Time Flies as usual

Wow, it's been almost 6 months since I wrote anything on here. It's not that my life has been especially eventful since the end of 2018. I am pretty much doing the same stuff I have been doing for the last little while: working, running, playing music, reading history, following soccer. I have been trying to form a new band with some musicians I connected with on Craig's List. It will be early 80's new wave: Smiths, Squeeze, Elvis Costello, XTC, etc.  I doubt that it will have much of an audience as it wasn't all that popular in the US. And the crowd who might know it are in their 40s and 50s and not the types who go out to hear live music.  Still it is fun to play, which is the main reason why I keep doing it.

60s music has a broader appeal to both younger and older crowds, especially when you play a lot of Beatles and Rolling Stones.   My old bandmate, who moved south, has been getting lots of gigs playing the same music we played up here. He's in a smaller metro area so there is not as much competition and there are lots of retirees who do have the time. money and inclination to go out. I try not to get too nostalgic but that music is 50 years old. I have no clue what the popular music of today sounds like other than it all seems kind of repetitive and uninspiring to me.

Another year is almost done

... and for the 35th year in a row I am planning a visit to some place warmer for a meeting. Well, that is not quite right because of the virtual meetings in 2010 through 2013. Then there was the year "sabbatical" in 2014. In 2017 it was Seattle where it was cold so it counts as a winter meeting but not as a warm place. Anyway, it is Austin this time where I haven't been in 15 years. My friend from high school who was also my college roommate lives there so I was hoping to catch up with him. I don't have his email so I sent a letter but haven't heard from him. The letter was not returned which I assume means he is not interested. He had a car accident about 30 year ago and was in a coma for awhile. He was a really smart guy before the accident but lost some of his cognitive ability after that. If I had heard from him, I might have taken an extra day to hang out there.

Moving on to other important developments, I have finally achieved status on an airline. It's only Gold but at least for a year, I will be able to board a plane early. It is not that I am traveling anymore. I just made a determined effort to stay on one airline- American- instead of looking for the cheapest flight, regardless of the carrier. But not that I have done it, it may not last. My group is changing so I won't be flying as much. But next year, I will enjoy what I have. First class upgrades will still be few. I was flying back from Charlotte three weeks ago and was #50 on the list for upgrades.

Nothing going on musically since my guitar buddy moved south in retirement. I  have responded to a few ads but not much has happened. I am maintaining the band site to give people an idea of what I can do. I moved it from Squarespace to WordPress because WordPress is cheaper. I even took advantage of the Freakonomics discount code. Squarespace has nicer templates so the site looked better before. I am getting a new Mac so may try to do some home recording with it. That is if I can stand listening to the sound of my voice.

Happy 2019 to all!

Almost eight months...

...since my last post. It's not as if I have been especially busy. I just didn't have a lot to say. Since my last race in March, my IT band issue has gone away. I will attribute it to the regular stretching I have done as part of my physical therapy. Whenever I run now, I spend about 15 minutes doing exercises to stretch out all of the muscles in my hip and groin. It feels a little tight as I run but there is no pain. I have a little bit of stiffness when I am done but really no more than I have always had. But age is taking its toll on my running times.

I missed the Rock and Roll marathon in Philly for the first time in ten years because we were on vacation. I have also decided that I don't like running when it is warm and humid- 70 and above- so instead I did a half in the Boston area the last weekend in October. It was in the mid 30s so definitely more to my liking. I was able to stay under 2 hours which had not been the case for the past two halves I did. My 1:45 finish in 2013 looks to be the high point of my running career unless I start training very seriously. I am signed up for the Love Run in Philly next March 31 so I should decide soon about doing a more structured training plan.

My goal now is to be at least in the the top 25% of my age group. I did a 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving finishing 35th of 330 so that was good. But I was also a minute slower than last year. I think about what I was doing fifteen years ago and then what I will be doing fifteen years from now: 78!!!

Age Catches Up with Me

I was a little too optimistic about my ability to run hills as I think the running I did in Arizona gave me a problem with my IT band on the left leg. I have been doing physical therapy for about six weeks but it hasn't seemed to help. I was able to do a half marathon last Sunday because the odd thing is it doesn't bother me when I am running. After I am done though, my leg stiffens up and I get pain when I bend it. I am planning to lay off running for a few weeks to see if it improves. I was disappointed in my half marathon performance but I didn't really train. If I hadn't paid $90 for the race, I might have cancelled.

I was recently in Texas again for work. Not in Dallas, which was where I last visited. This time it was Fort Worth where we had an event at the Museum of Modern Art. This Joseph Cornell box was in the museum. I asked if they had more Cornell but they didn't.

There was also a very cool installation by 

Spring is finally here, I think.

Arizona

I had a nice visit to Arizona for work; this time it was Tucson where I'd never been before. Unfortunately, the weather was not as warm as I had hoped, having endured some really bone chilling temps in the east. Still it was certainly tolerable and being at a resort for almost a week in the middle of January was a treat I was glad to experience again. I had a great dinner with a colleague who is nearing retirement like me. It was a little pricey so, as I outranked him, I paid the bill though he covered the bottle of  wine .  Not that I am a big drinker, but I think that I must have had the equivalent of a bottle of wine every night at dinner. It is just so easy to drink when the waiter keeps pouring it. I will pat myself on the back because, despite my overindulgence, I got up at 6 am each morning to do my training runs: up and down a hill in the matinal darkness in three one mile loops. It's good for my heart, I told myself, as I panted to the finish.

Happy New Year

2018! Not that I didn't expect to make it to this year but it is sobering to realize how much time I have lived through. I have always paid attentions to dates. When I was in grammar school, we had an encyclopedia I enjoyed reading.  I'd look at the birth years of people who were still alive and see 1885 or 1897 and think how much the world had changed in their lifetimes. I remember a chart in my prayer book which listed the days on holidays would occur in future years. It ended at 2000 which seemed so far in the future in 1965. Now it's 2018 and 35 years from now is 2053, another unimaginable date. Even 15 years ago, 2003 when I was happy in a job I liked with people I enjoyed working with. Or 10 years ago when my company was sold and there was much uncertainty about where my life was going. Or 5 years ago when I was unceremoniously dumped into the job market at 57. Today, I am happy and content but there are always questions about where I'd be if my decisions had been different. So here's to a prosperous new year for all!

Hoh Rain Forest

I must say that this was a magnificent site when we visited earlier this year. We were there when there were no tourists and the ranger stations were closed- the first week of January. But it was unlike anything I 'd ever experienced before. Driving in it was like we were going to the end of the world as there were no cars coming or going. I would have enjoyed a short hike but was discouraged from doing so by the remoteness and the cold. I think the solitude made it more memorable.




The rest of Olympic National Park was pretty amazing too.