Day 218 -- Eldon, Iowa

If the house behind me looks familiar, it's because it's the house featured in Grant Wood's American Gothic. I was going to go all out, and give myself a pitchfork and an unmarried daughter (the first Little Jogger, perhaps), but there are so many send-ups of this painting out there, it wouldn't be very original.

I ran an easy four miles today.

Day 217 -- Jefferson County

Jefferson County has a very nice trail system, which is still being expanded. It seems to be mostly in and around Fairfield, which means that I'm past it, but what the heck.

I ran six miles this morning, at a decent pace. I'm supposed to run intervals tomorrow, but I suspect that I won't. I'll probably just go for a short jog. I'm still pretty tired, and I need to be in early tomorrow, so a quick workout will do me.

Day 216 -- Bernhart, Iowa

Got this cool image of the Bernhart, Iowa, station for the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Company from the John P. Vander Maas Railrodiana Collection at the University of Iowa. I just like the word "railroadiana." It's a neologism, but it's a cool neologism.

I ran to the gym, lifted weights, and ran home this morning. I was still pretty sore from my long run yesterday, so I didn't push myself.

Day 215 -- More Fairfield

I ran 12 miles today, so you'd think that I would have moved on to the next town. But I decided that I wasn't quite to Fairfield on Thursday, and I'm a little past it today. And I found this terrific Victorian Mansion outside of Fairfield from a a blog called Colorjoy!

I was kind of hoping that after two days of rest, I would cruise to an easy 12 miles, with lots of leftover strength and energy. Well, no. The first nine or ten miles were OK, but it was pretty rough at the end, and I really had to drag myself that last mile. But I did it! The plan for this week is to run all five weekdays, and cap it off with a relatively short long run -- eight miles or so.

Light Running Week

Well, this is my second day off in a row. The last time I did that was the 9th and 10th of September. I really didn't plan to do that. I had to take the first Little Jogger to school early yesterday, for Swing Choir practice, so I decided to run at noon, when I wouldn't be so rushed. But I neglected to pack socks in my gym bag. I couldn't run without socks, and I didn't think that my dress socks would be padded enough (nor did I really want to run in them and then wear them around all afternoon.) So I took yesterday off. Then Mrs. J went with the first Little Jogger and the girls scouts on a camping trip last night, so I couldn't run this morning, because I was the only grown-up in the house. So I took two days off. I'll have a good long run tomorrow, and get back on track.

More Diversity Training

I had another session of diversity training today. There have been a series of all-day workshops this fall, and it was announced with much fanfare this fall that it was mandatory that all employees attend one. Of course, the Faculty Senate got its shorts in a bunch and declared that no one had a right to add mandatory training without consulting appropriate governance structures, specifically the Faculty Senate. So it may or may not have been mandatory. In any case, I went. I have no strong objection to diversity training, other than it usually turns out to be a lot of finger pointing and guilt-wallowing, with a minimal amount of contructive suggestions for improvement.

This one started out OK. They talked about goals, specifically to increase the number of faculty and students of color. They talked about their own backgrounds and qualifications. They talked about some of the issues that have come up on campus, about historical problems of racism, and yes, they talked about the fact that it was mandatory (unless it isn't) and they recognized that we may not be the most willing participants in the world.

And then they let Professor Martyr talk.

I don't like Professor Martyr. I never have. He was part of a panel on diversity during my orientation to my university, and I didn't like him then. Just recently, Dean Dad gave me the proper language to describe him: he's a "victim bully." He uses his status as a minority to club people. If you don't agree with him -- hell, if you aren't 100% behind his particular grievances -- then you are part of the racist structure that keeps him and his people down. He's very much an "us vs. them" kind of guy, and you can't be sort of "us".

An example. During the discussion of why we might not want to be there, one of the Economists spoke up and said that, in his view, it didn't pass a cost/benefit analysis. The possibilty that he, personally, would help attract more students or faculty of color seemed sufficiently remote so as not to balance the cost in time spent away from his current students and his responsibility to them. This seemed like a reasonable position, but Professor Martyr took several opportunities to mock it. He didn't come right out and say it, of course, but he managed to imply that this position was right next door to putting out a sign that said, "No minorities need apply."

Professor Martyr talked for a long time. He made a big point of making sure that we knew that he knew that we weren't up to his standards. Why didn't we attend the seminars that he had arranged? Why didn't we attend activities put on by minority students? Why didn't we want to be there? If it hadn't been mandatory, most of us wouldn't be there, and doesn't that speak volumes about our commitment to diversity on this campus? Didn't we appreciate the opportunity to come here and be berated by him?

Just before I lost it, he was talking about an argument that he hears about the difficulty in hiring minorities. People suggest that it would be easier if we offered more money. The fact is that all the time we have candidates --minorities and non-- who seem like a good fit, but who end up taking another job at a higher salary. So, Professor Martyr said, what does that say about me and the other minorities that are currently here on campus? That we had to settle for this job, because we couldn't get anything better?

He caught me shaking my head at that and singled me out, and I suggested, ungently, that not everything in the whole wide world was meant as a personal affront to him. I used the word "asshole." I am not proud of this. This is not normal behavior for me. But I did.

I did apologize, publicly, after the break. He didn't seem very upset, although I know full well that I'm on his shit list, and I always will be.

I've been trying to decide why I was so upset. Often I can let B.S. like this roll off my back. "There goes Professor Martyr again." But not today. At least not right at that moment.

Part of it is his grating personality. As I say, I took an instant dislike to him six plus years ago, and have never seen any reason to change my mind. Part of it is, I suspect, a guilty suspicion that he's right about me. It's certainly true that I benefit from white privilege. I take for granted things that Professor Martyr has had to fight hard for. Maybe I haven't done enough to help erase racism and sexism and other types of discrimination. The burden shouldn't be on the minority, but on the majority.

That's the galling thing. I agree with this guy. On lots of stuff. I know that racism is still pervasive in our society. Indeed, it's a fundamental part of our society, and if that's changing at all, it's because of people like Professor Martyr who won't let people forget it. I just know that there are lots of people who manage to make that point in a more inclusive way. Indeed, all the other presenters managed to make me feel like I have an opportunity to be part of something good. Professor Martyr just made me feel like I'm already part of something bad.

Day 214 -- Fairfield, Iowa

I couldn't pass Fairfield without visiting the Maharishi University of Management. Once upon a time, this place was Parsons College, but in 1974, it was bought out by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now it's a college where they teach Transcendental Meditation(tm) and Computer Science. I guess. I don't know much about the program, but they apparently attract enough students to survive.

RfP Wednesday -- The Parable of the Sower

I've missed two Reading for Pleasure Wednesdays in a row. Not that I haven't read anything, but I haven't really had much time to post, and haven't had anything really great to write about. But I'm going to get back to it.

I'm currently re-reading The Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler. I think this is the third time I've read it, but it might be the fourth. Like most of Butler's novels, it is kind of difficult to read. A lot of really bad stuff happens to the main character, and to her friends and family. But, like most of Butler's novels, it carries with it a hint of inspiration. Lauren survivies, in spite of all the terrible things. This is a very strong theme with Butler. Her character's persevere in the fact of truly terrible pain, and somehow grow.

