A good cry on the train

And 5-day test matches can end in a draw.

"World Series" baseball played in the USA, and er......Phillipines? Canada?

World class cricket played in UK (sometimes), South Africa, Australia, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies.....

So baseball is silly.

Of course baseball is silly, no doubt about that, what IS important, what is a matter of life and death is whether the World Series is won or lost by the Boston Red Sox!!

Joe(I am sure you understand.)Nation

Heck... you need to watch a good rugger game mate.... that's soooo cococococococococococo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


x

Yes. Watching a game of rugby is the proper connection to that sport for me. It always looks to me as if the participants are in some kind of eXtreme wrestling match and have decided to add a ball to the activity in order to cover their tracks when, not if, a number of persons are killed or maimed or both. There is always an expectation that when they roll the ball under the scrum from one side, someone's head will come rolling out from the other.

Yes. It's a good game to watch, a game for men much younger than I, men with legs like trees and names like Biff, Buck, Bubba and BigAllen McDowell.
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Yesterday was odd. I had no energy. I got the laundry together, went downstairs and tossed it into the washers. Nearly fell asleep waiting for the two loads to dry and after I got the clothes back upstairs and onto the bed to sort and fold, I climbed in next to the pile and took a nap for an hour.

Despite the fact that it was a beautiful day, I had to force myself to get outside to run. I did run but only about six miles, I know, that sounds like a lot but I had intended to go a lot further. I was going to take some pictures of the woods but I forgot to take my phone/camera with me, that kind of put me off too.

Then I ran up the hill to the sporting goods store to see if they had any dumbbells. They do but I didn't like the prices. $30.US for a 25lb dumbbells. That seems like a lot to me, but then I'm spoiled. At the gym, which I have now resigned from, there were stacks of them laying around. I just want a couple of fairly heavy ones to work my arms and shoulders. (My legs are like trees.)
Anyway, when I got home I made dinner, had some wine, talked to my friend, Annie, about spending Election Night at my place and then went into my bedroom to find that the stack of laundry still had not sorted and folded itself.

Joe(sleeping next to the laundry is not a good sign.)Nation

Hi Joe, Sleeping next to the laundry is much better than being unable to relax and go with the flow.

When you figure out how to get the laundry to look after itself, patent the process and sign me up as your first customer, price is no object.

Also, the way I see it, if your legs are like trees, then your bottom half can play rugby, if it wants. But...would that increase the probability that it will be your head that comes rolling out the other side?

OK. Stick to running.

So, Joe N, did you follow the hazzerai in the women's marathon in SF this last week? (It was interesting, doesn't seem to fit in any ongoing thread but I don't want to start a new one on it).
LINK
I've opinions, natch.

Yipes. Osso, it kind of makes running like golf. You play your round, get your score and hope that the folks behind you aren't doing better than you. As for Nike's contention that the elite runners weren't aware of how well others were doing....well, too bad, I say.

Of course, those folks are several atmospheres above me. The slower (heh) runner finishing in 3:06 puts her across the line before I reach the 18 mile marker. My view is always filled with 30,000 behinds ahead of me.

Thanks for the link.

Joe(on my way to a race right now.)Nation

JoeN -
The official explaino was about these being "different races". I posit that the people just behind the Swift have more problems, that it is NOT easier being there than being in front.

All silly from me, your average walker... but I follow this stuff.

Standing around in this morning's chill with fifteen other volunteer race marshalls, I mentioned the SF Marathon "two winners". These folks are all long time runners and none of them had ever heard of anything like the result in San Francisco. They are going to do "waves" at this year's NYC ING Marathon. It should be interesting to see if we have any double winners here.
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I don't want to fill this thread with stories about running, although if there is a non-medicinal treatment for depression that is better than running, I'd love to hear about it, (Maybe playing Mozart Concertos over and over.), but this morning's experience was for me truly transcendent.
I was a race marshall at the 1.5 mile mark, right at the top of a little hill. I'd never been a marshall before, and I've only ever seen one other road race from the sidelines (the 2006 NYC Marathon.)

What you see passing by you is the whole of humanity.
It was a zen moment for me.
What happens is, of course, I am right out on the roadway and the runners are passing within inches of my body as I urge them to 1) stay inside the designated lanes and 2) root, root, root for each of them to go for it
and what happens is you see first, these incredibly fit athletes, their faces full of determination and strength of purpose, their arms pumping, their legs a blur of motion. They stream by in a flash.

