July begins

Well, the July 4th weekend and holiday is coming to an end and you can hear some fireworks outside as everyone takes advantage of this last legal night to ignite their ordnance, er, fireworks. A few loud booms here and there which our dogs aren't too fond of. I heard that this holiday results in the most runaway dogs than any other time of the year. I'm not surprised.

Saturday morning was the FireCracker 5K and I was scheduled by my training guide to do a 5 kilometer race and add 4 miles to that distance for seven miles total. Jonnene and I headed out to join with 3,000 other runners and once we got there I went out for a short 1/2 mile run as a warmup and to start getting in my total distance. Got back and into a long line for the port-a-potties where, just before it was finally my turn to go to one of the outhouses, this young punk walked up and cut the line to get into one. Another port-o-let opened up for me but I walked up to the guy's potty and banged the door twice really hard, yelling "Get in line next time, jerk!" I hope it scared the crap out of him 'cause I didn't hear anything out of him. I heard a few laughs in the line, did my business, and went back to the race start where everyone was gathering.

I worked my way up to the third "row" of runners, chatted with some folks I knew and waited for the MC to finish up the festivities, which means we start the race about 20-25 minutes later than the scheduled start time (it's been like that for years...we've gotten used to it). Finally the firecrackers go off, signaling the start, and off we go trying not to trip over all the people around us. Jonnene started further back and is probably dealing with more of a crowd than I am. I wasn't sure how I wanted to run this although the training guide says to "race" the 5K and I wanted to not go out too fast. After finally getting some elbow room and passing some people on the early hills, I was able to manuver around a bit to hear the 1-mile announcer call out "6:51" as I went by. That was way faster than I intended and I was worried that I wouldn't have much left by the finish, especially to get the extra miles later. By two miles I was at 14:03 and feeling pretty good so I kept motoring, passing more people and getting passed by only a handful. I saw Daniel A and Martha S in front but I couldn't get much closer than 20 meters to Daniel and finally caught Martha in the last tenth of a mile. I finished up in 21:44 for 3.1 miles and I was pleased with that since it worked out to a 7:04 per mile average, plenty fast enough. I went to the port-o-lets again and then went out to do the course again. Taking the extra miles slower I still ended up with a 8-minute mile average. Jonnene had a good run, too, with a 27:31. I was proud of her for knocking out the race within a minute of her best 5K time.

Sunday was a rest day from running and I spent most of the afternoon at Mom's doing some work on one of their bathrooms. I had renovated the other bathroom earlier this year which I thought came out real well and Mom liked it. This time the job is a little simpler, requires a bit of cleaning up and replacing the toilet seat lids and putting in a new faucet, as well as some painting and some other installations. I got the faucet put in but will have to come back for the drain installation. Getting the old seat off the toilet was a chore since the bolts had rusted and I ended up having to saw one of them off. But it got done and the new seat's in place. The room already looks better and I'm only 30% thru the work!! The rest will take a couple of weeks or so to finish up.

Regarding my marathon this October, I've always had this set of goals:

1. Show up at the start and finish the marathon. Finishing is the main thing.

2. Try to finish in under 4 hours.

3. My target finishing time goal is under 3 hours, 45 minutes. Again, finishing...period...is more important. But this is my pride talking here.

So, out of curiosity, I went online to find out what it took to qualify for the Boston Marathon. In my age group, I would need to finish in 3:45:59 or faster. I looked at it again....if I achieve goal #3 I would be a qualifier for Boston in 2012. Wow. It'd be nice to pull that off. Jonnene says we could go if I wanted to do that race.

BUT I gotta qualify first and that's going to take some work.

It is really getting hot around here

Today is the first day of summer with an expected high of 98 degrees...tomorrow we're supposed to have 100 degrees. Then it'll drop down to around 93 by Friday. Whew! Relief! At last!

The weekend was way busy. I even did a long nap Sunday afternoon and I was still busy. Yesterday Jonnene and I woke up at 4:30 am to volunteer at the Sunrise #3 Triathlon: her to work registration and me to help set up the transition area (oh, yeah, Jonnene did some of that, too!). I also helped guide the racers thru transition during the race after The Wife went on to work...she had to work the weekend. She's never too enthused to do that...don't blame her. My Centenary kids did well but the heat got to them as well as everyone else but they all survived.

After that I got home and went out for my Sunday run in 95 degree warmth. Had to do six 1-mile repeats at 20 seconds faster than my planned marathon pace and I managed to do that. With four minute rest breaks between the efforts I would down a nice cold 6-8 ounces of water or energy drink. I still felt wiped out after it was all over and I got a nice outline of my tanktop on my shoulders from the sun. I still sorta feel it today. That got me a nice nap that afternoon. Called Dad to wish him a happy Father's Day and I'll get his gift to him later this week. Ashley and Clint came over last night and fed them as they got ready for their second night in their new rent house here in Shreveport.

