My Music Monday

I see no shortage in new music. In a way I'd like a theme month, but not sure when / if that is ever happening anytime soon. 

The Editors have a new song out. I don't think I've featured them in years. I had to look. 2012. I still adore "Papillon" but I play it sparingly - as the record version is 2+ minutes longer than the hyperlinked video. Though with all the running in the video it seems to suit me more now in a different aspect. 

Still - 14 years later, here I am, talking about the band. 

"Call it In" is the new tune. 

It's a fairly straight forward male rock song. It's a driving beat and has nothing new or special about it, but I like it a lot. Granted, I do listen to songs differently should I be able to run to them - and with this, I can. 

The drum beat, the guitars and keyboards really don't change much over the song. Repeating music themes more than repeating lyrical ones. Still, it works. 

Shore

I don't have a lot of anything today......of note, anyways. So, I'll talk TV. Kind of. 

If you haven't seen Shoresy you're missing out. 

Jared Kesso plays the title character, but you might know him better had you seen Letterkenny. He also created both shows. To make it slightly confusing, Kesso played "Shoresy" on Letterkenny, though he mostly portrayed "Wayne" .

I'm just going on record, for the most part, Canadians make better television shows than the US. 

Though I'm not saying Heated Rivalry is riding on Shoresy's coattails, they are both about hockey (well....kind of) and love. Though Shoresy is more heteronormative. And Shoresy came first (that's what Ilya said!)

Kesso plays Shoresy perfectly. A former hockey player who takes over a loser team - which brings somewhat of a Ted Lasso approach. 

While the banter with his players is hilarious, it's his would-be woo'ing of Laura Mohr that is just great. He moons over her while she's is somewhat passively resistant. But it's great banter and you feel the humour and chemistry. 

I wanted to leave you with one clip, but I couldn't decide. It was almost three, but I settled on two. Shoresy is just so adorable. 

Both clips briefly reference "Big Sexy".  That is Shoresy's dog. 

Song by: Fleet Foxes

In Hiding

A smattering from here and there this week. 

I guess, like all weeks. 

Field Trip with Dad #2. 

A pretty, but chilly walk along Lake Erie

My nephew is out of town and he had a friend to come check on the cats. No idea where Henry is, but Virginia doesn't seem thrilled with the viist(or). 

I had to zoom in on the swastika. I texted him that it was a bit disconcerting, but it is the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Let's hope he's focusing on the fall part. 

Greeter Jackson, with Sydney close behind. 

....and then there's Shep. What a mug. 

Song by: Pearl Jam

Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!    

My patience with Arcade Fire has worn thin. Three of their last four albums (including today's selection) have just been bad. 

Sorry, there is no other way to say it. Granted, 'bad' is one man's opinion, but that man is me. I hold some weight around here. 

Pink Elephant came out a year ago. It seems a lot more recent than that, but in fairness, I played it once and could never go back to it - it was that bad. 

Open Your Heart of Die Trying - Pink Elephant's "companion" piece - was released almost one year to the day of the latter. 

I don't really follow Arcade Fire news, so if this album was widely publicized release, I didn't know about it until about two weeks before the release date. Silly me got my hopes up that, phew, maybe they've corrected their ways. 

They have not. 

Well........let me rephrase. This disk is not for me. And I'm not sure who it is for. And yes, I ended that in a preposition. Sue me. 

On Pink Elephant, I wrote about the droning and ambient music on some of the tunes. Well, Open Your Heart, it's on all of the tunes. Is IS all of the tunes. 

Open Your Heart of Die Trying is instrumental. Not a vocal to be had. But it's music that would be in a trying to be hip spa, while you got a massage or your anal bleaching done. It's both relaxing and not at the same time. 

exclaim!*'# website voted Open Your Heart the 'worst release for Record Store Day 2026.  Ouch. But they hit the nail on the head with this portion of their review: 

This kind of project would normally be cool, since an ambient reimagining of a recent album is exactly the kind of quirky release Record Store Day is made for. The snag, however, is that the album in question is Arcade Fire's Pink Elephant — an album nobody likes, and I'm fairly sure barely anyone has even listened to.

They end some of their sentences in prepositions as well. 

Pitchfork's review is even harsher. 

For full disclosure, I did not purchase this disk, though I did listen to the entire thing online. Once. It was all that was needed. 

I'm not sure where this leaves the band. The core - Win Butler and Régine Chassagne - are dissolving their 20+ year marriage after Butler's #metoo bullshit. While they say they vow to keep on with the band, multiple affairs and two shitty albums might be the death of them. 

