel plans, Melissa and I both enjoy the Royal Caribbean cruise line and have used them three different times.  There's another cruise of theirs this October that we might be signing up for if our schedules permit and things come together right...

Checking Out Locally-Owned Gainesville Coffee Shop

I'm sitting here in a locally-owned Gainesville coffee shop called "Cym", situated roughly at the corner of NW 55th Street and Newberry Road.  Lots of students here with their laptops...I had to look around to find a place to sit.  But it's a fun view outside here, and I have a hanging roof to shield me from rain or excess wind. I got an iced coffee with hazelnut flavor, and it's good.  I thought that now, with me newly retired and all, it would be a good idea to try out the different places...and by that I mean coffee shops. This one shows some promise although it isn't exactly close to home, and at this early afternoon time (~2:00) it seems to be pretty full, with few seating choices.  But the folks working here seem friendly enough... 

Coffee Shop Visits as a Study Routine

As I progress through my first week of retirement, I think I'm starting some good habits to replace those which going to a forty-hours-per-week job automatically imposed on me. Maybe in future articles I'll spell out some of these, but right now I'll discuss one of them.  In my November 19th article a little more than a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about more consistently resuming the old habit I had of going regularly to a coffee shop (or someplace similar) and studying there.  There's something about a public setting that focuses my attention better on my tasks while not placing demands on my attention.  Mental drifting and external distractions not only interrupt my efforts, but they also dilute them when I'm devoting a bigger part of my mental efforts resisting them, and this place helps with that.  I'm writing this article on my old AlphaSmart word processor, completely disconnected from the Internet and which I later loaded onto my blog site. I take Google translations of past articles I've written, and print them out to take with me here.  Then I go phrase-by-phrase with each of them, temporarily memorizing it in each target language and then writing it down.  I cover a small amount of material daily this way but am training myself better to think in the languages I'm studying.  Now on to other activities I do here: reading, speculating and planning...

Returning to My Old Coffee Shop Routine?

Back in the "old days" of when I first moved to Gainesville...namely the period from 1978 to 1985...I tended to spend a lot of time studying in local coffee/donut shops and diners.  I love to learn, although my knowledge is pretty spread out across the academic spectrum...perhaps a little too thinly, I might admit.  But I do like from time to time getting out and sitting in a public setting. I think my greatest progress in foreign language study has been from doing this, but sometimes I just read, speculate, or plan what I'm going to do in the immediate and near future.  Seeing how I'm retiring at the end of next week, it seems that the future is going to be much more conducive for this kind of activity.  Who knows, maybe I'll actually learn something in depth. I had been considering frequenting a couple of places reasonably near to my home...one sells bagels and the other donuts...but alas they both close at 2 pm, so for the mid-afternoon and later it's going to have to be somewhere else.  And of course, there are plenty of "somewhere elses"...

Sad About Loss of Late-Night Business in Gainesville

My work shift ends at 10 PM, and sometimes I like to chill out a bit at a coffee shop before heading on home.  Unfortunately, my hometown of Gainesville, Florida has, ever since COVID-19 hit us in 2020, become one of those places that roll up the sidewalks in mid-evening, with very few late-night spots left open.  I used to frequent a couple of Starbucks on the southwest, UF student-intense part of town that is close to my workplace.  Now they're closed by the time I get off from work, although rumor has it that the Target store on Archer Road has a Starbucks in it that still stays open late...I'll have to check it out.  Gainesville used to be known as an all-night kind of city, especially with its tens of thousands of University of Florida students as well as a sizeable Santa Fe College population.  When I was a student at UF in the late 1970's I spent many late hours studying at the 24-hour Krystal on University across from the library.  Except for Waffle House, though, in the northern part of Gainesville where I live everyone closes up shop far earlier than before.  There used to be a 24-hour district just north of Gainesville High School on NW 13th Street (US 441) that had all-night restaurants, a pharmacy, a doughnut shop and a couple of grocers...none of the places there now stay open late except convenience stores.  It's a shame, because that's one of the things I liked living here.  I'm not greedy about places staying open late: just give me to 11 o'clock and I'm out of there! Shoot, before COVID I could slip over to a Publix on Archer right near where I worked and replenish groceries, but no longer.  Now, not even the WalMart where I live, formerly 24 hours, stays open past 11...

