Ran at Night Outside Under Difficult Weather Conditions Yesterday

As I stated in yesterday's article, I have been tailoring my back yard to accommodate more running and walking training in the nighttime hours as the summertime and its hot and humid conditions here in northern Florida wear on.  I went out there right after sunset, with temperatures still in the 80s and humidity in the 60s and, using my ring-tally-counter, ran back and forth across the yard 150 laps to cover 5 miles, all while listening to an Amazon Music shuffle of songs by Led Zeppelin, one of my all-time favorite musical acts.  The nature of the setup requires me to greatly decelerate as I approach each fence, and the turf itself is uneven with sloping that I have to maneuver through, so my pace is by necessity much slower than it would be on a continuous paved and even pathway.  I finished last night's jaunt at 1:09:07, slow but I'm not concerned with the speed anyway, at least at this stage.  For the first 2.8 miles I mixed running with walking at a 4:1 ratio while for the final 2.2 miles I simply ran.  Although it was already nighttime and the brutal 100-degree late afternoon conditions had alleviated somewhat, my shirt and shorts were still completely drenched in perspiration at the end...yes, brutal is the fitting description of this summer so far, and it's technically not even summer yet!  I'm optimistic about using my back yard in the future as a way to run at night...

Adapting to Extreme Heat by Turning to Running at Night

This morning I brought my Honda Civic over to the auto maintenance shop to get routine work on it, including an oil change...the "percentage" on my dashboard reading had gotten pretty low.  When I came around to pick it up this afternoon, I got two "100" readings on my dashboard: one, the oil was restored to "100%"...I guess that's good, right?  But the other was the outside temperature reading: 100 degrees...ugh!  And that's what it's been today, excruciatingly hot here in Gainesville. At 7 PM it had only gone down to 95, and for someone like me who likes to go out this time of day to run and walk in the neighborhood for a reasonably long distance, that's just not going to work.  So I considered my resources and how I could adapt myself to the situation at hand.  About fourteen years ago I read a book by ultra-marathon runner Dean Karnazes titled Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner.  In this sports autobiography, he described how he would regularly run the streets of his home California town and the outlying roads deep into the nighttime hours to train for his ultra-long races.  I thought that was pretty cool, but considering how crazy/wacko some people can be with their paranoia and suspicion, the idea of me doing something like that just didn't seem very wise.  Fortunately, a few years ago we got a nice privacy fence put around our back yard, and with some solar powered lights at strategic spots it can be adequately lit up into the night to provide a venue for back-and-forth running and speed-walking.  Then I bought a simple digital tally counter I could wear as a ring while working out and realized that I had everything in place to do my own all-night running if I so desired.  Since it was so hot today and I have somewhere I need to be tomorrow morning, I decided to wait until the sun sets this evening and the temperature has abated and go into my backyard and see how much back-and-forth ground I can cover...I already have it all measured out and with each successive lap I just hit my tally counter.  I still like going around my neighborhood, but this can be a good makeshift substitute if it works out with the bathroom always nearby while I can still listen to my Amazon Music while running and walking...

Walked the Depot Parkrun 5K Here in Gainesville This Morning

When I awoke earlier today I could easily tell it was going to be a very warm, muggy morning, and the figures confirmed this.  Approaching 7:30, the starting time for Gainesville's weekly Depot Parkrun 5K...held at the park bearing that name a little bit south of downtown...the temperature was 75 with a 100% humidity: we're talking a pretty unpleasant 75-degrees dew point.  So I decided to speed-walk the event, and as it turned out, that was a good decision.  I covered the 3.1-mile, four-lap distance in 38:49, nine seconds better than my previous best 5K walk last month.  But unlike that race, this time I was drenched in sweat from the excess heat and humidity.  I deliberately pushed myself to try to walk with as much exertion as when I run, and to some extent I succeeded in this.  Still, going by my progress on the treadmill at my local gym, I should be walking faster 5Ks, at least dipping into the 37-minute finishing time area.  It seems no matter how fast I think I'm walking for what is generally considered to be a respectable distance, I still have essentially the same level of energy at the end as I do at the start.  So I guess I'm going to have to push myself a little harder next time.  But I 'm still happy with my time under these weather conditions.  Gainesville's Depot Parkrun is a part of a worldwide network, originating in England, of Parkruns scattered across hundreds of communities.  Parkruns are free and volunteer-run.  You sign up online and they give you a barcode to print out and bring with you to scan at the close of each race for your results to be posted on their website.  Speaking of that, click HERE to view today's results...

