62nd and 23rd

I'm sitting here in that same old Dunkin' store facing the same scene I showed in a recent article.  There's a street sign right there ahead on the corner: NW 23rd ST on top facing in one direction and NW 62nd AVE on the bottom facing the other. Cars come and go, but I don't see pedestrians making any use of the provided sidewalks here.  That's a lot different from the Manhattan, NYC streets I see on my YouTube live feeds at night...click HERE to see an earlier video.  On them the cameraman, with seemingly endless endurance, walks a brisk pace for miles upon miles, up and down Midtown Manhattan streets and avenues...it makes me tired leaning back on my couch watching all the fast-walking people, and they, too, seen to possess boundless energy.  But were I there among them, I probably wouldn't be tiring either, no matter how much real estate I covered.  I've been wearing a FitBit watch for a few years, and when I was working (at the post office) the last couple of years I would almost always be in continuous motion, often deliberately walking when I probably could have just stood or sat still.  I would regularly amass more than 20,000 steps in a workday, and then when I got home as often as not I would do some running-in-place before going off to bed. Now that I am retired, am I unconsciously scaling down my physical activity when I don't have to? And if so, is that a good thing?  On today's neighborhood 3.3-mile walk/run, I originally set out to speed-walk the whole loop, but at the 5-minute mark I switched the project to 5 minutes of walking alternating with 5 of easy running...and it worked! Beforehand I had thought that running would be a little too rough, but I discovered that I could get into a nice groove for five minutes knowing that I'd be back walking some.  No problem...this is actually a step up from my earlier plan to institute a 6 minutes walking/4 minutes running routine.  So maybe this 5/5 system can get me through long distance races...the first half-marathon is coming in November.  Then in early December it's a 15K, followed in January by a choice I have between a marathon and half-marathon.  Let's see how far I can take this, in the old "postal worker/ big-city walker" spirit...

Rob Dial Argues Against Comparing Oneself to Others

On his Mindset Mentor podcast today, personal development coach Rob Dial discussed how people tend to compare themselves...usually unfavorably...to others.  He says we're naturally wired into doing this assessing the relative social positions of ourselves against others, but it's not a good way to live out the day.  Folks like to scroll Facebook and other social media, but they tend to see what others post...which is usually the peak-best of what they are and do...and take it in as how they ordinarily live their lives.  I've seen this with the Canadian brothers' YouTube running channel, in which the two come off sounding awfully elitist about their chosen sport and tend to put down others that they don't see measuring up.  Well, it doesn't ruin my day to watch them, so let it be if that's how they want to present themselves...I'm still feeling fine.  My problem with others is in ordinary public conversation when they...usually it's men...go about, with false modesty, bragging about their own accomplishments and social standing.  I guess their expectation is for me to immediately defer to them as my superiors, but my reaction is usually one of aversion, wanting to put distance between them and me. This Parkrun experience I have habituated myself to partake of weekly is an example of the leaders openly stressing that it is NOT a competition...and then running in it like it IS. Rob Dial says that the only person you should be comparing yourself to is you, and whether or not you're improving over that past version of yourself.  That's how I see Parkruns and other races: how am I getting through the race and does my finishing time meet with the standards I set in past performances?  That's how I get myself looking forward each week to going down there and giving it another go.  For example, this coming Saturday morning I plan to try out the West End Community Parkrun for the third time, running it this time and seeing if I can't beat my initial finishing time there.  In the final analysis, whether I succeed in that is secondary to the main thing, which is showing up in the first place.  In any event, I'm sure there will be some annoying people who will try to make it all a personal contest between us...I say let them do that if that's how they want to limit themselves...

