"We gotta get out while we're young . . ."

So, I will confess that until recently I never understood the allure of running. Sure its faster than walking, but much slower than driving. However, tipping the scales at near the 2nd century mark and having great suits hanging in the closet collecting dust, has a way of focusing one's mind on possible alternatives to a sedentary (think Jabba The Hutt) lifestyle.

I spent several weeks mentally preparing for my introduction to running, bought all the right gear, had a full physical, loaded up the ipod with my favorite tunes and I was ready to roll. Whitney was home for the summer and I knew that he regularly worked out by running, so I asked and he graciously agreed to join me for my first foray at the high school track. Logan came along too - I'm sure only for the comic relief.

June 9th - I look back now and think how pathetic I must have looked. Middle-aged, overweight guy, mostly walking 1/4 miles, running on occasion, feeling the burn in my lungs as I expended too much energy and wondering why anyone would knowingly engage in such an obviously self-defeating endeavor. My ipod and nike+ chip in my shoe registered my "run" as 2.16 miles covered in just over 34 minutes. Oy.

The encouragement of my family and friends, (runners and non-runners), despite my seeming lack of success at such a simple activity kept me going back, pushing myself to do a little better each time. Trust me, early on, it wouldn't have taken much to discourage me back to my previous status of complete lethargy.

The next big step; Our family all signed up to run a mini-marathon (2.6 miles) on the 4th of July in Monmouth. A mixture of young and old, male and female, brothers, sisters, cousins - you get the picture. Fourteen family members in all. My goal was simply not to finish last. I didn't.

Something wonderful happened that day - I missed the time goal I had set for myself by about 11 seconds. That may not sound like much, but it seriously bothered me. I kept thinking "if I hadn't walked that stretch" or "I could have pushed myself a little more" and that would have led to a minor victory in a somewhat inconsequential event. I determined that from that moment on, each time I went for a run/walk I would push myself to go beyond that which I thought I was able to do.

Tomorrow I will register my 300th mile since June 9th. Since that time I have run the deck of a Cruise Ship, the streets of Skagway, Alaska, and the Hills of Neskowin. After living here my whole life, I have discovered the serenity of Minto Brown Island and its miles of trails and paths. I have run when its hot, I have run when its cold. I have run at daybreak and past sundown. I have conquered the West Salem Hills and the headwinds at the Oregon Coast. I have run on sore knees, a bad back, and various aches and pains attendant to my age, but I have never felt better.

I am officially addicted. I regularly check weather forecasts to know what part of the day will be optimal. I schedule my day to make sure I have time for my run (and the icing of knees afterward). I find myself in extended conversations, with others who run, about - running.

Walking has not been a part of my workout since July. I have run 42 of the last 59 days (I don't do Sundays). All 21 August workouts have been in excess of 6 miles, (longest was a 8.75 miler). the last seven in excess of 7 miles. As I have pushed myself, my times have also dramatically improved. The 9:06 mile I logged earlier this week, as part of my 29:02 5K, 61:46 10K, and "7 miles in 70 minutes" run, may not seem like great times to serious runners, but to me they are markers of how far I've come since the 9th of June.

It has added balance to my life. I think more clearly. I generally have a better attitude. It has allowed me to connect with my children in an area of common interest. It is an activity that my wife and I enjoy together. I am definitely more organized and am generally at peace with the tumult that can sometimes surround me by having that time of solitude where its just me with my mind trying to overcome what my body thinks it's limits are. Oh, and the 27 lbs. I've lost doesn't include the dust now gone from my suits . . .

Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie . . .

Dateline June 3rd, 2009 -

Radio & Records, a major music industry trade publication founded in 1973, and Performing Songwriter, a Nashville-based magazine established in 1993, are closing, their owners announced Wednesday (June 3). Both covered a wide variety of musical genres, including country, and attributed the closures to the current economic climate. R&R, headquartered in Los Angeles, was acquired in 2006 by VNU, a company that also owned the predominant music trade magazine, Billboard, as well as the Hollywood Reporter and ACNielsen. VNU changed its name to the Nielsen Company in 2007. The acquisition converted R&R's music charts to Nielsen BDS airplay data, the same technology used for Billboard's charts. R&R's final issue is dated Friday (June 5), and the Web site will be taken offline in the near future. Performing Songwriter, owned by Performing Songwriter Enterprises LLC, provided substantive stories about major songwriters. It will cease publication with its June issue.

A tremendous loss. Courtney, and her debut album Awake & Dreaming, were honored to have been featured in Performing Songwriter last year about this time. It was a great magazine to discover new talent and enjoy features and interviews with long-time favorites . . .