This particular novel is set in the near future (the 2020's), in an America on the decline. Crime is rampant. Most people live in walled communities, and go out only in well-armed, large groups. The economy is stagnant. If people can find work at all, they can barely afford basics. Nobody has money for luxuries like TV's, microwaves, or even phone service. The police and firefighters charge per call, so they are rarely called, even for major emergencies. People regularly disappear, and are just never heard from again.

And that's at the beginning of the novel. It gets worse. It's somewhat comforting to read it, and to realize that things aren't that bad in America. But I have a terrible fear that they may become that bad, perhaps in my lifetime. Perhaps within 20 years.

I'm not sure why I'm reading it again. It isn't my favorite of Butler's novels. But I'm far enough into it now that I can't stop. I'll press ahead, and probably read the sequel, The Parable of the Talents, as well.

Day 213 -- Lockridge, Iowa

On October 28, 2005 (just barely over a year ago) an Amtrak train caught fire around Lockridge, Iowa. I know this, because Erika at The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things was there. It's always nice to visit worldslargestthings.com, although this is a pretty flimsy excuse. Anyway, I'm glad that Erika wasn't hurt, only inconvenienced.

I ran intervals this morning. After a warm up, I ran 400m fast, then 400 m slow, then 400 m fast, etcs. I did 6 rounds of that, and was pleased that I managed to run the 6th just about as fast as I ran the 1st. (No, neither one was exactly World Record pace.) It was a good workout, and I probably burned off about 1% of the calories I've consumed in the form of tiny little candy bars in the last 24 hours.

Day 212 -- Jogger's Progress

	YTD	Oct
Distance	1144	122.0
Time	6 days, 23 hrs, 1 min	18:34
Days	212	24
States	7	2

After the long runs on the weekend, I took yesterday entirely off, and didn't even feel bad about it. Sometimes on an off day, I feel cranky and out-of-sorts, but yesterday was just fine. Maybe it's because I was still pretty sore. Anyway, today I did five miles. The one thing that I regret is that yesterday was the warmest morning for some time, and promises to be the warmest for some time to come. It was cold this morning, with a stiff wind.

October was a good month, overall. I'm pretty sure that my days and mileage will start to drop off, as it gets colder. But I did OK this month. One fewer day than September, but only 1.2 fewer miles, so my average was higher.

Day 211 -- Mount Pleasant

It has been a big week. I don't normally run on both Saturday and Sunday, but I decided to take advantage of the clock change. With the clock set back last night, I could sleep in and still get out early. So I did.

Being me, I didn't just settle for a light four mile jog. I didn't get a real long run yesterday, because Mrs. J had to work, so I did ten today. That caps a 37 mile week, with 20 of them in the last three days. Neither of those is a personal record, but it's been a while.

I was pretty tired by the end. My 10 mile route brought me back close to home after seven miles, and I wanted to quit then. But I imagined myself three miles from the end of a marathon, and decided I wasn't going to let a little fatigue stop me. So I toughed it out. I'm tired now, but it's a good tired. A well-earned tired.

Virtually, I'm in Mount Pleasant. I have a nice picture of a blacksmith's forge, but blogger won't let me upload it.

Pumpkin Carving

Today tbhe kids and I carved our Halloween pumpkins. Usually, Mrs. Jogger is the artistic director, but she's at work today. So we did the best that we could. From left to right, the pumpkins are owned by the oldest and newest Little Jogger, the medium Little Jogger, the medium Little Jogger, the smallest Little Jogger, the smallest Little Jogger, and the first Little Jogger.

Day 210 -- Our Lady of Grace

Just west of Burlington is (get ready for this) West Burlington, where I found Our Lady of Grace Grotto. The grotto dates back to 1920, and was restored in the 1970's. My favorite part of this website is the following quote: "If you have yet to see a geode, you're about to be comforted."

Day 209 -- More Burlington

I didn't want to leave Burlington without showing this cool photo of the Burlington Bridge in the fog, taken by Jim and Mary Kay on their bicycle trip down the Mississippi. Also, below, you'll find the old rollercoaster at Crapo Park. (Hey, I didn't name it!) The photo was apparently taken in about 1985, according to this site. Apparently, Crapo Park is now a huge arboretum, but no word on whether the rollercoaster is still there.

I ran four miles this morning, so I'm already on my way out of Burlington.

Guess the text -- Update

From Dr. Crazy:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

Here's mine:

"Mud clan. Married into Standing Rock Clan. Used to live around Heart Butte? May be dead?"

I think Uncle Not A. should get the author, anyway.

Update: Uncle Not A. did identify it as a Tony Hillerman mystery, but somehow failed to get that it was "People of Darkness." Maybe if I had included the next sentence: "Rudolf Becenti." Anyway, Blogger wouldn't let him post a comment, so he sent me e-mail.

Day 207 and 208 -- Burlington, Iowa

I'll keep this short, because I have no confidence that it will actually get posted, so I don't see a lot of point in writing too much....Blogger has been having difficulty for two days now. Yesterday, I couldn't even read any blogs on Blogger (which you yourself may have experience, if you tried when I did.) Earlier this evening, I could read, but not post. Right now, it thinks it's going to let me post, but who knows?

I ran into Iowa today, the seventh state of my Odyssey, and in some respects, my home state. I was born in Michigan, and lived for a while in New York, but I went to high school and college in Iowa, and my family still lives there. I think that if the emperor called for a census, I might have to go there to be counted. In fact, I'm heading for Grandma Jogger's house next, and then westward.

Above, the bridge over the Mississippi at Burlington, from this site. I'm surprised to find out that it was just built in 1996. Below, a Jogger in a field of Patterson's bindweed. This photo is from Big River State Forest, north of the crossing on the Illinois side of the river. It's what I intended to post yesterday.

You can't blame the wreck on the train

My Discrete Math students are not doing well on the exam that I gave last night. This doesn't surprise me. It was apparent, in the weeks leading up to the exam, that they weren't getting it. A number of them are simply not doing the homework, and a great deal more are doing the bare minimum -- scrambling to get something down, writing down whatever hints I give in class, and handing it in. So I did what I often do in this situation: I based the exam heavily on the homework. I always try to keep the homework in mind, but this exam, I lifted several problems almost verbatim from the homework, and had several more that were the same idea, just worded differently. And, as I say, my students aren't doing well.

In some sense, I should be pleased that my demonstration "worked." Now I can go in and say, "Hey, bozos, try rubbing a few brain cells together when you do the homework." (Actually, I never talk to my students like that. I'll be polite and positive, but also try to convey the idea that homework is there for a reason.)

In another sense, I'm still disappointed. Somehow, I blame myself. Why couldn't I have covered this topic better, or spent more time on that? Of course, the truth (and I really do know it, deep down) is that it barely matters what I do in class, if they aren't going to do the work outside of class.

technorati tag: teaching-carnival

Day 205 and 206 -- Lone Tree

The definition of a busy day? Yesterday evening, I was thinking that I had stopped into the bank two or three days ago. Then I thought about it a little bit more, and realized that it had been that morning.

So, I didn't post anything yesterday. Which is probably just as well, sice I'm not finding many photos from western Illinois. I'm around Lone Tree, about eight or ten miles east of Burlington, Iowa. I should cross over by the end of the week.

I ran indoors yesterday. I never even considered going outside, it was so cold. It was probably just as cold this morning, but less windy, so it seemed better. Anyway, I ran outside this morning.

