Friday, June 26, 2009

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.

15 comments:

raulgonemobile said...

I must be living under a rock. I didn't know Bea had died. That's 2 golden girls down.

Politics are messed up everywhere. I'm so proud to be from New York where one half of the politicians physically locked the other half out of the Senate room. Not to mention our past Governor and his call girl routine.

Have a good weekend..

Jenny said...

i didn't hear about MJ until late last night. i had been thinking that "bad things happen in 3's", but that one caught me off guard.

as far as SC politics go: a large number of "republicans" in office here are R in name only, b/c they know that's the only way they can get elected in this state. if you look at their policies/records/positions, they're all D.

and maybe you'll think me a dumbass scarolinian from now on, but i *like* our gov. i think it's sad and stupid what he did to his wife and fam, but i happen to agree with the majority (not all) of his politics...our state's gov has pretty limited power, and like i said before, we don't have a truly republican majority. (and btw my sis is a public teacher and her hubby's a sled agent, so it does affect my fam.)

anyway, have a fun weekend with the fam!

Wes said...

That's it. Now I'm REALLY calling your office and telling them to give you more WORK!!!

Like it or not, it's only through their personal life that you get to see the foundation of their public life.

I don't want a lying cheat to have any responsibility over things I care about.

Sun Runner said...

Parents Behaving Badly is one of the web sites I visit almost every day. I am continually saddened and astonished at the myriad of ways in which parents can harm their innocent children.

Re: Weight Watchers. $159 for a 16-week pass, which works out to $9.93 per week. It's more if you do fewer weeks or pay by the meeting. But still. $10 a week. And what I've learned in almost three years on WW can pretty much be summed up as: Be mindful about what you put in your mouth, and move around as much as you can to burn those calories. That may be completely oversimplifying it, but for me, that is the approach which has allowed me to lose-- and keep off-- 65 pounds (so far). It's not even so much "eat less" as it is "eat WISELY." Of course I have to eat a TON in order to fuel my running endeavors. I just make sure that the bulk of what I put into my body is nutritious and high-quality. Note that I said "the bulk," not everything. I still eat pizza, cookies, ice cream, chips, and candy (and let's not forget drinking beer...mmm...beer)...I just don't eat that stuff very often. And then I make sure I run to burn it up. After all, beer is carbs!

I think it's terribly sad that a 14-year-old boy is able to weigh over 500 pounds. I'm not sure even WW would be the place to get that under control. I've never seen anyone approaching that weight at my WW meetings.

Having endured the fiasco of Detroit's erstwhile Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, it's high time someone else's elected officials were the laughingstock of the nation. :)

Missy said...

If my husband had 12 year old boys spending the nite, even if it was innocent, he would have been arrested a LONG time ago. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Thriller but I was a fan of the original Michael Jackson, before he turned white.

Enjoy your rest time and try not to get too restless and put in more than you need. Now is the best time for repair. You have a killer base, you're not going to blow it.

Unknown said...

Yes, let's move into the weekend with some positiveness :)

Have a great one!

Jess said...

Haha oh man your Gov. is an idiot lol...like did he reallllly think no one was going to figure it out? Or maybe he wanted to get caught. Either way, I doubt he should be running a state with such crappy judgment. And I'm with you on the wife. She rocks haah!

carrie said...

You crack me up. I hope she kicks him real hard in the balls, too. Like you said at the beginning...attitude is everything! Have a great weekend!

teacherwoman said...

Happy Friday! Love your paragraph about MJ. I was kind of thinking the same things.

Have a great weekend, dude!

Lily on the Road said...

Nice rant!

LOL, have a great weekend!

Jess said...

It's been a crazy week in the news, that's for sure!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

great venting... i'm so sad for Farrah, and you're so right, it's totally overshadowed. :( Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Steve Stenzel said...

No, it's never too early for a good bad taste joke. Well done. And I'm thinking more like 37%....

BTW, nice job on your recent marathon!!! AND that half marathon PR that you pulled out DURING the full!!

Unknown said...

Great post, the gov is an idiot!

Adorable Girlfriend said...

Come now, I grew up in the state of McGreevey, left a state with Spitzer, spent many summers in Mark Foley land, and voted for Bill once. Nobody knows shame like I do. It gives me character.

I agree though, Jenny should go Mary Jo Bee on him.

Rest in peace, Bea, Billy, MJ, Farrah, and all our other friends lost this year.