Halloween Scariness

This morning, my cousin sent me one of those "getting to know you" surveys. I enjoy exchanging these with my cousin, so I answered it. One of the questions was "What are you most afraid of." She responded with something about Obama. She thinks that if he is elected president, he will do nothing to protect us from terrorists. I was not surprised by this answer, because I knew she was of that persuasion.

I did not want to give a "turnabout is fair play" answer, so I thought about what scares me most. To be honest, I'm not all that afraid. I'm deeply concerned about certain things, but I wouldn't describe it as fear.

Still, if I had to answer "what am I most afraid of?" I would have to say that it is what might happen if Obama is not elected president. I have a lot of reasons for this, which I will not go into right now.

Today is Halloween, and it's a time to think about scary things. In a fun way, if possible. So here is a fun take on scary things.

My daughter mentioned that the "Joker" from the new Batman movie will be the most popular costume this year.

I told her the Joker could never be as scary as the Penguin, as played by Burgess Meredith in the original TV series.

When I was about three or four, the Penguin scared the living daylights out of me. It was his cackle, I think. I would run to my mommy, traumatized, and she had to limit my TV watching.

My daughter is not familiar with the original Batman show, so I looked online for a video clip of the Penguin. I wanted her to see what a true comic book villain was like.

What I found was this clip of the "Batman/Penguin Debate." It turns out that my childhood fear was prescient. (And I think I need to limit my TV watching, until after the election.)

Tomato Plant Requiem

I am in mourning. Today, I had to face up to the fact that my hydroponic garden was going nowhere.

I had to pull the plug.

I lit a monkey candle, and am grieving the loss of my tomatoes that never were.

It's not Aerogarden's fault. I think I just didn't know enough about how to prune tomatoes. I made some crucial mistakes early on, and the poor buggers didn't have a chance.

I know that not all of this is about tomatoes. I am dealing with some roadblocks in other areas of life, and going through a rough patch. I have known for a long time that my tomato garden was a lost cause. But now would be a good time to make a scapegoat of my fruitless gardening attempt, and throw it all into the dumpster. Maybe that will help me though the other difficulties as well.

I will be sad for a while. I don't know what the natural grieving process is for broken tomato dreams.

Pretty soon, I will try again. I've learned a few things about pruning, and Aerogardening. When the time is right, I'll take all of what I've learned in the process, and try again. Eventually, I will grow a successful tomato.

But now, I will cry.

Banana Salad

On Monday, the community college choir I accompany had a concert featuring a piece called "Aeyaya Balano Sakkad." When I first saw the title, I said "Oh, a song about banana salad!" and from then on, the students referred to the song as "Banana Salad."

So to celebrate their fine performance, today I made a banana salad for them. Judging from what was left (see the picture), it went over pretty well. I forgot to add the sugar, and was worried it wouldn't be sweet enough for most people's tastes, but I think it turned out just fine. There is sugar in the Jello, and also in the Cool Whip. And everyone seems to be eating Halloween candy this week, so I think we have plenty of sugar in our lives.

The song was a traditional Hindu folk song, in mixolydian mode, celebrating the Diwali holiday, or the "Festival of Lights," which takes place this time of year. I am told that it actually started yesterday. So, happy Diwali, everyone!

I am almost certain that a good Hindu would not celebrate Diwali by eating Jello, so do not mistake this for an authentic ethnic cuisine. But the students seemed to like it.

Recipe for Banana Salad:

Dissolve 2 small boxes strawberry/banana Jello in 2 cups boiling water in a 9x13 pan. Stir until the Jello is dissolved.

Add 1/2 cold water, and about 20 oz frozen sliced strawberries (I used the unsweetened kind), and 3 bananas, sliced.

Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, mix 4 oz cream cheese and a package of Cool Whip. You can also add 1/2 cup powdered sugar, but I forgot to do this.

Spread it over the Jello salad. Top with pecan pieces.

Before serving, cut up 2 more bananas, and put them on top.

Recipe for spatula, in case you forget to bring one from home:

Take three plastic forks, and tape them together in the shape of a spatula.



I hope that next semester, we can sing about lasagna casserole.

The Bishop Was Here, But You'll Just Have to Imagine the Visuals!

(I goofed, and posted something that was copyrighted, and my post was removed. I'm not sure exactly what it was that I wasn't supposed to post, but I'm guessing it was a picture. So here is my post without the pictures. I also removed the links to the audio, although I don't think that was the offending content. Who knows? I wish they would have been more specific. Anyway, you'll just have to use your imagination... If I find out that the audio was ok, I'll put it back in later.)