Day 204 -- Biggsville

I went 10 miles today. I had planned to do 12, but I left myself an out. I planned a 10 mile route that ended up back at my house, and a 2 mile loop, to do if I felt like it. Well, I didn't feel like it. There's a part of me that feels guilty for "quitting," but I'm not listening to that part. I can do 12. I have done 12, and I will do 12 again. Conditions just weren't right for it today. And it was a good 10 mile run.

I've made it about as far as Biggsville, Illinois, where I visited Biggsville United Presbyterian Church. I was raised a Presbyterian, and still have a lot of affinity for the Presbyterian Church. This seems like a nice little place.

Day 203 -- Warren County Public Library

I know, I've visited libraries before, but I like libraries. They are cool places. Just imagine if we didn't have a tradition of public libraries, and someone decided to start one. "Hey, I've got a great idea! We'll buy lots of books and movies and magazines and music and people from the area can just come and borrow them for a couple of weeks. And if they are late bringing them back, we'll charge them a dime!" People would laugh so hard milk would come out their nose. But we do have such a tradition, and even really small towns have libraries, and moderately sized towns like Monmouth (and like my home town) have really good ones. It's so cool.

I ran 4.7 miles this morning, in the cold October air. It was a good workout.

Day 202 -- Monmouth College

Just down the road from Galesburg is Monmouth, Illinois, the home of Monmouth College. I applied here, once, too. That's not quite as big a coincidence as it seems. I've been on the job market several times, and each time I concentrated on small schools in the midwest. So there are quite a few such schools around that I applied to. With Monmouth, I never even got a phone interview, even though, in my opinion, I was the perfect candidate for them. Having been on the other side of the job search now, I can see what a crap shoot it really is. Especially back in the mid-'90's, when there were a lot of applicants for relatively few jobs. It's really easy for little intangibles to add up to a big difference. In any case, that's not where I ended up. Their loss.

Wednesday is my day for running hills. I made the hill five times today. I run relatively fast up the hill, then jog down, then run up again. It's a good workout.

Day 201 -- Cameron, Illinois

In the background, a timber frame home from Trillium Dell Timberworks. Kind of cool, I guess. Aren't most homes timber frame?

It was a long, long, day. I spent much of the day swimming against the tide. I'm trying to get a mailing together for a professional organization of which I am a part, and it is a pain. For bulk mailing, they want addresses in a spreadsheet. Which has to be just so, with everything in the right place. And then they run it through some sort of computer that checks for valid addresses. One person lives at 123 E Griswold Street (or whatever), but the address we had on him was 123 Griswold Street, so the computer choked and said, "Sorry, I need a direction." Mind you, this is in a Wisconsin town of 7000 people. Griswold Street is probably three blocks long. Hell, you could probably put his name and his town on it, and they'd find him.
The good news is, once we get the database cleaned up, we can use it every year. We'll just have to make minor changes as we add and drop members.

I gave an exam today, and threw it on the growing pile of crap I have to grade. I really need to cut down. I'm just not grading it as fast as I'm collecting it. The students seemed to be satisfied with the exam. There were no major surprises. I suspect that there won't be any when I'm grading it, either. (Unfortunately, one major surprise would be if most of them did their algebra correctly, and I don't anticipate that happening.)

Tomorrow is a moderately slow day. I may have to resort to closing my door and locking out the world to get some work done. I hate to do that, but there it is.

Day 200

Today was the 200th day of my journey, which began on January 2. According to my handy-dandy calendar, October 16 is the 289th day of the year, meaning that I have run a little over two out of every three days. I note that Day 100 was June 6, which is the 157th day of the year. So I got through my second 100 days in 25 fewer days than my first 100. In fact, since June 6, I've run over three fourths of the days.

Day 199 -- Knox College

This is as close as I'm going to get to Galesburg, so I thought I'd stop at Knox College. I had a phone interview with Knox College, once, but it didn't go well. As I recall, the guy asked me how I felt about technology in the classroom, and I waffled, not wanting to offend him. Eventually, I figured out whether he was pro- or anti-technology (I forget which it was) and I told him what he wanted to hear, but it was too late. Alas. It seems like a nice school. The current head of the math department was at Michigan at the same time I was in the previous century. I knew her slightly, but not enough to drop in while virtually running by.

I ran outside this morning, because the gym isn't open early on Saturday. It was 30 degrees, but at least the wind had died down. It was a good run.

Day 198 -- More Knoxville

As predicted, another day in Knoxville. Another day when I went to the gym. I meant to run outside, but I didn't. Anyway, I made four miles.

Today was our "Fall Break". There were no classes. So I went into school and worked all day, on grading and on other things. I got a lot done, but not enough. I'm still going to have to grade all weekend to get caught up.

Water Tower courtesy of Water Towers of the World. I don't know why this particular water tower was good enough to be posted, but it was.

Day 196 -- Knoxville

Sometimes, when I'm trying to find a local photo to use for my day's journey, I have a tough time. I might not find anything that I really like, or I might have trouble making up my mind. However, when I saw this giant frog at the Galesburg East campground, I knew I had a winner. I don't think that I'm quite to Knoxville, yet, so tomorrow might be another Knoxville area photo. But I doubt it will compete with this one.

I wimped out today. It was snowing when I woke up, so I went to the gym to run. I want to start running more in colder weather. On the weekends, it's going to be run outside or not at all. But this morning I just couldn't face the snow.

RfP Wednesday -- Erma Bombeck

I picked up a copy of Family - The Ties That Bind...And Gag, by Erma Bombeck, at the library the other day. I haven't read any Erma Bombeck for years, and I was probably too young to appreciate it when I did. I'm sure that I get a lot more of the jokes, now. I'm not getting many belly laughs, but I'm getting a few chuckles, and quite a few ironic smirks, as I reflect on how her family reminds me of mine -- both the one that I grew up in, and the one that is now growing up around me. So that's what I'm reading this Reading for Pleasure Wednesday.

Day 196 -- National Coming Out Day

Did you know that today was National Coming Out Day? I didn't, until a few hours ago. I attended a "Safe Zone" training on our campus, intended to help "allies" of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trangendered (LGBT) to, well, figure out how to be good allies. We talked about issues, from appropriate language to myths and stereotypes to Wisconsin's proposed Anti-Marriage amendment. It was really a good discussion. Of course, the people who were there were mostly people who were already aware of most of the issues. But I'm sure that at least some of them were like me. I'm very committed to respecting people's right to be who they are, and open to people who are different from me in whatever way, but I'm not sure how to express that commitment and openness without having to get up on a soap box.

One of the interesting things in the training was one of those dorky little exercises in labelling. They had three or four people come up and they put a label on one's back, and then the others were supposed to treat the person stereotypically, and see if the target person could guess what they were. So the first guy was blind, and one of his co-actors spoke to him in a loud voice, and another one kept asking if he needed any help getting around. Then the second guy was a young woman in a miniskirt and too much makeup, and the others tried to hit on her. Then the third woman was a lesbian, and one of her co-actors did something that really made me think. She walked away and sat down in her seat. It really sent a powerful message. We all know that it's bad when people beat up and villify people because they are LBGT. But I, at least, don't usually think about how bad it must feel to be ignored because of it.

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty good use of a couple of hours of my time, and I got a little logo to stick on my office door, declaring it a Safe Zone for LBGT people. I don't know that it will make much of a difference. I don't expect hoards of students to come knocking on my door wanting to talk about the issue. But I hope it will make a few of my students a little more comfortable around me, and perhaps push a few different students to ponder why such a thing would be necessary in the first place.

