Senior Olympian Sprinter

Motivation to sit down and create has been limited in the last few months.  We are trying to sell our house and I am trying to get my career restarted and neither activity is bearing much fruit.   We show the house and we are just not getting the response we need to get it sold and that is frustrating. You need to stage it for each viewing and that does require some work and planning.    It reminds me of the movie Ground Hog Day, nothing really gets better, but you are a day older. The career search is constantly ongoing.  I have had several phone interviews and along the way, I think there were several jobs that I could handle and do well.   Nothing has clicked to date, and I currently have 3 or 4 prospects that are talking to me, but no face to face interviews yet.  If I can get in front of them, I like my chances to close the deal....    Getting your career restarted in your sixties is not easy. I had some conflicts this su...

This week we had another round of senseless killings in this country.  We are the only country in the world that has hundreds of mass killings each year and nothing changes.....that borders on the definition of insanity.  And in fact, it is the insanity and cowardness of the politicians in this country who respond with thoughts and prayers............if you change nothing, how is the outcome going to be different?  I own guns and they are for hunting game.  They were purchased legally and that is not saying much in this country.  A handful of $20 bills will get you set up with a gun and ammo, and no one knows any different.  The current state of affairs allows for hunting people with assault rifles, which are traditionally used by armies to do the dirty work of the gutless politicians that will be skewered in this rant. The AK47, which is a Russian designed weapon, started the assault weapon craze in the late 1940's and most recent development of these we...

Linda and I recently had an opportunity to watch  the HBO 5 part series Chernobyl.  That series just left you limp from the stupidity of the entire event.  Linda was living in Europe at the time and had first hand knowledge of the events and more than likely was exposed to some radioactive materials.   I am not going to spoil the show if you have not watched it, but when your reactor is full of poison, in this case an isotope of Xenon, you need to work the process and take your time getting things safely under control.   Check it out if you get a chance.   Last weekend I traveled to Ames, Iowa for the USATF Masters National Outdoor event.  I was going to run the 100, 200, relays and HJ.    The weather was quite warm with few clouds on a couple of the days and that made for a hot slow track.   I came into the event with a right hamstring that had given my a scare or pause the previous Friday near the end of one of my speed workouts. I...

I raced last Saturday in Nashville at Stratford High School in the TN USATF meet.   This meet is an annual get together and gives everyone their first chance to run outdoors with electronic timing.   The weather was as usual-- threatening --that is what this meet has always attracted, but we only had limited rain, and no wind or lightning.   No lightning is a huge plus to get the races ran.   As I stated, there was no wind, the track was wet and as a result quite cool and that made for great running conditions.  The track would really push back when you compressed it with your spikes.   I set up my shelter near the 100 meters starting line and keep all my gear dry as could be for the event. We ran the 60 meters first with 5 or 6 people in the heat and some were quite a bit younger and faster.   I used my own blocks and that was a plus, the blocks provided did not dig into the track very well and were a little scary due ...

I am still working on getting some full time work.   I have an interview this week with a chemical company and I may get back into the chemistry end of the tissue business.    But on to more important things.   June is coming to town.  Our grand daughter is coming for a two week stay and the Fly Away Farm is going to be a busy place with a 2 year old holding sway over the operations. Linda and I are excited for the opportunity to have June stay for about 10 days and enjoy some nice weather.  I am in Milwaukee today and it is gloomy and I am being positive!  Ick.   This will be a trip back in time for us with a new set of aches and pains to remind that old people do not need kids full time.  We went to down town Nashville before the draft party started--we were there Wednesday night--and checked out the venue.  I also went back down on Sunday near the 6 and and 7 rounds to check out the humanity again.  Nashvi...

I was working on some minor little thing on the phone today and came to a very interesting conclusion--when you are not employed --you have a lot more thinking time.   I was laid off about 10 days ago from my Tissue Specialist role with Kadant Solutions.   It was an amicable break-up, they just eliminated my job and that was it for me.  It was harder on my boss to tell me the news than for me to receive it.   I knew it was coming from the phone the call the previous day.  I have been fired before, so I knew all the language and posturing that happens.  I had 4 great years in that role and off to new adventures in the tissue business. The extra thinking time is due to the fact your mind is not consumed with the mass of little details and innuendo that comes with a full-time job.   You are always on the alert for changing travel arrangements, meeting appointments, getting scheduled work completed, expenses, plane reservations, email...

