Tegeders in Renton, WA

Take Me Out to the (T) Ball Game

2010-04-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

Back in 1951, Bill Veeck, the owner of the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles) had planned a publicity stunt as part of a double-header baseball event. They were able to keep it under wraps, until the leadoff batter for the Browns in the second game was 3'6" Eddie Gaedel. His talent wasn't being a baseball player; it was being short. The number on his uniform was 1/8. As anticipated by Veeck, four pitches later it was ball four and Eddie went to first base. Then the regular lead-off hitter game into the game as a pinch runner and Eddie's major league career was over. But that even may inspired our present day gather of players under four feet tall: T-Ball! Here'a a report of Noah's game last week.

It had been cloudy but dry all day, until about twenty minutes before it was time to go to the game. A slight drizzle began, but the game went on. Andy is the coach for the feared Northeast Little League T-Ball Mariners! Here's Andy running the Mariners in a pre-game drill.

Here's Noah, giving real meaning to the term "warm-up" for a game. You can just see his blue cast peeking out of his right sleeve. The cast run up to halfway between his shoulder and elbow. Andy worked with him on throwing left handed, but when it was time to play he wanted to have his glove on, so he holds the ball in his fingers and kinds of spins his body to throw the ball.

As a student of the game, I had to assess the opponents. I recognized that I might have to leave the game early in the chance that my grandson would be put out by a fielder using a pink glove. That would be too embarrassing to the family honor!

Here's Andy and his assistant coach giving a motivational speech to the Mariners. You can tell that Andy is a master motivator since at least one of the players is actually looking at him.

Since the ball is hit off a tee and there is no pitcher, they don't need to play on a field with a backstop. Conversely, there is no dugout. So, for the bench, the players each bring a 5-gallon bucket with a lid to sit on. It's a good system since when they are in the dugout they wear their helmet and stow their glove in the bucket. When they take the field they store their helmet in the bucket. The buckets are arranged in their batting order, which makes it easy to see where we are in the batting order as well.

The lead-off batter hit the ball and made a mad dash...for third base! With some expert base coaching she was able to turn around and run to first, but the ball beat her to the bag. Except that the first baseman pulled her foot. Andy didn't argue, probably saving his Lasorda/Pinella explosion for later in the game.

Here's Noah at the plate, batting clean-up. Since he only has one free hand, he puts the bat on his right shoulder, and then whips it around with his left hand. Swung on, and belted up the middle, and ...

He's on! Here first base coach/father reminds him of the important things to remember in running the bases in T-Ball: Remember to tag up. Break up the double play with a hard slide. When you get to second base, turn left, not right. Don't kiss the third basegirl. So many things to remember!

And after a few more batters, he scores! In T-Ball, the tee also serves as the home plate.

I notice a few of the fielders were in this ready-to-field position, like this first baseman. If a ball were ever hit that far in the air, I doubt the glove would be much use.

Now the rain is really coming down.

One of the more sophisticated plays of the day was the decoy play, where a field trys to decoy the runner into thinking the fielder isn't in the play, and then quickly catches a throw and tags the runner out. The 3rd baseman had his back completely turned to the play and ball. He carried the decoy a little too far as the throw went past him out of bounds since he never turned around!

Who needs a fancy indoor professional stadium when you have an umbrella and/or a full rain suit.

Once the first inning was over and everyone had a chance to bat, the coaches conferred and decided to call the game.

The post-game shake-hands line forms. Everybody's a winner!

Wait a minute! Only one inning!? Noah isn't going to bat any more!? Summer is not happy.

Every game the coaches award a signed game ball to the player of the day. Today's awardee: Noah Tegeder! His line for the day 1-1, 1 run scored, no errors.

Following the game and post game festivities, one of the most important events of game day takes place - the awarding of the post-game treats.

Evolution of a Clean Shaven Man

2010-01-30T19:54:00.001-08:00

At my wife Wendy's recommendation, I tried out for a part in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I got the part of Peter Quince, the leader of a group of trade workers who banded together to put on a play for the Duke and the Dutchess of Athens for a wedding celebration. As described in the script, we were considered "...hard-handed man that work in Athens here, which never labored in their minds until now (i.e. the day of the play.)" As we began practice, I decided that an Athenian carpenter in the 16th century would probably have a beard, so I commenced to give my character one for our play. I had only attempted a beard once, back in 1990 when Wendy was gone on a three week trip to England and the Holy Land, a trip she took with her parents and brother Tim. I greeted her at the airport with a three week growth. We took a few pictures, and that was that. Until 2009, that is. I set out to grow the beard about nine weeks before the play. Then, with an idea I got from son Andy, I took it off in stages, and this blog post chronciles it.

As I began my beard adventure, it was also at this same

time I began in a fantasy football league at work. The

website allows for a photo of the team owner, so, as

owner of "Robert's Beefy Boyz," I took my football

picture. You wouldn't want to mess with the Beefy

Boyz, now would you? After all, Peyton Manning

was my quarterback.

Finally the third week of October rolled around, and

my beard got to perform right along with me as

Peter Quince, Athenian Carpenter, and the leader

of some hard-handed men.

When one has a beard, you always have to wonder,

"Am I wearing anything that I just ate?"

Where do you begin to remove a beard? I started by just giving

myself long 70's style sideburns and an untrimmed goatee. I call

this my trucker look.

Now, the sideburns and goatee are trimmed. I call this

my high-school music teacher look.

The next step in my beard de-evolution

was to shave off the beard, leaving a

fu-manchu and a small "soul patch"

just under my lower lip. I was told

it gave me that "Yosemite Sam" look
What in tarnation were they thinking?

I thought perhaps it gave me more of

an outdoors look, like a horse trail

guide.

But, others said the fu-manchu gave me that biker

look. Yeah! "Let's ride"

Next stop was to get rid of the soul patch and the

fu-manchu handlebars, moving to a moustache

you just might see on an accountant in 2009.

So, the next step is to just cut it off, right?

Well, not quite.....

With a few more strokes of the razor, (and a little enhancements

to darken the moustache and eyebrows, the look moves from

a modern-day accountant in 2009 to the silent movies of the

"twenties" - a Charlie Chaplin look. (Or, considering my girth,

some would say it;s more like Oliver Hardy of the 1930's)

anyway, this was the Charlie Chaplin looks, which was stolen

and obliterated by a famous figure of the 1940's......

you know who - Now, get me to that razor!

And now, here I am, in 2010, clean shaven

and not ready to abandon the razor any time

soon.

Christmas Presents for Kids

2010-01-06T06:28:00.000-08:00

One of the fun things about having grandchildren is that when Christmas rolls around the prospective present population expands greatly. Your kids reach their teen and college years, and the present population becomes more narrow - more geared towards clothes, and things that are more expensive. The toy section becomes just another department nearby the sporting goods at the store. Then a grandchild shows up and the purchasing area becomes a huge landscape ready to be explored. In the more mature years, there's a little more cash in the wallet for that toy you think looks cool, especially one that didn't exist when you were a kid.

Which leads me to my sister Jane. Her first grandchild is on the way. Her youngest daughter Hayley is in high school and isn't interested in the toy aisle at the store. But, Jane has a nephew with a son, Noah (my grandson)is who is five, and she bought him a remote control stunt car. Noah has figured out how to make the car spin...and spin...and spin. Let's just say serenity is not the first feeling that comes to mind when Noah is operating his car, as the video shows. And, as mom Julie said, during the din, "Thanks Aunt Jane."

Do You Know Larry Bauer?

2009-08-11T21:02:00.000-07:00

You probably don't...but in a way, you probably do. I ran across this photo while cleaning some boxes at my parents's home. I had a few old college newpapers, and in one was this newpaper photo which I scanned of Larry Bauer. To call us aquaintances would probably be a stretch. He was an upper classman in my fraternity and we had hardly had any conversations, me being a freshman. I was playing tennis up at one of the courts at my alma mater, Weber State College (now, Weber State University) and I don't remember the exact circumstances. Larry was a member of the college varsity tennis team. I guess he had seen me playing and came over and asked if he could show me a few things. I said sure, and Larry showed me a four step approach to the serve. He rotated my grip, turning the racket about a quarter to a three-eights turn different than the "shake hands" grip I used for my forehand. I did what he said, and the ball popped off my racket, into the opposite service court. It was amazing, because the grip felt so unnatural, the four steps so rigid, and yet it produced results.

