My congregation

  I traveled home this weekend for the inspection of my building and to do some more work on the apartment at my childhood home.  The weekend started out as a bit of a fiasco because at the last minute I decided to try to take Sergei (the young man whom I mentor) and made plans to do that and then he changed his mind on going.  I also was asked by a friend to take his mother to Erie and that required some frustrating coordination.  Everything worked out...but it worked out due to me doing a lot of needless additional stuff.  C'est la vie.

I arrived home with a pretty full list of things to get accomplished.  Friday morning I woke up and got everything started.  The apartment on my aunts house was first.  It has poured concrete walls with no insulation.  I stared at them wondering how, in all the years able bodied men had owned and lived in the house, insulation had never occurred to them as a good idea.  Then I remembered, that like most things in America....the house had been constructed, and used, in the age of abundance.  That in an era of growth energy cost was never a factor.  And how now, only in an era of persistent decline have those things come to matter.  It's a good thing that I, while resources are still available, have decided to do something about the situation.  That's something of a comforting feeling when faced with the sad realization that the world is headed into an era of permanent decline.  The acceptance of that decline and the knowledge that in some small way...I'm doing what is available to me to prepare for it, and to help others prepare, is very fulfilling. 

After setting up my work area and laying out the materials I left the apartment and headed to my building.  There I met the inspector, the owner, and the realtor.  The inspector and I quickly got to work investigating the details of the building.  I took particular interest in the electrical system, plumbing, and the masonry I was worried about on the rear of the building.  The inspection took 6 solid hours of work.  Then I spent 30 minutes each with 5 of the 7 tenants getting to know them, hearing their complaints and desires, and signing them up for leases that will take effect when I take ownership. 

With that very exciting and rewarding day of work accomplished I then had a dinner meeting with what I have begun to think of as my choir.  Since about 1996 I've been known to my friends as treehugger Terry.  The first 10 years, while I was learning solar photovoltaics, solar thermal, wind generation, etc.. they all thought I was a bit of a weirdo.  Enjoyable, but weird.  In the last 7 years, my message started to get a bit annoying to some, and a bit enlightening to others.  Slowly, as my group of friends began witnessing the same signs I'd been studying for a decade in books, show themselves in real life in the form of climate change, prices quadrupling, etc...(all the things I, and many, many others, had predicted) we all started to attempt to deal with what we were facing.  In the last few years as my warning and writings have become even more pointed and direct, and the warning signs more clear and devastating, the choir has grown into a group of 12. 

About a year ago my choir, the 12 of us, formed a bit of a pact.  Since then we've each worked, inside our own area of expertise and with the help of others, to prepare for the future we see we're facing.  A big part of that has been to prepare for a future with less, as well as to position ourselves to prosper when others, having missed the signs, are faced with a reality they get, instead of the future they ordered.  Some of the members of the pact are still not fully converts to our crazy beliefs, but the draw of the prosperity our group seems to be attracting has made them productive members. 

The purchase of this building is one of those steps.  You see, our little group believes that our country is slowly headed for Imperial decline as the result of diminishing availability of the key ingredient of our success...cheap energy.  We also believe that expensive energy, coupled with climate change, is going to dramatically change how Americans live.  You see, most of the infrastructure of industrial society has been built during the period of abnormally good weather we call the twentieth century.   A fair amount of it, as New York subway riders have had reason to learn, is poorly designed to handle extreme weather, and if those extremes become normal, the economics of maintaining such complex systems as the New York subways in the teeth of repeated flooding start to look very dubious indeed.

As we've seen with the the failures to rebuild significant areas after hurricane Katrina, and more recently with Irene, and Sandy.... the population is slowly moving, and will move.   Now they might not do so all at once, or as part of their own design.  I can't even tell you where they'll come from because predicting where and when disasters will strike isn't a very good line of work to be in.  But I'm quite sure they'll be moving.  A rise in sea level and a nice hurricane now and then will push some west, it's a pretty sure thing a drought and heat coupled with expensive electricity for their AC units will push many north.  A reenactment of the famous dust bowl with aquifers drying up and poor mono crop farming practices will surely send some East.  Slowly but surely, over the next century Americans are going to return to a pattern of land development started in the 1800's. 

