That's the joy of capitalism. Sometimes the hired help shoots management in the foot.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Take A Deep Breath And Read The Fine Print
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Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Barry White? We're Talking Barry White!?
So, here's to you, Barry. We can learn how to be good athletes, and good people, perhaps, by listening to your stuff every so often. Oh, yeah...I never thought I'd hear a better version of Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are, but somehow you did it.
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Friday, November 27, 2009
Over The River, Through The Woods...
One of my former bosses was very opinionated about the holidays. During one memorable conversation about careers and future goals, he said: 'Christmas, to me, is an economic nightmare. I'm not fond of the commercialization, & my family & I work to keep it as simple as possible. For me, Thanksgiving is the big holiday; it's all about the family, the food & a sense of gratitude.' Surprisingly enough, that conversation has stayed in my mind since 1992. It wasn't all about the holidays as much as it was about the brevity of life, the brevity of memory, & most of all, about the need to enjoy what you do for a living.
Before Suzanne & I moved into our own home we had this little two-story apartment. Actually, it would have been fairly good size if we had used both floors, but we (Suzanne, me, & eventually Rubin) were all on the first deck. Some of the kitchen stuff we had included a nice, big stock pot. I mean, you couple have placed Godzilla-Turkey in this thing. Ended making so much stock we couldn't store it all in the fridge. Oops.
So yesterday, I was looking for that same stock pot, to no avail. Must have been one of those things we gave away after we moved into the new house, or when one of our related young'uns got married and moved into a place. Not certain. So I had to make do with the roasting pan. Definitely field-expedient. The good news is that the stock is all done, the bones, tendons, turkey skin, fat, & assorted inedible stuff is now in the trash can (where I pray the d-a-w-g doesn't assault it). The forecast calls for soup. Lots of it. No tacos, thanks.
We have little difficulty getting around on the road to the places we enjoy traveling. Going to New Orleans...we know like the back of our hand. Other places are a tad different. Getting there is usually uneventful. It's a little more challenging, though, on the trip back. While I remember to get turn-by-turn for the outbound, the return trip is always, er, entertaining. I saw stuff around Augusta, GA I didn't want to see. Once we got an idea where the interstate was, it was time to grab enough coffee & munchies to fuel us so we could make up for lost time...oh, & a head call was in order for both of us, too.
I'm going to blame my masters' swimming friend Bill Evans for turning me on to the Garmin Nuvi GPS. It was a neat piece of gear & made the trip from Pensacola to Auburn last February at the least entertaining. Nothing like changing the b!tch-in-a-box to sound like Vincent Price-meets-James Earl Jones to make us all kind of laugh our butts off. Between that, & my conversion to the benefits of GPS receiver-as-training tool, I started to think how nice it would be to have something like that for either my wife's Mercedes or my little Scion xB when on the road. We're going to Hawai'i in January for business, again; this time we're going to have a car to get around (I've promised my father I'd make a pilgrimage to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona Memorial...a good idea regardless, since I work for the Navy.). So, rather than depend on maps & drive like a bunch of touri...yep, bring on the whiny wahine.
Would love to have been there, but the powers that be (and we know who those powers are!) did not decide to let the non-mission essential civilian employees take the day off. Of course, the bad news is that we have to be here. The good news is that we're not at the mall.
If you're traveling today, stay safe. Blessed Eid to those who celebrate the end of the pilgrimage.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Does This Course Catalog Make My Butt Look Fat?
(EDITORIAL COMMENT: I WEIGHED 183 POUNDS IN 1992, SO I UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE A FEW EXTRA POUNDS. THANKFULLY, I MANAGED TO DROP 20, BUT I STILL FIGHT WITH IT REGULARLY. MB)
I heard a report on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday afternoon & said to myself: 'dude! Perfect blog material!' The initial posting in the next paragraph is from the NPR site. The article included a Getty Images photo of "adipose-enhanced people" walking down a path.
I like to think of myself as a tad more enlightened than the average bear, but I find it frightening to see very overweight people...at the Golden Corral (like I did when visiting my in-laws last month), or complaining about how they cannot lose weight, or trying everything but sensible diet & a consistent long-term exercise regimen.
News Flash: You did NOT get this way in a single day/week/month. It took years of conscious decision-making to get to this point. It's going to take time & discipline to get back...if you want to. You can make excuses, or you can make effort. I applaud effort, because I've heard more than enough excuses.
How many civilian co-workers do I have who are, quite literally, ticking time bombs? I leave most of my military co-workers out of this equation because they have fitness requirements which are part & parcel with their enlistment...yes, there are some fat, nasty chiefs & officers out there who look like dog sh!t in their khakis. Sorry boys (and girls!), dunlap disease is not an acceptable medical condition in my book.
Even I, at age 47, am not immune to something sneaky underneath the surface; one bad day at a long-distance triathlon might bring up a previously-undetected medical issue. Developing a life-long habit of consistent aerobic exercise...and perhaps a cleaner diet...is not going to do anything harmful to college students. Healthier, slimmer graduates are more likely to earn higher incomes and just might be that alumni donor who improves the dining facility once and for all.
