Let your imagination run wild.

January 30, 2023

It has been a very long time since I have had this many runs in January. Back then I might run twenty times, but I no longer have the stamina for that. I was even running outside in the snow back then. No, thank you.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 24:38

Another thing ... I have been sneezing, all the time, for about three weeks. It's crazy. It's like there's something in our living room, like mold or something. It's killing me. I have to jack up on Sudafed just to stop the drainage, it's awful.

Route: rec center 
Temperature: -2°
Climate: still
Mood: driven

1983 Playlist

Adventures In Success - Will Powers

A New England (168 bpm) - Billy Bragg

Automatic Man - Michael Sembello

Communication (12 “ Version) (152 bpm) - Spandau Ballet

I Love It When (You Call Me Names) - Joan Armatrading

School Is In (159 bpm) - Josie Cotton

You Stand By - Roman Holiday

This Is the Day - The The

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-0-)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Let the rhythm pull you in.

I have canceled Noom. It has become a burden, logging all that information for me to stay in the same place. I mean, I am glad I am in the same place. The question is, can I stay here on my own? I am aware of what is necessary for me to feel good, do I need to spend that much money for an app to remind me to keep on it?

It is a lot of money.

I am still logged on through the end of April. It recently renewed -- which was my reminder to stop. 

So. Let's see how we do on our own.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 25:47

Woke this morning with a headache and also a strong case or vertigo. I do not know how these two related to each other, but they did not compliment each other. I read for a half-hour, from six to seven (RIP) but then I just went back to bed, getting up once for breakfast,

I hope this is a passing thing. My wife encourages me to do the exercises, but I really hate to do them. Like, more than most exercises. I should get on them, though. I also don't feel they do anything, but I guess I would think that.  

Route: rec center
Temperature: 9°
Climate: freezing
Mood: better

2003 Playlist

Naughty Girl  - Beyoncé

Superstar - Jamelia

There, There - Radiohead

You’re So Damn Hot - OK Go

Cry Me a River - Justin Timberlake

Solsbury Hill - Erasure

Slow (Chemical Brothers Remix) - Kylie Minogue 

Wow. That was an amazing playlist.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-2.0)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Moving ‘til my feet get sore.

Alex Pretti

This country is just so fucked.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 26:06
Route: rec center
Temperature: 17°
Climate: continual snow
Mood: not happy

2023 Playlist

A Real Thing (160 bpm) - The Beths

Hot In It - Tiësto ft. Charlie xcx 

The One That Got Away - Muna

Loving You - Cannons

Fireworks (173 bpm) - Joseph

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - The Dandy Warhols

Daily News (160 bpm) - Bartees Strange

Echolalia - Yves Tumor

Stretches: sort of
Water:  yes
Weight: 162 lbs.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

The wind is cold.

Working to incorporate a regular reading schedule. I have realized that I enjoy doing nothing in bed (no jokes, please) I do not like reading in bed, I do not like eating in bed, I do not like writing in bed.

And when it is time for sleep, I need to just hit the pillow. I like to read during the day, I like doing most thing during the day. At night, I’m just done.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 24:59
Route: rec center
Temperature: 4°
Climate: sunny & freezing
Mood: getting it

1974 Playlist

Be Thankful For What You Got - William DeVaughn

Jungle Boogie - Kool & the Gang

Junior’s Farm - Wings

You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive

Back in NYC - Genesis 

Pick Up the Pieces - Average White Band

The Thrill of it All - Roxy Music

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 162 lbs. (+1.0)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Every morning I just hit the ground yawning.

There was this day, maybe the day after the day after new year's 1996, when I called in late to work and my boss said, "Remember, you're not on break anymore," which was a condescending thing to say and entirely appropriate for my relationship with her and sound advice for someone who was my age and at that time.

Joyce was a like a mother to me in many ways, and taught me many, many things. But that also means some of her admonishments stick in my mind the way those from my mother also still do. (Joyce is fine, by the way, this isn't about Joyce.)

Rolling out of the holidays, these days, I hit the ground running, as I have this year and better than most. However, I have been drinking a lot. Much of this has to do with what I have been doing with my evenings which has included a great deal of reading and writing. So, why not? I'm home and safe, the liquor is stocked and I am safely seated on the couch before the fire (ostensibly) writing.

Tea is a beverage, too, though. And water. We're short on seltzer, I need to get on that. The writing (and reading) gets worse as I drink, anyhow.

In 1990, I wrote an entire 300-page book manuscript fueled by Southern Comfort 100 and Camel Lights. It was garbage. 

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 24:53
Route: rec center
Temperature: 22°
Climate: overcast & cold
Mood: full of scorpions

1994 Playlist

Rollercoaster (King Britt Scuba Remix) - Everything But the Girl

Stay (I Missed You) - Lisa Loeb

Intermittently - Barenaked Ladies

My Name is Jonas - Weezer

I Don’t Understand Anything - Everything But the Girl

Down to This - Soul Coughing

Shoop - Salt-N-Pepa

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 161 lbs. (+1.0)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: TBA

See you Saturday.