I Don't Feel Any Older . . .

Okay, so another year has passed and yet when I looked in the mirror this morning I saw the same guy staring back at me who's always been there.

Notwithstanding my last entry - the whole aging, or growing older, thing is fascinating to me. I recently started a Facebook page. I've discovered that my perception of family and friends whom I've not seen in years is at times at odds with the reality of the passage of time.

Trying to Keep Up . . .

I have often wished for 2 more hours in a day and 1 more day in a week to simply catch up on all the things I want/hope to accomplish. 

My father passed away at the age of 60. He did not take very good care of himself, so the heart attack was simply a matter of when, not if. He smoked for a large part of his life and often could be found with a beer in his hand upon returning home from work each day. ( I do neither ) Though I take much better care of myself; I try to exercise, watch what I eat, etc, there are times that I can't rid myself of this notion that 60 is in some way my finish line and that whatever I'm to accomplish in this life, I better get it done before then. Yes, I know that this is completely irrational, but there it is. 

Notwithstanding the desire to squeeze the most out of life's every precious moment, I find myself frustrated, with myself, with how much time I waste. Time that once gone cannot be retrieved. I have tried to spend as much of it as possible with my wife and children (sometimes to their great annoyance) but again know that I often fall short.

So while haunted by the thought that I have irretrievably missed something, I am, alternatively, heartened as my children reflect upon, through their writings or conversations, memories that I cherish, that I wasn't sure they even remembered. Such was my day today. Thanks Whitney.

My mom is 76 and in great health, perhaps I should start using that as my marker . . .

I have never laughed harder at anything on TV

Things I'd Change - Part I . . .

Sports have always been a part of my life. Not that I'm particularly good at any of them, I just enjoy the competition - watching and participating. Fortunately my children are all fairly athletic and so I've had ample opportunity to attend a lot of events, (and coach quite a few too), but I digress. Let me preface this by saying that I have not fully considered all possible unintended consequences (I do have a life ya' know). Anyway, if anyone with real authority were to ask here's a couple things I'd change;

Basketball - In football,  a player can have any number of penalties called on them during a game; holding, offsides, interference, etc. . If they had a tolerant coach, and teammates, multiple infractions could be incurred and yet they could still play from opening kick-off until final gun. So why are kicking players out of basketball games after committing  5 or 6 fouls? 

Perhaps because I'm a long-time Blazer fan and enjoy watching Greg Oden actually play I'm particularly sensitive to this seeming injustice. So,  I would eliminate the disqualification rule. I would replace it with the following; upon committing the 5th (or 6th) foul, any subsequent foul would be treated similarly to the defensive 3-second technical foul - free throws and possession of the ball. The coach would have to make a decision as to the advantage of leaving a player in a game knowing those were the consequences. It could make close games very interesting with different strategies being employed, as well.

Let's face it, we all know that certain NBA players are treated a bit more fairly than others (ahem,  attention Cavs fans, and you know who you are, do you really believe that LeBron can go nearly 3 and 1/2 quarters without committing a single foul?) Maybe this might level the playing field a bit . . .

Baseball - Okay, I know its sacrosanct to mess with the national pastime, but can we not agree that having "wild card" playoff teams and the winner of the All-Star game getting "Home field" advantage has improved the pro game?  My change is simple. I like to believe its the equivalent to the introduction of the three-point shot in basketball, in that it could really open the game up. So here goes - player hits a long fly ball - if he reaches base before it's caught, he's SAFE! I know you're thinking about it - hmmm . . .

Tennis - This one's easy. Toss out the antiquated, and somewhat stuffy, method of scoring. Nobody gets it anyway. Can you name three people who know the origin of it? Thought so. What if we simply said first one to 4 points wins a game. If it's tied at 3, then the first player to win two consecutive points wins the game. See - easy. I realize  "One - Zip" doesn't quite have the same lilt as "Fifteen - Love", but its a game for Pete's sake, get to the next serve!

That's all for now - please feel free to comment on changes you'd like to see as well. Perhaps we can start a groundswell. Don't they keep telling us that the game belongs to the fans?

Prescription . . .

So - apparently President Obama is meeting with his team of economic advisers this morning. (my invitation is perhaps lost in the mail). We can only hope the congressional leadership of both parties have been left out of the meeting. No offense intended but, if you're going to craft economic policy, leave the lawyers out of the room. 