Uranus

Whilst on our Indy Adventure, we made an unplanned stop. 

Many of you may have heard of the Uranus Fudge Factory. Yes, their slogan is: "The Best Fudge Comes From Uranus". 

There is like an entire town in Missouri somewhere, which is the real draw (?).  But it turns out they have an outpost right inside the Indiana border - should you be coming via Ohio. And yes, I made 710 stop. 

I was underwhelmed. 

For starters, I don't like fudge. Neither of us do. Make all the jokes you'd like. 

But the Indiana one seems a little underwhelming when compared to the pictures I've seen of the main location. It's basically a glorified shack at the top of a hill next to a church. With some animatronic dinosaurs. 

Yes. You read that correctly. 

Now, the 62 12 year old in me, kind of laughs at all their 'uranus' puns. 

Laughs. Does not buy. 

There was the dog park. 

Then there was the signage in the shop. 

Then there was the merch. 

The 12 62 year old in me was over it within a few minutes. 

We purchased nothing - which I'm assuming 8 out 10 people who enter the store do the same thing. 

Oh, they had just about every crap item you'd never need (or want) with a 'uranus' phrase attached. I never looked at a price because well...........I just didn't care and I was never prying my wallet Apple Pay open for anything in the store. 

The twenty minutes I was there the way I see it, I got a post out of it. I didn't even use the bathroom, which I'm sure had more phrases inside. 

Live and learn. 

Song by:Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner and James McAllister  

Baking with Blobby

Here and there you've seen - probably on my 12 of 12 - a certain chocolate cherry muffin I get on Saturdays after my run. 

The Old Man's Running Group goes to a bakery after, well, all of their runs, and on Saturday this particular bakery has these muffins. They rotate the muffin flavour each day, so Saturday is the only day I can get these. 

But with being out of town this last weekend, I wasn't at the run or the bakery. What's a Blobby to do???

In theory, I should have tried baking these long ago and save me all kinds of money. Probably for the price of one muffin, I could put the same amount of money into ingredients and make 12 times the amount of muffins. 

So......that's what I did. Or tried. As you can see, it's a little ingredient-heavy, but probably on par with a lot of baking things. It goes quickly and clean up is done well before the timer goes off. 

Let's go on a baking adventure. 

Ingredients 

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process) 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/2 cup canola oil 

1/2 cup buttermilk 

2 large eggs 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed 

1 cup (heaping) sour cherries, halved 

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Instructions 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

Line a muffin tin with paper liners or lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until well combined. 

In another bowl, whisk together the oil, milk, eggs, vanilla, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth and well combined. 

Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. 

Fold in the cherries and chocolate chips. 

Divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups and bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean. 

Cool for 5 minutes in the muffin tin, then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

It will come as no shock to you that the bakery muffins are superior to Blobby's. 

These look ok. Smell great. But honestly, it comes down to taste - and these are passable, but they're not like what I get on Saturdays. 

There are no sour cherries yet available here, so I used frozen sweet cherries. It makes a difference fos sure. And even in a 350 degree oven the chocolate chips didn't entirely melt. I don't mind the textrure, I just wasn't really expecting it. 

And they were not moist. To get the toothpick to come out clean, I had to bake for an additional five minutes. I'm sure that didn't help with the dry factor, but I'm guessing it's something else too - but I don't know what.  More oil? Add butter? More buttermilk? 

I mean, there are a lot of recipes out there for these, I just picked the one that looked closest to what I buy. It doesn't mean it is the correct recipe. 

But at least I'll have muffins for a while. Half are in the freezer. 

Speedway

Friday, 710 and I headed out to Indianapolis for a short trip. 

g-d love him, I sign up for races and he shows up for them. Well.........some of them. I don't expect him to make these treks to stand around while I run around. 

Since it was May 1st, and he had not taken a single day off of work in 2026, he was happy to tag along with me to the Indy Mini Marathon. 

To be clear: the 'mini' part is a half marathon. 

Don't get me wrong - 13.1 miles is still a feat, especially at my advanced age. 

The idea was to take Shep. I scouted many dog-friendly hotels, but 710 was right that it would be limiting what we could do, and where we could stay. No guarantee of a lower floor and packed elevator rides were a recipe for disaster. 

And they were packed. 

We boarded Shep for a total of 36 hours, though he yelped upon our return like it was 36 days. 

