Hey Fun Pixures!

For you Florida, South Carolina and Indiana folks, those bumps in the background...... Those are mountains!

Er, I don't know what Chase did to edit that picture, but aint no way I'm that skinny. Man that skinny ougtta be eatin' chesse fries at that Valdosta Park that Charlie Daniels frequents. So, don't believe it, that's an editing thing, I promise!

The Chaser and I were up to 8500 Feet in elevation, our average altitude today was much higher than that at Western States....
See that tan horizontal line about an inch over Chase's bean? Yeah, we were on that trail. Man, I could really get in shape if I lived out here (at least for the three months that these trails are open :)

Wow, Only a Hunert Left! Update!

Check it out, 99 days until freedom! Then what? Hey, Hey, Sport, can't ask that question yet, how about 27 days and 22 hours until Western States? That's the only thing on which to concentrate now!

How am I getting ready? Well, evidently it's good to build your tolerance to alcohol poisoning! That's what Chase and SaraLee are training me to do. Oh, and we are doing 26 in the mountains today, I'll let you know how that works out.

I'll update this complete with pictures later, exciting!

It's a fact, I'm a flatlander. It's a fact that I'm a flatlander that lives at sea level. It's a fact that I'm a flatlander, living at sea level that needs to lose a couple of pounds!

That being said, wow! It's beautiful out here. Weather, perfect. You want mountains, yeah, they got 'em. I did really well for about 19 miles today, really felt great, the only problem was we ran 23, so about 4 miles there weren't much fun. But I never do well the first day of real running at altitude, and I gotta think the mass ounces of beers didn't help. I'd say tomorrow will be better, but we're going out tonight, and I am not going to be a wet blanket. I believe my trip to Denver won't be complete unless I take a drunken bus ride with the Chaser and his awesome wife Saralee.

That's whats on tap, the is here, I wish you were beautiful, and the training, superb!

Song of the Week #38: Joe Bon Walshi

Ok, I'm fixin' (Southern colloquialism, means about to :) to do my inaugural Denver exploratory run. Wouldn't be fair for me to pick a song before that run. So, I'll be adding to this post when I return!

After flirting with some whacky ones I am just going with some Jon Bon Jovi meets Joe Walsh at Farm Aid:

I know there are a lot of good ones, but I've always liked that one. I thought about Rocky Mountain High, but it's too slow.

God it's beautiful here. I just ran all over downtown and discovered that Denver is prettier than most places, but it's like Vincent Vega said about Europe to Jules in Pulp Fiction, "I mean, they got the same stuff over there as we got here." Denver does have the same stuff. REI, it's just a store. Nothing special. And Starbucks, here's the song I would have played were I crude http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7aIMzUFMXc man, they got a Starbucks on every stinking corner! Listen, I've had my last Starbucks! It's local or it's not at all henceforth! Beautiful place like this and corporate whores......... I will not rant, Denver I love ya, but Drop and give me 20!

Westward Ho!

Hey, you calling a ho?

What's that all about the ho? I heard of a ho-ho-ho:

I heard of a ho-ho

I heard of a hoe

I even heard of a 'ho'

But I never did hear of a ho. I guess that just means I'm going to Colorado to see Squires and Chase him up and down them Rocky Mountains.

So, I'll be spotty (like always) with the Slam, but he works on Friday and Monday so, and I may have mentioned I'm off those two days (and every other day that ends in a Y untill Aug. 5) so, I'll steal his computer and sneak in an update or two (gotta do the song of the week!)

I'm off, and not coming back without a letter!!

One Month from Today

One month from today I'll be here:Western States Start, as a matter of fact I'll be 20 minutes into the run, I'll be walking up the Olympic Village Ski Slope in Squaw Valley on my way here:

The Western States Finish:

I wish you all could be there to share this with me, but I know you have real jobs, and I can't afford to bring you all. Fortunately, my beautiful daughter Ali is going and my great friend Kristyn (who's stuck with me through thin and thinner!) are going to be there. Even though you can't be there you can keep track of me in real time. Using this link and knowing that my race number is 281: http://ws100.com/webcast/runnerquery.html

It's a handy tool. In 2005 when I did the race, Mom told me they had the whole convent up all night tracking me, and they knew that I finished in under 24 hours as I did it. She said they were freaking out when I went off the grid at mile 90 (I had stopped to get a blister fixed, but the webcast doesn't give you that info.)

Anyway, am I excited, yes I am! I hope you'll share the journey with me.