YouTube an Interesting Site for Exploring

Right now, on my television (in Roku mode) is a YouTube video, three hours forty-three minutes in length, from the viewpoint of someone running the Boston Marathon...and man, the weather on this date is awful!  Rain, obvious cold, slick roads...not exactly my choice for running a race, but definitely interesting to watch.  Of late I have been exploring what's available on YouTube and have been pleasantly surprised.  Although audiobooks and movies seem to be largely available only at a premium, the "free" version of this site contains an incredible selection of video types to watch.  If you want to learn anything in an academic setting without the twin traumas of exams and tuition, you can attend high quality classes online in just about any subject you want...I'm partial to the college mathematics material and my current favorite teacher is "Professor Leonard", who has an excellent teaching style, not skipping steps and showing the kind of respect toward the students I found uncommon in my own experience going to school.  His courses span college curricula from algebra review to precalculus to three levels of calculus to differential equations to statistics.  I had hoped he taught linear algebra, but alas, that's not to be...but there are other resources for that.  I also like foreign language listening practice videos...Kendra puts out some good ones in the more known languages.  When I was recliner-bound, recovering at home from my open-heart surgery in 2021, I liked to watch coffee shop videos that would go on for hours...just empty shops with hot, steaming coffee cups in different tables with usually some piano or light jazz in the background.  Lately I've noticed a plethora of "study with me" videos, usually of college students either doing their assignments (mostly on computer) at home or in public places like Starbucks (my preference).  I also have enjoyed going on various roller coaster rides vicariously on YouTube...my favorites are the rides at Tampa's Busch Gardens like Montu and Kumba...and some of the newer ones I've yet to go on.  I've always regarded Montu as the "Cadillac of Coasters" and have ridden it in the "real world" some 27 times...unfortunately I've read that Kumba (rode it 22 times) may soon be disassembled to make way for future attractions at the park...still, I'll have the YouTube experience to fall back on, I suppose. I've only begun to scratch the surface of what is available on this fascinating medium. I just turned around to see what's going on in the marathon: there are some blue patches in the sky around the 27-minute mark, but they're all still far from downtown Boston on the course, although they're no longer way out in the boonies where the race began...

Time Off at Book Sale and Starbucks, Election Comments

Today is, for all practical purposes, the first day of my two-week vacation although, technically, it began Saturday at midnight, the "official" start of my work week. I took advantage of the free time this afternoon by going over to the Friends of the (Alachua County) Library book sale that had been going on since Saturday...it lasts through Wednesday, located in the 400 block on the east side of North Main Street here in Gainesville.  There I browsed a little and bought two math exercise books and two jigsaw puzzles, shelling out just $5.50 for the lot.  The mask and social distancing rules from earlier sales were gone, but I wore a mask anyway out of respect to others.  Now I'm sitting at my favorite Starbucks off 39th Avenue writing this.  Earlier, while walking from my parked car to the book sale site, I crossed past the elections office where they had begun early voting for the November general election.  It reminded me that I need to fill out my mail-in ballot and get it out...I wasn't sure about some of so-called "nonpartisan" races.  I had previously stopped off at my local library and on the way out picked up a copy of Gainesville's left-leaning news rag The Iguana to see who they were endorsing for the five cryptic Soil and Water Conservation Group seats.  After noting their endorsements, I then received in the mail a "conservative" piece listing all of their (presumably) Republican endorsements.  I was surprised to see some overlap between their picks and the "other" side's. Nevertheless, because of this party's deep infiltration by fascist anti-democratic elements and their general refusal to take the Covid-19 pandemic seriously, I vowed to avoid voting for ANY candidates that I believe to be Republicans.  Sorry, bros, maybe next time around I'll consider you...but only if you dump Trump, come to your senses, and get your act together...I'm actually on the conservatives' side with some issues! Well, I guess I've spent enough time here...time to swing around to Publix to pick up a couple of items...

