Sunday, July 31, 2011

Port Angeles

Spent a great two days with my cousins and their families in Port Angeles. Heading into Canada today.
Check out Alec Baldwin's 7/30 post on the Huffington Post. It's brilliant.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Seattle

In Seattle visiting daughter and grandchildren. Our dog and the kids have a love affair going. Another day here tomorrow, then on to Port Angeles to visit my cousin John.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Longview, WA

Got into Longview yesterday. Visiting my aunt, my late mother's sister. My daughter and the grandchildren also are here. Tomorrow going to Seattle to visit daughter and grandchildren for a few days (they are going home tonight).

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Ashland

We are in Ashland, Oregon. Seeing Shasta Lake brimming full for the first time in many years was a special treat.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Cenk Uygur Out At MSNBC

According to this article, Cenk Uygur is out at MSNBC with Al Sharpton taking over that time slot.

Dang!  Sharpton is OK, but I thought Cenk was really, really good.  I’ll miss him a lot.

Testing mobile app

We are going on a two week vacation starting on Saturday. I am not taking my laptop so  I am testing this blogger app for my cell phone. assuming it works I will blog our travels in realtime.

Monday, July 18, 2011

My own “Avatar” dream trip

I turned 67 this year. When I was about 12, I first became interested in track, largely because of a kid my age who lived in my neighborhood, Artie Heineman. Artie’s passion was track and field, and he even had a genuine stop watch to back it up. We measured off the distance around our block and devised our own quarter, half and mile distances based on block-sized laps. We even built our own high jump pit, which in retrospect was pretty damn good. We spent hours and hours running and jumping.

Sadly, when I was about 14 Artie and his mom (a widow) moved away. But by that time the track bug had bitten me. In a true moment of serendipity, Floyd Strain moved into the area and started a track club (an amazing event in 1958!). Floyd was the real deal. He had actually been an alternate in the quarter mile for the U.S. Olympic team, and he was this beautiful, totally buff guy who came out in his Olympic gear and ran right along with us. It was exhilarating! (Floyd was one of the first coaches in the U.S. who used “interval training” and also one of the first to use film, albeit 8mm at that time).

It was inevitable that I would run track in high school. My race turned out to be the half-mile, even though I could run a pretty good quarter, and was able to grudgingly gut out a respectable mile when called upon. I was the first guy in the history of our high school to run a sub-two-minute half. In college, I got even better, eventually achieving a personal best of 1:52.2, a mark that would still win in a lot of junior college meets today - and remember that 880 yards is a bit farther than the 800 meters they run today!

The point of all of this is to let you know that I know what it feels like to run very fast, very far. In those days, I literally ran everywhere I could. I remember looking down at the ground as I ran and seeing it speed by in compressed form. But now, my running is slow and plodding, even though I am still in pretty good shape. I take a 3.5 mile run about 3 or 4 times a week now. When I run, I can’t help but think of what I once could do, and how it felt. But that is a conscious moment, and thus pretty limited.

No, the point of all this is my dreams! I guess a lot of guys my age might have sex dreams. I don’t. Instead, on a few lucky nights I am able to dream of EXACTLY how I felt when I could run far and fast, with the ground compressing under me for miles and miles. And the dream usually goes on and on, with lots of running in its script, and with me undoubtedly smiling in my sleep. It’s awesome and I love every second of it because it is absolutely real in that universe.

So you can see what is coming next. When I saw “Avatar” for the first time, and the paralyzed Jake Sully got to run for the first time in his alien body (so what if it was a bit of running amok) I knew exactly what he was feeling. He, even with his paralyzed body remaining in the pod, was getting to run again,resulting in moments of pure joy and freedom. Once in a while I get to do that too, in my dreams. I say: keep it coming as often as possible!

~ Tom

Monday, July 11, 2011

An absolutely must watch!!

Wow!  I just watched Lawrence O’Donnell analyze this whole debt ceiling mess, wherein he posits that the President has done a masterful job of rope-a-dope, and knew what he was doing all along.  It’s 14 minutes long, but the time will just fly by.  The analysis is cogent yet breathtaking, including a clip of Lawrence on election night 2010 predicting the very debt ceiling crisis we are now in.  The guy is brilliant.  (Among many other things, he was  executive story editor for The West Wing, wrote 16 episodes, and also played Jeb Bartlett’s father in flashbacks.)

Now I’m just hoping that Lawrence is right.

Check it out for yourself here.  Sorry about the 30 second commercial you will have to endure, but it’s a small price to pay.

~ Tom

Prez not having fun?

I am not enjoying listening to “Green 960,” our progressive radio station for the San Francisco Bay Area.  All of their hosts (except Stephanie Miller) are piling on President Obama.  And on the TV side, Rachel is not being as kind as she used to be, and Ed Schultz is breathing fire.

I hear all this and wonder:  what exactly was he supposed to do?  Then today, I read a column by Fred Hiatt, the editorial page editor for WaPo, which sort of mirrored my thoughts.  I felt better after reading it, but I still don’t feel that good.  I am beginning to really despise the entire Republican party, especially Eric Cantor and  Mitch McConnell.  They represent everything that is making this country a mean and ugly place.  I have always been proud to be an American because on the whole we were generous, socially minded people who took care (most of the time) of those who needed a hand.  But after 8 years of Bush, and 2+ years of anti-Obama machinations, I am ashamed of what we have become, and fearful of worse things to come.

Help.  Somebody cheer me up!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

GOP has become a cult

Of course we all know about the scary and sad state of the Republican party, but this article does a nice job in summarizing the whole sordid state of affairs.

Ever try to argue with a cult member?