Early A.M. about Awards, War, ''allies", Exercise, Day Ahead

 One of the funniest commercials I've seen lately has a man standing behind a loud microphone on a lit-up stage, in front of a large audience, demonstrating his prowess at being able to access files online, only he seems completely unable to key in the proper password.  He awkwardly glances around, chuckles and grins as the AI-on-duty repeatedly notifies him of his failures, to the consternation of those standing around who will ultimately decide his public-relations career fate. Very funny...and a little sad. Yesterday evening Entertainment Tonight was obsessing on the previous evening's Academy Awards, and how Michael Jordan won best actor for the movie Sinners and ate an In-and-Out hamburger holding his trophy in the left hand. I am determined to stay away from celebrities and their overhyped shows that merit avoidance.  Yesterday I worked on reading a few more pages in Joshua Khan's tedious, depressing juvenile fantasy novel Shadow Magic.  I can't wait to be done with it, to say the least.  This afternoon I have an appointment for some chemotherapy infusion at the UF Health Davis Cancer Pavilion, preceded by a blood lab draw, urine sample and IV line.  Looks like Trump is trying to get other countries to pitch in and help the USA with the Straits of Hormuz, and they're coldly snubbing him in response.  Today it will stay cool outside with nighttime temperatures to dip solidly into the thirties.  May all go well with my family, especially Melissa, Amy, Anita and Keith, regarding their health and feelings.  I'll be returning to bed soon, hopefully to get some good sleep.  I'm not sure what to make of this prolific bombing campaign instigated by the current commander-in-chief, but I think that those countries that are turning their backs on us will have something to answer for what I'm inclined to believe is a wartime betrayal of America and our soldiers.  I think that many of them are rooting for us to lose, so that they can later smugly claim they "told us so".  Well, I at least am confident that I did right in changing my party affiliation.   The late Jim Rohn, in one of his podcasts, made a big deal about urging listeners to spring up out of bed hours before sunrise with purposeful behavior.  I did so this morning, running in place for 8 minutes after I started brewing coffee.  Now I'm finishing this blog article.  Soon it'll be back to bed and loudly growling, snorting and barking Peewee Daisy, with whom I plan to be exceedingly sweet and gentle...

ipf 58 min Early Morning Hope and Thanks for Day

 This morning I got up early...it's between 6;30 and 7.  I did 8 minutes of ipf, and feel encouraged to try some more.  Anita and Jim should come over for a while a little later...very much looking forward to that.  As the day goes on, I'd like to straighten out getting printed translations in Russian, German and French for me to practice on.  Doing some backyard walking on this day in which the weather temperature will be turning much colder will help out, I believe.  main thing is to be loving, content and grateful and enjoy life...

26 Miles; Little Context

 I have some more things to write for today's entry.  i', going to practice carefullyyping while working things out longhand on pape. My chief lament is what I see as a deplorable lack of meaningful context to what lies before me...

Skipped Parkrun. Song of the Month.

 Click HERE to view today's https://www.parkrun.us/depotpark/results/latestresults/parkrun  results. Melissa and i skipped the event this week. If we feel better and the weather cooperate, we'll consider returning to it. in the meantime I ipicked the 1984 alternative rock son How Soon is Now, bythe Smiths, as my Son of the Month fo January. I really enjoy hearing it over and over...Morissey's lyrics are profound...

Resuming home exercise, Resting More

ON this dreary winter weather day, Iwish you much enjoyment while avoiding its potential negative extremes.  yesterday I covered 12 virtual miles of home exercise.Try it out, on YouTube, Ralph's The Ageless Runner channel. His wisdom on the subject is well worth heeding. So I'll be doing more home exercise. God bless you...  