"Results" is a vastly underrated description. It revolutionized my serve. I had decent ground strokes, and now I had an offensive weapon. I don't think Larry spent more than 20 minutes at most with me, but I benefited from that 20 minutes EVERY time I returned to the tennis courts. Even today, when things go a little awry in my serve, I return to the basics I learned that day, kind of a recalibration. The grip on the racket still feels unnatural in my hand, but the results have a familiar spirit.

Larry didn't have to spend any time with me that day. I didn't beckon him. He just spent a little time with me that was literally life changing for me. I was a pretty successful intermediate tennis player, and I owe a bit of every successful match to what learned that day. Since I found this photo, I tried to locate Larry via the phone book and Google, with no luck. It would be nice to tell him what an impact he had on my enjoyment of tennis.

So, do you know Larry Bauer? You do if someone has given you some of their time to make your life a little better, a little simpler, or a little happier. It may not last as long as a lifetime of recreational tennis, but it is good nonetheless. Additionally, you just might be someone else's Larry Bauer. You never know.

Sand in the City

2009-07-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

Wendy and I made trek to visit daughter Molly at Portland in the middle of July. They have a charity event called "Sand in the City" where tons of sand is trucked into a city square, and then corporate teams spend all day Friday making a themed sand sculpture. The fund raising is by corporate donations plus they ask for a donation at the gate. I didn't see a printed program, but the theme seemed to be children's fun, of some kind. Here, let me take you for a tour!

Here's a view of the city plaza where the sculptures were taking place. The photo quality is not as good for some pictures because of evening angle of the sunlight. (Above) The Portland electric company did this Sasquatch sculpure. They had in front of him a battery that said "How Big is Your Carbon Footprint?" Big Footprint? Sasquatch. Get it! I thought you would. Cooler stuff follows that is more in tune with kid's fun.

(Left) I don't know what this mouse is from. There were about three of them in different poses. (Right) I think this is a creature from the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are?

(Above) The angle of lighting for this one was terrible. It was a TV theme with Bart Simpson on the top of a skateboard ramp. The dotted square thing in the lower left corner is Spongebob Squarepants.

Just a happy elf lying in a little bath ring, or an inverted mushroom, or something. Anyway, he's happy.

These next few picture were fun. A tribute to giving a dog a bath. If you've every had to do it, you can appreciate the quote and the pictures.

This was cute - Two dogs scrubbing a big dog.

One of the showpiece sculptures, I thought, was this tribute to the movie "Up". I haven't seen it yet, but it looked fun anyway. And the sculpture is close to 8 feet tall. The balloons were a nice touch.

Sand & Snow

2009-07-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

We took a long weekend and went to Portland, Oregon to visit Molly and Brad, our daughter and son-in-law. They have an annual thing in their courtyard square called "Sand in the City." The city trucks in tons of beach sand and corporate teams spend all day Friday building a sand sculpture(s) which are then on display for the weekend.

(Right) A Hungry, Hungry Hippo

I've always been intrigued by this kind of thing, the roots of which were probably spurred by my experience with a snow sculpture contest in college. It ended up being a non-snowy weekend, but we had a friend with a truck, so we trucked in a few pickup loads of snow for our sculpture.

So, what did we choose? Around that time of my life, the big movies were Fiddler on the Roof, The Godfather, The Sting, The Graduate, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, etc. Movies you've all heard of. None of us felt really skilled at creating a statue of Paul Newman or Marlon Brando. So we chose a "B" movie, modeled after the poster for the movie "Frogs." (Tag line" "If you are sqeamish, stay home! Cold green skin against soft warm flesh!") Among my fraternity buddies, maybe one of us had actually seen the movie, and if they did, it undoubtedly was the second feature of a drive-in, and alcohol was probably involved. Anyway, let's face it, a giant frog is already pretty much in the shape of a mound of snow. But we did get the mouth sculpted pretty well, and I was in charge of getting a rubber glove mounted so the hand would stick out of the mouth at the proper angle, not wanting to compromise the artistic intentions of the director. I don't remember how the competition turned out. We were proud of our five foot high reptile and his cold green skin. (We spray painted him green) I was disappointed that our frog was thawing pretty bad by the next day, and the frog had obviously spit out the hand. I never got a picture of it. It was back in the day when there were no digital anythings. In spite of our promotion and homage, Frogs did not receive any Academy Award Nominations, in spite of having Ray Milland as it's headliner.

For you younger readers wondering who Ray Milland was, he was the winner of the Best Actor Academy Award in 1946 for "The Lost Weekend." His role was described as "The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four day drinking bout." After watching himself in "Frogs" I think Mr. Milland went on a five day drinking bout...after making sure his check cleared.

SAT Analogies

2009-06-17T06:07:00.001-07:00

On the Conan O'Brien show in the past, one of his bits was to do SAT-type analogies. I often found them funny, and took some pictures on our Ozark trip that I thought would be funny in that setting:

#1 Regarding fund-raising events, with proceeds to go towards a medical research cause, the Greater Puget Sound area is to this:

As the Ozarks are to this:

Comparison #2 - The Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Italy

is to this artwork on it's walls:

As the Stateline Liquor store in the Ozarks is:
to this artwork on it's walls.

Just a little help for any of you boning up for the S.A.T. exams. Good Luck, Y'all

This Is Why They Call it Fastpitch

2009-06-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was young, I was intrigued by fast pitch softball. My dad played some baseball in college and played on the church softball team. I didn't get a chance to play little league baseball, but when I turned 14 I would be eligible to play on the men's softball team. Armed with that knowledge, I worked on becoming a softball pitcher. I had a brick wall that I drew a strike zone on, and spent a lot of time pitching a rubber softball against that wall working on gaining control. I got to where I could consistently put the ball over the plate, but couldn't get up enough speed to keep the hitters from consistenly putting the ball in play.

With that I salute the University of Washington Huskies, winners of the NCAA Womens' Softball Championship for 2009. Their pitcher is Danielle Lawrie, a junior who was on the Canadian Olympic Team. They had a media day this week for TV writers and broadcasters, inviting them to get into the batter's box with Danielle. There was a great article by Seattle Times writer Jerry Brewer describing the event. Also, an entertaining video of ESPN's baseball writer Jim Caple. The video gives you a feel as to how fast and dominating Daniell is! The link is below.

Brewer reported "Only three people made contact in the hour or so that Lawrie threw with her bionic arm. Just one, ESPN.com scribe Jim Caple, hit a fair ball, and his dribbler to the right side would've been an easy play for a second baseman." He also describe what it's like to be in the batter's box vs. Danielle. I really enjoyed it, and can't imagine how anyone can get a hit!

The link to Jerry Brewer's column is: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrybrewer/2009315756_brewer09.html

The link to Jim Caples video is:

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4248716

Baseball Musing

2009-06-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

In a recent email to my father, a big Cardinals fan who grew up following the "Gas House Gang" of the 1930's, I mentioned that Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners was on a 27 game hitting streak, which broke the earlier team hitting streak...also set by Ichiro. I guess I jinxed Ichiro by writing about his hit streak. He was halfway to Joe Dimaggio, who set a 54-game hitting streak back in 1941, if memory serves me correctly. Dimaggio's record is considered one of the most unbreakable records in baseball. After last night, looking for his 28th straight game with a hit, he's now tied with half the league with a new hitting streak of zero. The game went into an extra inning, so he got an extra at-bat which he used to strike out to end the game. Oh well. The bad part of the game was that Minnesota won on a Little-League type error in the top of the 10th. With two outs and a runner on second, the left fielder had what should have been an inning-ending flyball clang off his mitt. Apparently, he's not making enough money to be able to catch, yet.

Speaking of Mariners, I was going through some old pictures and came across this one.