If I may, allow me to dust off my degree in Economics and offer the following as possible prescriptions for what ails us; (none are necessarily original ideas, just ideas that make sense to me)

1) Bring back Glass-Steagall. This falls under the category of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". A result of reforms stemming from the Crash of '29 also known as the Banking Act of 1933, it was essentially the law or series of laws that separated Investment Banking from Commercial Banking. It worked pretty well until 1999 when a Republican  Congress and President Clinton, (yay- bipartisanship) repealed it. This paved the way for the creation of the so-called "Superbanks" such as Citigroup and a host of others and led directly to the "too big to fail" dilemma we now face. Sandy Weill, former head of Citigroup, actually has the pen that Pres. Clinton used to sign the repeal mounted on his wall. By separating commercial banking activities from investment banking activities we can restore a sense of stability to our financial system. Again, it worked pretty well for the previous 66 years, not so much the last 8. Think about it - have you heard of one, just one, Credit Union having difficulty currently. Nope. They lend money at a higher rate than they pay on deposits and make money - slowly.

2) Create RTC II - Back in the 1980s, the last time we were faced with such massive bank failures (they were called Savings & Loans back then) the Congress created the Resolution Trust Corporation, the RTC. It's purpose was to liquidate assets, usually real estate and mortgage loans, that were the assets of failed S&Ls acquired by the Office of Thrift Supervision after declaring an institution insolvent.  The RTC actually made money for the US Government. Why not create another such entity, the so-called "Bad Bank". It would essentially remove the toxic, now septic, assets off the balance sheets of the various banks that still hold them. The entity could acquire them through a reverse auction or other mechanism and then divest of them in a more methodical fashion, over time, without the concern that the institutions that currently hold them, have. 

3) Reinstate the "uptick" rule. John McCain was roundly chastised for suggesting during the recent Presidential campaign that SEC Chairman, Christopher Cox, resign or be fired. I can't recall a worse SEC head. His decision to rescind this rule, again a mechanism borne of the Great Depression, is quite frankly, galactically stupid.  The rule requires short sellers of stocks, those who sell without actually owning any shares (yes, you can do this), to wait until a buyer could be found to purchase the shares of a given stock on a higher  price than the previous trade, the uptick. By rescinding this rule it essentially removes a governor of sorts on a freefall, a piling on, in the shares of a company's stock. It paved the way to short stocks to zero or at least near zero and increased geometrically the ability of the unscrupulous to manipulate the markets. The lack of confidence in the market is a major hindrance to our overall recovery. The lack of ability to raise capital through the equities markets poses a severe long-term risk to our economy.

4) Eliminate FASB Statement 157 Mark to Market (effective Nov. 2007). -  too esoteric, but trust me, just eliminate it.

5) Eliminate Long-Term Capital Gains Taxes for 2 Years. The reality is that given the current state of real estate values and the fact the S&P 500 market index has a negative ten year rate of return there aren't many gains to be taxed, but where there are, it could unlock some capital to be redeployed in more productive means.

6) Allow IRA Funds to Purchase Real Estate.  It's a simple supply and demand issue. We have an over-supply of housing. Couple that with the trillions of dollars held in cash in qualified retirement plans, such as IRAs, it only makes sense to unlock that capital to create demand. We've already dipped our toe in the water a bit on this one, why not jump all the way in. IRA funds could be used to pay down principal on existing mortgages creating better debt to income ratios and thus greater ability to refinance at the current lower rates. It could help homeowners increase their equity and thus eliminate the dreaded Mortgage Insurance Premium. This would immediately put more disposable income in the hands of the populace as well, which has all sorts of economic stimulus benefits -without increasing the Federal Budget Deficit. It could allow those who want to have tangible assets as part of their retirement a mechanism to do so. 

All they had to do was ask . . .

Hope

Hope -

It's an interesting concept. For the optimist it is not just the glass being half full, it's that there are always more glasses. For the pessimist, not only is the glass half empty, but it's probably chipped too.

I did not vote for President Obama, but there are aspects to his character and bearing that I do find inspiring. As a child of the 60's I could not helped but be moved by the events of this day. I hope that each of my children, wherever they happened to have been today, paused to contemplate the magnitude of a peaceful transition of power to our first African-American President in a country where, during my lifetime, children of color were met at the doors of a schoolhouse by armed forces sent to block their admittance. Where the Civil Rights Act is not as old as I am.

Despite differences I may have with specific policies he may propose or enact (which may be fewer than many of you think), I believe we are a better country and a greater nation this day because of the events of this day. I pray for President Obama, his wonderful family, and the Hope of a brighter future for all.