On the way to Missouri

Actually, we're in Missouri now. Icy roads as we approached Chicago kept us from stopping to see Paul on the way through, so we just continued on to St. Louis last night.

Dinner at the Morgan Street Brewery. Before I got back to the table, Carly was already working on her first beer. Root beer, that is. Fisk, made here in St. Louis. Meanwhile, I settled for one of Morgan Street's Red Lagers. Nice.

After dinner we drove a few more miles and checked into a Drury Inn. When we got to the room, Carly went to the window. "We've got a great view! Steak and Shake, Bob Evans, Taco Bell..."

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Christmas day was nice. Christmas eve with Francine's family--tons of kids, grand kids....

Christmas morning. Francine got me a great coffee maker that grinds the beans and then brews the coffee. It makes really great coffee. :-) At 8:00 we ran with the Grand Rapids Running Club, and then went to Marge's Donut Den. A great start to the day. When we got home I thought about a nap, but found the movie, The Bucket List, on On-Demand. I've been wanting to see it for a long time, and I wasn't disappointed. Go see it if you get a chance.

I cooked a small turkey and a gigantic squash and called Chris to invite him for supper. A nice, low-key holiday.

Stuff from Misc Notes I Should Have Recorded Already (yet again)

22 November - Five years ago tomorrow I ran a marathon in my 50th state. It was my 87th marathon. It was a very special day that I shared with a very special woman.



Five years later--my whole life is different. Different house. Different wife. Different business. Better? Big time!



~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marathons, Mountains, and Microbrews--where it all began:

Marathons--15 October, 1995 in Chicago

Mountains--1993 in Tasmania, I hiked up a mountain with Robert, Adrian Moll, and Steve Pullen near Hobart. Great day. More recently, probably inspired by Knox White while on a trip to Antarctica in 1997. About a year later I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Microbrews--Sometime around 1999, hanging out with Shawn Sweet at Founders Alehouse. Yes! There's more to life than Bud Lite!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Great weekend - but no running.

Snowbound! The weekend was a little longer than I had planned on--with all the snow Friday I spent quite a bit of time shoveling out. In fact, living on a street that's low-priority for the snow plows, I'm thinking it might be a long winter.

Friend Don showed up and helped push my car into some other tire tracks so that I could at least get back into my driveway. THANK YOU!!!

On dry roads, my tires would have been good for another 10000 or so. With the current conditions, it was time for some new tires. So after a few phone calls, I ended up at Belle Tire Friday afternoon for some new rubber. Much better!

Saturday morning--It was Santa Claus Girls delivery day. Over 13000 kids got presents Saturday as a result of their efforts. AMAZING. Our YMCA Service Club helps plan the routes and organize packages for them. We also help by directing traffic in the parking lot and by carrying packages to cars. Each delivery route has 14 stops, and we had around 350 routes! Very inspiring!!

I got home to find Francine shoveling. The road trucks had finally been down our street and piled about three feet of it into a wall in front of our driveway. I hate to think how many cubic feet of snow we had to move just to get our mailbox accessible again, as well as to get our cars in and out of the drive. After a bunch of shoveling, our neighbor DJ came over. "Can I help?" He went home and got his lawn tractor--with a blade on the back and a scoop on the front! WOW! It's amazing what you can do with the right equipment. THANKS!!

My girls came over Saturday afternoon. Ashley had to be in a wedding the next day--she's 7, and was the flower girl. Amber, 4, and Alexis, born Wednesday of Labor Day week, spent the night. Amber and Carly get along famously, so there was lots playing and dancing and singing going on. Lex is smiling all the time and sticking her tongue out, and has learned to burp without puking on me, which is a vast improvement since Thanksgiving weekend, when I went through quite a few shirts!

The big event was Sunday. My son-in-law Shawn along with the National Guard 125 Charlie Company returned from Iraq. We went to the ceremony at the Delta Plex to welcome them home. In spite of the nasty weather, extra plows were deployed at the airport and along the route to make sure our boys came home. Katie heads the Family Resource Group for the National Guard here, and so was key in planning the event. So I had lots of cause to be VERY PROUD of both of them.

We stopped and picked up a couple presents that Francine had ordered for her bosses, and then took Carly to the Mexican Telephone Company for lunch. (Taco Bell) Then came home and enjoyed a nice nap, snuggled on a sheepskin in front of the fireplace with the lovely Francine.

Not bad for a cold, wintry weekend in Michigan. Today, however--I'm buying a snowblower.

Interesting Quote

In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802 :

'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'

Car Companies

OK, I'm going to say something about the car company bailouts.

First, I'm disgusted with the car companies in general. Probably with most publicly traded companies, in fact. No one seems to look at the long term. If the Big 3 AND the unions had looked ahead, they may have realized that sooner or later we need to develop alternate fuel vehicles, concentrate on economy, and maybe not commit to continuing to pay people from current revenue streams long after they're retired and not contributing anything to the company any more.

Now, with so much debt that it can never be serviced, they're asking for $34 billion worth of LOANS (more debt) to get them out of the current situation. How exactly is that going to help in the long term? My opinion is that it won't. It'll just prolong the problems for a while.

We have some pretty good bankruptcy laws in this country that would allow GM to restructure, get rid of a lot of debt, etc. Would it hurt? Sure. The shareholders would lose all their money. But they've lost most of it already, so that's just going to finish it off.

Meanwhile, our governor is busy lobbying for the bailout. Of course she is. She's governor of a state that hosts the automotive industry. She keeps asking who would buy a car from a company that's in bankruptcy? Remember United Airlines? Who would fly on an airline that's going bankrupt? Silly question, right? United went through the process, the shareholders got wiped out, but the company is still in business and moving in good directions.

I expect the Congress will bail out the car companies. Oh well. I hope it works if they do.

Meanwhile, let me talk about something cool the car companies do. They all have agreed on how far apart to space the holes so that we can screw our license plates to them. Then all the states agreed to make license plates with holes the same corresponding distance. Pretty good, eh? The whole freakin' country agrees on something. How often does that happen?

Imagine a state like Wyoming deciding to make their license plates with holes a different distance apart. That could be an effective way to keep people from moving there.

Stuff from Misc Notes I Should Have Recorded Already

I went to Aunt Erna's funeral about a month ago. She's my mom's aunt, the wife of my Grandpa Lloyd's brother Lawrence. Last summer we went to her 90th birthday party.

Everyone had nice things to say about her, like at everyone's funeral. No one ever says bad things about the dead at their funerals. In her case, I doubt that there IS anything bad to say. She was one of the nicest people in the world. You can tell that if you meet any of her kids (my mom's first cousins) or grandkids. They're ALL nice.

The funeral was almost joyous. Her suffering was over. Whatever would happen to her next would be better. What a nice person.

I hope people will have nice things to say about me like that. I also hope it isn't for about 50 years or so.

(I really don't like the song, "How Great Thou Art." Might be because I've heard so many people slaughter it in my lifetime.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regarding the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon, of which I'm the race director:
"If you aren't having the best marathon experience ever, we aren't doing something right."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I need to do a "viral video" that catches on all over the country because it's clever, funny, or just plain wierd.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacques Cousteau said this: When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was at Ben Burk's place in Rapid City, I had a pint of Brown Cow Ale at the Firehouse Brewing Company. Then I had a pint of Firehouse Red.

Elections, Races, and other random thoughts

Granted, it's not until January 20th that President Obama takes office, but it still looks like he's moving in good directions. At least I hope so.

Of course, there's the usual racist BS going on. I hate that. Yeah, we elected a Black guy president. I think that's good. Not because he's Black. Because the American people took that out of their decision making process.

I know--some people say he's only half-Black. So what. He looks Black. That's cool. I like that we have a whole bunch of races in this country. It makes life more interesting. Richer. Me? I'm just a plain White guy. Mostly WASP. But then, one of my great-great grandmothers was an American Indian. Another one was Dutch. I think there were a few Germans in there somewhere.

I don't like the term "Native American" when it's used to refer to American Indians. I have to go back five generations before I can even find one ancestor who wasn't born in this country. I figure that makes me as "native" as anybody. I also don't especially like any Hyphenated-American designations. I'm not suggesting giving up our ancestors, but once we're Americans maybe we should keep our eyes on making the future better. (Call yourself whatever you want though.)

After travelling to about 30 countries, I'm always thankful for the richness that the world has to offer. Every country, every race, every sub-culture has something interesting to add to the mix. Even travelling to other parts of the U.S. we find a whole lot of differences. Driving through the "Bible Belt" a couple weeks ago, I cruised the radio stations and was able to find either religious music or country music. Rarely a rock and roll station to be found. The waitresses around there all call me "Honey" or "Sugar" even though they just met me. It's a friendly part of the country.

Coming home from a trip to all seven continents for marathons last year, I was connecting through an airport in Tokyo and for the first time in about a month I heard some Americans talking. It reminded me of how much I missed home. Good old American Black and White people, talking in accents I could understand. It was nice. Made me homesick.

I like that our government is moving in directions where people are no longer "tokens." It's getting so that people are chosen more for their abilities and merits and less because they belong to a particular race or gender.

Our country is getting better. I'm not blind to the faults we might still have, but comparing 2008 to the 1960s it's amazingly different. We're moving in good directions. Let's keep moving.

Marathons, Mountains, and Microbrews

Yes, you know those are my three "hobbies" by this time. So now, all I need is a marathon to make the month complete.