Yeah, Saturday we helped moved them into their new place in the south part of Shreveport. It was hot that day, too! Saturday morning I spent out in the yard, doing yard stuff and starting on placing the pickets on the fence. I'm not too interested in looking into the back yard of our backside neighbors and them into ours. Got the main supports in place, set up a line to keep the top of the pickets level, and got one picket up. By then I was worn out and put everything up.

But the most important part of the weekend was getting a call before 5 am Saturday morning from my step-father, telling me that he and Mom were at the emergency room of the hospital. She's got a kidney stone and the sucker made itself known much earlier that morning. She hasn't passed it yet and I feel for her since I've gone thru that...it is REALLY painful and can mess up your schedule for sure. I drove down to the hospital, picked Jim up and took him to their house so he could get the car to bring Mom home (he had traveled in the ambulance with her). Today she's supposed to set up an appointment with a urologist and see what the next step is to clear this thing up. Keeping the fingers crossed for the simplest and less painful solution.

I do run-run-run, I do run-run

Wow, I'm now starting my seventh week of this marathon training gig...139 days until the Marine Corps Marathon, so about 17 more weeks of this to go. Actually it hasn't been bad at all. I did a 12-mile "long run" this past Sunday and listened to the squish-squish of my shoes that were full of sweat in the last three miles (takes about two days for the shoes to dry out). My right ankle, or more precisely the right achilles tendon has been acting up the last few weeks so I started putting it on ice after a couple of runs plus being careful in how I walked on that foot. Seems to have worked...it didn't bother me at all during Sunday's run and it's been relatively pain-free since Friday. I'm still not taking any chances however. I'll do ice again after Tuesday's run whether it hurts or not.

This morning I took a quick drive over to Minden to attend the funeral of one of my classmates from 1973, Billy O'Neal. He died of cancer on Friday morning and had been sick for a long time. I got to see him on April 30th (see photo below where he's making a face at the camera) when there was a fund-raiser to help offset some of his medical bills and we talked a bit. Neither of us had really spoken to each other since graduation from Minden High School. We just weren't in the same circles as life went on but we knew each other and we had absolutely no problems, past or present, with each other. Thing was that he remembered me and told how a couple of months ago he had mentioned to his wife, Charlotte (another classmate of mine), that a house they were driving by was one I used to live in. He just said it out of the clear blue. Heck, I didn't even know he knew where I had lived in the first place! After that visit and today's services I wished I had gotten to know Billy a little better. We still had different interests but I think it would have been fun to know him as the man he grew up to be. He was funny during our short visit back in April even though the cancer was in his brain and he spoke a little slower. He was also confined to a motorized wheelchair that he said wasn't fast enough for his liking. But the thing was that he looked like a man who was content with how his life was (obviously wasn't that wild about the way it was ending) and that things would be fine.

Billy O'Neal: March 1, 1955 - June 11, 2010

Rest in peace, Billy. Even though we were more acquaintances than friends, I'm glad I knew ya.

We have niece #3, Holly, staying with us for the month while she goes to summer school at Centenary. She's taking Physics which is some kind of hocus-pocus, voodoo subject that can't actually be real and goes beyond art major types like me. Well, really it doesn't but I don't like bothering with it. I got the gist of it when I took the class in college and I got into a couple of arguments with the instructor (to this day I'm still convinced I'm right) but I pretty much know how it works. Just don't ask me to explain it in English. I can see it in my mind much better than I can say it.

Slackin'

I'm now into my fourth week of training for the Marine Corps Marathon with 20 weeks to go, about 159 days before I toe the line up in the Washington, DC. I'm already around 25 miles short of setting a new record for miles I've run in a calendar year...269 set last year...and it's only late May! By the time this is over, I'll have a personal record that I'm not sure I'll ever break. Surprisingly, I'm not as sore or stiff in the legs as I thought I'd be but I'm sure an injury or two will crop up before October gets here. I ordered a MCM training shirt (see above) which says In Training on the front and Semper Fi on the back. So far I've been faithful in my training, only having to make one adjustment to change a scheduled training day to another day, and I'm a little surprised at how I'm sticking to the plan. I could eat a little better and sleep more! I guess I'm becoming a tad obsessive with wanting to do this and a year ago I had no idea I'd even consider doing a marathon! The goal is to go under a 3:45 time and if I run it smart I could do under a 3:30. Main thing is to finish with a respectable time and to be happy with my effort.

Last weekend was time-consuming and busy. We drove to Birmingham, Alabama and back with only an overnight stay so we could attend the wedding of Dale's daughter, Athena. The birth announcement I did for Athena's arrival into the world back in 1986 got me my first Gold Addy award as a free-lancer. I've known Dale since we were in high school and his son, Erik, is my god-son so there was a lot of personal connections here. We had a great time but the weekend wore us out. I had to get up at 5 am Saturday morning to get in my long run for the week: 8 miles which included hill repeats. Jonnene takes the dogs to the kennel, and after I shower we are on our way. Forgot to mention going to an art show the night before! Get to B-ham, dress up fancy and head to the wedding. Reception...food, dancing, seeing people I haven't seen in a long time...back to the hotel and sleep. Then up Sunday morning to drop by Dale's house for an hour or so, then back to Shreveport just in time to attend the last hour of a friend's 50th birthday party! I think Jonnene and I are still recovering.....

