Fifty Days of Running

Tags

hills, mental health, streaks

I started a run streak on Memorial Day way back at end of May because of  a suggestion on the Runners’ World website that read – We sorta dare you to run every day from now to July 4th which works out 41 days.

So I did.  I mean, what else are ya gonna do when we’re in the mess we’re in?  I haven’t run two days in a row since forever.  I figured if I could get through days 2 and 3 that I could manage 41 straight.  I did and then a strange thing happened.

I absolutely needed to run every day as in 7 days a week as in those 41 days in a row.  I started with 2 milers and kept progressing up through 2 1/2 and 3 and 3 1/2 and even ran 5 on the Fourth.

Took one day off and I’m back at it so I’m something like 55 for 56.

It’s not so much that banging out three miles is easy anymore which it is, it’s that my brain, my mental health, my me needs to get out and run.

There’s one place I run where if you get deep enough into the woods all you hear is you breathing.  Try bottling that.

These days I’m grasping for ways to cope and 3 or so miles including the sweatting sun block afterglow is as important as huffing and puffing.  Today I took the woods route and after completing one loop went back again specifically to tame a hill because I needed it, the hill needed me and I had no good reason not to.

Hills are your friends, friends.  One time I was chatting with another runner during a Philadelphia Marathon and she was getting killed by the hills which in reality weren’t all that bad.  She said she was from Florida.  I asked how she trained for hills  and she told me she ran overpasses on the highway.  Man made hills.  You do what ya gotta do.

The streak continues.

40 Days

Tags

40 days, Moby Dick, observations

Thanks to a shove from the Runners World website I am embarking on a 40 days in a row runapalooza.

From Memorial day to the Fourth of July for sure and beyond if feel like it.

I haven’t run two days in a row in years.  I always needed my day off but now throwing caution to the winds I’m on day 12 of 40.

I’m starting to need this.  Who knew?

40 days, same as Lent, same as Ahab chased the white whale.

Call me Ishmael.

Music Theory

Tags

music, play by ear, sight read, theory

My problem with music theory is that I always thought that a theory was something that might or might not be true so In music’s case I took theory with a grains salt.

That was my first mistake.

Now that I have time I’m studying music and music theory and comets find out that music theory is not full off optional avenues as in you can believe this or not.

No, music theory should be called music law as in this is the law and you can break it but you need to know what you are doing when you do it.

There seems be no end to music and theory. Nobody knows all of it. Nobody knows everything, at least I don’t think so.

I have been thinking of a way to describe my music studies. Do I play play ear, do I sight read, can I read at all?

I pretty much play by guessing. If it sounds good I play it. Even dissonance came be welcoming.

Passing the Time

Tags

England, music, Nazis, spies, The Wrecking Crew, WWll

Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day.

I watched a documentary film last evening.  When it’s a documentary it’s called a film, not a movie.

It’s call “The Wrecking Crew” and it’s about the group of LA studio musicians who cranked out all the most beloved music of my teenage years.

In one scene, Barry ( Eve of Destruction) McGuire showed up with a tune he had written called ” California Dreamin” and in tow were his backup singers, Cass Elliott, Michelle Phillips, John Philips and Denny Doherty.

The producer gets one listen to those four and says we better let them record this one.

In other news that’s barely fit to print I watched a movie last night called ” Night Train To Munich.”  It’s a 1940 spy thriller.  This is how I’m spending my evenings.

Rex Harrison stars in the movie as some kind of undercover spy agent guy who speaks perfect German although all of the Germans in the movie speak perfect English too even while everyone is in Germany.  Paul Henreid who would later play Victor Laslo in Casablanca was cast as an SS officer.  He spoke perfect German/English/German too.

I can’t imagine what the national stress level was in England in 1940.  The movie filled a need for people desperate for any shred of good news.

I get it.

 

It Don’t Matter, Part Deux

Tags

music, observations, The Monkees, virus

Following up on the previous post of almost the same name.

That replayed football game’s 4th quarter happens to coincide with a local station’s broadcast on their point 2 as in, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 etc…that I like.

Eight point two shows two episodes of The Monkees starting at 5pm on Sundays.  The fourth quarter of the replay games shares airtime with Los Monkees.

Watching the show again after 50 something years is hard to describe.  The boys were so young, who wasn’t?  The music was pretty good and it turns out they were talented performers in their own rights.

Mike Nesmith  already had written a hit or two, Peter Tork was in a couple of working bands, Davy Jones had performed in the West End and on Broadway and Mickey Dolenz had tv chops.

Some of the music holds up pretty well even after 50 years. Some of it doesn’t.

It’s the smirking asides from Nesmith and the boys that I see now for the first time.  I suspect they all knew how ridiculous the whole scene was and so they decided to be as ridiculous as they could be.

They were fine with management as long as they towed the line but once they realized they had power since they were the stars and  wanted to make their own music they were done, cooked, kaput.

I would toss in a Monkee tune here but you all know which ones are your favs and besides I’m tired of fighting “Skip Ads” on You Tube so you can “Skip Ads” yourself.

I’ve also had it it with ” You’re not signed in,” Start a free trial account” and ads right in the middle of whatever movie I’m watching.  Ads are your problem, not mine.