Self-Imposed Structure and Discipline an Issue So Far in Retirement

I'm writing this a little past 1 PM on a weekday that I normally would be driving to work had I not retired late last year after 37 years.  I'd be in the post office parking lot, no doubt eventually finding a free space somewhere in the disastrous mess that postal management created after they moved all the carriers into the processing plant on SW 34th Street.  Although if still employed I wouldn't be looking forward to being in that fishbowl of a building with all its peepholes and cameras and obnoxious "career" ladder-climbing supervisors trying to act tough, my mind and actions to a significant extent would be free to venture down whatever paths I felt inclined to follow.  The intermittent fasting that led to a heightened level of fitness and athleticism in 2023-24 (and was hinted at as being an "eating disorder" by loved ones) was able to take place under a work routine that saw me free from undue pressure by others to ravenously consume food.  I'd like to return to at least a modified version of that regimen, but I need to respond to the clearly different cues presenting themselves to me during these times of zero job-imposed structure.  For one, my priority is to include Melissa in as many activities that I can...but in the times she doesn't feel like going along I need to continue with my agenda while being sympathetic to her feelings.  People's moods and emotions fluctuate over the course of any day, and so do mine.  Each of them can speak for themselves...but not necessarily for me, although I welcome their input.  It does me little good to listen to podcasts from Rob Dial or Andrew Huberman about instilling self-discipline and structure if I get static for being proactive and showing up.  Being inclusive of others is not at all the same as depending on direction from them. My inclination is to make living simpler in a material sense and to avoid making mountains out of molehills.  Living in the present, or mindfulness, is the opposite of overthinking.  How about some mindfulness...and a little gratitude for the blessings in our lives? As for responsible activity, I think it's better to get little habits going to the point where "good living" just naturally becomes a part of my daily existence, instead of shutting down my life to focus on a specific massive maintenance or clean-up project (directed by someone else). I've learned over the past sixteen months with two tragic family deaths and three different cancer diagnoses that life is indeed fragile and we're all subject to eventual death in this world, and I value the present moments accorded me, aware that I don't know far ahead they will stretch out. I do my share of complaining about the news, but this is the time of my life. No, I'm far from perfect and have a long way to go. But I don't think that I'm being unreasonable to ask for a little consideration and respect when I am earnestly seeking to live in a disciplined and structured manner as I approach my 69th birthday...

On This Labor Day Starting Off September

Welcome to the month of September on this Labor Day Monday.  The Weather Channel meteorologists seem to be enjoying going to pains to explain that today marks the beginning of the meteorological fall season while the astronomical fall begins on September 22nd.  I'm not sure how that affects my life, but it continued to be very warm and humid outside as I walked around the neighborhood earlier this afternoon. I'm not counting on any sustained cooling in my surrounding weather.  No, it's tropical storms and hurricanes I'm on the lookout against, and the "experts" don't seem to think that anything of substance will develop within the next week or so, although they say there is a "robust" tropical wave out there.  We've had a pretty light Atlantic hurricane season so far, with the only developed hurricane staying clear of land, far out in the Atlantic Ocean...may the rest follow this pattern.  Melissa and I would like our planned cruise into the Caribbean Sea in early October to go off without complications. Not only do I need to take the weather into consideration about this, but apparently our mentally ill, creepy drama-queen of a president seems to think it's a good idea to manufacture yet another crisis by amassing warships just off the Venezuelan coast to provoke armed conflict with that nation...we're scheduled to cruise to the nearby islands of Aruba and Curacao. You probably voted for the felon: what excuses are you making for him this time? In any event, there's a limit to what I have control over in my life...let me focus on today and what it may bring...

My August 2025 Running, Walking, Swimming and Health Report

In August I continued to walk, run, and swim regularly, not really growing in fitness or athletic ability but instead practicing the discipline of showing up, often under stress to do other things and under adverse weather conditions.  It was a typically hot and muggy month in summer, and it wasn't at all fun.  No, it's still August as I write this and I am not having fun.  Sometimes I feel that I am acting in defiance of my loved ones when I carve out time in my supposed "retirement" to actively pay attention to my own fitness instead of being a limp, passive excuse for a being.  I'm frankly fed up with the frustration of feeling that I am being set up to be a kind of scapegoat.  Still, I think I did reasonably well getting through this past month.  I walk and run around my neighborhood regularly and I do exercises mimicking running in the house.  I do push-ups and calisthenics as well daily.  My swimming didn't happen as often as I would have liked...maybe this coming month will see an improvement in that activity.  In August I participated in three posted races...all Parkrun 5K's.  My finishing times have declined, and it's frustrating.  I wish I didn't feel pressured to stuff myself with food...that's not a healthful habit at all.   My weight has been creeping upward into the low 160's, and I'd much rather be twenty pounds lighter.   Along with my fitness routines I find myself deep into the medical rotations of tests and doctor visits following my March prostatectomy, with subsequent blood tests and pet-scan held to ascertain whether the cancer diagnosed last December is returning on any discernible level.  Maybe next month I'll have to undergo radiation treatment since my PSA level has crept up a bit. Am I healthy? Who knows, but I do know that I am continuing to be physically active.  I suppose that an element of health is having a social network of friends and family who express an interest in me and what I'm up to, and who want to hear what I think about things.  Unfortunately, although many seem to be benevolently inclined toward me, I don't see any of that extended into a level of interest.  So philosophically I guess I'm in a funk of social pessimism, with diminishing expectations of others and, if anything, a desire to be left alone without surrounding drama.  And the POS occupying the White House isn't helping anything with his antics, nor are those people who put him back into power...

