The Original Peanuts Characters, and The Peanuts Collection

 At the Millhopper Public library today I renewed Martinus Evans's running guidebook Slow AF Run Club while returning a large book listing and discussing every Beatles song ever recorded.  As we were finishing with our browsing, I noticed some compendium volumes containing very early Peanuts comic strips.  Charles Shulz created Peanuts, and as a little kid I was one of its biggest, most consistent readers. Poor underappreciated Charlie Brown was its main character..."Good Grief" may have been his motto.  For a period in the sixties I procured some of the earliest Peanuts collections and enjoyed going way back in time to the original strips that introduced the early characters.  Over the years some more were introduced, largely in the interests of promoting a DEI culture (diversity, equity, inclusion).  I will always remember the old kids like Patty, Violet and Sally...they fit the TV specials well.  Schroeder, with his toy piano featuring a stern-looking bust of his hero Beethoven, was never a primary Peanuts character but remained a valued member of the series, and he may have been phased out of some series merchandise for the sake of promoting a woke agenda.  I remember that Christmas special when Linus saved the day by quoting the Christmas story out of the Bible's book of Luke.  He was a great kid. I have some books I'm now reading, and The Complete Peanuts figures strongly in that mix.  The strips collections, which go back for decades, can be accessed almost at random, and I have no need for bookmarks here.  I don't intend to do any comprehensive book reviews, but if there is something I come across that makes a good impression on me, then i'm likely to discuss it in an upcoming article.  Looks like I shouldn't have much trouble being able to renew The Complete Peanuts...

Reading, Running, Training, Optimism, Baseball

 I have been enjoying living through the past few days, without pushing an agenda about rising early before dawn and pushing myself to engage in "constructive activities" of the sort that the late personal development coach Jim Rohn would assiduously  promote on his podcasts, many of which I listened to on youube...and still do sometimes, with some anxiety.  I am no bigshot personal achiever, content for the most part with developing new, positive habits that fit into systems that take care of me and my loved ones...no loud publicity necessary!  Martinus Evans is a self-identified runner who pushes this notion, and advises his readers to see themselves as runners, no matter how little or slowly, no matter how embarrassed they fear they would feel under the often critical public observations of others.  I have a humble praise report about my meager running experiences today...I ran back and forth, very slowly, from one end of my back yard to the other...no one saw this but myself, timed at two minutes.  Come this approaching Saturday morning at Depot Park...just a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville, my plan is to cover that Depot Parkrun 5K's course by walking and running the four prescribed laps though that park while enjoying the often very funny and loud bird calls like grackles, crows and red-winged blackbirds.  Still, I know in advance that, compared to the other participants, I will be very slow, with that volunteer tail-walker most likely making a prominent example of himself. I already told Melissa that I won't care how slowly I navigate the Parkrun...only that finishing it is at the top of my  priority list..  I am now feeling the frustration of my feet and legs quickly tiring as I move my body forward, either by walking or light running. Progress in training can seem awfully slow in coming. Martinus Evans has proven to be a genuine inspiration, and I wholeheartedly agree with his disdain for eliitists within the distance running community who seek to marganalize my efforts,passing their own judgments on me as being unqualified for consideration as an athlete.  Well, the die has been cast, for from now on, if the Lord tarries about lovingly taking me back home with Him, I am indeed an athlete in the mold of Mr. Evans. I checked out the hardcopy edition of the  2023 book titled Slow AF Run Club and listened to the Libby Audibooks version, which I just checked out from my local public library. Earlier yesterday Melissa and I went to the Friends of the Library book sale, final day.  All books were ten cents, and I left there with 5 interesting books for a total of 50 cents, hauling that weight to our car. Well, that's all for now.  I'm getting ready to enjoy some evening MLB baseball. Have a good night...

Wednesday Opportunities, Booksale Final Day

 This morning I arose Early, between 5 and 6, ran in place on our living room rug, brewed some coffee...and wrote this article. With no immediate medical appointments ahead of me, I looked for some structure to today's schedule and found one item; our Friends of the Alachua County Library is holding its final day of the first (springtime) event for 2026. It's Wednesday, so patrons will encounter at that event a ten cents/book sale going on...maybe Melissa would like to go, too.  The location is on the 400 block of North Main Street,west side...I don't see us taking too long to transact our business there.  As for walk/run training, I'd like to get in some more today, either on the living room floor or in the back yard. Besides, there's always the Major League Baseball regular season and the channel we subscribe to. I would like to  hear some new self-help podcasts off YouTube and spend some relaxing time with Melissa and Peewee Daisy sitting on the shaded porch...That dog can get a little bit too hilarious. She reminds me of that funny, toothy dog named "Petey"out in the country on the Subaru Outback commercial. Some twenty-odd years ago we also had a miniature poodle, Taffy, who would "tooth up " like that, especially in hotels...

Just Finished Reading Slow AF Run Club by Martinus Evans

 Back in 2023-24 my running and walking endurance and speed had increased to the level that I successfully completed a 26.2-mile Marathon and a number of half-marathons.  My eating habits had naturally changed to the point where I had abandoned the notion of binge dieting and instead found it easy to space, by hours, between meals.  I never stopped loving food and never was remotely in danger of having an eating disorder. During those two years my dear boy Will accidentally died and we had to deal with the grief of that loss, of which I am still going through.  I made a quick decision during summer, 2024, to retire from USPS and the process went smoothly.  By 2024's end, coinciding with my peak time of physical fitness, I was being scanned...and a biopsy removed...to diagnose a serious case of prostate cancer...it would be surgically removed on 3/6/25.Still, I was in good enough shape to run 5k's such as at the DepotParkruns.   My weight crept back up into the mid-100's.  Then on 10-21 I received a preliminary diagnosis of brain cancer, confirmed 3 days later during tumor removal surgery as being of the aggressive glioblastoma variety.  Since my recovery from Dr. Koch's surgery, I received radiation and chemotherapy both of which produced side effects that interfered with my level of physical fitness.  So far in 2026 I have experienced a drastically reduced ability to run or walk continuously  for moderate distances like 5K (3.1 miles). I have been training at home on my own with running in place.  Each Saturday morning I walk laps, one at a time (two lately), at Depot Park.  i am optimistically showing up for Saturday morning Parkruns with the hope of getting in four walking laps, covering enough course distance to be scanned and posted online.  Recently at our Millhopper Public Library I checked out a running guide by Martinus Evans titled Slow AF Run Club, published in 2023 by Penguin Random House.  Read in person by the author, I got it on my Libby app and just finished listening to the entire audiobook.  Evans has a compelling, helpful message as he reveals his experiences of returning to an activity he feels too many people avoid out of fear of being watched or ridiculed. I've recently weighed myself at 200 lbs...that seems fat.  Aside from properly hydrating before and during runs, Evans has parts in his book where he lists and describes different types of rest and recovery, something he thinks highly of. I say, get online on your library account,put a hold on Slow AF Run Club, and get down to reading it!  As for me, my training continues, and this coming Parkrun should reveal me covering the course to completion...