Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Today's editorial in the Gainesville Sun discusses Florida's new Tea Party Republican governor, Rick Scott. Having opposed him in the campaign (as I also did), the article's writer naturally points out a number of questionable items on the Governor-Elect's agenda.

For example, it is noted that Scott wants to shrink government. But the editorial writer counters that "Florida already has the leanest state workforce in America." The incoming governor wants to cut taxes in the face of unprecedented impending shortfalls in revenue. And his pro-school voucher stance may violate the state's constitution in two areas.

After bringing forth all of the preceding valid points (among others), the editorial then questions whether Scott's business-model approach to state government will help or hurt Florida in the years to come.

All fine for an editorial, right? But then the writer incredibly states, "In any case, today is not a day to second-guess our new governor but to wish him well at the beginning of a new term that is sure to bring with it a steep learning curve."

What? WHAT?? If today isn't the day for second-guessing, then what do you call what you're doing for most of the editorial? To top off the hypocrisy, the writer closes the editorial with the statement, "Campaign promises are a dime a dozen, but the damages done by decisions based soled on the immediate fiscal and political bottom-line can be incalculable."

I actually tend to agree with all of the criticisms that the editorial makes of Rick Scott and his agenda. But it is disingenuous to me, in the midst of this criticism, to insert a high-and-holy pronouncement (apparently directed for the reader to follow) against "second-guessing".

My Favorite Songs of 2010: #14

#14: I'm a Pilot by Fanfarlo

Fanfarlo is a Swedish/British indie band founded, according to Wikipedia, in 2006. They have had only one album, Reservoir, which came out in 2009. The first track, I'm a Pilot, turns out to be the best on it, as far as I'm concerned. The entire album is quite listenable and I am looking forward to more music from them.

I'm not quite sure what the composer of I'm a Pilot meant with the "pilot" theme, but as I listen to this song I get the message, intended or not, that being a pilot means being in charge of one's own destiny and responsible for one's own life and decisions. It's important for me to feel that way about my life; the temptation is to avoid personal responsibility and treat myself as the product of others' actions. And why not? Many of the people I run across continually spin this type of passive personal narrative. For me, I opt for a proactive view of life, where I can steer my destiny like a pilot steers a plane or boat.

I never heard anything by Fanfarlo on broadcast radio; it was AOL Radio's indie channel that introduced me to them. I remember the eclectic nature of radio music in my youth (Dean Martin and Ray Charles played alongside the Beatles) and think that I'm a Pilot would have mixed in quite well with the playlist back then. How ironic that I can now only get access to it via a highly-specialized web-radio channel!

Personal Top 15 Songs of 2010: #15

I thought I would try something different this year and go through my top fifteen favorite songs of the past year, one at a time, from #15 to #1.

A few of words of "warning" here: if you're not into Regina Specktor or Radiohead, this list probably won't carry much meaning for you as they are responsible for the overwhelming number of songs on it. Also, these are MY top favorite songs of 2010: almost all of them actually came out in previous years (although I at least managed to keep them within this century). Finally, the "countdown" may be spread out on this blog with other articles interspersed. Eventually, I'll get to Number One, though (hopefully before 2011 is over).

So here goes...

#15: Folding Chair by Regina Spektor

This is such a positive, sweet little song that listening to it forces me to smile regardless how I happen to be feeling at the time. Regina is sitting on the beach and invites you, the listener, to open up your folding chair next to her. Having spent much of my leisure time on the beach over the years, this resonates with me considerably. There's something distinctively peaceful about sitting (or standing) facing the ocean as the waves repeatedly crash down and the water ebbs and flows from the sand on the shore. Intellectually, I don't know why this is so: for me, a land-dweller, the sea is really a vast impassable desert boundary and by all stretches of the imagination should be seen a stark barrier. Instead, though, it seems like "freedom" somehow. Is there some deeply hidden "fish" encoding within my genes evoking this irrational response? Who knows, but Folding Chair totally captures the essence of just unwinding on the beach, and in the company of a sweet, compelling personality (with a terrific voice).

Folding Chair is from Regina Spektor's 2009 album Far.

Happy New Year

I am entering the new year with a lot of optimism about my life and those close to me. I wouldn't exactly say that I have made up New Year's resolutions for myself; they are more like long-term goals for self-improvement, as well as for attaining certain milestones over the course of the year. So the concept of "breaking resolutions" early in January doesn't apply to me.

"A man's got to know his own limitations" was the mantra of Clint Eastwood's tough-cop character Harry Callahan in the movie Magnum Force. And when setting goals for myself, I need to be realistic regarding my own limitations. After all, I wasn't born yesterday and am passing through my mid-fifties. I have all kinds of constraints on my life, and many of them deal with my valuable role in society and family as a responsible, mature, and caring adult. It is within these recognized boundaries that I want to make improvements.