Quote of the Week...from Max Ehrmann

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.                                 ---Max Ehrmann

Max Ehrmann's prose poem Desiderata has always been a favorite of mine since I first heard it on the Les Crane singles hit played on the radio more than fifty years ago.  Ehrmann wrote it in 1927, and I've quote lines from it in past articles...including last Friday's.  As for the above excerpt, I have been reflecting on different types of positive, effective dialogue and have broken it all down to four: 

1: I speak about what I want to the other party.

2: The other party speaks about what they want to me.

3: They talk to me about what I want them to.

4: I talk to them about what they want me to.

Note that none of the above necessarily implies that the two of us in dialogue will agree on the content of what is said, but rather that it's the choice of subject matter...spoken with tact and discretion...that can, in my opinion, lead to successful dialogues.  Now the best of dialogues will combine all four elements, but I don't think that's always called for.  Yet over the course of a relationship all four elements need their proper expression and a sense of respectful balance...what do you think?

My 5 Mile Neighborhood Speed-Walk This Morning

This morning I set out on another five mile speed-walk through my north Gainesville subdivision and the adjacent one, the same course I did two weeks ago.  This time around I started earlier, with cooler temperature (average 73) and very high humidity (97%).  But with fast walking, as opposed to running...even slowly...the weather extremes don't seem to affect me that much, and it was perfectly fine this morning as I enjoyed deep shadows before the sun rose too high in the clear skies.  I started out at about 7:00 and finished with a time of 1:09:05...relatively little perspiration or energy loss from the workout.  My limitation with walking at a brisk (for me) pace isn't the distance or weather it seems, but rather my ability to attain a faster speed...even if only for a few seconds.  I used heavier shoes on these road outings, and on the treadmill at my gym attain a faster pace (now I'm working on 5.6 mph, or 10:42/mile).  I think if I can move more efficiently...like I see race walkers do...then I could become a pretty decent seniors athlete with walking.  Today's experience still was rewarding for getting up and getting out there, although I admit to being a bit annoyed at several different neighbors along my route, parked along the road in front of their homes, who would open their car or pickup truck doors wide into the street and then just walk off.  I wouldn't do that, if only for the sake of preserving my car door.  Oh well, listening for the duration of my walk to an Amazon Music shuffle of songs by the excellent Canadian alternative rock band Metric helped to alleviate my frustration...you know, they're a very energizing group to exercise to and Emily Haines is one of the greatest singers around...

Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 9

Here's another installment of my reactions to sci-fi short stories appearing in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection, and featuring the editor's selections from 1996.  That year I'll always remember, with mixed feelings, about the Major League Baseball World Series pitting American League champ New York Yankees against the defending champion, "my" Atlanta Braves from the National League.  I wanted Atlanta to repeat in '96 but the Yanks were too tough, riding on their momentum, and overpowered the Braves.  I was, however, happy to see New York's manager Joe Torre, the Atlanta manager in the early 1980s, receive his due recognition...his team would win more titles in ensuing years.  But as I like to say, back to those stories... 

THE WIND OVER THE WORLD by Steven Utley

Leveritt, a geologist. prepping for her inaugural visit to the distant past...the Silurian Period, that is...has at her side a talkative man, Ed Morris, who says he's gone through the natural time Portal before and tries to assure her of the process' safety.  But when they make the jump through time, he never arrived, and the investigation is on about what happened to him.  As the story progressed it reminded me of that great old Twilight Zone episode where two astronaut buddies, just returned from a difficult mission, are out in a bar...and one suddenly vanishes...

CHANGES by William Barton

Hopping from one generation to another within a family, it starts in 1944 during World War II and ends sometime in our near future.  I'm only saying that the author, in 1996, perfectly captured the essence of what is going on right now with our social media, gaming, and virtual reality...I think he's right on target about where we're headed, sad to say.  Also, he predicted here that our space program would flounder with one setback after another...yes, indeed...

COUNTING CATS IN ZANZIBAR by Gene Wolfe

A widowed woman is traveling across the world from country to country in a struggle to evade her pursuers, yet is discovered on a ship in the Philippine Sulu Sea.  It's not a matter of crime or revenge, but rather a secret she holds that those after her, including the "man" on board who identifies her, covet.  This tale from 28 years ago puts the finger right on what many in our present 2024 world are concerned about: the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence, whether those so imbued are capable of true consciousness, and what their rise holds in store for humanity...

