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Storm Watch – C.J. Box

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Storm Watch by C J Box

Originally Posted April 2023 Updated April 2026

So far I have finished two books this month. The first Blind Justice was my first visit to the world of Detective Sargent Aector McAvoy from David Mark. While the second Storm Watch was my 22nd visit to the world of C.J.Box‘s Joe Pickett.

I first met Joe Pickett and his family in 2003, when I read Savage Run the second book in the series. I soon read the Open Season book one in the series and I’ve only missed one book in the series! You can check out more ere

Storm Watch – The Story

Storm Watch begins with Joe performing his typical Game Warden duties. Joe receives a call regarding an elk cow that has been hit by a car and Joe responses and track the elk far into the mountains. After finding the elk Joe finds a mysterious building, when he explores it further he finds it is filled with a ton of computers. Oh, there is also a dead body stuck halfway in a window! Soon Joe is called by the Governor and told not to investigate the murder.

Meanwhile, Joe’s friend Nate Romanowski is approached by an ex-black ops operator  to join an anti-government group that’s planning some big action.

So can Joe and Nate stay out of trouble? Are the murder and Nate’s request the join the Sovereign Nation group connected?

My Thoughts

I loved this well crafted well paced book. I have enjoyed Barclay’s books for a while now and have read all four of the Zack Walker books and Too Close to Home also highly recommended) another standalone.

In No Time for Goodbye the characters are believable and story line keeps moving and the suspense building toward the surprising conclusion!

In this book, I really enjoyed the character of Terry Archer, who narrates  the story. His character was a little like Zack Walker, someone, who at times is in a little over their head!

Bottom Line

I was somewhat disappointed with Shadows Reel (book 22) in the series. I just didn’t think it was one of Box’s best. However, I do think he redeemed himself with this one! The only thing that didn’t happen was Joe’s truck finished  the book unscathed!Anyway the book was great and rates at least a 4.5 if not a 5! Go find it and enjoy!

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Goodreads:Joe Pickett Series

C J Box author of Storm Watch

About C J Box

Charles James Box Jr. is an American author of more than thirty novels. Box is the author of the Joe Pickett series, as well as several standalone novels, and a collection of short stories.

Visit the Author Page

If you like the family and character connections in this series…

You might also enjoy:

William Kent Kreuger
Michael Robotham
Michael Robotham
Peter May
  • William Kent Krueger — the Cork O’Connor series blends crime with family, history, and a strong sense of place
  • Michael Robotham — especially the Joe O’Loughlin books, where personal lives are always part of the story
  • Peter May — the Lewis Trilogy, where past, family, and landscape are tightly woven together

Exploring the Chicago Blues of Lurrie Bell

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Lurrie Bell: Carrying On the Chicago Blues Tradition of His Father, Carey Bell

I’ve mentioned before that I often use the birthday listings over at AllAboutJazz.com as a springboard to discover new music. That’s how I first really dove into the music of Lurrie Bell, a Chicago bluesman with deep roots and a guitar tone full of grit and soul.

Blues in My Soul – A Breakthrough Album

Back in 2013, Lurrie Bell had a banner year. He released what would become one of his most acclaimed solo albums, Blues in My Soul, on the Delmark label—a return to electric blues after a few more acoustic and spiritual outings. The blues world noticed.

Blues in My Soul earned Lurrie five nominations at the 2014 Blues Music Awards:

  • Blues Album of the Year (Blues in My Soul)
  • Blues Song of the Year (“Blues in My Soul”)
  • Traditional Blues Album of the Year (Blues in My Soul)
  • Blues Guitarist of the Year
  • Traditional Male Blues Artist of the Year

He took home the Blues Song of the Year award, and also won the 2013 Living Blues Award for Male Blues Act of the Year.

Lurrie Bell – Born December 13, 1958

Lurrie Bell was born in Chicago, the son of legendary blues harpist Carey Bell. He picked up the guitar at six, and by his teens was already playing with the likes of Eddy Clearwater, Big Walter Horton, and Eddie Taylor. In the mid-1970s, he spent four years touring and recording with Koko Taylor’s Blues Machine. His recording debut came in 1977 on his father’s album Heartaches and Pain, as well as King of the Jungle by Eddie C. Campbell.

Over a career now spanning more than four decades, Bell has released more than a dozen solo albums, collaborated often with his father, and contributed to numerous other blues records. I first heard his scorching guitar work on Live at Chan’s: Combo Platter No. 2 from Nick Moss & The Flip Tops, where he shines on a 13-minute version of Eddie Boyd’s “Five Long Years.”

If you’re a fan of Chicago blues and haven’t checked out Lurrie Bell yet—start now. Here are some great places to explore his music:

Links exploring the blues of Lurrie Bell…

And here’s a great live performance of “Everyday I Have the Blues” from Bluesfest Eutin 2014:

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🎶 Update: Set Me Free (2024)

As for me? Lurrie Bell is still going strong. His 2024 collaboration with saxophonist Frank Catalano, Set Me Free, is now spinning as I write—and it’s a bold, soulful mix of blues and jazz that pushes the boundaries without losing the heart.