It would happen on November 23 in a park in the southwest corner of Nashville. The Flying Monkey Marathon! It was just a little affair--only a couple hundred runners allowed, and a race director who (believe it or not) may just be crazier than I am. I had to contact RD Trent Rosenbloom to get in, since registration had closed a long time before, but he welcomed me.

Also, I ran into old friends GW and Linda from Colorado--my former shipmates aboard the Ioffe in last year's first trip to Antarctica.

Race morning was COLD -- around 27 degrees. But a nice day and not too windy, so after the race started it was comfortable. The course--ALL HILLS for 26.2 miles. There's an 11.2 mile loop that we ran both forward and backward, with a little more thrown in along the way. Since I wasn't familiar with the area, I never really knew which direction we were going. It was only up and down.

Somewhere around 12 miles I caught up with a guy named Max, and we spent the rest of the race getting to know each other and solving the world's problems. Finally, with only two people still behind us, we finished around 6 hours 37 minutes.

Slow day. Yes. However, only 4 weeks earlier, I had my second knee surgery of the year. And, in spite of that, I kept my marathon-a-month streak alive at 69 months in a row. Now I'm working on getting back up to speed, strengthening my legs, and getting my marathon times back to around 4:30 before another six months goes by.

So there you go. Month of November held seven state high points, about 9 or 10 breweries, and a marathon. Not bad.

And next November? I'm thinking of going back and giving the Monkey another try.

and the adventure continues....

Route 66

The final leg of the journey would start the afternoon of November 18th as we headed south to Amarillo and then to Route 66.

After stopping in Tulsa for the night, we hit the road fairly early, with the intention to get back home before the day was done. LOTS OF DRIVING. We got off the freeway again as we approached Kansas, and went back onto the two-lane version of the old Route 66. There are only 13.2 miles of it, cutting across the southeast corner of the state, so I wanted to travel the whole thing.

It was also a scouting mission, of sorts. Perhaps at sometime we could do a marathon, starting in Missouri, following Route 66 through Kansas, turning around at the Oklahoma boarder and heading back for just-slightly-long marathon. I think it would work well.

Back to the freeway and across Missouri, and I was getting tired of travelling and determined to be home for the night. Our only stops were at an outlet store along the freeway near Lebanon, MO, and then in St. Louis, where we had lunch at the Morgan Street Brewery along with a pint of their seasonal Pumpkin Ale. The brewery is practically in the shadow of the St. Louis Arch, so I got to see that as well.

Around 8:00 Chicago time I dropped Mike off at his place in Skokie, and headed for home as fast as I could get away with. Well, actually I didn't quite get away with it, but the Indiana state cop let me off with a warning.

Did I say that the final high point was a couple days earlier? Well, probably the best high point of the whole trip was the welcome home I got from the lovely Francine. But, that's a whole 'nother story. :-)

and the adventure continues....

The Final High Point

After a not-all-that-comfortable sleep, we got up and headed back to Black Mesa, elevation 4973. While it was about a 4.2 mile hike up, the climbing portion was real short. Being on a mesa (table top) we followed a nearly flat trail for about two miles before starting up. Then about 20 minutes of decent up-hill to another flat for a couple miles. At the highest point, we had now done six high points in the last 5 days. The stone obilisk at the top had on its sides what was in each direction. On the west, it said New Mexico is only 1299 feet away. We looked to the west and realized that we'd still be on top of the mesa at that point, so we walked to New Mexico.

We headed down and went into Kenton to The Mercantile to get something to eat. We asked for a menu, but they nearly laughed at us. The menu is basically either a hamburger or a cheeseburger. Hmm.... Since Mike keeps kosher, it's pretty hard to eat there. We picked up some ice cream bars instead. They gave us a certificate for climbing Black Mesa.

The next leg of our journey would be travelling Route 66 back to Chicago. We headed to Amarillo to pick it up there.

Route 66--America's Mainstreet, stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles. I always thought it would be great to travel it. Now-days a lot of it doesn't exist in its old form. We did pick up the old road a little after leaving Amarillo, and traveled the two-lane old road pretty much alongside the freeway for the rest of Texas. In Oklahoma, as it got darker, we reverted to the highway. We stopped in Oklahoma City at Bricktown Brewery for a beer and some dinner, and then continued to Tulsa to spend the night.

Back to the trip -- Nebraska and Kansas

Sunday night with Brent was nice, but Monday morning was back on the road. Fortunately, the price of gas is pretty consistently under two bucks now!

About an hour after leaving Brent's, we arrived at a little box where we could put three bucks apiece and then head down a drive to Panorama Point, elevation 5424. Even though we were over a mile high, it isn't what you'd call a mountain. It's just the highest thing they have in Nebraska. The best part of this one was the field of buffalos we had to drive through to get there. MASSIVE animals. Beautiful. Back to the road and we headed south via Colorado to Mount Sunflower in Kansas.

Mount Sunflower is another nice little drive-up highpoint. At 4039 feet, also not a mountain. Very nice little display of iron-art at the high point and very welcoming signage by the property owners. One more to go.

The trip into Oklahoma was perhaps the biggest adventure of the trip. After hours on the road, we wondered how it would take us as long to get there as my GPS said it was going to. We found out. About 20 miles or so from the Oklahoma boarder while still in Colorado, we turned onto gravel roads. We drove and drove until the road started curving around. The road narrowed. And narrowed. And narrowed. Before we knew it, we were on a two-track with grass growing up in the middle of it. So we're 800 miles from home, in the dark in the middle of nowhere with NO lights in the distance in any direction. We drove for about 10 minutes on the two-track before crossing the unmarked boarder into Oklahoma. A house appeared. The road turned back to gravel. And soon we were on paved roads again. We saw three HUGE raccoons on the road in front of us and stopped to watch them until they got bored with us and wandered off.

And five minutes later we were at the trailhead to Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma. Now we just needed a place to spend the night.

We drove into the small town of Kenton, about 5 miles away. Small town. It was around 9:30 pm, but the streets had been rolled up a couple hours earlier. The next nearest towns were 30-40 miles away, so we drove around and found a state park with an open bathroom and camped in the van for the night.

Personal Record

This month I set a personal for number of states visited in any month--

1 Michigan

2 Ohio

3 Florida

4 Alabama

5 Tennessee

6 Kentucky

7 Indiana

8 Illinois

9 Wisconsin

10 Minnesota

11 North Dakota

12 South Dakota

13 Wyoming

14 Nebraska

15 Colorado

16 Kansas

17 Oklahoma

18 New Mexico

19 Texas

20 Missouri

Still to follow--3 more high points!

South Dakota

The extra rest after an early evening was nice--we've done a lot of mile so far. This morning the high point is only about 10 miles away.

We arrived at Sylvan Lake for our climb up Harney Peak, elev 7242. The conditions were perfect, temperatures in the high 30s, partly cloudy, not much wind. Officially, the park didn't open until 8:00, but at 7:30 we were ready to go. Mike's "nervous energy" had kept him talking non-stop (even more than usual) as he bundled up in 5 layers. He reminded me of Calvin bundled up to go outside. We stopped about 200 yards in and I took off my jacket and Mike took off his top 3 layers. The hiking weather was actually pretty comfortable.

Snow! We were in 5 or 6 inches of it much of the way, but the trail was never hard to find, and several people had summited on Saturday so we always had footprints to follow. The hike up is a little over 3 1/2 miles, and in a little under two hours we reached the lookout tower on the summit. We were the first to the top for the day.

The view from the top is an amazing panorama of the Black Hills. We hung out for a few minutes, ate a few Oreos, and headed back down.

On the way down we ran into a couple guys from New Jersey who were doing the climb on the spur-of-the-moment. They asked if we had any water bottles they could buy. We gave them the two full bottles we had left. As we approached the parking lot, we found a cell phone on the ground which was probably theirs (there were only 4 of us on the mountain so far) so I set it on the hood of their car.

That's 26 state high points.


Next stop was Mt. Rushmore. As we pulled up to the gate, a herd of mountain goats was guarding the entrance. Mt. Rushmore is one of the most inspirational places I've been--the vastness of the artwork, and the symbolism of the images really makes me proud to be American.

I noticed that the Nebraska high point is only about a half-hour from Cheyenne, Wyoming. I called Brent Weigner, my bi-polar friend. Brent and I met on a trip to the South Pole, and we've been to the North Pole together as well. We arrived at Brent's and he took us out to CB & Potts brewery for a meal. Butt-Face Amber and Disorder Porter were the beers of the night. We spent awhile catching up on the latest adventures, and then headed back to his place for some rest.

North Dakota

It was a nice, easy day. We slept in a bit after getting in pretty late last night, then headed from Bismarck to a spot near the little town of Amidon, ND.


Neat stuff along the way--The Enchanted Highway near Regent, ND. Gigantic sculptures of birds in flight, deer crossing the road, and I found later, a few others that we could have seen if we had travelled a few more miles. Check 'em out at http://www.enchantedhighway.net/

The trail for the high point is down about six miles of gravel road before turning down a two-track lane for .8 miles to the trail head. Unfortunately, with the snow they got in ND last week (about 4 feet worth) we could only get about 2/3 of the way down it, and that was with a little jog over into the field to avoid getting stuck in the snowbanks. Still a little icy and as it warmed up, a little muddy underneath.

