About Politics (You're Welcome to Skip Reading This)

A few days ago I wrote a politically-charged article for this blog, but hesitated to post it because, well, it seemed a bit too harsh after reading it over a couple of times.  After last November's presidential election that made me sharply question the intelligence and integrity of the American voter, my political criticisms have alternated between calling out the gullibility and/or ugliness motivating too many people's voting trends these days and calling out the people that they placed in positions of power...the most notable one of course being Trump.  So instead of using pejorative designations like "dumbass", "fraud" or "hack", let me instead just relay that in no way do I feel any sense of trust in my elected leaders...especially the current White House occupant...nor do I think that the American electorate will, in either the immediate or long-term future, do anything to return this republic of elected representatives to a semblance of reason and comity directed toward the public good.  So, therefore, I've lived my whole life in a country that now makes me feel like a "stranger in a strange land".  I also don't think that any expressed political opinion of mine is going to make any real difference other than label myself, to the computer algorithms out there, as belonging to a particular political leaning after which they will concentrate on feeding me social media input that they "think" reinforces what they "think" I already think.  So there you go...let me just stay out of the way of all the crazies I see around me...oops, I think I just used a pejorative...

My July 2025 Running, Walking and Swimming Report

For the month of July I persevered with my running and (speed) walking, cutting back some with the swimming.  I participated in three different racing events, running two of them (Melon Run, Depot Parkrun) on consecutive mornings early in the month. My intent this month...in which we've been experiencing a record-setting heat wave...was to balance my running and walking training while trying to avoid overexposure in the heat (and humidity) of the blistering day: I think it's worked so far. In the middle of July Melissa and I went on a three-night Bahamas cruise, but apart from expected extensive walking I didn't exert myself much, and the ship's pools were too crowded and small to be of any use.  The second half of the month I began to use my gym's treadmill to work on increasing my walking speed.  And the past week saw us using our local YMCA's swimming pool, with me getting in some practice.  At this stage, I am dissatisfied that I have gained some 20-plus pounds since this time in 2024.  Back then I had a built-in daily structure...going to my regular post office job five days a week...with which I could implement habits moderating and spacing my food consumption while maintaining physical activity.  But I retired at the end of November and with Melissa we seem to be focusing more on the next meal we're to eat, while much of the time I'm content with just eating light although I often go along with her recommendations and, quite frankly, have my own high-calorie favorites (like pancakes and hamburgers).  I don't really need that much food to get by, and I think that my general health and fitness (and running and walking speed) would be better were I to proactively assert myself more around eating time.  That said, I'm happy with this past month and have high hopes for August.  During my last two neighborhood 3.3-mile training loops I walked briskly until 40 minutes went by and then I ran the rest of the way back home...I think I'll adopt that pattern into my regular training regimen.  With swimming, my goal is to get myself comfortable using the 25 yd swimming lanes and thereby avoid depending on the shorter and more shallow half of the pool, which can get unpredictably crowded.  August 2025 has five Saturdays, so there should be plenty of chances to do 5K races next month, especially now that there are two Parkruns in town now.  I'm thinking of "officially" running my first West End Community Parkrun in a couple of days.  Although I disliked the course when I test-ran it back on July 13th, I like that it's directly across the street from Gainesville Health and Fitness (Tioga branch) and Patticakes coffee shop...

This Morning at the Lab

After spending more than an hour waiting for my blood to be drawn at my pathology lab this morning, I realized that it's not always prudent to get there the earliest.  Many other folks are following the same reasoning...either to just get it done with or to fit it into their tight schedules...so the "early bird" rush is in effect.  Not only that, but they had only one person to draw the blood in the lab.  By the time my name was finally called, they had three on duty...I think from now on I'll wait a little while before going down there. Despite the wait, the people around me were friendly and patient, as (hopefully) I seemed to be toward them. I tried the "early" route because getting there right after awakening was the most convenient way to get my blood drawn after fasting...now I can enjoy my iced coffee at the nearby Dunkin' Donuts while musing about the month about to end.  Yesterday Melissa and I signed and initialed the contract for the sale of our tragically deceased son Will's house...the closing process is now essentially in the confident and capable hands of our real estate agent, bless him.  Then the two of us made plans for another cruise, this one in early October.  That should be fun as well.  In the meantime, I'm having to continue my follow-up medical visits, in August to check my heart status, in September to my urologist/surgeon following prostate cancer surgery, and in October to consult with a dermatologist.  I guess I'm now in the permanent medical rotation, but I feel fine and intend to continue doing so...   

My Song of the Month for July 2025

Scottish alternative rock band Franz Ferdinand gets my nod in July for my personal favorite "song of the month" with the final track of their January album release (The Human Fear), titled The Birds.  It has a relentless guitar riff/hook to it, and Alex Kapranos, the lead singer and chief creative force behind their music and lyrics comes off sounding quite a lot like the Doors' Jim Morrison...I mean they sound like audio doppelgangers!  This is the second straight month in which I listened to a recent release by a group I already liked, sadly disliked almost the entire album but then suddenly bonded with their final track...for June it was Arcade Fire, their Pink Elephant album and the song Stuck in My Head.  The Birds contains simple lyrics, with Kapranos expressing gratitude to the listener for "accepting him despite what he has done"...that's repeated throughout this catchy tune.  So now here are my songs of the month so far for 2025:

July        The Birds   by Franz Ferdinand

June        Stuck in My Head   by Arcade Fire

May        Walking on a Dream   by Empire of the Sun

April       Nothing I Need   by Lord Huron

March     Under the Rug   by Arcy Drive

February  Starburster    by Fontaines DC

January   Everyone Out   by Diiv

Now, it's onward to August...

Record-Hot Day in Gainesville Today

Looks like Gainesville is going to set a high temperature record for today, hitting three digits.  It's already 100 and there's plenty of time for it to get even higher.  I got up early this morning and did a walk/run around my 3.3-mile neighborhood course, and then went with Melissa to my local pool to do a few laps...all before the sun had risen to any appreciable extent.  Even then, though, conditions were stifling due to the humidity combined with warmth. And now it's all "hunker-down" in air-conditioning for the remainder of the day.  This is when I really appreciate the warnings that go out for employees exposed to outdoor conditions, like letter carriers for example...

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...

Volunteered as Tail-Walker in Today's Depot Parkrun 5K

When I pulled into the Depot Park parking lot this morning a little past seven, it was 75 degrees with 93% humidity.  These inhospitable weather conditions were expected, though, especially in the middle of these summertime dog days.  Last Saturday at this time I was on the cruise boat, docked at Nassau in the Bahamas, so of course there was no Parkrun for me then.  And even today, I volunteered as a tail-walker, so I wouldn't exactly be testing my ability to withstand the conditions...this past week I've done the equivalent, though, with my neighborhood walk/runs.  My main concern with being a tail-walker was to make sure I was the last person in the field, so at the start I waited a couple of minutes so that anyone who was going to be in the race was already "in"...and then I started at a slow pace.  Another volunteer was a "regular" park-walker, and she stayed back to photograph the other runners and walkers for their Facebook event photo feature...this was nice, although it also held me up, making me walk even slower than I had planned.  The spirit around this event was sweet, and it all seemed to go off without a hitch.  I finished 82nd out of 82, which of course is what I was supposed to do, at a subdued time of 1:11:38.  If you'd like, you can click HERE to view today's Depot Parkrun 5K results.  One of the nice things about volunteering as a walker is that I get credits both for completing the course and for volunteering.  Maybe next month I'll volunteer again, but I'd like to wait a bit before then...

Oven-Like Conditions Outside in Summertime Dog Days

Early today...real early...I got up and went with Melissa to get one of our Toyotas repaired at the shop.  Returning home, I was very sleepy and didn't wake up until mid-afternoon.  I checked the current weather conditions here in Gainesville at 3:00 pm: 91 degrees, 68% humidity, and "feels like" 108 degrees!  Stepping outside was like stepping into an oven: I promised Melissa I would be doing my exercises indoors, in the air conditioning...

Star-Gazing on Cruise Ocean Balcony

During the evening after sunset on our recent cruise, since we had a cabin with an ocean-facing balcony I spent some time there looking out at the sky.  Although there were a few clouds scattered about, I had little trouble making out the more conspicuous stars in the visible constellations.  Friday and Saturday evening offered a good view of the southern sky, and at this mid-July that meant that Scorpius was clearly the most notable and recognizable star pattern out there, vividly presenting the stellar image of a giant scorpion, with its first magnitude red giant star Antares standing out.  But below Scorpius and to the west (right) was another easily visible clump of stars...not quite as bright as those in Scorpius...that intrigued me.  I suspected that what I was viewing was mostly the constellation Lupus, with the standout inverted triangle of 2nd-and-3rd-magnitude stars and a smaller, fainter triangle to its left (east), and a couple of stars trailing off to the larger triangle's west.  After returning home I referenced a star chart and found my triangle...the bottom and top-left stars were indeed in Lupus while the top-right one was part of Centaurus, and the two trailing to the west were also in Centaurus.  As a matter of fact, had we been a little further south in the water at the time, I could have traced straight down from my triangle and reached the first-magnitude stars Alpha and Beta Centauri just above the southern horizon.  My personal star-pattern of triangles wasn't an official constellation but rather an asterism, which I called "Daisy-Doo" because it reminded me of our pet rescue dog's head.  I think tonight...if the rain clouds disperse, that is...I might just go outside and see if I can't find my Daisy-Doo hiding out there on the other side of the trees south of my house...