Got Through This Morning's Hot and Humid Depot Parkrun 5K

Today was perhaps, weatherwise, the worst day to attempt a Parkrun: the temperature at the 7:30 start was 75 degrees with an oppressive 97% humidity.  That didn't keep Depot Park, located a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville, from filling up with runners and walkers for this weekly free event that is run by volunteers.  I mean, I got there a little earlier than usual, but the main parking lot was already packed and the overflow lot was already half full. For the Parkrun, my intention, given the conditions, was to speed-walk the entire 3.1 miles, but I found the experience frustrating when a kid and his presumed father seemed to pick me out as a mark as, early on, the little boy repeatedly (1) sprinted past me, (2) got immediately in front of me, and then (3) stopped...making me have to suddenly pivot to avoid collisions, knowing as I walked past them that I'd have to do the same damned thing all over in a minute when they did it again.  Look, if you're gonna coach your kid, fine, but maybe teaching him to avoid run-ins with others on the course just might be a priority, what do you say?  In any event, I eventually shook off that obnoxious duo but found myself going at an all-too-slow pace.  Eventually, after the second lap, I began to insert some running into it, ultimately running for 9:14 out of the final finishing time of 38:54. I don't know, I've written before how I prefer this simple Parkrun course to the one at West End because it has laps to it, but in all candor it can get to be a real drag encountering the same people over the course of a walk/run.  Maybe next time I'll try West End.  In any event, it looks like my times in the next few weeks are going to be slower and the emphasis will be on simply showing up and finishing (and avoiding tripping over obnoxious people). To view the posted results for today, click HERE...  

My Song of the Month for August 2025 is Garbage

It's approaching the end of yet another month, time for me to select my "song of August 2025".  I sought material that has been released this year for musical acts that produced songs I liked in the past.  The British alternative rock group Garbage, fronted by Shirley Manson, produced songs I liked in the late 1990's such as Stupid Girl, Push It and Special.  At the start of '25 they released the album Let All That We Imagine Be the Light. I listened to it all, one track at a time, and...wouldn't you know it...this is the third album in a row I've listened to in its entirety whose tracks I disliked.  Except, once again, for one standout, which I think totally rocks: the opening one, titled There's No Future in Optimism.  Shirley's appealing singing voice is in full stride here, and the song's instrumental production is breathtaking and powerful.  This is my song of August, and you might want to give it a listen.  In recap, below are my songs of the month for 2025 so far:

