Day One of New Graveyard Shift Behind Me

Well, I have crossed the first difficult hurdle in my attempted transition to working a new shift, one that has me returning after ten years to a late-night/early morning routine.  By the time I clocked out at 7:30 am, I was struggling, to say the least.  I managed to make my way back home driving the eight city miles through thick rush hour/school zone traffic, got a little bite to eat, jumped into bed...and promptly passed out for several hours.  That last part was auspicious: before, in the "old" days, I would have trouble getting myself to sleep after working the graveyard shift. 

Tonight is Step # 2 in my quest to accustom my mind and body to the change in schedule.  In the meantime, I still do what I can with the other routines in my life, wanting to keep up with my good studying and running projects.  The writing is important, too...maybe this change will actually step up my output...

President Obama Finally Sociable With Opposition

I have been hearing lately how President Obama, whom I have supported with my votes in each of his successful campaigns, is now inviting Republican opposition lawmakers to the White House where he is treating them with hospitality and friendliness.  While making his pitch, I'm sure, to try to persuade some of them to support some of his agenda against the unswerving, even irrational hostility generated by their leaders Mitch McConnell (Senate Minority Leader) and John Boehner (House Speaker). I've also been garnering reactions about this change of strategy from both conservative and liberal opinion makers.  The liberals seems to support Obama's sociable outreach, but some of the right-wing talk radio bigmouths are being critical of those GOP legislators who accepted the President's hospitality.  I have a deeper reaction, and it goes down to the heart of what I am currently feeling about Barack Obama as a leader.

Being a somewhat politically simple-minded soul, I have been naively believing for all these years that Obama was ALREADY reaching out and interacting with those Republican senators and congressmen.  All along...but no, apparently... he's had a "close door" policy against his opponents in Washington.  So if what I think that is coming out in the news is correct, then this president has long detached himself from the crucial process involved in political deal-making and arm-twisting.  Just take what perhaps the most successful president to get his programs passed by Congress, Lyndon Johnson, did all day, day after day.  He would be on the phone and directly communicating with those in Congress whose votes he needed to secure.  This necessary activity is something that our current president has thought himself to be too "above" to engage himself in.  Too bad.  And I wonder in retrospect how much of the obduracy of the Republican opposition in the Senate and House is due in large part to this...well, I'll say it...elitist attitude from the White House. 

I still support Obama, but my support has never been at the disturbing level of some others I've seen who act as he if were the Second Coming.  Now I am more skeptical of him, because it has taken more than four years in office for him to treat politicians whose outlooks on the issues are different with not only respect, but also an attitude of personal interest in their lives that anyone who isn't a complete imbecile should have been able to figure out was a necessary part of this nation's political process.  And what's even more incredible to me is that I used to watch him on C-Span2, the channel showing the deliberation of the U.S. Senate, when he used to be a senator (of Illinois) from 2005 to 2007...as he would show the most cordial, personable rapport with opposition-party senators during voting sessions.  How could he have forgotten this necessity?

My Work Hours Drastically Shift to Late Night

Today will be my final day on my afternoon/evening shift at my workplace, as I will be doing "graveyard shift" at the start of next week.  Since the summer of 2003, I have been reporting to work around 2:30-3:30 and walking out around 11 pm to midnight.  Starting this Sunday, though, I'll go back to reporting at 11 pm, which was pretty much the hours of day I worked for 15 out of the first 16 years I've worked here.  I changed my schedule for a few reasons, none of which being because I liked the hours; I've always had some difficulty with my sleeping patterns when working on the late night/early morning shift.  For one, it's difficult to get myself into a regular sleep routine over the course of the day.  For another, when I'm off I almost always revert back to the old "sleep at night" pattern instead of just sticking to the daytime sleeping I'm forced to do the rest of the week.  So I'm a little apprehensive about the hours.  Still, I'll have weekends off, I like the assignment location and duties, I'll have a better, more secure assignment status than the one I now have, and I can still bid (by seniority) on any other job assignment postings that I may prefer to the one I just got. 

Making such a change as the one I just made may see like a bit of risk-taking, but the way I see it is sometimes it's more risky to just stay where you are and do nothing.  Instead I chose proactivity. We'll see how it all goes in the next few weeks...