Tail on the Scale

I'm starting to write this before I jump on the scale this morning. I'm not optimistic about what it will say. I've been doing the right things, pretty much. I've passed on the desserts, pretty much. I've just said no to the hooch, pretty much. Also, I ran 95 miles in 7 days, that's a lot.

So, why am I not optimistic? That scale is a sadistic piece of crap! Hey, look, I know I'm doing the right things, I know I'm getting in good shape, almost back to pre-injury form; but, however, thus, in contrast, I do not believe the scale will adequately reflect my effort.

Shouldn't it be enough that my clothes aren't as tight as they were 6 weeks ago? Shouldn't it be enough that I can tell? It should be, but it aint. That's what goals are all about, and that's what running in the mountains is all about. Less weight to carry up Devil's Thumb = increased chances of hitting Placer High School in Auburn in less than 30 hours.

Ok, enough, one more trip to the watercloset, I hope, I hope it's 175 or less; and ......

That's it, I freaking quit! Another stinking pound. One stinking pound. Not two, one. 176. I'm going to keep on keeping track, but I aint working myself up about it anymore, and if I want a brew I'ma have a brew, I was losing a pound a week before I stopped that habit (yikes, I just used drinking and habit together, that can't be good, perhaps, I'll stay hooch free for a bit, at least till I see Chase on Thursday.... yeah that's tomorrow.)

Well, there you have it, I'll see you later, I've got to drop and give myself 20.

To The Letter; Volume A

Hey, Hey, Got me a letter for Memorial Day.
Hey, Hey, Got me the Letter A
Run 35 Miles,
They Come In Piles
And really that's all that I have to say!

Ok, it isn't all I have say, but it's most of it.
Now I've got In The Gra and since under by-law A-1 I can only get the letters for SLAM in the races themselves, I am only missing ND. Star may notice that those are the initials for Notre Dame, No Dice Star, it's for Not Done! I won't be done till Delta Burke sings following Wasatch!

However, the ND and shouldn't be too hard to come by. I'm certain to have a good 30 mile run in Colorado (or a tough one that I complete) that'll be a letter. Then it'll be a D and I'm thinking a night run to pick that one up. A night run around June 6, 7, or 8. See, I'm flexible so I go when I can get some company. Be well!

Training Day, The Run

Hey, you ever see that movie Training Day?

Awesome movie, ultrarunning buddy Chris Wedge turned me on to it. Denzel, Scott Glen, among others star in this "Urban Crime Drama." Well, hello Mr. Fancy Pants, it's got it's own genre! Wedge uses the powerful Denzel to rookie narc cop "What are gonna be? You gonna be a Wolf or you gonna be a Sheep?" lecture, to get him going when he's feeling a little wimpy. Well, Chris Wedge represented for Florida at Western States in 07 (25:03 thank you!), so he's no Sheep!

Anyway;
there was a scene in today's Clermont run that reminded me of this ditty from Training Day:
What in the heck does this have to do with running ultra's? Oh, let me share!

As the lovely Tracy Cook and I were running "The Loop" (it's a 10 mile clay and dirt road with some boss hills, we need to make this a bi-weekly part of our training!) I see this little critter crossing the road.

Tracy and I finish our 10 mile loop. We get our bottle refilled, and I down a coffee cooler and BAM! we're back at it. We go back by, and I see my little friend has made it about 1/2 way across the road in only 1:36 minutes. No, not down the road, across, regular width road. Milli (or Mr. Pede), he aint real fast, but I'm sure he's made it across by now. What's the point?

You figure that out, and you've solved the mystery of ultrarunning!

Did a Dad Ever have a Better Day?

Ok, so it was more like 36 hours, but hey that's what they give us to finish the Wasatch 100, so if they call that a day, I can too!

Life sometimes seems unfair. On Thursday my daughter's school, Most Holy Redeemer (I wanted to send her to Least Holy Redeemer, it was cheaper, but her mom won that argument. Good thing too.) There are some key differences:

Most Holy Redeemer ......................Least Holy Redeemer
they use the Holy Bible.......................v.............The Un-Holy One
End Services with, Go now in peace..v.. If that's what you want to believe
10 commandments..............................v... 6 suggestions/guidelines
12 Disciples ..........................................v....5 drinking buddies

Anyway, Thursday at MHR was the award ceremony for the eighth-graders/graduates (if you are like me, you didn't have a middle-school graduation, but these students do, most have been together for up to 9 years, K-8, so they give them a nice send-off.) Well, I had to administer my exam at TC on Thursday at the same time. I wanted to slip away and go to the ceremony, but I just couldn't, it wouldn't have been fair to the 80 kids taking my exam. So, I missed it. Well, it was something to miss!

