You glorify the past when the future dries up.

We are in Athens, MIL is having hip replacement surgery, and we came down last night to assist, to make meals, to care.

What will we do? This is not the country I promised my children. There is nothing to say, white American is stupid and angry. Decades of misinformation and nonsense have led to this moment. The American experiment is holding as it was designed, to protect wealthy white men. And I have lost faith. Change will come, but not in my lifetime. I tried. So many of us tried.

Eight years ago we were shocked, surprised. What does this mean? And we protected each other, knit hats, wore safety pins, met and told stories, signaled virtue, protested in the streets -- even created art. And we hoped that things would change, because we did not know where it was headed.

And it has headed to this? Seriously? You can't blame our candidate. She ran a flawless campaign. But white America is terrified of people of color, of women, of transgender people, and that they may lose their dominance over them. Is this because white people assume if you are in the majority you necessarily must harm the minority? That there will a reckoning? Or is that they never learned to share? Or do they just hate and fear.

People will suffer, they have before and they will again. And people will die. And those of us who do not, who are in positions of education and communication will be instructed in what we can and cannot say.

There will be a reckoning, that is for sure. And it will have been avoidable.

This is the essay I told myself I would not be writing today. Because it isn't very good, or insightful, or helpful. But this is my running blog, where I record my general well-being as well as log my runs, my each and every run, as I maintain my health through my middle years. And for the sake of my mental well-being, I will abstain from social media for the foreseeable future. I can not stand to listen to people I care about wail in the darkness.

Distance: 6.75 miles

Duration: 1:0:58
Pace: 9:37

College Run (1986-1990)

The Only Way Is Up - Yazz

Go Lil Camaro Go - Ramones

Fuck Tha Police - N.W.A.

Talkin' Bout a Revolution - Tracy Chpaman

Summer's Cauldron - XTC

Slow Ride - Beastie Boys

Praying For Time - George Michael

Honey Bee - The Bears

Losing My Mind (Disco Mix) - Pet Shop Boys

Vibrating - Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians 

The Passenger - Siouxsie  the Banshees

Can't Hardly Wait - The Replacements

Musique Non Stop - Kraftwerk

I Still Believe - Tim Cappello

Desire - U2

Hippychick - Soho

Crucial Bar-B-Q - Murphy's Law

Route: Hocking River Bike Path
Temperature: 72°
Climate: overcast & authoritarian
Mood: just nauseous
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Pain Reliever: TBD

What's That Lyric?

God Part 2 - U2

(It's not actually on the playlist. I hate this song.)

I'm outside in the dark wondering how I got so old.

What will we do?

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 29:27
Pace: 9:29

Songs Of a Lost World - The Cure (2024)

Alone

A Fragile Thing

Warsong *

Drone:Nodrone

All I Ever Am

Endsong *

How does Robert Smith record an album that sounds exactly like a Cure album like it was 1989 all over again and yet it sounds absolutely contemporary?

I guess they are just timeless.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 62°
Climate: clear & cool
Mood: "nauseously optimistic"
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Pain Reliever: TBD

The president of paragraph will end it here.

The weather turns back to fall. I feel good, my knees are without pain, my sciatica has faded. Noom is tedious. But it helps, just keeping track.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:51
Pace: 9:18

160-169 BPM Playlist

Freedom of Speak (We Got Three Minutes) - De La Soul

Rocket Ride - Felix Da Housecat

Classical Gas - Mason Williams

Get Outta My Room - The Donnas

Hurt - Nine Inch Nails

I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man) - Kenny Loggins

Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles

Ugh! - BTS

La feeme d'argent - Air

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 54°
Climate: sunny & cool
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Pain Reliever: TBD

I've been on tenterhooks.

It's sixty degrees in the morning in late October. 

I remember thirty years ago, it was the summer that never ended. Romeo and Juliet opened in September, and it was baking and I was in love and everyone hated me except for one person and we had the biggest party this house has ever known and we slept outdoors and the summer kept going, as I went back and forth to New York and sat on the side porch on shitty lawn furniture and smoked and the weather continued to be good, even when it turned cold. 

Now it's just warm when it really should not be. We are all going to die.

