Sports

I am the usual male sports fan. Baseball is probably my favorite sport, and, like other Detroit Tigers fans, I was pumped full of excitement last winter by acquisitions the team made which seemed to strengthen them greatly and almost assure them of getting into the postseason. But this year has been a frustrating and puzzling one, marked by inconsistency, and now with a month to go in the season it is a longshot to see if they will even finish with a .500 record.

I am also a big fan of the Michigan Wolverines, and in their season opener in football yesterday, the first game under new head coach Rich Rodriguez, they tanked, losing by 2 points to Utah. Late in the game I jerked my thumb at the TV and told my wife ruefully, "I'm sure glad my salvation isn't dependent on their performance!" She grinned and replied, "Yeah - that's a good thing!"

Running again

Due to recurring problems with tightness in my right calf, I had been unable to run since August 12. Even though I felt better a few days ago, I wanted to give it a more extended rest, in hopes of curing the problem. So this morning, I went back out for the first time in nearly 3 weeks, and felt good doing it.

The essential substance of life

Upon reviewing my blog, I see that I have mentioned donating blood several times in earlier posts. Yesterday I gave again - for the 96th time (completing 12 gallons). So now it's on to lucky number 13! When the nurse asked me if I wanted her to order my 12-gallon pin, I said no, that I had decided upon receiving my 10-gallon pin, to wait for 15 before I got another one (and then 20, and 25, I hope). They keep single digits on site, but when you get to 10 and over they have to special order them from their headquarters, and mail them to you.

Running time

With morning daylight arriving later and later, I was finding it increasingly difficult to fit in a morning run before work, and so tried to switch today to the inevitable later runs I knew I would have to do with summer rapidly disappearing. I wanted to do a long run ... but ended up having to cut it down to 3.4 miles, due to the time of day (I ran in the evening, which I despise in comparison to running very early in the morning) and the heat (77 degrees). So, I think I'll probably try to squeeze out a few more days of morning runs before making the permanent switch for the balance of 2008.