Anyways, the hotel I did select was purposeful -- it was about 100 yards from the start line. And about three blocks from the finish. It was extremely nice to just take the elevator down 20 minutes before the start and walk right up to my corral. Pressure, off. 

What I failed to realize was how big this event was. Six continents represented and participants from all 50 states.

I should have guessed the size when I found out two weeks in advance that my bib number was in the 23000 range. Media said there were 30,000 participants. But that had to have included the 5k, as there were only about 22,000 who finished the half.  

Only. <eye roll emoji>

This was the second biggest race in which I've participated. 

The rationale for selecting this race was the flatness of it - which meant for a potentially speedy time, and that for 2.5 miles of the course was on the Indy 500 Speedway. 

Yes, you got to run a full lap on the track. 

I'm not a car racing kind of guy, but this was kind of fun and impressive. The size alone is kind of amazing. With cars going ~220 mph, you have to have a big track, right? But there are parts of it that are so far out, you don't  / can't even see the where the grandstands should be. 

There is the outer track, which is banked, and the inner track, which is not. We had the inner one. While I had my camera, I was one of few who didn't take it out, stop and pose. At the heart of it all, I still had a goal. I also didn't drop to my knees and kiss the 'brickyard'.  That's not even a euphemism. 

It was after that portion of the run I was a little nauseated after ingesting an energy gel. That lasted for about 1.5 miles, which didn't help my run. 

All said, it was a good run. I shaved almost 5 minutes off my time to get my fastest half-marathon time. And yes, I should be happy / proud. I was immediately disappointed to not make the time I wanted, which would have been 3+ minutes faster. 

This is a constant discussion with my therapist, and it will be later today as well. I just can't appreciate the wins. 

But being close to the hotel meant I got to take a nice shower and change my clothes before we headed back home. 

BTW - I do not recommend running a half-marathon and almost immediately getting into a car for a six hour ride home. I was not comfortable - though truth be told, on my best day can only stand about two hours in the car before I need to get out and move. 

Shep was thrilled to see us. We hung out with him all night, and then I got up first thing Sunday morning to run another 5.22 miles. I swore to myself - and told the group - I was taking it slow. And I did. For the first half mile and then ended up at a decent pace, ending up back before any other runner or walker. 

I'm sure there are lessons to be learned with all of this - though I'm not exactly sure what they are or how to achieve them..... but whatta gonna do? 

Song by: Morrissey

My Music Monday

Last week was an early 80s artist who is still making music, ditto for this week. 

Duran Duran. 

What can I say - I have a soft spot for them though I honestly have never purchased a single album - even Seven and the Ragged Tiger or Rio. But in 1982-1984 they were MTV. Then MVT became Medusa TV...and they know it......dontcha MTV?

Anyhoo.....D² have new album on the way perhaps? They have a new song - "Free to Love" with Nile Rodgers (of Chic). 

Both D² and Rodgers have different, but distinct, styles. It's usually not hard to pick a Rodger's guitar riff out of the music he produces.....or writes. Both artists have worked on and off together since 1984's "Wild Boys" - which was their most popular collaboration. "Notorious" being their second most. 

Yet here we are decades later with a new song - and it's not bad at all. Musically and lyrically it's all sound and well structured. It's unfortunate it won't find a place on radio. XM's New Wave station might play it here and there, or mention it before spinning "Union of the Snake". Even with good songs, there is an era of bands who just have no home on even XM and their 2,091 stations. 

I will say, Duran Duran is aging gracefully. All but Simon are sporting grey hair. Though to be fair, I'm not sure anyone knew what hair colour Nick Rhodes ever had originally. Roger Taylor (drummer), used to be the hot one with his jet black hair, but now he more closely resembles Charlie Watts.  

Ok....maybe that was a bit much. Still, it's nice having them perform and not try to be something they're not. 

Go Away

While I loathe putting "his" face on anything in my blog, sometimes you just have to. 

I'm behind - so many of you might have already seen the new medication ad for Rezyne. 

It's difficult to tell how much loyalty Disney / ABC has for Jimmy Kimmel. Let's hope it's more than Paramount / CBS had for Colbert. I suppose time will tell. 

What I do know - or have deduced - is that ABC isn't show the blow as a clip on YouTube. Whether they are not due to pressure from the White House is anyone's guess, but I'm assuming yes. 

For the time - and I expect this video to be taken down at some point - I have found another avenue for you all to see it, should you not have already. 

Song by: Weezer

Flower

It's a light picture week for pets, but I dare say, some of them are good. 