When we glide back down the bell curve of decline then, it's a safe bet that using history as a guide will tell you the areas they'll return to.  Reading a urban design book will tell you what makes towns go from trade routes, to agricultural centers...to cultural centers....to industrial centers.  What towns need to grow and how they develop isn't something they teach in schools much anymore...but you can find out.  Then do a little historical research and see how your town came about.  Was it an agricultural center located near a rail line, canal, or navigable body of water?  If you can find one conveniently located near all three I bet you'll find an old rotted rust belt city that formerly bustled with wealth and affluence.  Purchasing in those areas, where things are currently cheap, then....should be a good recipe.  That is if you're lucky enough to choose correctly and not get whacked in the process with the same sort of disasters we're sure to see coming regularly down the pike (and can no longer afford to rebuild after).

And so my little group met.  Reassuring ourselves that our ideas our sound.  That our religion is true and that others will die a fiery death because they have yet to repent and live their lives embracing our simpler live with less creed.  Ignoring evidence that seems to disagree with our hypothesis.  All the normal things humans do.  Then I returned home to the apartment faced with the task of insulating, weather stripping, etc.  Satisfied that my religion, my choice of beliefs about the path of our future, have prepared me for what lay ahead.  I had spent the evening preaching to the choir....and it was good.



So I have, or soon will have, purchased in an area where air conditioning is not a necessity.  Where water is abundant, sea level is not predicted to reach, transportation and trade are less dependent on cheap energy, etc.  I've also created, invested in, or assisted in the development of businesses that have, in the past...proven to be resistant to economic contraction, and spent time obtaining skills and building a like minded community.  All this in the hope that, while there are still resources flying around practically free for everyone (who's passport happens to have an eagle on the cover), I can grab them and use them to prepare for the future we're sure to get....not the future we want to get, or hope to get....or in the case of most Americans...require for survival.

As a side note....I regret to inform you that yet again....I've done something horribly stupid and injured myself.  You see....as much as I like to scream self righteous, self congratulatory babble on my blog...I'm really a dumbass.

Charles Darwin gives me a frown..

This weekends feeble minded dipshit move was to decide to check the fire escape on the building next to the bar my friend owns to verify it worked properly.  The act was, possibly, influenced by an apparent inability of my body to take in and metabolize large quantities of ethanol (drank in the form of beer).  You see, the 3rd story has a fire escape with a wonderful view.  From there you can go down to the 2nd story....but after that you need to "ride" down the ladder as it will slide down with your weight (but stays raised so the local hooligans do not have access to your building).  It's a safe bet that "riding" down the ladder is best done from the fire escape.  As it turned out....running through the bar, launching yourself out the window, and grabbing the ladder to ride it down (in true Jackie Chan fashion) has a few less than desirable side effects....even if there seems to be a large pile of snow at the bottom to cushion your fall.  The side effects, which I didn't really feel when I initially landed with a thud on a less than cushiony pile of snow....seems to be some sort of injured (but luckily not broken) bone in your foot and irritation of tendonitis in your ailing knees..... DOH!!! Sorry Dad....I'm an idiot.  Looks like a few weeks or more of only biking for me :-(  If you don't see me on the bike path....look for me here.

Because it was there

I did a big ride tonight and now I can't sleep.  Doh!!  Did too much I guess.   I started around 7 and went until about 10:30.  It was cold.  So cold in fact that I stopped along the way looking for some newspaper or plastic to shove in my outfit.  I found one of those dog poo bag dispensers, took off my shoes, put the bags over my socks, and put my shoes back on.  Then I slid a couple down my arms and one on my chest.  Then I was better.

I did the normal route downtown until I got to the Key Bridge.  I felt really good tonight.  I wandered through Georgetown, then went slight right on Pennsylvania.  Figured I'd see how Barry and Michele were getting along.  There's all this construction in front of their house for the inauguration.  The entire streets full of  enormous stadium seating.  They only have a narrow sidewalk since the road is closed meaning I had to mix with the pedestrians.

From there I rode over around the mall and down to the fish market.  I hung out there a bit and watched a big gang playing some sort of card game for money.  They were so animated that at first I thought it was a fight.  They were just into the game.  I couldn't catch on to how the game was played and I sort of stuck out there in my spandex, so I continued on.

