Storm, exercise, Steps,Baseball Commentary Over"Stepping"

 I regularly exercise indoors, in air conditioning on my living room floor, doingrock-running. By this way my heart rate gradually climbs over 90 beats per minute, reaching a low "zone one" of cardiovascular stress that physicians recommend to their patients for walking and light physical exertion.  Yesterday I earned a little more than 23K (23,000) steps training this way while watching TV, usually major league  baseball games, half-inning by half-inning.  MyFitbit watch has an annoying tendency to reset the step total to zero every few hours..and whenI've already done a few thousand steps, I try to remember to write down that number; I have credit for 2511 so far today.  Last night Gainesville had a tremendous thunderstorm that went on for hours..before today's meteorological activity I observed the clouds build up while sitting with sweet Melissa and Peewee Daisy on the back porch.  Maybe later today I'll be able to enjoy sitting outside some more with them.Yesterday evening I watched some baseball on the baseball channel we're subscribed to. I enjoyed the game but not the commentary during the final innings. The dude who thought he had all the important opinions came across  as cynical, hypercritical and disrespectful to both the game of baseball and to me as a fan who, ironically, has never played it.  Maybe if this continues I'll use the "mute" `button more.  More games are on tap today and into the evening:enjoy...

This is Memorial Day weekend, so with it I would like to honor Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice in times of conflict to protect our blessed freedoms.  None of us, myself included, will live within our mortal bodies forever on this Earth.  Those who bravely sacrificed their precious lives for our sake are especially worthy of our respect and honor. May GOD bless them all...

(Slow)Running to assume more active Role in Future Races and Events

 On this morning for which is forecast a 90% probability of rain, I am certain that we will be witnessing some stormy weather.  For the Depot Parkrun5k, I didn't feel remotely adequate to the task ofcompleting the entire course, but Melissa walked the first and only lap with me.  I was a bit irritable and grumpy, but toward the end of the looped trail...when it leveled off...Iwas able to lightly run down the pathway...it was an unexpectedly pleasant and empowering experience!I think that, on a gut-feeling level, Martinus Evans has it right with his "slow AF" run club. In the future i'd like for Melissa to drive me down to a nearby running track for me to train there and see how far I can jog on it...I feel quite optimistic being able to cover a good distance.  Now let's see how this day goes weather-wise, and how much training will help to improve my overall c-v fitness and endurance.  Also, I'm planning to use that running training to boldly 'step up' my running contiributions to future Parkrun events and races...

Looking Ahead to Today, Structure or Not

 I finally awoke and got up this morning as the time was approaching six o' clock...completed ten minutes of running in place on the living room rug floor as the coffee was brewing.  I don't know about any appointments or planned visits. There's no discernible timstructure or schedule ahead for today, other than reading, more physical training, or rest.  Ive grown to appreciate sitting outside on our back porch when it isn't raining, the chairs are dry, and Pewee Daisy seems the happiest.  From time to time I find myself with a mild headache...Melissa encourages me to be forthcoming about expressing my physical feelings to her. Beyond the gloomy, degrading news cycles i'm exposed to on television with this very disappointing, mean-spirited president and his soulless sycophants, it looks like old recycled movies, along with live major league baseball games on the Baseball.tv channel, are the only ways to go nowadays in this incrementally degrading society and culture.  Melissa is now up and about, and I am sipping on this tasty coffee, topped off by butterbeer-flavored creamer.  As for training goals, I want to keep my total dailyaccumulated steps at 7500-10,000.  Walking around our .7-mile neighborhood block and brief interspersed slow-running breaks, seem to fit the bill...as long it doesn't storm much and th temperatures can be endured..Good morning on this fine day to you all and enjoy it...God bless you....looking forward to hearing all the mourning doves, blue Jays, and crows...

On This Early Friday, with Regular Routines Looking to Weekend Opportunities (and Storms)

 I have already slept most of the night, and the next day (Friday, May 8th) is about to unravel before me.  We're approaching the weekend, and part of it has me set up to try out yet another Depot aparkrun 5k,along wtih around 100 or so participants, including many seniors and a lot of young folks.  They like to proclaim that this isn't a competition, but you wouldn't know it if you saw it!.  To me, finishing it

with energy to spare is my overriding concern.Tomorrow it will be primarily a matter  of taking things lap by lap,restraining myself from letting my overcautious and comfort-seeking mind from prematurely deciding to quit too early, when my body still has plenty of juice to conquer the course.  Well, this morning, a couple of hours or so before dawn, I mentally wrestled with the idea going ahead, getting up, going to the bathroom, and getting started running in place in the living room while waiting for the coffee to brew.  I finished my mini-workout and am now writing this out.  Then I'll kick on the air conditioning and go back to bed, stirring up Peewee Daisy's excitement. today there should be some baseball action to follow on TV, and I wish you all a wonderful, fulfilling time as we head into what promises to be a rainy and stormy Saturday...

Sunday Morning Exercise, Writing, Dog, Sleep, Coffee, TV

 I think I have lost some interest in the ongoing PGA tournament, that is, the Players Championship being held at Ponte Vedra in northern Florida near Jacksonville.  The course is specially designed as a major water trap, especially on the 17th hole.  In 2025 too many players shot the ball into the water, including J.J. Spaun, who couldn't keep up with defending champion Rory McIlroy during the sudden death playoff when he ran afoul of #17.  Now I'm tired of hearing the endless commentary, where analysts who, as golfers, couldn't remotely compare to the pros with their inferior play, go into a stage of advanced nitpicking over the current players' shots.  It gets really irksome when they go off on one of the actual tourney leaders, someone who has already demonstrated a competitive edge with some of these challenging holes.  I know that the forecast is for rain and storms today, so it will be interesting to see how rainfall and wind might affect the level of play.  The time is approaching 5:30 this early Sunday morning, and it won't be long before I return to bed with the AC on and Peewee in a hightened state of alert, ready to "play games" with me with her barking and WOOO WOOO WOOOO WOOO WOOO.  Well, I guess I'll be watching a good amount of television today and doing exercise, including walking that encompasses our back yard with multiple inner perimeter laps.  And my projected minimal level of fantasy fiction reading...