Lots   of mornings, if  not most of them, I get up pretty early according to the the world's standards and put on some regular flavored coffee to brew. Today so far I ran on the living room rug floor for 'my biased equivalent of eleven miles, helping me to gradually get back into some semblance of independent jogging that I hope can transfer well to Parkrun 5ks and neighborhood routines.  it would be nice to have  a regular slow-pqce jogging buddy, without all that tired old competitive ideology pushing for fast, punishing training and fast finishing times in races.     in other words, friend, just give me the course and your blessings to go with it.  i'd also like to gain confidence when I spill out my sometimes neqr-random thoughts on my good AlphqSmart portable word processor..     I can see myself getting real good at this before long.And then once I'v been typing and exerecising again a bit, I mIght want to take some little breaks. And then the're's the rest of the wide-open morning to look forward to, as well as the day beyond. Since my brain surgery almost 3 months ago, most of life's demands and pressures have lifted off me, AS this goes on, I'd like to feel freer to go on a sometimes lengthier rest breakperiodfrom time to time. Here's for a day like that...

 

Showed up with Melissa to walk Today's Depot Parkrun5k

 I walked, with Melissa, this morning'sDepot Parkrun 5K, held just a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville.Click HERE to viewtoday's posted results...Next Saturday should be colder here, so showing up will be quite an accomplishment..I'm stiill taken aback at Parkrun's refusal to recognize my latest volunteering effort there, which would be my tenth overall... that sounds a lot like ghosting (or shunning) to me and sadly diminishes any trust I feel for this group's leadership...'

Completed 100th Parkrun with Melissa this Very Chilly Morning

 For Gainesille's New Year's Day Parkrun 5K, the event organizers decided to combine the Depot Park and West End Community Park locations, holding our event at the latter.  For Melissa and me it was to be my 100th overall Parkrun finish (her 16th),and I was determined to show up (with Melissa driving), walk the distance and then write about it.  The people who greeted us there this morning a little past seven were very friendly.  When the timers started it at 7:30, Melissa...who was using walking stiicks pretty skillfully, in my estimation...confidently tackled the convoluted and confusing course with a moderately brisk walk. there were numerous twists and turns there making me suspect that we had lost our way, but toward the end of the 3.1-mile Parkurn I felt I had always been on course, alhough later the total covered distance seemed long, closer to the 3.48 miles figure i read on my Fitbit watch after a preview run last July.  We returned home and I rested. it was rough then looking for warm clothing as I could tell that it would be awfully cold out there...and it was.  Tomorrow morning Depot Park has a new 2026 Parkrun 5K, and I"m looking forward to walking and/or running, slow old geezer that I already imagine myself to be.  Meanwhile, I continue fighting cancer and try telling myself to get up more and exercise...

Latest Snowy Jigsaw Puzzle, Exercise Plans

 

Well, late yesterday I completed a cute 300-piece jigsaw puzzle of two snowmen with several sweet-looking little animals: a pony, two affectionate pigs, a cat, squirrel, horse and rabbit.  At the end it seemed I lacked a single piece.  Getting its finished photo uploaded to Google Fotos was a little challenging, but there you see it!  Now I've just finished my dinner with Melissa at Nopal...no residual hunger here.  I suffered from some level four headaches this morning, probably in major part stemming from cumulative effects of radiation treatments since Novmber 17rh.  Melissa has brought forth the idea of having my head capped with a special electronically-powered device to help fight the development and./or reproduction of glioblastoma multiforme cancer within my sensitive, sad little brain.  I forgot the name...refreshing with Google should properly inform me.  Yet for someone with such a bummer of a cancer diagnosis, I still feel pretty doggone healthy.  I'm still susceptible to tiredness from late in the day as evening and darkness approach. My plan is to exercise on our living room rug while watching Peter...back in 2022...as he struggles to cover that year's Nw York City Marathon on YouTube.  Should be interesting.  In the previous two or three days each my virtual mile totals haven't risen beyond one and a fraction...let's see if I can't beat that figure tonight. IT's now eight in the evening and I have finished my evening living room exercise session, with 5.0 total virtual miles. Merry Christmas!  By the way, if it's five til midnight and a humungous train with "POLAR EXPRESS" on its side pulls up in front of your house, then seriously consider getting on board, especially if the conductor looks and sounds like Tom Hanks...