Amidst people with things to sell outside the ballpark, there are often people begging for money. You can give someone money thinking you're helping them get something to eat when in reality, they just take the money to buy alcohol or drugs - things they can't get for free at a food bank or homeless shelter. This guy I found amusing because he was total truth in advertising. It's kind of hard to tell from looking at the picture, but the guy is holding a fishing rod. Attac

hed to his line was a white styrofoam cup which is blocking my right forearm in the picture. That was his "hook,"hoping to catch some money. Like all true fisherman, he had a lure as well, which is the sign just over my should that says "FISHING FOR BEER." So here's a guy dedicated to telling the truth. He's not pretending to be hungry or homeless - he is promising to spend your money on beer. So it made for a fun picture...and the guy didn't get any money from me. It was his personal Beer Stimulus Plan, but at least, unlike the Federal Stimulus Plan, a person would really have a pretty good idea where the money was actually going to go! Unless of course the guy was actually going to use it to purchase a work of fine literature. Nah, I don't think so!

PS, as I'm writing this post, the Mariner game is on the television, and Ichiro already has two hits. If only...

Branson, Missouri Visit

2009-05-31T10:11:00.000-07:00

On our two-day Ozark trip, we decided on short notice to go to Branson, Missouri and perhaps see a show. We'd never been before, and I still don't understand why this out of the way place caught on as an entertainment center. It might be that though it's remote, it's 150-200 from St. Louis, Kansas City, Little Rock, and Tulsa, among other larger cities.

We cut due east out of Tulsa to NW Arkansas, then cut up to SW Missouri and Branson. It was a very scenic drive off the freeway.

Shows start at 8:00 and we rolled in at about 6:50. We pulled into a "Welcome Center" that advertises discount tickets. We were rushed choosing something, and ended up going to the Hammer-Barber Theater. The show is Hamner - A Magician, and Jim Barber, a ventriloquist. They throw in a few dancer, add a little singing, and advertise it as a variety show.

Jim Barber is unique in that he has created a dummy that makes it appear that the dummy is holding him, and Jim is the ventriloquist dummy. I thought it was pretty clever. I saw him on Letterman a few years ago. He did a local commercial that is one minute long at this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW4gbeeUsNQ

If you'd like to see his Letterman appearance, heres' the link for that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48N4g4DrWUQ

He was pretty funny.

We tried to find a local LDS church, but we didn't have Internet access and had a lousy out-of-scale tourist map of Branson, so we couldn't find the church. Since it was Sunday morning, and we wanted some kind of Sunday worship experience, we went to one of the 8-10 Sunday Morning Gospel programs offered for free at various Branson entertainment theaters. We ended up going to the Dick Clark Rock-N-Roll Theater which offered the "Grand Old Gospel Hour" as shown

on the billboard to the right. The woman holding her hands up was interpreting the music via American Sign Language.

They had three musicians, a drummer, bass player, and sax man, and five singers, one of which played the guitar, on played the keyboard, and the woman doing the signing. On each side of the stage was a video screen, on which they were showing the words, so I didn't really understand what the deal was with the ASL. Then, when one of the people would just speak, she didn't do anything. And she had a part in the program where they gave their pitch for donations, and she didn't sign that either. So I concluded that she wasn't actually an interpreter, but just like to memorize and perform the sign to the words of Gospel music. The pastor shown in the billboard is in real life a little heavier and his face is rounder, and he wore glasses. Reminded me of the Matt Foley character created by Chris Farley. He kind of looked like Chris Farley. He gave a good Christ-inspired message, and cited putting on the whole armor of god as explained in Ephesians Chapter 6. And not once did he have to admonish anyone to "close their yapper."

Branson is spread out, but has a two-lane main street which seems to be in a perpetual traffic jam. I tried to capture it in a picture. But envision the photo as being a video instead. Yup, that's how fast the traffic seemed to move. This was at 11:30. It was the same at 9:30 am, and at 7:00 when we drove through town. It's probably that way constantly, and twice as slow in the summer. Nothing says summer fun like 100 degrees, 98% humidity, and stationary traffic.

Fun on the Road

2009-05-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

We were in Northeast Oklahoma for Sonja's open house for her husband Jordan's side of the family. The day after the reception, we took a two day road trip through Northeast Oklahoma, Northwest Arkansas, and Southwest Missouri. We'd never been to this part of the country, and enjoy being off the freeway. I took a bunch of pictures of stuff that just looked fun or interesting.

Our first trip off the turnpike showed this sign leading to a Mennonite church. We decided to take a look. A later sign said that it was 1.5 miles. Two miles later we decided that we'd missed it, but on the way back we came across a few Mennonites complete with horse and buggy.

It's hard to tell from this picture taken in the car, but it was a one-horse buggy with a father and a couple of kids in it. (I heard that they don't like their photo taken, that's why I didn't try to take the picture out of the driver's window.) Being Mennonites, they probably hadn't seen the movie Field of Dreams. So I didn't have the opportunity to have this exchange: "Is this Eden?" "No, it's Oklahoma!"

I felt like I've been on this road before, but now I have proof that it exists!

Another interesting thing was learning about some of the wildlife...or in our case, "wild-death." On our two-lane road adventure we saw a lot of racoon and opossum roadkill, which was to be expected. What we didn't expect was to see armadillos! Lots of them. Here's a typical view of an Arkansas/Missouri backroad:

Wendy made the observation that armadillos looked reptilian with their scaly exterior, yet they are mammals, which by definition have hair/fur. As you can see, armadillos are hairy on their underbelly.

We were at a National Battleground and I asked the Ranger if he was a naturalist. He said he wasn't but would entertain my question anyway. I asked if armadillos have always been in these parts since I always pictured them to be in hot, dry, lands in Texas. He said that he was raised in Southern Missouri & was was taught by his dad that they didn't really live in Missouri, but periodically dead armadillos would be trucked in from Texas and scattered around the state on the roadsides.

I flipped our little roadkill over, and it's easy to see how a car could hit one in the darker part of the day - They're slow, low, and blend in with the color of the asphalt.

(Note - no armadillos were harmed in the creation of this blog post. - The harm had already taken place.)

I'll post more of our midwest adventure in future blogs.

From Finish to Start

2009-05-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the Robert & Wendy Tegeder family with their newest addition: a son-in-law by the name of Jordan Hintze of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. (From l to r, Troy, Molly, Jordan, Sonja, Andy, Wendy, Robert)

Jordan and Sonja had been aquainted with each other for about two years and started dating about a year ago. The courtship began, and here's what kick-started it to where we are today:

On December 28th, 2008, Sonja had flown to the Tulsa Oklahoma Airpost after spending Christmas with us and was going to meet the Hintze family. The Hintze family met Sonja at the airport inside the terminal. Nearby were these five people also greeting someone at the airport. After the initial hugging and greeting it was time to head to the baggage claim area to get Sonja’s bags and then go to the Hintze’s home.

As they started walking, the guy in the red cap approached her with his camera and asked if she would take their picture. They were holding signs that said : “We missed you!” and “Welcome to Oklahoma, Sam!” and “Later Gator – Go OU – Boomer Sooner.” It was obviously they were there to greet a friend at the airport and had made signs for the occasion as part of their greeting. They told Sonja to count to three, obviously to make sure they would all be smiling at the same time.

The guy in the red cap handed Sonja the camera and they held up their signs for the picture. As Sonja looked through the viewfinder to take the picture, she started the count to three. As she did…

They flipped the signs over to display the following:

Looking through the viewfinder, Sonja saw them flip the signs and I think her brain was trying to process what she was seeing as this apparent good-Samaritan act of taking a picture for someone had converted to a marriage proposal! As she was processing the information, she lowered the camera, and there was Jordan on one knee holding an engagement ring. She giddily said “Yes!” The rest is history.

Here’s a picture of the newly engaged Sonja with her suitcase and flashing her brand new ring!

Dogs Are Like a Box of Chocolate

2009-04-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Wendy and I were both raised with pets, and conversely, have had pets as part of our family after we got married. Our latest is our dog Ringo. We've had him since November 2007. As I tell people, he's like the original Ringo - a big nose and shaggy hair.

The fictional character, Forrest Gump would say: "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get. With dogs, you never know what you're gonna get until you open the door...especially living in the wet Northwest. This might also be one of the disadvantages of owning a white dog. (Or maybe our old black and brown dog was a lot more filthy than we gave her credit for.)