From the Back

(this is written tongue-in-cheek....maybe...but the basic story is true)


As I rode it,

I did Tuesday Night Worlds two weeks ago and the group pulled out right at 5:45 pm which is weird since we're usually 5-10 minutes late leaving from ANY parking lot. We left a lot of riders still putting on their helmets or prepping to go (partly because it is a long drive for most of us and we're subject to the whims of traffic along the way).

I had heard before that the ride to Benton from the start was actually civil and treated more as a warmup. That was okay with me...I need a warmup before I have to put a Jon Whitten on everyone's heads and crush some souls/egos. You know I'm not that mean but Russ always gives me a wholesale dose of deserved respect because he is a wise man.

Well, it was almost race-pace from the start (reminded me of ERBC) and I'm trying to get my wrinkly old Joe-French-slash-Frankie-G legs into the groove but not having much success. I got dropped by mile seven at 28 mph (that was me, not the group...they was faster....much....faster). Eventually latching onto a couple of soul-deflated folks we got in a fairly good and speedy ride. Eventually I would 2-man TT it with Jason Sanders on his hopped-up-totally-tricked-out tri-bike (and me on my basic K2 brood) for the last 10 miles cruisin' at 25 mph most of the time. I let him set the pace 'cause I'm kind-hearted and wanted him to get a good workout. He didn't deserve a Whitten-style whippin'. He is only a man.

With two miles to go, I started feeling a deflation on my rear wheel, the tire specifically, and had to let Jason go. I noodled those last two miles at around 15-16 mph on that slow leak, finally making it back to the parking lot with a snail's breath of air to spare.

Even with that, my average speed for the night was 22.2 mph. Yeah, buddy, I was going plenty speedy even with the drop and the un-airing of my rubber parts.

Don't know if I'll be out there much the rest of the year. Next week I begin training to do my first marathon in October. I'm going to ride 2-3 times a week as cross-training but I'll be a runner for most of 2010. But Jonnene and I are going down to New Orleans this weekend to take the beginner's USAC officials' clinic (Lisa and her husband will be there, too) so we can do some o-fficiating for LAMBRA this year and help poor old Ricky out. So you ain't rid of us yet. Follow the rules of racing and we'll look the other way. Might even produce results in a timely manner. Yeah, right. Gawd, I'm a comedian.

Be forewarned, I'm coming back STRONG on the inline 2-wheeler in 2011. Be ready for the "Alan beatdowns" that'll be commencing next winter. Like Cesar Milan says, I'll be calm and assertive. Everyone else will be calm and submissive. I am a kind man, don't forget.

Another Greg-o-logue

Daily Gut: Hating Arizona

by Greg Gutfeld

So Obama deemed the new Arizona immigration bill “misguided.”

Translation: he means “stupid.”

See, “misguided” is a word used by people who know better than you. Calling something “misguided” is an intellectual exercise in superiority–even if they don’t call you stupid, they really, really want to.

Too bad Obama has no other plan that’s less stupid. And the Arizona bill is what happens when there is no plan: a plan gets made.

It reminds me of something a really smart guy said on Hannity last week.

Roll Sot:

“Until you make it easier for them to get in legally you have to make it as difficult as possible for them to get in illegally. It’s that simple.”

It really is that simple.

Let’s play it again, but slower, in case you didn’t get it the first time.

(play it again, but really slow)

He really is an underused source of brilliance at Fox News.

Anyway, until we create a front door for these folks, we have to make sneaking in a window harder than hell. Amnesty doesn’t do that. Amnesty just says – “everyone in… is in!” That does not control the tide.

The fact is, it’s called illegal immigration, because it’s illegal. And Arizona has chosen to deal with what we already call illegal. And while, on its surface, it appears mean – it’s not. It’s actually a beginning. It pushes the debate forward to a place where we can finally develop a system that gets all the wonderful, hardworking people in.

And most are hardworking. And most are wonderful. Seriously, most of these folks killing themselves to come here are more deserving than half of the jerks born here. I’m referring to anyone who stinks of patchouli, uses clubbing as a verb (except in Alaska), thinks graffiti is art, owns their own sex tape, once dated Paris Hilton, listens to Dave Matthews, claims they’re in Mensa, plays Frisbee golf, known to wear a speedo, carries a tiny dog in a purse, blames America for everything, enjoys performance art, thinks yogurt is food, cries while whale watching, majored in any form of gender studies, cares more about death row inmates than their victims, and thinks I can’t bench press twice my own weight. (I can, or I used to, anyway).