Distance: 3.25 miles

Duration: 29:41
Pace: 9:07

That fucking dog on Monticello.

flannel modern rock wednesday early morning  
Take Me To the River - Talking Heads

Been Caught Stealing - Jane's Addiction
Brimful of Asha - Cornershop

Never Say Never - Romeo Void
New Pollution - Beck
Shake Your Rump - Beastie Boys

Girl U Want - Devo
Pump It Up - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Route: Boulevard Loop
Temperature: 61°
Climate: warm
Mood: yes
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Pain Reliever: TBD

Someday in the city we won't have the run.

Soulmates.

A day in Cincinnati. The young man has a recital tonight at the jazz club Caffè Vivace, and we arrived the night before so we could relax today, not drive. Just write and read ... and run!

Distance: 2.1 miles

Duration: 19:16
Pace: 9:11

Warriors - Lin-Manuel Miranda & Eisa Davis (2024)
Somewhere In the City *

Reunion Square

Same Train Home *

Finale

We complete the album. I need to watch the movie, I am surprised that I never have. I know the references, the image of David Patrick Kelly clinking the beer bottles together taunting, "Warriors ... come out and play-ay ..." and also the sample which is the title of the Pop Will Eat Itself song Can U Dig It?

But it's the Odyssey, I get it. They're just trying to get home. And don't we all just want to get home?

Route: Clifton Neighborhood Loop
Temperature: 53°
Climate: sunny & gorgeous
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Pain Reliever: TBD

I'm sick of running.

Site-specific play!

We Noom. I am keeping track of my diet -- without dieting. Right? Having to listen to the lessons are ... tedious. I don't think I need to learn any of this. But it's part of the game. Maybe something will surprise me.

It's tracking my intake, and also my exercise including daily steps. I do walk a lot. 

I haven't lost any weight yet, but -- closing the app for the day means committing to not eating anything extra after dinner. And that will, I believe, make an impact. I'm also snacking more intentionally.

Because it's not about the weight. It's about the cholesterol. It's about my heart.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:18
Pace: 8:48

Sciatica kicks in occasionally, perhaps due to the weather. But also, those nights the cat keeps me up all night, and I lie awake, I toss more because I am aware of the aches of lying on any one side.

And so on Friday my left hip ached during the day, and also my left shin. I believe they are connected.

Warriors - Lin-Manuel Miranda & Eisa Davis (2024)

Call Me Mercy

Still Beathin' *

Quiet Girls

Outside Gray' Papaya

Sick of Runnin'

The Park at Night

Luther Interlude

Cardigans

We Got You

A Light or Somethin'

We Got You (Reprise)

Miranda has always worn his inspirations proudly on his sleeve, and recognizing those in a show like Hamilton was part of the appeal. But here they aren't so much drops as lifts. Not vibes, but sound-alikes. He's even cannibalized his own work -- not Hamilton, but 21 Chump Street.  

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 54°
Climate: breezy & sunny
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Pain Reliever: TBD

Saturday headache. Bed past midnight, woke freezing so I added a blanket, woke again baking and with head pain. Took three Ibuprofen, a Sudafed and went back to sleep, the morning mostly salvaged. Rewarded myself with a run!

What a beautiful day, just perfect in short sleeves. Head is clear, and boy was that swift. I can still do it.

Am I going to apply for the 2026 New York City Marathon? Can I make five?

We run the night.

The weather is lovely. Let us not nap. Let us run!

Distance: 3.1 miles 

Duration: 28:38
Pace: 9:14

Warriors - Lin-Manuel Miranda & Eisa Davis (2024)

Survive the Night

Roll Call

Warriors' Cypher

Make Way For Cyrus

If You Can Count
Derailed

Woodlawn Cemetery

Leave the Bronx Alive

A Track Fire and a Phone Call

Going Down

Orphan Town

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 66°
Climate: overcast & nice
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Pain Reliever: TBD

How do you follow up a Broadway sensation like Hamilton? If you are Lin-Manuel Miranda, you don't. You join Disney and write songs for films like Moana (yay) and Mary Poppins Returns (boo) and Encanto (never saw it).

Now he has teamed up with another songwriter-performer, Eisa Davis, and co-produced a concept album, adapted from Walter Hill's 1979 film The Warriors, which was based on a book by Saul Yurick (1965). The album is packed with some downright historic performers (Lauryn Hill? Oh, shit, son!) and so far it is fun to run to.

But is that Midwest Emo they've thrown in there? For a gang called the Orphans? Lol.