Pic of the week. Shep and tulips. 
Usually we do Daffodil Hill, but almost none of the thousands of flowers bloomed this year. 

Tulips are good too. 

Lord, sometimes this dude is not conducive to me making dinner. 

National Dog day was weeks ago, but Dogtopia message is still on point. 

Hard to see, but there is a heron in the water past Shep's head. 

It turns out that bird was not a fan of the dog. He / She / They took off shortly afterwards. 

Song by: Soundgarden

Site of the Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. 

I've tried to be transparent about mine - or lack of sometimes - but figure any info is better than none. 

Last year we discussed 9-8-8 which is the Suicide and Crisis Hotline and the role of a psychiatrist and psychologist. 

But this is 2026 - and while I think 988 is extremely important, many people don't talk on the phone. Or don't like to.  Guilty!

Honestly, save for a few calls per year with one of my sisters and some important things to 710 and my weekly "call" (read: Zoom) with friends, I almost never use my phone for talking to people. Even my shrink is now in person, so that negates any number of calls during the year. 

I'm sure there is something newer than 'texting', but I'm an old man who no one has ever been able to clearly describe for me what snapchat is - and why it is. So I can't be bothered with too much new technology. But texting is what happens the most - between family, friends, even to confirm doc appointments. 

Anyway - where I'm leading.............

There is a Crisis Text Line that will put those in need in touch with someone who can help.......even with texting. 

There is an inherent kind of buffer when relating things via text. I think people say things easier this way than their ability to verbalize. I've been there. Sometimes you don't want to hear some words come out of your mouth - as they might be rooted in shame. But you might type them. 

Full disclosure - I've never used 988 or the Crisis Text Hotline. But a post-it with 988 written on it was stuck to my computer monitor in my office for longer than I care to admit. 

And Mental Health Awareness Month increase awareness about the vital role mental health plays in our overall health and well-being and provide resources and information to support individuals and communities who may need mental health support. 

The Crisis Text Line being one one of those resources. 

It's free. It's available at all times. All one has to do is text "hello". 

They are there to help, not judge. It might be hard to remember that when it is you texting "hello", but know this to be the truth. 

I have insurance to help pay for my support. And I still have to fork over the co-pays. Everyone isn't that privileged. I'm sure there is only so much one can do via text, but I'm also sure they'd be guiding those in need to additional resources, and based on their financial circumstances. 

I will continue to be an advocate for those with depression, anxiety and all that go along with them. I am by no means the poster boy for mental hygiene. but I'm trying. 

Continually trying.......

Cooking with Blobby

We just don't eat much red meat anymore. At least at home, and we rarely go out to eat anymore. So, as you see here, it's a lot of pasta or poultry. I'm always looking for ways to jazz either of those up. 

Yesterday I tried something new. It's been on the back burner - pun intended - for a week or so, but I just got around to making it: Turmeric-Black Pepper Chicken With Asparagus.

Asparagus is not a veg I use a lot. I like it well enough, and 710 will eat it, but I can't say he's a fan overall. And I like the idea of different greens getting into our food - so I went ahead with it anyways. Since they weren't spears per se, I figured he'd live. 

Spoiler Alert:  he did. 

"They" say it takes 15 minutes to make. I'm calling bullshit on that. It took me 15 minutes alone to get 3T of honey out of the fucking jar! I hate working with honey. But I'm a trooper. 

I'd say it takes 10-15 to prep and about 10 to cook. Still, a pretty quick meal. You can even cut the chicken and asparagus ahead of time and just have it ready to go. Sure, THEN it's only 15 minutes. Still - it's not a time suck and things do come together quickly once the stovetop is ablaze. 

Ingredients 

Yield: 4 servings 

3 tablespoons honey  (I forgot it in the picture)

¾ teaspoon black pepper, plus more to taste 

Kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) 

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

1½ teaspoons ground turmeric 

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces 

1 tablespoon coconut or canola oil 

12ounces asparagus, trimmed and thinly sliced on an angle 

1 teaspoon unseasoned rice vinegar or soy sauce 

1 lime, cut into wedges (optional) 

Procedure

Step 1 In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir together ¼ cup water with the honey, pepper and ½ teaspoon salt; set honey mixture aside. 

Step 2 In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, turmeric and 1 teaspoon salt. Add the chicken and toss until coated. 

I didn't have thighs, so I used breast meat. 

Step 3 In a medium (10-inch) nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium-high. Add the chicken and cook until the turmeric is fragrant and the chicken is golden brown on both sides, 2 to 3 minutes per side. 