(Later edit: I put the second musical link back in, because I'm pretty sure it's fair use. I'll be ready to stand corrected, if I get slapped again.)

(Edited again ~ I think it was the sound file after all, so I removed the link. Go figure!)

(Edited one last time ~ I added a picture I took on the day I went to practice the organ.)



Today the Bishop, Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, was in town. All of the Episcopal Churches in the Diocese of West Missouri met together at the Community of Christ Auditorium in Independence, in lieu of having services in the individual churches.

I was one of several organists who were asked to contribute seven minutes to the prelude of the service.

This was rather daunting, for several reasons. This is the biggest organ in the Kansas City area, and I am not very well acquainted with it. With four manuals, and all those stops and pistons, I thought surely there would be a button somewhere for switching off the wrong notes, but I never did find one. So I included some wrong notes in my musical offering.

I estimate that there were about 1,200 people there, including a mass choir. This was actually reassuring, though. With that many people present, that means that at the very most, only one twelve-hundredth of it was about me. That kind of took the pressure off.

But another thing did make it very intimidating for me. Some of the best organists in the area participated in this service. I knew that they would be extremely accomplished and well-prepared. Also, I predicted (correctly) that they would select very sophisticated pieces of music that would showcase their skills.

My academic musical training was not in organ ~ I came from a small liberal arts college ~ and that was a long time ago ~ so I am not very well-versed in organ literature. I am a pianist who learned to play in the "close enough" style, mostly on the job. Recently, I've done some extracurricular study, but I am not in the same league with these guys, either in repertoire or skill.

When I made my selections, I knew that they would be "service music," in contrast to the more intricate works that others would be playing. I think this is okay. It was a service, after all, not an organ recital, and service music is where I live. I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not. The prelude would be a time of commotion, as people come in chatting and finding their seats, so I thought it would be nice to have some music that didn't challenge the listener a great deal. Something with clarity and good taste.

I played two settings of a hymn called "All My Hope on God is Founded," both by Michael Burkhardt. The tune itself is wonderfully irregular in its meter, and it is a good, sturdy tune that has become one of my favorites.

I recorded these with a cassette tape recorder at my one and only practice session on the organ, and will try to post the sound files on this blog. I have never posted an audio file, so I hope it works.

The first setting is pretty straightforward, but I did not do some of the things the composer indicated. I restricted myself to the limitations of the organ I usually practice on, and although the auditorium organ certainly does not have these limitations, I didn't feel comfortable doing anything different from what I do in practice. So the organ is huge, but I only played a small fraction of it! (A footnote on the score indicates that the piece quotes Herbert Howells' Psalm Prelude, Op. 32, No. 1. Coincidentally, the organist right before me played Op. 32. No. 2!)

The second setting is festive ~ an ornamented trumpet tune with lots of sparkly stuff and a couple of sudden modulations that could sound like a cheap thrill, but I think the composer did them tastefully. Anyway, I get a kick out of this piece ~ it's kind of a guilty pleasure.

I did feel like I stuck out a little, playing pieces like this in the midst of all that organ literature. But I think they were good selections for the occasion, and for the kind of organist I am. And although I was way out of my comfort zone, I didn't screw up too badly.

The Gospel reading was something along the lines of "whoever is greatest must be the least, and whoever is least shall be the greatest." In that context, I did great!

I Started an Online Running Journal

I had been keeping a running journal in a Word document, but that wasn't inspiring me very much. For some reason, I feel that it would be better to keep a record of my running online. No one except me will look at it, probably, but just the thought that somebody could makes me think "I'd better not slack off too much."

I don't recommend subscribing to it. It's not going to be very interesting. Just facts and figures, mostly, to document my progress toward my goal (5k at age 100). But sometimes I like to look at other people's running logs, and find them informative, so here it is, in case anyone's interested!

I still plan to put the more interesting things (like race reports and philosophical musings and inspirational thoughts) on this here blog.

If you are looking for the training journal blog, you can find it by going to my profile.

1944 Pulitzer Prize-winning Photo is Now a Video!

This iconic photo won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944. It was shot by Earle "Buddy" Bunker of the Omaha World-Herald at the train station in Villisca, Iowa, where my mother lives.

The soldier in the photo is Bob Moore. My mother worked for Bob and his brother Bill at the drugstore one summer. She tells me, "...but I kept asking for time off to go to Methodist youth meetings (I was a conference and district officer). They got awfully irritated, especially Bill. He did not like me using four scoops instead of three for the malts and milkshakes, either."