"I found a way amuse myself while you were gone"

Fun With Signs

2009-03-27T13:11:00.001-07:00

Senator Ted Kennedy, when delivering the eulogy for his brother Bobby Kennedy cited him in this famous quote which I may or may not be quoting accurately, "Some people look at things and ask "Why?" My brother looked at things and asked "Why not?"

To paraphrase this thought in my perspective, "Some people look at things, and say "Huh?" I look at things and say, "That's funny."

My intent is not to make light of the disabled, but some people with Tourrett's Syndrome are afflicted with uncontrollable voice utterances, twitches, or both.

This salon in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho struck me as funny since someone obviously put some effort and investment into naming this salon. I think using the "La" wording was expected to create a vision of something upscale. Somehow though, the thought of sitting in a chair with my back to a person with Tourrette's syndrome who is weilding a scissors or a razor blade would seem to be a negative vision instead of a positive one, in spite of the nicely chosen font and the upscale French sounding adjective "La" It seems like the outcome might be "La Uneven Haircut" or "La Unfortunate Accident." Not necessarily the expected outcome of the marketing department. With this vision in my mind, I had to take a picture.

A Seattle Not-So-Supersonic Musing

2009-03-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

One of the website I look at frequently is ESPN.com. I read their website and get their magazine, but having never had cable TV I've never had ESPN in my home. Maybe that will change with the advent of digital TV since the reception in my area is unstable for all but two channels. On ESPN's website, I enjoy reading Bill Simmons, aka "The Sports Guy." Periodically he does what he calls a "Mailbag" column. I've been a Sonics fan...when there actually was a team called the Seattle Supersonics, and I came across this question and answer that I had never heard before. By the way, Bill Simmons writes extensively about he NBA and is a huge Boston Celtics fan, so I'm not questioning this anecdote:

Q: Wouldn't you say the Red Sox not getting A-Rod in 2003 was BY FAR the best non-trade of all time?-- Adam, Toronto

SG: There's a bigger one: After Seattle picked Robert Swift in the 2004 draft, the Celtics offered the Sonics the 13th pick (basically, the rights to Al Jefferson) and their 2005 No. 1 pick for Swift's rights … and Seattle said no. Three years later, the Celts turned Jefferson, the 2005 pick and other stuff into Kevin Garnett and a 17th title. So that's right up there. I mean, have you SEEN Robert Swift? My buddy House called me last week just to ask me that question, and he asked it exactly like that: I answered, there was a pause, and he said, "I mean, have you SEEN Robert Swift?" Who knows -- maybe the Sox win with A-Roid, er, A-Rod. But there's no way the Celtics get Kevin Garnett for a package headlined by Robert Swift. None.

You may have heard of Kevin Garnett, one of the best 7' centers in the NBA. You may not have heard of Robert Swift, who was drafted out of high school, and has been a victim of the three "I's": Injury, Incompetence, and Ink. The photo shows is a before and after, of what an injured millionaire can do with his spare time. Makes you wonder what other millionaires have tattooed on their arms. What ever it is, probably not as Louvre-quality as Robert's body.

In the third year of a $5Million-plus contract, Robert has played 284 minutes of NBA basketball in the first half of the season, which works out to $882,240 for a half season, and $186,388 per hour of NBA playing time. I wouldn not be surprised if at the end of this season Robert gets laid off. Hopefully he'll have enough money in the bank to do his patriotic duty and stimulate the economy...at the tattoo parlor! What a great country!

Global Warming?

2009-03-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

An Inconvenient Window Scraping

March is the traditional month for weather swings i.e. "March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb." This weekend we had lion-like weather: a snow storm, but it was lamb-like in that it gently fell and covered everything in the color of wool.

Are we experiencing "Global Warming?" Maybe yes, maybe no. Scientists are passionate on either side. As for ths non-scientist's opinion, I think we are just experiencing the swings of nature. The first thermometer of any kind was invented by Galilleo in 1593, and the first mercury thermometer was invented in 1714. So there's been a whole lot more warmings and coolings experienced that we have not recorded in the history of life on this planet, so we don't have a very lengthy data base. Besides whatever efforts we make in reducing global warming in the US are offset by the China and Brazil and third world countries where regulations are minimal compared to the U.S.

Anyway, I thought this photo was fun, being so late in the year.

Is It, or Isn't It

2009-03-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm an accountant. There is a stereotype that goes with accountants, and I've been told I don't fit the mold. Maybe that's why I'm not the CFO of a company or something. At any rate, I work on a floor with about 40 other degreed accountant, and many of them do fit the stereotype. I was far from the class clown in high school, but on the bell curve of accountants in my department, I'm the class clown.

Last month the maintenance people at work installed a square thing in the ceiling. It looked kind of like a square smoke detector, about 9" x 9". We weren't sure what it was, but it's probably a wireless internet router, but as of right now, we don't have a wireless internet network. It was the only one of it's kind on our side of the building. Probably installed for some future use.

With the economy tightening up, we've had two staff members laid off which sprinkled a little tension among some of the staff, and the CEO sent an email saying that he was bringing in a consulting firm to evaluate our efficiencies in our building. Most interpreted that to mean that they might be bringing the axe with them to lop off more staff. There has been a gallows humor approach by some, and we were joking that the square thing install was actually a microphone or even contained a small camera.

That thought was discussed yesterday, since the consultants were in our department talking to some of our managers the day before. When Ron Bloom and Brent Armstrong left for lunch (both a couple of guys who understand my sense of humor) I went to work and created a little black camera out of paper and taped it to the square thing in the ceiling. I labeled it the "Bloom Cam" and aimed it towards Ron's cubicle and others around it.

I was curious how long it would take anyone to notice. Well that was yesterday and today people were still talking about it. At first glance, a number of people actually thought it was a real camera actually monitoring people at work. There has been a little bit of edge with some people, knowing that the consultants were in the building. Others, after looking at it, immediately accused me of putting it on the ceiling. I just said, "What makes you think it was me? My name's not on the camera. Talk to Ron."

I was pleased that it got a lot of laughs, and amused at the reaction. I got the blame because, well, some days I feel like I am the ONLY source of humor on our floor. Well, whaddyagonna do? Now I have to think of my next trick.

Race Week - July 20 - 26

2008-08-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

Well, week after the running and camping disaster, we have another van, but I still had the same, sore Achilles tendon. I gave it a full week of rest. I was no longer limping, but I didn't feel like running. I decided, "Whatever - I'm going to register, and just go as far as I can." If nothing else, I would set a goal to beat for 2009. My number one goal was to beat the start of the parade.

The race registration said that you needed to average an eleven minute mile in order to beat the beginning of parade. After watching all the stragglers running in last year's race, I think that was put in to discourage really slow runners, but still, the potential was there to get kicked off the course. My training up until straining my Achilles was about 13 minutes per mile for three miles. So this is a real wild card.

The race begins at Quest Field, heads south to the Safeco Field, then around to 1st Avenue. Then north up the on-ramp to the Alaska Way Viaduct. The run follows the viaduct north, through the Battery Street Tunnel, and then turns around south after popping through the tunnel. Then it's south towards 4th Avenue, the Parade Route, which is at about the 3.5 mile mark. Then it's basically 1.5 miles, mostly downhill, in front of the crowd waiting for the parade, estimated at up to 300,000 people.

I picked up my youngest sister Alice at SeaTac along with her Boise State U. Sophomore Angie at SeaTac Airport. Then we headed to downtown Seattle to set up some chairs to stake our claim for seating on the parade route, and also drove the race route, noting every hill which would soon menace us later in the day. We set up a place between Blanchard and Bell on the north end of 4th Avenue, about two blocks from where the runners would enter the parade route.

Team Tegeder: Daughter-In-Law Julie (holding 2+ month-old Summer), who ran in the Boston Marathon, Son Andy who qualified and ran in the Washington State Cross Country Meet in high school, Alice on the far right, who ran on the Weber State University Track Team, and me, whose last distance run was a 5K around 1980, and last ran twelve days ago! I am definitely the weak link in Team Tegeder.