So, our hike was a little longer than the guide book said. At first, the trail was hard to find, but since we could see where we were ultimately going we just improvised for a bit. As we got farther up the mountain, it was more and more obvious where the trail was. Actually, it looks like everyone made up their own trail, as we kept finding new ones.

Anyway, after about 30 minutes, we reached the top of North Dakota, White Butte, elevation 3507 feet. We signed the summit registry, took a few shots, and headed back down. Mike has now bagged two state high points. It's number 25 for me.



We were fortunate to find a farm along the way where they raise buffalos (bison) so Mike was able to see his first ever buffalos.

Next peak is Harney Peak near Custer, SD. It's only 40 miles or so from my friend Ben's place in Rapids City. I called him. He's in Kalamazoo. Guess we won't sleep at his place tonight. We stopped at the Firehouse Brewing Company on Main Street and I had a pint of Smoke Jumper Stout. Nice.

Tonight would be an early one. Nice and relaxing for a change. We checked into the Bavarian Inn in Custer, only about a 10 minute drive from tomorrow morning's trailhead. Had dinner at the Sage Creek Grill. Very nice salmon, washed down with a bottle of one of my favorites--Moose Drool, from the Big Sky Brewing in Missoula, MT.

Life is good. I should have a better connection tomorrow and post some pictures.

and the adventure continues....

The Journey Continues

It's been a wierd week. I can't seem to remember what day it is.

Thursday, after a short night's sleep following my Floriday trip, I worked for 5 hours getting some computers set up at Michigan Chief Sales, and then headed for Chicago to pick up Mike.

Of course, I was running late enough to hit Chicago way too close to rush hour. It wasn't bad though. Everyone there is intent on one thing--getting out of town. It was really pretty orderly.

We headed north toward our first high point, Timms Hill, near Ogema, Wisconsin, with the intent of getting fairly close so we could do it first thing in the morning. We got as far as Appleton before we stopped. (Appleton is the site of the Fox Cities Marathon, which I've done a couple of times.) We stopped for a quick beer at Fratello's. Their brewery, however, is in another of their locations, but I did have a pint of their local brew. We stopped for the night a few minutes later.

Friday morning. North to Timms Hill. Driving north through Wisconsin it gets pretty desolate after a while. For a city-boy like Mike it was a bit of an eye-opener. Little hunting cabins alongside the road here and there, lots of nice wilderness. We got to the park that's around the high point and found that the gate was closed. Guess we might have to walk in. The map showed the road going out the other side, so we drove a mile or so to check it out. It was open--but the road was one way, one lane, and coming at us. Oh well. I drove in anyway.


We were the only people at the park, so no traffic incidents were to be had. We parked the car and proceed to hike a couple hundred yards up a well-trodden path to the summit. Mike's first high point, Timms Hill, elevation 1951. The sign actually says 1951.5. Guess they wanted an extra six inches. (I'm not going anywhere with that one.) There's an observation tower to climb that took us above the treetops for a great panoramic view of the surrounding area.

Next summit is in the west end of North Dakota. This will be our biggest driving day.

It's Wisconsin. We found a cheese shop and bought some cheese. Then before leaving the state, we stopped at Das Bierhaus in Menomonie for a snack and a pint of Marzen. Alas, no beer glasses for sale again. Back in the car for the trip across Minnesota.

It was looking like Fargo would be a great place to stop for dinner. Cheese in Wisconsin, so I figured buffalo in North Dakota was the thing to eat. A buffalo burger and a pint of Broad Ax Stout at the Granite City Brewing Company was nice.

We figured getting to Bismarck would be a good jumping off spot for the night. And that's where this entry ends. Heading west this morning.

The Epic Journey

Or whatever. It started with my old college buddy, Mike Schwartz. He said, I need to have an adventure or something. Spend about a thousand bucks. Hmmm... "Maybe you're talking to the right person. I have a thought."

I'm collecting state high points (see highpointers.org for info) I noticed a few years ago that the high points of ND, SD, NE, KS, and OK are pretty much in a line running north to south.

Here's the plan. I pick Mike up on Chicago. We hit the state high point of Wisconsin on the way, then head west across North Dakota, and start working our way south. After climbing in Oklahoma, we go south to Amarillo and head back to Chicago on old Route 66, just for fun. We left last night and spent the night in Appleton, Wisconson. We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile....
Francine needed another car. Clint's mom had a really nice minivan which he was going to bring up from Florida to sell. The transport was going to cost him $300. I needed a break from the action for a couple days, and I also needed to check off Brinton Hill, the high point of Florida. So instead of waiting for Clint to get the van moved in December, I hopped on a plane for Tampa and proceeded on the world's longest test-drive.

Clint's dad met me at the airport about 2:00 pm. I headed for Brinton Hill at Lakewood Park, FL.

Brinton Hill is located far west in the Pan Handle, approximately straight south from Montgomery, AL. The trip took me through Talahasee for the first time, and then still farther west. Finally, at about 9:55 pm, I pulled into a little park close to the Alabama border, where I checked off the lowest-of-the-high points. At only 345 feet, it's not much of a climb. Just park your car and walk about 75 feet to a stone marker.

Back in the car and head north. The trip home was long, but nice. I listened to the various radio stations. Throught the south, while scanning for radio stations, it's either religious stations or country stations. The people on those stations don't have eyes. They have ahs.

I caught a couple naps along the way, driving until I was drowsy and then pulling off for a couple hours. Stopped at a Waffle House for breakfast at around 5:30. By the time I near Birmingham, I wanted a cup of good coffee, so I got off the freeway and found a Starbucks.

Nostalgia. I pulled around the corner by the Starbucks, and across the street was the hotel I stayed in nearly two years ago, when I made my first seven-continents marathon trip. "Hey! I know where I am! Cool!"

I had met some pretty nice people down there. Justin, the race director. Jill at trackshack dot com. A good friend from Kalamazoo, Brian Molrony, introduced himself to me down there and we spent a while searching (unsuccessfully) for a microbrewery in Birmingham. I ran a fun marathon there.

On northward. In Nashville, I stopped at the Blackstone Brewery for lunch. Shepherd's Pie and a pint of Nut Brown Ale. Nice.

North through Louisville, and a bit more nostalgia. I ran a marathon in a rainstorm there. Slept the night before in the back of my Aztek and watched fireworks over the river. Talked a janitor into giving me a big plastic bag for the soaking-wet-and-cold walk back to my car. Taking my post-race shower in a downpour.

Gas in Indiana for only $1.82. That's less than half of what we paid a month ago. Yet another nostalgic moment--I remember back when gas used to be under two bucks...

As I got close to Fort Wayne, I pulled off for gas again. This spot looked familiar too. Huntington, the site of the HUFF--the Huntington Ultra Frigid Fifty. The longest distance I've ever done, through lots of trails and lots of mud. The 50K there is actually too long. More like 32 miles. Huntington is also the home of former VP Dan Quayle. And they have a massive display of Christmas stuff in this little sunken park in the middle of town that's fun to walk around in.

It was my last stop before home. Finally around 10:30 I got home to the lovely Francine. A beautiful end to a long trip.

and the adventure continues....

Was Paul Simon a Great Prophet?

No, I wasn't crazy about either candidate, however--

Isn't it cool that FINALLY we've been able to put away the past (at least for a bit) and actually elect a Black guy for President!

I'm feeling pretty proud of my fellow countrymen right now. I hope our new president is up to the task.

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Was Paul Simon one of the great prophets? Somewhere around 1975, he sang:

"And if I was president
The minute congress call my name
Id say who do,
Who do you think youre fooling?
Ive got the presidential seal
I'm up on the presidential podium
My mama loves me
She loves me
She get down on her knees and hug me
Like she loves me like Barock"

What? You think I misinterpret? Go back and listen to the song again. And, what kind of colors do you think he might have been talking about in the song Kodachrome?

(You see what I have to deal with--this kind of stuff goes on in my head all the time!)

Best of luck, Mr. President-Elect!!

And now...I really am going to try and start writing again.

It's been a great year. And a bad one. Only bad because I haven't been running and working out as much as normal. But great in all other aspects.

A couple weeks ago I had my SECOND knee done. Arthroscopic surgery. This time, instead of going in and fixing something specific, it was more of a "search and destroy" mission. He went in and cleaned out a whole bunch of stuff that was floating around in there. Anyway, it was MUCH more painful than the first one. It's healing nicely though.

The lovely Francine finished another marathon today. Elyria, Ohio. A nice out-and-back course on bike trails. Significant, because she now has reached 51 marathons before she turns 51 in January. Also significant because she's now done 21 months in a row.

Meanwhile, Carly and I went out while TLF was running and found four different geocaches (http://www.geocaching.com/ if you're curious). It was a nice morning with a great kid.

Carly and I are getting to be closer as we go along. It's great having another kid--my other ones are getting OLD.

Life is good. More soon.

Quote from Jacques Cousteau

"When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it for himself."

Guess I need to start writing more, eh?

25 June 2008 - Mt. Marcy, Lake Placid, and other stuff

On the 13th, the lovely Francine and I spent about 9 hours hiking up and down Mt. Marcy, the highest mountain in New York. 14.8 miles up and down over some really rough trails.

On the 14th, we ran the Lake Placid Marathon. With my knee not feeling bad unless I pushed it, I decided to take it really easy. Meanwhile, Francine ran a really good marathon, taking away an age group award.