My daughter, proving that the apple can in deed fall very far from the tree, won the following awards of the 44 8th Grade students:
The Social Studies Award (Ok, I'll take some credit here, I do teach SS)
The Science Award (I used to watch Bill Nye with her, that count?)
The Language Arts Award (again, we called this English back in the day)
The Christian Formation Award (yeah, can't take credit here!!)
And the kicker- Highest overall GPA!

Wow! What a ceremony to miss :(. But they did give a recap at Graduation, on Friday, and you better believe I was there for that! Also, a nice surprise, she got to deliver the closing speech at Graduation. I am the proudest luckiest pop this side of the Hillsborough River, and that's a fact!

I wanted to include a snipet of her speech, but after 1.5 hours it still hadn't finished downloading. Oh, well, it was wonderful.

Well, we gathered the troops after the ceremony, and at first I started trying to hustle Ali out so I could get a little sleep and get to Croom for my 5 AM hill training, then I thought, hey, you're daughter just made it through 8 years of school without ever getting below an A. She won every award there was to win (save Math and PE) and I'm trying to keep her from saying goodbye to her friends. Anyway, I chilled at that point. I let her take her time. I invited her, Lynne, Ali's mom, Ali's stepdad, and her friends to Chili's after we left the reception. I didn't get home till midnight.


I slept in till 6 and ran Flatwoods, I wish I was always that smart (Maybe I can learn from
Ali, she's the brains of the outfit!) Sometimes life is so generous, you want to burst!

Song of the Week #34, Live it Now!

This song has only got to do with everything. I reckon I can henceforth use it as my answer to "Why do you run those crazy races?"

Well here's why:

Good enough for you?

Is it really good enough for you? As Tyler Derdin said in Fight Club, "On a long enough time line our survival rate is zero!" Well I don't know about that, but of the 77 or so Billion people that have ever lived on this earth, all but 6.6 Billion of them have died at some time or another, and Ted Kennedy aint lookin' so good!

What's it mean? Live a darm good life! Don't hurt people, don't screw people over. Do some fun stuff. Let people love whomever they choose. Be happy for anyone that isn't hurting someone else and is happy.

Live like you're gonna die (do the Grand Slam, run a marathon, go to Europe, eat a double steakburger, have some of Star's cheesecake) because you're gonna!

Get Fired Up!

Every once in a while it's good to get fired up when you run.

Used to date a lady a long time ago, one of us was always mad at the other, we had a lot of fast runs back then! Could have been that we were younger, I think it was the conversation.

Memories of that came flooding back last night as I ran with two acquaintances. We were just chugging along, nothing special. Then we did something one should rarely do in a social setting, we talked politics. Yoikes! Bad idea (well good if you are looking for speed work.)

Anyway, turns out Rush, Sean, Drudge, Snitch (er Schnit, Schmidtz, whatever his name is) their bullshmitz rhetoric is still working on large quantities of the uninformed (Gee I didn't know that O'bama was a Muslim Terrorist, oh, really and who told you that?) (Oh, the anti-christ, wow, how does he feel about separation of anti-church and state?)

Like I said, politics, ugg! I should know better! But I did run those last two miles in about 14 minutes and I left before the brews were cracked, so there was no temptation there. Next week I'm running with the "Young Christian Skin Heads For War but Against Interracial or Same Sex Anything" I hope to get my mile time down under 6 minutes again!

Scale Tail Tale

177. Getting there. Slowly, but slowly, getting there.

Doesn't seem to matter what i do. pound a week is just fine, if that's what it's gonna/gotta be, long as we're heading in the right direction. Just like Ms. Sprigman going down US 1- long as she was heading Southwest, Key West was getting closer.

Long as I'm losing anythin', I'm getting closer... (now can I have some ice cream ?)

Stanley's Big Adventure

I promised pictures. Oh, sure, there's my crew partner David and Alisa,who won the race, she's cool. But let's not forget about the real warrior, Flat Stanley, he was in peril more times than Bill Clinton upon the early return of a jealous husband (is there another kind?)

Here's Stanley getting ready to lead us on our adventure.

And it starts badly, he's down!

Somehow he makes it to the checkpoint at 25 (Flat Stanley, and not so Flat Andy).

Gotta fatten Stanley up, eat Stanley eat!

Stanley, Eat, don't get eaten! Yikes, he's a Grouper's sandwich!

Maybe you can see better from up high...

