Loving it!

I'm trying to stay positive right now. Attitude is everything, you know. I'm enjoying the rest between training cycles, and I'm still keeping up some fun stuff. I got in a 5 mile run in 48:28 on tuesday night for a little relief. Then I hopped on the bike yesterday for a rainy couple of miles. I knew I only had a few minutes, but I wanted to test out the legs to see what I could do on some hills in the neighborhood. Still thinking about that ceasar's head ride in July. My half ironman training plan starts in a couple of weeks, so for the first time all year I'm actually doing more than what my (annual) training spreadsheet says I'm supposed to be doing. I actually want to get in a long run over the weekend, maybe about 10 miles. It's nuts.

Michael Jackson died and I feel like I should mention that. Since 2005 he's been holed up in Bahrain writing new songs, so now he's going to be all Tupac and release more albums after he's dead. I am a huge fan of his music and couldn't care less about his personal life. I wore out my Thriller LP back in the day. I have to wonder if the autopsy will reveal a plastic percentage? My money's on 30% in the pool. No? too soon for a bad taste joke? I also can foresee an Elvis move. We won't get to see the body, conspiracy theories will come out that he faked his death, nothing would surprise me at this point.

Farah Fawcett died on the same day, and she will be the Mother Teresa to MJ's Princess Diana. Completely overshadowed. I was a much bigger fan of Farah's Playboy appearances than I was her tv shows or movies. It's sad to see such an uplifting person lose a long battle with cancer like that. But again I have to remain fairly apathetic. My thoughts go out to their son.

Ed McMahon died a couple of days ago. He's going to be completely overshadowed now. Big Ed was the classic one line delivery guy for Carson, and all other talk show sidekicks pale in comparrison. Andy Richter can kiss my ass, he's no McMahon.

And don't forget Bea Arthur died. like a few months ago. A world without Maude has had far less funky attitude.

Sometimes I am just proud to be from South Carolina. From a national standpoint, we've been in the news the last few weeks. Maybe these dead celebs will keep our local dumbasses off of the front page. If you haven't heard, our govenor Mark Sanford is possibly the most boring govenor in history. Stephen Colbert called him a manilla envelope glued to a beige wall. He took off for 7 days without telling his wife or the Lt. Gov where he was going or when he would be back. If I did that, I would not expect to have a job when I came back. Then he admitted he went to Argentina for the week to screw around with some girl. I would not expect to be married after I came back from that.

Again, I could care less about his personal life, it just doesn't affect me. I hope his wife kicks him in the balls real hard, he's got several meat punches due his way. and hard ones. like 70% of South Carolinians think he should step down as Gov, including me. His personal life is his, he can put his dick whereever he wants to and it won't bother me. But that's why most people want to impeach him.

I want to impeach him because he used tax dollars to fund a trip to Argentina last year where he started sleeping with this girl. And because he drove our economy into the ground and blew our job base to dust. And now he wants to turn down federal stimulus money because he wants to use it to pay down state debt instead of the federally mandated education reform. Because South Carolina's educational system is already high quality (49th worst in the nation) and without the funding he will have to lay off 20% of the public school teachers. So if he thinks that eroding the job base is the best way to boost the local economy, I want him battered and fried. Impeached isn't good enough. Meat Puch Threat Level RED for that guy.

Btw, the state senate is suing him right now to force him to accept the stimulus money and put it for education so the teacher's jobs are safe. But everyone in his own party hates on him. He's soon to be a casualty of the conservative backlash in a post-W political climate. I can't stand those ultra-conservative assholes, and I never voted for Mark Sanford. So I will be glad to see them all go.

I LOVE Sanford's wife Jenny in all of this. So often those political wives stand behind their cheating husbands (Blagoyovich, anyone?), but Jenny's like "fuck him!" She's on the news today talking about how she doesn't care what happens to his career, she's trying to take care of her kids. and it turns out they formally separated two weeks ago anyway. So she's leaving his ass high and dry and doesn't care what happens. Throw in a few meat punches for good luck, and you've got a great news story about a strong woman. You gotta respect that.

On the CBS early show yesterday, IMMEDIATELY after talking about Mark Sanford, they break out this news story. An interview with a woman and her lawyers from Greenville, SC who had recently been arrested. She was charged with Felony Child Neglect for letting her 14 year old son get to 555 lbs. She claims that she has to work 2nd and 3rd shift and can't afford the medical help he needs. Weight Watchers isn't that expensive. The library has diet and cook books. He needs an apple every once in a while, not expensive medical help. As a parent, it truly amazes me how some people like that can have so little influence over their kids. I'm sure this 14 year old doesn't do his own grocery shopping. This woman is so lazy and inept that she can't learn about general health to the point where she has taken decades off of her son's life. More than just years, he has lost decades to her influence. I don't know that arresting her was the right move, but the boy is in custody of social services now and I do think that is a good thing. This is the kind of thing that comes out of the South Carolina public school system. Dumbasses. I feel surrounded by dumbasses today, and I don't want to leave the house.

So I am trying to stay positive. It's friday. For the first time in 4 weekends, we have no plans. no races or birthday parties. Just whatever we want to do. I'm hoping to get in a long run, maybe a bike ride, and maybe start cutting up that tree that fell down a few weeks ago. Should be fun.

Healthy Ashley has been posting a series of Proudest Moments from her friends. Last night she posted mine! It's a write up from my finish at the Greenville Sprint triathlon last year, my first tri. Ashley is an awesome young chick in florida, nutritioninst and personal trainer. Click on over and give it a quick read. It's a small write up, which is unusual for me.

Sorry bout the verbal flatulence today. Maybe more running would keep all of these strange things out of my head! Have a great weekend.