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobe who eats donated organs.

Yeah, yeah, I'm back!

From a window at it's international airport we could see downtown Sydney as a Qantas 747 is moved to a terminal.

This is short for now. We've been back from Australia for almost two weeks now and the jet lag is thankfully over. It took a longer time than usual to get over it...maybe having to deal with cold weather again and not wanting to get out from under the warm blankets early in the morning might have contributed to that. The trip back was actually pretty good, most of the flights were on time, and it was nice to arrive in Shreveport without having to drive back from Alexandria or Longview just so we could have cheaper flights.

Like I said, I'll get into our trip in a later posting. Since we've been back one of the worst things that could happen to the United States happened....the passing of Obamacare, the socialist health reform package that'll put us on the lower level of Euro-style health care that'll increase costs and decrease care as well as limit any innovation of medical procedures and care because there'll be no incentive to do so. Plus a ton of companies will be laying off people they can't afford to keep!

This STORY in the American Spectator is brief but it gives an insider's view of how inept the Administration is when it comes to their understanding of free-market business practices and how they are making things just a tad worse...make that a whole lot worse.

Heading Home

Just a quickie....it's early Wednesday morning in Melbourne. We're up and heading to the airport in about an hour. Wish us a safe journey!!!!

We're in Melbourne!

But, first, some pictures from the west side of Australia:

Perth: On Cottesloe Beach there was a large sculpture exhibition going on which included this piece of art with these sails. It was fun to watch with the breezes going on. Oh, and the temperature this day was 104 degrees!

Perth: Jonnene's sister-in-law, Olga, shows her daughter what she remembers of playing a guitar.

Perth: A week ago we had an outdoor "snags on the barby" meal with Christine and her man, Eddie, along the banks of the Swan River. "Snag" is Aussie slang for sausage...and they were delish!

Yeah, we're here. It's Monday night and we're in our room at the Best Western Atlantis on Spencer Street, right near the stop for the SkyBus so we can get a ride to the airport early on Wednesday morning. We spent last night up in Bendigo at the home of a couple of friends of Jonnene's and caught the train back to Melbourne this afternoon. It was probably the first time I've been on a passenger train since I was a little kid when we would ride between Minden, LA and Hope, AR. It was nice but I spent nearly the whole ride sleeping since we were dealing with a 3-hour time lag since leaving Perth.

Speaking of, we left Perth very early Sunday morning. Jonnene's sister and parents took us to the airport...which, BTW, had been and was being renovated big-time since we had been there in 2008. We figured the weight of our check-in bags just right: the limit we were allowed was 23 kilos (50 pounds) and each of our bags were pegged at 22! That means we had added about 27 pounds to our bags from what they weighed when we left the States. We have added quite a few things that we're bringing back with us including chocolate that Jonnene claims we will make last until June. Hope she's right!

Tuesday, we'll get an early morning run in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne and we'll spend the day just walking around. Probably check out the Victoria Market, the gardens...just enjoy the day. We'll try to find a nice place to eat for our last dinner in Australia and then back to our room to finish repacking our bags.

More Oz Notes

The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade that staged in front of our hotel in Sydney.

Here's the water polo team. Wow.

• Tonight (Wednesday) Jonnene and I are going to a restaurant called "That Little Mexican Place". The only other time we went there was in November of 2006 when it was brand new and we meant to go again when we visited in 2008 but didn't make it. It was a small place with about 7 or 8 tables and the guy who owned it, Gavin Bower, was also the cook. It was interesting that he cooked the food in his pajamas...well, they looked like pajamas. And he visited all the customers at their tables when there was a lull. He studied Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine in Santa Fe, New Mexico so his stuff was very genuine. We're happy that it still exists and now has two locations!

• Right now, before we leave, Olga's highlighting Raelene's hair in the kitchen. Rae's is wearing something that looks like a water polo cap...sorta reminds me of the parade in Sydney (see photo above). The cap part, that is. Then you pull some hair through some holes and highlight those suckers.

Theeza plane, she's a-quiet, she's a-big, she's a-plenty nice-a...
....but her regular economy seats suck!

• We tried to get Premium Economy seats for our flight back to Los Angeles next week on the Qantas A380 since our regular Economy seats pretty much weren't to our liking. However, it would have cost us $2,200 EACH to upgrade since our current tickets were bought with restrictions. Well, okay, fine...we'll fly regular economy one more time, Qantas, but that's it! We'll gladly spend the extra money to get Premium in the first place and be a little more comfortable on that big plane. You know there are only 32 Premium Economy seats on an A380? That's more seats than the First Class "apartments" on the same plane (just 14). Meantime there's 72 Business Class seats and 332 regular economy seats. I'd love to ride Business......