Step 4 Add the asparagus, season with salt, stir to combine and cook until crisp-tender, 1 to 2 minutes. 

I added the pic of the chopped asparagus. The recipe calls for 12oz.  What you see is 9 oz. It's a LOT of asparagus. 3 more oz might have been too much. 

Step 5 Add the honey mixture and cook, stirring, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. 

Step 6 Remove from heat and stir in the vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Serve with lime squeezed over top, if you like.

Verdict: yummy. 

The honey gives it sweetness - borderline too much - but the pepper gives it heat. Maybe the Turmeric, but I don't know that it has "heat" - someone can correct me if I'm wrong. The heat just kind of creeps up, but it's not overpowering or anything. 

Full disclosure, I probably only had 2 (of 3) T of honey in the jar. I think 3 might be too much - at least for me. 

The asparagus softens nicely for what little time it's in the pan, but still has a slight bite to it - just the way I like it. 

It might not serve four, but definitely three folks. 

Only time will tell if my pee smells due to the asparagus.   ....but I'd do this again, maybe add some red chili flakes. 

Fake

I kind of want to ignore a third "assassination" attempt in two years on this beached whale of a president. 

While the first one was clearly faked, so is this one. Sorry, it just is. 

Physics will tell you the first one was. The physics part would tell you the blood would got backwards, not forwards, from a bullet fired from in front of you. Oh, and since BLOTUS isn't a starfish, he didn't regenerate an ear that had been shot.  At the very least, have a fucking scar! Or pretend scar - though that would keep him in the make-up chair longer each day. 

Oh, and he's allegedly directed the DOJ not to investigate that shooting. Yeahhhhhhhhh. That event seems on the up and up. 

For this last one: the fake White House Correspondence Dinner.  Yes. Fake. 

It's not his party. It's the news organizations. Who just fall into line with him now-a-days. He's never been to one because they've been so mean to him in the past. He's so fucking thin skinned. Not enough for a fake bullet to piece it though. 

But still, it's a scheduled event for this "president". The way security works is that Secret Service has whatever place cased out well well well in advance and has limited access for people coming and going. 

So, we are to believe that Secret Service is so bad at their jobs, they've let THREE (!!!) "assassination" attempts occur? 

No one seems to be questioning their professionalism. Granted - not reading the news, so maybe they are, but no tidbits trickling down to sound bytes I hear here and there. 

That said, even if these attempts are indeed fake, Secret Service as been complicit in participating in this fakery. There is no way around that one. And that is fucking sad. 

The made-up war is going badly. Epstein files aren't going away. A fake shooting shouldn't take away from the mid-terms. The national debt just topped $39,000,000,000.000!  Yes, that's TRILLIOIN. And we added the last TRILLION in the last five months. He's doing WONDERS for the economy. 

So what's a failing gas-bag to do?  Play his greatest hits:  pretend to shoot me!

I've yet to see anyone calling any of these people "crisis actors", though they should. 

....and speaking of things trickling down to me: BLOTUS reaction to a CBS (?) reporter reading "the manifesto" (my lord, it's like calling every adult movie performer a porn "star") about a rapist and pedophile. 

Obvi, I didn't see the interview, but he claimed he'd been "exonerated".........yet NOBODY is asking him by whom?  WHO fucking cleared this man for thousands of pages of redacted info? 

And fuck me: that phrase "third time's a charm" is seemingly worthless. 

Song by: Lola Young

Faith

In all honesty, I've been waiting for about 2.5 years to use this title image, with no good reason to do so. 

Apparently, I fucked up yesterday and somehow embedded a George Michael video where Madonna was supposed to reside. 

The demographics of who the two artists sell to are the same, so in a way.......

I honestly do not know what happened, but I have an inkling while I was playing the Madonna track it automatically went to the other song afterwards and my copy / paste timing of the html was off. 

So, you can go back one post now and listen to Madge should you want. 

....and speaking of overlapping demographics.......

This little news item hit some feed of mine. 

I didn't even raise an eyebrow. 

While I get Madonna has one central demo anymore - really, are the tween girls who bought Like a Virgin 40 years ago still waiting for her new releases?  They've moved on to Bublé and Josh Groban. The gays are the only ones left for her. 

But are they Grindr gays?

I won't pretend to know the average age of a Grindr user, but I am assuming young-ish. Do they even care about her? Though I suppose that's why she performed with Sabrina Carpenter at Coachella. The former is more like someone who I am assuming the Grindr gays identify with at this point and time. 

