Friday, November 7, 2008

Musings for a Friday

Running:
So Tim just barely made a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon in his recent bid, but only by seconds. Nancy ran the San Francisco Marathon and ran a time of 3 hours and 50 minutes. Not bad I think...actually, she is catching up on Tim's time. My question is...what is the draw to running in our 40's? Are we running from something? are we battling middle-age? I know I am just at the beginning of training for the Edinburgh Marathon in 2010 as a wee testament to my battle with Guillain Barre Syndrome, and it is going to be painful. Don't be surprised if I turn it into the Edinburgh Pub Crawl.

Obama:
Whether you voted for him or not, you have to love seeing people taking to the streets celebrating an American election. Does anyone have any recollection of that at any other time in our lives? I won't go into my politics, but I think the lesson for Republicans is that it is time to move more towards the center. The Christian Right has proven to be anything but Christian. I think if you judge others, discriminate and are intolerant you may have a hard time adhereing to the Christian Creed. Actually, I will go into my politics, I mean what is a blg for after all. I think the election of Obama shows the world how a true democracy works, that the oil money and lobbyists fell short and the masses turn out and put the right man in for the job. And seeing the recent feeding frenzy of Sarah Palin by the right-wing media and her exposed lack of knowledge of not only NAFTA, but of geography...she would have been a disaster in the administration. McCain's time was in 2000. I saw him speak, he was a powerful speaker with unique ideas and a truly maverick approach and then "W" and Karl Rove went at him like Swift Boat Veterans and he was sunk by his own party. His embrace of Bush for 2008 was his undoing and I was disappointed to see a great man lose his focus. Will Obama rase taxes? Yup. You can't even begin to address a 700 billion dollar bail out and multi-trillion dollar two front war with a collapsing economy without addressing the need to raise taxes and McCain would have done the same thing. So the road ahead is tough, there will be more bad news before there is good news. But hang in there. The world has rallied once again for America and watching blacks, whites, asians, and hispanics celebrate together was truly an American moment in time that should be cherished.

Sarah:
Good luck this weekend and CONGRATS!!

Uncle Davy and Mary:
You guys haven't been driving around your neighborhood in Florida in a golf cart I hope. That would make you both redneck and Floridian and that is unacceptable.

Alice and Dick:
My mother and I went to the Alzheimer's Assocation for some guidance and resources in dealing with my dad. It was a great meeting and we got alot of good stuff out of it. Primarily coping mechanisms as well as some milestones we need to establish and hit. So far so good. My father is kind of plateauing. he hasn't gotten significantly worse or signficiantly better. The Beatles said it best...this is going to be a "long and winding road" or maybe the Grateful Dead said it best "What a long strange it's been".

That's all for now.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rich, it sounds as if I made the qualifying time, I don't want to dissapoint but I missed 2 minutes. On the other hand Nancy has Qualified for Boston with her great time in San Fran.

Nancy when do you find the time to train.

Tim

Anonymous said...

I also have to thank Tom for pushing me. Tom whether you want to beleive it or not you have become a very good runner. I admire you work ethic.

Your time in Lowell of 3:31 and some seconds is AWESOME.

Tim

Anonymous said...

Okay, I'll bite at the political stuff. It was great to see the turn out and the excitement for the election, but I was disappointed by the results. However, America has voted and Obama is in. Whether the votes for him were to "put the right man in", for the liberal/democratic party, against McCain or the Republican party, to be a part of an historical vote, to vote for what had been considered for a while to be the winning party, or some other reason, the end result is the same. I'd like to think that most votes for Obama were for the first reason, but it would be naive to think all votes were (One can say the same about the McCain votes as well). Now we can only wait to see what the President-elect does. I was for McCain. I too feel he had made some mistakes during the campaign, the choosing of Gov. Palin NOT being one of them. ( I give as much weight to the anonymous-source report of her lack of geographical knowledge as to Obama's well-known and heard-by-many comment of "57 states," which is none. Idiotic things are said by both tickets. I think it is just the nature of the beast with all the constant spotlight pressure and everything.) I think McCain/Palin would have made a good team in the White House, but alas, it did not come to pass. I will support the new President and give him the respect he deserves for running a strong, tight campaign, winning a tough election and making an historical acheivement. I know, however, that I do not agree with his platform and am sure I will not agree with all that he eventually will do while in office. My conservative beliefs, socially and politically just don't jive with his liberal leanings. Be that as it may, I wish him success and hope America becomes all the stronger at the end of (I hope only) four years. As a side comment, I thought the Rick Warren forum of the candidates was very good and probably a better gauge of the candidates than any of the formal debates.
That's it I guess.

Jamie