We met at our spot, then headed about a mile and a half to the start line. Andy and Julie rode bikes so they could more quickly get back to their children (Julie's a nursing mother, and even though the details of the race were explained to the baby, there was no guarantee that Summer was going to have any empathy if she got hungry) Alice and I rode the bus that runs free downtown.

(Left: Angie (in camoflage), Noah and Lovis wait at base camp.)

Alice and I took the bus, and got to Qwest Field about 15 minutes before the race was to start. We got our numbers and our ankle bracelet. (No, not that kind of ankle bracelet - it was a velcro band with a timing chip. It measures your time from the exact time you cross the magentic strip on the starting line to the magnetic strip on the finish line.) We got in the pack of 1,500+ runners kind of in the middle. I didn't want to get caught in the pace of the front of the pack, but didn't want to be in the rear, either. (There would be plenty of time for that after the race begins.) It was really cool to be in a pack of fit, motivated people. There was just an exciting energy, more exciting by the fact that I was actually in it. Most of the participants looked a lot fitter, and a lot younger than me. It had been cloudy all day, but the sun was breaking out. Perhaps an omen? But, what the heck - I'm in. I felt like Gene Wilder in "The Producers" just before the curtain goes up when he says "Well Max....THIS IS IT!" I've never run five miles in my life, I'm older than I ever have been,...and the gun sounds, and the pack begins to move. THIS IS IT!

Alice and I had our Ipods, and the plan was that we would run together until we had to split up, and didn't need to plug in until then. Alice could tell immediately that my pace was too slow, so we ran together about two blocks and Alice broke ahead near Royal Brougham Way, the first turn. Royal Brougham was a one block run, and then we take a turn north towards the Alaska Way on ramp. Andy and Julie ran with me on Royal Brougham and then after the turn towards the viaduct, I wished them a good race.

The first major hurdle was the on-ramp to the viaduct, at about 1/2 mile into the run. I just had no idea how much gas I had in my tank, but I knew how tired I was after running hills in some of my training. So, I decided to walk up the on-ramp - which goes to the top of a double-decker freeway. Once I hit the top, I started to jog. I looked behind me and it was pretty sparse, already.
"Running" on the Alaska Way Vidaduct - The arches in the background are on the roof of Qwest Field

At the 1.5 mile mark on the viaduct was the first water station. Lots of volunteer offering cups of water. Wowzers! I'm getting treated like the distance runners on TV! I accepted my cup, took a sip, splashed the rest on my face and threw my cup over my should just like a real runner! I have officially arrived!...well, except for the part about the 3.5 miles yet to be run. I was starting to feel the pain, and decided in order to conserve energy I'd walk a little. On the viaduct there were expansion joints, so I would determine to walk from one joint to another, and then run between two joints, then walk between one, etc. That seemed to work and keep me going. There were a few people watching from the parking garage overhead at one point, and as they cheered I told them I was going to dedicate the next minute of running to them!

I hit the 2 mile mark in the Battery Street Tunnel, which is about a 1/2 mile tunnel under the surface streets. A significant milestone happened in the tunnel when I actually passed a high school kid who had started walking. It was pretty lonely in the tunnel. Every time one of the support guys on a bike rode by I felt like you do when a police car passes you slowly. Even though you think you're OK, for a moment you wonder, "I wonder if he's looking at me? Is he going to pull me over?" I just looked straight ahead, and the support guy rode on. Whew. By now, at the two mile mark, the mens and womens winners are already across the finish line.

I made it out of the tunnel, ran up Aurora Avenue to Republican Street. Kind of symbolic of the Presidential Race. As the old guy makes his solitary run onto Republican Street, the throngs are cheering elsewhere. However, I still have Hope, and my feet are telling me that I am experiencing Change I Can Believe In: my feet have changed from training-day sore to race-day painful. The fact that the race turned on Republican street makes me wonder, is there a Democrat street in Seattle? Of course: They're ALL Democrat streets! But then I hit Dexter Ave: the symbolic right turn at roughly the halfway point. I am heading south! By now, the rest of team Tegeder has passed the Tegeder base camp.

(Right) Nurse Wendy waiting with Lovis and baby Summer, experiencing her first SeaFair Summer!

As I approach Denny Way, the 3-mile mark of the run, there is the second water station. By now the rest of Team Tegeder is crusing down towards the finish line.

(Right: Andy and Julie are greeted with high-fives from Noah and Lovis)

...and they're off to the finish.

And about four minutes later, Aunt Alice hits base camp, smiling, fit, and hiding the pain of having run a mile and a half further at this point than any of her training runs.

It looks like Alice is ready for a big high five, while Noah is deciding whether to give a high five or clear out of the way in case Alice collapses.

Notice that in the photos of Andy, Julie and Alice, there are other runners on the course at the same time. It's a little different feeling in the back of he pack where I am. As I approach the Denny Way water station, I see that it is manned by what looks to be a bunch of high school kids. There are about ten of them, all holding one or two cups of water, and here I come. It's probably been two or three minutes since the last runner passed through, most of the race is done, and they're, well, high school kids. A young woman hands me a cup, which I take on mouthful and realize that I can't swallow and breathe while running very well. So I took one swallow then shot the rest of the water in my face. As I do so, the high school boys take the cue, and every one of them douses me with their water. By the end of the gauntlet, I'm soaked...and refreshed. It was in good fun. And I turn onto Denny.

One of the bike support guys rides along side me. I'm thinking "No, you can't pull me off now - the parade doesn't start for 20 more minutes!" But instead he just said "Are you OK? " I replied I was and he said he would check back. No threat of being pulled off the course...Hey! There's 4th Avenue! I'm gonna make it!

Base camp waits. Most of the runners have passed, the parade hasn't begun yet, and Robert is somewhere.

As I neared 4th Avenue, I called Wendy on the cell phone to tell her where I was and that I would be by the base camp soon. I'm still on the phone as I hit 4th Avenue, and people started to cheer. I felt like "What a dork, I'm the slowest runner out here and I'm on my cell phone!" I hung up the phone & looked around and realized that the cheers were for me! I thought it sounded fun to run where there would be energy in the crowd, but, having accepted the fact that I was going to be what could be the last finisher in the race, if people were going to cheer, I was going to enjoy it. So did the uplifted arms thing that pro athletes do when they're trying to get the crowd to cheer more. It worked. It gave me a boost.

Wendy got the grandkids set to give their "Opa" (German for Grandpa) a high five. Then as I approach, some girl in holding an inflatable dolphin pops in between them as a street vendors cart comes into the same area. So it detracted from what could have been a cuter photo. Timing is everything. I hope the girl was happy that her dolphin got high-fived (high-finned?)

The dolphin-toting girl returns to her chair as I get congratulations from Lovie.

The picture doesn't show it very well, but my shirt is completely drenched. Wendy said I should just stop now and rest. I was thinking, "What!??" Two perspectives: I was well onto 4th Avenue, three blocks of people have been cheering for me, and I'm going to finish this race even if I get kicked off the course and have to go on the sidewalks to the finish. I've hit goal #1 which was to beat the start of the parade, and now goal #2, to cross the finish line, is within reach. I've paid my dues and my fans await me. Wendy's perspective: Here's my out-of-shape husband, beyond any distance he's run in the past 20 years, and is completely drenched! To Wendy, a Registered Nurse, it looked like I had completely drenched my clothing due to sweat, and was a candidate for heat stroke or heat exhaustion (I get them confused - one has symptoms of no sweat, just clammy, and the other has symptoms of profuse sweating. I should have paid more attention in my college first aid class, but cute girls in a class mess up your concentration, of which Wendy was one.) So Nurse Wendy was just trying to keep me from something serious, like death. Sounds kind of selfish, but when it comes to husbands, she prefers the kind that are breathing! I convinced her I'd be OK. (OK, I don't think I convinced her, but I had convince me.)

People were cheering, and it was keeping me going! Last year my daughter Sonja said she probably ran an extra quarter mile serpentining the route giving fives to all the little kids on the parade route. Well, that was OK by me. I was going to try to give a five to every body who offered. I high fived young and old, little girls and older people in wheelchairs who would love to be able to run as poorly I was running. The crowd inter-action took my mind off the pain and the breathing and the pain.

