Saturday, May 29, 2010

Day 86 SIX MILES! The power of LSD

Day 86 Thursday May 27th Ran 6, total so far 135, Miles to go 865. Gambling won $2 with Weekly Grand. Gambling investment so far $42 winnings $23 losses $19

Running still in fits and starts. Combination of busy at work and fatigue. Need to get back into my rhythm of running some every day. I think I will be able to do it.

Impressed myself by running 6 miles. I realized that I have been speeding up so fast that I have made myself tired too soon. So I went back to a slower pace and increased in 1/2 mile increments instead of 1/4th mile. This dropped by overall pace to more than 10 minutes a mile but allowed me to run a little over an hour and 6 miles. I am going to stay with this approach for a while and see if I can increase mileage and begin to make up my deficit. I now consider 3 miles the minimum so that everything over 3 is "Deficit Reduction" Wish our government would consider deficit reduction a priority lol. I call my approach LSD (long slow distance) and hope that by using it I can start running 10 miles at least one day a week...talk about deficit reduction!

Friday I had planned to run in the day but I ended up with a lot of work and errands and then son Eric and daughter in law Karla came over so my run was supplanted by cooking beef stew and brownies....need a caloric reduction now to make up for that wonderful dinner with two incredible people. Unfortunately, the drama of home ownership intruded into my blissful family meal time as one of my roommates, Tim who is also a handyman par excellence, came into the dinning room announcing that there was a huge leak in the water line in the back yard. The good news is he spotted it or it would have leaked all night. The bad news....well it was a huge leak so he shut off the water. The good news, he was there and knew what to do and is fixing the leak today. The bad news....well it costs money to fix things and well it seems with an older house each month brings a new manifestation of the not to wonderful "joys of home ownership." Thinking about it today made me reminisce about life in a small posada (like a Bed and Breakfast or small family inn) in Mexico where all I own would be a few changes of clothes and where I would have a small room with a bed and night stand, which the posada maid cleaned every day. I would have fresh towels and in the morning could drink coffee with the proprietor and wander down to the town square for a lite breakfast. After my siesta I could order a nice meal with some wine or beer and retire to a book and bed. The next day would repeat the prior....my combo monk retirement fantasy....no responsibility, traveling lite, simple, simple, simple.

But for now, I am going back to reality and will spend the Memorial Day Holiday grading exams! Such is life. But Life is Good!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Day 83 Meat Loaf and Cherry Pastries....yum! And the trip that almost happened!

Day 83, Monday May 24 Ran 3 miles/ Total so far 129/ Miles to go 871

Gambling did not win :( Total invested so far $39 Winnings $21 Losses $18

Spent the weekend with Mrs Savage, my second mom. She arrived Friday night with meat loaf, a bag of red new potatoes and an onion (for mashed potatoes), some broccoli salad, a tray of cherry pastries, a bag of chocolate chip cookies, a cheese ball and all the fixens to make Old Fashion's. For those of you who are not of "a certain age" or not familiar with any mixed drinks other than rum and coke or crown and coke (lol) an Old Fashion is a mixture of bourbon (mostly bourbon), bitters, sweet syrup or in her case, sprite, with an orange slice which you use to coat the rim of the glass before squeezing and leaving in the drink. It is served with rocks. Pat Savage has to have her cocktail each evening and I enjoyed one (well actually more than one) too as we ate crackers, cheese and some pate and then her wonderful meal. I ate the rest of the meal left overs last night and have been munching on cookies from the freezer and heating up pastries for breakfast.....needless to say I will need many more miles to cancel out the calories form her visit which also included a greasy double cheese burger with grilled onions from Dallas' oldest drive-in, Keller's, washed down with cold root beer which Pat and ate from her car after shopping for my birthday present....4 lawn chairs and an umbrella and base for my patio table. She wanted me to have a nice space to enjoy in the back yard and had seen these chairs on sale at Big Lots. They do look good, as does the umbrella!