Back from Cruise, Routines Returning

I am a creature of deliberate routine, having normalized several different daily habits over the past months and years.  That's not to say that I'm going to stick to them all for the interruption that a three-day cruise creates, and this is good to know in advance.  For example, this past weekend I let go of my routine of listening for set time spans to different languages as well as doing writing exercises in them.  I relaxed my exercise workout standards as well, along with the limits I usually place with my eating.  After all, I'm focusing on the cruise experience, right?  But today is the second full day back and the old routines are returning to form, and that is a good thing. And what do you know, in only the span of one week the front and back yards look like they're ready for yet another mowing: back to that routine...      

Back From Our Little Cruise

Yesterday morning our three-night cruise returned to Port Canaveral and Melissa and I embarked on our sometimes harrowing ride home to Gainesville on the long stretches of interstate and turnpike roads.  Late morning today we're both recovering...from both the cruise and drive home.  The cruise was on Royal Caribbean's big boat, Utopia of the Seas, and it was likewise packed with a big concentration of travelers, spanning generations.  These cruises try to accommodate diverse interests, and they have a heavy emphasis on making alcohol available for adults...along with a casino and opportunities for night clubbing.  The pools on this boat didn't fit the bill in my estimation, nearly always overcrowded to the point that when you're just standing in one spot (maximum depth 4 feet), you stand a good chance of others carelessly colliding with you...which is what happened to me.  Our itinerary on this short trip had us stopping Saturday at Nassau, capital city of the Bahamas, and then on Sunday at Coco Cay, a little island owned by Royal Caribbean and transformed into a beach/pool/water park destination for its clients.  When we docked at Nassau, we noticed that there were, in plain sight, four other cruise ships there.  And the businesses we encountered after we left the shop that morning were nearly impossible to navigate, with so, so many people crowding around us and the shop owners/employees nearly always employing an aggressive sales strategy whereby they would approach one of us and feign interest in what we're doing but waste no time in switching over to what they wanted...which of course was our money.  It got very old very quickly out there in this little tourist trap corner of Nassau and we were only too happy to return to the ship after just an hour or so ashore.  For Coco Cay, we decided to avail ourselves of our ship's swimming pools...without all those people who we assumed went out.  Still, it was hard to swim to any degree there because, well, kids being who they are, just don't look out for others and were constantly getting in the way.  We did, though, enjoy some time in the pool and the whirlpool as well.  Utopia of the Seas boasted several water slides, none of which I went down...but I did go down their dry slide "Abyss", which shot riders quickly in a twisted tube down ten levels...from 16 to 6 where I slid out of a chute, climbed out and slowly walked away.  The above photo is of me at the entrance to the ride. There was also rock climbing, which I'd like to try out closer to home, but didn't this time around...although I observed how others were doing it.  For Melissa and me, we enjoyed just hanging out on the ship, walking around together exploring the different levels dining at their nice restaurants and cafes, and sitting on our cabin's oceanfront balcony.  I also used their fitness room once, walking a brisk 5K on one of their many treadmills that featured a nice virtual video to accompany my activity.  We were a little disappointed in the ship's adults-only Solarium section after enjoying it on our previous cruise ship, the much smaller and older Enchantment of the Seas. Solarium's pool was basically very small and just for standing around in...why bother!  I also liked Enchantment's little open snack bar, which I though would surely be available on the larger boat but wasn't.  I did like the free ice cream cones served on Level 15, just outside the Windjammer (the large indoor buffet cafeteria).  Upon returning to Gainesville, we've been adjusting back to our "regular" life...which is pretty doggone good as well.  Speaking of "doggone", it was also very nice to see our own dog again, Daisy.  I'm also interested in more travel opportunities with Melissa (facing me below at the Windjammer), including more cruises as well...

Upcoming Weekend Cruise

Tomorrow Melissa and I will be leaving on a brief cruise to the Bahamas.  We should be back sometime late Monday.  Until then I won't be writing any blog articles.  Tomorrow is the first anniversary of our son Will's accidental death.  We both grieve and miss him.  This outing should be an enjoyable break from some of the trying circumstances we've passed through the last couple of years.  In any event, I wish you all well...

People Under Pressure to Conform to "Gulf of America"

Our evil clown president, Donald J. Trump...move over, Pennywise...early in his second administration after my fellow citizens inexplicably voted him again into power, decided to ratchet up the xenophobic jingoism by renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America".  This is forcing companies and employees to be under pressure to adopt the tin-pot dictator's petty decree. The two major weather TV stations, the Weather Channel and FoxWeather, have "Gulf of America" on their maps, and the latter's announcers seem to be quite happy with the new designation, especially Haley Meier who seems quite giddy about it all.  But the Weather Channel's meteorologists aren't all exactly on board with this change, particularly Greg Postel who is sticking to his guns with Gulf of "Mexico",  And why not? The presidential proclamation only renames the part of this body of water under the United States' jurisdiction, which is absurd considering that we're talking geography, not international political boundaries.  I like "Gulf of Mexico" more anyway, since when you are standing on that gulf's coast whether it's in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana or Texas, chances are that the land facing you on the other side of the water is, indeed, Mexico.  Of course, Trump in his supreme ignorance and narcissism is only trying to stir up controversy with himself as the center of attention. What a creep... 

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...

New Franz Ferdinand Track Works for Me in July

Since we are now getting into the middle of July, I'm starting to see whether I can't find a good "current" song to theme this month after.  Let's see...the Scottish alternative group Franz Ferdinand this past January came out with a new album, titled The Human Fear.  I listened to it the other day, and, just like when I listened to Arcade Fire's new LP release Pink Elephant, the entire album seemed like a dud...that is, until the very last track, The Birds.  And finally, I heard a really good song.  So for the time being, at least, The Birds is my song of the month for July, unless another tune comes along to replace it.  Check it out on YouTube...

About My Dear Departed Sister-in-Law Krista

Krista Jane Bailey, my sister-in-law, passed away last Wednesday evening, July 9th, at E.T. York Hospice Center in Gainesville after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.  She was a devoted mother, wife, grandmother and sister and will be terribly missed by all of us in her family.  Krista was my wife Melissa's little sister by thirteen months...she was 62.  Krista is survived by her daughter Amy Holley, sister Melissa Irwin, brother Keith Jones and granddaughter Tabytha Holley.  Her husband James Bailey had tragically died in December 2021...the two were inseparable, life-long soul mates.  I miss Krista's wonderful sense of humor and love of life...she was a great source of comfort to Melissa after the tragic death of our own son Will last year.  She was a licensed Certified Nursing Assistant with an associate degree, and spent many years employed in retail management.  For much of the last two decades she had lived in Lexington, Kentucky with James, who had many of his own family living there. I am tired of losing family members, and the loss of Will, James and Krista has been difficult for me to accept.  I have never experienced anyone like Krista before who was so positive and gracious during her final weeks and days, when hope for a cure for her leukemia dwindled and, finally, was relinquished when she was transferred to spend her final days at Hospice.  God bless her, and may God bless you as well...

Speed-Walked Today's Depot Parkrun 5K

Today is the first official day for Gainesville's second Parkrun, held at West End Park.  I went there for a trial run last Sunday, but decided to go back to my traditional haunt, Depot Park (near downtown), this morning to do a 5K speed-walk.  The temperature at 7:30 race time was 72 with 99% humidity...typical summertime muggy discomfort.  The "regular" Parkrun leaders were over at the other place, as I'm assuming were several "Depot Park" runners and walkers.  I had wanted to break 40 minutes with my finishing speed-walk time, and I tried to walk as fast as I could.  But it was to no avail, with me finishing at 41:44...click HERE to view today's results.  Next weekend I'm planning to be on a brief cruise with Melissa, and for the 26th I volunteered to be a "Tail Walker", i.e. the designated last person to finish the Parkrun.  They encouraged us participants to meet up at the food court on NW 4th Avenue near 6th Street at 9, but I finished the walk hot and sweaty and was in my car driving back by 8:15...can't wait 45 minutes, at least today.  I instead drove down to my nearby Dunkin' Donuts for a pistachio-flavored iced coffee, studied some foreign languages there and then wrote this article.  I used my Alpha-Smart portable word processor, which is completely off-line and automatically saves my writing...running on AA batteries: really old-school!  I don't think I'm going to make any substantial progress in walking or running faster until I regain control over my weight and eating patterns, which I know I will do. I can still cover the distance, but with each step I'm lugging twenty extra pounds of body weight from this time a year ago...