Don't fall in to the water!

No, That's a Man-O-War, get out of there!

Yeah, get out of there, but don't go in there! No, watch out for the Lobster Trap...

And now are Stanley and Elivis just alike, They are caught in a trap!

Stanley, Manatees are friendly, swim to the sea cow. that's better.

Hey, there's a boat, get on that, but wait..........

Oh, NO!! It's the ill-fated African Queen! Jeez, Maybe it's time to go back to California, nothing bad can happen there!

Wow, You Ought to Try That!

Ok, so, I'm back. JaMissMe?

Gawd, but that was a tiring experience! Lemme just say this.... "Ultarunners are Whacked Out!" I read that somewhere once, now I've seen it!

Wicked-heroic-Acrobatic-Compost-Kiestered-Elliterate-Determined!
OUT! (out of their minds, only understanding toenails)
That's what ultrarunners are!!!!

I seen it! I seen it first-freaking-hand, as excellent race helper David Redero and I crewed for the tall, striking, impressive goddess to be named in the next paragraph. David is a former US Marine and aspiring ultra-runner. More than anything, he's a good dude and an organizer of mini-van's extraordinaire.

Anybody know Alisa Springman? Off course you do. The teacher. Yeah, Alisa Springman the teacher from Pennsylvania. Yeah, the one that won the Florida Keys 100.

The race I talked about, starts in Key Largo at US 1 Mile Marker 101 and runs down US 1 (Southwest, I can't stress that enough, Southwest) for 97 miles, then it makes a left and goes 3 miles and BAM! You're there.

Anyone ever drive that stretch? Yeah, running it is worse. All on pavement. All in the heat. But you know what? Crewing for it is a blast, well, if your runner wins it is. I'm not talking beat all the other chicks winning.... I'm talking beating everybody in America winning!!! She was great, it was an honor to crew for her, and she's insane! Hey, Alisa you just won the Florida Keys 100, what are you gonna do now? "Er, well, it's 5 AM there are no hotels available, I reckon I'll ride back to Key Largo."

What, no shower after 23 hours and 100 miles?

Hey, I can stand the smell of Andy if David can! He could, we did, we drove back not just to Key Largo but to Fort Lauderdale before the heaven sent shower and the precious nap.

Alisa, you're the best! Love ya! You're Crazy!!!!!

AndyMan
ps, Will add pictures tomorrow, but I haven't had time to do nuttin' since my return, and I'm gonna relax with a brewski (minus the brewski) and watch a movie (minus the movie) while the laundry does itself (minus the does itself.)

Song of the Week 33: Gimme Your Money Sucka!

Ok, don't play this you tube if you are A- Under 18. B- Have a better than low opinion of me (guys, go ahead, it's darn funny) C- Are offended by, sexual content, sexism, er, anything.
Well, it's offensive (funny) but it's appropriate for the topic. Chase and AndyMan announce the Tampa to Denver Road Race! The country's longest ultra, and the best per mile deal going! You come to Tampa you give me $500 and I will give you a Popsicle stick and the I point you (and this is important) northwest then you run until you get to Denver where you give Chase another $500 and he gives you a T-Shirt (sorry finishers only on the Tees!) Along the way I will monitor your progress (provided you call me.) We are also allowing each participant to use a crew (since people will use varied routes, we can't supply aid of any kind!) You may use hotels or camp if you must sleep; however, if you leave the country (that's the course the country) then you must place your Popsicle stick in the ground and re-enter the course where you left it.

That about covers it (oh, and no I-Pods allowed! If you bring one I will have to confiscate it at the starting line, if you have one at the finish, Chase will confiscate it!)

Why do I choose today to tell you about The TamVer 2007 (That's the mileage, not the year, that's why we didn't have the race last year, didn't want to confuse anyone with the year vs mileage thing)? Because after I get sick about an hour before school actually ends today, I am heading to Key Largo to crew for the Florida Keys 100. It starts in Key Largo and ends in Key West. It's entirely on public roads that will remain open. There is no traffic control. There is no aid. And it costs like $300. For and extra $30, you can get a shirt. Ok, er, thanks.

See, that's why you should run the TamVer. Per mile a much better value, and the shirt is included in the low (per mile) price! Plus, if you don't finish, you don't have to pay 1/2 the fee. Come run. More details to follow...

Oh, and as I'll be in a slow moving vehicle (4 miles and hour baby!) all weekend, I'll be off of the computer until Sunday night/Monaday morning. So have a great weekend baby, I'm crewing, woooooowho! And it's a blast!