Quote of the Week...from Starbucks

It's a brew-tiful day to have Starbucks.                               ---Starbucks Corporation 

Yesterday was National Coffee Day...I suppose then that every other day is National Noncoffee Day.  So evidently all these java joints around the country were giving out free cups of coffee...as if most of us couldn't just brew our own pots for pennies on the dollar.  That's where I stand on the subject, anyway...if I'm just going for coffee as a drink, I brew a pot at home...I tend to prefer the flavored varieties, my favorite brands being New England and Eight O'Clock whenever they're on sale.  Melissa drinks only decaf...I get a pot set up the night before and it's ready to go early the next morning.  In the last couple of years, I've grown to really like iced coffee and have tended to spend a lot of unnecessary dough in drive-through lines, usually on the way to work.  Now I just take what's left over from a pot and chill it in the fridge for later use.  But this doesn't mean that I've foresworn going to coffee shops.  Since the 1970s I have enjoyed going there and studying, in the past sometimes for hours on end...I'm sure the owners/managers appreciated that! After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Starbucks and other places closed down their sitting areas. keeping their drive-throughs open.  Ever since, I've gone only sparingly to coffee shops to sit and study or write, my most popular destination recently being the Dunkin' Donuts just outside my neighborhood.  And, in my humble opinion, their iced coffee rules.  Speaking of drive-throughs, Starbucks corporate headquarters a few years ago must have realized that this way of selling their product was worth the expense and dislocation of engaging in the widespread closing of stores without that option and building brand new ones nearby with drive-through lanes.  In Gainesville this resulted in the closing of three really nice, convenient stores I used to frequent: the ones on SW Archer Road near 34th Street, at NW 13th Street and 16th Avenue, and Hunters Crossing (43rd Street and 53rd Avenue).  Their replacements are often backed up...sometimes even into the street...and more difficult to access, although I do admit that the "new" Hunters Crossing location does provide more seating.  In spite of all the changes to the Starbucks here in Gainesville, my favorite location, now going on 22 years, is still there: Magnolia Parke on NW 39th Avenue.  Still, I usually just run to Dunkin' if I want to sit somewhere.  By the way, I've been drinking coffee since I was two years old, growing up pouring boiling water into a cup containing a spoonful of (usually store brand) instant coffee with some added sugar and milk...

Enjoying Starbucks, Musing on Time Off and Language Study

I'm sitting outside at my "favorite" Starbucks location on NW 39th Avenue here in northern Gainesville.  I took today off from work...paid annual leave...for two reasons: one, if I don't use enough annual leave during this calendar year, I'll lose it.  Two, taking a day off like this makes me focus on how I spend my free time, and I'm coming up on retirement in the not-too-distant future.  So, the question is, how do I spend my time that I ordinarily would be spending at work...I think this is going to be an evolving growth process: better get some more time off to figure it all out!  Anyway, during the last few days I've been evaluating my habits (or lack of habits) with foreign language study, an area of my life in which I've seemed to have hit a ceiling, leaving a number of languages on the wrong side of my ability to understand and express myself in them.  So, after some due reflection I decided to home in on just one language, namely the one in which I already have the highest ability and knowledge: Spanish.  This is convenient in that I already get several stations on my cable TV service as well as Roku, and I have a convenient app on my phone that translates Spanish words I enter into English.  My goal is to make English and Spanish co-fluent and to make a substantial enough level of progress in Spanish before I add on any other language...I've studied to a good degree a few others such as Chinese, Russian, German, and French...and even Vietnamese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Hungarian, Hindi and Arabic at different times in my past.  But there's no point in having just a rudimentary vocabulary and little experience in a language...better to tackle one at a time head-on until a satisfactory level of competence is establish.  Should be a fun adventure.  Well, I think I'll get back home to continue my "pre-retirement" day off...I wonder what's on Spanish TV (besides those annoying novelas)?

