Sunday April, 19th 2009.
Its a nicer morning than expected still today is a good day to take a break from strenuous physical pursuits and relax a bit. Than and after a eleven and a quarter miles of running hills on Saturday the 18th my knees and ankles can use the rest. Although yesterday was a very pleasant day weather wise, it was also a tough day to run. The temperature was 47 degrees (F) with 63% humidity when I started just after the seventh hour and climbed to 57 degrees (F) while dropping to 36% humidity as I finished. While I wasn't drenched in sweat there was the start of an nice sized salt stain on the camel back reservoir I carry when i run longer distances.
The temperature was decieving as the lower humidity made it feel fairly comfortable but the saving grave was the cloud cover with the satrt of the run.
As for the week in review,
Monday; Tried to get out for a morning run but having to adjust the knee braces three times with in the first half mile frustrated me and I just let it go at that. Later Monday I had gone to my brother's place and we basicly wasted the day, Some days just turn out that way. Monday evening I had gone to Cold Spring where I attended the wake for Mr, Jim Guinan and said my good-by to the old fellow. His was the small store and bar in Garrison, NY I often retreated to for a few pints of beer, comradery with the other patrons and fine Irish music during the rising of the moon sessions.
Tuesday; i had wanted to run on the Putnam County Rail Trail that morning, but where I wanted to start from was closed by construction work so I opted for a different location to run. Along the roads where I used to run when I lived in Brewster. Starting near the dam for the Middle Branch Reservoir. I ran up along it's western bank on Maple road; turned left upon Hughson Rd and onto Stoneleigh Ave in Carmel. Going Southward on Stoneleigh I am running along another branch of the Croton Reservoir system till I arrive at Drewville Rd where I turn left once more and return to where i parked my van. The overal distance was four and three quarter miles.
Wednesday; No running today, instead it was off to Cold Spring for Jim's funeral followed by a get together of his family and friends in Garrison NY.
Now as for Irish funerals they are an affair which may have no equal. Granted the guest of honor can't acknowledge that you are there nor can he or she indicate approval or disapproval but he or she is the reason for the assembling of diverse folks.
So the funeral mass was to start promptly at ten in the morning. Well most of the church is seated and its also packed for standing room. The Cold Spring Fire department Pipband lead the hears to the church and Pipers, Joeseph Brady Sr. and Jr are flanking the church doors and pipe Jim into the church. During services, Piper Joseph Brady Jr. and the church organist play the hymms selected for the day and all is very nicely done. Just before Jim is escorted back to the hearse the Cold Spring Pipeband assembles ahead of the hearse (while Joeseph brady Sr. & Jr travel to the gravesite) in order to lead it off to the cemetary.
At the cemetary, The Cold Spring Band is arrained in a line up on the hill behind the grave site while Both Mr. Bradys are just below them and directly behind the internment site. The ceremonies again are very nicely done and all the pipers performed gloriously. Ah if Jim could of witnessed the performance surely he would of had an appropriate comment, possibly; Nicely done lads now enjoy a pint.
At the Garrison golf club where the crowd retired to after the services there was much addo and a big to do. still I took the time to speak to Margaret, Jim and Cathrine and thank them for sharing their father with me I also took my time and renewed many and acquaintance to follow up upon through the coming months. As for Jim's extended family he has quite the wide breath of the nation covered from the Northeast to the Florida Gulf Coast to the Pacific Ocean. While he may of lived in mostly in Garrison since the year I was born he touch wasn't just in New York State and America but in Ireland and England as well. God bless you extended family Jim.
Thursday; Just a mundane day of running, timber cutting and laundry in the afternoon. Followed by a trip to LaGuardia airport in NYC to pick up my mother so she can attend a school reunion in NYC.