After I got back, I decided to go see Terence for some more physical therapy. The following is exerpted from my newsletter:

OK, I told you my knee was goofy lately. Well, Terence has all the ligiments and stuff around it feeling pretty good now, but when he was twisting it around the other day I was feeling some pretty interesting pain. He smiled at me and said, "Let's get Ed in here and schedule an MRI."

So, it's looking like next Wednesday morning at 2:30 I'll be getting my knee scanned. And if it needs fixing, I'm going to get it fixed.

I watched an arena football game on TV once. About the only thing that impressed me about it was that one of the players had arthroscopic surgery on his knee on Wednesday, and on Saturday he was playing football. I was encouraged by that, though it was pointed out to me that no one is going to pay me many thousands of dollars to be back out running marathons the next weekend, regardless of how well it turns out.

Of course, worrying about it would be premature. The MRI might just tell me that I need to heal for a couple more weeks and quit being such a wimp. I hope that's the case.

I'm still planning on running in Carrollton, MI the end of July. Maybe it will be an early-start walk instead. My marathon streak is at 64 months in a row now. I'd hate to have to start over again.


I Threw My Brooks Shoes Away in Lake Placid
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not because I didn't like them, however. They were great shoes. You know that Brooks makes the great race shirts that have become a tradition at our marathon. You may also notice that everyone on our staff is wearing Brooks shoes as well.

The shoes I was wearing were my Brooks Adrenalines. They're the same shoes I was wearing at the FINISH LINE last October when I was shaking hands and hugging a lot of you as you crossed the line.

Then, in November and December, I wore them for seven marathons across seven continents. Starting in Beirut, Lebanon; then to Atlanta; Florence, Italy; Port Elizabeth, South Africa; Wanganui, New Zealand; Vina del Mar, Chile; and finally in the Patriot Hills in Antarctica. The shoes had a LOT of miles on them, traveling all the way around the world.

I wore them at Disney World in January for Goofy's Challenge, completing both a half and a full marathon the same weekend. And for five more marathons since then.

Last weekend in Lake Placid, the lovely Francine and I spent nine hours on Saturday hiking up and down Mt. Marcy, the highest point in New York. I was wearing my Adrenalines. Then on Sunday, my old friends were with me for their final marathon, as we ran a beautiful course in Lake Placid.

Muddy, well-worn, with a dozen or so marathons under their laces, they found their final resting place somewhere in New York.

But don't worry--I'll be wearing a new pair when I greet you at the FINISH LINE in October.

11 June 2008 Crap! Another necktie!

Yeah, your dad will never say it out loud, but he's probably thinking it. I know, probably your dad doesn't even wear ties any more. Wouldn't it be cool though, if this Father's Day, you got him something he could really ENJOY?!?! Like maybe an entry to the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon. (How was that--not too subtle, I hope. The bold print is an attempt at subliminal advertising.)

My knee hurts. Some tendon thing going on which has caused me a lot of aggravation this year so far. Finally I decided to go visit some of my friends at Metro Health Sports Medicine for a bit of physical therapy.

Ever go to a doctor and only to be told that you shouldn't run anymore? Most runners react to that by finding another doctor. Anyway, Dr. Ed knows better--the guys at Metro are all about getting you back in the game. So I'm doing a couple PT sessions, icing, stretching, massage, and all that other great stuff.

And when I told him that the lovely Francine and I are heading out to do the Lake Placid Marathon this week, he didn't even raise an eyebrow. Hmmm...guess he's been around a bunch of us.

We'll also be climbing Mt. Marcy on Saturday. It's the highest point in New York, and Francine hasn't been up it before. Should be fun.

Happy Father's Day everybody. And stay away from the tie rack!

4 June 2008 Medical Marijuana and other thoughts

Medicinal Marijuana, and Other Thoughts

A few years ago I ran the Hogeye Marathon in Fayetteville, Arkansas on a very rainy day. I didn't have a flight home until the next day, so I talked to some of the locals to find out where the party was after the marathon. We ended up at a guy's house, where the party was going well until everything had to stop to watch an epsode of The Simpsons. It was about medicinal marijuana. At one time Homer said, "I hear it's a gateway drug."

Last night I was keying in an entry and the guy put in the comments, "I had so much fun running the half-marathon last year, that I have to run the full this year now."

So maybe the half-marathon is a "gateway drug." It's good, just not quite enough. Gotta go back for a bigger thrill--run the whole enchilada, do the full 26.2.

You can probably figure that I don't have anything else real interesting to say this week, or I wouldn't be talking about Homer Simpson. And I should probably put in a disclaimer too--I DO NOT advocate using marijuana. I DO, however, advocate running half-marathons, full marathons, and other similarly wonderful things. I'm one of the guys who can't figure out why people needs drugs--life it constantly keeping me high anyway.

28 May 2008 - Bayshore Marathon

Yesterday was my 52nd birthday. While doing some hill work, I think I goofed my knee up again. This time I'm going to go to a doctor or something. This is pissing me off.

Saturday turned out to be a BEAUTIFUL day at the Bayshore Marathon. I ran my best marathon of the year so far (which isn't saying much--I've had my brain and body somewhere besides in training mode lately). The lovely Francine ("I'll probably never qualify for Boston again.") ran a Boston Qualifying 4:05:44, beating her time needed by fifteen seconds. Dr. Rick finished fourth Masters in personal record time of 2:50! Cathy Fenton, one of our pacers, did a personal record 3:24 and took second masters. Robert Jarrin, another of our pacers, won his age group after leaving Rick in the dust in 2:49:19. Other staff members Lynne Oosterhouse and Sara Maher were there for the half-marathon as well.

Party in the parking lot afterwards with a few of the GR crowd, cheering on the people who where still coming in. People of all shapes and sizes, but all enjoying the accomplishment of finishing a marathon. Every time I see people coming in at 5+ hours and see the look on their faces, I'm reminded of why I enjoy this so much. The accomplishment of doing something BIGGER than most people will EVER do just inspires the heck out of me.

Yesterday I bought my first furniture for my new house. If you call it furniture. It was 10 of those plastic lawn chairs. Figured I'd need them sooner or later, and we had our first regular staff meeting of the year and I needed somewhere for people to sit.

21 May 2008 - From my newsletter.

I started a newsletter for the marathon. That's the big news this week. Now it's July, and I'm going to catch up on my blog a bit. A lot of this entry was in the newsletter.

At the end of April, Francine and I closed on a new house! Nice quiet street in Forest Hills. Grand Rapids address and just a couple blocks inside Ada Township. I really like it here.

Exerpted from the newsletter:

So, what's happening around here? Last week nearly everyone I know was running the River Bank Run. Now, a lot of people are suffering what I call "Post Partum Depression." (Yes, I know it's nothing like having a baby, but I can't think of a better term for it.) They trained for a long race (if you call 25K "long") and now it's over. Never fear! You can beat that depression by picking a Fall marathon and starting right back into your training! Do I have a biased opinion on WHICH Fall marathon you should enter? Duh!

So, in the process of moving, I'm trying to consume (with the help of my friends) some of the beer that was given to me last year at the marathon. (See http://www.grandrapidsmarathon.com/race day.aspx for details on where the beer came from.)

One of the bottles I got was labeled "Masters IPA - T" and was brewed by Tom Townsend and Scott Oberlin. Now, normally, IPA is a bit hoppy for my taste, but this stuff was GOOD! Nice finish, left a real good taste in my mouth. Keep up the good works, Tom & Scott.

This weekend is the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City. The lovely Francine and I are heading up there, along with other staff members Dr. Rick (who's gunning to get his Master's title back this year), Lynne Oosterhouse to do the half-marathon, and I'm probably missing a few others. Rick's been training like a madman this Spring, just won the Clydesdale A class at the River Bank, and is shooting for sub 2:50 Saturday. Which means he'll be showered and kicking back with a cigar and a beer by the time I get done. Oh well.

Starting Over

In case you haven't already heard, I just bought a house. Or, I should say, WE (the lovely Francine and I) just bought a house.

It's a great time for reflection for me. The first time I bought a house, I was 21 years old, just starting out, figuring out who I am. Now, it's like the same feeling. Starting fresh. I've been closing old accounts on past business ventures, shredding old records from the early 90s and before, just basically cleaning my life up. Now I'm getting ready to move into a new place with a beautiful woman. I've got fun things to do, including organizing the Grand Rapids Marathon. I've got a lot more experience now. It's pretty amazing.

Don't know where life goes from here, but I'm optimistic and excited about it. "Starting over" at 51. Pretty cool.

Dick's Sporting Goods

So, we're heading into Dick's Sporting Goods last week, and Carly is in the back seat, remembering another trip we did to the other Dick's Sporting Goods in the Rivertown Crossings mall a while back--you know, the really big two story one.

"Mom, you know how some Dick's are bigger than others..." is the way her story started out.

We don't know what she said after that, because we were way too busy trying to keep from cracking up in the front seat.

I thought this was interesting - from my email

Read it all!!
Our Tax System Described With Beer Analogy
This is brilliant: Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

Running Last Weekend

Finally--February sucked! I pulled a calf muscle and only managed about 52 miles that month. Half of that was on one day. I did manage to log a marathon for the month, extending my streak to 60 months in a row. Then I caught that nasty crap that was going around, and the fact that I couldn't breathe well enough to run at least gave my leg enough time to finish healing.