I think it is pretty cool to have family connections to such a famous photograph.

A lot of people in Villisca get annoyed because Villisca's other claim to fame is that it is the site of a 1912 ax murder, Iowa's most notorious unsolved crime. If Villisca gets any attention at all, it is usually because of the ax murder. An award-winning documentary was recently produced on this subject.

Ironically, five of the victims of the ax murder were members of the Moore family, close relatives of the WWII hero in the above photo. (The other two victims were distant relatives of mine, by marriage.)

Villisca was recently in the news for something really cool, though ~ When that WWII homecoming photo was snapped, Eva Croxdale, mother of the little boy in the photo, was shooting a home video. That video has now turned up in the home of Leyton Croxdale (son of the little boy in the photo) ~ and there is a very interesting article about it here.

My grandmother worked for Dr. Ed Croxdale (Eva's husband) for many years. Dr. Croxdale really liked my grandmother, my mom tells me.

I will try to put the video here on my blog, but I'm not sure I know how to do it. If it doesn't work, please go to the article linked above, and watch the video ~ it is very cool!

Homecoming revisited from GazetteOnline.com on Vimeo.

Celebrate Normal!

I finished my round of annual women's health exams, by having a mammogram this morning.

Not my favorite thing to do. I hate going for these tests every year. Filling out the forms is enough of a hassle. But the whole thing is just uncomfortable. Talk about being vulnerable! There are a lot of other things I'd rather do on a Friday morning. Like working.

And so far, I've always been told "everything's fine!" I used to think, "well, that was a pain ~ glad it's over!" and go on with my day, slightly annoyed that I had to go through all that.

Last year, I decided to look at it in a new way. When you think about other possible scenarios, "everything's normal" is very good news indeed. It's fantastic. It's wonderful! It's the best thing that could possibly happen!

It calls for a celebration, in fact. We should never let these things go uncelebrated. I'm not going to throw a party, but I will quietly exult for the rest of the weekend. There was a Panera on the way home, so I stopped in and let them fix me a tuna sandwich, and I accepted potato chips as a kind of a treat. I don't eat potato chips every day, but with a clean bill of health, I figure I can indulge once in a while.

I won't celebrate with junk food all weekend, though. I started thinking about what kind of food would be appropriate to commemorate another year of good health. In honor of the mammogram, I think I will get some squash!

And the Mystery Runner Is...

...my friend Eddie!!

Eddie is a brilliant man who designs GPS systems for aircraft.

A few weeks ago, he told me that he wanted to start exercising, for better health, and he was thinking about running. Of course, I encouraged him to try it! I told him that there was a couch-to-5k program online, and it would be a very realistic goal to work up to running a 5K this fall. I said, if he wanted to, I would run with him for his first 5k.

We decided on the Kansas City Marathon 5k, which was this morning. This is the second week in a row I have run with someone named Ed.

Many times Eddie has astounded me by doing things that I didn't know he could do. I was one of his music teachers in high school, and then he took my piano class in college. He was one of those students who was better than I was, in some ways (technique), so I had to keep focusing on the things (musical maturity) where I still had him outranked. Nowadays, he outranks me in just about everything!

I told him to go to organist camp (the American Guild of Organists' "Pipe Organ Encounters"), and I even drove him to Minnesota for that, because I thought he should become an organist. Now he plays circles around me.

I didn't think he could sing scat, and then he did. I didn't think he could play Brahms with as much passion as intellect, and then he did. So I stopped selling him short, and now I just expect him to do the impossible. And he does.

That is what I like about running, and since I only became a runner very recently, I am still aware of that phenomenon. When you start running, there is a certain distance or duration that is impossible. Say, two blocks or so, or maybe 60 seconds of running. And then you run it. Then there is another impossible thing. And you do it. It is a succession of impossible things, and you keep doing them! Pretty heady stuff.

So I jumped at the chance to make Eddie a runner. All I had to do is tell him about the training program, and send him to the right store for shoes. He did the rest.

And now he's a runner!

Of course, I take credit for everything he knows and does. That's one of the secrets of great teaching. Have brilliant students.

I had to pick up my packet on Thursday, because I was out of town Friday. While I was down there by Union Station, I decided to pick up my tickets for a train trip I'm taking this spring.

Union Station is the best piece of architecture in Kansas City. It is not very well utilized, but at least they didn't make the mistake of tearing it down, like they almost did!