I also see good things happening around me in the world. The economy seems to be picking up and there is a hope (albeit slight) that the government will resume functioning as a collaborative effort among its members for the public good. But maybe I'm just fantasizing here. I am one of those poor fools who actually believes that politicians should compromise and be pragmatic. Oh well, maybe on SOME issues that will happen. After all, a man's got to know his [politicians'] limitations!

One Full Day Left for Jupiter to Explode

.......according to the late Sir A.C.C.

Every Seat Taken

This morning I slept in, instead of running as I had planned. Er... actually, I had planned to run yesterday, but well, I just didn't feel like it. But you know, I probably needed the sleep anyway. But having slept and eventually woken up late in the morning on a work day (reporting time 2:30 pm), I also missed out on my early morning Starbucks session, where I tend to focus my brain on what I want to do during the day (and even occasionally compose a blog article). That opportunity having been shot to hell along with another missed running day, I decided to try to salvage something out of my dwindling pre-work freedom. I dragged myself around the house in a half-stupor eventually cleaning, dressing, and finally getting the hell out of the house. My goal: sit in a Starbucks and concentrate my thoughts on my day and what I had left to salvage out of it. I went to the closest Starbucks, at the Hunters Crossing shopping center: every seat was taken, and I quickly walked back out. Then to my old dependable Magnolia Parke Starbucks, where, ditto. Then I drove past the 441/16th Avenue Starbucks: "drove past" since every parking slot was taken. Down to the Archer Road Starbucks and the neighboring Panera's (both packed to the hilt). Then it dawned on me: just go to McDonald's! The seats were plentiful and the coffee was cheaper and better tasting!

Ran On Christmas Anyway, Covered 20.68 Miles

You could probably tell by the tone of yesterday's article that I had wanted to go running and was disappointed at the outside haze. But by early afternoon, it turned out that the haze had dissipated and, although the temperature had risen to 70, I decided to go out on a run. I initially decided to run just for continuity's sake, not trying to cover any appreciable distance. But as I ran, I decided at each step to cover each section of my personally-designed marathon course. I was feeling pretty good for most of the run, and after 13 miles was sore but still had plenty of energy and muscle coordination. The sky was overcast for almost the entire run, and this contributed to a premature nightfall as I found my way back into my home subdivision. I was pretty tired by then, but already had the repeated experience of "gutting it out" during previous runs and thought that I had a chance to complete a full-length marathon (26.2 miles) on this run. I also realized that, to do this, I would be finishing under very dark, night conditions. I was still on target with this goal until around the 19-mile mark, when I "ran" into a figurative wall: my energy level plummeted and I suddenly felt like a feeble old man, with my feet hitting the pavement hard instead of springing with elasticity and balance. At that point I realized that going another 7 miles just wouldn't happen today, and I valiantly struggled to finish my course, albeit curtailed a bit at the end. My final distance was 20.68 miles, a personal record length, with a time of 3:23:56.

Ten minutes after I hobbled back into my house around 5:40, the rain began to fall and didn't let up until late at night. So I was spared a thorough soaking, which would have happened had I run any further. Still, my recovery from this run was pretty rough. I had made the mistake of quickly downing a couple of 20-oz. bottles of G2 (Gatorade "lite") after the run, consequently inducing severe abdominal cramping and pain for about a half-hour. My legs were also very sore and ached badly for a while. It wasn't until after midnight when I finally began to feel a sense of relaxation. Yes, the recovery was rather brutal; the run itself was a piece of cake in comparison. But here I am the next morning, sitting here and feeling good in my good old dependable Magnolia Parke Starbucks, thinking about when I'll once again set out to conquer a personal distance record!

I look back on yesterday's run and feel that I had made some substantial progress with my endurance training. It is within that painful struggle at the end, which is actually more mental than physical, that I grow and approach eventual marathon-level capability. It had been a while since I had pushed myself this far, but it was how I had successfully prepared myself to run the half-marathon at the beginning of this year. I'm taking today off from running, for recovery's sake. I wonder how I will run on Monday!

Christmas Haze Fits the Occasion For Me

Today I stepped out of my front door, to go out on another long run as planned, when I took a whiff of the air: smoky haze. Apparently, the winds shifted and were blowing this stinking haze through Gainesville from a woods fire somewhere in the vicinity. No, I wouldn't run outside in these conditions (although I saw others running). Instead, I'll wait until tomorrow and see what the weather brings. I'd rather run under just about any conditions other than smoke. I mean, if I wanted to poison myself this way, I could just go down to the store, buy a carton of cigarettes, and chain smoke for a couple of hours!