So last week, I ran the Irish Jig, probably my worst 5K time ever. But at least it didn't hurt.

Sunday got better. Our little group (about a dozen of us) started at John Ball Park, ran downtown, then north through Riverside Park, onto the White Pine Trail. We went north to Fifth Third Ballpark and ran around it. The lovely Francine suggested that we hop the fence and run the bases. Hmm.... Only 4 of us did that, but it was kinda fun. (Note, I'm not saying WHICH 4, in case someone has a problem with tresspassing. In which case I officially disavow all knowledge.)

Then we ran back to John Ball Park, a total of nearly 17 miles.

The next day was St. Patricks Day. Now, the YMCA runners had a tradition at one time of running to the Triangle Bar, drinking a beer, and then running back to the Y on St. Patricks Day. We talked about it at a party on Saturday night, and decided that would be the plan. Now, here's the dumb part:

I knew of a triangle just north of Richmond Street, at the point of which is a bar. I pointed it out on the map on my iPhone, and someone even agreed that that's where we were going. Pretty easy route, exactly 2 miles from the Y.

So, five of us set out from the Y Monday at noon, and because I'm kind of a map guy, they had me lead the way, figuring I knew where I was going. We ran Broadway all the way to Richmond and I pointed the way north from there. "No, that's not right, it's over on Stocking." Guess what. The bar I was thinking of is called The Point.

OK, now I did ask where it was and showed someone on the map, you remember. Come to find out, EVERYONE I was running with had been to the Triangle before. Which had me wondering, "Why the hell were you all following me then?" Anyway, we ran to the Triangle, but were a little later than we had planned so a couple people just headed back to the Y. Kent, Brad and I had a pitcher of beer before returning. So our 4 mile run ended up being a little more than 5, but that's cool.

P.S. They also had corned beef and cabbage and some other stuff for free at the Triangle. Not good food in the middle of the run, but after showering, I went back up for an inexpensive beer and a free St. Patrick's Day lunch. Yummy.

P.P.S. Next time you guys decide to elect me leader, make sure I know where the hell I'm going, would you please?

Old Stuff

Found when cleaning out my old documents:

Did you know?
The word gullible isn’t in the dictionary.

Dear Don,
Gullible is too in the dictionary. I went and looked it up.
Reader

Dear Reader,
You can make $50,000 in the next 30 days. Send me $49.95 and I’ll tell you how.

My Little Girl - Part 2

So, just a little more than a week after Shawn was deployed, Katie called me. "Guess what, Daddy? I'm pregnant."

So, sometime in late summer or early fall, another baby will enter the picture. Should be fun!

My Little Girl

OK, she's not so little any more. In fact, she just turned 30 in December, and this month her husband Shawn's National Guard unit got sent on a 400 day deployment which will leave them in Iraq in a couple of months.

Katie is the president of the Family Resource Group for the local National Guard armory. She was the primary person in charge of planning the send-off for the unit. So on Monday a couple weeks ago, I walked into the Armory to see an amazing show. All the local media was there, flags everywhere, lots of refreshments and lots of ceremony. All planned by my daughter and a host of other people.

When thank-yous were handed out later in the evening, she was mentioned by name by one of the big-shot military guys.

Her dad, meanwhile, had tears in his eyes from being so proud of her. And from being proud of my son-in-law, as well.

I Gotta Write Something

Digging out! That's what I've been doing for the past month since returning from my seven-continents marathon tour. Man, am I behind on stories. So, I'll give you a few.

The lovely Francine and I went to Florida to do the Goofy Challenge - The Disney Half-marathon on Saturday, the Disney World Marathon on Sunday - and spend a day before that with my Mom and Dad in Eustis. The following event took place in that small, Florida town....

I sat motionless in the chair, totally still. The man beside me had sharp implements in his hands. One slip and I would hate to imagine what might happen.

The guy in the next chair, however, had lost control. He was squirming, crying, resisting, as a man nearly four times his size was holding him down. Try as he might, he couldn't get away, the big man pinning his arms at his side as the cutting was finished. He would leave that day a little lighter than when he came in.

And all the while, a woman took pictures of the procedure, preserving the event. She took a lock of the victim's hair and put it in a envelope. The procedure completed, the big man took out his wallet.

"It's on the house," the barber said, and presented the proud mom and dad with a Certificate of First Haircut. Maybe if I had cried or something, they would have given me my haircut for free. Or not.

Postings

In case you're looking here for something interesting, check my other blog at http://7continentsmarathons.blogspot.com/. That's where I've been posting the last month or so. Some of it's a little bit interesting. But don't get your hopes too high. :-)

Bad News

At 1:00 we had a briefing. Doesn't look good. We're definitely not leaving for the ice today. Or tomorrow. Or Saturday. I have until Monday at 4:17 pm Eastern time to finish the marathon in Antarctica. Otherwise, the only world record I'll have is for running all seven continents twice in the shortest amount of time. A bit of a disappointment. Still have some hope of flying on Sunday, and most everyone on the trip is game for running within an hour of when we get off the plane. Everyone would like to be home before Christmas. Me included.

So, this afternoon, Brent and I are going to go see some penguins. Just what I need. More penguins. Anyone know of any marathons in South America in the next three weeks or so? Maybe I start on 17 December in Antarctica and finish on 13 January in Disney World. That means I have to do a bunch of marathons between now and then. I'm only half serious about this, but I can't shut my brain off. Oh well.

About time...

Hey, I know I haven't been posting much lately, but I've been between two really big projects. Check it out near the top of my home page at www.cooladventures.net. I'll be blogging on my Seven Continents Blog for the next month, so keep an eye on me. Click on the Seven Continents in 25 days link and go from there.

Chicago Marathon

Race organizers were just not ready for this one, in spite of the warnings they were emailing us. Nonetheless, I had a pretty good time there.

Spent Saturday working the expo in the afternoon, then FINALLY managed to get to a brewery in Illinois and collect a beer glass from that state. Paul Ruesch, my best traveling buddy. and I spent the evening at the Goose Island Brewery, eating some wings, a light dinner, and watching the Cubs finish getting swept out of the playoffs.

Sunday I was a pacer for the marathon. Christina and Pauley, my local training partners, Randi Lass, and I were the 5:15 pace team leaders. (NO!! That DOES NOT mean 5 minutes and 15 seconds per mile!) We started off with a group of around 100 others who would try to finish the course in 5:15, our mission to stay on pace and encourage/help them along the way. Good intentions.

We were really close to our pace all the way, adjusting a little after each mile as we needed to stay on. Big problem though. It was in the high 70s when we started and just got worse from there, and by the time we made the aid stations the water was mostly gone. COMPLETLY gone at the second one. This is just not good for such a hot day, especially when we were trying to help fairly new marathoners finish their race.

We separated a little bit, but I kepe Pauley and Christina in sight until past the 15 mile mark. In fact, I stepped on the 15 mile mark exactly on pace. Still good a half mile later at 25K mark. Then for the third time I reached a water stop with NO WATER. Now I was getting aggravated.

Finally just past 17, Paul met me and gave me a bottle of Gatorade and filled my water glass. I went on, taking a little break between there and 18. I ran for a few minutes beside a girl I would later know as Kristen. We chatted a little, then got separated. Just before 19, they started announcing that race was cancelled. I've heard stories about this stuff before, and decided to ignore them and keep running. Just ahead, they had a fire hydrant opened up and spraying water all over the place. Another announcement. Nora, a first-time marathoner running beside me with 5:15 on her back turned to me and said, "What are you going to do?" I said, "I'm going to run through that fire hydrant over there." "Then what?" "I'm going to finish running this marathon." She said, "OK then, I'm going with you."

At the next aid station, we ran into Kristin. She joined us, and the three of us (despite the warnings to just walk) ran the rest of the Chicago Marathon. Nora finished her first marathon and I watched her eyes, close to tears, with the joy of doing so. I lost track of Paul, Christina, and Randi, but at least one person in our 5:15 group accomplished her dreams that day. It felt pretty darn good!

Some days are good, some are bad. It's the nature of adventure. I had a great time anyway, made a couple new friends, helped someone finish her first marathon. Nice day.

What I did on my summer vacation

What I didn't do is write too much, so here's a short (and probably inconclusive) summary.

May 28th or so I ran the Bayshore Marathon. My 50th consecutive month running a marathon. No, that's nowhere close to a record--my buddy John Bozung from Utah has that one at the moment. His current streak is around 13 years worth. Tom Adair is in second place at the moment, and I think he's about 91 months ahead of me. And there's probably someone in between us too. I haven't given up yet--those guys are older than me. Maybe I'll outlive them.

June 16th ran the Run Charlevoix marathon. Slow, hot, felt like crap. Got through it. Had a nice weekend with the lovely Francine. (Just like every weekend with the lovely Francine actually.)

In June, I also started a new thing, the Marathon Minute. It's a weekly minute of inspiration that I write and record on WOOD Radio. You can hear them on marathonminute.com if you're interested.

In July I ran a marathon in Carrollton--something that's becoming a habit. In fact, it becomes a habit if you only run it once, since it's the same 5K course eight times. Nice people putting it on though.

I also read an article about Getting Things Done, a book and a way of life that has revolutionized the way I do things. I've been undergoing major restructuring of my file system, calendars, etc. Still in progress, but it's making me more effective (in my mind, at least).