Inside the station, there happened to be a model train set up ~ I'm sure it is a temporary exhibit. I love miniatures, and when there are trains involved, it is even better!

I saw this cute little train station, and had to look closely at the town name printed on the sign. It said "Marathon."


This part of the display had a replica of the Western Auto building, a Kansas City landmark.



Miniatures are so adorable.


Oh yes, back to the 5k. It was such a blast! The weather was 40 degrees cooler than last week's run in Chicago!

I asked Eddie about his training, and he said the couch-t0-5k was really difficult for him, and he could not keep up with it, if you go by the book. But he did keep running, or run-walk-ing, which is very sensible, and which is what I do. His mile, he said, was about 13 minutes. He was hoping to do the 5k in 4o minutes. I said that sounded very reasonable.

I have run with people for their first 5ks before, and my approach is to try to discern what their goal is ~ whether they are concerned about time, or whether they just want to finish, and have it be pleasant. Then, if they are concerned about time, I try to strike a balance. I attempt to challenge them just enough so that they do not want to strangle me.

We agreed on run/walk intervals of 2:2. I figured this was maintainable. I counseled that it would be a good idea to start out slowly ~ most people go out too fast at first.

When we started out, he was running pretty fast! I thought "He's faster than he said he was!" I actually got out of breath more than he did in those first few segments. But I think the excitement of the race had an effect, because then the pace moderated a little. When it seemed like he was having difficulty at the end of the run segment, I said "let's take the next one a little easier." At one point I said "Just run to the mile marker, and then take a little extra walk break."

I was fairly sure, by the first mile, that we would make his goal, if we could keep the pace up.

The middle mile was, I think, the toughest mentally.

It is an amazing thing, this run/walk method. Doing 2:2, we were walking at least half the time! Yet, I am absolutely sure that Eddie would've had a slower time if he had run the entire thing. Most of the people aound us were running steadily the whole time, but when we ran, we passed people like crazy. The walk breaks give you recovery time, so you are able to run faster. Along with saving wear and tear on your joints, it helps you run at a faster pace.

When I run marathons, I usually do 4:1 or 3:1. When I got my PR, I was doing 9:1 (It just about killed me.) But when I tried 1:1 (that's walking half the time!), my total time was only 10 minutes slower than usual, and I was running strong all the way to the end.

Toward the end of the 5k, the motorcycle cops came up behind us, to clear a path for the leader of the half marathon, who was catching up with us. The half marathon had started a half hour earlier, so this really fast runner was about to overtake us. I think he was Kenyan. As I said in another post, I am often ahead of those guys.

The last half-mile was downhill, and I think Eddie got his second wind, perhaps inspired by the Kenyan runner. As we were approaching the finish line, we had been running for almost two minutes ~ the agreement was to run across the finish line, even if it was supposed to be a walk break. So I turned off my beeping watch, so that it would not beep. That would be de-motivating.

Almost to the finish line, I said, "Sprint, Eddie!" and the lady ahead of me suddenly started sprinting! Maybe her name was Eddie, too.

We sprinted, and finished in exactly the same time ~ 38:32. Woo-HOO! He said "I did not know if I could do this!" (I know the feeling. Also, I know the feeling of getting choked up and almost crying when I finish a running event. He had that, too.)

So it was a big thrill to do this. I felt like this week has been so eventful, and this was the icing on the cake.

As I drove back home, I deliberately planned my route to cross paths with the half marathoners, who were still running. There was a cop, directing traffic.



I ran the KC marathon two years ago. Last year, I was registered for the half marathon, but couldn't do it, because I accidentally signed up for the Sioux City marathon the same day. Oops. Now I've done the 5k, but I haven't done the half. Usually, if there is a half marathon around here, I run it. Maybe next year, I will run the KC half marathon.

The Kansas City Marathon is said to be one of the most beautiful urban courses, and I guess you could say that is true. I can recommend the 5k as well, although there was one thing that marred it ~ the bottleneck going through the finisher's area to get bananas and other goodies. They could have set that up a little better! I don't like standing in a crowd, but I wanted my banana. I earned that banana.

Under a Little Less Pressure Now

The surgery was a success.

Over the past 5 years or so, my mother was having difficulty. She recently retired from her career as a Presbyterian/UCC minister, but of course, as the sign in the novelty store says, "Old ministers never retire ~ they're just put out to pastor." So, like any good retired minister, she kept working, doing interim jobs and supply preaching nearly all the time. And she traveled overseas a lot.