Saturday night, after planting flowers we also bought in new pots, and attending Saturday Mass at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, we went to Papasitos near by for Margaritas and Tex Mex. Pat left Sunday and I continued my gardening with the purchase of 4 red rocket crepe myrtles for the front yard and a couple of hibiscus to replace those that died in the freeze. I expect to enjoy lots of color all summer from my front porch. Needless to say, all the company and gardening got in the way of my running.....bad excuse but mine. I will catch up this week (InshAllah...God Willing)

Monday morning found me up at the crack of dawn at Love Field for a trip to Austin and the swearing in ceremony for those who passed the Feb. Bar Exam. Normally I try to go up the night before, but because of Mrs. Savage I did not. Unfortunately, after taxiing out to the run way the plane did not take off. We sat over an hour then went back into the terminal. They did not know how long it would take and the next two flight were full so I had to cancel my trip. Later that morning the Dean of Career Services called and asked if I forgot something? She said a student at the ceremony had told her that they announce my name as a representative from SMU but nobody stood up. I explained that I had not forgotten, but......

The entire experience reminded me of a Zig Zigler routine. Zig was a great positive thinking speaker. I used to listen to his tapes. He tells the story of being told his flight was cancelled. To the astonishment of the desk attendent he replies, "Fantastic!" When asked why such news was fantastic, he replied, "There are only three reasons why my flight was cancelled. First, there is something wrong with the plane. Second, there is something wrong with the pilot who is going to fly the plane. Third, there is something wrong with the weather that the pilot is going to fly the plane into. If it is any of those three reasons, I do not want to be up there in the plane. I want to be right here on the ground. You see, you can cancel my flight but you cannot cancel my day! It is 24 hours for me to use productively."

And so I returned to my office and my day and got a lot done that I would not have been able to do in Austin. Good news, Bad News, who is to say!

Life is Good.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Day 80 Bras in the Breeze and Broken Ankles!

Day 80, Thursday May 20 Ran 3.5 miles/ Total so far 126/ Miles to go 874

Started the day on my front porch with coffee. It was muggy and a little warm. I am afraid that my cool mornings outside will soon come to an end as the heat of Texas summer drives everyone indoors (accept when you are by a swimming pool, which I do not have and do not want, thank you). I had a pool once, in Kuwait. I have to admit that the kids really enjoyed it. Things were easier there, of course. The landlord of our villa had a pool boy who came and cleaned and maintained the pool, so I did not have to mess with the whole business of chemicals and scrubbing, etc. Absent such a luxury again, I will confine my use of pools to gyms, hotels, resorts and pools of friends.

Thinking of that pool in Kuwait brings back two distinct memories. First, our next door neighbors were a very nice, but very conservative Kuwaiti family. One day the mother asked if she and her two young children could swim in our pool. Of course we said yes. I looked out of my window a few minutes later to see two children have a wonderful time and my neighbor with them, in the pool, in full black abaya, covered from head to toe. It was like watching a nun from my Catholic School days playing in a swimming pool except I had never seen a nun in a pool and the thought that they might even swim never crossed my mind, at least, not when I was little. In fact, the first time I realized that nuns were women was when I was in 5th grade and as I walked to the back of the Convent to take my piano lesson from Sister Margaret Rose (who later changed her name to Sister Patricia...guess with the modernization they were allowed to get their old names back?). On the clotheslines behind the Convent....yes, it was in the days when people actually hung clothes to dry, I saw bras blowing in the breeze! OMG I thought. Nuns ware bras. I was so struck by that thought and all the ramifications that I am sure I was a very poor student that day for my lessons. Later someone stole a bra and flew it from the school flagpole....boys will be boys.

