outskirts: life and times in charlottesville

A friend dropped me a line today and reminded me of the term f*ck trophy. I hadn’t heard that one in ages and bust out laughing. Perhaps I was once overheard saying, “You damn breeders can leave your little ill-behaved, loud, obnoxious f*ck trophies at home!”

I’d just gotten back from the hoity-toity mall here in town (you know…the one where there are tons of people but nothing much to buy). The Barnes and Noble had about a 45 minute wait just to check out. I guess they never heard of Amazon.

Last night I drank beer. Rare event for me. Many locals drink beer and many know about it. One thing that everyone I know says is how bad the Starr Hill beer is, although they do spend a lot promoting the product. Spending the bucks seems to have worked, since they got bought by that company responsible for Bud Light. Maybe the next Elian/Bud Light incident will take place here in C-Ville and involve a new Starr Hill commercial. Nothing like the good old days. Pre-YouTube. Wow.

Dolphins 22 Ravens 16

For the first time in more than a year the Fins managed to win in overtime. Do you believe in miracles? Can it possibly get better than this? Perhaps this is seeing the last light before death pops up.

DOWNTOWN MALL AREA (CNN - Charlottesville News Network) — Local authorities manning the checkpoint near the mass transit center stopped a wedding convoy to find that the purported bride was a wanted Charlottesville blogging suspect, an official said earlier today.

The local authorities set up the checkpoint last week in the downtown area about 50 feet south of something owned by the Crapshaw. The authorities became suspicious of the convoy because its members — other than the “bride” — were all male and did not look like typical computer geeks as is common in the area (it was reported that none were using iPhones).

Everyone was ordered out of the car, the official said. The “bride” did not want to raise his
veil at first, but eventually complied.

Upon inspection of the convoy, authorities found a stubbly-faced man, Outskirts Guy, decked out in a white bride’s dress and veil.

Outskirts Guy was wanted for blog-related humor that some don’t find funny, the authorities said, as well as making a statement that the Miami Dolphins would beat the Steelers on MNF.

Burnout, says Farber, is “the gap between expectation and reward,” which may have the most relevance to New Yorkers. This has always been a city of inflated expectations.

Am I burned out because Charlottesville is a village of deflated anticipation?

My first marathon is just around the corner. Saturday morning I’ll see if my body feels lively enough to run 26.2 miles. I’ve been training since July and my iPod tells me I’ve done about 460 miles since then. The longest official race I’ve ever done is a half marathon. My longest training run was just under 22 miles. This week I’ve been drinking lots and lots of water.

My goal is to finish in less than four hours. Guess I’ll know if I succeeded by noon on Saturday. For those that know me you can try to search for me on the Live Results page (not sure if my times will show up in the quick search during the race, or if you have to sign up for the live tracking).

If I live through the journey I’m sure I’ll let you know about my time by Sunday when I’ll get to watch the Dolphins attempt to win their first game of the year. First marathon. First win? Could both happen this weekend?

I continue to be amazed that I remain a fan of the Dolphins. They are without a doubt one of the bottom few teams in the NFL. No one has ever gone 0-16, but when looking at the schedule you can easily see it happening. On the positive side, they managed to get more than 50 yards from the running game and have scored more in each game of the season thus far (13, 20, and 28). On the negative side, the D can’t stop anyone on third down. It really doesn’t matter if it is 3rd and 1 or 3rd and 42. The opposition will always be successful (or at least 80% of the time). There is no way to win if you do that.

Next week they play the Raiders. Slim chance of a win…but no matter what I keep picking them in my pool. I pick them every single week. It is almost like I give everyone else in the pool a 16 game lead. Oh well.

I had a lot of time to think about the Fins on Saturday morning when I started the day out by running a 5k race at a relatively slow pace, and then continued on for another 15 miles. 18 miles in one morning. Definitely my longest run so far. It was hot and humid. The south continues to broil. Sunday is almost over. Another week is about to begin. The village will continue in its state of stagnation.

Looks as if Ms. Clinton will be rolling in to town this fall. Years ago I saw her when she was on “tour” with her husband back in 1992. I was at a U in the north and to get a good view I climbed up in a big oak tree and kicked back to hear the speech that Bill was giving. A secret service agent came by and told me to get down. I said I just wanted a good view and he moved on. I bet that wouldn’t go the same way today.

Since the village voted about 88% democratic in the last election I don’t think she’ll pick up any spare votes, but the fundraising might go pretty well. Lots of rich and famous here in town. Sitting in an oak tree for free was a good deal…paying big bucks (100 to 2400)…not.

Of course, that is cheap compared to $15k to see Dave (Dump Bowel Movement band) at a small event. Will the Crapshaw go to the Hillary event? He is rich and screws most everyone. Does that make him left or right? Does he even care about voting? Probably not. Money is it baby…money is it.

As the unbearably hot summer rolled on, the number of my posts dwindled down to nothing. How can anyone survive in the south? Summer is brutal. It is hot. It sucks all creativity out of humans. Our drought has been going on so long that we can no longer use water. No car washing. No water at restaurants (unless you beg). No watering dying plants in your yard. No fountains. No swimming pools. I really wonder why nothing has been done since our last drought four? years ago. The locals say plans are being made for a decade from now. Is that helpful? What about the next five years? One can only hope a hurricane drifts up here…of course if the wind blows the power goes.

