Staring at a maple leaf, leaning on the mother tree; I said to myself we all lost touch

I read something that scared me today: the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is holding national championships for 7-13 year-olds. As if parents here in the USA weren't obsessed enough about their (young) children trying to be hyper good....

In sadder news: one of my former coaches, Flip Darr, passed away earlier this month.

Oh, and swimming at the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Italy begins tomorrow....


Oh chariot, your golden waves
Are walking down, upon this face
Oh chariot, I'm singing out loud
To guide me, give me your strength

Friday night arrives without a suitcase, Sunday morning creeping like a nun

I survived a long-course 200 fly yesterday.

Well, actually, I survived that 200 fly, swimming a few other events, and a hurried post-work drive on Friday to a meet in Plantation on Friday evening and yesterday. The meet went alright, or at least better than the rather dismal expectations I had for it (being out of the water for basically the month of May contributed to that, and that I didn't have any music playing in my head). But given that I wasn't too sure about even swimming in the meet, it went alright. Time wise, things were... I guess interesting. Yeah, interesting...

Friday
-800 free--9:42.37 (4:49/4:52)--I was actually out faster at the 100 and 200 here (1:08.36 and 2:21.19), than I was in the 400 on Saturday (1:08.57 and 2:21.21 there)

Saturday
-200 free--2:13.90 (1:05.72/1:08.18)
-200 back--2:35.50
-100 back--1:10.47
-200 fly--2:33.37 (1:13.89/1:19.89)
-400 free--4:42.92 (1:08.6/1:12.6/1:12.6/1:09) --I was able to come back on the last 100 :)

So, interesting. The whole, out-faster-in-the-800 than the 400, is confusion (yes, as opposed to confusing, which it is also). But on the plus side, I did get to see an old high school teammate of mine for the first time in about 15 years; which was nice. Now, hopefully, this will help with motivation to train....


Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder how you manage to make ends meet

Traffic jam, when you're already late

On my way home today, I decided to take one of my normal alternate routes home. This route allows me to go straight through the last stoplight I face en route, rather than having to turn left at the light. Normally, this tends to be a less frustrating and more efficient route. Save tonight.

Without any kind of warning--either prior to today nor on the approach--the intersection was completely closed tonight. Now, this was strange, as the cross street is a fairly major street in the area; and the closure had it completely shut down. Not sure what happened, but no detours were marked nor was traffic being directed elsewhere.

So, I did a partial u-turn and then turned on a parallel running street to get around the intersection and hopefully through it. This put me behind a rather frustrating driver, who stopped at each cross-street we passed (whether/not they had a stop sign or a car waiting to cross the intersection) to find out that they were all blocked. After 5-6 intersections in this fashion, I decided to back-track to my original route to get home (figuring it would be much more likely to maintain my sanity by not continuing remain behind the wayward driver).

And rather ironically: it was my original route--that I deviated from--that ended up being the faster. Course, I arrived home to find that the landscapers at the building had decimated the plants on the property, pruning off about half their mass. Which subsequently led to a rather strained and unhappy-customer call to said landscapers... ah such fun.


Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up in your face

Just beat it...

It is a wee bit too late (2 a.m.) for me to be awake. But thanks to a group of random people (thugs? hoodlums?) that are lighting fireworks off about half a block outside my door, I'm not. The fun part--other than them launching their rockets into the trees of where I live? I don't think they live in this neighborhood, as there's a white van double-parked in the street nearby, and what appear to be two look-outs off to the side of the main grouping of 4-5 guys lighting the fireworks.

I think I'll go yell at them to go away....

But you want to be bad
Just beat it (beat it)
Beat it (beat it)
No one wants to be defeated...

I don't want to be anything other than what I've been trying to be lately

Happy 4th of July 2009

Didn't do much today, however, at one point I was out-and-about at Home Depot (getting some re-potting supplies). While there, I saw someone else wearing the same American flag shirt that I had on. Not terribly unusual, really, except that this is the first time in 10+ years of owning said shirt that I've ever seen another one....


All I have to do is think of me and I have peace of mind
I'm tired of looking 'round rooms
Wondering what I've got to do, or who I'm supposed to be
I don't want to be anything other than me