Mountain Ultras are to Track Running as ___ is to ___!

Ok, I couldn't find Mr. Williams bit on Marathon Running, but this little ditty on Gaaahf, explains pretty well how Mountain Ultras are to running track.

It's not just running.
It's not just running a long way.
It's not just running a long way over, through, around and in stuff.
It's running a long x 100 way, over mountains, over boulders, in the dark, through mud, around and through bodies of water, AT ALTITUDE.

Oh, great sport Andy! What this sport was taken?

As the late great Mr. Richard Pryor said in this town, "You aint the smartest M'F'er in the world."
No Richard I'm not!

Tail on the Scale #4: Slow but Steady...

Slow but Steady means I'm still fat! (Well, heavier that I'd like to be given the challenge that lays in front of me).

Down one more pound. 178. Hey, not bad, but I kinda had two pounds per week in mind and it's like coming off in one pound a week increments. Well, if the race was 20 weeks from now instead of like, er 6! Hey, no problem, now I can give up Alcohol (6 of 7 days a week.) Before I'd only given up beer and the rule was simply, "Never at Dusk." Now it's Alcohol and it's every day but Friday or Saturday. Of course Colorado doesn't count (gotta have some fun :)

There you have it. If this doesn't work I'm giving up Cheesecake (I only said before I was giving up dessert, I've been having that as my main course :)
...............Chocolate Marble Cheesecake, Yum, Yum!..................

I'll see you later, you may not see me, I'm disappearing!

The R.E: A Regal Elephant?

What do I know from R.E's? Is it a Regal Elephant? (more than 12000 Google elephants on that phrase.)

Is it a Rich Emigrant? (which got me to an article, I sh#t you not, about the 29th annual Western States run. And this here is a picture of some dudes going up Emigrant Pass.)

Is it a Rancid Eclair? (which only yielded 29 images, and none with quotes, but I did get these "Rocket ship" eclairs with that phrase!)

No, the RE is none of that! It's a Running Equivalent.

Like this or This

Oh, and aren't they fun?

I guess I was a little slow with the term, because, well I like to run. My 1 hour pool run last night was fun, but it aint running (course it aint limping either!) As you know, Star and the Good Doctor have me on a whining moratorium, I have to find pain free modes to get ready for the slam.

Well, they only said I couldn't whine about my foot, so here goes....... IIIIIII Haaaate to go in tooo the poooooL! And the Gym, let's not even talk about the gym! Those muscle heads and the girls with their hair teased up to the moon, and did that retartdamundodumbassassface even think of wiping down the machine, ewwwww!

Stan The Man

Ran 25 yeastirday. Didn't run today, was going to run in the pool but I'm going to do that tomorrow instead.

One exciting thing was received my Leadville booklet today, looks hard, looks high on the mountain top.

Also, exciting was I got Flatest Stanley. Gonna take him around the Sunshine State and then shoot him back to California from whence he came. That'll be fun.
Here's some of the fun stuff Stan's done already, send me your ideas for more!

Song of the Week #30: I Forgot

Geez, there are so many reasons for this one. 1st is I messed up and forgot to put a cover on my TPS report at work. It's NOT that I didn't get the memo (please don't send another one.) It's not that I don't understand the policy (it's simple, I do.) It's not that I'm trying to prove a point (I'm not that brave, I just want to be left alone.)

It's not that I ..... well, I'll let Afroman tell it in by song of the week, but it's not that:
I really want to take the administration by the hand and play them a little ditty from the most excellent (if not over-exposed) Ron White. He tells a story of being hassled at a club for breaking one of their ticky-tacky rules. He asks the audience, "You guys ever forget anything? Anyone out there ever forget? Yeah, well, it happened to me!"

No Schmitz! We all forget something, sometime. I mean jeezle Pete. Hey, admin, while I'm getting that TPS report together, you want to drop and give me 200 (see it happened again, I forgot that there were only 2 Zeroes in 20!)

And one more thing!

One of my Favorite Lines

It's from an insignificant skit on Saturday Night Live from the Phil Hartman-Dana Carvey Era of Saturday Night Live. A skit with Bill Shatner and the SNL crew gave me one of my favorite lines. In the skit Shatner plays an aging Capt. James T. Kirk in the restaurant the "Enterprise," which is owned by the Marriott Corporation.

Dana Carvey as Khan invades (er, visits) the Enterprise (restaurant) and takes one look at Sulu and as Khan looks at Sulu and asks the portly Sulu, "What happened to you?"