I went over to the Anacostia river trail.  I followed that until I got into the rough part of town and then I did a few loops through the neighborhoods people watching.  What a cold miserable night for those poor homeless people.  After some people watching I headed back over to the river.  Instead of getting on the river trail I went on down to the train station.  I wanted to see where the homeless man in Alexandria told me you can get on the trains.  Sure enough there's a curve where the trains slow way down.

From there the road followed the tracks so I took that until it dead ended at the river.  It wasn't exactly an area where you dilly-dally so instead of turning back where I came, I made the instant decision to cross the train trestle.  It was a bit tough in my cycling shoes carrying my bike.  At first it's normal with rocks between the ties, then once you're over the river it gets a bit more precarious.  As I got over to the other side the US Park Police came over and nabbed me.  Turns out they prefer only train traffic to traverse the train trestle.  Bummer.   They gave me a pretty good lecture about the inauguration and them being on high alert.  They asked me why I was out on the bridge and I told them I was headed this way and it was there.  They were sure I had bombs hidden under my spandex and I thought they might be wanting to do a cavity search so I kept quiet and said yes sir a lot.  They sat me in their car and ran my social security number and lectured me some more.  Then they sent me on my way.


From there I circled back to the stadium until I could see the capital.  Then I went along the Potomac back through Georgetown and back towards home.  By then I had like 3hrs out there and I was starting to get tired.  When I got back to the W&OD I decided to time myself home.  I pretty much went as hard as I could.  It took me 45:33.  Doing a bit of math that means I averaged 24miles per hour.  That's pretty good with the hill at the finish and all that.  I felt my power drop pretty bad the last 7 or 8 minutes.  Probably did 26mph until the hills and then it dropped down.  I guess I should look into a power meter again.

Ok, off to sleep.

Making progress

I've been diligently going to my physical therapy as well as doing my physical therapy at home.  I took around 3 weeks off completely from running and only biked twice.  Sunday I did my first pain free bicycle ride.  I still feel a bit of pain here and there when I climb stairs or kneel.  The doctor thinks I should wait an other week or two before I start running.  She said I can bike to extremes as long as I'm very diligent about stretching and foam rolling, etc.

I've been pouring my energies into the building purchase lately instead.  The darned bank is asking for documents written in blood, documents to support the documents, documents to support the validity of the blood, and so on.  It's such a pain in the ass.  The current owner hadn't been renewing the leases of the people which basically makes them month to month rentors.  The bank required leases so I had to work with all of the rentors to setup leases.  Of course they were all scared I was giving them the boot or raising their rents or pestering them about their cats (that aren't permitted) or any other number of things.  I like it though.  It's better than IT work.

I travel there this weekend for the inspection.  It should take 8 hours.  The inspector likes to have the buyer accompany him so it'll be a good chance to see all the details of the building.  We'll get up on the roof, check the masonry that's worrying me, etc.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'm also going to try to talk the owner, who has the law office on the first floor, into a zero dollar lease.  Instead of giving his asking price with a mandatory 2yr lease, I'll lower the per month rent price, take that off the offer, effectively giving him a free stay for 2 years.  I have a few things in mind like that.  We'll see.

Last time I was home I started the process of getting my mom's place ready.  The house is done and for sale so now I'm on to my aunt's place and the apartment my mom was thinking to use.  I did about 70% of the insulation last trip and that was a tough but rewarding job.  I re plumbed the bathroom sink and bathtub and ran a better drain line in the kitchen.  This trip I'll finish that insulation.  Going to need to tear up a board in the attic and blow in insulation there.  Then the nasty job of climbing into the small attic, feeding the hose in there, turning it on, and slowly dragging it out as it fills...over and over for each run.  That'll be a tough job.

My mom, aunt, and I used my works meeting software to go over our plans for the layout of the place.  My mom decided to just stay on my aunts side and they'll rent out the apartment instead.  They have some agreement worked out.  I'll need to add a wall to make it a 2 bedroom apartment.  It's an awkward space so I'll need to stand in there and think a bit.  I'll also add a wall on the east side of the house because it's only the concrete wall there with no insulation on either side.  Brrrrr!!!!   My mom found my nail gun and compressor so I'm all set with that.  Non weight bearing walls go up quick.  Then insulate and drywall (ugh...mudding, taping, and sanding sucks!)