YouTube Channel Shows Making of Great Old Rock Albums

I've recently been checking out a YouTube channel, titled Film Retrospective, that covers the making of different famous albums by sixties rock groups.  The most notable ones are the Beatles and Rolling Stones.  Each posting covers an album in a chronological order, discussing the different tracks in the order that they were recorded, with a lot of footage showing the band members, producers, sound engineers, or anyone else who happened to be in the picture. I am the most interested in how the Beatles went about developing songs and recording them, as well as how they got along with each other and others.  With them, it seemed to me that the biggest change occurred over the years with John Lennon, who was very negatively affected by the torrid, whirlwind pace of concerts, public relations events and recording studio sessions that manager Brian Epstein imposed on him and the rest of the band.  Lennon had for years been floating around the idea of quitting the Beatles...it's really amazing, especially seeing him in an unstable state on some of these videos, that he waited until near the end of 1969 before pronouncing himself "divorced".  As for the Rolling Stones, they had their own problems with founding member Brian Jones, who like Lennon did not have the emotional constitution to handle the fame and limelight and allowed himself to become heavily dependent on mind-altering drugs. Watching these YouTube videos starkly exposes the frailty of human existence...these folks were the success stories that others only dreamed of becoming, yet there was a great amount of sadness and resentment with them that their striving never seemed to help with.  I think that so far my favorite video in this series was the one about the Beatles' making of the Magical Mystery Tour album in 1967...click HERE to see it.  I have a theory about Lennon's developing strategies of dealing with the stress placed on him, too.  He, in my opinion, came to collect people around him like Yoko Ono, Yannis "Magic Alex" Mardas, and their second manager, Allen Klein, to shield him from the pressure and influence of others (such as Paul McCartney, George Martin and the media).  But that's just my theory.  Check out some of these videos, especially if you know and like the Beatles and Stones...

My Dear Sister-in-Law Krista Passes Away

My dearly beloved sister-in-law Krista Bailey sadly passed away yesterday evening at 10:47 due to complications arising from an aggressive form of leukemia.  She had been staying at the ET York Hospice, Care Center off Northwest 39th Avenue here in Gainesville.  Krista was a beautiful person and a blessing to Melissa as her little sister.  She had such a wonderful, refreshing sense of humor, a direct way of communicating and in her own way was quite brilliant.  Her husband James, her true soul mate, had tragically died four years ago, and she moved back to Gainesville from Kentucky less than a year ago.  Krista is survived by Melissa and her brother Keith, as well as her daughter Amy and granddaughter Tabitha.  For me the month of July is becoming a rather dark month, with Krista's recent passing and my son Will's accidental death on the 18th last year.  May all who knew Krista derive comfort and peace from God in this time of mourning.  I am truly saddened by her absence.  Once again I'm a "survivor"...and it brings more grief...

Style Over Substance: Presidents Carter and Trump

When Jimmy Carter was running for president in 1976, he used a lot of symbology to carry him on to a narrow victory over incumbent Gerald Ford in November.  Jimmy was "plain folk" like you and me, not a privileged elitist, and he was a peanut farmer to boot, along with being a nuclear engineer should you begin suspecting him of being a country bumpkin.  Growing up in Deep South Georgia in Plains, just a few miles from where I was born in Albany, that very small town enhanced Carter's image of being accessible and "one of us".  His administration was going to be open and ethical, although not much in the realm of specifics was put out during the campaign.  Instead it was "style over substance"...even to the point where in the minutes preceding his inauguration to the presidency, he walked down the street with his wife Rosalynn, a refreshing symbol of open fearlessness that impressed many of us who were still fresh with the memories of recent assassinations.  During press conferences the "style over substance" questions kept surfacing, and apparently the new president was sensitive to this, transforming a promising, interesting presidency into an almost covert endeavor, replacing that corny-but-endearing wide, toothy grin with chronic frowning.  I'm writing this in reaction to Donald Trump's obvious "style over everything" presidency that, while polarizing intense opposition from large sections of the country, is also sealing fervent support among his base...unlike with Jimmy Carter, who found himself unpopular across the board.  With his tendency to exaggerate and boast, Trump is like the liar in that classic old Twilight Zone episode Hocus Pocus and Frisby, except that in no way is he to any degree likable like that episode's adorable protagonist, ably portrayed by Andy Devine.  Whenever Trump goes off on one of his delusional rants or boasts that terrible things will happen to his perceived enemies, the opposition press and opinion makers go to town against him, taking literally everything he says.  Inevitably the narrative goes back to the 1930s, the rise of Hitler in Germany and the lack of resolve of that nation's population to see what was happening and stand up to the dictator. I have no doubt that Donald Trump, who has no sense of compassion toward others that I can see, would gladly take on the role of a Hitler or Stalin had he the opportunity, but I'm convinced that he has the mentality of an underworld crime thug...for some reason the Woke community disapproves of that four-letter word but it fits him well, as far as I can see.  So Trump, unlike Carter, is promoting style deep into his administration.  Also, UNLIKE our late president, his style consists of being mean, self-congratulatory, oversensitive and vindictive...

Time Takes on Urgency During Aging

As I age, now into retirement for seven-plus months, my changing perception of the passage of time is causing me to reevaluate how best to spend it.  For one, with me it no longer seems that the future is as vast and wide open as it was during my youth...that's being pretty realistic, I think.  You can be pretty healthy...even athletic in your "golden" years, as Paul, an acquaintance in his 80's, demonstrated, and then quickly succumb to an aggressive cancer, organ failure or other ailment.  After my open-heart surgery four years ago, I recovered to the level of being once again able to do Parkrun 5Ks.  On one such run the following year, Paul and I found ourselves running side-by-side, and he revealed he had run many marathons in his past. He seemed very fit and at the close of our little talk, he then sped off and finished the 5K well ahead of me.  I hadn't seen Paul in a long time and just recently discovered that he had died this past February from pancreatic cancer.  Very sad, but that's a common part of being a senior: you're going along just fine, with what seems like an open future stretching out before you...and then, poof!, just like that, you're gone.  Well, that's one rapidly shifting perception of time that's recently affected me.  The other is my increased sensitivity to how, with each new day, I have things I want to do and how so-called "urgencies" that crop up tend to crowd them out, making me feel selfish and guilty should I assert myself and carve out my own time for them.  This also has to do with my sense that I don't have forever in this world to pursue my own interests and goals in spite of how well I physically feel or what encouraging words my doctors say...I'm developing my own personal sense of urgency regarding these things...

Sense of Community Important in Old Age

When my sister moved with her family to Texas in 1984, while I was living here in northern Florida, it left my parents by themselves back in my childhood home in Hollywood (near Miami).  My mother passed away in 2002, and that left my father living alone in the old house, albeit with a lot of stray neighborhood cats he took in and cared for.  But Daddy did not take to forming supportive relationships with others outside the immediate family, and as his vision and coordination gradually deteriorated with age, he found himself increasingly more in isolation, with my visits or those of Anita being special times when we could help him out with things. As Melissa and I are now the oldest surviving generation in our families, it gives me a sense of gratitude that she has some very good and deep connections with others.  For myself, though, on the other hand, it isn't quite so simple as I have almost instinctively been reclusive instead of pursuing a probably healthier level of social interaction. So although I'd rather spend time alone or with Melissa, I think that...at least while we're both still "up and about"...it just might behoove me to proactively engage in a more sociable context even if I start out feeling a bit critical and negative.  I think that's one reason I do the weekly Parkruns, but there are all kinds of groups like that get together, in real time and space, to unite around their shared interests.  Time for me to get down to figuring just how I'm going to step out of my isolationist comfort zone... 

