deep thought

The Cubs now have Wellington Castillo, Darwin Barney, Blake DeWitt, and Thomas Diamond on their roster.

Jane Austen must have done their drafting the last few years.

What I write about when writing about someone who writes about running

I ran about three miles tonight, and my legs are feeling it. Further proof that it’s a lot harder to begin a running program at 49 than it was at 22. The heat has been no help, of course.

Despite the aches (Advil ahoy!), I can tell I’m making progress, albeit much more slowly than I’d like. The key is to be patient and keep in mind that it’ll take that much more time to get to a level near where I was ten years ago. I have lost a few pounds since the first of the year, and my resting pulse is lower, so there have actually been tangible benefits. Not having sore knees after running is an even greater benefit. Amazing how shoes make so much difference.

This brings me to a book review, of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami. I’ve read only one other book of Murakami’s, which I liked, so I know very little of his fiction writing, which is highly acclaimed.

There are moments of insight – his thoughts on why he still runs after unsatisfying results, and how it’s part of his entire persona. At times, though, and perhaps this is a result of being lost in translation, but the prose is pedestrian. Particularly at the end of his description of a run from Athens to Marathon, the writing is not what I’d expect from a novelist of his stature.

Despite the occasional clunker, though, it’s an interesting read, as Murakami subjects himself to fairly rigorous inspection as to just why he runs.

Dog Walking - the play-by-play

A slightly embellished play-by-play of this afternoon’s walk:

1540 – Maggie gets antsy. Ernie, hearing this, dashes from the bedroom to the front door, where Maggie joins him. A couple minutes pass while I find my shoes, a poop bag, and my sunglasses.

1543 – M & E dash out the front door and down the steps. The next few minutes are spent sniffing the base of the small tree in the front yard. Meanwhile, I’m trying to remind them that the purpose is to walk, not sniff in the yard.

1546 – We finally start heading up the street. Two minutes later, Maggie starts circling around in a neighbor’s yard before settling on a spot to poop. The resulting poop is about 20% of her body weight. How an eleven pound dog can make such a gigantic pile…

1549 – Ernie, in his usual fashion, simply stops and poops. No fussiness from him.

1555 – Around the corner, where Jake the mutt greets them. Much tail-wagging ensues. Jake is their pal.

1600 – Around the next corner, up a small hill, and we stop to browse the yard of a local hardcore Republican. This was one of several houses to have “Keyes for Senate” signs back in 2004. Despite my best efforts, I could not train Maggie and Ernie to poop in this yard on command, then or now.

1605 – Further up the block, and two Wheaton police officers are walking into a yard. We put on our best faces, but it isn’t necessary, as it turns out that someone’s burglar alarm had gone off. No signs of burglary, apparently. The gendarmes return to their squad cars, a youngster skateboards by, and it’s a fairly nondescript turn around the last corners.

1611 – Maggie leads Ernie by about twenty feet over the last leg, but Ernie catches up as we reach home. Their reward is a baby carrot apiece. Well done, my faithful friends.

Saturday Night Quarterback

Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but questions must be raised about Bob Bradley’s lineup choices today. He is obviously privy to more info than I, but first off, Onyewu must have been seriously unable to go. Not only is he the USA’s best defender, but is also one of their few threats in the air. The succession of crosses and corners that went unfulfilled underscores his importance. Both of Ghana’s goals were the result of poor center-back play, where Onyewu might have been able to do better were he healthy.

Of greater impact today was the decision to start Clark and Findley. Clark’s inclusion is understandable, even though he had not played since the opening match. Using him as the holding midfielder allows Michael Bradley more liberty to go forward. Unfortunately, Clark’s mistake led directly to Ghana’s first goal, and the yellow card he picked up shortly thereafter indicated that he was clearly rattled. Pulling him off after only 30 minutes may have been necessary, and Bradley’s display of fatherly affection was both proper and wise, but it only underscores the issue raised of his inclusion.

As for Findley, he was largely invisible, with the exception of one chance that was smartly saved by Ghana’s keeper Kingson. The chance could have been better taken, though. Once again, he made way at halftime for Feilhaber.

With Feilhaber’s entrance, Dempsey moved up alongside Altidore, and the USA’s offense almost immediately sprang into life. This begs an obvious question – why not start Edu and Feilhaber, with Dempsey up front in what is almost a 4-3-1-2 or 4-4-3, with Donovan in the hole or as a true winger?

The absence of Charlie Davies, although barely commented upon as far as I can tell, looms over this. Davies and Altidore form a solid partnership, with Davies in the role of playing off Altidore. This leaves Dempsey to play off them as well, with Donovan as the playmaker. Almost a 4-2-2-2 or 4-3-1-2 with Dempsey in the hole.

As I stated at the beginning, this is all hindsight, but different lineup choices might have produced a win. Despite which, Bradley did show an ability to make intelligent changes throughout the tournament.

From the inky shadows steps a crazy man

The other day, I noted that Andy Martin continued his perfect record of electoral train-wrecks. Much to the delight of connoisseurs of political craziness, another of Illinois' favorite nuts is still active.

I speak of Tony Lopez-Cisneros, who never fails to remind that he ran for Congress in 2002 against Luis Gutierrez (and lost in a landslide). (Tony's grasp of the intertubes is not strong, as he continues to link to his campaign site, one that is long dead.)

Anyway, Tony shows up at Dave Weigel's Washington Independent blog, defending Scott Lee Cohen, the recently departed LtGov nominee.

It turns out that he's been active as well at various birther sites as well over the last couple of years. What a surprise.

Snuffles McSnufflington

The shroud of depression has lifted, as I hoped, only to be replaced by a sudden cold. A typical cold for me starts with a sore throat, then moves on to a couple days' worth of nose-blowing. This one followed the usual path, but in about one-third the time. Very strange.

Our new robot overlords

This is hugely disappointing - with a name like Litter Robot, I was expecting it to follow the cat around while shooting lasers from its eyes.

Still, I suppose it's better than trying to teach him to use a litter scoop.

a big black cloud hanging over me

Sometimes, it just happens. No warning, no triggering event. Seemingly out of nowhere, a shroud descends, and the world becomes gray. In this instance, it happened while I was on the train home the other night.

By now, I know that the shroud will eventually lift; it may be a matter of hours, or it may be days instead. Occasionally, light pokes through, like when “Search and Destroy” came up on my iPod, or when I saw the Puppet Bike yesterday for the first time. Despite these moments of brightness, the shroud is still with me this morning.

blowing the dust off

We had an election here in IL yesterday. The one promising candidate, David Hoffman, did not win. What a surprise.

Meanwhile, crazed birther Andy Martin declared victory with less than 5% of the vote in the GOP Senate primary. I love Andy Martin.