My Tavares Orange Blossom Half-Marathon Experience

Today I ran the Orange Blossom Half-Marathon in Tavares, Florida.  Tavares is in Lake County, located a few miles northwest of Orlando.  My wife grew up in that area and I even lived there a few months, back in 1987.  So the two of us made it a weekend down there, with Melissa entering their parallel 5K race, power-walking the distance in grand style.  The weather played a major, unexpected role as the temperatures plummeted while the wind whipped up strongly, with 30 mph-plus gusts.  I had a minor crisis trying to decided how much clothing I should put on for the race.  At the last minute I changed to something heavier, which I regretted soon after the start when my body predictably began to heat up from running.  So after a couple of miles I shed the long-sleeve shirt and then the run went on without a hitch.  The course began in Tavares' beautiful little downtown area, in Wooten Park on the shores of Lake Dora, and then more or less went eastward, into the town of Mount Dora and hugging the northern side of the lake. There were some loops in the course and a couple of "there-and-back" scenarios that I usually dislike; in this case, though, it gave Melissa and me the chance to touch base and encourage each other! And the sightseeing was great!

I physically did not feel as if I were running a very fast race, but feelings can often be deceptive.  I crossed the finish line with a time of 1 hour, 50 minutes, and 53 seconds, which bested my previous best by about four and a half minutes.  I finished 44th out of 229 finishers, but the most unexpected result was that I finished second in my men's 55-59 age category, garnering a little prize and a photo opportunity on their victory podium.  That was nice, but standing around in the cold park with the wind getting worse by the minute was an ordeal.  During the race, I was by myself most of the time, which was a bit different from all the others I've been in when I ran for long stretches around other runners.

I'm very glad that I did this race, and more so that Melissa accompanied me.  We had a great time driving around the area and visiting places that brought up old memories.  And, of course, we also noted how much things had changed in some respects...

My February 2013 Running Report

February turned out to be an unexpectedly good month for my running, in spite of its beginning with me suffering from an upper respiratory malady and having concerns regarding work and family.  In fact, although I didn't reach the pinnacle of 200 miles that I attained in 31-day January, I made full use of this 28-day month, piling up 180.41 miles in all.  I also was able to maintain my personal record consecutive day running streak, at month's end standing at 304 days.  My longest run in February was for 10 miles.  I didn't participate in any public races, though. 

I tended to continue my routine of splitting up my daily runs into morning/road and night/treadmill components, establishing the truth that you can get yourself to do practically anything if you can just get first habituated to it!  The weather in February generally sucked, with ridiculously warm temperatures and suffocating humidity, making me sometimes question myself what planet I live on, of course with a nod to Star Trek's Dr. McCoy (I wonder if you know what I'm talking about).  Good news, though: winter seems to be back, at least at the start of March.  It's getting back down into the thirties at night, and the race I plan to run on March 3 promises to have a shivery start.  But that's cool...I mean REAL cool.  Literally, dude...

Guy Fieri and My Favorite TV Show

My cable television company provides a wide assortment of specialty channels.  There are channels for auto racing, tennis, golf, animals, and home and garden, just to scratch the surface.  There are also some channels that USED TO be specialty channels (MTV, History, The Learning Channel) but now just program useless garbage.  Usually I avoid specialty channels regardless of the garbage level.  And this usually also applies to another one, the Food Channel, because I generally detest shows on cooking.  You can have your Rachael Ray and Paula Deen...just keep 'em off my TV when I am in front of it, thank you.  And I really, deeply, detest those shows that pit cooks against each other in competitions or involve "experts" insulting the dishes of contestants.  But out of all the uselessness, there still stands one show on this channel that is so, so much fun to watch that it has become my current number one favorite show in all of television: Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

In Diners, Drive-In, and Dives, chef-in-his-own-right Guy Fieri (or just "Guy", that'll do fine) travels the USA searching for local eateries that produce excellent food for its customers.  The show is set up to filter out the "losers" in advance: all we end up seeing are just the successes, with Guy amiably chumming up with different restaurant owner/cooks as they demonstrate how they prepare their more popular dishes.  Guy has an infectious personality, with an uncanny ability to hit it off well with just about every sort of character (some pretty offbeat) that one might encounter whipping up a delicious meal somewhere.  Part of each visit (usually to three different establishments per half-hour episode) involves filming how the food is prepared, usually from scratch, back in the kitchen. The other part involves going to the dining area and showing how the food is presented to the tables, with Guy eliciting the "customary" fawning approval of customers.  I love the positive vibes of this show, something you sometimes want when flicking on the boob tube after a hard, grueling day at the office.  ...And also, I used to be one of those cooks back in a restaurant kitchen (for eight years, actually), prepping ingredients, mixing them, cooking them up, and setting them out for the server to present in the dining area. 