August. Took a trip to Alaska with Francine and Carly. What a blast. Did a marathon (duh!). Took a day trip to Portage Glacier and Whittier. Took a day trip to Talkeetna. Took the train to Seward for a day. Saw moose, bear, eagle, mountain sheep. Hung out with my old friend Ole. Heard Diana (Ole's wife) singing with her group in Anchorage. Went hiking with Carly a few times. She's a fun kid.

September. Went to Tupelo. Oh. You already knew that from the previous post. Oh well, it's fall now (almost) so I guess this post is over. Maybe I'll start posting more often.

Marathons, Mountains, and Microbrews - Mississippi

Cool weekend. Spent Friday evening watching the Bourne Ultimatimum with the lovely Francine. Then it was an early morning flight to Memphis.

It was probably not the most efficient way to get to Tupelo, but it was a much cheaper flight. Besides, I had another mission to accomplish - to knock off another state high point. Now, Mississippi's high point is Woodall Mountain. The "mountain" part should be in quotation marks, because the elevation is a whopping 806 feet! (Only Delaware, Florida, and Louisiana have lower high points.) I drove to Iuka, Mississippi, and drove all the way up the road to the top. Not very inspiring. There was no sign, only the little USGS marker in the center of a circular gravel driveway. Someone had put in three cement benches in a circle there, but vandals had uprooted one of them and broke it in pieces. A fairly uninspiring place to be. Oh well, check another one off the list.

Now, on to Tupelo. The cool thing about this race is the medals and the slogan - "Trample the Weak. Hurdle the Dead" The logo is a skull and crossbones. Makes a pretty cool looking finishers medal.

I expected to be really slow with the heat, and probably could have been a few minutes faster, but at about 19 miles I caught up with Steve and Jaclyn. We started talking and were having fun, so I decided to stay with them for the rest of the race instead of running by myself. Jaclyn was running her first marathon that day, Steve his 10th.

The course was an out-and-back, so we got to see everybody. At the turnaround, the people doing the 14.2 mile run took the shortcut back to the finish line, and we turned around and headed back the way we came. The course was billed as hilly, but hey, in Mississippi a mountain is only 806 feet high, so my discription would be something more like "rolling."

We plugged along, enjoying the day, enjoying Jaclyn's excitement as she approached the finish of her first marathon. At 25 miles, I asked at the aid station if they had beer. "No, but I've got one in my truck. You want one?" It was cold and refreshing and just what the doctor ordered. I finished the beer and then rejoined my friends for the last mile.

After an hour or so hanging out with friends at the finish area, I headed back to get cleaned up, take a 15 minute nap, and then the trip to Memphis for my flight. I had a couple extra hours, and figured a beer and some lunch at Pat O'Brien's on Beale Street would be nice. Sitting there I had another one of those "moments" when I just start laughing at how cool life is. It's 5:00 on Sunday afternoon, I woke up in Grand Rapids yesterday, visited a state high point, ran a marathon in Tupelo, and now here I am in Memphis having a beer and a burger at Pat O'Brien's. As usual, I have tons to be thankful for. And I certainly am.

and the adventure continues....

Interesting stuff I get in my email

So, yeah, I'm throwing a big event. The Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon. But WTF ever made this guy think we needed a guy who lifts weights with his ear to come along and add to the festifities?!?! Nonetheless, I like the guy anyway.


Sub: - Information Required about Festival. and show
Sir/Madam,
It is pleased to inform you that i am Zafar Gill Guinness World Record Holder lifted with one ear. i visited your web site and know about your festival.
i wish to participate in your festival. what is a criteria to participate in your festival ? what is a requirement? Because i have all that things which you required like press release, photos, cd's, Guinness Certificate etc... You can see me on google (write down zafar gill ear lifted).
I will provide you all things which you required about festival but very first i want to know about festival that can i participate in your festival? show.
Last year i beat my new record in Germany (Impossible Challenger) i lifted with one ear 61 kg.(13 sec). Now i wish to beat this new record in your festival. i wish to lifted 65 kg. above 10 sec.
i hope you will reply me nice
Thanks:
Zafar Gill
Guinness world Record Holder
Lifted with one ear.

Here's an article I found:
Pakistani athlete sets new ear lifting record
Staff Report

LAHORE: Zafar Gill, a boxer from WAPDA, has got his name registered in the Guinness Book of World Records by lifting 51.7 kilogrammes by one ear on May 26, 2004.

He broke the earlier record of China’s Li Jian Hua who lifted a column of bricks weighing 50 kilogrammes by one ear for 9.3 seconds on December 17, 1998. Talking to Daily Times on Friday, Zafar said: “I appeal the government to provide me all the facilities to maintain this record and raise it to 55 kilogrammes. I am waiting for a multi-national company for a sponsorship so that I can enhance the image of the country in the sports world.”

Fourth of July

Nice day. Ran 11 miles in the morning with the lovely Francine, followed by a detour through an orchard where the black sweet cherries were pretty yummy. Then saw Evan Almighty in the afternoon, and went to Lynne's house for fireworks later. A very pleasant day.

Evan Almighty is a pretty fun movie, even has a couple good messages in it. Morgan Freeman plays God. Nice concept: When you pray for patience, you don't get it right away. Instead, you get opportunities and situations in which you can develop patience. Pretty good thought.

Usually, for me to consider a movie a "good movie" it needs some kind of a decent message or philosophy lesson to it. This one had it. I expected just to be entertained, and I was. The bonus was that it made me think too.

Quote for the day

"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude." William James

Blue Moon?

We got invited to a Blue Moon party Saturday night. Blue Moon beer had a promotional thing going, so the hosts had Blue Moon tshirts, etc. Pretty fun party. I was a little confused though.

A "Blue Moon", the second full moon of the month, actually happened in May, not June. The second full moon of May was on May 31. So, I was having a little mental conflict with the calculations there. Apparently, Blue Moon beer people were as well. Or were they?

I looked it up. These are Eastern Standard Times.
May 2, Full Flower Moon 6:09 am
May 31 Full Blue Moon 9:04 pm
June 30 Full Strawberry Moon 9:49 am.

Now, Blue Moon, being a Belgian White beer, maybe figured out that they should go by the moon phases in Belgium instead of the US. Which would have put the full moon on June 1 at 1:04 am. And then again on June 30 at 1:49 pm, Which would, of course, make the it a blue moon in June instead of May!!!!!

I went to bed last night, thinking I had solved the mystery.

Thanks to the Internet, however, I find that Blue Moon is actually created and brewed by the Molson Coors Brewing Company, in FREAKIN' COLORADO!!

More Internet work--seems that most of the places you go to look up moon phases post it in Greenwich Mean Time, which is, of course, a few hours ahead of us. Apparently that's the time all the calendar makers use too, since everything BUT the Old Farmer's Almanac site have things posted in GMT. So again, mystery solved.


Here's the NPR story that prompted me having such a bunch of confusion in my mind (copyright NPR):

Blue Moon on Thursday? Not So Fast

All Things Considered, May 30, 2007 · There is a prevailing myth about what a blue moon is. Thursday, May 31, will bring the second full moon of the month. But that does not constitute a blue moon, as is popularly believed.

Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine and executive editor of Sky and Telescope, tells Robert Siegel that a blue moon actually refers to the phenomenon of having four full moons in a season, which ordinarily has three.

Beatty also acknowledged that his magazine had a hand in giving the misconception credence. Sky and Telescope magazine recently put out a press release explaining its role in perpetuating the myth. It read, in part:

Our 1946 writer, amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett (1886-1955), made an incorrect assumption about how the term had been used in the Maine Farmers' Almanac, where it consistently referred to the third full moon in a three-month season containing four. (By this definition there is no blue moon in May or June 2007, and the next one happens in May 2008.)

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/moon/3304131.html for more interesting stuff

Weekend - just a little late.

It was an interesting weekend. Friday night the lovely Francine and I ran in the American Cancer Relay for Life. Actually, it was mostly people walking, so we designed a loop that was a bit longer and less crowded than most of the people were walking, and ran up and down along the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids. Ran into Nasreen and Bret, so I finally got to meet him. Found out that the slight muscle pull I had in my calf was worse than I thought.

So, our next shift, which started at 5:00 a.m. was spent just walking. Tried sitting in the hot tub at the Y and letting the jets massage my leg, but it still didn't help much.

Came home and did laundry, leaving most of it (including clean sheets) on my bed so I could go up to my mom's for a while. Grandma had a slight stroke last week, so she's at my mom's for a while. Maybe forever. Figured I should go visit and take her some flowers. Good move.

I had a late breakfast, so I wasn't very hungry when I got to Mom's. She offered to fix me something, but I figured I could wait. Grandma, however, was more persistent. "Have you had dinner?" "Not yet Grandma, but I'm not very hungry right now." She offered to have mom fix me something. We visited for a while. Mom came in. "He hasn't had any dinner, you know!" she told Mom. That exchange had Mom getting us both a drumstick (the ice cream kind, not the chicken kind) and putting the topic to rest for a little bit. We visited a while longer. "Are you sure you're not hungry?" "Hmmm... You know grandma, maybe I am getting a little hungry. Why don't we go out in the kitchen and see what's happening?" Well, that finished that discussion.