HOW WE GOT IN TOWN AND OUT AGAIN by Jonathan Lethem

Another prescient tale about an ongoing trend, projected into the future a few decades.  In an America...and, presumably as well, the rest of the world...is social decline amidst the explosive development of virtual reality. Two young people, Gloria and her friend (the narrator) Lewis go from town to town seeking enough food and money to get by.  They encounter a crew of "scapers" who, as traveling entertainers, go from one locale to another selling shows involving people undergoing extreme virtual reality experiences.  There's a lot of humor in this story, but it's sad as well to consider that, as a society, we seem to be heading down the same road...

Next week I continuing reviewing sci-fi stories from 1996...

Study Method Advocates Sometimes Discount Own Experiences

I find it disingenuous for somebody to get on a podcast or YouTube with listed accomplishments and talent skills in a specific area and then promote a regimen for you or me to also reach their level of attainment while discounting their early history of struggles that were instrumental to their breakthroughs.  Case in point: Steve Kaufmann, a polyglot who has reasonable proficiency in some twenty different languages, is someone I respect and who promotes the "comprehensible input" method of language learning.  Yet his linguistic career and narrative took off AFTER he joined his Canada's foreign service early in his adult years and took their intensive training courses in Mandarin Chinese.  I believe that Kaufmann's experiences back then taught him what to seek out during his subsequent language studies, while most of us don't possess that kind of background to know exactly what to prioritize as we follow his current system.  Still, I think his method is far and away superior to the "don't make mistakes if you want a good grade" nonsense I went through  during my high school and college years.  Still, even more pertinent to Kaufmann's experience is that learning the intricacies of Chinese writing with their thousands of different ideograph characters is a very, very steep mountain to climb unless you intentionally and intensively study them, and even then reading Chinese can be a bit of a slog...

My Sunrise 11.2 Mile Run/Walk

Seeing how the public schools in my county let out for the summer last Friday, I anticipated, with pleasure, a lack of kids and school buses on the streets early this morning as I decided to go then on my distance run/walk, alternating over my pre-planned neighborhood route between two minutes of moderate running and three of fast walking.  Conditions were better than my Memorial Day morning run a week ago.  For one, I started out early, just at sunrise.  And then the weather was more amenable, with a pretty steady average 70 degrees and 81% humidity throughout.  I felt kind of sore afterwards, but that was expected.  For this workout I listened to Amazon Music's shuffle of songs by Electric Light Orchestra, one of my favorite bands from the seventies and early eighties.  This week and the previous one have seen me in a support/care-giver role as Melissa has undergone surgery and is now, thankfully, recovering well...but gradually...from it.  Please keep your thoughts and prayers in mind for her as we pass through this medical/health storm...thankfully all of the post-op news so far is good...  

Coffee Mug Great Books List

A few weeks ago I got a special coffee mug at a local used bookstore.  It depicts several famous books, most of which I have already read...and reviewed on this blog.  There are a few that I've yet to read.  I thought it might be cool to list them all below in the order, from right to left, that they appear on my mug, then place a link on each title to my past blog article about it.  So, here goes...

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger...read in 1972

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka...read only the short story Metamorphosis

Brave New World by Aldeus Huxley

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer...not yet

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath...currently reading

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett...not yet

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

On the Road Jack Kerouac

Ulysses by James Joyce

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Little Women by Louise May Alcott

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll...from childhood

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez...not yet

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Lord of the Flies by William Golding 

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Morning

On this first day of June, it was unusually pleasant outside as I made my way to Gainesville's Depot Park, a few blocks south of downtown, for yet another Saturday morning Depot Parkrun 5K.  At 7:30 race time, it was 68 degrees with only 73% humidity...not what I had expected.  In any event, I had decided to run this time around at a reasonably brisk pace without walking breaks.  To avoid getting boxed in by others, I got nearer the starting line at the beginning and it paid off.  I kept pretty much the same steady pace throughout the 5K's four laps around the park and finished at 27:23, my second fastest Parkrun finish (I've done 45 since January 2019) and only 13 seconds slower than my personal best there.  Parkruns, free of charge, are held in hundreds of locations worldwide...go to their website and sign up to participate, and you will receive a barcode you can copy and take with you for scanning.  Their system is simple although not foolproof, but I like how the results are usually posted online within a couple of hours of the race.  Press HERE to read today's results.  Depot Parkrun is organized and run strictly by volunteers, and they encourage everyone to pitch in to help in various capacities every few weeks...I'm probably going to do so again in the not-too-distant future.  Melissa couldn't walk this event today as she would have liked (and often does) because she had surgery this past Thursday: happily, it was successful and she is recovering well at home.