I’ll run all night. Don’t let me.

Winters are supposed to be cold. And things going the way they have been, we deserve even more days off. It's difficult being a water-based organism in this climate. 

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 25:43

We continue, undaunted. Controlling your diet when you are copped up is a challenge ... it helps when you haven't been to the grocery store and your house is no longer full of snacks.

Route: rec center
Temperature: 6°
Climate: bright & freezing
Mood: getting it

2014 Playlist

212 - Azealia Banks ft. Lazy Jay

Here Lies Love (Curtain Call) - Ruthie Ann Miles

Rather Be - Clean Bandit ft. Jess Gylnne

Boom Clap - Charli xcx 

Barbra Streisand - Duck Sauce ft. A-Trak & Armand Van Helden 

Girls Chase Boys (170 bpm) - Ingrid Michaelson

Time - Jungle

After the Disco - Broken Bells ft. Danger Mouse & James Mercer

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-0-) 

Still sneezy. Still not ill.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

We walked around in circles singing.

Such a squalid little ending.

From the jump, the recent revival of Chess falls into a trap, as the Arbiter educates the audience of young people about the Cold War, which he describes as a battle between COMMUNISM and ...

DEMOCRACY.

Yep. Not Capitalism. Democracy. That may have been how we described it at the time, but the Arbiter exists out of time, a modern narrator making contemporary references and wisecracks. My own kids would be like, uh. No. 

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 25:41 

Christians had long recognized the problem. The most radically inclined, those who thought of themselves as most fully awakened to the truth, wanted to cancel the whole of pagan culture. 

In order to be cleansed and to feel safe, they had to discard the inherited works of art, literature, and philosophy. Those works were indelibly stained, and they corrupted those who came under their spell. To teach them to the young and impressionable was unconscionable. 

It was time, in the name of the redemption paid for by the blood of the Savior, to smash the idols once and for all. "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" one of the most radical asked.

- "Dark Renaissance" by Stephen Greenblatt (p. 39)

Route: rec center
Temperature: 14°
Climate: sunny & freezing
Mood: all right

1984 Playlist

The Deal (No Deal) - Murray Head, Tommy Körberg & Elaine Paige from "Chess"

Where Do the Boys Go? (157 BPM) - Men Without Hats

Birdmad Girl - The Cure

Too Late for Goodbyes - Julian Lennon

Train Running Low on Soul Coal - XTC

Robert De Niro’s Waiting - Bananarama

Dancing With Tears in My Eyes - Ultravox

In My House - Mary Jane Girls

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-0-)

I have been sneezing for three days straight. The wife thinks it's cancer.

She hates it when I say things like that.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

His little heart, it beat so fast.

I am glad I have resolved to fight this year because it's been only a couple of weeks and it's been one battle after another. That's not intended as a reference to the movie, it's just the first thing that came into my head.

When things are bad creatively, when things are bad vocationally, when things are bad locally, when things are bad nationally, I take a breath and remember a few things. My home. My partner. My family. My body and my mind. 

It is like the man said, I am the one thing in life I can control. It's a good line.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 24:55
Route: rec center
Temperature: 17°
Climate: cold
Mood: here for it

2004 Playlist

Common People - William Shatner

Hounds of Love - Futureheads

Michael - Franz Ferdinand

Fit But You Know It - The Streets

Broken Glass - Crystal Method

They - Jem

Hoist That Rag - Tom Waits

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-0-)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

I’ll never run out on you.

Shit is getting done. Spending a long week at the (kids') alma mater, hoping things ease off slightly next week. But why should they? They didn't last fall. And yet. Shit is getting done.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 25:26
Route: rec center
Temperature: 40
Climate: cool
Mood: driven

2024 Playlist

Drive - "Stereophonic" (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

Ayayay - Noga Erez ft. Dillom

Night Owl - Auntie Hammy

Dirty Work - King Princess

Oh no! - The Decemberists

Ultraviolet - Clover County

Baddest (Badder) - Joey Valence & Brae dt. Ayesha Erotica

Hotstepper - Trinix ft. Blvk H3ro

Have you seen Stereophonic? It's really good. But I have questions.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-5)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

See you Friday.

You scream and everybody comes … running.

We're reading more books!
(We're just not finishing them.)

The holidays are fun and all, but how do you feel about reality? Thankfully, I took down the icicle lights and wreath yesterday, when the pavement was damp and not crusted with snow, as it is today.

And work, how do you feel about work? Not as though I wasn't working all through the holidays. Or, at least my mind was working. And it is working now.

Distance: 2 miles

Duration: 16:40

Two days in a row? I thought we didn't do that anymore. Yes, well. I know tomorrow is a no-go, with classes all day and a special event in the evening. I'll take the risk to keep on track.

Route: rec center
Temperature: 28°
Climate: light snow
Mood: driven

But, dude. Remember to eat something.