My second pool memory of Kuwait involved the time my ex, Kay, slipped on the wet marble steps leading up to the villa after getting the kids out of the pool. She broke her ankle and some good Kuwait friends took her to the hospital and called me. When I got to the hospital, which was a big public hospital with large wards swarming with people (medical care is basically free for everyone with a small payment for drugs) Kay was fit to be tied. They had already tried to Xray her leg twice but the machines were not working and of course, each movement brought more pain. In exasperation Kay hollered out "This is a rich country. They should be able to afford Xray machines that work! This is ridiculous!' Our Kuwaiti friend became a little alarmed at her outburst. He told he to please be calm and not make such statements or maybe they would ask her to leave the country. In response, and in a louder voice, Kay said "They ask me to leave Kuwait and that is a bad thing? No that is a good thing!" That did happen to be the last year we were in Kuwait, but our leaving had nothing to do with her broken ankle and after the release of that defiant statement she did calm down.

I ran at lunch. I will hopefully run at lunch again on Friday. Second Mom, Pat Savage is coming Friday night for a short weekend visit so I will need to hurry home from work......Life is good!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Day 79 Graduation past and Monterrey Mexico

Day 79 Wednesday, May 19th. Ran 5 miles. I also ran 3.1 miles on Wednesday the 12th and 3 miles on Sunday the 15th but did not post....crazy week with graduation and out of town guests, etc. So now total so far: 122.5 miles/ Miles to go 877.5. Getting a little further behind and decided to not do the "how far behind" until the end of the month....too many statistics.

Gambling.....spent 6 more dollars and won 4 so I am 2 dollars further behind and not a millionaire...total so far $36 invested 21 won so down $15. Almost had a panic attack at 10:30 last night when I realized I had not bought my lotto ticket. I had gone to dinner with gym rat after my 5 mile run and at 10:30 he asked if I had my ticket....I had intended to buy it after work. I immediately checked the numbers and fortunately no one had won so now the jackpot is over 90 million. I wonder why they don't just split the money between say 1000 people and make a big difference in a lot of people's lives. They would not be millionaires but the extra money would flow back into the economy and help a lot of people and maybe more people would play with the odds of a large pay off were greater, even if it wasn't millions. Oh well, what do I know about the science of fleecing people of their money, I am just a humble lawyer.

Since the last post so much has happened. Saturday was the "hooding" ceremony at the law school where the graduating class is honored and receives their diplomas. I was humbled and happy that the valedictorian ended his speech with the phrase "Good News, Bad News, Who is to say?" my signature expression told in my orientation speech every year. Nice bookends to hear it again at the end of the law school journey and an inside joke for the students and faculty.

We had a weather crisis. The ceremony is normally out of doors. The law school quad is transformed into a beautiful garden with flowers and flags everywhere for the several thousand graduates and guests. It is a magical setting with horn players and a mini orchestra and lots of pomp and circumstance. The procession of faculty is lead by Professor Joseph McKnight who was a senior member of the faculty when I was a student back in the 1970s. 80 now, he still teaches and he very slowly and laboriously leads the procession wearing some dead animal around his shoulders, a relic of his Oxford degree I believe.

Friday it rained and there were flash flood warnings. It was supposed to rain Saturday too, the day of the ceremony. All the other SMU schools who had scheduled out door ceremonies for Saturday, announced that they had decided to move them inside on Friday. The law school was the lone hold out and I have to give it to our Dean, his guts paid off and the rain held back and the ceremony went forward and was beautiful. I cannot believe this was my 5th and July 1st I will have been at SMU 5 years. It seems like only yesterday I was pulling into the parking garage at my office at Jones Day in the Harwood building in Uptown.

My wonderful friend, Peggy Dean visited last week and this past weekend. We spent many nights on the front porch, she with her tea and me with my scotch (she was doing some detox program or we would have been sharing a bottle of wine). Mornings found us with coffee and laughter. Her last night, Sunday, we sang on the porch...softly so as not to disturb. I feel so blessed with wonderful friends.