As far as going bed early, or late or even to at all it don’t matter as it’s always Groundhog Day but without Bill Murray or And McDowell or Ned Ryerson.

Honestly, we have it pretty good overall.

So you better get ready, they maybe coming your town.

 

 

 

It Don’t Matter

Tags

country music, crossword puzzles, observations, virus

I figure I’ll write the piece and then maybe a title will come to me or it won’t.  As they say in country music – ” It Don’t Matter.”

I think I just happened upon a title.

Along the lines of passing time these days I offer these observations:

I watched a replay of Super Bowl 31 or XXXl as the NFL likes to call it.  I have no idea when it occurred except that I probably, maybe, most likely watched it.  There were no leather helmets involved so it somewhere in te recent but maybe distant past.

I found the time waster to be fairly interesting as John Madden and Pat Summerall called the game.  Since it was x number of years ago there was serious lack of video and teevee bells and whistles in the replay department which I found refreshing.

Even better was how the game was edited down to three or maybe 2 hours leaving all of the in game commercials on the sidelines, if you will and whatever dreadful halftime show that actually took place never made it to air.

I remember when my kids were young and my Sunday afternoons were not free for football viewing I would tape the games, yes, tape the games, and then watch them at 11pm that same evening having embargoed myself from the final scores so I could be genuinely surprised that those New York Football Jets had actually won a game if they did.

I could watch a whole game in about 25 minutes fast forwarding past the pre game, kickoffs, replays, commercials, halftime show, commercials, replays, commercials and commercials and commercials.  Boom and done, Jets win, Jets lose and I go to bed.

But back to the matters at hand these days.   I have been consciously varying my schedule day to day in order to change things up.  Go to bed early, go to bed late, take a nap, don’t take a nap.

Then I read an article today somewhere cautioning me on how to avoid falling into the trap of going to bed early, going to bed late and so on.

I walk and run, I play guitar and piano and I have a love hate thing going with the NY Times crosswords.

Sometimes the puzzles are too cute for their own good.

Last night I did one where there was supposed to be a four letter word in one box although neither the puzzle nor the Times tells you this upfront.

The word was “Back” so a four letter answer became “Back Bay” or ” Pay Back or Get Back” and so on.

We do not appreciate extra cuteness around here these days so please leave your cleverness at the front door.

And as for the title, It Don’t Matter.

Next post – Part Two of It Don’t Matter.

 

 

 

 

Passing Time These Days

Tags

observations, politics, virus

I wasn’t sure if I should title this piece ” Passing Time” or “These Days” so I came to the obvious conclusion I should use both.

Here we are passing time these days or these days we’re passing time.  I can probably still reuse the titles since these days I have nowhere to go and all day to get there.  Passing Days anyone?  These Times? Passing These days?  The possibilities are somewhat limited but might be good for a week’s worth of observations.

I have been watching WWll documentaries on the Battle of Britain.  The Nazis keep making the same mistakes and the Brits always prevail.

Yes, I know history repeats itself more often than we realize or would like admit.  We keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

Supposedly Jackson Browne was 16 years old when he wrote his song,”These Days.”  Pretty self aware for a kid.

We could use some self awareness in certain quarters so that history would stop repeating itself for a while and give us a break.

Thanks to everyone who is till at work keeping the rest of us safe.

Categories

Tags

aging, categories, virus

I don’t mean the like the ones on Jeopardy or the board game Scattergories.  I mean how we get separated into groups.

No matter what or when I’m always in one category or another and in multiple categories at the same time.

Man, husband, father, runner, musician. tax payer, non tax payer, voter, shopper, car buyer, student, union member and so on – all the hats we wear during the course of a day, a month, a year and our lifetimes.

Now I find myself in new category.

The current virus news cautions the elderly and those with underlying health conditions   that they are at high risk for complications from the corona virus.

My age – not what I consider elderly but news reports say anyone over 60 ought to be cautious so I get heaped in with them.

And what exactly are underlying health conditions?

Maybe the list is too long for a news broadcast so I asked my doctor if I have underlying health conditions.  He said yes.

The list is probably so long that anyone of us over 60 has at least one or more reasons to worry even though we continue to lead normal, somewhat healthy lives.  We think so anyway.

in addition to being a voter, tax payer and so on I’m now in another category wearing another hat.

Another hat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did You Know?

Ringo is lefthanded.

Time Travel and Dreaming

Tags

dreams, sleep, time travel

Or maybe dreaming of traveling through time.

I went way back last night into someone else’s life and the person was not at all alarmed that  I was there somewhere in the 1950’s as though people dropping in on you from wherever was a normal thing that happens everyday.

I recall feeling at ease and not at all upset I was somewhere I shouldn’t normally be.

Not only was in this person’s life in the 1950’s but also the 60’s and on up to the present time. We encountered a person who was angry and I managed to defuse the situation which at first looked dangerously close to having a fistfight break out.

I don’t know who the person was or how I knew him or her.  There’s alot about time travel that is fuzzy and undefined he said sating the obvious.  Whatever it was I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks.

Was it because such a momentous and dramatic dream really drove me deep into a relaxing sleep?  Did my brain tell my sleeping self to buckle in and get ready for a good night?  Did something somewhere trigger that dream?

And what are the bigger implications of time traveling in a dream?  Am I going somewhere?  Is something big about to happen?