1975 Playlist

Dancing in the Nude - The Funkees

I Got The … - Labi Siffre

Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker) - Parliament 

Fox On the Run - The Sweet

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs. (+3.0)

Good lord, what a productive morning. I have resolved to make the most of my weekends in the form of creation. Of course, I need to do this every day, but it is particularly edifying to accomplish a handsome amount of several things, in a row, to graze, as it were, through my necessaries.

Study, read, write, tend (i.e. chores), exercise, write again. That's a morning, less than a morning.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Currently, I think we’re in a state of an emergency.

The nation is sick. And by sick I mean dying.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 24:47
Route: rec center
Temperature: 36°
Climate: overcast
Mood: determined

1995 Playlist

The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul - Ruben Blades

Geek Stink Breath - Green Day

Down By the Water - P J Harvey

Jackson Cannery - Ben Folds Five

The Brooklynites- Soul Coughing

Drop - Pharcyde 

Alright- Supergrass

Stutter (172 bpm) - Elastica 

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 162 lbs. (-1.0)

Need to eat more vegetables. Must have more vegetables in the house.

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Oh, no time to rest.

The new year is already brighter.

Except I was out past midnight last night and woke up with a severe case of vertigo.

But I pulled it together.

And going out after seeing Stereophonic was very rewarding.

The new year is already brighter.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 24:45
Route: rec center
Temperature: 46°
Climate: mild
Mood: grateful

2015 Playlist

Picture This - Kero Kero Bonito

King Kunte - Kendrick Lamar

Ship To Wreck - Florence + the Machine

It’s Not Over (‘Til It’s Over) - Bleu

Nobody Really Cares if You Don’t Go to the Party - Courtney Barnett

Go - Chemical Brothers ft. Q-Tip

Chrome On Chrome - Ratatat

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 163 lbs. (-2.0)

It is a downright shame I couldn't get out until the evening. It is very pleasant outside.

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

Such a mass of motion.

Today you could never make a movie like Marty Supreme.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 25:19

Woof. Whatever I had at Boss Dog last night, I was inflated like a balloon throughout an entire two and a half hour movie.

This morning isn’t much better. 

Route: rec center
Temperature: 34°
Climate: clear
Mood: bloated 

1985 Playlist

I Have the Touch (85 Remix) - Peter Gabriel

Perfect Kiss - New Order

Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

Conga - Miami Sound Machine

Left of the Dial - The Replacements

Obsession (12” Remix) - Animotion

Stretches: yes 
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs. (-0-)

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

Commitment: Run Thursday morning.

I like the way you move.

Guy Richards Smit

Stress. Stress and insecurity. There is much to do. I prefer that to having nothing to do. I made lists for each of the past four days, with very clear objectives for each day. I got half of it completed. Not true, I got half of each task completed, which is better than all of half of them, if you follow me. Things got started, and needed additional time, information, fortitude, time. 

That is an accomplishment: starting.

My back still hurts.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 25:51

Translation: Gosh! Whatever's in those Epstein files must be really, really bad!

Route: rec center
Temperature: 27°
Climate: overcast & cold
Mood: less anxious

Woke this morning with a headache. In spite of that, I was able to write a new scene, which means I am, in fact, in charge of things. Right? That's all it takes. Keep moving forward.

Let's make this the best week ever.

2005 Playlist

Que' Onda Guero - Beck Hansen

Chicken Payback - The Bees

Movement - LCD Soundsystem

The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails

Don’t Look Back - Télépopmusik ft. Angela McCluskey

I Like the Way You Move (Radio Edit) - Bodyrockers

Robot Rock - Daft Punk

Wilderness - Sleater-Kinney

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs. (-0-)

I have had a slight touch of the vertigo since last week, but man. There were no fewer than three individuals today who couldn’t stay in one lane if they were duct taped to someone who could.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Commitment: Run Tuesday morning.

Run for the hills. Run for the trees.

I had a fantasy about running the LES while we were out of town, but I also wanted to sleep in, to go with whatever the plan might be. Also, the forecast was for cold. It had snowed several inches the day before we arrived and the sidewalks and streets were sludgy and slippery.

I made the right decision by not bringing my kit, and I did not regret that one moment. Sometimes you have to surrender to the reality of the situation. 

Distance: 4 miles

Duration: 34:51

Now it is the new year, with new plans, new promises. For example, I promised I would remain 160 lbs. And I would also like to lean get it) into losing another five. 

Route: rec center
Temperature: 21°
Climate: overcast
Mood: resolved

Friends and family ... 60 Playlists for 60 Years.

2025 Playlist

Wild Horses - Wolf Alice

Ring Ring Ring - Tyler, the Creator

Pussy Palace - Lily Allen

Cops & Robbers - Sammy Virji ft. Skepta

My Old Ways - Tame Impala

Tambourine - The Dare

Love in Real Life - Lizzo

Swoon - Peter Murphy 

The Human Race - The Vapors

I Lied to You - Miles Caton

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 165 lbs.

Goal: 155 lbs. 

We resume with new dedication.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes