Evel Knievel, you got nothing on me.

Beautiful days, busy days, dizzy days. Teaching in West Geauga, interviewing candidates downtown, Wednesday I visited my elementary school in my old hometown. Surprised its lasted this long, I have been wanting to see inside of it before it inevitably disappears.

Elementary School Run (1974-1978)

New York Groove - Ace Frehley

Young Americans (178 BPM) - David Bowie

When the Whip Comes Down - The Rolling Stones

Neat Neat Neat - The Damned

Peg - Steely Dan

#9 Dream - John Lennon

Riding the Scree (162 BPM) - Genesis

Come Together (160 BPM)  - Ike & Tina Turner

Distance: 63°

Duration: 27:48
Pace: 8:57

So it happens, it will be torn down, and very soon. It's an old building -- not as old as I thought it was, it was built in 1947, but still. Almost eighty. Weird to think it was only twenty-seven years old when I started attending that school in 1974. But then, 1974 is also ancient history.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 63°
Climate: damp
Mood: tired

They held an open house on Wednesday, and I am glad I heard about it. It was awkward conversing with fellow classmates -- elementary school classmates -- several of whom I have not seen since we graduated forty years ago this spring. I just wanted to wander the halls. It was a bit too much.

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

That was where I embarrassed myself during the utensil walk. That was where I shat myself doing sit-ups. That's the room where they taught me how not to lisp. That was where I told Tracy she was chopped. Where I learned that Santa's crystal ball was fake. Where I wrote on the mirror with soap and got sent to the office and saw the paddle with nails in it. Where we held the disco.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: TBA

Five years, from age six to ten, is all of your life when you are ten, and I spent them in that building.

2023 Heights Tiger 5K

BDE (Big Dad Energy)

2023 Heights Tiger 5K
Start: 9:00 AM
Unofficial Time: 23:51.5

Pace: 7:24
Place Overall: 21/223
Place Mens 50-54: 1/2

Not the day I asked for, I would have preferred sun. But the temperature was perfect, and the rain held while the run was actually happening.

Temperature: 53°
Climate: overcast & misty 

Mood: good

I ran with intention. I wanted to go fast, and see what I could do. So I wore headphones (forgive me) and tried to keep up with the track. This worked until we got to the hill in Cain Park and I never really got it back. The hill took a lot out of me.

  

170-179 BPM Playlist

Go (Extended Mix) - Tones On Tail

Paper Planes - M.I.A.

Buried at Sea - MC 1000 ft. Jesus

Compression - Everything But the Girl

Sheena Is a Punk Rocker - The Ramones

Deathwish - The Police

Caught up with on of my son's friends in Cain Park, though. I think that surprised him, he's a member of the track team. It inspired him, too, he sped up and paced me by almost a minute.

Stretches: yes
Abdominals: 90 sec.

Upper body: 10 reps.
Water: yes

Heading down the last road before we reached the high school (and the finish) this kid, maybe ten years old, he noticed I was about to pass him and he intentionally moved in front of me, which was obnoxious. Like, I would try to pass him and he would move, again, to stay in front of me.

I laughed. But this was just the kind of thing I would have done at his age. The difference is, whoever I got in front of would probably have yelled, "Get out of my way, kid!" because that's how things happened to me. 

Anyway, we were finally passing someone else, he went left, I went right and blew past him. Little shit. 

Breakfast: banana, coffee w/cream

Lunch: one slab pepperoni pizza, taro boba tea

Snack: leftover gnocchi (small)

Happy Hour: Masthead IPA, chips

Dinner: pasta, sauce & parm w/corn

Evening: beer (1x)

Too wet and chilly to wait for results. No idea how I placed (yet) but I'm happy with my pace.

Baseline: 195 lbs.

Current: 177 lbs. (-1.5)

Goal: 175 lbs.

Johnny's always running around.

One more day, one more run. Supposed to snow tomorrow? Regardless, I can run in snow. But every day I put in more miles is more energy, more muscle work, more air. 

Distance: 

Duration: 3.1 miles
Pace: 10:44

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature: 36°
Climate: partly cloudy & cool

Pavement: dry
Mood: not bad

That went better than I thought. Slowed down near the end, but that's okay. I never stopped for walking.

1980 Playlist

Johnny & Mary - Robert Palmer (153 bpm)

Girl U Want - Devo

Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me) - XTC

I'm Coming Out (Original Chic Mix) - Diana Ross

Warm Leatherette - Grace Jones

Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll - Vaughn Mason & Crew

After Dark - Andy Gibb

Duke's End - Genesis (159 bpm)

Tattooed Love Boys - The Pretenders

Oh, shit. XTC is band for incels and I only just noticed.

What was 1980? Middle school. Feelings of isolation, loneliness. Losing my friends. Being ignored. Desirous of attention, love. Abandoning childhood. I really hated 1980.

 
Stretches: 
Abdominals: 90 sec. (2x)
Water: yes (fizzy water, it counts)

Breakfast: coffee w/oatmilk cream

Lunch: salad w/feta, pistachios & buttered bread

Coffee Break: coffee w/oatmilk cream

Snack: apple slices

Happy Hour: Decaf Earl Grey w/almond cream

Dinner: broccoli cheddar soup w/buttered bread

Baseline: 195 lbs.

Current: 190.5 lbs. (+1.0) 

Goal: 185 lbs.

Yep. That was a large piece of bread. We must remain mindful. Seriously, though. It was a big breakfast, a big lunch, and a big dinner.

Outrun my gun.

Good luck, Charlie.
No, really. Be safe.

There have been many sweet moments in our little life here as a four-piece family. It is not embarrassing at all to say there are certain pieces of Disney Channel created event tunes which make me want to cry because they remind me of when my daughter was a "tweener" and enjoying the harmless, pretend teenage lifestyle represented in the programs on that channel.

That time before today.

2011 Playlist
Breakthrough - Lemonade Mouth
Not Fade Away - Florence & The Machine
Feel So Close - Calvin Harris
Paradise - Coldplay
Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People
Lotus Flower (Jacques Greene Remix) - Radiohead
Guns & Horses - Ellie Goulding

Pain in my hip, but man I ran well. Keep going. Just keep moving.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 33°
Climate: very light precipitation
Pavement: damp
Mood: conflicted

Over the cold. Just over it. This is when that happens, it's March and you look at the forecast and it's low-thirties for the next ten days.

We are officially postponing Calvin's Day until the wife returns from France (yes, she's going to France!) which means there is a greater possibility - though by no means a certainty - that it will be a nice day. Who knows? Sometimes it snows in April.

Stretches: yes

I had a good thing going, and I still do -- I exercise every day. At least ten minutes, every day. Not much, but also far from nothing. But the writing has stopped. Sleep habits have gone to the wayside and waking has become an issue. I can do something about that. I'm an adult.

Baseline: 178 lbs.
Today: 171 lbs. (+1.0)
Goal: 170 lbs.

wtf

Slow down before we fall down.

That's too much, man!

Therapist recommends a treadmill, or track. Something not as shocking as pavement. There is a decent track at the middle school, so that is where I am headed.

To keep me occupied during stretches, I have been binge-watching BoJack Horseman. God, some of this is bleak. I do not know whether that is currently a good thing or a bad thing.

Distance: 1 mile
Route: Monticello Track

Walked to the middle school. Eight minutes. The wife asked recently why I was so irritated when the kids ask for a ride to school. I know I asked for rides to middle school and my mother would oblige, I also took the RTA up the street sometimes, because then it was pretty cheap to take the bus.

My middle school was a mile from my house, which is not long, a twenty minute walk. But we live less than half a mile from our kids' school. It takes eight minutes. When they can walk, they should walk. When the weather is very poor, or they are injured, or not feeling well, or have a large package to transport, sure.

Because their walking or not walking isn't really the issue. It is that I hate driving to the middle school. I hate starting the engine of my car, and burning gasoline to go less than one half mile. Turning onto the main boulevard during rush hour, idling at the stoplight, negotiating the parking lot during drop-off. That's what really makes me unhappy.

