My Interesting Life

Running on Thanksgiving

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:17:00 -0500

OK. This is a silly picture. I started to use a pic of myself in my running attire, but even though perhaps no one will ever even read this blog, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I guess I could have used one of those 2007-08 pictures when I was finishing the White Rock Marathon and the Cowtown Half. I was thinner and faster then. But that would have felt slightly unethical. When I’m feeling better about my fitness I’ll use another newer picture of myself.

Anyway, that wasn’t what I wanted to say in this brief entry.

I love running on holidays. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day…. (Especially the cool ones. The 4th of July is not as fun because it’s blistering hot.) There’s a much smaller crowd. Everyone’s in a good mood. I feel completely smug about being out there when not many people are. (In pursuit of enhanced smugness, I studiously ignore the fact that half the population of Dallas County was downtown for the Turkey Trot, so I’m not really doing anything that sets me apart from every other runner in town.)

Regardless of all that, I still love it. Holiday. The Lake. Running. Smiling. Breathing hard. Feeling good.

And now I have to leave before finishing because there’s a green bean crisis in the kitchen. It’s just as well. This was a boring post anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving!

iPad

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:37:01 -0500

No. Sorry, students. I will not give you all A’s if you pool funds and buy me an iPad. Not to say I wouldn’t be tempted…..

Friends for dinner Steve and Deneen visited last night for...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:19:00 -0500

Friends for dinner

Steve and Deneen visited last night for burgers and chat. Very enjoyable evening, even though they kept Christie and me up a little too late. Talked about the Appalachian Trail (they are “purists”), road-building (we’ve had too much), conspiracies and Ancient Aliens (don’t believe what Giorgio tells you), and original music for my soon-to-be-launched podcast (rockin’ but mysterious).

You should have been there! (With apologies to Jimmy Buffett.)

Live-tweeting World War II

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:52:00 -0500

If you aren’t on Twitter, you really should be. I actually get most of my news that way. I follow a selection of sources I like, from a variety of ideological perspectives, and click through to stories I think will be meaningful. Some I follow just for fun.

One recent follow for me is @RealTimeWWII. Whoever this is (I haven’t checked exactly who is doing the tweeting) says

Livetweeting the Second World War, as it happens on this date and time in 1939, & for the next 6 years.

Sometimes one, sometimes two tweets per day. Today they sent

German authorities have declared martial law in Prague. Anyone protesting on the streets will be shot.

No, I suppose that’s not critical to my life. But I think it’s enriching. Not necessarily learning that Nazis were threatening to shoot protestors in Prague, but in being reminded of the seriousness of life, gaining context, remembering that our lives today are not all there is.

There is an unimaginably vast history on which our lives are structured. There is an unimaginably vast future which will arrive after we pass on. If I am “spiritual” at all (whatever that means), I think it is in feeling my place in history, in the world (both the natural and the built worlds), and with those whom I love.

ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:35:00 -0500

Robots. Duh.

Deneen’s Awesome Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread. ...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:34:00 -0500

Deneen’s Awesome Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread. Buttered and shoved under the broiler this morning. Yummm!