Regarding last month, May 2024, I kept up my running and walking.  Although other than regularly exercising my upper body by imitating swimming arm strokes, I haven't been in the pool for a while.  The workouts are divided between me running casually in my house, twice-a-week neighborhood run/walk outings, and occasional visits to my local gym where I more intensely run and walk their treadmill at my maximum personal speeds for brief periods.  Oh, and of course there is the weekly Depot Parkrun, in which I either run, speed-walk, or walk with Melissa.  I like the mix of it all and plan to continue this way into the summertime, during which I intend to increase my emphasis on speed-walking as the temperature outside climbs. Oh, and trying to get into the pool every now and then would be a good thing, too...

Quote of the Week...from Max Ehrmann

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.  But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.  Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.           ---Max Ehrmann

When calamities, accidents, and sudden illness befall us, the first tendency...at least for me...is to go into crisis mode, with the adrenaline spiking and the threat of panic close at hand.  But then reason and reflection, once any immediate danger has been properly addressed and diminished, should gradually assume a more dominant role in dealing with the troubles.  This, I believe, requires a personal level of courage and faith that can lift one out of despair and fruitless worry while remaining in a state of enlightened and realistic vigilance while the situation remains problematic.  It does oneself no good to overthink during these times about worst-case scenarios and then emotionally react to them as if they actually happened. The above quote is taken from writer Max Ehrmann's 1927 prose poem Desiderata, and it addresses this very human tendency to overreact to negative events in people's lives. We can only do what we have the power to do, and beyond that, learning to look at things with a more realistic perspective can contribute to a greater personal sense of balance, serenity and gratitude.  I know...easier said than done.  But "done" it must be...

New Treadmill Routine at Gym

Over the past few weeks I have been occasionally visiting my local gym after work to try out a new routine on their treadmill.  Part of what I am trying to do is work out intensely for brief stretches by running and walking on the treadmill at my maximum speed capable for a sustained length of time.  I start at that speed and see whether I can get to one total mile on it, with a tenth of a mile being the minimum distance to cover.  Once I reach the mile goal, then the next time I am at the gym I will increase the speed by .1 mile and start again.  So far, here's how I've been doing with my running and walking according to this treadmill system (distance in miles, speed in mph):

DATE   RUNNING         WALKING

           MPH  MILES      MPH  MILES

  5/2       7.3   1.0                5.2    .2

  5/3       7.4     .2                5.2   1.0

  5/7       7.4     .7                5.3    .2

  5/8       7.4   1.0                5.3   1.0

  5/11     7.5    .3                 5.4    .2

  5/14     7.5    .4                 5.4   1.0

  5/15     7.5    .7                 5.5    .2

  5/17     7.5   1.0                5.5   1.0

  5/22     7.6    .5                 5.6    .6

  5/26     7.6    .7                 5.6    .8  

  6/5       7.6    .3                 5.6    .3

  6/7       7.6   1.0                5.6   1.0 

  6/10     7.7    .2                 5.7    .1

  6/12     7.7    .5                 5.7    .4

  6/14.    7.7.  1.0.               5.7.   .6

  6/17     7.8    .3                 5.7    .7

  6/24     7.8    .4                 5.7   1.0

  6/30     7.8    .8                 5.8     .2

  7/2       7.8    .4                 5.8     .2

  7/10     7.8    .5                 5.8     .3

Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 8

On this weekly installment of my reactions to short stories of the past, I'm still "in" in the year 1996, going through Gardner Dozois' series of retrospective anthologies title The Year's Best Science Fiction, this volume being the Fourteenth Annual Collection and containing his picks from that year.  Today I'm focusing on one of this book's several novellas, an intriguing tale...