With pushing 8,000 posts to this blog thing, there are bound to be a few posting blips along the way. 2026 has just had more than their fair share of them - and we aren't even a third of the way into the year. 

Song by: George Michael

My Music Monday

As a homo blogger, I feel contractually obligated to post something on Madonna's new single - "I Feel So Free". 

I'm not sure what to say, but........I'll give it a go. 

Her 1996 disk Confessions on a Dance Floor was her last half good disk. Anything after that was either less than half-good, or not a single salvageable moment. I think we bought one disk after Confessions and just gave up on her. 

Even the last disk I reviewed of hers was just through 90 seconds of each auto-tuned song after another. Absolutely horrid. 

But for the half of the 1996 Confessions, it was a pretty good disk. The other half......no so much. 

I only bring up that disk because, I'm guessing Madge figured out she's not commercially viable as she once was and is slated to release Confessions from a Dance Floor 2. 

I didn't know albums had sequels, but..............here we are. And "I Feel So Free" is the first offering. 

Like some of the songs on Part 1, this single is partially sung, partially spoken. I think that can work here and there, but there really isn't much to this tune other than the chorus. It's not unlistenable, but not original either. 

It's not as horribly auto-tuned as her last outings, and there is some, but not distractingly so. I get the spoken part, but not for a single - let alone the initial one. 

Madonna's not a moron. This single coming out now and the new album in June will strategically have this song playing at all Pride events. I'd say at gay bars too, though I think there are less and less of those. I only know of two in the 216. 

But to fulfill my homo blog obligation: here is Madonna. 

Fast As You

My first "big" race of the year is in the books. 

Yesterday was a 10 miler. I love the distance, but I can think of only 2-3 races per year that go with that length. 

As usual with this particular race, the weather is iffy at best. Supposed to be 55, it said 51, but felt like 44 - which didn't include the breeze off the lake. 

Per usual, a quarter mile in, all was fine. Save my ever cold hands. 

That was my only "complaint" about the event. Pun somewhat intended - it is very well run. The route is decent though the second half is all hills. 

My performance - for me - was outstanding. I really could not have been happier (though hold that thought). 

While many in my running groups were there, I ran with a guy I met at this very race three (?) years ago. He said, "I'll keep up with you as long as I can, but just keep going".  I never saw him again after mile 2. Well not true, I saw him after the race after he crossed the finish line. 

The last four miles I was pretty much pacing with this other guy. I'd be ahead, then him and round and round we went. Except for the last quarter mile when he just sprinted past me and kept going. 

I saw him later and he acknowledged me and said I was a good competitor for him and "apologized" for running ahead. I jokingly called him "a dick" - and laughs were had by all. 

I ran a 9:02 pace, which for 10 miles was pretty fucking good (for me). I conquered all the hills, which is incredible for me. I was in the top third of my age category and overall participants. I was in the top 50% of male participants. 

And I knocked over 10 minutes off my fastest 10 miler. Fairly impressive, if I say so myself. 

Now onto the "hold that though" comment earlier. 

I crossed the finish line fairly elated. And then ran into a number of folks from my training crew. Mind you, save one, were all 25-30 years younger than me. But they had clearly already been in and eating their bananas. Mind you - and yes I checked - some were only in a few minutes before me, and the earliest one was only eight minutes prior to me. 

For a moment, I let it get to me. They were all very congratulate-y, and nothing but nice, but here I was the eighth one finished of the group. Still outstanding and I've never been this close to their pace before. 

I can't compare myself to anyone, though hard to do. In three weeks I'll be finishing my fourth year of running. And I'm old AF. And the third oldest in my training group. And I'm improving as I go along. I can only rate myself against myself. ...and even that isn't great. 

Still, I'm not easily pleased with myself, and this race I can say otherwise. 

Now two half marathons in the next three weeks.  Let's see what I can do. 

Song by: Dwight Yoakam

Waiting on a Friend

Saturday. Pet Day. Sometimes the easiest post of the week. 

Today, it's some of the regulars with a few supporting players and a walk-on or two. 

He's such a pack member. The armrest / center area is just a rest for his snout so he knows what is going on. 

Surrounded by beauty. 

OMG.  ADORABLE. 

I'm not sure I have enough attention span to ever own a golden. They want it all - and my mind wanders. 

Bailey after the spa. 

GEORGIA. 

I haven't seen her all winter, but she was out and as pretty as ever. 

Shep met a schnauzer. No one get barked at or bit. 

Waiting for Dad #1 to come home. 

Song by: Rolling Stones