One of the things you notice as you run, is that the world is full of slogans, and I was getting the fully supply of them. Among the things I heard were:

I heard them all and then some. It was fun and it kept me going. I hit the hill at Seneca Street and started to walk. Then someone would cheer I said "these next ten steps are for you!" and I would start jogging again. It was a fun, slow run down 4th Avenue. After going under the Yesler overpass at the 4.5 mark, the course turned downhill to 2nd Avenue, and then a turn south and there it was: The Finish Line. There was no more hill, and man oh man, do my feet hurt. If Alice thought I was going slow before, I was really going slow now, but I was going to make it!

The Finish Line! I called Wendy on the cell and said "Yo Adrian, We Did It!" Man oh man do I hurt! It was great to finish! I lingered at the finish line area, drinking the free water and eating the free fruit. I was kind of in a daze and my feet really hurt. (Have I said that my fee hurt?) As I'm limping over to the refreshment table, a vivacious young woman walked up to me to hand me a flyer and started saying something about "We sponsor marathons and half marathons.." and about then all I could do was shake my head like a foreigner does when they don't understand what you're saying but want to be polite. I think my fatigued brain heard the words "marathon" and couldn't process any additional words the young gal was saying. I did have the strength to accept the brochure. Never found he strength to read it, though.

I found out that the free bus that runs downtown stops being free at 7:00 pm. I didn't have any money, so the only way back was to walk...or highjack a car. I opted for the good citizen method and limped the 1.7 miles back to Tegeder Base Camp. But I made it, a finisher. Final Time: 1:10:59.8. I finished UNDER one hour and eleven minutes. A 14:11 mile average for the five miles. Of the 50 men in the 55-59 age group, I finished 50th! I thought I was the last guy to finish, but the official results showed that I beat three guys in their thirties among a handful of others finishing behind me somewhere. Alice was really happy finish 11th among the 22 women in her age bracket. She was in the top 50%!

I knew my feet hurt. The left Achilles tendon I strained was sore, but not nearly as much as it felt they day I had to stop running. I didn't find out until I got home and took my socks off that in addition to my number and t-shirt, another souvenier of the race was a blood
blister on my right foot about two inches long and in the shape of Japan.

So, will I do this again? I think I will. Next year I'll do it in less than an hours. That means I may have to compete with other runners for the cheers, but I look more like a runner instead of a novelty act during intermission between the end of the race and the beginning of the parade.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my running adventure. It actually took me longer to blog about the race than it did to run it! But at least my fingers are not sore and blistered.

Monday, July 14th - A Bad Day

2008-08-02T05:50:00.001-07:00

Today was not a great day for movement, either by body or by machine. With my soreness, I just didn't complete the four-mile run as scheduled. I figured today is the day, knowing that I've got to stretch it out sometime, and soon. I had a run mapped out, the Itunes ready to go, and off I went before work on this sunny morning. I ended up shutting it down after about a mile. Man, my achilles heel on the left ankle was just killing me. So I finished a shorter course, walking an additional two miles on top of the mile I had run. It's a long way from four miles. I spent the rest of the day limping and figuring I'll have to heal up. The fact that the run is now less than two weeks away makes it really discouraging.

On the positive note, today was the beginning of a 3&1/2 day camping trip to Mt. Raininer. We had Sonja and Molly and Molly's husband of six months, Brad. We also had our new (to us) tent trailier, ready for its inagural run as a Tegeder vehicle. I was swamped at work, so the plan was for a Wendy, Brad and the daughters to head down on Monday and I would come Tuesday morning after a full day of work on Monday. A fun part was the plan for daughter-in-law Julie to bring her three children with her for their first Mt. Rainier experience.

I was getting work done, starting to think about not working for three days when the phone rang about 3:15 from Wendy. "We're on the side of the road, about 20 miles from the Park entrance, and I think the transmission is out." What a gloomy call. I spent the next 30-45 minutes back and forth with AAA, became an instant member of the "RV Plus" club...for a $30 price. (They proudly gave me a number based on the order in which I joined.)

Passengers posed a problem since the tow truck didn't have room for four passengers. The AAA operator put me on hold, made some inquiries and after a while came back on the line and said "We've checked the state law, and it is legal for y0ur family to ride in the van while it is on the back of the bed of the tow truck."...Yeah, right. I didn't consider this an option. So off I headed.

I got there to their stranded point, on a two-lane road somewhere between Elbe and Morton, WA about two hours later. A courteous Lewis County PUD worker put a tow-strap on the van and towed the whole works to a place in the road with a turn-out where it was much safer to be compared to place where the van broke down. It was really a bad spot with what Wendy estimated to be at least 30 logging trucks whizzing by. All of the women were in the van. In the vacation spirit, Brad was in a camping chair reading a book.

We waited an additional hour, and about four hours from the time Wendy called me at work, the tow truck arrived.

This is the only vacation photo from our Mr. Rainier vacation.

The vacationers drove the Saturn back home, and I rode with the truck driver back to Renton. We got the trailer towed back home, and then dropped the van off at the transmission shop where we get most of our general repairs done. But we were looking just for an assessment. I think this van is going to be put out of it's misery....and my achilles is still sore....

Jul 6-12 Ups & Downs

2008-07-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

The running continues. This week I altered the running prescription a little bit. Coming off of failure on Saturday where I failed to do a 3-mile run as scheduled, I set out on Monday morning's "slow jog" to see h0w far I could go. I ran for 2.6 miles. Not the three-mile, but a lot better than the prior effort. I did Tuesday's interval training, and then was feeling pretty good. So Wednesday, July 9th I eschewed the prescribed 10 minute walk followed by a 20 minute jog, and set out to do a three-mile run! Mission accomplished. I was feeling like I could really do this race! But later in the day I was limping and my right ankle was swollen. I took Thursday off, and decided Friday I needed to cover the race distance, either running or walking. So I did a six-mile walk which took me about an hour and fifty minutes. It was a beautiful day, but I was really sore, and with a desk job, I stiffened up.

Saturday called for a four-mile run. I just couldn't do it. I figured I'd take the weekend off, and run the four-mile on Monday when my legs were healed up. I've gone from the encouragement of the three mile run to the discouragement of how my ankles feel.

Off The Track...and Slightly Off-Track

2008-07-05T22:41:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 5th 2008

This past week has had up and downs. Last Saturday I had finished the two-mile
run on the Lindbergh HS track, and immediately started to fear the three-mile run
scheduled for Sat, July 5th. Andy and Julie both told me to get off the track
and onto the streets, sidewalks, and trails. The acountant in me was attracted
to the precision of the track, it's measured length, evenness of terrain, and
level surface. But I took them up and hit the pavement. Thanks to mapmyrun.com,
I was able to measure my distances, even to a more precise level than the quarter
miles of the track.

Monday June 30th - My running schedule called for a 7 minute jog, 5 minute walk,
7 miute jog, five minute walk and then a 5 minute jog. I was able to do the
whole routine plus adding some minutes to the final jog. It was a great day to
be on the streets. I rode my bike to work early enough to get my workout in
before work. The sun was out, it was warm, and just delightful. The sprinklers
had already done their thing for the day, and it enhanced the smells of the
freshly cut lawns and the flowers and shrubbery along the way. A good day and
very encouraging for the coming week.

Tuesday, July 1st. It's run month! Twenty-five more days to go. Today's plna
called for a recovery day. "Very slow jog for 20 minutes, 10 minute walk." I
was feeling pretty good, and took it an extra 10% with a 22 minute run followed
by an 11 minute walk. I had to go to a meeting in Bellevue after work, so I took
the bus, and biked home. I must have overdone it because my ankle was swollen
after the 10-mile ride. I hope it doesn't turn into a lingering problem.

Wed, July 2nd. I dropped the van off the prior day for some work, and was to
pick it up after work today. I figured I'd do my workout, which called for a "2
mile jog with walking when needed," after work sometime. The planing for that
was a little easier since a co-worker said to me during the day, "Hey, is that
your Raleigh bike out on the bike rack with the flat tire?" Affirmative... So I
mapped a run to the repair shop. Two miles of flat plus one mile all uphill. I
wasn't able to do the entire 2-mile distance without walking, but I did add some
running interval uphill during the uphill walk like "I'm going to run to that
lightpost, etc.'