Driving to the middle school to go to the track, like driving to the gym - driving to exercise - it just drives me a little crazy. Parking so I can have a run. It makes sense in Athens, when the roads around my in-laws do not have sidewalks and the bike path is a mile or so away, that I can justify. But not driving to the track around the corner.

My daughter got to walk to her school for three years, my son for only one. I have lived around the corner from that school for getting near a quarter century, and I only got three years worth out of it. Hrumph.

Temperature: 72°
Climate: bright, sunny, beautiful
Mood: not good

Felt okay. Going to stretch now.

What's That Lyric?
Millennium - Robbie Williams

Oh my God, the season three finale of BoJack Horseman. Jesus Christ, universe. What the fuck are you doing to me?

Come on over, we're having a party for you.

Young man, old man.

We approach the end. The end of an eventful summer, the end of a two-week long journey. Two weeks ago we were preparing to depart, I was in the office that day. Since we have been to Canada and spent copious time in Maine.

But Michele and her family have gone and the house seems vacant, just the four of us an my folks. Seriously quiet. We took the day on Tuesday to head to Rockland, a first for the kids, actually. Maine to them has always been about staying in and running about the cove. A day trip for movies in an old movie house, window shopping, egg creams and art museums, these big kid things to do. It is a different world.

Distance: 8 miles
Duration: 1: 12:13
Avg Pace: 9:01
Route: Rt. 220 and Martin Point

Melancholy, final run in Friendship for the season. And it's much, much cooler today. Thanks for that, like I didn't know the summer is drawing to a close.

Yesterday was my father's 80th birthday. We had wine hour here at the Barnstable and the entire cove showed up. It was a real party. 

Yes, a melancholy run. Just couldn't build up any speed, I was highly aware of each and every hill. But the sun started to shine the minute I stepped out and the temperature rose. Up Rt. 220 past the cemetery, then back on Martin's Point for a complete eight miles headed back into Flood's Cove.

Who knows. Maybe I will attempt Saturday's four mile run tomorrow before we leave. And then there's Boston.

Temperature: 55° - 63°
Climate: cool and clear
Intake: yogurt & granola
Hydration: yes
Water Stop: no
Stretches: yes

Summer 2015. Greek yogurt, marathon training and Huarache Lights.

What's That Lyric?
Psychic City - Yacht

Running round. Leaving scars.

Settling down and cutting the internet is hard work. But there were many leisurely hours spent reading and taking notes and greeting friends and also taking a brief motorboat ride (I was the captain, a role which seriously freaks me out) enjoying a mid-afternoon beer and chasing the kids down to the dock.

"For God's sake. It's Flood's Cove and you are a child. Go torture sea animals or set fire to something the way I did." 

Speaking of fond and/or anxiety inducing childhood vacation memories, Michele took it upon herself this winter to personally commission T-shirts and sweatshirts proudly displaying a modified version of the Friendship, Maine logo which was in use in the mid-to-late 1970s.

How cool is that? I mean, seriously. It's like someone handing you an exact replica of that stuffed animal you loved so much that was destroyed by the neighbor's dog when you were seven. 

Distance: 8 miles
Duration: 1:07:30
Avg Pace: 8:26
Route: Rt. 220

First time taking a run on the state road out of Friendship, like exactly the kind of place Stephen King got hit by that truck. Lots of hills, and bugs and even bees.

Took a break on my way back, around mile six, the visit the Roadside Cemetery, for that is indeed its name. Final resting place for those who reside here. Their ancestors rest here in the earth, mine and my children's rest here in the sea.

Last night we had a big crowd for dinner, cousins and friends. My cousin Amy (cousin once removed) who lives and works in Germany was visiting her folks here, she is also in training for a marathon, her first - though she has run several half marathons and in her time has been much more athletic than I.

Our training methods are different, she is being instructed by her supervisors and colleagues at work. She works for the WHO, which endorses workplace health promotion, so within her sphere of influence running this marathon is kind of a big deal. They have a detailed regimen involving not merely distance but pace.