They are followed closely by larger, lankier and wider humans, all flowing up the hill with just the slightest slower tempo from the first group. They are like an army unit at something faster then double time, something slower than a full out sprint.
This group is filled with every face you have ever seen at any mall or baseball game or at the Fourth of July Fireworks.
Big guys, teeny women, short guys, tall women, wide girls and wider guys, a thousand different ponytails, skinny butts, big hats, Red Sox Jerseys next to Imagine a World without Cancer tees,
legs, legs, legs,
legs that go all the way up,
legs that barely lift their sneakered feet off the ground,
legs encased in electric blue spandex
and legs as white as Formica Tile Flooring.
Black, mocha, tea-stain, mahogany and beige legs sticking out of tight shorts,
loose shorts,
floppy shorts,
knee lengths shorts
and,
ohmigod
those are some tiny tight shorts on that guy!

Then, there is this great pause.

Here come then the rest of humanity.
They are a great collection. They are old, they are, and they know it, fat.
Yeah, I know, polite people would say obese, but they know they are fat.
I know I did.
They are also the lame, the injured, they are the afflicted with ten thousand things we know nothing of, yet.... .

Here they are.
Here they are moving up the hill, moving on.
And if there was a way to photograph just the intensity of the effort of all the groups,
the elites in the front,
the great mass of the middle
and the humanity at the back of the pack,
everyone would see, as I did today,
that the efforts are indistinguishable.
The old man with the "I do this for Mary." written on his shirt is running there on that lane with the same drive as butch-haircut who flew by a 11 mph.

There is no second place in these races.
Everyone who starts wins something for themselves.
And they win something for all of us too.

Joe(They add another thin layer onto what is means to be human.)Nation

Good word picture Joe. Only thing that keeps me on this board (as fucked up as its structure is) is the writing style that you and a few others provide me. I get a jolt like Jean Shephard is talking to me .I will push aside the gazillions of irrelevant babbling threads about Obamas citizenship or PAlin or other more unspeakable events, and focus in on the communication I get from your extended recounts, or Ros quick wit, or deb's incredulousness , edgars poems, Reyns wacky news( even though hes pissed at me for my Oklahoma retort. I get a kick out of reading stuff by people who are good at written communication

I hope this place doesnt turn into a corner where all we get is news saturation by incessant souless clips without any personal comment. Its getting close to that now..
Keep me engaged in every day happenings Joe.It makes me remember why I joined this outfit in the first place.


PS, depression was always a fuel for creativity for me. AFter my divorce years ago, I went on a wild painting and rsearch clip. I hadnt produced as much really good stuff before (or since Im afraid).

Is there a book in you?

Goddam it farmerman don't be coy with us. What do you really want?

yeah, Im pretty disgusting aint I. I join a bulletin board to engage in **** talk with my homies and all I get is looooong posts via URLs , and some douche bags let us know glimmers of their minds by stupid tags. Other people dont even use tags.

I do agree with you. If it weren't for the sort of persons you mentioned, I would only show up here about twice a week.

Wow! Joe.

I like people. I've never seen so many that I could recognise, like and understand before. Without actual video. Maybe not even then.

Well then, mebbe I should do some more of this writing word pictures. Thank you, farmerman, edgar, and spike for your kind words, they lift my heart.
No.
Really. They lift my heart.
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Joe(goodnight all)Nation

One close competitor must be having breakfast with you in a French cafe on the Upper West Side after the race, getting a preview on your post, and good advice about the back pain that kept me from running the race. (Not that I was depressed before that breakfast.)

great observations / descriptions, Joe

Keep on keeping on!

PS I notice that the thug cricketer in your picture wears South African or Australian clobber. Probably meant to be OZ

Of course you should. I've been saying that for years.
You're brilliant at it.
Really, you are.
(See, I'm not the only one who thinks so.)

Good grief.. If I've ever known anyone who should write a book (and I've known a bunch that did), that person is Joe Nation. Even a compilation of past stuff would be good, but present thoughts.. royal.

Hey Joe (you sound great) Nation

have a good week hun

Iz (hug4u) zie x