First my imprssions about the aviation diaster site on Long Island named after a short fat worthless freaking idiot. A terrorist strike destroying that supposed bastion of aviation entry into NYC would be an improvement over the blighted abortion it has become. Complete demolition of all existing terminals, parking structures, roadways and any remaining infrastructure would be a major innovation in the regards of air travel into and out of NYC. For a metropolic such as NYC to not have a direct rail connection from midtown manhattan to one of its major air terminals is foolishness. As ther are no direct rail links to either airport in the confines of NYC is as sign of total ineptitude and arrogance. NYC should never be the site of another major event untill the disaters of its air terminals are retified. In other words NASCAR, the Olympics or let alone another World's Fair should never be considered untill the inbred cretins of the Megalopolis fixes infrastructure into a cohesive functional operation.
But that aside I'll spend no monies in NYC unless there are no other options.
So Thursday night I start deliver my mother safely to my younger brother's home and just after midnight on Friday morning, I go back to my current temporary abode.
Friday;start the day with a four & a quarter mile run around Putnam Lake, followed by driving my mother around to chance to visit with some old friends still residing in the neighborhood, Followed by a pleasant late lunch in the restaurant where my parent's 45th wedding aniversary was held while I was away on military duty. I finally got to eat there, after I had done the leg work to get things in place for it all those years ago.
Friday evening diner at my younger brother's home with his mob.
Saturday; Alrighty then the day broke relatively warm and clear. I had decided that since Sunday was going to be questionable weather wise it make my long run for the week that morning. Witnin the first two miles i climbeb 340 feet of elevation and that set the tone for the remainder of the run as described in the opening paragraph.
At a little before noon I drove my mother up to Dutchess county to my other brother's place for a visit and my Older brother comes in from Pike County PA to visit as well. So for the first time since in five years my mother got to see all four of her sons in the same day. maybe not the same location but as busy as some demands of modern life are thats pretty good too.
Which finally brings me to the close of the week and this morning Sunday April 19th.
This morning I'm taking a rest, no running and will run my mother to the train station so she can head into NYC for her school reunion.
Ah back from NYC and meeting some new folks, Nice train ride down to manhattan and back. now if Metro North would designe seating to accomodate people over 6 foot tall comfortably.
Cheers
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Monday, April 13th. a perspective on the world.
I'm not overly religous, living as secular life as the next person still there may be lessons to learn from faith. Easter and Passover have passed, let the Sugar Buzz commence. OK not funny but the ir-religious celebrations aside and the reflections on life death portrayed both in Christian and Jewish beliefs mirror and oppose each other. There is more to the message than the salvation of people. It was salvation, but at great cost. The First Born of the Egyptians and the First Born of God both died over the Passover Season.
Perhaps one lesson to be viewed is that we can be given a gift that comes at great cost to another. The cost of that gift, not in monetary measure, makes the gift more valuable than coins.
In Iraq, the tribal groups and religious sects have been given the opprotunity to be free from a central controling government of criminally minded people.
The costs, the lives of American, British, and Other Nations soldiers. Now it is for the Zorastrians, Christians, Jews, Kurds, Shittes and Sunnis to come together for a common good and work together. Yet they have long memories of conflict and distrust they must overcome first. What they do not have is a history however short of cooperation and peaceful co-existance amongst the tribes and sects. That now is a lesson they must learn from the history of others if they can, otherwise this experiment in self determination they have been provided is doomed to failure at their own hands.
Afghanistan; again a different time, place and mindset from Iraq and many more different human equations. The Afghanistan tribes make for as much variation within that geopolitical entity as you will find in Western Asia. From the religious extremes as displayed by the Taliban to the need for modernizing its infrastructure and lifting the spirit of the people from decades of turmoil.
The Afghan peoples; all the different tribal and culturally diverse groups too need to seek a comon ground and stand together to throw off the shackles of the limited mindset that would be imposed by the Taliban and Al Queada. The Afghan tribes have a history of being resolute against a common foe just as much as they've a history of working against each other for their limited immediate desires and goals. The Taliban & Al Queada have been weakened but not erradicated. Now it is up to the Afghan Peoples to stand and work together to climb out of their dispare and poverty. the World hasn't passed Afghanistan by, so much as Afghanistan has turned inward and ignored the world untill it was forced open.