If you want a respite from a lot of the negative crap polluting our television programming, then take a break and watch Guy do his magic.  I dare you to watch Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and not smile! 

Reading David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas

I am in the middle of reading David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas. And by that I mean I'm right smack in the middle of it, exactly halfway through.  You may have read this book, but most likely you've heard of it through last year's movie version.  When I saw the preview ads on television, I was instantly interested and wanted to see it upon its release.  However, I then read a couple of reviews that were a bit critical of the film.  The impression they gave me was that it would behoove me to first read the book in order to be able to properly follow and understand the movie.  So I skipped the cinematic run of Cloud Atlas and opted instead to obtain the book.  Good decision.

Already in the first 250 pages of this novel is enough material that I think would necessitate more than one movie...preferably three...to adequately give expression to the story's flow and character development.  I still, at this point, have no clue as to how the author will conclude what amounts to several nested, unfinished short tales that jump from the past through the present and then on to a speculative science fiction future.  There are subtle connections that tie the seemingly unrelated stories together, not to mention at least one character in each of them.  Each of them is written in a completely different writing style as well, which at first was cumbersome to plod through but which now I find to be delightful.

Except for the movie trailer and those two reviews, I went into reading Cloud Atlas cold, with no background knowledge of its author.  I'm sure David Mitchell is known in contemporary literary circles for this and other works, but when I tried to check out a copy of Cloud Atlas from my local public library (which serves the University of Florida community here in Alachua County), I discovered that they had no copies, but were in the process of ordering some in response to the high demand generated by the movie.  Well, finally I got to check out a copy...then began reading.  After reading a little of it, I then returned the book to the library and went down to a local bookstore and purchased a copy for my very own.

Cloud Atlas is a slow read, quite unlike books like the Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia series that I raced through.  I intend to write a more adequate review for it after I'm finished, but I will at this point say that I've already easily gotten my money's worth from this intriguing work. 

And yes, I plan to eventually watch that movie!

My Apathy with Sequester Issue

The news is focusing on the "sequester" possibility with our federal spending, when automatic drastic cuts with take place  across the board if an agreement cannot be reach by the rapidly approaching deadline between the President and Congress.  I know that this is something about which I should probably have a strong opinion to express on this blog, but instead all I can feel in this regard is a kind of numbed apathy.  Still, my instincts and discernment of the situation lead me to side with President Obama and the Democratic-led Senate against the Republican "controlled" House of Representatives.  I say "controlled" because this body seems out of control to me, with House Speaker John Boehner utterly incapable of convincing his own caucus to back any deal that he might reach with Obama.  Then the dude gets on TV and instead insults the President and the Democrats, as if that will accomplish anything constructive!  Personally, I think he should just resign from his leadership post since he has shown nothing resembling leadership.  Let another conservative get in there to try to work something out. Somebody who can actually behave like a leader instead of a whining crybaby!

No, I'm not even keeping up with how many days are left before the cuts kick in automatically.  But whatever happens, I'm sure that the two sides will put their own spins on it, complete with mutually contradicting alternative realities and "facts" with their eyes primarily focused on winning the next congressional election in 2014, not working together to solve the nation's problems.

Are you as sick of all this crap as I am?

Forget "Article of the Day" From Now On

Once I had this notion that my hordes of faithful readers out there would click onto my website each day to follow what I had written for that day.  The days of that notion are gone, regrettably, as I know now that folks are either into their little Facebook social networking feedback loops and completely miss this blog, or only access it via a search of their topic of interest.  In either case, taking the pains to put out a daily article makes no sense.  Therefore, from now on I'm publishing 'em when I write 'em...

This is why you're about to experience articles #2, #3, and #4 for this one date: I wrote all of them together, and in a very short time span (along with this one)...

Asssorted Thoughts

Just some random notes to keep up some semblance of continuity on this blog, which I'm still attached to.  Times have been busy for me of late, and all sorts of different things are going on in my personal life, most of which are for the better.  The family is doing fine as well. 

--I'm disappointed in this so-called "winter".  Right now, around 11:30 in the morning, the temperature is 80 degrees and expect to rise several more.  Ugh, I get enough of this the rest of the year here in northern Florida...why can 't I get a break from it for just a month or two?!