But she was having more and more difficulty. The most obvious thing was that she couldn't walk normally. She couldn't seem to pick up her feet from the ground, so she would shuffle, and her balance was off. It got so she couldn't walk more than a few blocks.

I thought it was mostly arthritis, but that it could be other things that I don't know about. I know about arthritis, because I have it, from running too much. But I went to the doctor, and found out what I could do to make it go away, so I could keep running too much.

I kept telling Mom to go to the doctor. I also asked my daughter and my brother to tell her to go to the doctor. Maybe if enough people told her, she would do it. (She said she was too busy. Until there was a break in all the activity of her retirement. Then she finally went. Audrey gets the credit, because she was the last one to tell her, before she finally made the appointment.)

So she went to the doctor, and was hospitalized that day. They said she might have a brain tumor. In the hospital, they found a diagnosis that we were much happier with.

What my mom had was "Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus," otherwise known as "water on the brain." There are many things that can cause it, but it commonly happens after age 60. In fact, Billy Graham had it, and recently had the same surgery. So I think it is caused by preaching.

We waited a long time to find out when the surgery was going to be. Mom was planning to go to Chicago with us, and even reserved an expensive hotel room in downtown Chicago. But then we found out that the surgery would be a few days after the marathon, so she decided she'd better stay home and rest up. She still helped us with the hotel room, though. (Thanks, Mom!)

So the day after the marathon, Audrey and I drove to Iowa, and took Mom to Omaha for the surgery. We spent a day at the hospital, going to various doctors and anesthesiologists and lab technicians. It was good to meet these people who were going to be messing around with my mom's head.

On the wall, there were photographs of some of the distinguished physicians of this hospital, and my mom's surgeon was one of them. I told her "I'm going to take his picture!" She said I should just leave it there on the wall.

With the help of the doctor and a magazine article in Neurology Now, I think I understand more about this disease.

In the inside part of the brain, we have these cavities called ventricles. There is fluid in the ventricles that helps to cushion the brain, and deliver nutrients, and take away waste. Normally, we produce about 8 oz of this fluid each day, and it gets absorbed into the body as we create more fluid.



But with hydrocephalus, we produce the fluid faster than the body can absorb it. (I think the problem is on the absorbing end, not on the producing end.) So it builds up, and presses on the brain. This can cause headaches, trouble walking, balance problems, bladder control problems, and dementia, among other things.

Since these symptoms can look like normal signs of aging, or like Parkinson's Disease, or other things, the diagnosis is often missed. A lot of people in nursing homes have this, and it's undiagnosed. My mom is lucky, because they got it right away! (To diagnose it, you have to have an MRI or a cat scan.)

The way to treat this, usually, is to install a shunt, to drain off the extra fluid. Mom now has a length of tubing running from her brain to her abdomen, carrying off the extra water. The cool thing is that now they have these adjustable shunts, so the doctor can control how much fluid is drained from the ventricles. They didn't used to be adjustable, and people had more problems with them. (I think Billy Graham had the old kind, and he recently went in to have it replaced with the adjustable kind.)

If you drain too much fluid before your brain gets used to it, you can have bleeding complications. That's serious. So the doctor told me that they set it at a medium-high pressure at first. When she goes in for her visit, he will adjust it downward. (He just turns a dial on a remote control. It takes a few seconds!) If her symptoms continue, they will keep adjusting it downward, but gradually.

After the surgery, the doctor told me that everything went as well as it could possibly go. It went in on the first try, and he wasn't expecting any complications, or anything out of the ordinary. (But he explained what the "ordinary" complications would be ~ infection, or injury caused by overdoing it, or mechanical failure of the shunt.)

I know this guy is a brilliant doctor, because he was operating on one head, and he relieved the pressure in dozens of heads, including mine! That takes some kinda genius.

I think he raised our I.Q.s, as well. I know that Mom was very smart when she woke up. She answered all their questions correctly, and did everything they told her to do.

She was proud of her hair-do ~ she will have a Donald Trump comb-over for awhile. Immediately after surgery, she asked me to take her picture, and send it to my brother, and to her friend Loretta, and ask her to put it on Facebook! So I did. Doesn't she look beautiful?



The doctor said it would be okay for me to go back to Kansas City to work, and come back the next day. The soonest she would be released from the hospital would be Saturday ~ or Friday, maybe. Today was Wednesday. Perfect. I left some of my clothes and things in the room we were staying in (the hospital has wonderful apartment-like accommodations for family members!) Since my aunt and uncle were coming, they could stay with her for the next 24 hours, and then I could come back to Omaha.