Yes, I did run today, 3.9 miles in the rain, on hills. It was miserable, but fun.

Day 195 -- Dahinda

I love the sound of "Dahinda, Illinois." It just sounds cool. Behind me, you can see The Barn Bed and Breakfast, in Dahinda. Rustic decor, antique furnishings, deafening quiet, and an outdoor shower for hot summer nights. I don't think that I'll take an outdoor shower tonight.

I spent much of the day fighting jobs that people were trying to fob off on me. I managed to deflect a few, defer a few others, and accomplish one or two. But I didn't do many of the jobs that were already on my list. Oh, well, that's what tomorrow is for.

Day 194 -- Yates City

Thought I'd drop into the Salem Library in Yates City. Looks like a nice place. I wonder what their policy is for loaning books to passing joggers.

I ran to the gym and lifted this morning. It felt good. Yesterday was a scheduled day off, so my legs are rested. We're supposed to get a cold snap tonight, but this morning the weather was great for a brisk run.

Day 192 and 193 -- Rex Allen, Jr.

For the second Friday in a row, I was too busy to blog anything. I did run in the morning, about four miles. When I got home from work, Grandma Jogger and her housemate were here for a visit. We visited for a while, and after supper, Mrs. Jogger and I slipped out to go to a get-together for the new pastor at our church. When we got home, Grandma has just gotten the little Joggers into bed. We stayed up and chatted for a while, and then went straight to bed. I never even had a chance to read blogs, never mind write one.

This morning, I ran ten miles again. I felt pretty good. I did get a little tired towards the end, but in fact I picked up the pace in the last half hour, trying to complete the 10 miles in an hour and a half. I missed by 29 seconds, but I still consider it a good time. I'm a little sore now, but still high on endorphins.

Above, you see me with a picture of country music singer Rex Allen, Jr., taken in Brimfield Illinois. I just couldn't resist the jacket.

Happy Birthday, Dear Jogger

Yes, today marks the end of my 42nd year on this planet. I've been thinking all day about something profound and insightful to say on this occasion, and here it is: 42 ain't bad.

I've had a good day. I did not run today, because I wanted to rest after yesterday's tough day. I think that was a good decision, since my legs are sore anyway. I got a lot of work done today, although somehow more work just seems to keep cropping up. Funny how that goes.

We're not really celebrating tonight. Grandma Jogger and her housemate are coming up for a visit tomorrow, and we'll have cake and ice cream then. Although I just might sneak some ice cream yet tonight, after the kids are in bed.

RfP Wednesday -- Who has time for Reading for Pleasure?

I haven't done much Reading for Pleasure this last week. I've read a little bit more of The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer, but I haven't finished it. I really bogged down on my Anna Quindlen novel. I've read three or four chapters. It's good, but it's not captivating my interest right now. I think I'll put it aside and try again later.

Just this evening, I popped into the library and checked out Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. Somebody posted an excerpt from it on some blog I was reading the other day, and I realized that it had been too long since I've read it. I've read a little, but not enough to blog about.

So, I think I'll let this RfP Wednesday pass unobserved. Forget that you read this post.

Day 191 -- Jubilee College State Park

There is no Jubilee College, any more, the thing having folded in 1862, but there is still Jubilee College State Park. The old school building is around the property somewhere, but I didn't find a picture of it on-line. (I didn't look very hard, either.)

I ran four miles this morning. I was indoors, at the track, because the weather threatened thunderstorms. I'm trying to get used to running in the rain, but I ain't messing with thunderstorms. I ran intervals -- slow laps alternating with fast laps -- which may have been too much. I didn't feel terrific anyway, so it was a tough workout. I'll take it real easy tomorrow. I may take the day off, or if I don't, I'll just do a little light jogging.

Day 190 -- Solar System

I've been aiming at this one for a while. The last time I visited The World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things, I looked ahead to see if there was a good one somewhere on my way. And sure enough, the World's Largest Model of the Solar System is in Peoria, Illinois. Well, no, that's not true. According to Roadside America, Peoria's solar system has been surpassed by one in northern Maine. They also report that one spanning England and Wales is under construction and "scheduled for completion in 2005." I did a Google search, but failed to find a report that this project was completed.

In any case, I'm in Peoria, not Maine or England, so I'll make due. The Peoria Solar System seems quite nice, although Roadside America reports that you have to be careful when you time your visit.

When we visited, we learned too late that the barbershop housing Venus was closed Sundays and Mondays.

Isn't that always the way it is....

Day 189 -- Peoria

Welcome to Peoria. I surely couldn't resist getting a photo in front of the Hubcap House. One of the cool things is that I am standing here with Dr. Carla Yanni, of the Art History department of Rutgers University. It takes a special kind of Art Historian to pose in front of the Hubcap House for one's bio page. I can't tell whether this is a genuine example of good twentieth century architecture, or whether Dr. Yanni just has a cool sense of humor.

I ran 3.7 miles today, and lifted weights. I missed a week of lifting, because I lost my faculty ID, so I couldn't get into the gym. I finally found it in the dryer, wedged under one of the tumbler ribs. I'd looked in the dryer, but I would have missed it if that particular rib was at the top of the dryer barrel. I don't know how many loads it had been through, but it scanned OK at the gym this morning, so I guess that it's OK.

My Advisor

I stopped to see my dissertation advisor on Friday. I had some time between my two commitments, so I popped down to the UW campus to see him. It was just about as awkward as I expected it to be. He told me about his research, and I pretended to care. I told him about life outside the bubble, and he pretended to care.

My advisor is a nice guy. There is not a mean or a selfish bone in his body. The things that he is most generous with are the things that are most valuable to him -- his time and his ideas. During that brief period when I actually did mathematical research, he shaped and nurtured my ideas tremendously. I don't know that I would say that I couldn't have finished my dissertation without him, but it would have been vastly different.

He just lives on a totally different planet than I do. On his planet, the most exciting thing he could think of to share with me, after we really haven't seen each other for ten years, is that his research emphasis has shifted. He's no longer working in area X, which is what I studied, but has gravitated to area Y. Mind you, 99.9% of the people on the planet wouldn't know the difference, or care. I at least know the difference. But that's his life. He has his mathematical research, and nothing else really matters. That makes him a great researcher, but now that I'm not really interested in that, we don't have much to talk about.

Day 188 -- Jogger's Progress

	YTD	Sep
Distance	1022	123.2
Time	148:27	17:59
Days	188	25
States	5	1

I capped off the summer with a 10-miler. It felt really good. I was much stronger than I was for my 8-miler two weeks ago. In fact, somewhere around 8 miles, I went up a long (but not steep) hill, and I felt just as good at the top as I did at the bottom. Now I'll start out October with a day off, so I can rest my legs.

It's been a good month. I ran 25 days, with my previous high being only 23. A couple of those days were just short runs. In fact, my mileage was less than last month, when I only ran 21 days. But still, it was a good 120 mile month, and I feel really strong now. At this point, I'm really just trying to maintain my shape for spring, when I'll get to work training for the marathon.

Day 186 and 187 -- Blogging Ahead

I doubt that I'll blog tomorrow. I am leaving early in the morning for Madison. There is a middle school math contest at which I will be helping out. (I'm the M.C., actually.) Then in the afternoon, there is a meeting of the Executive Committee of a professional organization for which I am the communications officer. That these two are on the same day is not coincidence. There are four of us involved with both events, three of whom are from out of town. After the meeting, we'll go out to eat, and I probably won't be home until 9 or 10 at night.