AUGUST   There's No Future in Optimism by Garbage

JULY          The Birds by Franz Ferdinand

JUNE         Stuck in My Head by Arcade Fire

MAY          Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun

APRIL        Nothing I Need by Lord Huron

MAY          Under the Rug by Arcy Drive

FEBRUARY  Starburster by Fontaines DC

JANUARY    Everyone Out by DIIV

New Run/Walk Strategy Developing

I was glancing out the window of my nearby Dunkin' Donuts here in far-northern Gainesville (see above pic), where I do much of my writing and studying, I'm contemplating a "sea change" regarding my future running and speed walking as I continue to plod on through the years. On my neighborhood run/walk combination training outings the last few months, I've grown accustomed to mixing them up.  Today I covered the 4.1-mile course by spending most of the time speed-walking with short, period intervals of easy-paced running.  I feel this may be the pattern for future races as well...especially the long distances ones of 10K (6.2 miles) and longer.  Speed-walk for six minutes and then run for four...and keep repeating the process until the race (or workout) is over.  I think this is a feasible training strategy for a future marathon in which I'm pushing to finish faster than six hours...there's one coming up in January. Today's workout was typical summertime discomfort, with an annoying combination of high temperature and humidity.  When conditions get cooler and dryer, it should be more workable to extend my training to longer distances and see how my body reacts to it all.  What I want is a viable level of fitness with which I can confidently enter any "classic" long distance event (10K through marathon length) and finish at a reasonable time...or in the case of the marathon...before they close down the course and stop timing entrants.  The elitists at the Florida Track Club have already stated that six hours is the deadline for finishing their upcoming marathon, after which runners are on their own and will not be furnished with posted finishing times.  A shoddy attitude, I think, considering the money laid out to enter the race, but obstinate, disagreeable people are everywhere and I would be better served focusing on my own attitude and behavior in response.  Let's try out this new alternation of walking and running and see where it gets me, elitists or not.  On the surface, it seems to make sense.  With this new structure I'm walking more than half the time while I'm running more than half the distance...

Boys with Toys

While shopping with Melissa the other day, I was very carefully steering our shopping cart past other customers along an especially crowded stretch of the store.  And then, straight toward us, an employee was casually pushing an imposing-looking pallet jack.  I watched him as he approached...and then he took out his cell phone and started looking at it while nonchalantly navigating his jack past without regard to anyone around...I guess it was up to us to get out of his way.  People whipping out their phones...what a scourge of our times.  Have you ever found yourself talking to someone, only to look over and see that they're zoned out and ignoring you, scrolling on their phone?  The only thing worse I know is the increasingly frightening circumstance of people...in anger...pulling out guns without any sense of restraint in using them.  It's become far too commonplace on the news to be met with the story of a shooter at a school, church, home or business...and often it's a minor who has committed the crime.  In the 1995 James Bond flick Goldeneye, Agent 007's Russian female partner Natalya Simonova had a contemptuous name for this phenomenon for pervasive and often harmful obsession with gadgetry: Boys with Toys.  So we're now living...or trying to stay alive...in the "Boys (and Girls) with Toys" era: whoopee...   

My Designed Running Loop Courses, Then and Now

My old running block (~3 miles) from my late teen years in Davie, Florida is the standard I use to evaluate the various training courses I've designed, especially those within the past twenty years.  These days my running (often combined with walking) takes place on asphalt road surfaces, while back then practically the entire loop was off-road, on the grass.  For a south Florida locale like Davie...where I went to school...running on grass was totally fine since there wasn't the prevalence of holes in the ground to trip up on like there are up here in northern Florida. I like seeing where I'm stepping...in my own back yard I have to be careful where I plant my feet.  But hitting a hard surface still takes its toll on legs' soft tissue, and I have to take care not to over-train.  That's one big reason I've taken to increasing my speed-walking emphasis...less taxing on the joints. My current standard 3.3-mile neighborhood loop has me passing many, many houses while I have to be attentive...even during low-traffic times of the day...to residents and visitors pulling in and out of driveways.  And then there's often a creepy vehicle or another that drives around me and then just stops in the road, as if the driver is some kind of stalker or Zimmerman-type neighborhood vigilante.  Pedestrians are truly the vulnerable class in this world loaded with suspicion and violently-inclined folks with weapons.  One of my favorite books from some fifteen years ago is Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes.  In it he describes his late-night early morning long-distance training runs...one time he ran thirty miles around San Francisco in his underwear!  I can see myself doing something like that...and then get arrested and have my mug shot plastered over my local news station's screen: no thanks.  No, there are definitely times I want to stay off the road, and one of these is when it's dark outside. As for multiple laps on my loop, fifty years ago in March 1975 I once ran five laps on my old Davie loop, amassing nearly 15 total miles.  In Gainesville, unless I'm running or walking around the block (.7 mile), I don't do multiple laps.  Instead I have extensions designed to the course that create the desired distance.  When I ran 26.6 miles on January 15, 2011 I had a pretty complex running route that took me into some interesting territory.  I haven't ventured any distance near that far in the last few years, unless you're talking the marathon I completed last November along the eastern end of the Hawthorne trail.  But training? I keep it measured and consistent, with lots of time for rest and recovery.  Still, I'd like to revisit that old Davie trail from time to time...