LifeSouth's Chronic Ghosting About its "Race Weekend"

 For my daily existence following the big diagnosis, exercise into Zone One is an important activity.  However, in rocking forward and backward simultaneously on my feet, I don't think that in doing so I am making it easier to run stretches of races, such as the Parkrun 5Ks.  Only actually getting out there and taking the steps will help me in this regard.  With winter almost here, I am also keenly aware of the seasonal time pressure to take advantage of the sparse opportunities offered for meaningful long distance races.  Several years ago I had as racing options the January Ocala Marathon/Half Marathon...they're long gone, sadly.  The LifeSouth Five Points of Life long distance events were consistently held from 2006 to 2020...until COVID hit and ruined everything.  When they resumed in 2022 with a half-marathon, the low number of entrants apparently disappointed the organizers and the non-profit blood-donation organization enough for them to stop holding it.  Only they never announced that the races were over, and didn't respond to queries about this decision.  That's called ghosting, and it's a highly disrespectful, deliberate breach in communication.  Earlier this year I had discussed with my cardiologist possibly going back to donating blood to LifeSouth...I'm O+, the "universal donor" designation, with my cardiologist.  But because of the medications he has me on, his answer was squarely "NO".  So when LifeSouth pestered me with another annoying plea for blood donation, I replied with my medical explanation.  No response.  Then I wrote them how I felt about their "race Weekend" cancellation and their refusal to be up-front and candid about it.  No response.  Hey, you bloodies, you can stop holding your running events, and I'll be disappointed but still supportive, if only you just make the expected announcements.  Now I'm seeing stuff on the Internet about how the Five Points marathon.half-marathon has been announced without any sign of detail regarding the February 2026 dates and sign-up information.  My take is that they're (expletive deleted) on us, or ghosting, and that they'll let the anticipated "race weekends" pass by with no communication from them. Yet they will still continue to harass me with accusatory emails and text messages emphasizing that (MY) desperately needed blood donations to them aren't just the most important thing: they're the only thing!  Well, with quickly fading hopes of getting some information about a potential Five Points Gainesville race in February, I went to my YouTube account and searched for information.  The answer directed me to a channel run by ultramarathoner Wes Plate.  Now I like ultramarathon runners like Dean Karanazes who are upbeat about promoting their sport: I like to hear their stories.  Plate's video was 8 minutes long, giving him plenty of time to mention LifeSouth and what their intentions were.  Only he did nothing of the kind, and all I got was a discussion of ultramarathon races to come, including a 300K event (180 miles) in steamy Tennessee.  Plate's video saddened me, and in my own state of medical health I don't see myself training up to being able to cover distances in excess of a marathon (26.2 miles) length.  The Florida Track Club Marathon next month to me is a dud event, and I resent the organizers' half-assed time restriction of six hours beyond which they reserve the right to refuse to time and post for entrants who are on the slower side of that figure.  My idea and estimation of public racing have greatly shrunk over the last two or three years, with LifeSouth going into Ghost Mode (aka giving us the Finger) and Florida Track Club dropping the ball, marginalizing runners and walkers while pampering those they regard as "elite".  And the non-profit side of FTC, along with its president, clearly holds aging people like me, fighting cancer and with diminishing athletic abilities, in contempt.  Well, ghosting can be a two-way street... 

Interesting Winter Weather Hitting Gainesville as Christmas Approaches

Looks like an unusually wet and cold upcoming week in Gainesville as Christmas on Sunday approaches.  Whenever precipitation is forecast and the temperature is below freezing, the obvious inference is that it's gonna snow...such is the case this coming Friday, two days before the big holiday.  All I know is that in the next few days we're going to get a lot of water...in whatever form...falling from the skies and plummeting temperatures as the weekend approaches.  At last glimpse The Weather Channel has Christmas day's high in my hometown here in northern Florida at 45, bracketed with lows in the 20's.  My main concern in all this...and perhaps yours as well...will be potentially icy roads: hardly anyone here, including myself, is prepared to handle driving over them.  The last time that happened in Gainesville to any substantial degree was just before Christmas in 1989 when roads iced up overnight.  I was at work in the downtown post office in the wee hours of the morning and after my shift spent several minutes trying to clear my car's windshield of the thick ice.  Then the treacherous 6-mile drive home...I managed to make it nearly into my own neighborhood before the car began briefly to skid on the frozen road.  And then it began to snow in earnest while icicles formed all around my house.  Nothing like that has happened here since...until possibly this coming Christmas weekend.  Should be interesting...