Yes, by the way, it's Christmas today. I am frankly not a fan of Christmas; in fact, I actually may detest it to an extent. For someone like myself, who tries to live an ordered life, this holiday "season" throws everything around me in turmoil, not the least of which is the whipping up of unbridled greed among the population, along with the stress of an imposed deadline on supplying the "goods" for the "greedies". Yuck. Thankfully, I have some gracious, mature intimates in my life who have helped to shield me from this crap. But there is no completely avoiding it.

And then there is this pretense of "respecting" the holiday by closing practically every business in town, starting in the evening on Christmas Eve and going through the following day. But wait, come Christmas Day + One, the greed comes blowing back with a vengeance (post-Christmas sales). Whoopee, I can hardly wait.

Still, there is still a smidgen of rationality remaining as my favorite Starbucks happens to be open this Christmas morning (where and when I am writing this instead of choking on the haze outside). Now that is at least something to help my life get back in order!

Weather Forecast Disconnect

I'm a little bit curious about the disconnect between my newspaper (Gainesville Sun) weather forecast and that on my cable TV weather station. On TV it says that tomorrow's weather will bring partly cloudy skies and just a slight possibility of rain. Then on Sunday there will be a lot of rain, with the temperatures staying in the forties all day. But according to the paper, it will rain tomorrow in the afternoon, intensifying in the evening. By Sunday, it will clear up (in this alternate universe).

So which will it be on Christmas day tomorrow? Since I'm planning on a long outdoors run, it matters to me a little more than usual. Of course, it might actually turn out better if it rained a little during my run. After all, in the marathons I plan to run during the next two months, there is no telling what the weather will be like then and it might be helpful to get in a little "rain-running" experience. I remember seeing the photos of last year's Knoxville, Tennessee Marathon with all of the rain-soaked runners, so although we are technically in the "dry" season here in northern Florida, rain still happens!

What kills me is that on some weather sites they have something called a "100 Day Outlook". And they can't even get it right within 24 hours! Shoot, why don't I just buy the Farmer's Almanac and consult it instead?!

Back to Long Runs

Earlier today I once again ran a "long" run (15 miles or longer): 16.18 miles to be exact. I had decided to skip one more day to further my recovery from my sinusitis, and then decided to see how far I could go. Alas, due to the chronic restraints of time in my life, that wasn't entirely possible, but I was able to squeeze in a good run anyway. My time was 2:26:32.

The next logical opportunity for a long run should be two days from now on Christmas (Saturday). I wouldn't have any time restraints on my run, either. But the weather station I have been watching is predicting a lot of rain and stormy weather that day. But...maybe this could be a fun adventure, running in a storm. After all, I remember that beach run earlier this year in a raging lightning storm!

Back to Running

I am looking forward in the next few weeks to my special adventure in running: training up to marathon distance (26.2 miles) and then participating in at least two races: the Ocala Marathon on January 23 and the Gainesville Five Points Marathon on February 20. Monday I ran 7.18 miles as I recovered from my sinus infection after taking a few days off from running. Tomorrow I will see if I can't get the distance back up to around 14 miles. And then, bit by bit I will try to attain the marathon distance during one of my training runs.

Busy As Usual At Work in December

December is definitely by far the busiest month of the year for me, a postal worker. And even more so, since I work in the section that processes parcels. I have been working my off days and even overtime on top of that as the volume of mail has skyrocketed. Today was possibly the peak volume day. The company man within me says, "Hurray, keep going with the USPS, we deliver, go team go!" But the rest of me emphatically says, "Bah humbug!"

Senate Repeals Don't Ask Don't Tell

One of the unexpected, albeit probably temporary, benefits of the recent bipartisan agreement between the President and the Republican side of the congressional aisle regarding tax cuts and unemployment compensation may have come with yesterday's Senate vote to repeal the onerous "don't ask don't tell" policy in the U.S. military. This policy, in effect since the Clinton administration in the '90's, has had the effect of persecuting gays by denying them their right to reveal their own sexual orientation while in service to the country. I was surprised that several Republican senators crossed over to support the repeal, especially Nevada's John Ensign, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, and North Carolina's Richard Burr. Cool. I wonder whether, after Murkowski's encounter with the reactionary Tea Party during her recent Senate reelection campaign, she won't "go rogue" on occasions against her own party. Not that the Republicans are always wrong: I am just tired of this party-line block voting and would like for our elected representatives in government to vote according to their own personal and professional convictions and not just the way their hack party leaders order them to.