Forced Open First by the Soviet conflict there in the 1980's followed by the decades of enforce enslavement by a midieval mindset of the Taliban. To now comming to grips that their country is not thier own to decide the destiny there of. The Government in Kabul can not govern the nation due to how it percieves itself.
There may be some similarities of Afghanistan and the American West from 1865 to 1900when the U.S. Army was more of a Constabulary Force; Keeping a peace imposed upon tribal groups. It wasn't untill the tribal entities fighting against the strenght of the U.S. Army where brough to their knees by deaths, sickness, isolation and poverty that the American west was delcared passified.
Still it was a conflict which lasted well over the 35 year time span of 1865 to 1900. It was a ideological, religous and cultural conflict. The first skirmishes of which were fought beginning with the movement westward of European colonialists.
There are many similarities to be drawn upon; from the British & French Canadian experiences to the Spanish & later French Mexican experiences.
The lessons to be learned are several. Our world is not as civilized as we may wish. The freedoms we and others desire will come at great costs, lives and fiscally. The realization that you can not kill an idea by killing the messager and the need to destroy the means of retribution of an enemy to your goal.
Passover for the Isrealites was the opening of a gate way to their freedom from enslavement. The costs was the leaving of Egypt to wander in the deserts of Sinai; The loss of the Egyptian first borns and of Pharoah's Army. Egypt was denied the means of retribution upon the Isrealites. Yet it took Generations for the Isrealites to achieve their goal of a nation.
Easter for Christians is a watershed moment when realization is made that the death of the messanger does not mark the death of the message he brought. The Ressurection symbolizes the rebirth of the message and the hundreds of years afterwards demonstrate how the message can be borne out to others.
Justice and freedom aren't just ideals and abstract concepts; Justice can be with held and freedom denied. But without people willing to risk all to allow others to experience even the faintest of glimers of justice and freedom. The hope of a more peaceful and free future for many will never occur.
Even Mahatma Ghandi realized that he could loose his life by standing and expressing his message. Just as Jesus of Nazareth and John the Baptist had. But without the few willing to stand and deliver we would not have the examples needed for us to learn from and do the same for others. Still freedoms for those in Iraq and Afghanistan can not be won with the rifle and bayonet. The Iraqis and Afghans now need stand for themselves as well and strive for the change they need regardless of the costs both immediate and for future generations.
The immediacy of Easter and Passover has passed now it is time for the harder work to commence for those who would wish to be free.
Perhaps one lesson to be viewed is that we can be given a gift that comes at great cost to another. The cost of that gift, not in monetary measure, makes the gift more valuable than coins.
In Iraq, the tribal groups and religious sects have been given the opprotunity to be free from a central controling government of criminally minded people.
The costs, the lives of American, British, and Other Nations soldiers. Now it is for the Zorastrians, Christians, Jews, Kurds, Shittes and Sunnis to come together for a common good and work together. Yet they have long memories of conflict and distrust they must overcome first. What they do not have is a history however short of cooperation and peaceful co-existance amongst the tribes and sects. That now is a lesson they must learn from the history of others if they can, otherwise this experiment in self determination they have been provided is doomed to failure at their own hands.
Afghanistan; again a different time, place and mindset from Iraq and many more different human equations. The Afghanistan tribes make for as much variation within that geopolitical entity as you will find in Western Asia. From the religious extremes as displayed by the Taliban to the need for modernizing its infrastructure and lifting the spirit of the people from decades of turmoil.
The Afghan peoples; all the different tribal and culturally diverse groups too need to seek a comon ground and stand together to throw off the shackles of the limited mindset that would be imposed by the Taliban and Al Queada. The Afghan tribes have a history of being resolute against a common foe just as much as they've a history of working against each other for their limited immediate desires and goals. The Taliban & Al Queada have been weakened but not erradicated. Now it is up to the Afghan Peoples to stand and work together to climb out of their dispare and poverty. the World hasn't passed Afghanistan by, so much as Afghanistan has turned inward and ignored the world untill it was forced open.