Nonetheless, I'm planning to run in the morning. I don't want to face this long day without a shot of endorphins. So, for the first time in the history of JogAmericaBlog, I am blogging my run ahead of time. I am publicly committing to running two miles in the morning. If I should fail, lightnig will probably strike me dead.

RfP Wednesday -- The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer

I finished One True Thing. It was excellent, right through the end. I was surprised at how the ending, although factually similar to the ending of the movie, had so much more impact. It almost makes me wonder if the people that made the movie didn't read the book that closely. Or maybe they just thought that they couldn't do the real ending justice, so they watered it down a little. The movie was still clearly good enough to make me want to read the book. And I did.

But that's not what I want to talk about on this Reading for Pleasure Wednesday. I have also been slowly working my way through The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer, by David A. Whitsett, Forrest A. Dolgener, and Tanjalo Mabon Kole. I resisted picking up this book, because I was afraid it would be one of those books that tells you how to run a marathon without running too much. And indeed, it targets itself at people that don't like running. It is nonetheless worth while, because it talks a lot about the mental side of running. One of the authors, Whitsett, is a psychologist, and it shows. The book is really as much about building yourself up mentally to tackle this task as it is about building yourself up physically.

In fact, it's got an interesting structure. Whitsett is a pyschologist, Dolgener is an exercise physiologist, and Kole is one of the former students of their "Marathon Class" at the University of Northern Iowa. There is one chapter for each week of a sixteen week training program, and each chapter has three parts -- one about your mental preparation, one about your physical preparation, and one recounting the experiences of Kole and many other former students whom she interviewed. It's really kind of cool. The ideal thing, of course, would be to read a chapter a week for sixteen weeks, and then run a marathon, but I got it from the library, so I can't keep it that long.

Day 185 -- Tremont

I went a little out of my way today to drop in to Tremont, Illinois. My official jogging path is still straight on the road to Peoria, but I went a little south to grab a photo. This photo is from a blog called Slats.org. I'm not sure what it's really all about, but he had some cool photos from an auction here in Tremont.

I experienced something this morning that I haven't had in a long time: the urge to turn off the alarm and crawl back into bed. Fortunately, I was smart enough to know that the only thing that was going to make me feel better was a good run. Today was a rough day, but it would have been twice as rough if I'd tried to start off without exercise. As it was, I put in five miles, including some heavy hills. It felt good, but that was a long time ago, and I'm worn out, now. I'll probably slip into bed early.

Day 184 -- M

Today I hit the 1000 mile mark for the year.

Day 182 and 183 -- Menonites

I did run yesterday, just a quick two miles. I wanted to get warmed up so that I could stretch. I didn't really get a chance to stretch on Saturday, because I was running around, trying to find the kids, listening to see if I won the raffle (I didn't) and various other things. Then I ran another 5.5 miles this morning. I meant to go four, but somehow I just kept going.

Today, I dropped in on this meeting of the Middle District Conference of the Menonite Church in Danvers, Illinois. I was just a little late, as the meeting took place on October 1, 1898. At least I wasn't a full 108 years late.

Day 181 -- Zoo Run Run (Updated)

No, that's not a typo. That's what I thought, the first time that I saw it. The Zoo Run Run is a benefit run for the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. This is a great little zoo. When it was chartered, it was on the condition that admission would always be free. But they do a lot of good fundraising and they keep updating and expanding the zoo.

I ran the 10K today. It went really well. I started (as I seem to do on race day) back in the pack. Which means that at first I had to do a lot of picking and juking past slower runners. But I don't really have the guts to push my way to the front before the race begins. Nor do I know how far up to go. I shouldn't be right in front, or I'll be in the way of a bunch of people. I'd rather have to go around people than to be in people's way.

After the pack thinned out, I ran a nice steady pace. My first two miles were about 8:10 each, and I finished in 49:35, which is just under 8 minutes per mile. I felt good the whole way, although I couldn't have run another yard when I was done.

I finished 103rd. I'm not sure how many people were entered, but my name was about 1/3 of the way down the list, so I'd guess 300 or so. Plus there was a 5K run and a 5K walk, so it was a big race. The biggest that I've been in so far. I was also 10th in my age group, which I think is pretty darn good. I also don't know how many men were entered in my age group. Probable eleven. ;-)

Tomorrow is the Quad Cities Marathon, which means that (assuming that it is the same weekend next year) one year from today I should run my marathon. That was not lost on me as I huffed and puffed home after running just 6.2 miles. All I need to do is add 20 miles to that.

Below, that's me, streaking towards the finish line. The oldest and newest little jogger took that shot, and I think it came out purty good. That woman ahead of me must have finished 102nd, because I didn't pass her.

Update: The results of the Zoo Run Run are posted here. There were 359 finishers in the 10K. And I finished 102nd, not 103rd. I don't know whether I misread it this afternoon, or whether they disqualified someone. There were 18 finishers in my age and gender group. So I was in the top third overall, but just below the median in my group. Note that the last place finisher was first in her group: women 65 - 99. Good for her! I hope that I'm still out there running in 25 years!

Update II: Oh, boy, don't get the mathematician started on a big list of numbers like that. The trivia that I can dig up!

I was the fourth 10th place finisher. The 10th place finishers who beat me were in the Men's 25-29 group (almost 7 minutes ahead of me), the Men's 35-39 group (about a minute ahead of me), and the Men's 20-24 group (also a minute ahead of me; interestingly, just behind the old coot in the 35-39 group, who was nine years older.) I beat the 10th place finisher in the Men's 30-34 group by a little over a minute. Hah! Take that, you young whippersnapper!

The only first place finishers whom I beat were in the Girls under 15 group (almost 4 minutes behind me), the Men's 65 and over group (almost 12 minutes behind me), the Women's 55-59 group (a minute behind him), the Women's 60-64 group (almost 20 minutes behind me), and the aforementioned Women's 65 and over winner, who finished almost a half hour after I did.

Of course, I know that this is all just silly playing with numbers. The only competition out there for me was me, and I'm happy with my performance. That wouldn't change if I were 1st or 18th in my age group, 102nd or 300th overall. That all just depends on who shows up, anyway.

"You're fired."

I got a letter from the Educational Testing Service, the entity that runs the Advanced Placement program. I have been an AP Reader for statistics in four of the past five years. No more.

The AP Program carefully reviews the performance of individual readers--both during and after each annual AP Reading--in order to ensure the quality of the Reading process that is of critical importance to the validity of the AP Program. A review of your past Reading performance, as documented in your Reading statistics and written evaluation, has resulted in the removal of your name from the pool of qualified AP Readers.

Well.

The galling thing is that I had no idea that this was coming. I've been doing this job for four years, and I didn't even realize that I suck at it. I don't know how many of these letters go out a year. Not many. The majority of readers return year after year. So here I am, in the bottom 5% of all readers, and I didn't even know that I was below average. Frankly, I thought that I was above average. I can be pretty thick some times, but this points to a serious communications problem.

I really do feel bad. I'm not a total perfectionist, but I take pride in the work that I do. I try hard to meet and in most cases exceed what's expected of me. I hate to disappoint, but apparently that's what I have been doing.