--The University of Florida men's basketball team this year is one of their all-time best.  Whether or not they can win the national championship, though, depends on how they can deal with pressure.  So far, though, each time they have surged in the national rankings, they quickly lost their next game.

--The Los Angeles Lakers are an enigma.  With all of their talent, at this writing they are still four games under .500.  The ultimate question the sports analysts are asking is whether Dwight Howard is finally getting into form and will play an important role in their success during the rest of the regular season.  He had a good game a couple of nights ago against Boston.  If the Lakers can play to that level the rest of the year, then they should be able to sneak into the playoffs.  And once they're able to accomplish that, who knows how far they will go...

--I am still running, with plans to enter a half-marathon race in Tavares, Florida, on March 3. 

--My workplace is undergoing draconian changes in employee assignments, reporting times, and days off.  Hopefully, my dear colleagues there will be able to adjust to the often very sudden demands put upon them with their altered schedules.  After all, we all have lives of our own, many of us with family members who depend on us to be there for them according to our availability.  A little more advance warning from the party making these changes would have been sheer, common courtesy.  But here we are and this is what we have to deal with...  

Re: Recent Sparcity of Blog Articles

In case you haven't noticed it (how couldn't you), this blog's entries have tended to be rather sparse in the past few days, even months.  I used to put out daily articles, but a combination of factors has slowed down my writing rate.  One is that my daily schedule is more full of other things, and any time I have left over to write often slips by or finds me too tired.  Another factor is that I have come to my wit's end with the nonsense I see going on in the news, particularly in the realm of politics.  I see a handful of folks on TV like the brilliant Rachel Maddow tackle and refute a lot of the worst head-on, but there is so much b.s. going on that I feel overcome should I  pay too much attention to it.  Of course, there are other things I can write about, but even with those I seem to have lost a crucial degree of interest in sharing my thoughts with others on the Web.  I don't know whether this will be permanent or is just short-term.  But that's how it is, anyway...

March Half-Marathon in the Works

It is looking more and more like I will be running in that Sunday, March 3 Orange Blossom Half-Marathon in Tavares/Mount Dora.  It also looks as if Melissa will be accompanying me; she plans to walk the 5K event when I run mine.  I just got that Satuday off so, we can make a weekend out of it! And that has special meaning because she grew up in that area in Lake County, while I myself lived there for a few months back in 1987.

Meanwhile, much further south where I grew up, half-marathons abound year-round.  There are two events held regularly, both in northern Dade County.  One is just east of North Miami Beach and the other is in Hialeah.  Both are trail runs, too.  It might be fun to try one or both of them out on future visits.  But the only reason I still have to visit there is to attend to my 86-year-old father.  Maybe I can schedule a trip there around when they're holding a half-marathon. But I don't think I'll be running anything long in south Florida during the hot and humid summer months: I had a bad experience down there a couple of years ago when I was almost overcome by the heat and humidity, and on a relatively short four-mile jog at that. 

Attractive [Personality] Models, Part II

Back a couple of years, I ran across a book written by ultra-marathon distance runner Dean Karnazes about his passion for this sport, aptly titled Ultramarathon Runner.  The book is more or less a rough autobiography of "Karno", as he is popularly known, as it relates to his running.  One thing that stood out in this account was this individual's very strong sense of purpose and determination when it came to identifying his goals and then acting upon them, regardless what anyone around him said about their attainability.  His philosophy mirrored that of one of his early running coaches: go all out from the very beginning until the finish, and if you have anything left at the end...then you didn't try hard enough!  Well, I think in order to live my life in this matter, I would need heaping amounts of both courage and faith in my eventual success in the face of the inevitable pain, exhaustion, and discouragement that heady, even sometimes outrageously ambitious undertakings can  elicit.  But I think that it has been these very factors, which would filter out most of us, that has motivated Karnazes in his efforts.  For he believes that his courage and the triumph of his doggedness WILL achieve success.  Period.  Karnazes hasn't just done this with his running exploits: he has also overachieved both in college, as a corporate executive, and as an independent entrepreneur. 

Do I personally know others like Karno? Not exactly: I know many people whose determination to achieve a difficult goal has been inspirational, but I couldn't really say that it was a defining characteristic of their personality.  And perhaps this, realistically, is where I would want to emulate someone like Mr. Karnazes...by identifying some specific areas in my life that I strongly desire to achieve greatness in and then pouring on the effort to go full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes!   