Last weekend was the big indoor meet in Winston-Salem, NC.  A great turn out of around 1000 athletes made for some very solid competition and a lot of new world records.   I competed for the SoCal track team and we did not win the team competition this meet, as we did in Spokane.  Our group was down several competitors due to injuries and various other reason.  We had a very small group, but we did manage to score fourth in the team competition and score a lot of gold medals int he process.   I already blogged about the people in the meet and this entry will be basically the nuts of bolts of the competition for me.  I am 62 this year and right in the middle of my age group and I signed up for the 60, 200, 400 and High Jump and also competed in 2 relays--4 x 200 and 4 x 400.  I did not make the 60 finals and ran 7 th in the 400.  I ran pretty good in the 400--65.65-- but did not really seem to have any real juice at the end of the 2 l...

I participated in the USATF Masters Indoor National meet last weekend in Winston-Salem, NC.   It was good meet for me and I will add the details of the results in another post later this week.  What I want to reflect on here is the quality of people in that building.   I am just so impressed with the high level of competition and caring for each other that goes on for 3 days.  Hug and Cry Area for Awards  There were around 1000 competitors for the event, and with families and officials, generally 500 to 2000 people were in the building during the times the track was open. It was not completely full at JDL Fast Track, but a really good crowd. North Carolina passed some very hateful and just plain repressive legislation a few years back concerning rest room usage and anything that did not meet the "hateful Jesus" religion that they were  promoting.   The NBA pushed back and moved their All Star Game location and I think this may hav...

A couple weeks ago I scheduled a little racing in Racine, Wisconsin at Carthage University field house.  Wisconsin USATF was having an all comers meet and I wanted a final tune up before the USATF Nationals in early March to test my training and get in some live racing.  Linda and I were originally going to fly into Milwaukee on Friday and race on Sunday and fly home on the Monday morning direct flight.   On Saturday we would visit our grand daughter  and on Sunday watch the Super Bowl with the newlyweds in Milwaukee.   A few days before we were going to leave, Linda had an opportunity to baby sit our grand daughter for the following  week and she decided to take Betty and Linsi up on that offer to watch June all week.    We changed our plans around and drove to Milwaukee instead and Linda would have a vehicle all week to get around.  When we left Nashville it was a nice winter day of 50 degrees and pleasant and just a few hours N...

A couple of weeks ago I had a 3 day business meeting in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. The area is on the Atlantic side about half way between Daytona and Fort Lauderdale and we had access to Jenson Beach with a 15 minute drive!   I love running on the beach.  I get to look at the stride length and see how well my stride is doing and check  evenness  from side to side.  Some may think this is anal retentive--it is-but it is helpful to gain some knowledge on your body reacts to the running motion and uneven surfaces...sand.    I worked on some starts to see how my step length was changing and it does take about 15 meters to get completely stretched out and full stride.   I did four starts in a 50 meters stretch of hard sand and in each attempt the steps were identical.   The last one was a little different, but I was getting tired and it showed with a half step shorter at the end.  The body lets you know how much...

Linda and I traveled to Chicago for Christmas and visited our oldest and his girlfriend and after two nights in the windy City we got to visit our wonderful grand daughter --June. We dined on Beef Wellington on Christmas- a first for me and enjoyed it thoroughly.   The highlight of the trip was visiting June at her house.   She had been at Grandma's for a couple of days and had been through  a lot of Christmas already.   But, she rose the occasion and helped us celebrate it one more time.    Linda and I gave the family a karaoke machine for a present and that was a cool gift.  After loading several Disney songs and some of Betty and Linda's favorites on the machine, off they went.   June was just mesmerized by the entire scene and was right up front watching the show.    She loves music and eventually will be putting on her own show in a year or two.   I have a picture on my phone of Ju...