• Jonnene and I have decided that we want to weigh as much or less on our return to the States than we weighed when we left for Australia. On our last trip we ate tons and gained quite a bit when we came back...visiting relatives who want to feed you will do that. So far we're doing okay. We're still eating, but not as much. I'm about 1.5 pounds lighter right now and I think Jonnene is around 2-3 pounds lighter. We're also running nearly every day and it's hot enough to make us sweat a lot. And we're walking all the time. Seems to work.

Dogs in Oz

Angel sneaks a peek into our bedroom window early one morning.

Ben walks along the beach after a quick dip and a roll in the sand.

I've had a couple of unexpected run-in's with dogs on this trip that weren't pleasant. As a result, I have a hole in a pair of shorts from an attempted bite and a pair of mangled Bolle' sunglasses. The hole was a result of a large dog named Chase who belongs to Jonnene's cousin, Christine. We had visited their house the same time we went out to see her aunt and uncle. I was the only male at the cousin's house and Uncle Bev had warned me about Chase earlier, that the dog was aggressive and had bitten a neighbor. I wasn't that worried about it and was confident that I could handle the situation, simply by ignoring the dog and staying away from it when possible. When we arrive, Chase is barking like crazy and spinning in circles behind the fence...a very anxious dog....not a good sign. And he's pretty big. So we go in the house, visit a bit and go out the back to see Christine's beautiful back yard. Chase comes up to me and tries to "herd" me away from the ladies in the group. I ignored him and walked by him, and once we're in the yard everything was fine. He did show signs of claiming space so he was definitely territorial but pretty much left us alone and even played. Then we walked back to the house and suddenly he was trying to separate me out again. But he seemed friendlier this time and I stopped to pet him. Initially it seemed to be going good but I saw the demeanor in his face change and he started to growl. I stopped touching him, stood up and started to walk away. He didn't like that, I guess, and went behind me and took a bite of my shorts, probably trying to bite me directly. The nice thing was that the shorts are baggy and he didn't come close to my hind quarters at all. But he put a nice hole in my shorts...it was a bite meant to do damage and it did. Since he belonged to someone else and he hadn't actually bitten ME, I yelled at him and he backed off a bit. I told Jonnene what happened and she relayed the message to everyone else. Christine moved the dog away (probably not the right thing to do because it doesn't teach the dog anything) and we went inside to inspect the new redesign of my shorts. Christine was mortified but I told her it was okay, no harm was done. However, I do wish I had come back at the dog and showed it that it didn't own the space it was protecting. I wouldn't have hit it but I would have come back at it to show who was dominating who.

Then there's Angel, my sister-in-law's new dog which is a Kelpie mix. Actually a very nice dog but energetic, anxious, and has a few habits that it'll either grow out of or will have to be dealt with. But she's sneaky and we learned to keep doors closed to keep her from taking things that don't belong to her. She'll take things outside, chew them up, bury them, or hide them somewhere. In a way, it's funny but not all the time. Well, she managed to get hold of my Bolle' sunglasses with the prescription lens insert...somehow she managed to sneak into our bedroom without anyone noticing. We came home from an errand and Raelene found the glasses with the earpieces totally chewed up but, fortunately, my lens were shaken loose and were in pretty good shape. I'll just have to order a new pair of frames when I get home and things will be fine. But now we're keeping an even closer eye on Angel.

Fortunately I've had some better experiences with dogs on this trip. We got to see Sophie's old playmate, Ben, this past Sunday. He's a few years older with two new hips but still has a playful disposition and doesn't sit still for long. I met Ben on my very first trip to Australia in 2003 and he's always been a friendly dog. You show him some affection and you've got a friend for life. It's always something to see when he meets Jonnene...he sniffs her, realizes who it is, and immediately begins looking around for Sophie. Alas, Sophie's in the States and the two former playmates never see each other again. It really makes you sad but that's how it goes.

Australia 2010 - My Sixth Voyage

The Sydney Opera House as we saw it last Friday, February 26th.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm way late on updating this blog as far as our trip to Australia is concerned. It's been busy enough, it's been fun enough, and the trip is going well so far. This entry is mostly quick thoughts and observations of the trip so far.

• Our flights to Los Angeles were excellent examples of how to cut an expected 4-hour time cushion in LAX in half. We got to the airport in Shreveport in plenty of time. Mom brought us over and hung out with us until we felt it was time to proceed through security to get to our gate. Jonnene took a little longer to get thru because her arm sling needed some extra going-over by the TSA folks there. When we got to the gate we found out that our flight to Dallas was going to be delayed by almost an hour, and it was. Well, almost, about 50 minutes later...and our jet had been replaced by a turbo-prop. Well, okay, the pilot puts on the burners but we still get to DFW much later than planned....but we manage to get to our connecting flight (on the opposite side of DFW, by the way) with time to spare. But it didn't matter....we actually leave the gate, pulling out about 50 yards when we stop for a long while. Then the pilot comes on, saying that we're returning to the gate because he doesn't like the sound of our left engine. We couldn't tell if the sound was odd but if the pilot doesn't like it then I'm fine with not flying! We find out that a hydraulic pump in the engine has to be replaced and we leave the plane to sit around the gate area. About two hours after we were supposed to be in the air, we finally reboarded our flight and headed on to LA. We arrive at LAX with just over two hours before our plane to Australia is supposed to leave, so we rush to get our bags over to the Bradley International Terminal and check in. Well, miracle of miracles, we fly through check-in and security with hardly a wait in line...and find ourselves with over an hour to kill before we even start boarding the plane!!