The living room has original hardwood floor I'll need to refinish. The kitchen and laundry room will get cheap laminate "wood" flooring.  The bedroom needs a layer of plywood and then new carpeting.  I'm going to get away with not raising the exterior door by leaving it just concrete there and shaving a board to cover the 1/2 inch step up.  It's not ideal...but it's an apartment.  After that mom will paint and get it rented.  My aunts mortgage is $480 a month and I researched rents in the area and we should be able to get around $350-400.   My mom's really into this property management stuff.  She's really enjoying helping me, planning, and reading all the information I send her about how to manage tenants.  I think she sees investing in real estate with me as a ticket out of the factory before she's 90 so she's really soaking it up.  It's awesome to work with her.

I've had some interesting dates lately.  My binders full of women seem to get out of hand or I get frustrated, then just when I decided I'm done chasing women it seems they turn to chasing me....so I can't get out either way.  Last week this Russian girl I'd been flirting with for an entire year called me out of the blue and asked me out.  I found myself sitting across from her on our date in total awe.  She's the absolute most beautiful woman I've ever been on a date with.  I usually never lack confidence with women but I found myself sitting there thinking I'd never land this chick....





But she's continued to text me.  So we'll see.    I also got an email on my dating website from another Russian girl.  She hadn't filled out her profile or added a picture or anything, so I was reluctant to even respond.  She asked me out and then seemed frustrated that I was busy.  Then sent me a nasty email saying she wasn't on this site to find a penpal and if I wanted to meet I better hop to it.  I explained to her that if she couldn't even be bothered to put in the effort to fill out her profile or correspond to people....or even share her picture....that I'd just assume she was a fat hairy Russian man.  I'm not into fat hairy Russian men....so she needs to do some work on that profile, be nicer, or move on.  Seems she has taken the last option.  Dasvidania

I've also been talking to a friend from high schools sister.  It's actually a sort of funny story.  I was there for the Grape Jamboree and was helping out at my buddies bar when this cute blond came in.  My friend Jennifer came over and introduced us and I used the both of them to assist me with standing.  Before too long it seems my hand found its way into places that it shouldn't.  She didn't seem to mind but there was another young man in the bar that wasn't excited with my tactile exploration.  Luckily her brother, who is my friend, got rid of the fellow for me.

Anyways, turns out a few months later she went ahead and got rid of that fellow for good.  She found out I was in town recently and asked Sonny for my information, and has been writing me.  She's an interesting character.  I'm enjoying corresponding with her.

All rub no tug

I spent a good part of the day today at the doctors seeing a physical therapist.  My insurance will pay 80% of 60 visits before the end of the year after $400 deductible.  So it doesn't make sense for me to go until after New Years.  Unless the world ends tomorrow in which case I'll probably be stuck pushing a habanero cart up a flaming hill only to have it slide back down again just before I reach the molten lava spewing from the top.  Anyways....I had a hot Asian therapist and she had me lay on the table while she rubbed here and there to see where I hurt and what was tight.  I'd heard that on the flip over that's when the good stuff comes into play but she was all business....Must just be an incorrect stereotype...DAMNIT.

Once I got over my initial disappointment she had me do all sorts of bending and moving.  She measured my legs, my quads, and all sorts of things.  Then she had me walk this way and that while watching me.  After that it was a bunch of stretching and a short run on the treadmill.  She came to the conclusion that my problem isn't my knees at all....that they are merely a symptom of a weak left hip.  She said with tight hips and glutes that aren't firing properly my knees are doomed.  The plan is no running for another 2 weeks.  Absolutely no one legged squats or leg extensions....because weak quads isn't the problem so all those exercises were worthless.  Meanwhile I'll be doing lots of icing of the tender tendons to get them under control....and lots and lots of these stretches.  When the new year comes we'll start in on strengthening that left hip.  No more crooked TerribleTerry.  I guess I still could have a "happy ending" after all.