Attractive [Personality] Models, Part I

There is a type of personality that I envy; not that I actually would want to exchange identities with those who possess it.  For the most part, I tend to be reserved, passive, and not a wee bit suspicious concerning my interactions with others.  For anyone who knows anything about my upbringing as a child, this should not come as a surprise.  After all, we grow up emulating those around us the most and tend to adopt their demeanor and outlook, including how we see and react to other people.  But from time to time in my life, I have run across others who approach their social dealings in an entirely different manner, cultivating each individual relationship in conversation with the theme almost always being getting to know the other and their experiences and views.  You might think that this personality type exhibits some degree of maturity, but I encountered more of them in my early, pre-adolescent childhood among some of my age-group peers.  Then, going through puberty seemed to change a lot of them into reserved, hypercompetitive types with whom an interaction was seen as a contest, if not a threat to them.  But even in high school, I would occasionally (not often, though) run across a refreshing, friendly soul whose attitude was positive and interested.  The most striking occurrence with this was back in my tenth grade chemistry class when, out of the blue, a kid a year older than me, Steve, introduced himself and instituted a friendship.  He displayed a mixture of that childlike (not childish) enthusiasm and friendliness... plus something I would later abruptly recognize on PBS Playhouse's version of a forties' hit movie...

In the early 1980's, I had pretty much isolated myself from the world at large, living alone like a hermit except when the need arose to go to work (where I pretty much kept to myself as well, with some notable exceptions).  One exquisitely solitary evening at home, I had my tiny b/w television tuned in to the local Public Broadcasting channel when "their" new version of the old cinematic classic You Can't Take It With You came on.  The starring role in this one (more so than in the original 1938 movie) was the oddball family's "Grandpa" Martin Vanderhof, perfectly played by Jason Robards.  This character captivated me by his interest in others and his relaxed demeanor about life in general.  Robards stole the movie with his portrayal and made this 1984 version of an already popular story something that all good pieces of art, music, and literature do: it began to effect a change within me, in this case with me looking more outward than inward. 

I don't possess Martin's personality...at least most of the time I don't.  But I do often find myself engaging others in the very same type of banter that he did in that unforgettable show I saw nearly thirty years ago.  But get this: this character, by his own admission, had undergone a transformational change himself and had made a decision to value things that were more important.  His choice was to abandon the pursuit of a high-stress career, leaving the rat race to others.  My change may not manifest in the exact same way as his, but we just might end up in the same place, anyway.  I hope so, at least: he seemed to be one happy dude!

Some Half-Marathons in My Area

After successfully completing the Ocala Half-Marathon on January 20, I began to look ahead on the calendar for more upcoming races of this distance taking place in my general area.  Since I work on Saturdays and am off on Sundays, I focused on the races offered on Sunday and ignored the rest.  One race stuck out: the Tallahassee Half-Marathon, held on February 3.  I had only been in my home state's capital city once in my life, in 1994, and I was only then driving through it on my way to Texas.  A visit and a run...yes, that sounded appealing, at least at the beginning...

I was hoping that the Tallahassee Half-Marathon's course would wind through the various interesting sites of this important city, including Florida State University, Florida A&M, and the downtown area which features various state government buildings such as the state capitol.  Instead, though, when I visited the event's website, I discovered that, although the race did begin and end at FSU, it quickly turned down a "rails-to-trails" path that ran out of the city: a "there-and-back" course, avoiding the more interesting sites I wanted to experience as a runner/tourist.  That's a shame, because I already have a race like that in Gainesville: the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon, held in the late autumn on another converted railway-to-pathway (leading away from Gainesville...and then back).  It's fun to run in (I've done it twice so far), but I like the more tourist-friendly Five-Points event held in February, and which goes through the heart of Gainesville as well as the University of Florida.  Alas, though, I'm committed to something else (more important) this year when this race happens on February 17...

Well, my disappointment at the Tallahassee race course turned out to be a moot point as I had developed an annoying, nagging cough due to a cold combined with allergies.  I didn't feel up to running that distance anyway, so passing up on that race wasn't such a bad deal.  Besides...