• We flew on the new Aerobus A380 that is the jewel of the Qantas fleet. First off, the plane is NICE...it is extremely quiet (you can easily talk to anyone without raising your voice and be heard clearly). It is big and has plenty of amenities such as a "pantry" you can visit at any time to get drinks and food. You can see a tour of the aircraft HERE. However, we had our problems with the economy section. First off, we're never flying it again after this trip. It has its pluses but not enough to overcome the tighter spaces and the amazing amount of tilt the seats have that let the one in front of you practically hit you in the head if you're leaning too far forward when the passenger in front drops his seat back. Suffice it to say that we will fly Premium Economy whenever we fly Qantas internationally in the future. More leg room and wider seats...of course you pay more for it but both Jonnene and I think it's worth the extra expense. We'd prefer to fly business but I don't think we can afford the +/- $10,000 it would cost for a seat round trip!

More to come....it's Saturday night here and my eyes are drooping....

Vinter Vunderlund 2010

Wow! We got snow all day yesterday and all night last night! Here's the view from our driveway looking out into the neighborhood.

The trees above our house.

Decided to put the flags up to provide some color and contrast to all the whiteness.

The house looks like a picture postcard.
Too bad most of the snow will melt by the end of today.

Looking down the street at all the trees. It was very impressive for this part of Louisiana. I was able to get in a bike ride a couple of hours yesterday morning before the snowfall came and that was really nice.

The Cold, The Wet, and The Muddy

Jonnene and I are not as warm as we look...there be a whole lot 'o shivering going on!

Saturday was one of those days where I only did a smattering of activities but it took a long time to do them, so the day felt busy although you could count on hand everything you did but still have fingers left over. It was definitely not a waste of a day however I can look back and think "is that all I did?"

It started out getting up early this morning to walk the dogs in 33-degree temps and giving them only a short walk at that because Jonnene and I had to be at the 10-mile Trail Run at Lake Bistineau State Park by 7:30 latest. Jonnene is still nursing her shoulder so she would be a volunteer but I had to run the darn thing. Rain had passed thru late Thursday evening into Friday morning and the trail was a muddy, wet mess. There were over 70 people doing the 10-miler (over 80 were doing the shorter 3.8 mile run) and none were looking forward to sloshing thru deep puddles in freezing temperatures. So this race was not a matter of when you were getting wet (it would be very soon), it was a matter of how wet you got. I was slightly overdressed but that's how I race and I would be quite comfortable throughout the run...probably could have done without the vest but that was no problem. The start was a mass/mess of bodies flying down a wet clay hillside and eventually stringing out into a single-track trail. I got behind Denise Cook and let her pace me for the first two miles before she finally left me (she's a fast runner and ended up third woman overall). Only one mile into the run was our first big puddle and it was three steps through KNEE-DEEP freezing water which certainly woke me up. This would be first of at 25-30 such crossings of various lengths and depths...the most memorable being a virtual mini-lake when I made at least 13 steps in water just below my kneecaps...there was no avoiding it, you had to go through it. Eventually you just ignored it all and ran through most everything. Sometimes you got surprised by a puddle that didn't look like it could be that deep and it was. The water and trails were churned up and mushed up by the runners ahead of me and you would get muddy one minute and wash it all off the next!

Eventually, everyone was spread out over the trails and for a long time I was running by myself. I got lost one time which really messed up what little rhythm I had and it took nearly a mile for me to settle down and get my head back into the game. As soon as I felt I was recovering, an ankle got snared up in a vine and I went heels over head down on the trail. I remember grunting as I hit the ground but I popped back up again and kept running, noting that there was nobody around to see my fall....no witnesses but I wasn't embarrassed by it, that just happens on these runs sometimes.

The last three miles were the worst...nothing but water and mud everywhere and there was no getting around it. Lifting my feet out of that mess was a chore and really slowed me down (seemed to slow a lot of people down). I caught up with two other guys in the last 1/2 mile but couldn't get around them when we hit the last quarter mile across a field to the finish.

Finally crossing the finish line at 1:39:48, about 15 minutes slower than I wanted to do. However, what I wanted to do involved much drier conditions and that didn't happen either.