Thur, July 3rd. - Recovery day. A good day to rest the ankle. So I did.

Friday, 4th of July. Today's prescription: 10 min slow jog, 10 min walk, 5
minute slow jog, 10 minute walk. ("Slow jog?" I didn't know there was any other
speed.) I added to the plan, running a 10 minute jog during the second set, and
added a 12 minute run after the 10 minute walk. During the third set I was
running towards home and wasn't thinking about my legs or my breathing - I was
just jogging, and when the workout was completed, it was the most optimistic I've
felt since I started the workouts that I can actually do this!

Sat, July 5th. I started to the day watching the videotape of daughter Molly's
brother-in-law, Josh Rohatinksy, finish 5th in the 10,000 meter Olympic Trial
race. I think it was a 24-lap race, and the top three go to the Olympics. The
announcers said that Josh had strained his leg about three weeks ago, and that
had to be discouraging. A three person pack broke away during the race, and Josh
was one of the leaders of the second pack. Just couldn't catch them. It was
disappointing. He finished 8 seconds behind the winner. Imagine the precision
at the Olypmic Athlete caliber. That eight second gap equates to 1/3 of second
per lap difference! Josh's time was 27:54. That's running 4:30 per mile for 6.2
miles!

Today was my day for the 3-mile run. I haven't run an uninterruped 3-miles for
over twenty years. The last time I tried that distance was back in 1989 when I
thought I'd start running to lose some weight before my 20th high school reunion.
The outcome was that I hurt my knee, aborted the running, and ended up playing
some tennis instead.

I took Ringo with me on the run. Ringo is a great dog to take on a walk.
Runnins is a different story. I guess in the world of dog, Ringo considers
himself "all man," and as a result, feels compelled to pee on everything. He can
get away with it on a walk, but it's really annoying when running. I made it
just about 1 & 2/3 miles before jogging up a hill, and just ran out of gas. I
felt kind of defeated as I dropped into a walk. Then it started to rain. There I was,
walking with a wet dog in the rain.

Remember in the movie "The Natural," there's the point where Robert Redford is
having a tough time, and then Glen Close stands up from her seat in the stadium,
in her white dress and hat, and a beam of sunlight falls upon her making her look
radiant and inspires Redford to hit a home run? Chris Farley would pause and just say,
"That was awesome." I would say that scene from "The Natural" was the opposite of
what my running experience was today. Pretty discouraging.

I ran the last 1/3 mile, with the excursion covering 3 miles. As a consolation
prize, I went to Bally's and did a 2&1/4 walk on the treadmill, so that for the
first time I covered the entire distance of the race that is a mere three weeks
away.

My right ankle hurts...

Our Olympic Connection (We hope)

2008-07-03T05:20:00.000-07:00

Josh Rohatinsky, pictured to the right of groom Brad Mortenson, is Molly's new brother-in-law and will be running in the US Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters! He is married to Brad's sister, Jena and trains with the Nike team in Portland, Oregon. Josh was in the Seattle area for Molly's wedding in December 2007.

He's not the favorite, but has posted times that make him as qualified as any other runner to make the team.

It seems that rather than expose track and field more as the Olympics come near, the television networks seem to be treating track and field as a sidebar to be occasionally covered when they have exhausted every minute of gymnastics that can be broadcast. We'll be trying to watch Josh, either on tape delay by the major network holding the Olympic Trial broadcasting rights, or on the USA Network, which is broadcasting for a few hours during the day. Go Josh!

You can read about Josh in an article that was written prior to his running in the USA Olympic Marathon Trials in late 2007 at:

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-239-399--12113-0,00.html

Having a family connection to a world class runner has not given me any apparent benefit in preparations for the Torchlight Parade.

The Gift of Life

2008-07-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

I donated blood at the Puget Sound Blood Center last week and they gave me my 3-Gallon Pin. I thought I'd commemorate it on the blog.

(r) I wasn't able to find three gallons of blood to pose with - airfare to Translyvania is pretty expensive, so I posed with three gallons of the reddest liquid I could find at the grocery store. I took the picture just to give a little perspective.

I'm actually donating for two, since Wendy isn't allowed to donate any more. So I'll give her credit for a gallon and one-half. If you can donate blood and haven't lately, do it! It truly is a gift that money can't buy!

Mind Games

2008-06-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the day I battle my powers of rationalization in jogging two miles without stopping, and now I'm rationalizing that I deserve some dangerous but delicious food at the buffet line... the salad lost...for today.

Sunday, Jun 29th, 2008 - Recovery Day. I been able to complete three more days
on the runner training plan for the Seafair Torchlight Parade Run since my last
blog posting. Four weeks to go!

Thursday the 27th was a 20 minute fast walk/jog. I opted to make it a 20 minute
jog, followed by a 15 minute walk. I was able to do 1.55 miles in the 20 minute
time period. I had to work late, so I ended doing it on a treadmill. Treadmills
just don't compare to the real thing, but it does provide a nice Ipod holder.

Friday was a 10 min fast walk followed by a one mile jog. Fast walk? I can do
that, and did, to the tune of 2.5 laps around the LHS track. Then the jog. I
took it easy, then followed the with another few laps walking to get two miles in
for the evening. I didn't want to do much more with the two mile run greeting me
as I wake up on Saturday morning. The lawn inside the track was freshly mowed,
and it really smelled good.

Saturday. - The two mile run. It seems like, in the past when I've trained,
usually my legs have more stamina than my lungs. Initially my lungs have been
behind, but today, during the second mile, my legs felt like stone. Legs and
lungs were usually the two components, as I saw it. Today, my brain made it a
trifecta. Yogi Berra, a catcher for the New York Yankees in the 50' & 60's was
known for his colorful quotes. I thought of this one as I was running: "Baseball
is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical." I felt like runing was
ninety percent legs and the lungs, and the other half is mental. In my eight
lap run, as I finished lap three I thought, "Oh, man I've still got 5/8ths of
this run to go. I felt like the guy in one of those old cartoons who has the
devil talking in one ear and an angel talking in the other. "It's OK to quit,
you haven't run this far in fifteen years." "You can do it, just keep moving."
"It's OK if you quit after seven laps, that's almost two miles" "You don't want
to write about failure in your blog - it will disappoint your children" "Your
children don't care - they're happy you tried? "C'mon, suck it up."

Suck it up, I did, and completed the two miles in 27:24.

Later that day we met Andy and his family at the Old Country Buffet to celebrate
his completion of the State Board Medical Exam. It was a seven hour test. So
now we're at an all-you-can eat buffet, I'm hungry and I felt like I really
deserved to eat well having complete my two mile run. I think the angelic side
of my brain was worn out from the run, so the other side took over and treated me
with ham, grilled pork chop, mashed potatoes, baked beans, and a piece of
chocolate cake with ice cream on top. Take that, brain! While my lungs, legs,
and brain were in recovery mode, my taste buds did quite fine holding up under
the challenge!

Still on Track, Literally & Figuratively

2008-06-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 25th

It's midweek and I'm still on track with the running prescription for the Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade Run.

Monday's prescription was:
4 minute jog
5 minute walk
4 minute jog
5 minute walk
jog until tired
I covered the timed part of the prescription over about a mile and a quarter. Then I started the "jog until tired" part of the plan. Jog until tired?...I'm already tired! But I stuck it out for a full quarter mile and then walked two more laps to get in a full two miles.

Tuestday's plan was:
20 minute fast walk. - "Walk?" To quote Barak Obama, "Yes I Can!" Wendy and I went to Ikea for dinner. She had a yearning for their meatballs. I went for the rice pilaf. Bad choice. Plenty of rice, way too much pilaf. Interesting how when a food has just the type of seasonings you like, it's really, really good. But, when that combination goes in the wrong direction, well, I was hungry, but I didn't finish my dinner. We had Ringo my training partner in the car waiting for us. I walked home - 2.2 miles, most of it uphill.