I've been involving myself a good bit in the gun control debate recently.  I've come to the conclusion, besides the fact that Americans are stupid creatures that are controlled by biological urges and emotional triggers, that we as a population do not know how to have constructive dialog.  One side shouts their position, the other side shouts theirs...then they change the wording and shout into the wind each time getting louder and more shrill....each wondering why the other side isn't convinced by their shrill media sound byte regurgitation's.  In all of the shouting there's an absence of thought.  An absence of dialectic....and instead an abundance of phatic grunts.  Dialectic, was described by the ancient philosopher Plotinus, "as the most precious part of philosophy, and the point’s a valid one; the ability to sit down with someone who disagrees with you about some important issue, discuss the matter, determine what common ground exists and where the differences of opinion lie, and either resolve the disagreement or sort out the questions of fact and value that have to be settled in order to resolve it, represents a high level of the practical wisdom that philosophy once upon a time was meant to cultivate".

It's frustrating trying to have an intelligent debate, and I suppose the medium I'm choosing, social media, is a poor one.....but that's the only medium our tribe uses to record their clicks, grunts, and guttural articulation.  Instead of getting to the meat of the discussion I find myself more often than not pointing out failed logic, inaccurate facts, or the complete absence of statistics backing up their argument.  By the time this is accomplished the person has turned to someone amongst their gathering who hears their phatic utterances and relates with them....and they go about grooming each other and preening.  Informed debate you see.....I seem to have forgotten....requires informed people.  DOH!!!!

With any debate in this country what I've found are one group who loads themselves up with scientific, peer reviewed data that the broader world has come to believe as facts.   They are then forced to match them up against another group who is armed with a select set of biased data, purchased by the company profiting most from the status quo (ignorance) and passed off as fact to a population of people who can't tell the difference and are extremely happy not to.  The people armed with facts aren't prepared for a group of people who tell half truths with pretty smiles.  The people armed with incorrect data love finding data that confirms exactly what they want to believe and are more than happy to declare it gospel no matter how absurd the story their interpretation of the data would require.

Anyways......before long I just come back to the conclusion....that we are truly fucked.  My choice is to preach to the choir, or to stand in between sheep and goats and try to lecture them in English in such a way that would allow them to understand each other.  It's just not happening. 

The argument I was just commenting on was about having armed teachers in our schools.  I offered some facts and was shouted some snippets that basically said "I'm afraid so we need to try something".   I pointed out that if we were to try something it would be best to research current locations where things are different (and gave facts) or historical examples like the old West where things were as they proposed, and use those facts to decide on a workable path.  In each case the only replies were for people to pull some wild fantasy scenario where....this one time....having a gun MIGHT have changed something.  Never mind all the facts and figures that show that the consequences of arming teachers would cause more accidents and problems than would be gained by defending against his/her fantasy scenario (or unfortunately the very real and tragic scenario last week).

The debate then trudges down the path of their uninformed scenario and it gets wilder and more clearly unworkable...and yet the person never falters.  I tried to show them data where professional armed guards in prisons...have accidents ALL THE TIME with their guns.   Statistics showing where police forget their guns laying around at local restaurants, or have them stolen from their cars....way more often than they (trained professionals) successfully shoot heavily armed men with body armor.  I mean....I've been heavily trained my entire life on getting dressed.  I have about 35 years experience doing it.  I think it's even acceptable to call myself a professional at putting clothes onto my body.  Yet somehow...with all this training....a  few times here and there....I managed to walk out of the bathroom with my fly down. 

But you can't have a dialog about potential problems if the people you're speaking with are spewing fear.  Because fear can't be confronted with facts, or statistics, or logic (especially in a society where those things aren't understood).   You can only fight fear with LOVE.....and we don't have much of that at our disposal in a nation based on, encouraged by, and enthralled with..........selfishness.

The state of things

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I'd just get grumpy and get it done.  I've had some things on my mind to post but the subjects I wanted to express were deserving of an outline and I just didn't want to do the work.  I didn't want to put down something that wasn't coherent either so I did nothing.  Plus I'm tired of the multiple blog thing.  I figure fuck it.  I'm writing how I feel.  Deal with it or go away.