On the down side, I am dismayed to observe the continuing slide into a reactionary worldview by John McCain, who led the opposition to the repeal. McCain, for whom I initially was delighted in 2008 when he won the GOP nomination for president, used to really be a maverick at times against his own party's often overly conservative stances on social issues. Now he seems like a very bitter, angry old man every time I see him get up on the Senate floor to talk.

The repeal of "don't ask don't tell" was important, but still is only one step toward gays finally being accorded the basic human rights that straights enjoy in our society. In other areas, such as gay marriage, the struggle for progress goes on. Still, this vote was something to give me some hope for the future.

Under the Weather, But Recovering

For the past three days, I have been suffering from a sinus infection. While running 14 miles on Wednesday, I noticed aches that normally didn't exist. Later that day, I could sense the process of inflammation in various parts of my body as well as headache, stuffed sinuses, and sore throat. I went to my nearest urgent care center and was able to obtain a prescription for an antibiotic, which I have been faithfully taking and am happy to report that I am recuperating (gradually).

I remember a time about thirty years ago when I suffered an infection on one of my fingers and consequently endured a flu-like malaise for a couple of weeks before I finally had the precipitating problem taken care of. It's important, at the first sign of infection, to see a doctor and get it treated before it spreads. Also, the inflammation that is caused by the body's response to the infection can present its own hazards. So I have been laying off the running or any other form of strenuous exercise until this sinus infection clears up.

I have also read that running in an arid environment, which presents itself more often here in northern Florida during the wintertime, can dry up the sinuses and make sinus infections more likely. So I'll have to keep that in mind as well, although the running continues! Maybe a nice, long, hot, steamy shower after a workout would fix that problem!

One of the problems I experienced with sinus infections has been their insidious nature. Sinusitis with me first manifests itself as something resembling a light cold, but after a few days the cold doesn't subside, a threshold is passed, and the symptoms become full-blown. I need to take greater care in the future to pay attention to the warning signs my body is giving me that a sinus infection is beginning to occur.

Muschamp Replaces Meyer As UF Coach

Will Muschamp has been hired to be the new University of Florida head football coach, replacing retiring two-time national champion coach Urban Meyer. Thirty-nine year old Muschamp, although without experience as a head coach, does have an extensive resume as an assistant coach, and with some great teams (like LSU and Texas). Hopefully, Gator fans will show some patience with him as he establishes himself in his new position and works to build a formidable, winning team.

But it is not considered to be a very wise thing to try to fill in the shoes of a legend. After Steve Spurrier left UF to coach professional football, his replacement, Ron Zook, had difficulty gaining acceptance from the Florida faithful. Muschamp may experience some similar skepticism, although the rather disappointing last season (7-5) that Meyer coached should give him a break, at least as far as expectations for next year are concerned. I just hope that he turns out to be a coach who runs a clean program and who doesn't take himself too seriously (as Meyer did).

After all, football is a game, a form of entertainment. It's good to be rooting for a winner, but having a winner to root for means more when the fan has the experience sometimes of rooting for a loser!

Marathon Race Outlook (For Me)

I am looking at my marathon calendar to see what's ahead. It appears highly unlikely that I will be participating in the Jacksonville Bank Marathon this Sunday morning unless my boss unexpectedly offers me Saturday off at the height of the heavy Christmas season where I work. Besides, the weather forecasts indicate rain for that day. The Florida Marathon in Clermont (a few miles west of Orlando), scheduled for January 1, has been canceled. I had thought about entering it as my first marathon, but decided against it because of the very hilly, challenging terrain. I need to focus first on just covering the 26.2 miles! But that decision is moot, anyway, since that race has been wiped off the slate.

The Disney World Marathon on January 9 was something I had been considering, but I read some accounts of participants in previous years and decided against it. I don't see the point in trying to run in a group of 24,000 runners, and the convoluted way in which Disney World herded the participants around in the wee hours of the morning before the race didn't seem very appealing, either. So what's left with marathons around where I live?

On January 23, the Ocala Marathon will be held, about forty miles from Gainesville. This event will be easy to travel to and from. If I am in shape, I will run in it. On February 20, LifeSouth will once again stage its Five Points of Life Marathon in Gainesville. Last year I ran the half-marathon; this year it will be the full distance.

If all works out well for me with the Ocala Marathon (meaning that (1) I complete it and (2) I make a complete recovery) I may apply for some time off in early March to compete in the Snickers Marathon in Albany, Georgia.