Football Just Not One of My Interests

Are you getting excited about the upcoming football season? I'm not. One reason rests in the fact that in my nearly 69 years of existence on this Earth, I have never, ever played a single down of tackle football. Sure, I've played flag football at school and touch football on informal occasions, but the sport that people get so riled up about is something I've never been an active part of. I watch my local news program and revel in the fact that the head sports announcer almost exclusively covers either University of Florida sports or high school athletics...and football regularly gets the heavy emphasis. I despise the coaches I had in both high school physical education class and that one time I was on the track team. In these settings there is a martial, military spirit about minors...albeit adolescent ones...having to snap to attention for their coach like he's some kind of boot camp drill sergeant: disgusting.  I see some of these power-sick individuals on the sidelines going off loudly against players who, God help them, actually make mistakes and wonder why everyone doesn't just turn off the TV or go home in protest to this kind of abuse.  And they actually make statues of star players and stage them outside home fields, as if these people were larger than life.  No one covers with enthusiasm when kids do well in math class at school, and I suppose that makes sense...but I never see any coverage either of local running races, at that's definitely a part of sports..  But football? You can have it. The other day there was a season-opening game between Iowa State and Kansas State...I couldn't care less who won.  But then the officials called a delay of game penalty on the Iowa State defense and their head coach literally went berserk on the sidelines, jumping up and down and screaming at the referees.  That dude should have been sacked on the spot...

Mini-Seminar on Avoiding Falls

This past Saturday morning (somebody) presented an educational meeting about the dangers of falling for seniors and ways to avoid them.  Melissa arranged it for us...all I had to do was drive us down to the gym conference room where it was being held.  We heard a nice talk describing the various situations that can put folks in danger of falling, and also participated in a test of our own individual susceptibility for falls.  Melissa and I did well with the tests...since I tend to be a bit on the athletic side I figured I would.  As people age, they tend to lose muscle mass and strength, especially regarding the "fast-twitch" muscles that can quickly straighten them out when they lose balance, averting fall situations.  Also, bone density tends to lessen, creating the hazard of injuries from falling being compounded with broken bones. Sometimes I get down on the way the world is going, and it seems like people are getting meaner and meaner.  But there's good stuff as well, and this mini-seminar is a useful example... 

Showed Up at Today's Cancelled Depot Parkrun 5K

I had some insomnia early this morning.  I woke up around 5 and stepped outside on my back porch...the sky was clear with a couple of bright planets just over the eastern horizon.  I prepared for the 7:30 Depot Parkrun 5K, which I planned to run today.  I felt a little rough, but hopefully I would find a groove to settle into for the race and maybe finish under 30 minutes.  There were a lot of people at the park...this I expected, it being the beginning of the UF fall academic semester with Gainesville's population swelling.  Before the race started, the director gave us the "bad news": look out west at the storm clouds...they're coming our way quickly and will likely cause today's Parkrun to be cancelled.  Still, they started it at 7:30 and I was awkwardly off in the middle of the very crowded group of runners.  Sadly, a little down the path a young woman had fallen but managed to get herself back up.  I ran gamely but, after the first lap marking .7 mile, only had a time of 7:25, lagging well behind a pace to finish it in 30 minutes.  By that time after just a lap, the storm clouds had quickly swept over the sky and I thought that it was just a matter of minutes before the race was called off...so I stopped and went to my car, driving back home.  Later, online, my hunch was confirmed: the race was indeed cancelled, and in less than 10 minutes after the start.  Oh well, at least I showed up.  Later that morning Melissa and I went to an information session held at Gainesville Health and Fitness promoting seniors' balancing and fall avoidance.  They had some tests we took that revealed our individual likelihoods for sustaining falls, and we both did well in them.  Still, you have to be careful.  Pictured is a photo that Kristen Bryant, the Parkrun director, took of the then-impending storm and put on Facebook...looks pretty eerie, doesn't it...