1)  My dad is going to die soon.  I haven't let it hit me all that much.  I feel this anxiety building inside because I know I'll need to face it, face him, face my siblings, and I know it's going to be a real fiasco.  My sister opened the disaster by flying home.  She never went home for any weddings, my mom's chemo, brain tumor, hip replacement, or anything else.  There's potential financial gain from a will so she had to go home all dramatic like she's there for everyone.  She called me from his bedside and lectured me in front of the other siblings because I wasn't there for him, and them (and she was.....how darling). 

2)  I switched over to cycling and rode 240 miles in 4 rides.  It was a bit obsessive.  It was the last warm days and I had stuff on my mind.  One of those evenings saw an altercation with an enraged motorist.  Sometimes I just can't help myself but tickle people who can't control themselves.  I like to poke and prod them.  It's not healthy and I'm not sure why I like it so much.  This particular fellow came to a stop sign at the same time as me on a road that ran parallel to the bike path.  The cars across the path were stopped and he had nowhere to go...but insisted on pealing out and roaring up to the stopped cars blocking the path while looking me in the eye...just to be a dick.  So I sprayed my sports drink through his open car window into his face.  By the time he jumped from his car I was well on my way safely away and the dumbass threw his keys at me.  It hurt like hell but I caught them.  Taunted him appropriately with his keys....and rode off leaving him to ponder how he would now move his car off the road.....and get home.

3)  Went to the doctor for my patella tendonitis and he basically told me what I already knew and is having my go to physical therapy.  I've been online and looked high and low and have been doing all of those exercises but hopefully the PT doctor has some I should be doing and am not, or will find some I'm doing wrong or something....because it's not working and I'm starting to feel entirely too happy cycling myself silly.  He did tell me to take a month completely away from anything that irritates the tendon.  That sucks.

4)  I've been a bit of a dating machine.  I've had to resort to keeping a notebook with details about the girls because I'm a little out of control.  So I guess I'm doing it Romneystyle with my binders full of women.  I'm honest and fair with all of them.  It seems that's what dating is nowadays.  This constant swap where nobody wants to choose any so they choose all.  It sucks, I feel like I"m the evenings entertainment and nothing more, so it begins to be difficult not to treat them like the evenings entertainment.  I'm having fun but I want something real.   I had a dream last night that Lyuda and I got back together.  I miss her a lot.


5) This shooting deserves a post of it's own.  I've stated my opinions on here.  I think it was bad of me to stop.  I think people need to rage against the situation.  I silenced myself because I didn't want to sound like a zealous broken record.  Humans are selfish creatures and capitalism rewards selfishness.  Things like religion that teach altruistic behaviors, although flawed, have value.  As we've swapped real religion with the "religion of progress" we've allowed the worst of human traits to thrive.  I want things and laws limit my access to them so laws are bad....  There is no thought given in this egocentric worldview to consequences.  I want  car, but if everyone in the world drives a car traffic will suck.  I want a gun but if everyone in the world has a gun crazy people will do bad shit.  Nobody wants to give up anything even if it helps better society.  

We also dismantle every social safety net.  I don't use it so I don't want to pay for it has become the Republican creed.  It's Socialist for rich people to help anyone.  They'd rather everyone donate to causes they feel are important.  Who thinks health care for crazies are important until their child dies at the hands of one?  You end up with LiveStrong making millions and other less popular things getting nothing. 

Within a week what I'm sure we'll see is some item, that Americans can buy....that will make them all feel better about it.   After September 11th it was a flag decal for your car.  For the Iraq war it was a nice yellow "Support our troops" ribbon.  What sticker or what purchase will soothe your heartache this time.   It'll be something and it'll catch like wildfire.  10% of the profit will go to Gun Control, or Mental Health programs.  The rest will make some schmuck rich off your fear and guilt.  There there....it's not how we inhabit our world that's the problem...it's them.  It's THOSE people.  Buy this and show your support and oh...buy THIS to protect yourself against THEM.

Every post I saw that said arm the teachers I made sure to post that once the teachers and everyone were armed we could do away with the cops because the world would be safe.  It's like cashiers at the supermarket.  Who needs cashiers....or cops...if everyone can just handle their own.   Notice nobody has said anything about the fellow wearing body armor.  So not only do all the teachers need weapons....they'll need body armor too.    If everyone in the world was handed a tennis racquet soon enough you'd have all kinds of people with tennis racquet sized lumps on their skulls.  Pass out guns to an entire population and see what you get...trust me.....the utopia you're envisioning would look strangely a LOT like Somalia.