Drove Out to West End Park, Joined Trial Parkrun There

The good folks at Depot Parkrun had mentioned more than once that on this present Sunday morning, six days before the inaugural West End Parkrun 5K gives Gainesville the status of a two-Parkrun town with its first race, they would welcome anyone to go to that park to check out its course and give feedback.  West End used to be a golf course before it became a community park, situated in the unincorporated town of Tioga just west of Gainesville on Newberry Road .  It's a bit out there from my house, which lies in the far-northern fringes of Gainesville.  I timed my drive to West End this morning.  It being Sunday morning around 7, it didn't surprise me that it only took 22 minutes, with much of the time spent waiting at traffic lights that stayed red for no apparent reason.  The people assembled there at West End were a mixture of runners and walkers...and some of the organizers, including the Depot Parkrun director...a fast runner in her own right. We were shown course maps, which displayed a course that wound through the park like it was still a golf course, with a lot of twists and turns.  There was plenty of concrete sidewalk, which alternated between stretches of grass connecting them.  It was also considerably more sloped than for the Depot Park course.  And there were no repeat laps here...you just stayed on course here until you finished it.  The West End Parkrun course reminded me a little of the old track/cross-country runs back in high school, near our campus, that would go across fields and down horse trails...that was cool.  But you do need to keep your attention on the ground ahead of you to avoid slipping or tripping.  Especially at the beginning, the sidewalk's concrete slabs were often a little out of place and easy to trip on.  And with the grass, on our trial run it hadn't been cut for a while and was overgrown and slick with dew moisture.  I had hoped to be able to keep up with the director on the run but even though she said she took it more slowly, there was no way I could gain any benefit from trying to stay even with her.  Eventually I finished the run after a long struggle trying to keep up with its meandering nature...one false turn and you're lost.  At the finish line I checked my Fitbit to see the mileage: 3.48 miles, some .38 mile longer than a 5K, or more than 10% too far.  Our director had asked for my feedback with this and I told her.  I don't know if they'll try to do anything to shorten the course between now and when the first "official" run is held next Saturday morning.  As for me, it was a good training run that I frankly hadn't been preparing myself to do this morning: I wasn't dressed for it and my clothes were soaked with perspiration after it ended.  I kept up a reasonable (for me) pace while attuning myself to the course, finishing at 31:44, a relatively slow time for me until you consider that I did say that the course was over 10% too long.  Next Saturday, though, if I do a Parkrun, I'm pretty sure that it will be at Depot Park again...and most likely will be a speed-walk...

Ran Today's Depot Parkrun 5K Here in Gainesville

This Saturday morning I once again arose before six...then I promptly went back to bed with the alarm set at 6:05.  Sure, I could have slept through today's Depot Parkrun 5K but that would have broken with this constructive personal habitual routine.  So I drove on down to Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville, to try my hand once again at their little multi-looping race course.  Before it started, I was uncertain whether I'd run it or speed-walk, seeing that the day before I had exerted myself a bit running the three-mile Melon Run at Westside Park.  But while standing there at the countdown to the "start" signal I made my decision: run that sucker!  The temperature/humidity combination was typical for North Florida summer mornings: 74 degrees at 98%...not conducive for setting any personal bests today.  And so that's how I handled the run, trying hard enough to finish below 30 minutes while not worrying about particulars.  I never was able to settle into a good running groove, but at the same time...compared to other runners who were clearly running out of gas early on...I managed to keep up a steady pace and even speed up a bit at the end in spite of struggling in my mind to continue on and resist the almost overwhelming temptation to just walk the rest of the way to the finish line.  As it was, I ran well enough to finish at 29:25...hooray!  I remember how, for years since I began doing the Depot Parkrun in 2019, breaking 30 minutes seemed an impossible dream.  But since I managed to cross over that threshold, the opposite has happened: same 30 minutes, but now it's a goal to consistently avoid finishing slower than. Of course, when I'm speed-walking, I have a different standard.  You can view today's results by clicking HERE. I noticed a few of the runners from yesterday's Melon Run race were present at today's event... 

Ran Gainesville's July 4th Melon Run

As alluded to yesterday, this morning I ran the Florida Track Club's annual 4th of July three-mile race, called the Jack Gamble Melon Run.  Held at Albert Ray Massey "Westside" Park off NW 34th Street here in Gainesville, I've run it a number of times in the past and have come to accept the sad truth that since this event seems to attract the most hard-core, competitive entrants, then there's no point in hanging around after it's over, hoping to get an age-category award. Besides, it's summertime and this hilly race course, coupled with the expected heat and high humidity, tends to test the ability of many naive runners to simply finish it. The race began at eight, but I got to the park at 7:30, just in time to snag one of the last available parking spots. Just walking around the place amidst the 73 degree temperature and foggy, 100% humidity, I could portend a challenging race since there seemed to be an inordinate amount of people there.  Then I discovered that they had changed the course...but in the end that was all right.  Since they don't time runners at the start...only the end...it took 14 seconds once the race began for me to actually get to the starting line, so in my mind at least I deduct that amount from my recorded finishing time.  I ran the first mile or so just to lightly run and get into a nice, easy groove.  Once that was accomplished I found myself gradually picking up the speed and passing lots of people.  By the end I was pushing hard and was tired, finishing with an official time of 28 minutes 31 seconds, some 1:36 slower than last year's Melon Run time when I weighed about twenty pounds less.  I will say this: I could have gone out running harder and maybe finished closer to my 2024 time, but I'd also be more exhausted while facing a more demanding recovery.  That's significant since I intend to run the Depot Parkrun 5K tomorrow morning, and then explore the new West End Parkrun course with others Sunday morning.  All in all, this race was a pleasant experience...the volunteers were great!  And along with the celebratory Independence Day vibes, plenty of chopped-up watermelon slices were there for everyone.  You can view today's results by clicking HERE. By the way, I noticed three other Depot Parkrun "regulars" besides myself who were in attendance for today's Melon Run...let's see if they also turn out for tomorrow...

Is Parainfluenza Infecting Our Community Right Now in Summer?

I'm not exactly sure what "para-flu" is, but earlier this evening a nurse used it to describe "what's going around everywhere"...including my dear sister-in-law Krista, who is now all-but-bedridden at our local Haven Hospice with terminal-stage cancer.  Melissa thinks she may have had it, possibly me...and, apparently half the people I run into in public are coughing and sneezing and sniffling.  Not that it's all the flu, or some related variety of sickness...I'm leaning toward the theory that I have seasonal allergies combined with post nasal drip issues.  I'm not going to let this annoyance keep me from my running or speed-walking, either: tomorrow morning it's the three-mile Jack Gamble Melon Run "run" by the Florida Track Club, of which I am a member with a "geezer" discount.  My plan: treat it, at least at the start, as simply a slow workout jog while trying to avoid getting trampled or doing likewise myself.  And immediately afterwards get the fudge out of there, as South Park's Eric Cartman would put it...   

Happy Hump Day of the Year

If Wednesday can be called "hump day" for the week that starts on Sunday and ends Saturday, then July 2nd can likewise be termed "hump day" for the year...that is, for non-leap years.  For exactly 182 days precede today and 182 are to come in 2025.  This morning I was watching the Weather Channel and the good meteorologists sitting around on the curved blue couch, apparently with nothing better to do, posed this question to the viewing audience: what is your favorite "half" of the year, January through June or July through December?  The poll's answer was that more thought July through December is better...I wonder, though, what the response would be if the question was posed at the beginning of January! For if you're standing smack in the middle of a calendar year, then one half is what you've just lived through and the other is right in front of you, about to happen.  So I suppose the responses that most folks gave...at least those who watch the Weather Channel in the morning...showed that they are generally optimistic about the future, that the next six months will be better than the previous six.  As for me, I am personally so much bound to focusing on each single day as it comes that I don't allow myself to get too hung up on "favorite" stretches of time.  I can find good and bad in every month and season I've lived through so far, and I'm guessing that that's probably going to continue.  This July, though, is considerably more trying for Melissa and me than in the past because our dear son Will passed away last year on the 18th...but that wasn't not July's fault, and I'm looking forward to good times and experiences on this early side of the "hump" in 2025... 

A Final Jeopardy! Answer, and Lifespans

The final Jeopardy! answer on tonight's episode of that long-lasting game show series concerned a topic I had no reason to be knowledgeable about: who is buried in England's Westminster Abbey.  It is where British royalty has historically been interred, but there is a place within, called "Poet's Corner", where standouts in the arts, most notably literary, have also been accorded burial spots.  I'm not sure exactly what the wording was in the Jeopardy! answer, but it did include the year of burial as being 1991...and I came up with the correct solution: "Who was Laurence Olivier?"  In case you didn't already know, he is widely acknowledged as being one of the greatest actors of all time...although, I'm sure to my own loss, the only movies I remember seeing him in were Marathon Man and The Boys from Brazil.  Yet in only those two films his performance was dazzling, especially in the former.  Being a dweller of the year 2025 as I write this, I was convinced that Olivier had already passed away...but was a little surprised that he died sometime in 1989, some 36 years ago.  As each of us passes, riding the "now" moment, through our own individual lifespans, we can only perceive the subjective reality of the years we remember being alive through our own experience and realities, depending on others' records and memories of those times preceding our births.  I don't know how long I will remain on Earth, but I'm confident that 36 years after my passing I will in no way be weighing in on the passage of time in that as-yet unknown, but inevitable year.  For each of us individually, as far as our own subjected perception is concerned, there is only one time, and it is now.  The nearly universal biography statistic of lifespan...the birth year, a hyphen, and the year of dying...is one of objective perception from outsiders.  Each of us can play a little at this and see ourselves as our birth years, a hyphen...and nothing, but never with that final year.  We belong to our lifespans, and that will always be real, as it has always been for every biological entity that has ever been.  The big mystery, which religion and philosophy tend to address, is what happens to that personally-experienced "now" at death.  If I say that I am defined for myself as being the "here and now", then not only does that mean that your "here" is by nature different from mine, but also that your "now" is different as well in spite of it seeming the same.  So my "now" doesn't depend on you or others or the so-called objective reality that trudges on ahead through time.  But enough of this metaphysical speculation, time to go get another coffee...