Fall has trickled in. Over the weekend we had our first day under 90 in many moons. The other exciting thing is that the UVA students have returned. Many parents were with their kids this morning at the local malls buying them a wealth of “necessary” things. What mom and dad didn’t know is that their kids were out partying last night. Parties were going on all over town. Pills were flying. Alcohol was pouring. Things were getting torched. In Belmont there was a rather large party. Eventually four police cars appeared. Thirty minutes later things had quieted down and local residents got to sleep before 3am.

I feel sorry for the local police at this time of the year. UVA consists of about 18,000 students and 19,000 employees. During the summer that number is miniscule. In one day a wealth of criminalistic behavior appears. Due to lack of funding there is absolutely no way they can deal with it all. Since C-Ville consists of about 22,000 people (the city loves to include students in the population totals so they can get additional funds) the influx is crushing. All I know is I want some sleep tonite. I hope the parties have ended. Either C-Ville should give up and just tell UVA to provide all security, or UVA should realize that C-Ville is just the outlying dorm, and send some security out here. As for cameras to prevent crime in the historic downtown area…the tribal elders have decided to “think about it” for awhile before anything happens. Perhaps they will just live off interest on the 2.3 million sitting around to improve the mall rather than actually trying to improve it. What about updating the sign that says Subway? How much would that cost?

I signed up for the Richmond Marathon which is in November. The DC marathon sold out before I could enter. Will I get to run by some “The South Will Rise Again” statues while running the marathon there? I’m still wondering if I can survive a full marathon. Not hopeful at this point.

Before my b-day this year I bought an iPod nano with the Nike+Sensor (but not Nike shoes, just a little holder to put it on my New Balance). This toy is so much fun. I love being able to track the distance/time of every run I do. I’m using the online Nike site so I can see every run, weekly totals, monthly totals, etc. I also took a peek at the XML files that get stored on my iPod. Far more info available in those files, but haven’t really had the energy to look any closer. I did 11 miles this weekend. Next weekend I’m going for a 12.5 mile run. Slowly building up my distance.

Preseason football has cranked up. The Fins are 2-0 and both games had a duplicate finish. The Fins future QB drove for the winning touchdown at the end and was successful on a two point conversion to give them a one point victory. As always…I’m a bit delusional and think the Fins can make it to the Super Bowl.

I have a feeling the UVA fans are also delusional and think they will have a good team. They aren’t in the top 25, but did get a few votes (how many were by people named Groh?). I have a feeling Groh is enjoying his $1mil/year more than coaching at this point of his career. The best thing UVA has going for them is that their schedule is trivial. If they can’t win seven games AND a bowl game…

Blogging is rolling along again. It may take me awhile to get going once again…but I’m still around. I put up a new poll…asking about your favorite local news source (online of course…is there another way?). I know what my answer is already. Should anything else be included? Let me know and I’ll put it up there as a choice.

Everyone has to keep eating…even when blogging…right? So I have at least one restaurant rumor. Who goes to Kiki’s? I heard through the grapevine that they might be getting just a bit short on the cash side of things.

I still haven’t gotten around to digging through my Aritni 2007 photos. The worst part about this village is that if you don’t work seven days a week, fourteen hours a day you can’t afford to eat…so free time is severely limited. One of these days. Perhaps I should listen to more music…very relaxing….right? At least for these unlucky seven.

Every day is the same. Hot. Sunny. Same. All the plants are dropping dead from lack of water (15 inches have fallen…31 is normal). Cigarette smoke hangs in the stagnant air.

Will it rain again this year (nothing in the 10 day forecast)? We need a hurricane. Perhaps two. Of course if the wind blows the power will go. Nothing changes. What is the point? Oh…wait…things do change. For instance, our slogan. That changed last year. A great place to live for all of our citizens.

Well…it’s not.

Perhaps it is time for another slogan.

Today was a pretty good day for Apple. More information about the number of iPhones that got sold has trickled out and it is a large number. The stock went up 5% today. Good for me. If only I’d been really smart and bought TONS of it a few years ago. Hindsight…20/20…same old story.

Anyway, I finally got around to ordering a new (refurbed) iPod Nano and the Nike+Sensor thing so I can track my running mileage with it while listening to something along the lines of I Will Survive when plodding along.

I signed up for the Richmond City Marathon. I’ve never run a marathon before. I entered one once but yanked my knee two weeks before it. That was a bit more than two years ago. The marathon is the second week of November. I really hope it isn’t over 80 that day. I’ve started doing some swimming, doing longer runs, and doing some weights (especially for my legs). My goal…finish it in less than four hours. We’ll see how it goes.

Tomorrow morning I’m running a 5k. I don’t think there is another race here in town until September. Very empty summers around here.

Meanwhile…time to kick back on the couch and watch some of the Twilight Zone marathon running on SciFi Channel. That should help my training…right…

Update: Race was rather warm and muggy for 7:30am. 22 minutes. Very consistent three miles of fun.