My training by comparison is pretty haphazard, but I guess I always knew that. She did make me think seriously of getting a Garmin to better track not only my miles, pace and time, but also heart rate, a metric I am currently lacking. Last check my heart is pretty healthy but I would be well served to keep it monitored as I run to avoid any unhappy surprises.

Temperature: 66° - 70°
Climate: quite humid.
Intake: yogurt, granola & banana
Hydration: yes
Water Stop: no
Stretches: yes!

The relaxation continues. Would appear to be another remarkably beautiful day laid out before us. The girl came down with a serious summertime cold yesterday and was up half the night unable to breathe, with a raging sore throat and the chills. This morning she is much more sanguine but also exhausted.

What's That Lyric?
Jar of Hearts - Christina Perri

Show me the way.

For God's sake, Mr. Nichols.

Happy New Year. Regular followers know I motivate myself to continue running through the coldest months of the year by planning and listening to playlists representing each year of my life. In fact, the winter months are often those in which I run the most, so it has been a successful little mind game.

The year before I got clever and included 1967, the year I was conceived, and then last year 1966 because it was a pretty great year musically (see: Revolver). However, my reptilian hindbrain now thinks that was a bad idea. It's not me, it's not my life, I do not want to go back any further in time. And besides, my catalog is not deeper enough to satisfy.

I will stick with 1967. I was conceived on November 23, 1967 - Thanksgiving. Right there on the table. Actually no, that would have been very awkward and traumatic for my six year old brother Denny, though it may explain a lot. Regardless, the popular music of that year, though it was not actually played on any devices in my house, seeped in or at least were in the air when I emerged the following July.

We begin where I began, and so ladies and gentlemen ... 49 Playlist for 49 Years (again!)

Temperature: 34°
Distance: 2 miles

Night time, it is colder. Why is this? I can run in shorts as long as it is above freezing, but not at night. I think this is a fallacy, perhaps I only notice this when I choose to. When it is breezier, that is definitely not a good time to wear shorts. I came home wheezing, because I was running faster than I would have otherwise desired, just to get home.

But it is a good start to the year. Today's playlist, heavy with R&B, filled my head with all kinds of images that I may incorporate into a play I will be directing this year. Summery music for summer time.

Supposed to snow Friday.

1967 Playlist
Star Collector - The Monkees
Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town - Johnny Darrell
Sweet Soul Music * - Arthur Conley
(Your Love Keeps Lighting Me) Higher and Higher - Jackie Wilson
Magical Mystery Tour * - The Beatles
Blindman - Janis Joplin
Tighten Up - Archie Bell & The Drells

Blindman. Definitely a song that seemed into my memory as a child. I heard it for the "first" time last year and yet I feel it's always been ringing in my head.

It's a shame you don't know what you're running from.

Brunswick Diner
This is living. This is living.

My birthday marks two-thirds of the summer gone. Memorial Day is the starting gate, the Fourth we are in high-gear. I remind the children not to think to the future, not to wish for Maine. It will come, and when it comes, it means we are in the homestretch. Be here now. And they are, they have been. It has been a long, full summer.

We took our time this year, the most relaxed and engaged I have felt on a road trip in some time. Of course, that can be expensive, but those are bills we will have to pay (figuratively, literally). We haven't taken two nights to reach the Cove since the children were very small, usually we push through in two days.

This year we had a special stop at Six Flags New England, where our two careful and wise children took some risks and rode the roller coasters. It was an amazing family experience, and honestly, I was the scared one. Not for me, but for them. I can't help it. I live from moment to moment waiting for the next disaster.

We settled into Flood's Cove last night without even unpacking. Taking our time is the rule of the day, and we will be here for the better part of two weeks. I have spent this morning reading, writing, and chatting with my brother, as it should be. An eleven a.m. run is not out of order.

Temperature: 70°
Climate: bright, beautiful and hot
Distance: 3.8 miles

Last night after the sun went down the girl put on a hoodie, grabbed her music and a flashlight and announced she was going to sit on the dock. My child, alone, on a wobbly dock floating on the ocean, in the dark.

She is eleven. I walked this cove with a flashlight, on my own, ages before that. I nodded and she went.