My June 2025 Running/Walking/Swimming Report

In June I continued working out with my running, walking and swimming, not reaching any milestones but rather letting my system and habits fill each day with meaningful activity.  Melissa and I didn't quite make it to our YMCA Pool as often as we did in May...she came down with a bad cold and the weather tended to be uncooperative later on during the afternoon/evening hours.  For the first three Saturdays in June I participated in the Depot Parkrun, running the first two and speed-walking the last.  I had planned to run the US Road Running event scheduled on the 28th at Westside Park, but upper respiratory issues...most likely simple post nasal drip...convinced me to instead sleep through it.  For mid-July we've planned a short cruise to the Bahamas and back, and on the other weekends in the month there will be race opportunities.  I've signed up for this coming Friday's three-mile Melon Run, starting and ending at Westside Park and organized by the Florida Track Club.  On the 5th will be another Depot Parkrun and the next morning interested folks will meet at West End Park to try out their new Parkrun course in an unofficial run...that second Gainesville Parkrun location starts its runs on the 12th.  On July 19th I plan, as stated, to be traveling, while on the 26th will be another US Road Running race at Westside.  I'm seriously entertaining the notion of focusing my running efforts on 5K and 10K races and speed-walking races of 15K, half-marathon and marathon length.  I'm also a little concerned that I've gained some twenty pounds since this time last year.  Sure, I've been doing more resistance training, which can put on some "muscle" weight.  But unfortunately a lot of the pounds I've recently been adding to the scale are due to diverging from my previously established eating pattern.  I need to address this matter before it gets out of hand...it certainly is interfering with my running and walking effectiveness. As for swimming, I have no interest in swimming fast or doing any timed races...which is good since I don't see any being offered anyway. What I do want is to develop a smooth freestyle form and the endurance to accomplish several pool-length laps per pool visit, nothing more...

My Song of the Month for June 2025

We're coming to the end of another month, so it's time for me to come out and announce my "Song of the Month" for June: Stuck in My Head by Arcade Fire. It's the final track on their newly released album Pink Elephant. When I first listened to Pink Elephant, I was full of excited anticipation for some for great Arcade Fire music...only to be greatly disappointed as track after track seemed weak and lame.  And then it came down to the very end, and wouldn't you know it, they came through with a big winner.  Singer/songwriter Win Butler gives a passionate performance with cutting lyrics and a robust, fast pace reminding me of the group's much earlier track Rebellion (Lies).  There are no other songs for June that, to me, come anywhere close to Stuck in My Head.  It's also, in my estimation, the "Song of 2025" so far.  Give it a listen and tell me what you think...

SONGS OF THE MONTH 2025

JUNE    Stuck in My Head by Arcade Fire

MAY     Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun

APRIL   Nothing I Need by Lord Huron

MARCH   Under the Rug by Arcy Drive

FEBRUARY Starburster by Fontaines DC

JANUARY Everyone Out by Diiv

Skipped Scheduled Race This Morning Due to Upper Respiratory Ailment

Today I skipped my scheduled 10K race at Westside (Albert Ray Massey) Park and instead slept in, suffering from some upper respiratory ailment that's either viral or allergenic in origin.  Yesterday, for the most part, I felt improved from the day before, going on a 4.1 mile speed-walk around the neighborhood.  My plan from last night was, should I feel up to it this morning, to likewise speed-walk the entire 6.2 mile race this morning.  But I was coughing too easily, although my energy level has always maintained a high level and I had no fever.  The rest of today I did some in-house exercising, and will then take it easy and see what Sunday brings me.  I like the habit of getting up early in the morning and running races on a weekly basis, and retirement has made this much easier since I'm no longer clocking out of work at 10 pm Friday nights.  So for now I'm just going to rest and recover...and enjoy life...

Podcaster's 8 Ways to Alleviate Stress and Anxiety

I usually check in on a daily basis whenever personal development podcaster Rob Dial posts a new episode on his Mindset Mentor show. Sometimes it's a bit wrenching to sit through a whole twenty-odd minutes when he's pondering aloud through the day's topic...maybe other listeners prefer those types of programs. My preference is when Dial picks his topic and then goes down a list of ways to effectively deal with it.  Today's show was like that, with Dial enumerating ways to handle stress and anxiety...he came up with eight:

1) Breathing exercises to lower blood pressure and alleviate stress

2) Focus on gratitude

3) Go for a walk

4) Write it all out, journaling

5) Get blood levels checked for possible imbalances

6) Watch ten minutes of comedy...laughter is a big stress-reducer

7) Ingest less caffeine...even better, eliminate it

8) Start listening to slower, more ambient music.  

I already do much of what Dial suggested...sometimes a different way from his specifications.  My breathing exercises diverge a bit from his, but he's right on target with most of his points. As for the blood testing, good luck with Medicare paying for that if you're like me.  I admire Rob Dial not only for his obvious sincerity in doing what he does for people's greater good: he promotes a healthy, positive outlook on living.  If there's any single one of the above eight suggestions he made that stands out in importance to me, it's #2: Be grateful.  I think too many of us, myself included, tend to look on the negative side of things instead of reflecting on the blessings we enjoy in our lives. Gratitude helps, especially in those areas we think are unduly stressful...

Feeling Better, Summer Pattern Weather Here

Feeling better today than yesterday...although not at 100%...I exercised more and was more generally active.  For the first time in a while, Melissa and I visited our nearby YMCA pool, where I practiced swimming.  We're well-entrenched here in northern Florida in the typical summer pattern weather for our area, with sunniness in the morning yielding to spotty periods of rain and thunder into the afternoon.  I'm wishing you and yours a happy summer...

Feeling a Rare Bit Under the Weather

Today was a rare occurrence: I felt under the weather, with a sore throat, headache, stiffness and a little weak.  My exercise was curtailed at a lower level and I took it easy at home, resting.  Yet no temperature to speak of, and life is good...

RIP, Bobby Sherman

Bobby Sherman was the young, brash-sounding singer I grew to avoid whenever he made one of his regular appearances on the mid-1960s rock and roll TV series Shindig!. No, I just didn't care for the dude although he most likely was doing his job well...forgive me, I was just 9-10 years old at the time and had no sense of musical sophistication.  That series didn't last long, and apparently neither did Sherman's fame...until his career was resurrected with him, as a teen idol, spawning a string of hit singles in the late sixties and early seventies.  His songs seemed to me a bit weak, but at least I didn't have to watch him perform them.  Then, in the spring of 1970 my entire perception of Bobby Sherman drastically changed for the better when I heard his new singles release Hey Mister Sun.  I was thirteen, and closing out my eighth grade year in junior high school, thoroughly depressed and beaten down by life.  But the radio...specifically Miami AM station WINZ on 940 khz...often played Sherman's minor hit, and it stuck with me, lifting my spirits in the midst of a difficult time.  After that I was on board with good ol' Bobby...the next year his song The Drum was another enjoyable, upbeat tune.  I'm mentioning him today because he just died of kidney cancer at the age of 81, and apparently after his musical career decided to devote his efforts in Los Angeles to promoting emergency medical care.  I think I'd like to check out some of those very old (sixty years ago) performances on Shindig! he did and see if...just maybe...my level of musical sophistication hasn't grown enough to at least appreciate his efforts way back then.  God bless you, Bobby Sherman...

About the US Raid on Iranian Nuclear Facilities

The news has just been announced yesterday evening that American forces bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities with deep-penetrating, powerful missiles, taking place early this morning Iran time. Trump used some misdirection, feigning that he would wait a few days...up to two weeks is what I think he said...before deciding whether to use the American military to aid Israel in their mutual bombing exchange with Iran.  According to Trump...who is unfortunately prone to extreme exaggeration with his rhetoric...the facilities were destroyed.  It also looks like all American planes and personnel safely returned from their "outing".  Now it remains to be seen how the Iranians will respond...and you know they will, most likely through terrorism directed at civilians or military personnel. I don't agree with a lot of the Democrats who say that as president, Trump had to consult with Congress in advance...Clinton invading Haiti and bombing Afghanistan, and Obama disposing of Osama bin Laden would render that argument to be selectively partisan.  The problems I have with Trump's decision are that (1) his own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had concluded that Iran was far from being able to develop nuclear weaponry, and (2) I think our president, in making the decision to attack, was doing the bidding of another foreign leader, that is, of Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And I prefer that our national leaders act according to our own national interests over those of others, even our own allies. In this I find myself in an uncomfortable, rare agreement with far-right Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who quickly criticized Trump's raid on behalf of his Middle East ally and its leader...