The next day, Thursday, I called from Kansas City to see how she was doing. She said "Don't come back ~ I'm going home today!" I was astonished. She said "I woke up at 3am, and said 'I'm gonna blow this pop stand!'"

Audrey and I wondered if she had made such a pest of herself that the nurses wanted to get rid of her. I think that is what happened.

She woke up at 3am, ready for the day. She asked if she could take a shower and wash her hair. The nurses said no, they have things they need to do at that time of night, and there are people who come in (in the day time) to help with bathing. And she really needs to ask for assistance when she goes to the bathroom! She said she could do that just fine on her own ~ she's been coping with this for years, after all, and hasn't ever fallen ~ now that she feels better, she ought to be able to handle it.

By mid-morning, the health care professionals all agreed that she needed to go home, for everyone's sake.

So my aunt and uncle took her home, along with my stuff, and I did not go to Omaha that day.

On Friday, I went up to Iowa to fill her freezer with food. I knew she had no groceries, and this was my chance to sneak some vegetables into her.

I brought all the Tupperware I had, and drove to Clarinda for groceries. Then I took the groceries to Villisca, and spent the day cooking. This is the most cooking I've ever done at one time, and it wore me out! But I filled the freezer, and I know she will have at least some vegetables in the next couple of weeks.

Winning the Chicago Marathon

Yes, indeed! I won another marathon! This time I won the Chicago Marathon ~ ~ ~ I was the 27,084th winner that day. They say it is a huge marathon, one of the biggest in the world. I'm not so sure about that ~ it seems to me like it was 26.2 miles, just like the rest of them. Some people just like to make audacious claims. I did win, though.

I found out later that if I had only run three times faster, I would've won $100,000. Drat! So close! Why didn't I try harder?!

Maybe I was a little out of shape, from being on strike. A couple of weeks before, I had been protesting the hot weather we were having, when we should've been getting fall weather. The protest worked ~ after only a couple of days, the weather caved in to my demands, and I was out there running again.

I should have held out longer, though, so that I could have included Chicago in the negotiations. I didn't think I would have to. Last year, the Chicago Marathon was shut down early because of extreme heat and a shortage of water and Gatorade ~ hundreds of people were taken to the hospital, and one person died. I figured 2008 would be the year to run it, because things like that don't happen twice in a row, and even if there was another heat wave, the race organizers will have learned their lesson, and been prepared.

I was half right, my usual track record. As the marathon date approached, the weather forecast kept changing in a relentless and dastardly direction. As it turned out, it was almost as hot as last year, with the temperature at 11am around 84 degrees... but there was water and Gatorade galore! Even hose-showers, and sponges!

I talked with several runners who participated in the fiasco last year, and they said it was a living hell. That must have dissuaded many people from trying it again in this year's heat, because they had the highest number of no-shows ever. Of 45,000 runners all registered and paid for, only 33,000 showed up. That meant even more water and Gatorade for the rest of us.

I always love going to Chicago, because there is so much to do there. Of course, when you are there to run a marathon, you don't do much, because you need to conserve your energy before, and lie down in an exhausted heap afterward. But Audrey and I did go to the art museum. She is a college graduate in art history, so that's kind of a given. I didn't get to spend a lot of time there, but I did enjoy a couple of hours' worth of art, enough for a possible blog post in the near future.

After the museum, we got together with Ed, from Hawaii. I had known Ed online for about a year, so it was great to meet him in person. He eats at Subway almost every day, and has lost 70 or 80 lbs ~ incredible! I call him "The New Jared." So we met at a cute little sandwich shop across from the art museum ~ I told him "it is right next door to Subway!" I was only teasing, but guess what? He got his sandwich from Subway while we got ours at the other place. We had a nice lunch in the park.




Even though he refused to smile for the photo, we had a good time. During the marathon, I followed him for about six miles, and then I lost sight of him. According to the race results, he won, too! (The men's division, of course.)

Ed helped me find the expo, and it's a good thing! At this marathon, there is no race day packet pickup, and that always causes me some anxiety. I had to get there before it closed.

Because this marathon is such a big deal, they have to have a humongous expo. And because the expo is enormous, it has to be located in a convention center. That means you have to travel to get there, which takes time away from your sightseeing. They did provide shuttle buses, but we had to wait a long time to get on a school bus, and they packed us in like sardines. So transportation to and from the expo took a couple of hours. (Maybe I shouldn't have waited until the last minute?) I would have preferred to have no expo at all ~ just a storefront downtown where we could pick up our packets and have the rest of the day to explore Chicago. But that's not how these things work ~ the marathon was supported by lots of companies who needed a chance to sell things to us.