Day 180 -- Morton

Of course you recognize the scene behind me. It is contestants lined up for the annual "Pumpkin Chuckin' Contest" in Morton, Illinois. This year, it is on October 21 and 22. However, I don't think I'll hang around. Morton has a whole website dedicated to its pumpkin festival. The main festival this year was last weekend, which seems a bit early for a pumpkin festival to me. But the Pumpkin Chuckin' Contest apparently rates a weekend of its own.

I neglected to set my alarm this morning, so I got up a little late. I elected to forego my weight lifting, and just do a light run. The fact that I don't really like lifting has nothing to do with it, of course.

RfP Wednesday -- More Quindlen

I'm still plugging away on One True Thing, by Anna Quindlen. I am beginning to realize that one of the things that makes it better than the movie is that Quindlen is a truly superior writer. She has a rare knack for telling a lot with a little detail.

Here's an example. The novel is about her and her family as her mother dies of cancer. Her father is rather remote, but the strain of the events manages to show. Quindlen writes

My father, before he went to work, had been merely distracted; his hair was awry, and there was a spot of blood on his collar to match the nick on the underside of his chin. All the lines on his face looked deeper, as though he'd had a bad portrait done, or an unforgiving black-and-white photograph.

A lesser writer could have written three times as much without creating as clear a picture.

Another. Ellen and her father are having lunch out together.

The waiter took our order, and there was a long silence broken by the sound of someone in the kitchen throwing pots and pans around in a fit of temper or extraordinary clumsiness.

How incredibly she sets the scene there. By focussing our attention on an inappropriate detail, she communicates the awkwardness of the moment without having to mention it.

OK, one more, and then you have to read the book yourself. She's talking about how awkward it is to meet friends who never come around, now that her mother is sick. She'd meet them in a store and they'd make small talk and say that they had been meaning to come for a visit.

Another small spark of anger would flare in my chest, then die through lack of oxygen...

Man, does that communicate Ellen's emotions. How raw she is, but how consumed by fatigue, literally too tired to be angry.

So one of the reasons that this book is going slowly (besides simply having less time for reading any more) is that I'm not just reading it to find out what happens. The plot is not extraordinary, and anyway, I know it from the movie. Rather, I'm savoring the storytelling. I sometimes read a long passage over, not because I didn't get it, but because it's so marvelous that I just want to experience it again.

Day 179 -- Deer Creek

The village of Deer Creek, Illinois, was founded in 1830. Major R. N. Cullom christened it and named the township Deer Creek. Deer Creek received its name from the creek that ran through the northwest part of the township and from the herd of red deer that roamed the woods and came to the creek for water. Now you know.

If I have one complaint, its that Deer Creek didn't put a lot of good pictures on their web site. But I figured you can't go wrong with the town library.

I did hills again today. That's a lot of work. I hope that it's making me stronger, cause it's killing me.

Day 178 -- Bloomington Facts

According to TravelHero.com, Bloomington, Illinois was the home of Adlai Stevenson and of Colonel Henry Blake. It's also the only place in the world where "Beer Nuts" are made. The things you can find out on the Internet....

I ran 4.7 miles this morning at a brisk pace. It was the only way to stay warm! Pretty soon, I'm going to have to give up and start running indoors on the track. But not yet.

Day 177 -- Bloomington

This statue of Abraham Lincoln sits on the grounds of the McLean County Museum of History, in Bloomington. According to this site, Abe would have been familiar with the area, because he tried cases right here in the McLean County courthouse. I didn't run into him in person, but I managed to get this photo with the statue.

It was an easy 3.7 miles today, plus weights.

Hey, it passed the spell checker....

From a student's report on the first "Challenge Problem" of the semester:

In every fascist of life you will be forced to solve a problem

Yes, I suppose so....

Day 176 -- Moraine View State Park

I've been spending a lot of time in State Parks lately. I'm not sure why, other than it's fairly easy to get pictures of them. Here I am visiting with some ducks in Morainve View State Park. They were really quite tame, as you can see.

I ran eight miles today. The first five or six went fine, but I was pushing a bit in the last couple. I was kind of kicking myself about that. How do I expect to run a marathon if eight miles takes so much effort? But then I looked back and realized that this was only the ninth time in my whole life I've run as far as eight miles. The first time was just two months ago, on July 16. And I'm planning to work my way up carefully to 26 miles over the course of a whole year. So I'm not doing too bad.

Students can sure be funny

By funny, of course, I mean "idiots."

Our discrete math book has 58 sections, numbered 1 through 58. The sections are broken up into 10 chapters, numbered 1 through 10. So there's at least a little potential for confusion. In fact, I'm not really good at remembering the difference, so I'll say as often as not that we are in Chapter 2 when I mean Section 2. Having said that, just how long should it take students to catch on? See if you can decide when you might have tumbled to the difference.

On day 1, we did a problem not from the book. I announced that they should read "Chapter 1 and 2" (meaning Section 1 and 2.) I pointed out that "Chapter 1" was a short one, and said that we would begin with "Chapter 2" on day 2.

On day 2, I went in and talked about "Definition," the topic of Section 2. I assigned homework.

On day 3, we did a problem from Section 2 on the board. We talked about "Theorem," the topic of Section 3.

On day 4, I collected homework from Section 2. One student turned in the wrong homework (I still can't figure out where he got the problems from, although it was clearly later in the book.) The fact that his problem 8 had nothing to do with the problem I did on the board apparently didn't concern him. That day, I also talked about "Proof," the topic of Section 4.

On day 5, today, I handed back this homework (with a note to this student saying exactly what pages in the book he should have looked at.) We talked about "Counterexample," the topic of Section 5.

At the end of class today, the student approached me and said that he was a little lost, and asked what problems he was supposed to be doing.

OK, I understand that I was imprecise in my language. But come on, it can't be that hard to figure out. He really didn't have any clue until this point that he was even looking at the wrong problems?

technorati tag: teaching-carnival

Day 175 -- Clinton Lake

Here's a photo that I snagged from the Clinton Lake Sailing Association. Clinton Lake State Recreation Area is a big ol' park (the lake itself is 4900 acres) SW of Farmer City. I'm probably past it, really, but I never like to miss a chance at sailing.

I ran 4.7 miles today. My legs felt pretty leaden. Tomorrow is definitely a good day to take off. I may stay inside the whole day. There's football to watch, and papers to grade. (Wait until I get my hands on the jerk who assigned homework to be collected and quizzes in all my classes today!)

"So, have I missed anything....?"

My Calc II class meets on MTThF. We started on Sept 5, so today was our sixth class meeting. We have reviewed Calc I, and covered four sections in the book. We have already had two homework assignments graded and returned, and two "skill drills," which is one version of quizzes I'm giving this semester. Somebody showed up today for the first time. To her credit, she did not utter the title of this post.

Apparently, she had planned to transfer to another school, but that fell through. So she decided just to go here for another semester or two. I hope that she's bright. She's got a lot of catching up to do. I have plenty of students who have been in class every day who are struggling with the material.

Anyway, I did what I usually do for students who arrive on the scene late. I told her what we had covered, and what the assignments were. I gave her a grace period to get in the back assignments, but told her that I expected her to have all the new assignments in on time, including taking tomorrow's quiz. We'll see what she does. Either she'll get caught up pretty fast, or she'll get buried. I've seen students go both ways.

technorati tag: teaching-carnival

Day 174 -- Farmer City

Sometimes, in running across the country, I just get so heated up that there's nothing to do but to take a dip. Fortunately, Farmer City, Illinois, has a nice community pool for me to dip in.