People in Groups: Always a Power Struggle

In the preamble to the first Lord of the Rings movie, Fellowship of the Ring, the "Lady of the Woods" elf Geladriel (played by Cate Blanchett) explains the origin of the conflict about the special Ring of Power that the evil spirit Sauron used to bind under his domination all of the rings he "gifted" to the different nations of beings.  To the nine men-kings he bestowed each with a ring, for more than anything they coveted power.  Yet upon each's passing, they found themselves completely bound to Sauron, abject slaves to his will. Still, to the extent that they could strike terror in the hearts of ordinary people, I suppose that they would have derived much pleasure from this evil bullying.  I think J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of this fantasy series, had much insight into the basic, rank human nature that is much more universal among our species.  The truth is that you can't get three people together into a group without them sorting out their respective ranks...from top to bottom.  I'm not just theorizing this: I've lived it, going on 69 years come this October.  Barbara Streisand once sang, "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world."  But beyond the benefits and protections that an advanced civil society can bestow on me, I find it annoying, demeaning and stifling to find myself entangled within groups...and I'm sick of that sorting of pecking orders. Just before the Beatles broke up in late 1969, there were two group meetings, one on the 8th and the other on the 20th.  In the earlier meeting, John Lennon made the all-too-reasonable proposal that he, Paul and George each be accorded four songs on their future albums, with one or two given to Ringo. Paul, full of his perceived role as the the group's leader, rejected John's offer.  After Lennon's successful concert adventure a few days later, he announced his "divorce" from the Beatles on that second meeting twelve days later.  There was a flexibility, a willingness to work things out, in Lennon's original proposal, but people stuck in their minds with power aren't rationally reasoning things out.  The general problem I personally see in this translates into all social situations, whereby there are individuals consumed with their own sense of standing within the group, and they will sabotage any meaningful input from me while putting me down in what they regard as my "proper place". I am so sensitive to this that I don't even want to "show up" in some of the gatherings offered at church or in connection to the Parkruns I frequent...and when I was at the post office I tended to avoid union meetings: now it's retirement reunions I steer clear of.  But you know, I can always attend and just sit in the back and keep my mouth shut or just engage in small talk...

Looked at "New Student Edition" Florida Alligator

About a week ago I picked up a copy of the free local paper titled The Independent Florida Alligator, and opened it up to look for anything of use to me.  This issue's called "new student edition", so since I'm pretty damned old in the grand scheme of things I guess they're not all that concerned about me...but that's all right.  The contents were full of upbeat, encouraging articles aimed at helping students avoid burnout while offering suggestions on where they can hang out, eat, exercise, and so on.  I enjoyed reading the opening article describing the recent politicized crap surrounding who gets to be University of Florida's president ever since our excuse for a governor, Ron Desantis, appointed Nebraska senator Ben Sasse to the post, only for him to suddenly resign one day, leaving many angry people in his wake.  Then they brought back Kent Fuchs, who had served at the post for eight years, as interim president until they completed their search and confirmed a new one.  University of Michigan president Santa Ono was picked, resigned his old post...and was ultimately rejected by the politically obsessed Florida Board of Governors, leaving Fuchs still in charge.  He's retired now, and maybe UF doesn't really need a president anyway...what a pathetic joke this once-respected office has been degraded to.  I enjoy the creative writing in the Alligator, and it tends to have a personal edge to it that I can relate to...kind of like blog articles.  And of course I enjoy their little puzzle section toward the back, especially the "spot six differences" one.  But would I ever shell out any money for the Alligator? No way...

Snug-Fitting Old Brooks Shoes Seem to Improve Walking

Today on my neighborhood 3.3-mile loop speed walk, I tried wearing my older Brooks running shoes that fit my feet more snugly than the pair I had been wearing regularly.  I seemed to be able to pick up my walking pace with the old shoes, and it may well be because my feet are tighter in them, not moving around wasting energy with each contact on the road surface.  If I walk this coming Saturday's Depot Parkrun, I plan to use the old Brooks for it and see if I can't bring down my finishing time.  Should be interesting.  In any event, I plan to ask around for advice about who can give me authoritative pointers on race-walking form and evaluate what I'm doing wrong or right with it.  I sincerely believe that endurance speed-walking can well be the way to go with my advancing years as I am intent on maintaining high-functioning mobility, as athletically as possible.  I know the non-profit Florida Track Club, of which I am a member, has an auxiliary, commercial "Team" Florida Track Club that offers (for various fees) coaching and advice...and I believe that race walking is covered in it somewhere.  In today's digital information world, it seems that it shouldn't be all that hard to get some sound coaching with my speed-walking...