I don't have a lot of money, especially after all the expenses of this trip, but I did spend some at the expo. There was a booth for Marathon & Beyond magazine, and I bought myself a subscription. I have been buying this at the bookstore, but sometimes miss an issue. So I've been meaning to subscribe anyway.

So Marathon Day finally arrived, and I went to the back of the pack, to wait. I always start at the back, because I'm slow. It's better for me psychologically, if I pass other people, than if I start where I think I should start, and have people pass me.
There were a lot of people, and I expected to cross the Start Line about 30 minutes after the gun. It turned out to be about 23 minutes, thanks to the people who did not show up. It was fun to watch this guy juggle. I wonder if he juggled all the way through the marathon?




Because of the heat, I decided on a conservative strategy, and only hoped to finish in six hours. It reminded me of the inaugural Atlanta ING marathon, which I finished in 5:58. The temperature there was almost 90, and there were hills. I figured this one would be comparable, but without hills, so I had hope. I decided to use 3:1 run/walk intervals, and to take the running slow. I felt I could
probably maintain that throughout most of the event.

By mile 4, I really noticed the heat. Fortunately, the first half of the race had a lot of shade, provided by tall buildings. I also appreciated the mile markers ~ every mile was clearly marked with a couple of large signs, showing the time! I had to subtract 23 minutes for my time, since that is how long it took to get to the start line. They also had clocks at the 5k, 10k, 15k (etc.) marks, and at the half marathon point. I had my camera, so I took a picture of each mile marker, thinking I would analyze it later ~ I could find out how fast I took each mile. (I know my Garmin would probably do that, but I'm not advanced enough to figure out how yet!) When my camera battery died, I wrote down the numbers.

It was interesting to analyze. The numbers show that I ran most of the first 13 miles in 12-something. Miles 14, 15, and 16 were 13-something. This is right where we left the shady parts, and it was really starting to get hot. Then for miles 17 , 18, 19 & 20, I ran 13 and 14-something. I knew I was dragging. For the last six miles, it got easier in a way. It was still hard, because it was the last six miles. But we were getting close to the lake, and there was a breeze. I don't have the numbers for those miles, but according to my calculations, I averaged 13 1/2. Not bad, when you can pick up speed at the end of a marathon!

It was a crowded marathon, and to my surprise, it remained crowded to the end! I don't like that ~ I had to run this way and that way to get around people (and they had to do the same to get around me, I'm sure).

One of the sponsors of the event was Energizer. They were handing out Energizer bunny ears, and I saw a pair lying on the road, getting trampled. So I picked it up and put it on. It was like a foam rubber headband. A lot of the people in the crowd yelled "Go Bunny!" to me, so I wore them for the rest of the marathon. I think they gave me energy.

I liked the crowds of spectators. I think Obama was running right behind me, because I heard an awful lot of people shouting "Go Obama!" This is not the first time I have been running ahead of a Kenyan. (At the Maryville Country Classic, I run the half marathon. The full marathon course is the half marathon course twice. Usually, as I am crossing the finish line, the winner of the marathon is a couple of minutes behind me. So I'm used to it.)

I later caught up with him (or I should say, he caught up with me), in a store window, so we had our picture taken. He was not wearing his medal.


My favorite part of the course was Chinatown. There were two dancing dragons, and the people were cheering loudly and enthusiastically. It is amazing to me that spectators can have that much spirit, four hours into a marathon! This is also right about when the weather started cooling off (on account of the breeze from the lake), so I got some renewed energy as I ran through Chinatown.

Toward the end of the race, I noticed that one runner had on a shirt that said "I run because beer tastes so much better after 26.2 miles." That got me thinking about the free beer we would receive at the end, and gave me a little bit more motivation.

Overall, I feel very good about this marathon. My finish time was 5:47:30. Since I was not going to be surprised if I took over six hours, this was pretty good. I felt like I was still running fairly well at the end, even though it was very hot.

It took a long time to walk through the finisher chute. It started to catch up with me there ~ I was kind of wandering around in a daze. The race officials were being very cautious, after last year's trouble ~ a man walked up to me to ask me if I was alright. I said "Yes. Where's the beer?"

Today the Blogging Floodgates Will Open!

Whew! I am finally home, for real.

I have several major things to write about, and it is going to take some time to get it all written up and posted. Each of these things deserves its own post, so that is what I'm going to do, before the end of the day.