Forced Open First by the Soviet conflict there in the 1980's followed by the decades of enforce enslavement by a midieval mindset of the Taliban. To now comming to grips that their country is not thier own to decide the destiny there of. The Government in Kabul can not govern the nation due to how it percieves itself.
There may be some similarities of Afghanistan and the American West from 1865 to 1900when the U.S. Army was more of a Constabulary Force; Keeping a peace imposed upon tribal groups. It wasn't untill the tribal entities fighting against the strenght of the U.S. Army where brough to their knees by deaths, sickness, isolation and poverty that the American west was delcared passified.
Still it was a conflict which lasted well over the 35 year time span of 1865 to 1900. It was a ideological, religous and cultural conflict. The first skirmishes of which were fought beginning with the movement westward of European colonialists.
There are many similarities to be drawn upon; from the British & French Canadian experiences to the Spanish & later French Mexican experiences.
The lessons to be learned are several. Our world is not as civilized as we may wish. The freedoms we and others desire will come at great costs, lives and fiscally. The realization that you can not kill an idea by killing the messager and the need to destroy the means of retribution of an enemy to your goal.
Passover for the Isrealites was the opening of a gate way to their freedom from enslavement. The costs was the leaving of Egypt to wander in the deserts of Sinai; The loss of the Egyptian first borns and of Pharoah's Army. Egypt was denied the means of retribution upon the Isrealites. Yet it took Generations for the Isrealites to achieve their goal of a nation.
Easter for Christians is a watershed moment when realization is made that the death of the messanger does not mark the death of the message he brought. The Ressurection symbolizes the rebirth of the message and the hundreds of years afterwards demonstrate how the message can be borne out to others.
Justice and freedom aren't just ideals and abstract concepts; Justice can be with held and freedom denied. But without people willing to risk all to allow others to experience even the faintest of glimers of justice and freedom. The hope of a more peaceful and free future for many will never occur.
Even Mahatma Ghandi realized that he could loose his life by standing and expressing his message. Just as Jesus of Nazareth and John the Baptist had. But without the few willing to stand and deliver we would not have the examples needed for us to learn from and do the same for others. Still freedoms for those in Iraq and Afghanistan can not be won with the rifle and bayonet. The Iraqis and Afghans now need stand for themselves as well and strive for the change they need regardless of the costs both immediate and for future generations.
The immediacy of Easter and Passover has passed now it is time for the harder work to commence for those who would wish to be free.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
First Week of April, 2009
Sunday April 5th, 2009.
Its been one of those weeks, where once you loose control you stay behind the power curve. Well at least I haven't gotten behind the 8 ball.
On the bad news front. Mr Jim Guinan who ran his own iconic store and pub in Garrison, NY untill January of 2008 passed on in Florida this week. His was the place I often took a pint of brew in and was an anchor for a small community. A few simple words can not describe the true depth and meaning the place held for many. Alas but he and his ore are but a memory of a better time.
One of the things I meant to do during this past week was get over to the American Legion Post in Monroe, NY to personally thank the Sons of the American Legion for its donation last year to the Leukemia and lymphoma Society. Best of intentions and all; Well I got there on the wrong day. May 3rd is their next meeting and that is the first friday of the month maybe with a boot up side the head as a less than subtle reminder. I'll make it there on the correct day. Benny my apologoes for that. But I did meet Bruce & Ed at the bar last night while they were tending.
Also the new ladder truck at West Point looks rather nice. I hope it performs much better than the old one and doesn't become overloaded with so much matterial it needs a Sherpa to act as a porter to carry tools and equipment up and down the hill at West Point, NY. There would of been a aspect of comedy lended to the old ladder truck if they guys driving it last year kept it intentionally slow when I ran up Stoney Lonesome road past it. But the sad truth is it was traveling flat out up the hill and a 50 yearold man with bad knees was able to begin from a dead stop and run uphill faster than a truck that was already travelling up hill.