When I was just shy of thirteen, I sat in a hammock for the better part of two weeks, using my father's new Walkman to listen to a mix tape I had made of all my new 45's from that summer. Same 90 minute tape, both sides, over and over. Dreaming of being a teenager.

Pompeii Playlist
Summer Skin - Death Cab for Cutie
Radio - Lana Del Rey
Your Biggest Mistake - Ellie Goulding
Believer - American Authors
Animal - Ellie Goulding
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths
I'm Not Alone - Calvin Harris
Atlas Hands * - Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Cousins * - Vampire Weekend

Me and my cousins and you and your cousins. It's a line that is always running.

Let the saints appear.

[edit]
Girl On The Run
Temperature: 74°
Distance: 3 miles

One dream ends, another begins. The girl was on the fence about whether or not to join me on the Hocking bike path, but decided to. A mile and a half out, a mile and a half back. Only time to stop and breathe for thirty seconds in the middle.

This was my first time giving my daughter the nickel tour of my college memories of South Green. She was a very attentive listener, occupied as she was with respiration.

It was hot, the sun was high. She was breathing hard and steady, but she did it. First time for everything, now she's on the couch with an ice pack on her forehead. I think she'll be okay.

They're generating steam heat.

Girls On The Run
Temperature: 38°
Distance: 1 mile

The girl brought a friend along and we hit the track - this time, five laps. Thought it was fifty degrees, but apparently not. Gonna do another quick two before taking the boy to drum practice. No time to reflect.

Distance: 2 miles

Five day forecast: Rain, snow, rain, snow, sun. Cleveland!

1976 Playlist
Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
Rip Her To Shreds - Blondie
Teenage Depression - Eddie & The Hot Rods
Dancing Queen - ABBA
Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
Beat On The Brat - The Ramones
Car Wash - Rolls Royce

It's not so deep, I'm not so slow.

When I was a kid and I broke my leg, I would lie away unable to sleep, and stare at the pictures on the wall next to my bed. Some of them were pages from the Plain Dealer -- full-page images, like posters, of comic strip characters that ran in the paper.

I became obsessed with one in which the enlargement exaggerated a gap in a pen line. I wanted to take a pen and complete that line. I wouldn't, I wouldn't draw on the image, I was old enough to know that was wrong, I didn't have the right to correct that artist's work, but I couldn't stop wanting to complete that line.

On any given day I may sit at the dining room table and imagine how, exactly, I will best stack the plates, in what order, picking up spoon to nest and empty dish, replace the spoon, move onto another -- how may I best stack dirty dishes in as few moves as possible, to carry them away to the kitchen?

The house is replete with things which must be fixed. Every day for the past year and a half I walked through the side door and looked at the broken glass and every time I thought, I need to place that. How will I do that? When will I do that? Every weekend would pass and nothing would change.

The glass has been replaced. The old, terrible curtain has been removed just so I no longer have to look at it, and will soon be replaced with something new -- this will also be done, I am sure. The wooden doors, side and front, have been primed with fresh-smelling oil. There is an American flag hanging just outside our bedroom window.

The girl is in her room, sorting clothes to give away, to sell in the yard sale, to toss, to fold and put away. The wife is writing. We are not grilling today, today we are industrious.

The boy is merely playing with Legos, but he can be forgiven -- for his birthday he got over a hundred bucks in Lego cards, and walked out of the Lego store with an admirable haul. I am proud of him, too.

Temperature: 59°
Climate: overcast & cool - perfect
Distance: 3.25 miles

And yet, stuck in the middle of a day where all are occupied and there are no other obligations, I feel conflicted about running, tired, a little low. Shall I say, anxious.I get permission. I run anyway, but though the physicality feels all right, and my pace remains brisk, thoughts are troubling, peppy, adolescent music notwithstanding.

I feel it now, not in the pit of my stomach, but just above. A rising anxiousness. My wife reminds me how good the weekend has been, how rewarding, relaxing, time with friends, surrounded by kids. Things are good.

I keep telling myself that. Things are good. Things are good. Things are good.

