outskirts: life and times in charlottesville

A rather successful morning of running. In the first 5k there were around 450 runners and I placed 3rd in the 18-49 adult community category (a UVA senior focused race). My time was 20:28. Pretty good considering the fact that in the 3rd mile I decided to take a 30 second walking break. I didn’t get a chance to stick around and see if I had won anything, since it was time to head off to the next race.

The next one was much smaller. Around 100 people. This race was rather entertaining. Just before the start they announced that we were just about to start and to come over near the starting line. I went to my bike to pull off my sweats, and then heard those lovely word, “Go.” I look up and the pack of people have started moving along. I was a bit behind. Rather than take off at a sprint I just took off at a casual jog and started moving gradually upward through the crowd.

In the final mile I felt much more relaxed than I had in the first 5k and didn’t need to take a walking break, but my left hammy was definitely feeling a bit tight and bothersome heading up a long hill. With maybe half a mile (or maybe a bit more) to go I was just in the process of passing two people, and a road that I thought might lead to the finish line. There were no other people in front so I asked the two next to me if I should turn or go straight. They said go straight so I kept going. At this point I wasn’t sure how much further the race was, but had a distant memory of this race last year.

I passed the two and continued on at a rather comfortable pace. The annoying part is that there was no one in front of me that I could see. I really hate that during a race, since I’m such a lazy runner when I have nothing to chase. I just kept running. I then got to the small road where I was heading up a steep hill to the finish line. I was looking up the hill (and still hadn’t seen anyone in front of me) and the yellow finish line plastic ribbon was still being held up.

Being rather dense near the end of my 2nd 5k of the morning I just figured they were holding that up for everyone that was running that morning so we would all feel like Rocky. I didn’t want them to waste time holding it up for the next people so I just slowed down and walked below it. I didn’t think about it again until they started giving away awards.

“To the top male finisher…,” and something that sounded like my name. Holy crap DocMan. I guess I actually won the race. Now that I think about it, when I went to get snacks there was no one else in line, and no one had opened any of the juice yet. From what I overheard, one person may have finished before me, but he took the “shortcut road” that I was thinking about taking at that fork in the road. They pointed him back and he reran part of the course. My time was somewhere around 22 minutes, and I won a $40 coupon at the NewBalance shoe store. Good deal. Now time to shower and get some work done. Tomorrow the Dolphins vs. Patriots.

In retrospect, I really should have run through the yellow ribbon. I wonder if I’ll ever get another chance at that.

(PS One of my blog readers had a decade on me, but finished just a bit behind me - he was the one that told me which road to take, so thanks)

Off to go run two 5k’s this morning. They start one hour apart within 100 yards of one another. Both over at UVA. It is down around 28 degrees right now. Brrr…

We’ll see how it goes. I’m not feeling particularly good for running - but does anyone ever feel good this early in the morning?

It boggles my mind that one human being would listen to Pat Robertson and think he is sane. It looks like God told him that wrath will soon pour out of the sky to destroy people that voted out the school board members who promoted intelligent design.

To all that believe in anything Pat says, I’m just warning you that disaster may strike at any time. Are you ready for the disaster?

I’m so glad that Virginia is home to Pat. He is loved here in VA. I’m so glad that wrath won’t fall down on me since I live here in VA where Pat’s god hangs out. From his statement I know he will be busy reigning down terror in PA. Watch out PA, here comes God.

Absolutely unbelievable, right? Got wrath?

For those that think positively of Thomas Jefferson, The University of Virginia, and the original 13 states, think again. The capitol of Virginia is Richmond (remember that South will rise again crap). The capitol of this commonwealth (not a State) can’t even broadcast an entire show in HD. ABC is a network that creates and publicizes HD shows.

It is a crime that the local stations can’t remember to push the “ON” button for HD after showing their pointless logo. The logo will appear, and if the station tech is off on a smoke break (that is my personal guess) the station will not return to HD for anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours.

Since the local stations can not even broadcast as the parent network desires, why won’t they give satellite viewers the option to get the national feeds.

Local stations should really be eliminated from the grand scheme of media. Remove the pointless bandwidth. Remove the local newscasters. Remove the waste. There is absolutely no point for local stations in our global society.

Why can’t the capitol of one of the original 13 states be capable of broadcasting a show in high def? Why?

The sun going down at 5pm, and the temperature in the mid-70’s well in to the evening. One might think I live in a tropical paradise. The weather is finally supposed to get cooler tomorrow. We’ve been significantly over the norm for many weeks now.

With the Earth percolating, this has become a great time to study a few differential equations using the Lotka-Volterra Predator-Prey Model, and look for cases where small changes can lead to extinction of the great tit.

Living in this digital backwoods Virginia village is killing me. The TV stations won’t show any HD tonite since they have to have election results rolling along the bottom third of the screen. They chop 1/3 of the screen off for those. By chopping off the another 1/3 when removing HD, they have eliminated 66% of my screen. I feel they should repay us with that portion of their salary for every day they do things like this.

Who really cares who was elected sheriff in district 83 of the wasteland? And why can’t the election results play during commercials. Shouldn’t the maker of some pointless drug want people seeing election results as they tell you how you can sleep with a pill?

I despise Virginia and their primitive television infrastructure. Perhaps I will run for office in two years (I had better start planning three years ago), with nothing but quality broadcast facilities as my ticket. Could I win? People that care about TV vs. people that care about the local village. I have a chance! DocMultimedia 2006. Gear up for the election. HDTV for all.

I made it out and voted today. Early results show a dead heat in the race for our Governor. No matter who wins, Virginia will lose. I just wish that people would vote to allow technology in this state…such as HDTV (does anything else really matter?).

While voting I noticed the vote for City Treasurer. The person was running unopposed. This Jennifer Brown person continues to send me bills saying I owe the city for ludicrous things (such as owning a car that goes nowhere, and earning royalties on a CD I did six years ago). I’m sick of the taxes around here, so I wrote in my own name as a write-in for the position. I wonder how many other votes I got. I’m excited that I now received a vote in an election for a political office.

OK…enough fun for one day. Time to sleep. Too much work today (and prime time TV hasn’t even started yet!).

OK…the 1 hour episode that was on tonite was one of the funniest sitcoms on network television in years. The humor is so out there. It is no wonder so few people watch the show, but it wins all the awards every year. They are definitely having their best season.

I’ll pretend I’m in a sitcom as I head out to vote tomorrow morning. Something tells me there won’t be much laughing going on at the voting booth.

Yes, I know I still haven’t gotten very many pictures up here from my trip to the northwest. If I get some free time one of these days it is still on my infinite list of things to do.

Just in case you really need to see some photos, I still have my old ones kicking around, even though I haven’t yet linked to them since I started this new blog. So…if interested…here you go.

• Paris 2001
• Ireland 2002
• Colorado 2002
• Colorado 2003

The Dolphins once again looked like chopped liver in a meat factory. It wasn’t pretty. The score was close, but every time the Fins tried to throw it looked like me trying to throw. Of course, I am not an NFL QB. Next week we play New England who loves to punish us, and I don’t think St. Nick will make a change before that game.

However, if Gus doesn’t start bringing some “life” in to the offense, I have a feeling Sage “Rosemary” Rosenfels will be starting in Thyme for the Cleveland game.

If New England loses tomorrow night, the Fins are still only one game out of first place in the AFC East. That is sad. Of course, I really want NE to win, since Indy must go down…the 72 Fins Perfect Season must live on.

Other than the Fins getting crushed, the day has been pretty decent…nothing “bad” has happened!