I had an easy 3.7 miles today, and some lifting at the gym. I've been lifting for a while, but now the students are back, and I'm a little self-conscious about it. Today, the whole basketball team was there, lifting weights that I would need a forklift to move. And they're so tall. I felt like their little brother, only way older.

RfP Wednesday -- One True Thing by Anna Quindlen

As you can imagine, I haven't been Reading for Pleasure as much as I was before school started, but I'm still getting some in. I have started reading One True Thing by Anna Quindlen. Mrs. Jogger and I rented the movie, with Meryl Streep, William Hurt, and Renee Zellweger, a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty good movie, and I think it's an even better book.

The story is about a young woman and her complicated and often painful relationship with her parents, and how that plays out as her mother dies of cancer. The characters are very well-written, and achingly familiar. It sometimes makes me squirm to read it. Having seen the movie, I know that there really aren't going to be any easy answers, and I suspect the book will be even less rosy than the movie.

I can't help wonder how much this book was inspired by Quindlen's real life. The main character is a young and ambitious New York writer. Her name, Ellen Gulden, even seems to be a cognate of Quindlen's. I don't suppose it really matters. The real question is whether I believe it, not whether it's true. But that's the sort of thing that I seem to like to dwell on.

I'm not very far into the book, nor am I going very fast at this point. So next week's RfP Wednesday might be another installment on the same book, or I might have to go back and drag up a favorite that I'm not reading now, but that I wish to recommend.

Day 173 -- A stop with the bikers

I happened to meet this group of bikers on the CU Across the Prairie Bike Ride. OK, I didn't meet them. I found their photo at this Flickr site. But they looked like they're having a good time, and I'm sure that there's something good at this picnic.

Sorry about the relative dearth of interesting posts lately. (What do you mean, "What do you mean lately?"?) This reflect being back in school. I've just got less time to sit at the computer and blog, and I even have less time to compose blog posts. When I'm running, I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about my classes and what's up next. So I'm not thinking about what to blog about.

Day 172 -- Lake of the Woods

Today I visited the Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve near Mahomet, Illinois. As you can see, they have a very nice golf course, although I don't golf. I once golfed twice at once: the first time and the last time.

In Reality Land, it was still raining this morning, but I went and ran outside anyway. It felt good. It wasn't too cold, and once I got the blood circulating, everything was fine. I did get my brand new shoes muddy. Oh, well....

Day 171 -- West of Champaign

I like this shot a whole lot. I got it from Chris Main Photography. I'm probably violating about eight kinds of copyright, not to mention screwing up her beautiful shot by inserting my ugly self. But I'll give her a plug, and hope that she forgives me. Go, look at her stuff. It's really cool.

I ran an easy three miles at the gym today, and lifted weights.

2,996

Gary Bright rolled out of bed. It was a clear September morning in Union City, New Jersey. Gary was anxious to get to his new job at Aon Insurance in the World Trade Center. It was September 11, 2001. Gary Bright would never come home.

We remember Gary because of the circumstances of his death. He died as part of a horrible attack, that would change all our lives forever.

On the fifth anniversary of the attacks, we are being inundated with reminders. It's all over the news shows, the papers, the Internet. We are all reliving the awful moments when we found out about this horrible act. We are all reliving the sadness, and the fear.

"The lesson of 9/11" is now a political football. We use it to argue that our political policies are the best, and that other people are mistaken. We argue vehemently about who bears the blame, and whether the five years since have made us safer or not.

But let's not forget Gary Bright. Let's not forget Anna and William Bright, who lost their son. Let's not forget Michelle Hornback, who lost her brother. Our very public tragedy was their very private tragedy. It was a day of horror for all of us, but for the family and friends of Gary Bright, it was also the day they lost a bright and energetic young man.

Anna, and William, and Michelle, and anyone who reaches this page looking for a special tribute to Gary Bright, I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what it was like for you then, or what it is like for you now, looking back on that day. I'm sorry I can't do a better job of marking Gary's passing, but I pray for him, and for you, and for us all.

This page is part of a special blogging tribute to the victims of 9/11, called 2,996. I urge you go to there and to look around for more tributes.

Day 170 -- A Real Half

Virtually the last thing that I did last night was to read a little essay about the dangers of overtraining. So naturally, I got up this morning and ran 13.1 miles. I really, really wanted to make up for the run that I thought was a half marathon, but that wasn't.

That hadn't been my plan. My plan was that I would take an easy run down to the gym and lift weights, and then do my half marathon tomorrow. But a couple of things changed that. I woke up well before the alarm, so that if I were going to go to the gym, I would have had to kill time until it was open. Plus, because I was up so early, I had time for a long run without eating too much into my morning. Plus, they are predicting rain and possibly thunderstorms for tomorrow morning. I'm not sure I really want to run two hours in the rain, and I know I'm not going to run anywhere in a thunderstorm. Plus, I really, really wanted to make up for the run that I thought was a half marathon, but that wasn't.

So, now I will definitely take tomorrow off, no matter what the weather. If I go out at all on Sunday, I'll make it an easy day. I won't try another hard run until at least Monday. I am predictably tired, now, but it's a good tired. I'm pleased with myself.

Post a Comment Thursday

Sure has been quiet around here. Anyone want to post a comment? Let me know that you are out there? Last time I tried a "Post a comment Thursday," I didn't hear from anyone new. I would love to have a comment from someone who hasn't commented before.

Joe Henderson's Best Reason to Run

From the September issue of Runner's World:

My college coach believed second place wasn't worth a damn. If you weren't running for first, there was no reason to run. That really limited the number of people who could be runners. These days, the only reason I run is so I can run again tomorrow.

This is my new favorite running quote. I'm getting a t-shirt that says, "The only reason I run is so I can run again tomorrow."

Day 169 -- Urbana

I don't think I'm quite to Urbana, yet, but there's a big empty between St. Joseph and Urbana, so I decided to go ahead and visit the campus of The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Specifically, here I am standing in front of the building that houses the math department. I don't know anyone there, but my advisor did his research there, so my intellectual lineage passes through Urbana.

I just did a quick 3.4 miles today. I couldn't do it in the morning, because I had to go out early and get my blood drawn for my annual check-up. So I went to the gym at noon. Our school has just opened a new outdoor track, and today was the first time I have run on it. The surface is some sort of space-age rubber (or else recycled tires, I'm not sure) which is really nice to run on. I didn't really love running around in circles, but the surface was nice.

RfP Wednesday -- The Dark Wind, by Tony Hillerman

Another Hillerman down. They really do go quite fast. They are easy reading, and interesting enough to keep you turning pages.

I don't think that this is my favorite of the ones that I've read so far, but it's still a darn good book, and a good mystery. As usual, Hillerman lays things out fairly, so when you finally catch the culprit, you think "Gee, I should have realized that a long time ago."

Hillerman also has a tendency to favor justice over law. Jim Chee doesn't always catch the bad guy and bring him in. In this one, he sort of lets things take their course, and the various bad guys eliminate each other. Then Chee smooths over the tracks and walks away.

I'm resisting starting the next one, The Ghostway. I expect that I will like it, but I don't want to rush into it. I want to savor it a little bit. It's also true that these last couple of days, right before school started, I haven't had the patience to start anything new, not even a Read for Pleasure.