CHRYSALIS by Robert Reed

For millions of years, the remnants of humanity...along with several intelligent life forms picked up along the way...are on a long voyage, fleeing from a self-destructive, warring Earth to reach out into deep space, even beyond our Milky Way galaxy.  The ship is a converted asteroid, run and tended by intelligent, mobile machines called the Artisans that the fleeing humans created.  Sarrie is a young woman on the planet/ship, and the Artisans see her in a special role, to become their Voice that speaks to the worlds they visit as they select and draw upon new life to join them in their long quest.  But as she encounters strange reactions to events from her friends, she begins to question everything...and it comes to a head on a distant, ice-bound world well outside our galaxy.  In some ways, this provocative story brought to my mind the Requiem episode in the old Twilight Zone series, in which three astronauts encounter an animated android on a remote asteroid, and the first Star Trek movie in which future technology catches up with one of our earlier space probes.  This is science fiction at its best: stuff that makes you sit back and speculate...

Next time, more from 1996...

Our Medical Storms

Three years ago I underwent open heart surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm and replace a congenitally defective heart valve.  Instrumental in the successful outcome was Melissa, who cared for me and was my advocate.  Now it is my turn to be that caring advocate as she is undergoing her own medical/health issues in the ensuing days and weeks.  As such, my ordinary routines and schedule are subject to interruption and change...necessary under the circumstances.  Please be with me in my prayers for her successful treatments and quick recovery, and for my ability to be a positive force in her well-being throughout this unfolding process.  As for this blog, it probably would be a healthy discipline for me to try to continue coming out with something fresh each day, but there may still be some gaps here and there...

My Memorial Day 10.4 Mile Run/Walk Around Neighborhood

Before I discuss my long-distance run/walk this morning, I'd like to express my deepest respect and appreciation for all of the Americans who died defending this nation while serving in uniform during times of conflict.  They are treasures, each and every one, and should never be forgotten.  Around my personally-designed 10.4-mile course that runs through my own residential subdivision and the adjacent ones, I saw a number of homes with many little American flags in their front yards to express their support as well.  I decided to do my run this morning instead of Sunday at twilight because, well, we had company over yesterday and I knew I'd be off from work today.  But although late afternoon/early evening temperatures of late have been pretty high, creeping up into the 90s here in northern Florida, the humidity has been relatively low and once the sun has settled low enough in the western sky there's been plenty of shade as well.  This morning all was different and, other than the lower temperatures, much worse.  At the start of my training outing at 8:30, it was 69 degrees with 99% humidity and by the end it was 81 with 73% humidity...and very little cloud cover or shade.  I alternated 3 minutes of brisk walking with 2 of moderate running, and decided to add the walkway along NW 53rd Avenue between 34 St and 43rd.  My finishing time was 2 hours 5 minutes 23 seconds for the 10.4 miles, reasonable but the humidity combined with the heat took its toll on me although I carried Gatorade with me to drink along the way.  During today's activity I listened, via Amazon Music, to a mix of songs by Radiohead, probably my favorite band of the last 20-odd years.  I seem to take better to hotter afternoons with lower humidity than with warm mornings combined with high humidity...especially factoring in the added shade enjoyed later on in the day.  So we'll see how things go as spring blends into summer.  My recovery from today's run/walk seems to be going right on track...

Sinister Trend Shifting My Political Allegiances

I don't know whether others are feeling as I do, but I'm starting to feel a shift...a fundamental one...in my political leanings.  Not that the so-called "leaders" and candidates that I'm starting to lean toward are themselves worthy of following, any more than those I've preferred up until now...they're full of their own flaws and demagoguery.  And the chief one among them is, sorry to say, a complete buffoon who defines the word narcissism.  But I see something sinister and foreboding going on in my society, and it's being pushed primarily from the end of the political spectrum that I have been supporting for many years.  Comedian/commentator Bill Maher has covered this phenomenon extensively in his monologues on Real Time with Bill Maher, and I see it all around me in the media and corporate environment.  So that buffoon I mentioned notwithstanding, where I go this November 2024 election is up in the air.  But I'm realistic about it all, knowing that my one vote is just a drop in the ocean, and I don't pretend to tell you or anyone else what to think or do... 