A Visit to the Dentist...and Starbucks

After my (ugh) teeth-cleaning procedure yesterday morning I thought I'd reward myself for having survived it all by going a few blocks down 13th Street and getting an iced coffee from Starbucks...but no, that outlet is often backed up to the street with its drive-through line, clogging up the parking lot even for those like me who prefer to drink their coffee on-site.  So, I instead went to my familiar Starbucks haunt, a store that's been there since 2000 and never converted to one with a drive-through.  I understand the Starbucks Corporation's policy about rebuilding and moving existing stores to ones with that option for customers...I'd do it, too if I were in their shoes.  But my preference has always been for coffee shops WITHOUT drive-throughs, and I bemoan the loss of several Starbucks that, in the past, I had frequented and spent time studying and enjoying the ambiance.  I miss the ones in Tioga, Hunter's Crossing, Newberry Road (near the Royal Park Cinema), Archer and 34th, and 13th Street and 16th Avenue...these five were great places to visit and were highly popular. I have always enjoyed hanging out in coffee shops and have found their slightly nerve-wracking public surroundings an excellent setting for energizing my mind and focusing my thoughts on creative writing and introspection.  I'm writing this article in that favorite Starbucks in NW Gainesville's Magnolia Parke...may it never close down!  Before Starbucks arrived in my hometown, I often used to go to Krispy Kreme on NW 13th Street and 3rd Avenue, close to the University of Florida campus...I just got a gift card for KK so maybe I should check them out again.  I've also been in the habit of going to fast food places and just ordering a coffee, accomplishing the same thing for less money than at Starbucks.  I've tried this at my public library...it's just not the same.  As for that teeth-cleaning, in the past I had always regarded visiting the dentist's office as a traumatic experience...this time, though, using Eckhart Tolle's principles of think-less/observe-more from his book The Power of Now, I mentally sank into the background and put my old thought reactions on hold during the procedure.  It worked, producing the most pleasant dental visit I've had in quite a while...if you can really properly place the words "pleasant" and "dental visit" together in the same sentence. Also, the experience of open-heart surgery the previous July...along with the following two-week hospital stay and subsequent weeks-long recovery period...puts relatively minor things like a simple teeth-cleaning appointment into sharper perspective...

Starbucks, Running and Math

Today promises to be pretty dreary weatherwise here in Gainesville...I'm sitting here inside the Starbucks in northern Gainesville on 43rd Street for the first time since early in the year.  Some Starbucks have a more intimate, welcoming quality to them, but this one is more like a mall food court with noises amplified by the acoustics of the spacious room...that's all right, the other Starbucks I usually frequent was off-line for my order and I've had it with standing in line anymore.  Once again I'm sitting along one side facing the electric substation just south of Talbot Elementary School...connected by a walking path I would traverse during my marathon training phase back in 2010-11 while on one of my many long runs back then: ah, those were the days!  I'd like to return to that wonderful era, and yesterday's measured run around my house totaling 14.4 miles was a good step in that direction.  There is a specific type of lifestyle that I am seeking which mixes family, a small number of friends, learning, occasional travel, and running/walking into a pleasant-yet-challenging routine combining interaction, growth, and new memories.  Part of it I am already living...much more is yet to come.  I have been stepping out tentatively into the vast, wild ocean of mathematics by watching special programming and reading books on the subject...my goal is to be in deep waters by this spring and then see where it all takes me.  The book I'm currently reading, The Ten Equations That Rule the World, by mathematician David Sumpter, illustrates the conundrum I find myself in whenever such an expert in the field introduces various concepts.  It starts out quite clearly as he lays out the basics, but then suddenly it's as if he has taken off with his discussion and left me lost, standing on land while he is frolicking way out there, far offshore.  This also happens with the Great Courses DVD set The Joy of Mathematics as Arthur Benjamin takes on the role there as teacher.  I don't blame either Sumpter or Benjamin for me falling behind their respective narratives, but rather see this as a challenge that is similar to that which getting back to running imposed itself on me in the weeks following my July surgery: at first progress is slow and I can clearly see my own inadequacy in the area and where I want to go for improvement, anticipating a breakthrough down the line if only I just stick with my efforts.  For me, whether it's running or mathematics or any other area, this is fun stuff to pursue...

Nearby Starbucks (Again) Reopens Indoor Seating

This past Thursday I went to my favorite Starbucks in northern Gainesville, only to discover that they had reopened the indoor seating...awesome.  I went up to the counter, picked up my decaf iced caffè americano that I had ordered online...and then proceeded outdoors to sit.  Although I've had both Covid Pfizer vaccines earlier in the year and my booster shot a week ago (along with my annual flu vaccine), I'm still a little uncomfortable in cramped public spaces... but I think it'll get better in time.  I'm still confounded by the widespread refusal of millions to get vaccinated and greatly dismayed by supposed role models Kyrie Irving and Eric Clapton for steadfastly opposing it in a public way...I'm not surprised that Ted Nugent is also on the wrong side of the issue. It looks like, though, that the coronavirus's Delta variant has run most of its course through the unvaccinated "community", killing and debilitating so, so many: what a tragic, COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE waste! Well, humanity is never short of foolish beliefs and behavior...what kind of idiocy will we see next? I don't imagine the wait will be long...