Day 168 -- St. Joseph

According to the Village of St. Joseph website,

The Village is a growing community yet it preserves its small town feel. St. Joseph is a unique mix of old and new. The community relishes its past yet strides into the future.

If you can't believe them, who can you believe?

What with one thing and another, it had been a while since I'd had a long run, so I laid out an eight mile course yesterday and ran it this morning. It felt good, and I'm not too sore this evening.

The Forerunner has been behaving lately, undoubtedly fearing for its life. It agreed with the 5K course on Monday, and agreed with the mapped distance for yesterday's run and today's.

I can definitely tell that school has started again. I'm not running around like a chicken with its head cut off, as I will be all too soon, but I'm managing to fill my days. Mostly at this point it's little things, but a lot of them. I've met all my classes once, and it has gone well. I'll try to write more about it later, but not necessarily later today.

Day 167 -- Kickapoo State Park

A few miles west of Danville is Kickapoo State Park. I couldn't resist a stop. They also have a 7.6 mile running trail. I should give it a try.

I ran an easy 3.7 miles today, just loosening up after yesterday's race. I also went to the gym and lifted. I'm going to try to push my mileage a little tomorrow.

Today is the first day of classes, but my only class on Tuesday is at 2:00. So I'm just sitting around, waiting. I hate this limbo before class starts. Nothing for me to work on. I don't have patience to tackle an of my long term projects. So I bounce from one thing to another.

R.I.P.

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter

Teaching Carnival #11

Teaching Carnival #11 is up at WorkBook. As usual, there's some really good stuff, but as usual, I haven't gotten a chance to take it all in.

Day 166 -- Another Race

Today was the Dubuque Benefit Classic. I ran the 5K, although there was also a half marathon. I think I could have run the half marathon, but back when I signed up, I didn't have such ambitions. Anyway, it was just as well, because I wanted to get back up here to do some things with the kids, about which more, later.

I finished the 5K in 22:50, about 40 seconds under my July 4 time. As you can see (that's an actual photo shortly after the end of the race), I was pretty pleased with that. I figure that if I can knock off 20 seconds for every month of training, in five years I'll be able to run the 5K in less than 3 minutes. That should be good to win my age group.

The weather turned out OK. Yesterday, it looked like it might rain, but it held off until this afternoon. So it was cool and cloudy, which was good for racing. I'm sure that the half-marathoners were particularly glad. The 5K course was dead flat, but the half marathon course ran up the hills, of which Dubuque has plenty.

After the race, and after I cooled off, I jumped in the car and ran back up to pick up Mrs. Jogger and the Little Joggers. We piled in the minivan and drove out to the Labor Day parade in a little town nearby. I don't think we've hit this parade every year since we've lived around here, but we've gone more often than we've missed it. It's a really nice parade and a cute little town. The kids came back with a big bag full of Tootsie Rolls and other swag, which may last us a day or two.

After that, since we were halfway back down to Iowa, we popped back over to Dubuque, and went to Eagle Point Park. This is a lovely park with three or four different playgrounds and a frog pond and a view of the Mississippi River. So we spent an hour or so there, and came back up here for a late lunch. So it was a very busy morning, which was just as well, because it kept the Little Joggers from fighting. Now we're home, and they are getting warmed up for WWIII. Oh well, tomorrow they are off to school, where they can't get into too much trouble. And if they do, then their teachers have to deal with them.

Measure for Measure

Mrs. Jogger and I went back up to Spring Green to see another Shakespeare play, Measure for Measure. We've been back in Wisconsin for six years, and never went there once, but now we've gone twice this summer. I guess we were spurred on by the friends who took us to Julius Caesar, although today we went just by ourselves.

It was a terrific production. I wasn't familiar with the story at all, and I was a little afraid that I'd have trouble following it, but there was no trouble at all. It's a very interesting play. The main plot is of a Lord who uses his power to try to get a young lady to go to bed with him. It's disturbingly not outdated at all. When she threatens to tell everyone what he has proposed, he more or less laughs and says, "Who would believe you?" People haven't changed much, I guess. Being a comedy, it comes out OK in the end, but not before the characters undergo some turmoil.

We really enjoyed the show, and we're thinking ahead to going again next year. With Caesar and Richard III, that makes three Shakespeare plays we've added to our life list this year. We haven't had a year like that since we were undergraduates, and spent a semester in London.

Day 165 -- Danville

The Danville, Illinois, website, All Around Danville, has a lot of stuff in it. If I ever actually visit Danville (as opposed to this virtual visit), I'll be sure to check it out. For today, I just grabbed a couple of images from their history page. Above, the Fischer Theater. Below, Harmon Mansion.

I borrowed a couple of issues of Runner's World from the library a week or so ago, and one of them gave me a pointer to this site at USA Track and Field. It is a site that uses global mapping technology to help you map and measure a route. It's pretty precise. It can tell me all the streets in my home town (although I've found a few inaccuracies.) I can see how that would be useful, and a lot easier than going out and driving your route to measure it with your odometer. But of course I didn't need it, because I've got the Forerunner. Right?

Well, after yesterday, I don't trust the Forerunner. So I decided to put it to the test. I used the USATF site to map out a four mile route, and then ran it with the Forerunner. Sure enough, the Forerunner measured it at 4.72 miles, almost a 20% error. I even have a pretty good idea of when it happened, too. The first three miles went by just about as expected, and then somewhere in the fourth, I got the "Weak GPS Signal" beep, and the fourth mile ended much sooner than expected. I also used the USATF site to go back and approximate the mileage on my half marathon from Monday, and I'm pretty sure it was short, too. It was more like 11 or 11.5.

So, I don't know what I'm going to do. I guess I'll get rid of the Forerunner. It's no good to me if I can't trust it. I'm not going to go back and adjust my previous mileage. I'm going to trust that during the time I was estimating my mileage by my time, I underestimated by enough miles to make up for whatever overage the Forerunner has given me. So by golly, I really am in Danville today!

Day 164 -- Welcome to Illinois

Once again, I have managed to find the actual sign that I would be standing under if I were out there on the road where I claim I am. This one is courtesy of Jim Poserina, who is busy trying to travel to all fifty states.

Today is the day that I found out that the Forerunner doesn't work quite as well as I thought it did. I was just doing an easy run, but for some reason I kept an eye on my splits. The first mile went by in about 10:20, which was fine. The second was about 9:20, and the third about 9:00. Then the fourth came up incredibly quickly. In fact, it was about 4 minutes. So, either I lost my pace and accidentally ran a four minute mile at the end, or the Forerunner is screwed up.

The worst part is that I don't know what to trust any more. I'm thinking back to that half marathon on Monday. A couple of the miles at the end seemed to go by pretty quickly. And in the end, I was surprised by how quickly I finished. So it might not have been 13.1 miles after all. And there's no way for me to know.

Oh, well. I can't go back and change any of my recorded miles. I'll just have to pay more attention to my splits. The Forerunner beeps when it loses the sattelite signal, and it did beep during the mysterious four minute mile. So presumably it lost the sattelite, and when it found it, it was somehow off, and just made up the difference. That doesn't surprise me. I never imagined that it was accurate to the nearest 100th of a mile. I'm just surprised that it can be off by as much as a half mile at a time, which is what it must have been to suddenly have a four minute mile.