Walked (and Ran) Today's Depot Park 5K

This morning's Depot Parkrun 5K here in Gainesville, a few blocks south of downtown, was special to me.  Not only was Melissa walking it, but our 34-year-old son Will walked the 3.1 mile, 4-lap distance with us for the first time after recent back surgery...way to go, Will!  For me, I walked with them the first 2½ laps and...seeing that their Gatorade was running out on this blistering hot and humid morning more indicative of summer than spring...finished it with a fast run and then got another chilled bottle out of the car for them as they were finishing up.  My final time of 49:27 reflected this hybrid of primarily social walking with running...worth it all!  If you want to see the results for today's event, click HERE.  Gainesville's Depot Parkrun is held almost every Saturday morning at 7:30 and is part of a worldwide network of hundreds of Parkruns, which originated in England a few years ago.  It's free and volunteer-run...you can just run or walk with the others if you want or, better, sign up online and get your own barcode for them to scan at the end to have your results posted and stored online.  Today was my 44th Parkrun finish since I began it in 2019...

Quote of the Week...from Bob Dylan

Well, the future for me is already a thing of the past.                 ---Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, Minnesota's great poet/songwriter/performer, turns 83 today...he is a part of that cluster of famous musicians born in the early 1940: he's 15 years older than me.  So for 15 years of his life I wasn't alive...should I be despondent over my death, or non-existence, during that period?  After I die...whenever that happens...should he likewise be despondent should he outlive me?  You see, I'm taking a little of ol' Bob's above quote and working with it, for I think we two just might have overlapping views about the passage of time and the concepts of past, future, and the now.  Not that the "The Bard" was referring to any of this with his quote, other than emphasizing that both future and past are indistinct and essentially unreal while only the now, the very moment we are currently both living through, is truly all that is real.  It's indeed a great mystery, not any less than what happens after death from our own perspective, about what we were before we existed in the first place.  Yet unless you believe in reincarnation, and that would only be a conjecture on your part, time itself seems to be an illusion, a construct that living organisms have used to perpetuate themselves...

Speed-Walked 5 Miles Through Neighborhood This Morning

Today, as planned, I did a neighborhood walk this morning in purely fast-walk mode, no running. But I did extend my planned distance of 3.3 miles to 5 instead...it worked out well.  The temperature was 82 with a 56% humidity...nice conditions for this time of year.  The roads were mostly clear...other than the trash and recyclables pickup and numerous lawn and repair vehicles, that is.  I walked as I would have on one of my weekly Depot Park runs, never tiring or feeling winded.  Yet there is still some constraint on my walking speed that I'm sure will diminish as I do it more and develop the appropriate muscles and hip mobility.  I finished with a time of 1:08:14 and walked the distance to a shuffled mix of Nirvana songs provided by Amazon Music.  One big difference between my neighborhood outings and the more "official" races: when training informally near my house I use heavier Nike Air Monarch athletic shoes while with the races I wear a much lighter Brooks model...both are several years old and probably could use replacing. I thoroughly enjoyed today's walk, and as a general rule plan to do such walks mid-week when circumstances permit...

Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 7

Here is another of my weekly installments whereby I review science fiction short stories I've read that have been written over the years...continuing with 1996.  The two tales for today come from the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection.  1996 was the year of the Atlanta Summer Olympics, which Melissa and I enjoyed watching.  The highlight for me was the finale in the women's gymnastic competition with the American team gold medal on the line until Kerri Strug's courageous final running vault jump with a painful ankle injury sealed it.  On the down side, though, a bomb went off outside during the Games, killing two and casting undue suspicion on the heroic security guard who had reported the bomb and helped evacuate the park, doubtless saving several lives...it's an example of the cynical concept "no good deed goes unpunished".  But back to those stories...

THE LAND OF NOD by Mike Resnick

Apparently this is the final story in Resnick's Kirinyaga series, set off in the future featuring Koriba as the shaman/leader of a resurrected Kikuyu culture in space...in a virtual setting.  Koriba, disenchanted with how the experiment has progressed, has returned to his native Kenya and suffers further disappointment. The notion that the traditional past of our famous ancestors was somehow "pure" and that we have strayed from it with the need to return to the old ways is a thread throughout many world cultures, not just that of Koriba.  I also think that it is a faulty notion that leads to a lot of trouble...

RED SONJA AND LESSINGHAM IN DREAMLAND by Gwyneth Jones

In a fantasy-like world young, voluptuous Sonja meets up with a tough rogue of a man to survive in the wild and combat the bad guys prowling around...as they get to know each other.  But as the title suggests, it ain't exactly real...and the reason is a brutal commentary on people's need for control over others and how it poisons just about every relationship to an extent.  A cynical view, but sadly too often a true one...

Next week: more from 1996, with a hopefully less cynical take on it all...