Enjoying Outdoors Starbucks after Hiatus

 

For the first time since my operation in July, I am sitting at my favorite Starbucks here in northern Gainesville...the big change from before is obvious: no indoor seating due to the COVID resurgence that took place while I was gone.  But there are plenty of outdoor seats, and I'm enjoying my decaf caffè americano.  In the decades preceding my surgery...specifically the years from 1978 to July 13, 2021...I was a heavy consumer of caffeine, chiefly through coffee.  Since then, though, I have thoroughly avoided this socially-acceptable mind-and-body-altering drug, for two reasons.  One is that I've become strongly opposed to being dependent on any chemicals to alter my mental state...the other is that the interruption from caffeine with my two-week hospital stay and subsequent home recovery has enabled me to tear away from my dependence on it.  And I intend to stay that way while continuing to avail myself of Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts...and of course, my home coffee maker.  Sadly, it looks like at least at this Starbucks store, decaffeinated iced coffee is unavailable, but caffè americano is one of my favorites there and comes in decaf mode.  It's nice to just sit here and take in the ambiance...I didn't realize how much I had missed it!  There are about three weeks until my "official" recovery ends and I return to work...but I know that I still have more time ahead of me before I am completely back to "normal".  Yet in some ways I am already fitter than before, with much better eating habits and a corresponding weight loss...no longer overweight despite having been a runner.  Good stuff...

Sitting at Starbucks Recalling Old Training Run

I enjoyed Christmas yesterday with my family...I hope you're enjoying the holiday season as well.  I'm going in to work today, even though it's my "off day"...looks like they're seriously short-staffed: no problem!  Right now I'm sitting outside my nearest Starbucks with the temperature here in Gainesville around 40 degrees, a little past noon on what may be the coldest day (and night) of the year.  I'm looking at a couple, heavily clad, jogging down the path on the other side of NW 43rd Street, reminding me of my memorable Christmas run ten years ago.  That afternoon Melissa had been called in to work, and I decided to go out to see how far I could run.  It was around 60 degrees and overcast to the point of being dark even though it was only mid-to-early afternoon when I began the run, which took me winding through one subdivision after another until I was far west of Devil's Milhopper on NW 53rd Avenue...then I made my way gradually back.  Through the entire run I encountered almost nobody...it was a virtual ghost town that yuletide day in 2010 with one stark exception: while passing through Felasco Park off NW 43rd Street...just a short walk from where I'm sitting right now...I passed a huge family of people walking the other way: they seemed Middle Eastern or Iranian in appearance as we smiled at each other.  By the time I was back in my own home area the skies were turning black with the night...just when I reached my "runner's block" at around 20 miles it began to rain and I returned home soaked.  Now that's the kind of training run I long for!  I'd still like to try it all again, but I think it would be at a much slower pace, with more walking breaks interspersed.  Well, I think I'd better fold up this laptop before my hands freeze off and get on to work...

Some Pandemic Musings at Starbucks

Wednesday I was sitting at a Starbucks...the one here on NW 39th Avenue in northern Gainesville that I first frequented twenty years ago back in 2000 when it first opened.  As is the case around town...and I suspect throughout the country, Starbucks has for the time being banned indoor seating while keeping the outdoors open...my hindsight instincts tell me that this should have been their policy since the coronavirus outbreak in spring instead of completely closing down: of course, if local and state governments are mandating lockdowns, there's not a whole lot to be done about it.  The other Starbucks I go to...much closer to my home...a few weeks ago actually had gone as far as eliminating the spacing between their indoor seating that they had instituted after finally opening back up.  I had gone in there a few times and was taken aback at how close together people were sitting...always with several of them not wearing masks and no apparent limit on the number of indoor customers.  The last time I visited this place, though, they had closed their indoor area off.  I almost always order my coffee (venti iced with vanilla and cream) on my mobile app from home and then pick it up at the store, foregoing the line.  I also park as close to the store as possible...if all the outdoor seats are taken, I can just roll down the windows and drink (and write) in my car.  I'm hoping that these new vaccines will be effective and finally eliminate this need for distancing and mask wearing...although it seems that many people are still living their lives in a cloud of denial, social irresponsibility and callousness for their fellow Americans' health by refusing to do either.  It especially distresses me to see this utter disregard for others' lives with some people I regularly encounter who have stubbornly refused to wear protective face coverings, even though the number of positive cases around me and the country as a whole has drastically spiked. This pandemic experience has certainly opened up my eyes to the state of the society I'm living in as well as certain individuals I have to interact with, and I'm not liking what I'm seeing at all...