Waiting for Afternoon Storm, So What's New

I've been watching the Weather Channel this morning as they explain how a circulating tropical low pressure storm system will be passing over where I live in Gainesville, Florida this afternoon, westward toward the Gulf of Mexico. Once there it will either develop over the next few days into a depression or will divert itself more northward into Georgia.  So I'm getting the storm, but the main thing is that on the eastern coast around Cocoa where Friday's cruise ship will disembark with Melissa and me on board should be relatively clear of weather trouble at that time.  Good.  In the meantime, I'm sitting here writing this, waiting for the morning dew to evaporate from my yard before going out to mow the lawn, before the afternoon storms strike, that is.  The grass here grows so quickly that just a couple of days after mowing the lawn it sometimes looks like it needs another trimming...sigh.  But that's summer for you, and we have very, very fertile soil up here in far northern Gainesville...

Tropical Storm Debby to Soon Become Hurricane, Hit Florida's Big Bend Region

Before all this recent travail and tragedy entered my hitherto happy-go-lucky existence, I had remarked on this blog that I might just follow this 2024 Atlantic hurricane season more closely than in past years.  I'm still sticking to that idea, and we have the fourth named storm, Debby, churning and intensifying in the eastern Gulf of Mexico as it makes its way to an early Monday morning landfall at my home state of Florida's swampy "Big Bend" region.  Sometime this evening Debby will gain hurricane status and may intensify further before landfall.  It's dropping a horrendous amount of rain and Gainesville is currently expected to get around possibly 8 inches of water, creating localized flooding threats.  Once Debby passes through Florida tomorrow, it is expected to veer eastward and, as it slows down, cause much flooding in southeastern Georgia before inflicting itself on South and North Carolina.   As for Gainesville, tonight and all day tomorrow will be the window for concern.  Right now at this posting around 5:17 PM, Debby has maximum sustained winds of 65 mph with the barometric pressure at 992 mb, traveling northward at 12 mph...

Beryl Poised to Hit Texas Coast

At this writing early Sunday evening, Beryl is still a strong tropical storm, predicted to reach minimal hurricane status just before it makes landfall on the Texas coast between Corpus Christi and Galveston early tomorrow morning.  I had written in a previous article that I intended to follow Atlantic tropical storms more this year after it was predicted to be an unusually strong season. Beryl earlier had been a Class 5 Hurricane, attaining at one point sustained 165 mph winds at its center, as it churned westward through the Caribbean.  In its wake Beryl has been blamed for 11 deaths so far, and it caused widespread damage in the West Indies, especially in the Grenadines and Jamaica, before hitting Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and passing through it greatly weakened.  There are predictions of strong storm surge as the storm intensifies and eventually goes ashore.  And then there will be a lot of flooding as Beryl's remnant makes its way inland.  I had the TV on The Weather Channel all day and have enjoyed watching their meteorologists like Paul Goodloe and Molly McCollum...among others...presenting their live reports along various places on the Texas coast, Paul at Rockport and Molly in Corpus Christi...

First Named Atlantic Tropical Storm Hits Mexico, Affects Texas

Not that I was in any hurry for the first Atlantic tropical storm to be named this year, but I was a little surprised it took so long, considering how strong the meteorologists said the hurricane season would be in 2024 in the western Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.  A weak-but-broad tropical system was just named Alberto and entered Mexico earlier today, immediately weakening to a depression.  But its larger impact was with strong rain that flooded much of the coastline into Texas...The Weather Channel even sent out one of their own, Molly, to stand out there in the middle of it all.  Normally I don't refer to named Atlantic storms on this blog unless they're threatening us in northern Florida...maybe I'll be more attentive this year.  There is right now a disturbance off Florida's east coast called "Invest 92L" that is predicted to gradually strengthen and pass through north Florida tomorrow...I doubt that it will get strong enough to be the second named tropical storm, but you never know...

Dentist, Storms, Feistiness

At this writing I just left the dentist after a surprisingly pleasant visit...and headed over to my nearby doughnut shop to get my customary iced coffee...my current favorite flavoring is mocha.  I do have to be careful about coffee spilling out of my mouth, since my left side is thoroughly numb...ha, ha.  It's been an unusually stormy morning here in Gainesville. It began last night and is expected to last the day, spreading all over the northern part of Florida and reportedly spawning tornadoes.  The Weather Channel called it "feisty", while they depicted an Iowan storm system as "boisterous"...sounds like an undergraduate English major was writing their script.  Speaking of those two terms, they naturally have usually been applied to people, not inanimate processes.  Yet in today's so-called "enlightened" society where perceived anger is regarded as a threat, typically feisty individuals can be demonized for simply being themselves. If you're in an office as a client and complain about their billing process, as I did recently, there's a possibility that the party you're addressing may deflect your complaint against you, claiming that you are in a state of anger...as if that by itself constituted some form of illegitimate, antisocial behavior.  I think that's a form of manipulation...people by their very natures are cranky at times and will react in like fashion if somebody pushes their wrong buttons.  It's okay to express frustration when you perceive you're being taken advantage of or ripped off, and that isn't your fault...