And then the marathon season once again goes northward. Seeing that I have a job, a budget, and other obligations, I am not in a position to go flying willy-nilly around the country running various marathon events. But it would be cool, once I have the experience of actually completing a marathon, to pick out some remote, obscure place (like in North Dakota or Wyoming) and run one more marathon there. Then I'll reevaluate where I'm going with my running: I will either continue with the marathons or taper down my distance a bit.

The Aviator at Wild Adventures

I miss the enjoyment of sitting through simple theme park rides like this one, The Aviator, at Valdosta, Georgia's Wild Adventures. This park is slightly less than a hundred-mile drive from Gainesville and is the closest theme park with roller coasters and other thrill rides. Perhaps later this month I'll see if I can't steal some time away from the elements in my life that are stealing it from me and go there for a few hours of fun.

Cold, Windy Morning in Gainesville

Once again it dipped below freezing this morning in Gainesville. But unlike up north, the air is very dry with not a hint of any kind of precipitation. But there is a very, very strong wind from the northwest at a sustained 25 mph. The question I have to pose myself is how much of a wimp am I going to be to excuse myself from running this morning because of the weather?

Later today.....I did wimp out on running in the very strong, cold wind, but I didn't cop out on my training: I went to the YMCA instead and ran ten "miles" on the treadmill there. Treadmill running isn't something I want to do regularly, but it does come in handy, like on this extreme weather day.

A Little Difficulty with China

I'm having just a little difficulty with China these days. I keep hearing how capitalistic it has become, with the free market dominating its economy. Many Chinese come to the U.S. for study and employment, and then return to their beloved homeland. I don't see here the extremism of the Cold War Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe, where citizens of socialist "paradises" were shot trying to escape into supposedly evil, decadent capitalist nations across their borders. As a matter of fact, there is still one of these Cold War holdovers adjacent to China: North Korea (whose border is closed to China).

When I last went to Walt Disney World's Epcot Center, I visited the Chinese pavilion there. There was a large gift shop which contained "things Chinese". I saw a lot of traditional stuff, but strangely not a thing about socialism, communism, or the "revolution". Not a single picture of their bigshot revolutionary hero and leader Mao Zedong was to be found there. Yet, whenever the Chinese government comes out with anything, it is still clouded with all sorts of references to this clearly outmoded system that essentially collapsed on itself in the mid-1970's. So why...

Why is it a crime for a Chinese citizen like Liu Xiaobo to publicly advocate for a peaceful transition to a pluralistic, representative democracy that more appropriately reflects its newly found economic freedoms? Why is the Chinese government so uptight about Liu, who is in jail serving an eleven-year sentence, being picked for this year's Nobel Peace Prize...even to the point of pressuring other sovereign nations to boycott the ceremony?

The extent to which the Chinese authorities are going to quash any dissent or push for democratic reform tells me one thing: that like the repressive Iron Curtain regimes, their authority is built upon a "house of cards". No one believes in the Marxist-Leninist theory that the State still officially sanctions; it's just that for anyone serving within that government to condemn or even criticize it is taboo, a sure-fire formula for losing one's job or even freedom. But once the door gets jarred open a little and more and more people openly push for reform, an irreversible threshold may be passed and the ensuing torrent of freedom will be difficult for the repressive regime to withstand.

Unpleasant Friday Run

Yesterday I set out to run another 14 miles as I had previously established as a minimum training distance. I had run 14.03 miles Wednesday, or so I thought. But no, as I began running yesterday, the thought occurred to me that I had inadvertently skipped a .1 mile segment of my course, finishing instead at 13.93 miles. Dammit! Still, I did run 14 miles, for all practical purposes: especially when considering the distance accrued from the times I crossed streets back and forth for various reasons. That alone would have put me over the 14-mile mark.

I wasn't too happy seeing Friday morning's humidity at 70%. Regardless whether it is cold or hot, a high humidity usually leads to a more taxing run for me. This is one of the main reasons I have avoided night running, since the nighttime is usually marked by an upward spike in humidity. As it turned out, at the run's start it was 45 degrees. I first felt uncomfortable with a tee shirt, as opposed to some heavier clothing over my upper body, but within a mile of running I was glad of my decision.

It's funny how others seem to relish the high humidity: the roads and paths were full of joggers. Most of them were heavily clad; I wondered how they would survive the sweltering heat they were building up under their clothing. But to each his-or-her own, I suppose.

My run went pretty well, given the unwelcome moisture in the air (it actually broke out into a light misty rain a few times). But I had to curtail it at 10.48 miles because my bladder was overloaded. I suppose that, in retrospect, I could have gone back out and finished the 14 miles after relieving myself. But it simply was not an enjoyable run. And as I have stated before in another article, I seem to always have a time limit hanging over me anyway, with other areas of my life making their demands on me.