Mrs. Surratt's house is now a Chinese restaurant

First off, if you don't already know about Shorpy, it's a great site and you should poke around some. I came across this 109 year old photo of Mrs. Surratt's boarding house, which is where the Lincoln conspirators met.

I was curious what was there now. It actually occurred to me that the boarding house might not rise to the level of a national historical site. And boy was I right. Wok and Roll, baby!

It's the optimism

DailyKos points to this article on SpaceReview about the 'real' impact of the Apollo 11 program. Kos highlights:

But in my view, the greatest achievement of Apollo is something more important, something that took decades to be recognized, and which is only now coming into focus. As I see it, the greatest achievement of Apollo is the inspiration that Apollo’s bold, quickly-paced, and futuristic accomplishment generated in so many baby boomers, whose hearts were captured by the tsunami of new technologies Apollo generated and the sheer exuberance for invention that space exploration inspired.

That statement of optimism reminded me of my dad's dad. The last time I saw grandpa was in October of 1980. And we had this conversation that really stuck with me. He was born in 1901. Two years before the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk. And we were talking 11 years after two men had first walked on the moon. While he had seen two world wars, he'd also seen the creation of automobiles, plane travel, space travel and the end of polio in the US - amazing progress! That helped make the man an incurable optimist.

So, let's raise a glass to NASA and the thousands of people who worked on the Apollo program* and those that led to it, shielded politically by the ghost of martyred president.  Let's marvel at the effort needed to go from Mercury to the moon in just over 8 years. And let us be grateful for three men who went to the moon with only a modest expectation that they'd get home.  Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, a grateful nation salutes you.

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*“When reporters asked (Alan) Shepard what he thought about as he sat atop the Redstone rocket, waiting for liftoff, he had replied, 'The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder.'

Marathon Man - Just one regret

My last post was titled "How Many K?". I realized too late I should have called that one "Que K?" It doesn't mean the same thing, but how good is your Spanish anyway?

Two weeks since my last post. Thanks for waiting so patiently. No one bothered me wondering when the next one would show up. 

Last weekend I was back in Ohio for a high school reunion. From a running perspective, the high point was Saturday morning when I went out for a run with my friend Mark, who is an experienced runner, or at least a much better runner. (He did a 10K in the same time I ran my 5K).  Rain was threatening and about two miles in the rain was joined by thunder and lightening. We don't get much of that in Sacramento, and when I lived in Ohio, you'd lay low when lightening was nearby. Mark has more recent experience with that sort of weather and I asked him if he thought we were safe. He just laughed. As the rain picked up, Mark kicked it up and went back to get his car (at his pace, not mine) and he came back and rescued me. That is turning into a recurring theme this month.

July continues to kick my butt. My body continues to adjust, after a fashion, to the longer distances and the hot Sacramento summer. The mid-long runs (4-5 miles) are typically ok, but the 6-9 miles are tough. In fact today was supposed to be nine miles and ended up being 7 (and that was with a half hour break in the middle - that story is not going into print. Only in person. But it involved a car-based rescue.) I've yet to hit 8 or 9 miles. The next try will be Saturday. 9-10 miles...

On the business end, the point of this marathon is to raise money to fight cancer. Each participant is responsible for raising an amount of money. In my case, the target was $1,500. That goal was met a few weeks ago. That's very cool. And the money keeps coming in, which is also very cool, since cancer hasn't been cured. Thank you so very much for your support.

If you're just joining us, this is all about me running the CowTown Marathon this October as a fund raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Details can be found here.  You can make donations here.

Once more, on Palin.

In late August 2008 I identified the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate as the beginning of the end of his campaign.  Two months later I revisited the fallout from her selection.

And now, Sarah is stepping aside from electoral politics.   I won't add to the conjecture on why she is stepping down, as I can't afford a lawyer

There has been some conjecture on Twitter on Gov. Palin's new Twitter id once she is no longer governor. Her current 'handle' is 'AKGovSarahPalin'. My current favorite is a term that embodies her recent action while still honoring her native Alaska. It comes from @pourmecoffee, one of the droller political twits out there: "Iquitarod"

I wish I'd come up with that.

Marathon Man - How many K?

I mentioned last week that I was starting distance goals as opposed to the timed running goals I had before. So, now instead of going out for 40 minutes, I'm supposed to go out for four miles (or some such.) Wednesday was 6 miles, Tuesday and Thursday were 3-4 miles. Today's goal was 6 again.

So far it's kicking my butt. But (ahem) the good news is that I have the past two month's experience under my belt, so I know this too will pass. 

I ran a 10k today at an event which was part of the local July 4th celebrations. They had a much larger crowd was at  the 5K in Roseville, so I'm glad I went. I now have a better idea of how to avoid crowds. While I was last in my age group, I wasn't last over all. My streak continues.  Of course, after the run, I came home and slept for three hours. Go Team!

Finally, the point of all this running and blogging is to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). I mentioned my marathon goal to a couple that I saw at a party last night. I've known these folks for years. These days I only see them at a mutual friends annual July 4th party. This morning they put me over the top by making a donation to the LLS. Thanks Vern And Kathy (with a K!) for putting me over the top and thanks to all of you have supported the Society over the past two months.

If you're just joining us, this is all about me running the CowTown Marathon this October as a fund raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Details can be found here.  You can make donations here.

Marathon Man - Another day in the park.

Just wrapped up another week, with my longest run yet - 88 minutes.  I did three laps around William Land Park.   It's really amazing to me that I've come this far. Can I quit now?

A few weeks ago I ran a 5K in Granite Bay and I just signed up for a 10K on July 4th here in Elk Grove. Both runs were selected because they match the time/distance requirements of the day I ran. That is two weeks ago, I was supposed to run 40 minutes, which is about how long the 5K took. Next Saturday, I'm supposed to run 6 miles, which is just shy of 10k. That's as good a metric as any to show how much the training is picking up.

Starting Monday I run distance instead of time. Maybe that will be the incentive to pick up the tempo. I've been moving really slow, with my effort on maintaining consistency.

If you're just joining us, this is all about me running the CowTown Marathon this October as a fund raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Details can be found here.  You can make donations here.