Sulu uses the line, "We all get older Khan!"

Good God almighty, but we do get older.

Last night I got a call from my high school girl friend, Barb Golka (now Garwick.) She is in town visiting her dad who just had heart surgery. She asked, why don't you come see me at the hospital?

"Geez, it's 9 o'clock, I'm in bed."

"Yeah, you're right, besides, we saw each other 30 years ago!"

"Er, I'm on my way. "

And boy am I glad I did! Barbara looked great, she hasn't aged nearly as much as I have. Her dad was alert and it was great to see him. It was so good to see these people. It did my heart good, and even though we are all much older, we seemed sweeter, nicer, smarter, and just better versions of our younger selves.

But man, it was really only 29 years ago, not 30, but in that time, we all got older Khan.

Let's make the most of this ride! Let's get something out of it and not just Kling-on!

Tail on the Scale #3

Nothing dramatic here, but the news is kinda good.

Wednesday weigh-in weight: 179 (just 5 pounds aways from those CK Bikini Briefs, and isn't that exciting?)

I want to lose at least two pounds every week, and this week I was merely down a pound. And really, that's what I've averaged, but still, only one measly pound this week. Here's what one pound of ugly fat looks like:

Yoikes wrong picture, here's the pound of fat:

I really need to lose two of those every week, no off weeks or quite frankly, I don't make it up Devil's Thumb and Slam over! So, drastic times call for drastic measures, geez, if I say it..... ok, I'm going to ...... NO BEER during the Week! Ouch, that hurts more than plantar fascitiis!

Ok, ok, except for one on Tuesday's after at least 6 miles with Becky and Davo. And this doesn't go for when I'm up visiting Chase, every day is a weekend then :-) But, that's it. No Beer during the week, I am out of time to mess around.

Wish me luck and get a good look at me now, because next time, when I turn sideways, you may not be able to see me (unless I stick my tongue out, then I'll look like a zipper :)

"Hey Chubby, you want a beer?"

"No way, not till I look like you! Or it's Friday, which ever comes first!"

Home Again, Home Again

I am.

Course If I just added some wheels, I'd never have to leave!


More later today as I go to administration and ask for not 2 or 3, but 6 days off within the first month of the next school year. Yoikes! I hate this (I hope they don't bring up the whole, you just had two months off thing, then I gotta come back with, "look, a giant baby behind you!" And while they are looking, I pencil in my vacation on the school calendar and BAM! It's Leadville and Wasatch here I come, oh yeah, sweet plan :)

Boys Night Out

How's the fish? I don't know that, but I do know this (Play video):

Dan Ackroyd aint got nuttin' on Super D! That really was some good Bass, and no scales! Speaking of scales, I'm gonna have to throw 30/34 on top on the 20 I did today to work off the "Aint Nuttin' Healthy About This Fish" Salmon I had at the Blarney Stone, before I jump back on a scale, tellyouthatrightnow! A little fish, a lot cheese and some pasta, hey, Ireland isn't exactly Northern Italy in the Cuisine dept.

Course the Irish do know their Back and Tan's, check out the VTL's (Visible Tan Lines) on that mug:

One more thing about the B Stone, they like their brew and as far as they are concerned, drink it while you're there, because they claim it's a cruel world outside their door. How Cruel, I think this sign says it all:
Oh, yeah and I ran 20 in Croom at 5 this am with Woody, Julie, Becky, and Jon. It was a nice morning and it was fun. Then I drove to SC to see SuperD and the Lads.

Song of the Week 26: I Don't make the Rules, I Just Live by Them

Song of the week 26: Dave Gilmour in a rare video performing: No Way Out of Here.
That's how feel sometimes.

Fortunately as all heck, I kind of like what I can't escape from.

A Day in the Life

3 tires, one alignment, one "engine flush," one oil change = $374

Dinner for two coaches at the track banquet = $44

Knowing it's never going to get any better = Priceless.

God I love education! Like a kick in the F'ing balls!

(yeah, coach I didn't bring my wallet, can you cover me? why don't don't you just skip out on your bill like 7 of the kids did! No, No, I'll get it really, Mr. Shortarms, Mr. I really shoulda taken the Bus because My Driver's license is in my wallet, Mr. Playing me for a sap, Mr. Sees an opportunity, Mr. I got better things to do with my money, Mr. Seen me coming a mile away.)

It's my lot, I'm a sucker, I am not; however, a happy sucker just now. 4 more years and then I swear with God as my witness I will never teach or coach another kid. I'm gonna re-join the rat race.