Dad and I were in the livingroom a little later. THUD! A redheaded woodpecker smacked into the picture window. It was the last thing he ever did. (I'm trying to work a joke in here about him breaking his little wood pecker, but it just isn't working.)

I came home to a surprise. In my refrigerator was a note. "Fresh strawberries, hand picked by Carly and Francine" in 7-year-old handwriting. COOL! And the laundry I left on my bed was folded and the sheets were back on the bed. There was no note about that, so I'm figuring the 7 year old had nothing to do with that one. It was pretty nice though.

Sunday I went to Richland and measured the course for Lindsay's Race, a 5K and 10K race held in honor of Lindsay Cornelius, who died in a car accident around 10 years ago. Came home and went to see "Pirates of the Carribean" with the lovely Francine. Then we went to The Melting Pot for some cheese fondue and some really good salads. Came home and sat on the grass talking and soaking up the sunshine.

Busy weekend. Fun weekend. Accomplished a few things, had some fun, reconnected with family. Nice.

New Projects

It's been a fun May. Not much writing, but major movement in good directions. I registered a couple new websites and will be starting some new ventures. One of them is marathonminute.com. Every week starting June 13, I'll have a one-minute long "Marathon Minute" on WOOD Radio as part of our Grand Rapids Marathon promotional material. It will also be podcast on marathonminute.com, and on the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon site.

It's not just about running. It's about personal achievement. It's about working toward any big goal and the things we overcome to do that. It's about making your life better after listening to it than it was the minute before.

I'm working with some great people over at WOOD Radio doing production.

Once every three weeks or so we'll do a bigger podcast which will be linked off WOOD's website as well as on marathonminute.com. It will be about 10 - 15 minutes with some of the people who have stories to share. I don't know where it's all going, but I do know it's going to be a great trip. Check back for more details as they happen.

Ten Days!

Since my last post. Let's see, what's happened?

Sunday May 6 took my whole family to a Whitecaps game to celebrate my mom & sister's birthday. Caps won. A good time was had by all.

Friday was the River Bank Run expo. Had a booth and signed up about 20 people for the marathon.

Friday night was Ashley's dance recital. Cute. She's probably one of the prettiest girls in the world. We took five generation pictures--my grandma, mom, Katie and the girls were there.

Saturday was the River Bank Run--and we finally had great weather for a change. Ran about what I expected, which isn't really very fast, then spent about an hour at the beer tent with a variety of friends. Took some pictures of Neil Sauter, the professional stilt walker who's going to walk the Grand Rapids Marathon on stilts and go for a world record. Met the guys from the Y at the Cottage. Went to a party at Bob's house and ended up skipping the next two parties we had scheduled.

Yesterday was a recovery day--didn't do much except work around the house. "Slept" in a bit, made french toast, bought a new pair of sunglasses, groceries, that's about it.

When I get home tonight, I'll add a picture or two. Maybe 5 generations.

Ashley's First Tee Ball Game

The competition was intense, an amazing battle, the opening game of the season. Hopkins Elementary School, my granddaughter Ashley's first tee-ball game.

What a hoot! Everyone bats. Nobody gets out. The inning ends when everyone has hit once, everyone runs only one base at a time except the last batter, who gets to hit a grand slam to end the inning. The kids stand there in the field, minding their own business, playing in the dirt, looking around. Then someone hits the ball. Then the kids stand there in the field, minding their own business, playing in the dirt, looking around. Finally one of them will chase down the ball, and at some point will try and throw the ball to first base. Or home. Or somewhere else. Pretty cool. Pictures attached are of her first hit and her first run of her career!

Did anyone happen to hear this one?

The congress sent a bill to the President to fund 24 billion more in the Iraq War effort, but the president vetoed it.

For the last two or three weeks, same old stuff. The congress is passing a bill. President Bush is going to veto it. The congress is passing a bill. President Bush is going to veto it. The congress is passing a bill. President Bush is going to veto it. The congress is passing a bill. President Bush is going to veto it. The congress is passing a bill. President Bush is going to veto it. The congress is passing a bill. President Bush is going to veto it.

Yesterday, the congress passed the bill. President Bush vetoed it. Is there some news in here anywhere? Is there news that justifies saying it over and over as the headline EVERY TIME the news come on?

It's about like the NFL--a whole bunch of millionaires fighting over something that no one can win but they keep doing it anyway. Except for this: When football players (or baseball or hockey players) have juvenile power-play negotiations for weeks or months at a time, NONE OF OUR CHILDREN HAVE TO DIE!!!!!

Too bad the president and congress can't just suit-up take the field and go about knocking the crap out of each other instead of doing whatever it is that they're doing?

An afternoon with Mr. Long's Class

Had a great day with the kids in Michael Long's class yesterday. I spent the whole afternoon with them, showing them pictures and answering questions. New experience--I had to sign autographs! Imagine that! Kids were great, lots of energy and lots of interest. They gave me a copy of Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, which they all signed. I was touched.

Fun Tuesday

It's going to be a fun day. Ran 5 with Alan Headbloom this morning at 5:30, met with a potential sponsor for the marathon at 7:45, now I'm preparing to head to Harrison to spend the afternoon with the fifth graders in Michael Long's class. They were on a "virtual fieldtrip" with me when I was on my seven continents journey. So today I get to meet them in person. I'm hoping this isn't the most dangerous part of my whole adventure.

Good Press

I talked to my mom last week. She was at the library on a fast Internet connection, and typed "Marathon Don Kern" into Google. Every hit on the first 5 pages was me. Interesting, but so what. What I really learned is that much of what was written about me is a direct consequence of the things I've written.

It seems that the way to get stuff published about yourself is to write stuff. It's easier for people to do articles if they can cut & paste from a blog or a press release. Hmmm...

K-LITE in Santa Barbara interviewed me a couple weeks ago. The interview is posted on my website, www.cooladventures.net, if you get really bored sometime, you can listen to it.

Adventures in Shopping

Stopped by the Hideout for a beer and finally ran into Dan Manning. On the way home, it was Meijer. Nice experience. Cashed in a couple scratch off lottery tickets, bought the winning Mega Millions ticket for tonight (I hope).

Everything I needed was on sale. Cool. Usually I stop by the Jelly Belly display and scarf a couple leftover jelly beans from the little trays that catch the spillage. What the heck, they're just going to throw them out anyway. Tonight, however, instead of jelly beans, someone had dumped some chocolate covered raisins from the Brachs display in there. Maybe messing with my head or something. I ate a couple and moved on.

Going up and down the aisles is like a ballet. Except with shopping carts instead of tutus. People weave in and out, waiting, nodding and smiling, every once in a while accidentally bumping into each other. OK, it's amature ballet, not professional.

DiGiorno people will be happy to know that their advertising worked out. Their pizzas were on sale too, so I'm not having delivery tonight for supper. I'm having DiGiorno.

There's a rack of meat setting out in the aisle--apparently it's stuff they needed to move quickly or something. There was a little packet that had two tenderloin steaks in it for only 96 cents. I wondered what was wrong. Oh. Someone had it marked as TURKEY! Hmmm...there were five more packages. I bought them all. The ones on the shelf that were marked correctly were $19.99/lb. I later found out that they're not allowed to put another label over top of the wrong one, so someone's honest mistake (or moronic move) was my good fortune, since I now have a bunch of steaks in my freezer.

Well, I guess this wasn't all that interesting, but some adventures go that way. I gotta go. My pizza's almost done.

Things that could have been on my life list that I ended up doing.

I keep a list of at least 100 things going that I want to do in life. Gives me direction. Sometimes I just end up doing things that it occurs to me after the fact that they should have been on my life list, but weren't because I didn't think of it.

Shook hands with Ford and Reagan
Flew in an ultralight airplane
Parachute
Saw the Harlem Globetrotters
Visited Biosphere II
Was a professional nude model (see my blog for February 2006)
Climbed to the top of Notre Dame and saw gargoyles
Played donkey basketball
Tended bar


Stuff that's still on the list:

Cage diving with great white sharks
Camp in Yellowstone in the winter and sit in a hot spring
Be able to start a fire with a bow drill
Visit the Galapagos
Kiss the Blarney Stone
Learn Spanish
See a total solar eclipse
Go whitewater rafting near Victoria Falls
Run with the bulls in Pamplona
...and many more things.

Take a chance

I was reminded of something today when I read this quote from either Scottish climber W. H. Murray:

"Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!"

I have seen this happen. It's what happened when I decided to run my first marathon. Or go to the South Pole. Or run all the continents. Or when we decided to start the Grand Rapids Marathon. As soon as the commitment was made, things started falling into place. People came out of the woodwork to help. Things started to happen. As I often say, "throw it in the air and it turns into sunshine."

So, here's what I have told people recently: Find an adventure, a few months out, that's outside your comfort zone. Sign up for it. Decide you're going to do it. The next thing you know, your brain will just figure out how to make it happen. Don't worry about the details, you'll do them anyway once you're commited.

Maybe something happens after this life. Maybe not. RIGHT NOW is the time to make something happen.

Boston Marathon Weekend - Part 2

After a nice pre-marathon steak dinner, we settled in for the night to listen to the wind howl and the rain fall. Fortunately, Julia was able to get us a seat on her club bus to the start, so we had a warm place to sit while waiting to start the marathon. We made a couple short ventures out to check on temperatures, wind, and rain, but it sure was nice to sit on the bus instead of hanging out in the mud-bowl that is known as Athlete's Village. We were in the second wave, and as our start time of 10:30 approached, something else happened. It stopped raining! Cool.

