Tuesday

I am kind of struggling to get these posts in it seems.  Between just being kind of tired and also including just not having anything really exciting to talk about.  Well here it is.

Since I didn't get a run in yesterday, I went for a run tonight after work.  I planned on hitting Woodson Park, but with traffic on Page, I popped over to McDonnell Park.  McDonnell Park is much much hillier than Woodson, so it was a better workout for me.  I did 3 miles, something like 11:51, 11:45 and 11:35 with an overall average around 11:45 or something like that.  Not bad at all.  It was cold also, I really noticed it on the first mile, after that though it wasn't so bad.  I should get another run in tomorrow night and probably Friday--I have the day off again.  Those should be my lead up runs to the 5k on Sunday.  We will see how it goes.

Read some tonight in Alexander's Bridge and also Faith of Our Fathers.  I am closing in on finishing the McCain book-something like 38 pages to go.  I hope to finish it up this week, maybe even before Nov comes around.

By the way, I did finally get another comment on one of my earlier posts from a day or so ago, the one on Golf.  Of course it was spam so not that exciting but given the limited number of comments I get, I should at least recognize it.

PSR but no run

It was PSR night tonight, but no run for me.  Debbie had a class she was going to so I had Angie along for the night also.  Not sure yet if I will attempt to switch to a morning run today--Tuesday, to make up for missing tonight.  That is what Debbie had suggested but since it is supposed to be below freezing, not sure I really want to get out there.  

I did pick a bunch of smaller green tomatoes that were left on my plants.  This was a poor year for my tomatoes after the first promising bunch was eaten by squirrels and/or rabbits in June.  Not sure if any of these will turn red or not.  I might be looking for any kind of recipe for green tomatoes in a week or so if nothing turns.

I won my fantasy football game this weekend.  I am somehow 5-3 now, but with the lowest total points scored for our league.  Kind of pathetic but I will take every win I can get.  I will only get to the playoffs off my record so if it takes more than a little luck, so be it.

Sunday Golf

Sunday was nice enough that I actually got to play 9 holes of golf.  It was chilly & windy but the sun was sort of out most of the afternoon.  It wasn't a great round or anything but being able to knock the ball around at the end of October is always a good thing.  I think I had a score of 52 for the 9 holes--not too good.  Too many 3 putts, that is what I get for not golfing in over a month and before that it was probably another month.  I didn't play much golf this year.  I guess that is not such a bad thing though.  I enjoy playing it but there are much higher priorities than golf most weekends it seems.

Saturday

Finally getting around to typing something up.  It was mostly a day of reading I guess now that I think back on it.  Debbie went to some garage sales in the morning--so I read.  Then I took Thomas & Rose out to a store & park while Debbie and Angie napped.  Then grocery shopping with Thomas.  Make supper, a pasta & chicken thing with a white sauce--not too bad but kids didn't really eat it either.  Read more during baseball game then.

I am under 100 pages to go on McCain's Faith of our Fathers.  I have also started Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi.  This is a book from a class I had back in college.  I think I basically scanned it in college and then read it a year or two after college.  Certainly time for a re-read.  Today I also just started my new Willa Cather book Alexander's Bridge--only a few pages in.  That takes me to read current books being read.  Should have McCain's book finished before the election, that is kind of my goal.

Thomas was really cranky today.  He just was focused on wanting Baby Einstein.  All day long he was asking for it and building up to screaming about it.  It was his first day on his new medicine, I hope his crankiness is not from that.  Hope tomorrow is much better.

Missed Again

Here I am again doing a day after post.  I was pretty tired last night & just didn't make it downstairs to type something up.  I had the day off, so after getting the kids to school, I went for a run.  I did around 4.4 miles at a park I hadn't been to before.  It had a couple of upgrades/medium hills.  It was cold yesterday.  The times were around 11:10, 13:20, 11:20, 10:55, 11:20 for the last .4.  I stopped on the 2nd mile and got an extra shirt out of the car, but I had also taken an extra walk break or two that mile.  Good run overall.

We had a meeting at school with a couple of Thomas' specialists about goings on with him.  We actually heard good things about his progress this year, something we rarely here normally.  Parent teacher conferences are next week, but only have like 15 minutes so not sure have time for much.  Should be setting a meeting though for the full IEP team to get together soon after that.