Wow....I know that creep!!

I haven't told many stories here of my 2nd stint in college after a short period in Georgia and in the Virgin Islands.  I don't really have time to tell the full story today, but I saw something on the national news today that is truly disturbing.  When I arrived at West Texas A&M I was the very first scholarship runner since the school had crashed and burned due to a scandal where the president or dean or whatever embezzled millions of dollars.  The school shut down all athletics for a while, went from NCAA Div1 down to Div2, and slowly rebuilt. 

I was brought in with the hopes from my coach, the late Eric Lathrop, that I'd accomplish two things.  First that I'd be a mature presence and help coach the "summer training program" since the coach isn't legally allowed to monitor off season workouts.  I did this by basically by buying a house and having my teammates move in with me and then waking everyone up at 6am to run everyday.  The folks who didn't live with me we'd run to their house and collect them along with some local Kenyan professional runners.  

The second reason I was brought in, which goes with the news story today, was that my earlier college results would help assist the team in getting financial booster donations.  Coach took me to all the local races and we talked about how the new team was going to return the school back to nationals, etc.  Many of the additional things we did was go to dinner with local millionaires to drum up money.   On many occasions that took me to the home of Stanley Marsh.

Marsh was famous around Amarillo for the "Cadillac Ranch".  He also was a well known philanthropist who would put street signs, painted over with weird art, in peoples yards and pay them a monthly fee for using their space.  He picked poor areas of town in the hopes of beautifying them as well as giving much needed income to those homeowners.  Stan was a really weird fellow and often when trying to describe is eccentricity to others 2 stories come to mind.  Knowing Stan the way I did, having stayed in his home and spent days working around his property makes today's news quite disturbing.  It's like the warning signs were all there all the time and I saw them and dismissed them.

The first story that shows just how odd this guy is started just after a really tiring speed session.  Stan and his wife would often come to the end of the road, along with Terry Funk (former WWE wrestler) and his wife and they'd set out glasses of tea and talk to us in between each repeat then cheer us on as we started the next.  After practice they'd invite us all (clad in our shorty shorts and often shirtless) back to their house to jump in the pool.  On one occasion Stan (who was about as flamboyant as hell....but he was married so we never figured he was either closet or just a bit weird)  brought out a box filled with all kinds of spay paint.   He told us to pick a color, any color, and go around painting rocks in his yard.  He said we could all come to his house anytime, grab the box and spray rocks until our hearts content and that he'd pay us $7.50 an hour.  He said this in such a flamboyant and suggestive way it struck us all as odd.  That day we all had about an hours worth of fun running around in our shorty shorts painting rocks while him and his wife oohed and aaaahed at just how imaginative we were...WEIRD!!

The second weird Stan story is that one day he came flying into coaches office all excited telling us that we must, we just MUST! go to his house to help him celebrate.  No time to change we needed to go NOW!!  Being a huge financial supporter of the team coach often did whatever Stan asked so off we went.  We all jumped in the car (about 5 of us who happened to be there) and headed over to Stan's where his wife was proudly waiting for us in the front yard with a big bottle of champagne.  We all get 2 glasses (because to truly celebrate he said you can never have an empty hand) and he led us into his kitchen.  There standing in the kitchen was this huge camel.  He regaled us with some story of how he made an awesome business deal with some Arabian and one of the gifts he received in exchange was this lovely camel.  He was very proud of it.  He had no place else to put it so for a month that camel lived in his yard all day, and occasionally came into the kitchen at night.  WEIRD!!!

Although I always thought Stan acted a bit faggoty, and although I thought he was the most eccentric and weird old rich fellow imaginable....I NEVER got the impression he was a pedophile.  This mornings news was quite disturbing...  I go over all the meetings I ever had with Stan and nothing ever gave me the creeps or had me thinking he was capable of this.  Just Stan as a whole was weird.  Looking back now it sort of makes sense though, the hanging around dudes in shorty shorts, the invitations to come help around his place, etc.  It's horrible and on one hand I can't believe it....and on the other it really seems like I should have seen it.

anyways....here's the news report I found.