Wednesday's plan:
1 mile jog, walking as needed. - I went up to Lindbergh High School to do the run. I walked two laps to get warmed up, walking with Wendy and Ringo. Then it was off to the races. OK, not to the races, but I did start the jog. The Ipod was providing Beach Boy tunes. I found that "409" was the perfect cadence, so I listened to it three times. 409 was a hot Oldsmobile car in the 60's. Either it meant the car had an engine with 409 cubic inches, or the marketers felt "409" just sounded cool. At any rate, Oldsmobile went on to become a car that people stopped buying. When they all look alike, why buy an Olds? Perhaps the competion from the cleaner Formula 409 made the car seem less enviable in the eyes of the buying public. I know that personally I've vowed to never purchase a car with the same name as Clorox.

I did the mile in 14:15, delayed by the dog for a short time. Total distance running and walking was three miles. Who knows, maybe I can pull this off yet. However, Saturday's two-mile jog assignment is starting to lurk.

Operation Torchlight - Training Continues

2008-06-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 23rd

The first six days of training for the Seattle Seafair Torchlight Parade 5 Mile Run continue. I have been adhering to FDr. (Future Docter) Tegeder's prescription. Day 2 was a minimum 20 minute fast walk - "Walkings, yeah, I think I can walk.." Day three was a 10 minute fast walk, followed by a 5 minute jog, then a 10 minute walk. I went to the Lindbergh High School track. My walking covered 2&1/2 laps, and the jog was about a lap and a half. All the while I was jogging, I was thinking, "I don't know know about tomorrow." "Tomorrow", Saturday, was a scheduled one mile jog. (Photo:) Ringo gets a break with a shorter-legged human, Grandson Noah Tegeder

I don't think I've actually run a full mile in over ten years. I've spent a lot of hours on an elliptical machine in the past year and one-half, but very little actually running. I spent all morning doing yard work, then donned the running close. Ringo, our dog and training partner sees me in sweats and he thinks good things are going to happen.

We walked up to the high school as a warm-up (1.3 miles) and then there it was: the track, and four laps waiting to be assaulted before I could go home. It wasn't easy, but I did it. During the last lap, I felt like letting go of the leash and just saying "Go head Ringo, you can finish without me." Time: 13:10 for the mile. As I was running, I was thinking to myself that I can't comprehend running five miles by the 19th. But I'm going to follow the prescription and see what happens.

Sunday on my running plan is always a rest and recovery day. Saturdays are the long days. FDr. Tegeder has me running a mile further every Saturday. So now this coming Saturday's Two-Mile run is already looming.

Sunday we went up to Andy & Julie's and had dinner and spent some time with his family.

Taking the Future Doctor Tegeder Challenge

2008-06-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

Last year son Andy, his marathoner wife Julie, and my daughter Sonja all ran in the 2007 Seattle Torchlight Parade Run. It's a 5-mile (8K) run that starts at the Seattle Seahawks Stadium, Qwest Field, goes up the Alaska Way viaduct with a scenic view of the waterfront, cuts into the city onto 4th Avenue downtown where the run finishes on the parade route for the annual Seattle Torchlight Parade. It a night parade with lots of lighting and floats, bands, politicians to boo, etc.

(Above) - A random photo of runners in last year'r run in downtown Seattle.

So the fun thing on this run is that you get to finish in front of 300,000 people or so who are waiting for the parade to start. I was thinking about running in it, but pulled a groin muscle about two months ago while playing some basketball with some younger guys. The pain has only recently gone away, and at our Father's Day dinner I brought up the race to see if Andy and Julie wanted to run in it. Andy has been studying 10 hrs a day getting ready for the state medical board exams, and Julie just gave birth last month, so neither are in tip-top running shape. I mentioned that I had thought about running but with the injury I figured I'd have to wait until next year.

Upon hearing this, my 2-years of medical school trained, graduate student-degreed exercise science major said that anyone can run 5 miles with the amount of time left to train. So, I told him to write me a running prescription and I would do my best to follow it and see what happens. So I'll chronicle my progress, or lack thereof on the blog.

(Left) - First Day of training. Right off the bat I demonstrate my ability to outdistance some overweight , tired rec-league soccer girls on the track.

Ringo, our dog, is my training partner.

FDr (Future Doctor ) Tegeder's prescription for Day one is:
10 min fast walk
4 min jog
10 min walk
4 min jogWalk for 10 min or so more

Ringo and I pulled this one off. Wendy started with us, but her knees have dictated that she is the official photographer, and will be the official Grandma with Andy and Julie's three children during the race.

Day 2 - Jun 19th - FDr. Tegeders running prescription for today was : 20 min (minimum) fast walk. Hey, I can do a walk! Even my training partner didn't think that was so tough, although he was distracted the entire half hour walk. I went on a trail that we used to call the Bunny Trail from the days when we would go on family bike rides, and often see wild rabbits. Ringo was not disappointed, seeing many rabbits, and wanting to go after every one of them. He usually heels very well, but this evening he was pulling on leash most of the time, being distracted by the sight and smell of rabbits. I'm crossing Bunny Trail off of my training venue list.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game, It They Don't Win,...it's Expected...

2008-06-16T23:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, Father's Day Eve I met my old friends the Hardcastles for a night at Safeco Field. We saw the 2nd game of a three-game home stand. Entering the game, the Washington Nationals and the Mariners were tied for most losses in Major League Baseball. The M's lost Friday night, and we were able to witness them take a firm hold on worst record in baseball with a 5-2 loss. But it was a terrific night to be at the ball park, even though I don't think I could have named a single member of the Washington Nationals before the game started.

The Hardcastles were our neighbors about 18 or so years ago and have moved all around the Western US. They are living in Midway, Utah now, and took vacation to the Pacific Northwest, ending their trip at Safeco Field. Their oldest son, Colt, used to be Sonja's playmate when she was a toddler. Colt is not a Richie Sexton fan, so he got ample opportunities to enjoy Richie's ineptness in light of having the batter in front of him being intentionally walked to load the bases in order to pitch to Richie. The Washington Nationals, and Colt, were not disapppointed as Sexton was easily retired.

My Frist Bolg Entry (Wow, I'm really nervuos...)

2008-06-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 14, 2008

So, the blog has begun. I enjoy reading the blogs of my offspring, so I figure I might as well join the blogosphere and hopefully others will enjoy reading my/our blog as well. So what do I have to report? Not much. Wendy and I are still working in healthcare, she as a nurse at a kidney dialysis center, and me as the senior accountant for a hospital.

Computers are amazing machines. They don't compare with the human mind, however. The good thing about computers is that there is a "search" button - when you can't find a file, you can ask the search feature to find it for you. I wish my brain had a search function...well, it does, but sometimes it operates at the speed of a Commodore Vic 20 computer.

Anyway, I was able to actually use my search function in my brain yesterday. A co-worker was leaving and said "Wish me luck. I'm going fishing." I entered a little chit-chat, like "Where are you going?" and "What are you fishing for?" etc, to which most of her answers were "I don't know - my friends planned it." So it was the end of day, people are winding down the week, good time for a joke. I hit the mental search button and came up with about the only fishing joke I think I have on my mental hard drive:

Some fishermen were fishing on a river. One guy was by himself. A little further down the bank three guys who were on the excursion together were fishing. The loner would reel in a fish every now and then, while the threesome weren't even getting a bite. Seeing the loner's success, they moved down to his part of the river, and the guy decided to move to the spot they vacated. Not too long after that they noticed the solo fisherman started to catch some fish in the spot they'd vacated, while they remained fish free.

The loner moved down to a bend in the river, and noticing this, one of the threesome suggested that they do the same, figuring that if you can't beat them, join them. So there they were, within a few rod-lengths of each other, and the loner stared to reel in a fish. Seeing this, one of the exasperated fisherman in the trio said "Buddy, what's the secret to catching fish around here?" "Hrmmmfmmuww" came the reply. "What? said the questioner?" "Hrmmmfmmmuww" was the reply again. This exchange happened a third time, same as the first two. The questioner then said "I'm sorry, but I just can't understand what you're saying. " Now the successful fisherman was a little exasperated himself, whereupon he held up his hands, blew out a wad of something out of his mouth into his cupped hands and said, "You have to keep your worms warm!"

OK, I haven't told that joke for years, but it sent a few people out the door of my workplace yesterday with a smile. Hope you smiled too!