Trunk or Treat was last night at school then also.  It was the first time the school had done it and it seemed like a big success.  Lots of kids and people there.

Not sure what is all happening yet today, but I will save that for tonight's post.

Bicycling Beyond the Divide--#23 finished

Book #23 for the year is finished.  It was Bicycling Beyond the Divide by Daryl Farmer.  It is about a man who at 20 went on a bike trip from his home in Colorado to Washington/Canada border and down to San Francisco and across Nevada & back home.  Now 20 years later at age 39 is redoing this bike trip.  The first time through it was a kind of self-discovery trip that made memories that lasted ever since.  The 2nd time is an attempt to recreate almost recapture part of his youth.  Of course the other reason is the opportunity to gain enough info/journal entries to write a book.

Overall a good book, does a nice job of mixing in memories from the first trip and contrasting it with what is happening on 2nd.  You get an idea of how hard the trip is effort wise as well as locating camping sites or motels.  It sounded like the 1st trip was more camping on roadside type though.  

A couple of thoughts that I had from reading the book are:  (1) cities and towns growing away from the old centers of town and (2)some of the stranger people he meets compared to the homeless people he encounters in San Francisco.  First on the cities, he mentioned this a few times in the book where cities grew since he was there last or more strip malls on outsides of the town or new home developments.  It is kind of sad to think about this because I am guessing the population of the city may have stayed the same but rather than rebuilding the downtown or older neighborhoods people and businesses are looking to move out.  On a small scale in small town America maybe not as big a deal, but certainly a big deal in large cities.  Just an attitude that seems too prevalent in this country.

Second, was the few kind of mobile/not attached type people he met on his trip, usually at camping sites.  People that seemed forever on the move and kind of lived off the land types.  Real kind of free spirits that decided to live an completely non-traditional lifestyle, almost living off their wits.  Compared these people to the many homeless people he encountered in his days in San Francisco that seemed to barely function beyond shaking a cup, begging for change.  While the obvious answer is drugs is a very probable cause for the homeless and/or a mental illness, it kind of hit me about how close both sets of people really are.  I have no great insight into solving the homeless situation but just wish a little of the free spirit the travelers had could be given to the homeless.

Like I said a good book, not outstanding but certainly good.  It makes you want to get on your bike and start seeing the country.  While biking is not my thing, it has kind of inspired me to up my running and try to focus in on some running goals for this Fall, Winter and Spring.

This was book #23 read this year.  My goal from back in January was to read 2 a month or 24 for the year.  It looks like this is one goal that I will accomplish.  I still have around 270 pages to go in the McCain book--not sure if I will get it done by election day or not--hopefully I will.  I will probably take a few minutes tonight and look for that next book as well.

Wed Run

It seems like all I am posting about is my running & what I am reading or books I have bought.  Throw in a couple of tidbits about the kids & that seems to be my blog.  Sorry if anyone is actually out there reading this, kind of boring stuff.  I think I posted something similar about a month or so ago as well.

Well, now that my disclaimer is out of the way, the run.  I did 5.25 tonight.  It was a good run and the average was under 12:00.  I don't have the average minutes per mile memorized but it was something like 11:10, 11:40, 11:20?, 10:50, and 12:15 and 12:20 the last .25.  Yes one of the middle miles was under 11 minutes, not sure if it was the 3rd or 4th mile though.  Again, I am happy with this.  Maybe I can go below 33 minutes for the 5k coming up in a week & a half.

We took Thomas to see a Dr today about looking into ADHD.  Going into the meeting I would say I was mostly against trying medicine, but after talking it over we are going to give it a try for a week or so.  Basically, per the Dr, we will be starting him on a low dose and it is a type of medicine that leaves the system in 10 to 12 hours, so taking him off at any time shouldn't be a problem.  He said that 70+% of children that start on the medicine show pretty quick results.  Since he is a handful, if this helps keep him focused to where he can do more in the classroom, I think it would be a real positive.  I am still a little torn about it though, because I don't want the medicine to take away Thomas' personality either.  We won't know until we try and there is really no reason not to try it either, at least in the short term.

Tampa lost the first game of the World Series to Philly.  I don't really have a horse in this race, but am cheering for Tampa.  They are a team with a lot of young talent that I have been kind of following for the last couple of years.  It should be a good series to watch.