On March 3, in Tavares, Florida, there will be a half-marathon race that goes by some pretty lakeside scenery.  It's on a Sunday morning, too.  In 1987, I lived for about seven months down there in Lake County, a few miles west of Tavares in Leesburg (in the general vicinity of Orlando).  It's not a very long drive there and back, and the race looks very interesting.  So if things keep looking positive and I keep up my health, then maybe I'll try this one more half-marathon before the temperatures here in Florida begin to heat up in the springtime. 

There is one additional point I'd like to make about the way some of these races are organized, one that has made me scratch some of them off my list of possibilities. The race packet pick-up is often mandated the day before in the race's city, which means that, unless I already live near or relatively close by, I would have to make an overnight commitment to stay at a hotel (I think that's their cynical idea behind this policy) or make two long trips.  To the credit of the Tallahassee and Tavares organizers, neither of them made packet pickup a requirement the day before the race, giving runners the option of picking them up on raceday morning before the start.  Others are rigid with this pack pickup policy: if the race is farther from my home than Ocala (about 40 miles distant), these folks can just forget about my participation.  So another race taking place near Live Oak next month that could have been fun to run in won't see me anywhere near there since they have this ridiculous "day-before" mandated packet pickup policy...

My General Political Stances

It's been quite a while since I've written about politics.  So let me recap my general views on things in that area.  I tend to support more liberal positions on the issues, so that usually lands me squarely in the Democratic camp as opposed to the Republicans.  I like health insurance reform, but I think the recently enacted Affordable Care Act didn't go far enough and should have been tax-supported instead of having an enormous competitive disadvantage placed on the backs of American businesses, which really don't have a logical connection with health insurance benefits other than that, in the beginning, some companies offered them as a lure to employees and the practice gradually expanded.  I support immigration reform, which is needed for different reasons, not the least of which being that we don't need a subclass walking our supposedly free streets too afraid to seek police protection from the real criminals out there.  I support firearms regulation and actually do something the so-called conservatives usually insist upon (but don't when discussing gun control): I read the United States Constitution, specifically its Second Amendment, in the context of the late eighteenth century when it was written and when the fledgling nation had no standing peacetime army.  It depended upon its citizenry, along with their ready arms, to be quickly available in response to a military necessity.  Now that we have the world's most powerful standing armed forces, that need is unnecessary and the amendment is outmoded.  I believe that deficits and the national debt should not be interpreted in terms of raw dollar amounts, but rather in relation to the amount of gross domestic product...and that the tax breaks given to the wealthy in essence amount to the rich being the biggest "takers" of government entitlements.  I believe that patience and diplomacy should accompany our use of military and that the sheer presence of our forces in an troubled region can sometimes be an effective deterrent to threats against us, without necessarily instituting open conflict.  There are other issues, some of which you may fault me for omitting... but what I'm done here is cover some of the more pressing, headline-grabbing issues affecting us now...

My January 2013 Running Report

In January, my running mileage continued to mount as I continued to run both mornings and nights.  Also, each run tended to be for longer distances.  This was supposed to be the one month of the year that I could count on for pleasant, cool and cry conditions outdoors.  Instead, it was usually hot and humid.  Nevertheless, I plodded on and even did the Ocala Half-Marathon on the 20th, with an unanticipated fast (for me) time of 1:55:20.  Considering that I hadn't run a half-marathon in over a year, not to mention the very hilly course located primarily just south of Ocala, I was surprised how well this race went for me.  But for the past several days of the month, I have been suffering from upper respiratory tract woes and the running has dwindled.  Still...

I still managed to top 200 miles, with a total of 200.72 for January.  Also, I ran on every day, bringing my running streak to 276 consecutive days.  But this streak may not last very far into this month unless the health concern I just mentioned doesn't clear up.  My longest run was, naturally, the 13.1 mile half-marathon.

I don't see myself in February running as much as I did in January. Still, once I've recovered I hope to resume "running" up the mileage and at least adhere to my original 100-miles-per-month strategy...

Upcoming February Stress and My Serenity

The upcoming month of February, 2013 looms as one of those transitional (or transformational) times that I find myself passing through, albeit not necessarily as I would like.  It seems, though, that, like it or not, many areas of my life will be tested and most probably changed considerably by the time that March 1 rolls around.  Health, family, work...everything seems to be coming to a head in February.  Some things I see ahead for me that are for the good, but some give me an ominous feeling of foreboding.  There is a wonderful saying that some Christian circles use for stressful and potentially dangerous times like this, and it is called The Serenity Prayer, composed by Reinhold Niebuhr (this is just its first part):

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

I need to pass through what I see as a period of stressful instability in my various situations, but I can remain serene through it all!  As a matter of fact, this may be a vital survival strategy for me...