The Fallacy of the Dead-End Job

If you're an advocate of the practice of mindfulness, then you just might not need to read this piece about how some of us put down our own employment status as "dead-end".  I recently heard, second-hand, about a loved one who has expressed that her current job was dead-end, with no real prospects for growth.  It was a striking criticism, for I had gleaned from her previous descriptions of her work life that she enjoyed the relative autonomy that the daily routine granted her.  It's a position that demands some physical fitness and endurance...lots of walking!  I think I might have liked that kind of work were I her age...but I get at least her "old" way of looking at work: it paid the bills, she could get through the work day without being bullied by managers or co-workers and when she left, she was done and free for the rest of the day.  I've always worked for the same things and never rated a job as "dead-end" or depriving me of growth...about which I think she meant "opportunities for promotion".  I worked at the US Postal Service for 37 years and had ample opportunities to seek entry into management.  But I was consistently focused on treating each workday as an opportunity to perform my duties well, and when I clocked out at the end of the shift, I was satisfied and went on to what was next for me.  I totally understand that people have differing ideas about ambition and climbing status ladders in their respective fields of employment...a lot of it has to do with cultural values and family structure, as well as with being around certain more alpha-personality types that promote such outlooks and who may be intent on exerting undue pressure. I've encountered some of these pushy folks whose idea of getting to know me is centered around where I rate according to their scale of respect...and that means how prestigious (or not) is my job title and how much money I make on it.  I don't owe anyone an explanation for my motives in job selection, but any revelation from them that they feel entitled to negatively judge me accordingly quickly and automatically condemns them as unworthy of friendship and respect. Back when I first started working for the USPS, they hired...outside the standard-practice sequence of the register list of candidates according to their exam scores...the son of a current supervisor.  He was arrogant with an entitlement mentality, and performed his assigned tasks sloppily, but escaped discipline because of his connections.  Well, one day he came to work full of the advancement promises that being an Amway member gave him.  With Amway, the important thing is to get people "under you", through which you get a cut of their sales profits.  His idea was that eventually he could live effortlessly through the efforts of those supporting him.  Fine if that works, but his sales pitch to us coworkers was that it was better than this "dead-end job" we were doing.  That aroused some offense from me and a colleague, and the matter was squelched among us.  A couple of years later that dude was fired for outright insubordination...since his "daddy" supervisor had already retired, he was no longer under that umbrella of protection and they were only too eager to get rid of this troublemaker.  So that's where I stand whenever someone starts playing the "it's a dead-end job" hand.  Do whatever you want as long as it's legal and you do no harm to others, but leave me alone if you're going to use that bullshit excuse for an argument...

Evangelicals, Worldliness and Cognitive Dissonance

I've written before on this blog about how I'm put off by people who devote much of their very-verbose speaking efforts at defining their theology within the conservative evangelical Christian movement and discussing different people they personally know, employing a judgmental yardstick behind their backs regarding their salvation status and Christian walk.  Frankly, I just wish these good people would just shut up and sit back.  They also seem predisposed to be much more worldly in their materialism and status within the world system's pecking order.  For some reason church lay leaders place very heavy emphasis on people's professional and financial status.  Business owner, physician, college professor, engineer, lawyer, overall rich person...they seem to confirm that these individuals have leadership (over me) qualifications because of their worldly achievements and that they, by default, have more spirituality than someone who has lived a responsible life for themselves and their family but doesn't check the "right" boxes.  I've encountered this worldly, unspiritual snobbery on multiple occasions at church social gatherings...hard to digest and reconcile without the word "hypocrites" screaming out to me. I think, however, that I can deal with that sort of elitism better than the two-faced kind of cognitive dissonance I've noticed among some who, while insisting on their own high level of spirituality, are completely immersed in the struggles for political power in this world, particularly between the Republicans and Democrats in this country.  I mean, if you're on the "wrong" side, which they literally hate while extolling the name of Jesus, you might just consider carefully keeping your own counsel around them.  I have a choice with these folks, several of whom seem to harbor good will toward me since they do not know of my political leanings. Either I can eschew politics when around them or I can eschew them for my own mental and emotional peace, God bless 'em. Or maybe just try both paths...solitude can be a true blessing...