Speed-Walked the Depot Park 5K This Morning

On this hot and humid first full day into the official summer season, I once again moseyed on down to Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville, to participate in their weekly Saturday morning Parkrun 5K.  The temperature was a warm 73 at the 7:30 race time with muggy conditions...although my insane phone app had the humidity only at 55%: no way! I had already decided a while back that I would...conditions permitting...devote one Parkrun per month to doing a speed-walk, and today that's what I did.  I've written before that I seem to have hit a wall regarding how fast I can walk.  My thinking is that were I to fully adopt the race-walking guidelines and commit them to habit, then I could once again start walking for personal bests.  But so far my race-walking form has never been evaluated by an expert and I'm guessing that I have some work to do in that regard.  So when the director started today's run/walk, I shot out of there...walking at (my) top speed.  Which, it turns out, was slower than last month's Parkrun walk...I finished at 41:05, more than a minute slower than May's time and considerably slower than my personal best 5K walk (38:19).  The field this morning was crowded, both with runners, walkers...and runners who were forced to go into walking mode after a lap or two.  I admire all these good people...in spite of our different personal reasons for doing Parkruns, we're still in a sense kindred spirits for getting up early in the morning and doing this thing.  For the whole race, a little boy who may just grow up into a track star, was serving as a Parkrun Walker volunteer and easily kept pace with me. In the final lap he casually walked on ahead...he seemed to have the race-walking form right!  I have a lot in my life to be grateful for, and being in a predicament about increasing my race-walking speed at my age with two recent major surgeries is indeed a blessed level to be concerned about.  Next week I'm signed up to run at Albert Ray Massey (Westside) Park in yet another 10K race organized by US Road Running.  Wonder what the weather will be like then. Click HERE to view today's posted results...   

Welcome to "Official" Summer

Welcome to the "official" beginning of summer, 2025, which according to the TV meteorologist began this evening with the summer solstice at 10:42.  Of course, we've been feeling the summer heat for weeks, so that crossing over is merely a formality. In my musings about the lack of long distance races in Florida this time of year I've investigated more northern locales that still hold marathons and/or half-marathons and came up with a few events.  The only problem with that is when heat waves sweep over those areas, which is what's going on the northeastern part of America.  Florida, by contrast...although still hot...seems more hospitable... 

Happy Juneteenth

Slavery is bad.  I'm glad it no longer exists in this country, at least not legally.  In 2021, America began a new national holiday, practiced previously in some states and localities: Juneteenth.  On June 19th, 1865, by order of the sitting president Andrew Johnson, the US Army proclaimed the end of slavery at Galveston, Texas, the final rebelling Confederate state to undergo military occupation. When Juneteenth was enacted, I had a new paid day off on my postal job...that was good.  I heard some local people interviewed today on the news and a couple of them spoke as if they were themselves once slaves...one hinted that he was still in the struggle to not be a slave anymore.  I recognize that injustice exists with many groups on many different levels...but let's not confuse that with slavery.  Happy Juneteenth, a good celebration of the close of an evil human practice, at least in this country... 

About Elon Musk

I'm not sure what to think about this super-tycoon Elon Musk and his assorted enterprises.  For years I was fervently supporting his SpaceX's efforts to ultimately send humans to Mars, a very ambitious enterprise to eventually to establish permanent facilities there.  I was also on board with his Tesla development of self-driving cars.  Starlink, a network of communications satellites under SpaceX, has transformed global communications. But after the mega-magnate turned hard-Trump with his politics last year, my inclination to support Musk's projects has taken a severe nosedive.  His rockets keep blowing up, and people who don't like him burn up his Teslas.  There's a conspiracy theory going around that Musk somehow used Starlink to steal the 2024 election for Trump, but I think there's a simpler and more obvious solution: the American voter is typically stupid, driven by emotion and susceptible to manipulation.  His recent decision to oppose Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" for increasing the national debt is laudable, as is his stepping back away from the national limelight as the president's right-hand man with a moneybag and chainsaw.  So what does the future hold for Elon...and me?  My plan is to take it all, one Musk action at a time, for better or for worse.  I really do think he is trying hard to do his best for the greater good...and sometimes he royally screws up in that regard.  One thing for certain: he is indeed a figure of history...

The Decline in North-Central Florida of Marathons and Half-Marathons

It dismays me that, at least in north-central Florida where I live (the Gainesville-Ocala area), a thriving distance-running race scene that enjoyed large public support has dwindled into much-smaller-scale events held completely within parks and on converted bike trails.  When I rediscovered distance running around 2007, Gainesville had just begun its annual LifeSouth Five Points of Life marathon and half-marathon, held each February.  The course wound up and down city streets, and included downtown Gainesville and the University of Florida campus, at one point passing through their football stadium.  At the same time, Ocala had in January its own marathon/half marathon race.  Its course went south of town (start and finish near the Paddock Mall) through hilly horse country, where large estates and fields featured many thoroughbred racing horses.  I ran Gainesville's Five Points races...all half-marathon distance...six times with 2022 being their final year.  As for Ocala I finished its marathon in 2011 and half-marathon in 2013...I'm not sure when they stopped holding their races.  During this time I also drove to more distant locales for their own half-marathons (DeLeon Springs, Palm Coast and Tavares).  None of these are held anymore, either.  The only distance races in my area are organized by either the Florida Track Club, US Road Running, or Lloyd Clarke Sports, and they...as I mentioned before...tend to confine themselves to out-of-the-way places.  I like the buzz of big-city distance races, and I like to jog in my living room watching You-Tube virtual runs of some of these races (NYC Marathon is easily my favorite).  I have yet to run a race outside the state of Florida, but I'm retired now so it shouldn't be too hard to hop on a plane and make a weekend go at it visiting my targeted city.  But it doesn't look as if, at least where I live, public marathons and half-marathons are going to make a comeback anytime soon.  I've tried to get myself into an annual tradition as different organizations like Haven Hospice, Taccachale, the Sarantos and Meridian would start an annual race, only to cancel its continuation two or three years down the line.  That, of course, is their privilege and choice...too bad, though, because I would have liked to continue participating in those runs. Last November I finished my second-ever marathon race with a group that has since ceased holding their events twice a year on the eastern Hawthorne Trail.  They're gone now, but at least I got my marathon in!  Now the only marathon left in north-central Florida is a January event run by the Florida Track Club, but they are elitist about runners who take more than five hours to complete it.  That doesn't work for me, seeing that at age 68 I completed last November's marathon in 5 hours 7 minutes...

Enjoyed Watching Golf's US Open This Past Weekend

I enjoyed watching the US Open in Golf this past weekend, taking place at the Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  It's a very difficult, more traditional course that rewards straight tee shots into the fairway and punishes those who, for the sake of driving distance, shank the ball off toward the left or right into the five-plus inch tall grasses of the rough.  I've seen tournament after tournament in which a golfer sends a tee shot off to the side and has little trouble getting back in line on the course...not with Oakmont! There you have to take each shot on its own individual merits and focus on it...no such thing here as entering a groove state.  J.J. Spaun, who a few weeks ago very nearly won the Players Championship (played at nearby-to-me Ponte Vedra Beach), had what it took to shrug off whatever happened in the previous hole and just focus on what immediately lay ahead of him.  Other tourney leaders like Sam Burns and Adam Scott, on the other hand, lost their composure during the tournament's final holes...especially Burns, who never did recover from his anger at being denied "relief" by the golf officials after his tee shot landed in wet grass on the edge of the fairway on a late hole. Never having played a round of golf in my life...beyond so-called "miniature golf"...I noticed that this sport really does test and showcase the players' mental state according to their level of focus as well as their emotional reactions when shots don't go as they wished.  Spaun was, as they say "cool as a cucumber", all the way to his final, long birdie shot on the last hole when he finally let loose in joy.  Good for him, and good for me...good weekend entertainment...