Renewing Interest in Watching Tennis

My 86-year old father is mentally sharp as a tack, although he often complains that the rest of his body seems to be breaking down.  One of his passions, something that he has enjoyed for decades, is watching professional tennis on TV.  I remember as a teenager following players like Chris Evert, Evonne Goolagong, Martina Navratilova, Billy Jean King, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, and Björn Borg in the 1970s, but once I moved away to live on my own I ceased to care about the sport.  So the years have passed and now it is 2013.  I talk regularly on the phone with my father, and he often brings up tennis.  He knows that I don't follow it, but still he speaks the names of various players and tournaments as if I know who and what he's talking about.  Well, I now feel I'm in a better position to hold my own in a tennis discussion with him because...

I already knew (from my dad) that the Australian Open was ongoing.  Favored Serena Williams had already been eliminated, and my father had already mentioned an upstart young American woman who had advanced far past her ranking.  On the men's side, my father favored Novak Djokovic over the others, which as it turns out is a good thing...he's the best player in the world right now! But I was only marginally aware of him until a few nights ago when I accidentally dozed off in front of the television with the channel on ESPN...and woke up in the wee hours of the morning to witness a live broadcast of an Australian Open semifinals match between Djokovic and fourth seeded David Ferrer.  Normally, I would have just dozed back off to sleep.  Instead I became entranced by the match and thought that maybe...just maybe, tennis wasn't all that boring to watch after all.  After Djokovic disposed of his opponent in straight sets, ESPN showed a replay of the final minutes in one of the women's semifinals pitting eventual champion Victoria Azarenka against that "upstart American" Sloane Stephens.  In one game, Azarenka had five match points against Stephens, including a double match point, but her young opponent managed to come from behind with incredible tenacity and win that game.  She eventually lost that match, but made a deep impression on me as someone who may end up ranked #1 in the not-to-distant future.

I also later saw the replay of the men's finals match between Djokovic and Andy Murray, which the former won with much more difficulty than he had in the semifinals. 

Tennis is something that I may find myself watching more of.  Of course, just knowing what I do now already greatly enhances the quality of the phone chats I have with my father.  But I also like the timelessness of the sport, something akin to baseball, where the athletes, coaches, fans, and officials aren't slaves to the clock...

Are L.A. Lakers Back on Track?

Last night I was watching a basketball game on TV.  There haven't been too many lately that have attracted my interest, but this one was special: the Los Angeles Lakers were hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder...and were slightly ahead early in the fourth quarter.  The Lakers were supposed to be the team to beat in the NBA this year after they acquired Steve Nash and Dwight Howard.  But instead, they floundered and now find themselves on the outside of a playoff spot, several games under .500 with the regular season just past halfway over.  The problem with this team that has such a star lineup as the previous two, along with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Metta World Peace, has yet to figure out a way to work effectively together.  I know that the Miami Heat faced a similar situation a couple of years ago when they acquired LeBron James and Chris Bosh, but at least they were generally winning their games.  The Lakers have looked comparatively weaker.  But very recently, it has begun to look as if they are beginning to get their "mojo" back.  This game against the Thunder, which has the best record in the NBA, showed a different LA team: everyone playing in harmony!  I was stunned by their lead, and wondered whether they could hold it until the end of the game.

I happened to encounter this game while running on a treadmill (which sports a built-in television) at my workout gym.  I sometimes play a little game of my own and tell myself I'll keep running until a specific thing happens on a show I'm watching (usually its ending). So I vowed to stay on the treadmill until this game was over, although I had originally only intended to run a couple of miles.  Instead, when the shocking final score of "Lakers 105, Thunder 96" was flashed on the screen, I had covered four miles.  Thanks for the inspiration, team!

I used to despise the Lakers because one of their players, Andrew Bynum, displayed thuggish behavior during the playoffs a couple of years ago against a Dallas Mavericks player.  He's gone, and they still have a problematic member in World Peace, formerly known as Ron Artest, a player with a long trail of behavior problems.  Still, he seems to fit well with the others and I do think that Nash and Bryant are incredible players.  So I'm rooting for them now.  We'll just have to see how lasting this resurgence truly is.  They already just made a huge statement by beating the Thunder!