Monday morning I was off to Monterrey Mexico and a trip to a law school there to interview for potential LL.M. students (International Masters of Law) and to meet with the Dean of the School. One of our LL.M. students from this past year, Cezar Garza, was my host and had arranged the trip and the introductions to the Dean and the students. What wonderful hospitality. He put me up in his family's suite hotel in the middle of the old city and each moment was filled with wonderful conversation, food and visits to sites around Monterrey.

It was my first time to visit and I had never realized how big and cultured the city was. There are huge plazas and parks and public buildings. US cities need more of this concept of the public space. There is a little river walk, like in San Antonio. My first lunch was taken on top of a mountain overlooking the city and my last dinner was in a restaurant built inside an old steel plant, once again overlooking the city. Monterrey is surrounded by mountains. I want to go back and spend more time as a tourist.

I also learned a little of the history of the region. It seems many if not most of the original families were of Spanish Jewish background who fled to Mexico during the Spanish Inquisition. Some had converted to Catholicism and others were more secular but there are still many traditions from this past which are observed.

I met Cezar's father, a successful lawyer of my age with a twinkle in his eye and more jokes than even I can remember. Cezar's mother was a beautiful and gracious woman with an easy smile and a regal but kind presence. The best way to see a new city is with a native and I had the best hosts. I hope more students from Monterrey will come to SMU, and that I get the opportunity to return and recruit and perhaps teach a short course, which was suggested by the Dean of the School.

This post is getting long so I will stop...hope to run today at lunch and write more tonight...Life is Good!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Day 70 "Large sums of money should not be raised for a three day beer bust." Really?

Day 70, Monday May 10th. Ran 5 miles (at better than a 10 mile per hour pace thank you!). Total so far 111.4 miles/ Miles to go: 888.6/ Miles behind pace per day 80.6 (should have run 191 by now...ouch).

Gambling totals: Saturday won 5 dollars on Weekly Grand yahoo! But did not win the lotto (or I would not be writing this post lol). Gambling investment so far: 30 dollars/ Winnings 17 dollars...Down 13 dollars :(


Whew! Lots of statistics to keep up with.

Did not run over the weekend. I had planned to get up early Saturday morning but I did not get home from work until after 11. I had to stay (for the third night in a row) and monitor exams. At least they are over now. I drove to Tyler to spend the weekend with my wonderful second mother, Pat Savage. Pat is 80 and is family to me and my family. She is part of every family occasion whenever possible, like reading at son Eric's wedding. I wanted to spend Mothers Day with her and with her daughter, Chris, who was visiting from Houston. Chris and I were classmates together since the 5th grade and are like brother and sister. Pat's lost a son and I lost my mother the same year, when I was 15 and a sophomore. We bonded in our loss and love.

I stopped at the grocery store on the way to buy a box a special mixed crackers that I know she likes and some mixed nuts that she had specifically asked for. I also wanted to pick up a nice potted plant and ended up with a larger purple geranium. The next stop was the liquor store for a bottle of Skyy Vodka and some bourbon...she also likes her cocktails. My best friend, Nickie who went to school with Chris and I in Tyler and, like everyone in our class, knows and loves Pat, contributed a "knock out rose" bush so I looked like a traveling florist/liquor store in my daughter's two seater Miata.

In fact, Pat had been the chaperon for our Senior Trip to New Orleans back in 1972 when Nickie and I had been the last to show up having stopped in a little town called Pawhattan on the way where Nickie's Italian uncle, Joe Leone, operated Joe's Last Chance Liquor Store and, upon realizing that "Little Nickie Faye" had graduated from High School, had promptly loaded us down with free beer and good wishes.

We were not supposed to have a senior trip that year. Father Joseph, the young ardent new Principle of the Catholic High School had called us in and told us that "Large sums of money should not be raised for a three day beer bust!" He misjudged us as a class. I was class President and Chris was the Treasurer and we knew better than Father Joseph what large sums of money should be used for. So we had our car washes and raised our money but, unlike in years past when the senior trip had predated the graduation ceremony, we waited until after we had graduated and then, with degrees in hand, proceeded to the French Quarter and our three day beer bust! Nah nah da boo boo, you can't touch me! was our motto. And Pat Savage and another mother were co-conspirators in our rebellion. I will always love her for that!