The normal 10-minutes-to-starting-line after the gun went off, and we were off on the downhill start from Hopkinton, heading for Boston. Neither of us were out for any personal records, so we ran together for the whole race. Within the first mile I had my rain jacket and windshirt off, but about 5 miles later the rain started and I put the jacket back on. Rain didn't last long, but the heavy winds allowed me to stay comfortable in the jacket, so I just left it on for the rest of the run.

Wellesley was the normal screaming-young-college-girls event. They put up barricades to protect us, but they all have signs offering kisses along the way, so I had to stop briefly. Ten or twelve times.

At the bottom of Heartbreak Hill we stopped at the Johnnie Kelly statue for a picture, then started up the hill. I was distracted for a few seconds to drink a couple small glasses of beer as Francine went on ahead for a bit. I kept her in sight, then caught her toward the top of the hill. At mile 24, my BS level spiked a bit (that's not "blood sugar" by the way) and the pace got a little faster. Finally, the Citgo sign we had seen for more than a mile was upon us--only one mile to go. The course jogged over a street and we saw the finish line in the distance. As we passed the 26 mile mark, we joined hands for the final stretch, crossing the finish line together. 4:44:47 was our net time.

We drank a little, ate a banana (that was all the food they had left) and headed for the nearest T stop to catch a ride back to Joe and Julia's. When we got off in Brookline, we were both cold and wet and calorie-deprived, so we ducked into the Duncan Donuts at the corner and got some hot chocolate. Instead of walking the half-mile to their house, we grabbed a taxi and figured the $5 would be a cheap price to keep us from shivering all the way there. So, a cold and wet day in Boston, but a nice marathon and a great time with some great friends. Marathon 141 for me, 30 for Francine, and my 50th consecutive month running a marathon.

Boston Marathon Weekend

It was a dark and stormy night...

Yeah, like a cheap mystery novel. The rain was driven into the windows by fierce winds, as the lovely Francine and I would wake up and anticipate a cold-and-nasty-weather marathon. The weekend wasn't all that bad though.

We arrived in Boston around noon on Saturday and took a taxi to the home of our good friends Joe and Julia. They recently bought a house in Brookline and are in the midst of remodeling/restoring, so parts of their new estate resembled a nuclear holocaust. Just the kind of place a guy loves to see and hang out in--a great project in the making!

We went on to the expo to pick up our race packets and a bunch of stuff we didn't really need. I had no more than walked in before Austin, one of my shipmates on the Ioffe saw me. Mike and Christina were there as well, so we enjoyed a brief reunion before heading off in our various directions.

Saturday night was the annual Dead Runners Society encounter dinner at Big City. Nice place, nice people, and about 40 beers on tap. I had a pint of Brooklyn Brown Ale, then noticed that they had Sam Adams Cherry Wheat on tap. Cherry Wheat has special memories for me--the first time I tasted it was 14 October 1995. The Chicago Marathon expo the day before my first marathon. I ordered a pint, fondly remembering my first taste and the journey that I've enjoyed since that day.

Sunday was the bagel brunch, in recent years hosted by Julia and Joe, but due to the construction project it was moved to the home of Joan Cook and Conrad Halling. Again, a nice time with way more food than one should reasonably eat, but with friends one should reasonably have. I love Dead Runners encounters, because I get to meet some of the people I've been interacting with on line since 1994.

Afternoon was a trip to Eastern Mountain Sports to pick up a little wet-weather gear for the lovely Francine. Then we hopped on the T and went to town where I met Adam Jacobs, editor of thefinalsprint.com, for an interview. Yes, that's right, I got interviewed in Boston, just like the speedy guys. Pretty cool. It's on The Final Sprint website. http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2007/04/boston-marathon-video-podcast-don-kern-part-1/

and
http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2007/04/boston-marathon-video-podcast-don-kern-part-2/

Pretty nice. Adam has interviewed me a couple of times before, but this is the first time we met face-to-face.

Race report to follow in part 2 sometime later today.

100000

Hey!! I got my 100000th visitor to the site today. And it was none other than my daughter Katie! Cool.

Daddyo,
I was the 100000 visitor to you site!!!! well really I was 99999 but I jumped off and went back on so I could clam the title HAHAH
Love you
Katie Burch FRG President C 1/125 INF

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922 - 2007

One of my favorite authors died yesterday--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. It was in my senior year that I first became acquainted with him--the multiple reading group on our forensics team read from Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut's book on the bombing of Dresden through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim.

Through the years, I've read many of his books, including last year re-reading Slaughterhouse Five. Cat's Cradle was another of my favorites.
Vonnegut was one of the influences on my philosophy. He helped teach me the importance of PEOPLE. He taught me the difference between an enzyme and a hormone. He was a great humanist.

Now, my "friend" Kurt Vonnegut is dead. I'll miss him. So it goes.

Oh yeah--the difference? You can't hear an enzyme.

Suppose for a minute...

What if there's no life after death?

Now all the kids we sent off to Iraq who are dead are just that. Dead. The only life they ever will have is gone.

Suppose there's life after death.

Wouldn't it be better if our leaders figured there wasn't, so that they'd quit sending our children to die in someone else's war? As long as they keep trying to convince us that our dead children are "in the arms of Jesus" or whatever, they can justify sending more of them.

Just a little bit tired of the Iraq war. Would you people in Washington PLEASE knock it off!

Viagra and other "enhancements"

Suppose for a minute that one actually orders some of the products offered ten or more times a day in via emails from anonymous people who don't know how to spell. Subject lines like: "How you compare to other guys" "Gain inches" "Women will want you"

Now, AFTER using these wonderful products, how does one go about getting the word out that Mr. Happy has suddenly got happier? Is there a website or something? Or is there somewhere you can go to compare to the other guys? And why, exactly, would one want to go there?

Enough of that. I need to go do something important.

Marathon Don on TV

Pretty cool. Yesterday I was on WZZM (Channel 13) on Take Five with Stephanie Webb. The topic was my seven continents trip, and I also got a chance to plug the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon a little bit too. My sister thinks I did a good job, but she's probably biased. They put a bunch of video clips of segments online, so maybe they'll post mine. Click on the videos at http://www.wzzm13.com/takefive/takefive.asp and see if it's up there.

Once upon a time in Grand Rapids Michigan...

The beautiful princess (aka the lovely Francine) called me at midnight. "Do you know anything about sump pumps?" Now, any conversation that starts like that (even with a beautiful princess)is destined to go in different directions than one would have hoped.

Well, waking up from a sound sleep, I didn't really know much about sump pumps, but by 4:00 when my alarm went off, my brain had recovered enough information to actually be helpful. Meanwhile she had found out that Home Depot opens at 6:00 a.m. so we really didn't have much of a problem at that point. (OK, her basement had a bunch of water in it, but that too can be fixed.)

As I unhooked the discharge hose, then grabbed it and lifted the old pump from the hole. Of course, it jostled the float enough to get the pump running, spraying water all over my shirt. Still, it's been so loud lately that we decided it should be replaced anyway, so I made a trip to Home Depot while Francine rinsed out my shirt and tossed it in the dryer. By 7:00, the new sump pump was installed and pumping the excess water into the drain where it should be.

So, by 8:00 this morning, I had spent some quality time with a beautiful woman, installed a sump pump, stopped at Panera for some coffee, and had arrived at work. Not a bad start to the day.

And they lived happily ever after. The end.

Thankfulness

Sometimes I look at life like the proverbial cat who swallowed the canary. It feels like I just got away with something, and I just have to smile. I get to have great adventures, I have a beautiful woman who's crazy about me, some responsible-adult kids, some amazing granddaughters. I'm in pretty good health and have enough food, a warm place to sleep, and decent clothes to wear. Life is pretty freakin' good.
Biblical reference - Job, who was similarly blessed, even when he lost everything he remembered the good things. I'm not saying I have the patience and wisdom of Job, (but then, I don't have his writers either) but I hope that I always remember the blessings and keep things in perspective.

Back to my normal blog

When we last left our hero, he was off on a trip to the far reaches of the earth. Now he's back, and posting to the normal blog again...

I stopped at Starbucks this morning for coffee (duh!) and a blueberry muffin. I took a book to read with me, but that plan just didn't work. At the next table two guys were discussing running marathons, so naturally I got totally distracted. Then another couple guys came in, one of whom had a handheld "recording studio" on which he had been out all night recording tree frogs. It's hard to get into reading fiction when so much cool reality is happening all around me.

So, I went over and met Jack, the marathon runner on my way out.

Oh yeah--last night I went to the BOB for the downtown debut of Dave Hill and Karl London aka Rivers Crossing. They cover a lot of old rock and roll and make a pretty fun night. Go hear them sometime.

Friday, April 13 - Bud & Stanley's, 9pm - 1am, - Grand Rapids
Saturday, April 14 - Century Post Pub, 9pm - 1am, - Lowell
Friday, April 20 - THE BITE, 7:30 - 11:30, - 151 Ottawa, Grand Rapids

Procrastination

There was a headline on my AOL this morning, something about "Which Cities Have the Most Procrastinators."

My first thought was "I wonder who comes up with this crap." My second was, "Screw it, I'll read it later."