Love Plus One Playlist
Love Plus One - Haircut 100
Mirror Man - Human League
I Got You - Split Enz
Poison Arrow - ABC
Oblivious - Aztec Camera
Just Got Lucky - JoBoxers
Antmusic - Adam and the Ants

Do you remember?

Brent's parents called us The Troublemakers. He was the jokester, his twin the one I remember I could be serious with. I remember their room, Wacky Packages on every surface. Star Wars sheets. Rock And Roll Over. The Westlake Municipal Dump was our playground, where we played Vietnam, and found Playboy magazines. We made cigarettes from their older brother's rolling papers and dried Sassafras leaves from the tree in our yard, and smoked them in the attic over my garage. We ripped off K-Mart, over and over and again, stuffing our jackets with Micronauts and heading out unmolested into the parking lot through the Nursery.

I watched The Interception in their living room.

Hot Rod Lincoln. Cheech and Chong. Pee-Wee Herman. Big Chuck and Little John. Disco Duck. Space Invaders. Pop Muzik. Uncle Vic. Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers. They had cable first, and we watched every movie my parents would be horrified to know I was seeing. I made the most hideous mixed drink ever from their mom's liquor cabinet - like maybe, Vermouth & TAB.

We climbed through the sewers. We investigated all the new houses that were being built near our elementary school. We listened to that bit in Love Rollercoaster a hundred times and debated whether that was really the sound of a girl getting raped. We walked the pipe. We read the graffiti. We bought "near" beer. We stole candy from everywhere. We kept mice. We talked about the girls.

They had a way with girls that I did not. Once he helped me out after a disappointing (for me) game of Spin the Bottle by politely suggesting to his girlfriend that she give me my first tongue kiss, you know, as a favor. And she did. I still think that was entirely awesome.

We met in second grade, the Bicentennial. By 1980 it was as though we had known each other all our lives. Middle School was the most terrible place on earth for me, but I feel my association with them kept it from being the living hell it was for my older brother. By eighth grade, however, the differences were just too great. Their new friends hated me, the "trouble" we were getting into was losing its appeal to me, or it was just getting too deep. I was afraid, and they all knew it. Our friendship never officially ended in any kind of "break up." We just started "seeing other people."

In early 1996 we reconnected briefly ... I cannot even remember who got in touch with whom, or why, but I went over to their house with The Scroll, a fat roll of paper towel we snuck out of the bowling alley and started using as a journal, sharing it at each of our houses. But I was the one who wanted to be a writer, so it ended up with me. The twins told me they didn't really have any artifacts from their childhood, and they wanted to look at it again. This was when we were in our late-20s. I told them I would be happy if they kept it, and they were pleased at that.

His brother Burt told me later how surprised he was at the ending, when I was writing about all of the disappointment and confusion I was feeling, with our friendship ending. I no doubt sounded like a self-righteous little shit, but he understood that, and that it was coming from a thirteen year-old, and that it made him feel better to know that it was important to me. That they were important to me.

Last night my parents told me they saw Brent's obituary in the paper. I don't know yet what I am going to do about that. And I have been mood-swinging about it for twenty-four hours now. When I met him I was only slightly younger than my daughter is now. She seems so much older than I think of myself being, meeting him. God, we did a lot of illegal shit. Dangerous shit. And we had so much fun, before video games, before VHS and DVD, before MTV or much more than four TV stations. Suburbia was our playground, and we survived that.

I didn't play with my brothers when I was a kid. Henrik was always a school ahead of me, Denny (who turned 50 today) was practically an adult. Brent, his brother, our friends, defined my childhood. They were my childhood. We were boys. We were troublemakers. And that was awesome.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Temperature: 68º
Weight: 173.5 lbs.
Weather: nice. humid. at least it's dark.

September Genius Mix
September - Earth Wind & Fire
Let's Go Crazy - Prince & The Revolution
On & On (Live) - Erykah Badu
Got To Give It Up (Part 1) - Marvin Gaye
This Is How We Do It - Montell Jordan
Let's Hear It For The Boy - Deniece Williams