But I have digressed. I am sure there will be more about Pat in future posts. Needless to say it was a nice weekend of good company and good food. Upon arriving in Tyler I had a nice lunch of chicken salad and fruit and the first of many scotches.

Brunch was later followed by 5:30 Mass. Pat is a true old school Catholic and does not miss Mass, ever! Now you can go to Mass on Saturday night or Sunday and avoid having the mortal sin on your soul of missing Mass. She was serving at the service, so we went Saturday night.

I had theological problems with the sermon given by a genial Puerto Rican priest. Since it was Mothers Day Sunday, he was talking to the women. Told them that they needed to look up to the Virgin Mary as a role model. Then asked if we knew how Mary knew they were out of wine at the Marriage feast at the Wedding at Cana...you know, Jesus's first miracle in the Bible where He turns water into wine. Mary tells Him that they are our of wine. Jesus says something like "why are you bothering me it is not my time yet to be about my Father's business." But undaunted, Mary tells the waiters to do as Jesus instructs and Jesus tells them to bring water jars and suddenly the water is now high quality wine....as the wine steward tells the groom..."funny you are serving the good stuff now....most people serve the good stuff first, etc." Must have been some party....like our Senior Trip!

Well this Priest explained that Mary had a servant's heart so surely she knew they were out of wine because she was in the kitchen working and not at the Head Table being served......So the role model for women is stay in the kitchen? I thought, you know, she was a relative and maybe she knew they were out of wine because she had asked for a glass and had been told they were out! I wanted to stand up and say something like...how about a role model like being a Priest! Then maybe the women would not have to look in the kitchen for purpose in the Church, but out of respect for Pat, I sat there quietly fuming.

Mass was followed by a nice dinner party at Pat's house with friends of Pat's generation. I really love that age. They have lived. All had lost partners. There is something about that time in ones life. The chaff is blown away and what is left is the best part. One woman talked about her large family and how two of her sisters had become nuns and one brother a priest. She said the nuns had their eyes on her when she was in high school but she would have none of it. She was not cut out for that life. Our discussion was made livelier by the wine and wonderful steak and vegitables. I could not say know to the chocolate cake and ice cream which capped the dinner and the night!

Sunday was a perfect day. We ate a nice brunch of salmon and salads outside on Pat's beautiful garden table. I started out with Scotch Marys which are Bloddy Marys made with scotch instead of vodka. I love the smokey flavor that the scotch adds to the tomato juice. The Scotch Marys followed by the wine served at brunch, made me sleepy and I took a luxurious nap. On my way back to Dallas I purchased three rose bushes. Tyler, my home town, is known as the Rose Capital of Texas and roses are everywhere. I hope they grow in my garden.

I also brought back from Tyler an orchid which Pat had bought for me - she is a gift giver and I could not leave without gifts even though it was Mothers Day (which included some chicken and dumplings, cut fresh fruit and a slice of chocolate cake). Back in Dallas I met a friend who was in town for work from San Francisco at the Mi Concina's in the Shops at Legacy in Plano, north of Dallas. I did not realize how far north it was... I felt like I was almost in Oklahoma!

So you see how the weekend robbed me of my running (although I had brought my shoes to Tyler thinking maybe I would run there.) I woke up Monday determined to run and to begin to catch up on my miles. After work I ran 5 miles in less than 50 minutes. It felt good, but I was coughing a little and decided not to run the last mile. Have to increase my weekly mileage to make my goal....but Life Is Good!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Day 67 OMG I realize I am behind!

Day 67, Friday April 9th Ran 3.4, Miles total 106.4; Miles to go - 893.6 So the Good News is that I ran today after not running for the past two days. My failure to run represented a combination of still fighting this check cold and working late each night monitoring exams so that I do not get out of the school until around 10:30. Yesterday I had a breakfast meeting and I have had a lunch each day this week other than Tuesday when I ran and so....no running. This morning I ran before work and it felt good, even though I continue to cough. Now for the Bad News, I just did the calculations and realized that to meet my 1000 miles in a year goal I need to average around 2.74 miles a day. At this point if I was on schedule, I would have run about 183.6 miles. I have only run 106.4. This creates a deficit of 77.2 miles so far. I will have to up the pace so as an incentive, for future posts I will add a column for where I need to be to be on track and where I actually am. Hopefully I can whittle away this deficit over the summer.

Now I stated my discussion with the "Good News, Bad News" format in honor of the UTube video that the law students have posted about me telling this Good News, Bad News" Old Man in China story that I tell every year during orientation. Check out the side under the title "Who is to say?" Well I tried to paste the link and failed. Good News, Bad News, Who is to say? I will try to add it later.



But Life is Good!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Day 64 "You gave up your freedom and your dignity for a crust of bread!"'

Day 64, Tuesday, April 6th. Ran 3 miles Run so far 103 miles Miles to go 897. Gambling investment 27 dollars. Winnings 12 Down 15 dollars. Won 4 dollars on the Weekly Grand Saturday!

After the triumph of my 100th mile in New York City, I returned to Dallas and promptly got sick as a dog with a bad chest cold. Today was the first day I could run again. I ran three miles at lunch time on the track at SMU. It felt so good to be back running, although I did find myself still coughing a lot. I also got a little too much sun for my fair skinned face.

There were four African American runners and their coach at the track. They were shirtless and wore tight black running pants. Their bodies were amazing. I knew that I had never looked like that nor would I ever. Natural athletic bodies sculpted like statues. I ran on the farthest out lane to stay out of their way.

One of them had was accompanied by his two year old daughter. She was beautiful with a big mop of curly hair. A future track star I am sure, she ran all the way around the quarter mile track with such glee. It was a wonderful sight. All the other runners were cheering her on.

After work I had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant, Cyclone Anaya's, with Gym Rat. My watermelon margarita was too small in size and too expensive in price, but the steak quesadias were tasty. Afterward, he wanted me to go with him to the self service car wash. I have to admit that I cannot remember how many years its has been since I washed a car. Probably as many as have passed since I mowed a yard. Gym Rat said that there had been some robberies at night and he wanted me to be there with my cell phone punched to 911 in case we needed assistance quickly. It is true that there have been some robberies at places like ATMs at night when people go to get quick cash. In any event, I was a good sport and went along.

Gym Rat has the cleanest car you can imagine. A grey Lexus. I did not even think it needed to be washed. It certainly was much cleaner than mine which I had been OK with, given that the recent rain had washed off a few layers of grit. He methodically vacuumed the inside of the car then rinsed the outside and scrubbed it with soap and rinsed it again with an efficiency that belied his experience at washing cars...only his car. When another car did pull up and the person got on his phone (and showed no signs of planning to wash his car) I have to admit that I did hold my finger a little closer to the 911 button. But soon that car left and we were alone again. I left Gym Rat and his clean car and went home.

All day I have been thinking about an old Russian tale I read recently about how dogs became domesticated and at what cost. It seems that there was a pack of wolves in Siberia and they were very hungry. They had not eaten in a long while. The old leader of the pack told them to be patient and that deer would come again as they always did, and they would be full. But one young wolf said he was too hungry and left, to go to the camp where the humans were to see if they would give him anything to eat. They did and he decided to stay. He began to hunt with the humans. One day his human master shot a wolf and the young wolf, now dog, ran up to fetch it but when he got to the old wolf he realized that it was the old leader of the pack. The young wolf was very remorseful but the old wolf would have none of it. He told the young wolf "You have made your choice. You have given up your dignity and your freedom for a crust of bread. Return to your masters."

It is a good story. There is much wisdom in the admonition that we have to be careful not to sacrifice freedom for security or we could lose both.....but Life is Good!