On Being One-Upped by "Non-Competitive" Park-Walker "Volunteers" in Parkruns

I like my habit of going out on Saturday mornings and participating in one of Gainesville's two Parkruns.  I either run it, speed-walk it, mix up the two within the same race or volunteer.  So far since 2019 I have finished 84 such events.  You're accorded the privilege after reaching 25, 50, 100 and 250 milestones of ordering special tee shirts bearing the achieved level.  I had their pretty lavender "25" shirt but a few months ago either misplaced or lost it...sad.  But now I'm going with "50", red-colored.  If things go according to plan I should be eligible sometime early in 2026 for their "100" shirt...looking forward to it.  As Shauna (the Parkrun leader here in Gainesville) has said on multiple occasions, the Parkrun 5K is not a competition per se but rather an event designed to bring people together who embrace fitness and bettering themselves.  I'm in agreement with her on this: my priorities with Parkrun are (1) show up, (2) finish, (3) do the run or walk or volunteer gig true to my standards, (4) as reasonably as possible be friendly and accommodating toward others attending with me and (5) write about it on my blog.  Well, here's one of those (5)'s! Starting a couple of years ago I decided to phase more speed-walking into my workouts and racing.  With this I began inserting, every few weeks, a Parkrun event in which I walked the 3.1 miles at my then-top pace.  My speed did pick up to the point where, a year ago, I regularly finished the 5K distance faster than 40 minutes, my top two days both at 38:19.  I was also some 25 pounds lighter at the time, something that I believe contributed to my speed and progress.  Since then, though, the weight has come back up and my finishes have gotten slower.  And a couple of annoying things happened as well.  One of the volunteer slots available to choose for a Parkrun is to be a park-walker.  You don a blue park-walker-volunteer vest and then simply walk the course during the race, presumably as someone who can be supportive to other participants.  Back on June 21st, I was speed-walking at Depot Park when a little boy, wearing that park-walker-volunteer vest, casually walked right past me toward the end, eventually leaving me far behind.  I was a little disconcerted at this, because I thought damn, I could have done what he did and race-walked, getting an extra volunteer credit in the process.  Then last week I was speed-walking at their newly begun West End Community Park course when the identical thing again happened.  This time the "volunteer", as it turned out, was an elderly woman in my same age group (65-69).  And she seemed to be having quite an easy time passing me, too...and it seemed to mean something to her to do so.  The fact that some others are so casual about walking so quickly shouldn't bother me, but it does because I take speed-walking seriously and see it as a promising vehicle for me to maintain a robust level of ambulatory activity deeply into my senior years, God willing. I'd like to even speed-walk a 26.2 mile marathon race in under 6 hours, but I feel I need to get my weight back down to a more reasonable figure first.  And I suppose that in the meantime, anybody can have their grandson or granny "volunteer" to fly right on by me in a Parkrun if that makes them feel higher on the pecking order.  I just don't see how that's doing any of the rest of us good if they're doing it as "volunteers"...  

Mixed Walking and Running at West End Community Parkrun 5K Today

The dog days of summer drag on, and I dragged myself down to West End Community Park to engage in their weekly Saturday morning Parkrun.  At 7:30 race time, it was a very uncomfortable 75 degrees with 98% humidity...and the sun rose to clear skies, practically blinding anyone facing the east during the event.  I had originally intended to run this 5K, but with the grounds being so slick from dew and the previous night's thunderstorms, I instead decided to go with a speed-walk and see how that worked.  This went well, until I decided mid-race to treat it all like a neighborhood workout and mix some running into the formula.  At 21 minutes I began running, alternating it with spurts of speed-walking: at the end, I finished with a time of 37:14, 13:14 spent in running.  You can view the posted results by clicking HERE.  I am getting more accustomed to this very convoluted course, but I still prefer the setup at Depot Park across town where I'm always on pavement and can easily determine my progress by how many laps I've covered...here at West End I have to go completely by my watch and the elapsed time. I also don't care too much for having to drive a substantially longer distance to get to West End Community Park, which is a quick right-hand turn just a few blocks west of NW 122nd Street off Newberry Road.  I do like the fact that afterward I can (and did) go to the Tioga Town Center across the street to dry off and change at Gainesville Health and Fitness there and then walk over to Patticakes, where I'm writing this out and drinking a chai latte.  And now it's time to go home! Looking forward to a nice weekend, for me, Melissa...and you!