I was glad to be done and Jonnene was there to greet me. She had been helping to remove timing chips from the shoes of finishing runners (probably because those runners mostly had frozen fingers and couldn't do it themselves!). I finished with a 9:59/mile average but like a friend said, with the conditions you couldn't concentrate on a personal best, you had to just survive to finish. I was the 4th Grand Master (50+) out of 16 to finish and 30th overall. When we got home Jonnene had to soak my clothes to get most of the mud and filth out before they could put in the washer! Every time we drained the bucket there was nothing but brown water going down the drain!

After getting home and cleaning up I had to go to the women's basketball game at Centenary. Two of my cycling kids are on the cheerleader and dance squads and I had promised to go to the game to see them perform. It was a lot of fun and the women's team lost a close one to North Dakota State 67-61. I think Jonnene enjoyed it more than I thought she would and I was glad she came along. Afterwards we ate a VERY late lunch at Newt's before heading home for a quiet evening of just vegging. Busy day indeed, not a lot to show for it but that's okay. I'd like to get a ride in on Sunday but it's going to be a cold day, too. I'm ready for some warmth!

Newest Helicopter Paint

Here's the newest paint scheme I turned out for LifeLine Arizona. It's really simple but the bright red color really pops! I designed a new logo for LifeLine that works well on the side of the aircraft along with the "Arizona" name under the star of life logo near the tail boom. I also did an outline of the state around the aircraft number on the vertical stabilizer at the rear. I think it came out pretty nice.

Cold Weekend

Not much to report on the home front. Went out this morning to log 5.5 miles on a run in 27 degree air and that went pretty well. Ran a tad faster than I expected but when the sun is out and there's no wind, a cold day isn't so bad...as long as you're doing something to generate a little body heat. I'm going to register for the Trail Run at Lake Bistineau on January 30th, 10 miles of running on trails and I want to be ready to do well at that. I did it back in 2008, going 1:29:53 or about 9 minutes a mile. I'd like to knock that down to 8 minutes if possible and if the trail conditions are good.

Jonnene is doing remarkably well in her recovery from shoulder surgery. We've been out and about every day, she's done housework, walked the dog, and other things that I keep getting on her case about...I want her to take it easy and she can't seem to do that. Every night she's slept in our big easy chair with lots of pillows around to support her and I've slept on the couch next to her. Tonight she wants to try to sleep on the bed so we'll see how that goes. The chair is waiting just in case.

I've got plenty to do this week. First meeting with the Centenary cycling club for the semester. Two big graphic design jobs, one of which has to go to the printer sometime Monday, the other needs to be done as soon as the client has made up their minds. Bills to pay and a quarterly estimated income tax check to be mailed to the Feds. Some new parts for my bike and trying to decide if I want to repaint it before that upgrade takes place. Yep, lots to do. I'm only one man.

Let's Get Surgeried!

Thirty hours after the operation and Jonnene is home reading while seated in a pile of pillows in our comfy chair in the den.

The dogs, Sophie and Coober, visit often.

Yesterday Jonnene went in for surgery on her left shoulder and everything went fine. She'd been having problems with it for the last couple of years but things went south rather rapidly during the last 3-4 months. She was hoping that surgery wouldn't be needed, trying various things to alleviate the pain like kinesio-tape and certain exercises. But she knew that she'd have to go under the knife or orthroscope eventually and Wednesday was set as the day.

We got up at 4 am, walked the dogs in the cold air, then got back to gather up what we needed before heading to the surgery clinic near where she works...literally across the hall from where she works! Got the paperwork finished and was shown to our exclusive prep room. Jonnene put on the surgical gown (open in the back!) and we were visited by all the folks who would be working on her, including the surgeon. He's very experienced in this kind of thing, specializing in shoulders, knees, and various other things like that. He is a former team surgeon for the NFL New England Patriots and a couple of other pro football teams. He's also a nice guy and he told us what was going to happen during the procedure with a professional air, followed by more relaxed conversation. I felt good about him after that, especially since Jonnene knew him from work and did PT with many of his patients.

She then got the "good meds" and was soon feeling very good about things. So, as they wheeled her out, I kissed her bye and I drove back to the house to check on the dogs and get the car fueled up. I returned to the clinic and did some work on my laptop, read a magazine before the doctor came out to tell me that things went great. Her shoulder was not as bad as it was first thought and he was happy about that. Her recovery time was still going to take up to 4 months but she will be close to or better than normal in six months. In another hour I was allowed to go back to the room to see her and get her ready to go home. After getting her dressed we chased down some prescription meds for her on the way home, then got her settled in.

Sunday, 2010

Got this photo today from a friend who's wife was taking pictures at the duathlon. Here I am screeching to a halt so I can enter the transition pit and go out on my second run.

Today was the only Sunday we've had so far in 2010. It was a cold one! However, it looks like next weekend will be even colder! We're talking mid-to-high teens with the possibility of rain/sleet (slight, but still there) and all this week won't be much warmer. In other words, this entire week will be one of the coldest we've had in some time! I don't know if I'll get much of anything done outside for a while. Might have to visit the Centenary Fitness Center to run the treadmill or something like that.