About Saturday's Anti-Trump Rally

When I earlier discovered that a nationwide network of anti-Trump protests, dubbed "No Kings" and scheduled on the same day the president was staging a large Washington, DC military parade to ostensibly honor the US Army's 250th anniversary, I noted that in Gainesville it was being held at Roberson Park near where I do my weekly Depot Parkrun 5K walk/runs.  I thought maybe it would be good for me to attend this first protest rally of my life, and allowed myself the option...once there on the morning of the 14th...to choose whether or not to go.  After the Parkrun, which I ended up running a little harder than planned...coming out of it hot and sweaty...I changed clothes and headed out, not to the protest but rather to the nearby (to my home) donut shop for some coffee and reflection.  While there I got on my smartphone's YouTube and watched a little bit of one of the No Kings rallies on live-stream.  A woman was on stage with the mike and was yelling repeatedly, "THIS IS THE MEANING OF DEMOCRACY!", with the shouting audience parroting her in unison. That convinced me I had made the right decision in avoiding my home town's version, in spite of the fact that I strongly oppose this convicted criminal felon of a president. No, I absolutely do not trust Donald Trump, but I have even less faith in my fellow Americans for what they did to my country last November when they voted him back into office.  What constitutes democracy in its higher sense is the quiet, informed dignity of a country's citizens as they perform the regular ritual of making the effort to vote for the leaders they deem responsible, ethical and most able to lead their country into a better future, one that optimizes liberty, prosperity, enlightenment and security.  I don't know whether the United States will continue on its current track into fascism, but even if there is a backlash against MAGA in the 2026 off-year elections I don't trust the electorate's collective reasoning.  Go ahead and wave around a sign or an insulting effigy of the Orange Man...it seems folks have to get just as crazy and irrational as his own adoring personality cult idolaters to get them motivated to actually do anything.  And protest demonstrations won't elect anybody, nor will they, by themselves, toss out the worthless rascals from power.  But go ahead and demonstrate if that makes you feel better.  According to what I heard from my local news after our event, there wasn't any significant level of pro-Trump counter-protesters at the rally, just people standing around with signs and agreeing with the speakers.  Come next election day, guess how many votes that adds up to?  

Slogged Through Another Warm and Humid Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

I woke up this morning with a stubborn purpose: continue my weekly attendance at Saturday morning's Depot Parkrun 5K, which is a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville.  The race, or run/walk as the organizers like to call it to make it seem less competitive, starts at 7:30.  Only problem is that today, less than a mile away, is an anti-Trump protest rally scheduled at nearby Roberson Park from 9 to noon.  Determined to avoid parking hassles from people trying to get there early, I managed to get out of the house in time to drive down and snag a decent slot at the park.  Typical for this time of year, it was warm and muggy with race time temperature at 75 with 70% humidity.  I had decided to run this one, again without the intent to set any personal best but to just "SWOJ", or "summer work-out jog".  My sometimes-bonkers phone weather app had the rain probability at 79% for this morning but the skies were crystal clear. When the race began...and during most of it for that matter...I found myself running in the company of pretty much the same people: that's less common than you might think.  I was naturally very uncomfortable with the heat/humidity combination for the whole run, but compared with others I fared very well, maintaining the same steady pace (or, as I call it, "groove") throughout.  I finished with a time of 28:09...click HERE to view the posted results.  Afterward I took a change of clothes into the park restroom and headed down to the Dunkin' Donuts near my home in north Gainesville, avoiding the protest...more on that in another article.  I have to decide whether to renew my US Road Running membership before I decide whether to sign up for the June 28 race they're holding here in Gainesville.  If I don't, then I still have Depot Parkrun and, starting July 12, another Parkrun at West End Park off Newberry Road in Tioga...

News, Media Manipulation and Protests

It's all-too easy in recent days to get overly wrought about the news hitting the airwaves...the political extremism that's sadly becoming mainstream, and the intensifying international division that includes several areas of armed conflict across the world.  I wrote last Sunday about the nationwide protests being organized against Trump for his perceived overreach with executive orders and his lavish self-indulgence at taxpayers' expense, exemplified by his heavily-hyped birthday/military parade to take place tomorrow.  In Gainesville, as in many locations spread across the land, there will be a protest meeting called "No Kings" tomorrow morning from 9 to noon, taking place at Roberson Park on 600 SW 6th Street.  I've expressed interest in attending it, but we'll just have to see how I feel about it all after my Depot Parkrun 5K race that's just a few blocks down the road.  Melissa thoughtfully reminded me to not get so caught up in the news, and she's right: there's only just so much I can do about what's going down around me.  So I'm keeping my peace and serenity in the face of the confusion, chaos, anger and fear, some of which I suspect is deliberately being pushed in the media to manipulate us...

Enjoying Watching 2025's US Open in Golf...at Oakmont, Pennsylvania

I've been watching some of the US Open, which began today and will run through Sunday.  It's one of professional golf's four Grand Slam events, and the course changes location from year to year.  In 2025 it is being held at the Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania...near Pittsburgh.  The course has a reputation as being very difficult...and the over-par scores in the first round are reflecting this.  There's no telling who will pull out ahead at the end, but for now J.J. Spaun, the runner-up at this year's Players Championship, has played consistently well enough to pull out to an early lead.  Established stars like Scottie Scheffler, Roy McIlroy and Bryson Dechambeau, on the other hand, are having early trouble driving, wedging and putting their ways  through a course that has been intentionally crafted to frustrate the best efforts of the world's most skillful golfers.  Not that I'm planning to stay glued to the TV for the next few days, but this tournament promises to be very entertaining...

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...  

Discovering Some Limitations to My Speed-Walking

As far as speed-walking is concerned for someone in my age group (I'm 68), I'm a pretty fast walker although nowhere near the level of athletically competitive race walkers.  Those folks will get on a track and out-walk even normally fast runners, leaving people wondering how they can do something like that.  The rules for race-walking are simple but rigid: one, you have to keep the forward leg straight without bending the knee, until that foot passes underneath the body.  And two, one foot has to always be contact with the ground.  I've seen "footage" of actual race-walking and it seems that, at least at regular speed of viewing the contestants are maintaining contact.  But slow the video down and apparently during these high-intensity races there are micro-moments when both feet are (very slightly) in the air.  The operative word with this is "detectable", for judges patrol standard race-walking events and carefully observe the walkers to assure...at least as far as they are able to...that everyone is following the rules.  For me, I'm not even sure that I am keeping my forward leg straight enough to comply with race-walking standards...probably need someone to observe me and advise on this.  I do speed-walk a bit during races, often doing so at Gainesville's weekly Saturday morning Depot Parkrun 5K...I also speed-walked the entire Tom Walker Half-Marathon last November.  I seem to have run into a finishing-time wall with my efforts, and this is frustrating me.  So, I'm going back to You-Tube to see if I can't pick up on something I'm missing with my form.  Summertime...and especially the extended season that pours out into spring and fall in Florida...is a great time for me to explore how far (and fast) I can go with speed-walking (or race-walking for that matter)... 

Hanging Out in the Old Donut Shop

Sadly, one of my extended family members has recently undergone some extensive health issues, and she has been in the hospital.  I've been driving Melissa to and from for her visits, and this place is in the southern part of Gainesville, with me passing by the University of Florida. This afternoon I seriously considered, on the way back after dropping her off, stopping at the nearby Krispy Kreme donut shop about three blocks north of campus...but changed my mind considering that rush hour was soon on the way and I didn't want to get caught in heavy city traffic. So instead I'm sitting here in my nearby Dunkin Donuts writing this, remembering that Krispy Kreme from my past.  Back in the early 1980s I was single with a very modest income and a pretty frugal existence.  Still, I enjoyed going to coffee shops and studying...being out in public tended to rivet my attention on what I was trying to focus on.  That Krispy Kreme store was open 24/7, and they never gave me any trouble if I chose to sit there for a while.  I think doing this helped me to come to some level of inner peace about interacting in public settings while enabling me to adopt a lifelong discipline of learning.  Back then, I lived in the southwest area of town and would ride my bicycle back and forth, largely down Archer Road and across the UF campus, between Krispy Kreme and my apartment. The early eighties was a time in my life of "no running", but I was still pretty fit with my extensive bike riding.  Nowadays, though, I'm frankly a little afraid of getting on a bicycle and riding through the motor traffic around me...there's too much going on in cars now to distract drivers from my presence on the road.  One of the subjects I remember studying back then was a romanized Japanese language grammar book, which I have sadly misplaced somewhere in the deep recesses of my home.  But my son Will, who tragically passed away last July, was himself a student of Japanese, and one of the books he left to us was an impressive Japanese grammar.  So although it remains to be seen, I just might be inserting some Japanese studying again into my daily routine. Hey, I'm retired and this should be fun.  And although I'm no longer a regular customer of Krispy Kreme, I'm glad it's still standing there in the midst of the excessive construction and congestion that's recently taken place in that part of Gainesville...