Have a fantastic Thanksgiving, everyone! See you on the road this weekend...
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
When Things Come To A Head
The timing was nearly perfect...and not so perfect; it all hit like a ton of bricks last week when I was scheduled for a general practitioner's appointment. Unfortunately, it stuck around & became more noxious through the weekend's tri club party/meeting - if the photos taken showed I looked like I rolled out of a sickbed to quaff a couple of beers, well, that's because I did. The bad news is I don't feel like doing anything that resembles exercise. The good news is I didn't have any major plans for this month, anyhow.
At least that's what my body is telling me. My mind, on the other hand...wanted to jump in on the weekend's masters' swim meet a couple of days back. Hey, it would have been warmer in the water than on the deck, but I doubted hacking a six-pound loogie at the end of the 800-yard freestyle would have been a pretty sight. Some times you have to be smarter than your desire.
So, other than a couple of brief walks around the park with the wife & the woofer, my exercise regimen has been limited to a single set of 12-ounce elbow bends each evening.
As for the training, it's a great time to run, bike or swim with people you normally wouldn't train. We've got local runs which occur at the same time as our track workout; I'm not one to give carte blanche & say, 'go ahead and run with that group,' but if the change of pace gives you a new perspective on your training...
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Thursday, November 19, 2009
ISO A Guy With Initials After His Name
Spent a few minutes after getting my weekly Six at Six beat-down talking to Mark. He asked me what I knew about chiropractic, & whether I had ever been treated by a doctor of chiropractic. I had to admit a certain degree of ignorance about the benefits of chiropractic; while I've read much in the running world about athletes being adjusted on a regular basis, I also had to look past some formerly/deeply-held (religion-based) convictions. I'm not in the mood to get into the theological side of this, so I'll stay with the semi-scientific side.
I spent 14 years working in the medical field, as an administrative person (transcribing doctors' orders), a file maintainer/receptionist & a transcriber (history/physical examinations, ER visits, progress notes, discharge orders, treatment notes, and so on). During that time I had close working/personal relationships with most of the relevant medical professions (doctors are willing to engage in some back-scratching to get their work expedited), which gave me the chance on many occasions to ask 'what's the difference between...?'

So, if I were to place the three forms of medicine on a spectrum, I would consider osteopathic medicine (practiced by doctors of osteopathic, or D.O.'s) at the center of the spectrum. Chiropractic, Homeopathic, Chinese and Ayurvedic would be on the left side; allopathic medicine (practiced by doctors of medicine, M.D.'s) would be on the right.
Fortunately for me, I was able to get the contact information for the physician my friend Steven sees. The guy's a masters' swimmer & does some of our long swim events, so he recognized me right away when he came into the examination room. Right away, I knew this would be a fairly comfortable fit.
And when it comes to your life, your health & your avocation, comfort is darn near everything.
A V.A. friend of mine is a D.O. I would visit him on occasion in the Rehab Medicine department when I had an issue, or just to ask 'what would you do in this situation?' I always found his approach to medical issues to be pragmatic & holistic. He was more likely to try something outside the box than fall back on more traditional methods of treatment. I decided to see what Wikipedia had to say about osteopathic medicine, and whether I had gone far afield with my description to Mark.
Wiki says: "...osteopathy has been considered a form of complementary medicine, emphasizing a holistic approach and the skilled use of a range of manual and physical treatment interventions in the prevention and treatment of disease. In practice, this most commonly relates to musculoskeletal problems such as back and neck pain. Osteopathic principles teach that treatment of the musculoskeletal system (bones, muscles and joints) facilitates the recuperative powers of the body."
There's a time & place for pharmaceuticals in the treatment of medical issues, but I'm always amenable to something a little more on the natural side. Mind you, the most important issue is not so much the type of initials after the name as much as whether they are compatible to your needs.
I have spent more time over the past two years in dental offices than doctor's offices, so it wasn't that important to me. However, after my episode in Panama City I knew I did not want to visit the general practitioner near my home. There's nothing worse than being an athlete who has a medical issue; a physician's visit usually leads to the typical 'stop running/cycling/swimming altogether' advice. I also could tell from the first visit the practice would not be compatible; contemporary religious background muzak & copies of Christianity Today are not preferred waiting room material for a recovering fundamentalist.
Fortunately for me, I was able to get the contact information for the physician my friend Steven sees. The guy's a masters' swimmer & does some of our long swim events, so he recognized me right away when he came into the examination room. Right away, I knew this would be a fairly comfortable fit.
And when it comes to your life, your health & your avocation, comfort is darn near everything.
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Monday, November 16, 2009
A Place For Everyone; Everyone In Their Place
The participant mounted two cameras on his triathlon bike; one was affixed to his bike frame and faced forward, another facing to the rear. He also had a camera attached to his helmet and carried a small hand-held cam. Talk about an eye-opener.
Guess it's just part of the sport.
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9:28 AM
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