Jonnene and I went to a matinee showing of "The Blind Side" starring Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. A most excellent flick...I'd recommend it highly. Earlier we went out for a 2-mile run and kept the pace under 9 minutes per mile. I was most proud of The Wife for getting after it when it wasn't a race. It'll probably be the last run she does before going under the knife on Wednesday for her shoulder. Hopefully she'll be back outside doing that crazy running or biking or pilates stuff in 3-5 weeks after surgery but we won't rush anything. She'll know when's she ready to start up again...after a couple of weeks couped up in the house she'll be begging to do anything!

First Race of 2010

Jonathan and Chelsea, two of my Centenary cycling club kids, take their warmup run into the fog that was out on the course this morning. It was also 28 degrees out there! Brrrrr!

Jonathan shoots out of transition to begin his bike split. He had the fastest finish of the club members, thanks mostly to his run splits. The boy is FAST!

Of course, I did the race, too. Didn't do too badly.

Jacquelyn, the club president, talks over her race with her dad, Jim, who drove over with the family from Fort Worth to participate.

This morning was the Dustbuster Duathlon and my first race of 2010. I didn't think I was in as good a shape for it as I was last year so I approached today as a training race so there wasn't really any pressure on me. It was a very foggy morning and the temperature was officially 28F...but the good thing was that there was no wind so the cold was tolerable, sorta. Four of my Centenary kids were participating in the race and they would garner two first places, one second place, and one third place in their age groups, so it was a good day for them! I did okay...got second place in my new age group: the men's 55-59 (ouch!) that I moved into this year. However, I held my weight against the youngsters, getting 18th overall of 106 finishers in a time of 57:18. My runs were faster than the previous two years but my bike split was almost 75 seconds slower than last year. Cranked out a 6:47/mile the first run and a 7:15/mile the second time...can't be too upset with that.

Friday night Jonnene and I went to Macaroni Grill, a nice classy Italian restaurant in town. The place itself is classy and the staff are dressed in white dress shirts, ties, and black pants. Jonnene looked great as usual and I could have been a little better dressed but our decision to eat there was kinda last minute so I didn't have a chance to change into a sharp-dressed man. There were a number of customers there who didn't even have as high a dress code as I did...one guy kept his baseball cap on his head the entire time though his date was dressed rather well. Some folks just don't know how to dress for the occasion anymore, even if it's informal. Sometimes I wish guys still wore hats with their suits. It's dated, of course, but it was still a smart style.

As to New Year's Eve, we stayed up until eleven to see the ball drop in New York. Earlier we had been at my Dad's house to celebrate his 76th birthday. I gave him a book called Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin. I think he'll like it. We ate tacos, had some brownies, and visited with some of my "step" relatives. Then it was back home to wait out the end of 2009 and sleep late into 2010. Hope the new year is a good one.

A welcome to the new year!

November 2006: I won the Grand Masters category in the half-marathon during the Louisiana Trails races. Can I do a full marathon in 2010? Hmmmmmm.

We're just about 2.5 hours away from the new year as I write this...will probably go to bed in a little while. I'll take everybody's word that when I wake up in the morning it'll be 2010. Right now it's miserably rainy and dank outside but you can still hear some fireworks going off here and there in the neighborhood. Probably they're being fired out from under a back patio or carport around the area...keeps the powder dry until it's time to unleash the ordnance. One of our dogs, Sophie, is not pleased with the noise while our new dog, Coober, is curious about the sounds but I'm not sure if he's scared. His ears are definitely perked up!

Some end of the year numbers: I totaled up 5142.3 miles on the bike and 259.3 miles running for all of 2009. I would have liked to do some more but the weather the last 3-4 months has really curtailed my activities (I did run in the rain once last week and between storms last Wednesday). Tomorrow...New Year's Day...I'll put in a ride with the local bike club to Waskom, Texas and back, about 26 miles total and a nice run afterward (depending on the weather again) but nothing too hard since I'm participating in a duathlon on Saturday and I don't want to wear myself out. So I'm aiming for a nice start to the new year. I intend to run a marathon sometime in 2010, mainly because I've taken an interest in doing one while I can and before my legs eventually crater. I'd like to be able to say I've done one. I need to pick out a locale, something unique and not the usual fair that many of the runners here usually do. Like the marathons in New Orleans, Houston, Dallas White Rock, or Cowtown (Fort Worth). I'm looking at other possibilities...like the race in Missoula, Montana or the marathon that honors the bombing victims in Oklahoma City. A friend has been suggesting the Commanders Marathon in South Africa (probably not) and Big Sur in California (sounds too hot for me). We'll see where it goes.

I hope all who read this have a good New Year's celebration and that you've got plans or aspirations for 2010. Something to look forward to. I'm going to hang out with my wife and see what life brings and see what it is about life that I can affect. Just another adventure. Let's enjoy the ride.

Happy New Year to you all!