As you may know, I went to Chicago and ran the marathon. (SPOILER ALERT: It went well.) From there, I drove to Iowa to pick up my mother, and took her to Omaha, where she had brain surgery. (SPOILER ALERT: It went extraordinarily well.) Then I came home to work, because you can't take time off indefinitely, but also drove back to take care of Mom, and came home again, and got up at 4:30 this morning to run a 5K with a Mystery Person. (SPOILER ALERT: It went extremely well.)

On the day of the surgery, my overriding concern was that it would be a successful operation. But, that being a high probability, another hope was that I could drive back home that evening, in time to play for choir practice and turn in the music for Sunday. I like to think that there are some things that only I can do, and I needed some normalcy. There was no substitute for me that evening, and the psalm was in my computer, and it was almost done. So if I could get home in time, I could save my coworkers some hassle.

Of course, brain surgery is a big deal, and although it was a procedure with a high success rate, it is still brain surgery, and something could go wrong. I was prepared to stay in Omaha if the situation called for it, or if Mom just didn't want me to leave. I know what is most important.

But I had not been home for a week, and I really wanted to get home if I could. So I was glad when the surgeon came out after surgery and told me how well it had gone, and said that it would be perfectly okay for me to go to Kansas City to take care of business, and come back the next day.

We made good time, and I got home in time to edit and print the psalm before choir practice. The mailman had left a small package from Amazon.com in front of the door, so as I opened the door and struggled with my suitcase and armloads of stuff, I kicked the package across the threshold, into the living room. I had ordered some books, and was glad that one of them had arrived. It's always nice to receive a gift, even if it is one you buy yourself.

I was greeted by the kitties, and used my gushy mommy-voice to let them know how much Mommy had missed them.

But as I walked in, I immediately caught a whiff of something nasty. One of my cats had left me a welcome home present. Great. Calliope is a wonderful cat in many ways, but when she feels neglected, she does let me know in an unmistakable way. I walked in, put everything down, and looked in the usual places where she leaves such presents. Usually it is in the same room as the litter boxes (thank goodness for small favors.) But this time, I had trouble locating it.

As I picked up the package off the floor, I found it. Yuck! I had kicked the package right into a fresh offering of feline dissatisfaction.

So there was an urgent housekeeping matter to attend to, and I took back what I said about having missed Calliope (I still missed Tripod, though), but I did get the psalm printed, and got to work with not a minute to spare.

As I discarded the poopy packaging, I discovered that it contained the book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management by Mark Forster. I am familiar with most of the productivity books out there, but I don't read every single one of them. I have found that most of them say the same kinds of things ~ it is rare to find one that says anything revolutionary ~ and many of them contradict each other. (This is okay, because what works for one person may not work for another person. You have to find what works for you!)

But I have been hearing about this book a lot. Many people use an approach which combines GTD with DIT. If GTD devotees have honored another author's book with its own acronym, I decided I might need to look into this book myself.

I've only read a little of it so far, and I'm rather inspired by it. One of Forster's Big Ideas is that you are more productive when you clearly define your limits. So, many GTDers will follow David Allen's advice to have a complete inventory of Next Actions, but they use Forster's method of writing a "closed list" of to-dos each day. I tried it yesterday, making a list comprised only of things I knew I would complete that day. It is okay to do more than that, but the official list could not be added to.

It was an interesting experiment! I did have a more satisfied feeling at the end of the day, because I did everything on my list. (I still have my GTD mega-list, and I will NEVER do every item on it, because things keep getting added to it.)

The theory is that as you do this, you get better at it. You get used to crossing off everything on the list, and you get better at discerning what you can realistically do in a day.

Today my aspirations are fairly modest. I've already done most of the things. The only things left are:

1) do the dishes, and
2) write 3 more blog posts.

So stay tuned to this channel ~ Before midnight tonight, I will tell you 1) how I won the Chicago Marathon, 2) how the surgeon relieved pressure in the brains of several people at once, and 3) the identity of the Mystery Runner!

Stay Tuned for New Blog Posts ~ Coming Soon!

I haven't posted in awhile, but there are reasons for that ~ stay tuned! I am still out here, and the protest is now over ~ I ran the Chicago Marathon, and am now in Omaha, waiting for my mother's surgery. When things settle down, hopefully in a couple of days, I'll be able to tell you all about it. But for now, internet access is sporadic and unreliable, and I'm tired and a bit preoccupied. Keep checking back here, and keep your fingers crossed for my mom!