Well the weather hasn't been too nice overall this past week but today was most excellent. Temps in the upper 50's to about 60 degrees farenheit. Very low humidity with a modest breeze. The cloud cover was blowing out and things were shaping up as a glorious day. So how did I spend the bulk of it? Waiting for a half marathon to begin so I could run 13.1 miles in and around parts of Danbury, Bethel, West Redding and Redding Connecticut. Since the end of December the furthest distance I had run was 9 and 6/10th miles about a week and a half ago. Today's effort was just to be done for giggles and shits with no expectations of completing the event in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. Its is amazing how wrong we can be about ourselves and what we can do. Even without training up properly for the event I had a personal record for the distance of 2 hr, 15 min, 43 sec. Besting my previous best time by 2 min 39 sec. What is scary though is I am heavier now than I was in December, a month & a half after the Marine Corps Marathon.
Ah as for the effects of long distance running on the body; Blackened toenail season has begun.
Well thats all for today, Now I'm just vegitating and relaxing after a hard physical effort to transition myself into training to try to run another marathon. Only this time I'm not doing it as a fund raising event for a major charity (as of yet) and if I do use it as a fund raiser for charity, Fisher House will be the next one I support and in a more modest way.
Well that pretty much sums up the past week, be healthy and safe everyone.
Q.
Its been one of those weeks, where once you loose control you stay behind the power curve. Well at least I haven't gotten behind the 8 ball.
On the bad news front. Mr Jim Guinan who ran his own iconic store and pub in Garrison, NY untill January of 2008 passed on in Florida this week. His was the place I often took a pint of brew in and was an anchor for a small community. A few simple words can not describe the true depth and meaning the place held for many. Alas but he and his ore are but a memory of a better time.
One of the things I meant to do during this past week was get over to the American Legion Post in Monroe, NY to personally thank the Sons of the American Legion for its donation last year to the Leukemia and lymphoma Society. Best of intentions and all; Well I got there on the wrong day. May 3rd is their next meeting and that is the first friday of the month maybe with a boot up side the head as a less than subtle reminder. I'll make it there on the correct day. Benny my apologoes for that. But I did meet Bruce & Ed at the bar last night while they were tending.
Also the new ladder truck at West Point looks rather nice. I hope it performs much better than the old one and doesn't become overloaded with so much matterial it needs a Sherpa to act as a porter to carry tools and equipment up and down the hill at West Point, NY. There would of been a aspect of comedy lended to the old ladder truck if they guys driving it last year kept it intentionally slow when I ran up Stoney Lonesome road past it. But the sad truth is it was traveling flat out up the hill and a 50 yearold man with bad knees was able to begin from a dead stop and run uphill faster than a truck that was already travelling up hill.
Well the weather hasn't been too nice overall this past week but today was most excellent. Temps in the upper 50's to about 60 degrees farenheit. Very low humidity with a modest breeze. The cloud cover was blowing out and things were shaping up as a glorious day. So how did I spend the bulk of it? Waiting for a half marathon to begin so I could run 13.1 miles in and around parts of Danbury, Bethel, West Redding and Redding Connecticut. Since the end of December the furthest distance I had run was 9 and 6/10th miles about a week and a half ago. Today's effort was just to be done for giggles and shits with no expectations of completing the event in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. Its is amazing how wrong we can be about ourselves and what we can do. Even without training up properly for the event I had a personal record for the distance of 2 hr, 15 min, 43 sec. Besting my previous best time by 2 min 39 sec. What is scary though is I am heavier now than I was in December, a month & a half after the Marine Corps Marathon.
Ah as for the effects of long distance running on the body; Blackened toenail season has begun.
Well thats all for today, Now I'm just vegitating and relaxing after a hard physical effort to transition myself into training to try to run another marathon. Only this time I'm not doing it as a fund raising event for a major charity (as of yet) and if I do use it as a fund raiser for charity, Fisher House will be the next one I support and in a more modest way.
Well that pretty much sums up the past week, be healthy and safe everyone.
Q.
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