Nationwide Protests Against Trump This Saturday During His Military Show

So it looks as if the duly-elected president is determined to hold his grand, hyper-expensive (at taxpayers' expense) military celebration on Saturday, June 14...which "coincidentally" exactly coincides with his birthday.  In response to this kind of egomaniacal display that one would normally expect from North Korea's puffy dictator, a nationwide counter-protest is being scheduled for the same day. In Gainesville there's a protest called "No Kings", endorsed by the Democratic Party, that's taking place Saturday morning from 9 to noon at Cora P. Roberson Park, 600 SW 6th Street.  I pass by it most Saturday mornings on my way to the Depot Parkrun.  Looks as if my little weekly race is in for some serious competition with parking this weekend, sad to say.  But then again, I have shown up to vote against Trump every chance I could...four times...one of them after I deliberately changed my voter affiliation to Republican just to vote against him in 2024's Florida Primary.  So I might just drop by Roberson Park to check out the scene...but I'm certainly NOT going to fill out and submit any sign-up forms that the websites promoting it provide: what's that all about unless they're planning to hit on me later?  I expect die-hard, delusional Trump MAGA demonstrators to show up as well, and possibly some opportunistic left-wing agitators who might try to put on a media show in front of the cameras.  I've never been at a demonstration meeting or protest, and I still remember (with contempt) Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren once calling these things "Democracy in action".  No, Senator, democracy in action is getting off your ass on Election Day and voting!  Nevertheless, attending a protest demonstration may be in the cards for me.  I do know that the Internet and social media are full of lies and misdirection about both Trump and his former flunky Elon Musk.  Apparently, the Republican's "Big, Beautiful" bill doesn't specifically grant the president election-canceling powers as I had earlier read, and Musk isn't...as was also erroneously reported...about to buy off ABC/Disney.  Should be an interesting Saturday, this June 14th.  Bottom line on all this protesting: Trump was indeed duly elected, and if it's anybody I should be demonstrating against it's the fools who put him back into office.  Still, I'd like to observe what goes down this coming Saturday morning (after my run, of course)...

Ran This Morning's Warm and Muggy Depot Parkrun 5K

This Saturday morning, anticipating an extraordinarily hot and humid Gainesville, I woke up with the intention of running the weekly Depot Parkrun 5K, but as a "summer work-out jog" or SWOJ.  True enough the temperature at 7:30 race time was 75 with a blistering-muggy 73% humidity.  Still, in spite of these discouraging conditions there were many park-runners in attendance.  The way I saw it, I knew I wasn't going to be setting any personal Parkrun bests today, but if I could maintain a reasonable pace I'd be happy walking away with a faster-than-thirty minutes finishing time.  And although my stomach had given me fits before the race...and I'm being euphemistic...I was ready at starting time, settling quickly into what I felt was a "groove" that I could stick with for the race's duration.  No, it wasn't pleasant and I was sweating profusely since early on.  But my endurance kicked in nicely and I finished with a time of 28:37, much better than my pre-race expectations.  You can click HERE to view today's results.  For the remainder of June, my plan is...unless I decide on a Saturday morning to sleep in and skip the Depot Parkrun (and that's always an option)...I will divide the three upcoming Satudays between one run, one speed-walk, and on the 28th tackle another US Road Running race at Westside Park...that one's likely to be another 10K...

Just Finished Reading Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

My reading of this 2017 collaboration between Stephen King and Richard Chizmar is the result of my local public library not automatically renewing the two books I had previously checked-out (and was too lazy to return) and instead presenting me via e-mail with a bill for them as lost books.  I presently hastened to my nearest library and showed them the books, and then everything was hunky-dory again.  So I ventured back among the shelves and came up with two more books, unwittingly one of them being the THIRD book in a King-Chizmar trilogy.  I'll get to that one eventually, but first I got onto my Libby app and checked out the audio version for the series' first volume, a very short novel titled Gwendy's Button Box. Gwendy is a girl transitioning from elementary to middle school in her home town of, naturally, Castle Rock, Maine.  She is overweight and doesn't want to continue being the target of cruel nicknames...and kids that age are typically cruel. So she practices running up the steps leading to a local monument.  One day she encounters an elderly man who presents her with a mysterious mahogany box, complete with an assortment of colored buttons, a slot and levers.  He explains for her what each colored button means, and that the black one is the end of everything...pretty ominous, right?  She reluctantly accepts it and comes to regret the box, although it strangely seems to have set her on an inexplicable path to social popularity and academic excellence.  But as I have noted, kids that age tend to be cruel and Gwendy has repeated run-ins with one of the cruelest, which ultimately leads to the story's climax.  I read it in three days, and found at the very end of the audiobook that a Stephen King short story titled The Music Room was attached at the very end.  As for Gwendy's Button Box, King had come up with the idea and most of the book, but didn't know how to end it...he consulted his friend and asked him to see if he couldn't manage the task...and so a collaboration was born.  There are two more volumes, Gwendy's Magic Feather...completely written by Richard Chizmar...and Gwendy's Final Task, a return to the collaboration and a full-length novel.  It should be interesting for me to compare Chizmar's writing style as I read Book #2...

Trump and Musk: the High Drama Continues

I can't exactly avoid the news that seeps into my life, as much as I would often like to.  Ever since Trump slithered back into office four and a half months ago, he had as his bromance-dude super-wealthy Elon Musk accompanying him everywhere, it seemed.  Trump would threaten fellow Republican lawmakers with supplying Musk-funded primary opponents for their next elections should they ever stray from completely following his line, and ol' Elon would just stand there grinning like it was a big joke and shouldn't we all laugh with the two superheroes.  Well, Musk is actually someone who had a life apart from combining hedonism with the pursuit of raw political power...he started a number of innovative businesses and captured my imagination several years ago with his expressed desire to send people to Mars for exploration...and even settlement.  But somewhere along the line he decided to kiss Trump's ring and endorse his campaign in 2024.  That I didn't like, but his chainsaw-wielding antics with DOGE, or the "Department of Government Efficiency", publicized him squarely as an enemy of ordinary people, and the campaign to run down his business enterprises and wealth...mainly through Tesla...erupted across the country with on-site protests and calls for boycott.  He's backed off his public adulation for the repulsive occupant of the White House, even to the point that the two are now engaging in an online war of words against each other after Musk correctly expressed his opposition to the so-called "Big Beautiful" bill that the House passed by one vote.  Musk didn't like that it would greatly increase the national debt, while I, not liking that either, am much more concerned that it grants the president the ability to ignore judges that rule against him and to cancel election results he disagrees with...making our leader a virtual dictator.  Not that I have any say in the matter: my one vote nowadays means very little as opposed to the millions upon millions of voluntarily-brainwashed Americans that worship Trump like a cult personality idol...funny how so many self-identified Christians don't see this idolatry as sinful...

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... 

Happy Pride Month

I wish all a happy Pride Month, which is June.  I've long supported gay rights and a thriving LGBT community, which has come, to me, to indicate a locality's tolerance (and anti-bigotry) level...Gainesville is one of those places, thankfully.  Since this designation of Pride Month is nationwide, folks wanting to celebrate it can check online how their own communities may choose its observance...

Start of 2025 Hurricane Season

Yesterday the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season officially began, and the two main weather channels (The Weather Channel and FoxWeather) devoted much of their time to discussing this year's prospects regarding tropical storm systems and the damage that storms like Helene and Milton caused in 2024.  I remember as a kid in the 1960s getting a free hurricane plotting map that many stores...including Publix...offered.  Then I would eagerly wait for each day's newspaper (we got the Miami News)  to examine its (usually front-page) article about the status of ongoing tropical systems, usually with the accompanying maximum sustained winds and that all-important figure, its coordinates.  I'd duly plot out the new location and connect it to my previous plotting, making a gradual pathway that it was taking...I did this for years.  Nowadays, though, since you can pretty much check up on the different tropical storms online or on TV on a 24/7 basis, this painstaking plotting out of a hurricane's progress just isn't practiced anymore.  The last season I did this intentionally was in 1985 after Elena caused a scare in my Gainesville area after it abruptly shifted its path overnight to hover just off the coast at Cedar Key.  Now, of course, I can go back on Wikipedia and get a synopsis of each past season, along with a map showing the different named storms' trajectories.  For 2025, there will be no plotting in my house, but I'll keep in touch with the weather... 

My May 2025 Running, Walking and Swimming Report

For May, as my recovery from surgery enabled me to return to the pool for swimming, I found myself (and Melissa) often going to our YMCA Pool where we did laps, either through swimming or walking.  We went swimming on seven different days in the month, including once at Daytona Beach.  I think my swimming endurance is improving, and my use of a snorkel should come in great use when tackling the longer lap lanes they provide.  I kept up both my running and speed-walking, both at home and in races.  I participated in our local weekly (and free) Depot Parkrun 5K four out of the month's five Saturdays, two as runs, one a speed-walk...and one as a volunteer.  The other Saturday morning (the 24th) was spent at Westside Park...now known officially as Albert Ray Massey Park.  On the fourth Saturday each month a group calling itself US Road Running holds a multi-distance race on that site.  It was the second time I ran it, again at the 10K distance.  I've also spent a number of late mornings and early afternoons traversing a course I created for myself within my own neighborhood and the adjacent one...that's helped a lot.  And...I am gradually increasing some adjunct routines like pushups, jumping jacks, skipping (good for developing sprinting capability), and some physical therapy exercises.  May was a good month for me, and since June will doubtless get hotter here in north Florida I'm confident that I'll be doing even more walking and swimming in it...