Years almost done

Yes it is. As it has been for the past 35 years, I am waiting for sales to come in to see whether I make any real money. This year may be pretty lean as the factors affecting the industry have finally caught up to us. Then as usual, I am preparing for a meeting in a warm resort in January. This year it is back to Scottsdale where I have some pleasant memories of climbing Camelback Mountain, among other things. I hope that I can still have the stamina to do it. My IT band has been acting up from distance running so I am resting until mid-January when I will begin training for another half marathon, my 21st. I am just going to use an elliptical for cardio until then. I am down to a weight I like so don't want to add the pounds I took off due to dental surgery.

This song always reminds me of Scottsdale.

Lucinda Williams

I am finally seeing Lucinda Williams after liking her for 20 years. She is playing in Princeton for the 20th anniversary of the Car Wheels on a Gravel Road album. There are a bunch of artists I want to see before they die. She isn't in the age group where I expect her to go soon but I am always surprised at who is dying. She is in the area quite a lot so I am taking advantage of her playing at a great venue. I checked her set list out and see that she plays a lot of my favorites, though I didn't see "Something About What Happens When We Talk" on it. I am also seeing Willie Nelson next week. He is definitely in the "see him quick before he dies" age group. Bob Dylan is another one, but I have heard he doesn't play guitar anymore because of arthritis. He just plays piano. It is surprising that I have never seen him. I just recently watched the Rolling Thunder documentary on Netflix and saw that he played a show on that tour very close to where I was living. I can only assume that, as a poor student, I didn't have the money to see him. I am certain that I was a fan.

16 Years ago

It is getting to be a regular theme on this blog as I post on how time is passing. It's been 16 years since my dad was killed in an accident in London. He was actually relatively young when he died and would have been 90 on his last birthday. I'm not that far from the age he was when he died, which is a very sobering thought. It's also been 16 years since I was in a job with colleagues I really liked with whom I had very memorable times. That continued until about when the company was sold. In fact, I can remember dancing at the awards banquet at the final meeting to this REM song:



 I wrote a letter to myself in 2007 and sent it to "future me." It arrived in 2017. Much of it didn't turn out the way I expected, though I still like soccer and play guitar. I gave up on crosswords which occupied a lot of my time. I just thought there were better ways to use my time like reading all of history books I missed in my graduate education. No plans to write another letter to Future me in 2029. With any luck we will not have suffered through a second presidential term.

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.