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-millionaire-charged-child-molestation-225647421.html

Dmitry's Visit

Dmitry is in town from Boston for work.  He's staying over in Gaithersburg which is about the farthest place for me to get to because of the river and lack of bridges.  So he's like 15 miles from me but I have to travel about 40 to get to him and the traffic after work crossing those bridges is horrible...but...I haven't seen him in a coule years so I braved the traffic.

He got dropped off at the Georgetown Pike/495 exit and I picked him up and we drove downtown to run.  I took him on a running monuments tour.  We started at the Lincoln Memorial and ran along the reflecting pool, checked out the WW2 memorial, then turned left and headed down and around the White house.  We finished that loop back at the Washington Monument and then continued on down the mall.  We checked out the pit where they're building the African American history museum, ran the mall passing the American history museum, Natural history museum, etc.  Then we did a big loop around the Capital building. 

Dmitry is a citizen now and wanted a photo in front of his new capital but they have it all blocked off building the stands for the inauguration so we ran around back by the visitors center and got this one.  Not as nice as the front but it'll have to do.

 

 

We then came back, peered into the windows at the botanical gardens, looked at the Native American museum, being an engineer and child of the cold war he was fascinated by the Air & Space museum and we looked in all those windows and he told me about how much as a child in the Soviet Union he'd studied and dreamed of becoming an astronaut. 

Next we ran passed all the Art Museums, the Castle, turned left passed the Holocaust museum and ran through the MLK memorial over to the Jefferson Memorial and then back to where we started.  7 miles total.

After that we drove to Gaithersburg and had dinner.  We had a good time talking about how old we are and how we both felt 24 until we were 35 and then all the sudden the wheels started coming off.  He's been trying to make a comeback to race Masters (40+) but with 2 kids now (his wife gave birth in their house on the living room floor with the paramedics last week.....) he just can't seem to get it going again.  He ran a good mile in 4:18 recently and then followed it up with a lousy 17:30 5k.  He can't know what to expect out of his body one day to the next and wakes up aching all the time.

We've both talked about how we wasted our athletic talents from 30-35 but at least I raced bicycles...he was super lazy.  Now we're wishing for those years back. 

His and Lyuda's coach, Sergei Nikolaivich Katashov just had a new baby.  Sergei had married one of his athletes when I was there the first time and they had a son.  Sveta is 40 now so they weren't expecting a second 12 years after their first.   Dmitry's mother has really bad heart disease and refuses to go to the doctors so she gets tired and dizzy easy.  He's really worried about her.  His sister and his nephew Pavlik are doing great.  Our friend Vladimir Golias, who ran in the Olympics in 88 and 92 and was living with us in Kansas City went to visit Penza and got caught with some problem with his paperwork and is stuck there.  His wife, who now lives in Oregon is trying to get his status worked out.  She got a work visa but Vladimir never updated his status from being on a student visa over to his wifes work visa or something like that.  They have a newborn so he's missing out on that.

Next we reminisced about our time, 12-15yrs ago when we were running machines.  We talked about wishing we could do it all again.  Spend 8months of our lives chasing a dream.  We remembered how we really had no stress, no responsibilities, how we'd even forget what day it was, etc.  We marveled at how much a trip like that now, living at a health spa for months in the mountains with all the massages and food and all would cost.  All sorts of funny memories were pulled from our memories.  Like me stealing a horse and riding through town and into the fountain.  How Dmitry tied the bed sheets together and snuck out of the dorms to go buy beer.  Me escaping from the Russian hospital.  Good times!!

We talked about going back to some of those places again but then our conversation drifted to kids, wives, hoped for trips to Moab mountain biking, the Grand Canyon running, etc... and we both realized those times will probably never be repeated.  Only new and different ones created.

 It sure was nice to see him again.  He's here again tonight and then heads home.  He's coming back in a few weeks and will stay the weekend.  He's really excited to go to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum out by the airport so we planned that for the Saturday he's here.  I'm excited to show him some of my running spots along the Potomac and a bit more of the city.  It all makes me remember a time when everybody I loved lived within a few miles of me.  I miss having Tom, Dmitry, and everyone nearby.