Between Lurrie’s expressive guitar and vocals, and Catalano’s blazing sax work, the album is a testament to two seasoned musicians still hungry for musical exploration. Set Me Free proves the blues isn’t stuck in the past—it’s still moving, still evolving, still alive.

Check it out—you just might find yourself set free too.

Return to Music: Leaves, Branches & Roots
Return to Blues: Leaves Branches & Roots

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106 Miles to Chicago – The B Christopher Band – Keeps Me Running!

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The Nerdy Details as I Try to Start Running Again!

Ok so over the last two weeks I have semii-started to run again. I say semi because I have only run three times since July 26th.  Oh, and I had a stress test on August 5th. The first two runs were actually run/walks. On both of those runs I basically ran a little and then walked a little.

On the July 26th run I covered 2.1 miles in 32:27. That calculates to a 15:30 min/mile pace. However, during the run I ran for 14:45 minutes and walked for 17:41 minutes.

Likewise on my July 28th run I walked and ran but did a little better. I covered 2.68 miles in 39:36 for a 14:46 min/mile pace. However, during this run I actually ran more than I walked. I ran for 21:29 minutes and walked for 18:04 minutes.

Finally, on my August 11 run I did better still. On that run I covered 2.16 miles in 32′:53 for a pace somewhat slower than the preceding runs. The final pace was !5:13 min/mile. The good thing though about this run was that I ran (ok,jogged)  for 28:43 minutes while only walking for 4:07 minutes. I ran he whole first mile. Then I walked a quarter mile and almost ran the second mi le. Unfortunately I calculated how far I needed to run to get that last mile and came up a little short!

I’m planning on running again tomorrow morning and I’ll bore you with the details after the run! My goal may be to run for 30 minutes with no walking! Wish me luck!

106 Mile to Chicagp The B Christopher Band

The Soundtrack  August 11 Run – The B Christopher Band

The soundtrack for the majority of the run was the latest release from The B Christopher Band – 106 Miles to Chicago. The last time an album from the B Christopher Band was used as a soundtrack for a run was back in 2019. when I was a soon to be 68-year -old. The run was a 4.16 mile run at an average pace of 10:28 min/mile. You can read about it here.  Oh, how I long for those days!

About 106 Miles to Chicago

Anyway back to these days. Well I knew that there were a lot  of old songs on this album like n”Hey,Bartender “{, “She caught the Katy”, Sweet Home Chicago” and “Gimme Some Lovin’.”  But the reference to the Blues Brothers in the album’s title flew right over my head!  Anyway here’s the quote that provided the title to this album that is a tribute to the Blues Brothers!

Elwood:  It’s a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses. Jake: Hit it.

B Christopher is a fantastic guitarist and his band in this album is pretty dam good. It includes: Eddie Testa on lead vocals, Anton Fig on drums, Nick Douglas on bass and backing vocals. Bruce Katz on keys Andy Snizter on tenor and baritone sax, Ryan Keberle on trombone, Tony Kadleck on trumpet,Sharlotte Gibson provides backing vocals, and Studebaker John adds harmonica.

Additionally, Original Blues Brothers member Tom “Bones” Malone plays baritone sax on ‘Gimme Some Lovin’”,

The only bad thing about the album  is it only contains seven songs. And it is only 26 minutes and change long!  Anyway it is definitely and album that should be checked out!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of The B Christopher Band

Artist’s Website
Facebook
YouTube
Amazon

Here’s the opening track from 2106 miles to Chicago  “Hey, Bartender”

Midnight Creed (Ryder Creed (#8) (Maggie O’Dell World #19) Alex Kava

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Midnight Creed is the 8th book in Alex Kava’s Ryder Creed series — a spin-off from her long-running Maggie O’Dell novels. Since Maggie and her FBI colleagues play such an integral role in Ryder’s world, the series often feels like an extended Maggie O’Dell universe.

The Story

In this installment, Maggie O’Dell is investigating the serial killings of homeless people up and down the East Coast. Meanwhile, Ryder Creed and his dogs are searching for a missing boy, while also preparing for a shipment of K9s left behind when U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan.

When another boy goes missing — one Ryder’s coworker Jason knows personally — Ryder and his team launch a frantic search. At the same time, the serial killer Maggie’s tracking is headed to Florida. The question is: will these two cases collide?

My History with Alex Kava

I’ve been reading Alex Kava since her debut A Perfect Evil, the first Maggie O’Dell book. Across the first 11 O’Dell novels, Maggie faced everything from serial killers and arsonists to a potential mall bomber, electrocuted teenagers, and deadly pathogens.

The Entwining of Maggie and Ryder

Kava introduced Ryder Creed in the 2015 release Breaking Creed. A former Marine turned K9 search-and-rescue trainer, Ryder rescues dogs and trains them for life-saving missions. Over the first seven books, Maggie and Ryder’s professional relationship has deepened, and in book 7, they finally acknowledged their love for each other — though they still live apart. Maggie can’t leave the FBI and Quantico, and Ryder can’t leave his dogs.

Final Thoughts

Once again, Kava delivers a well-paced, character-driven treat. Alongside Maggie and Ryder, supporting characters like Jason and Ryder’s sister Brodie have grown in importance. (Brodie has been part of the backstory since the beginning, but readers only met her in recent books — raising the question: where was she all this time?)

Midnight Creed can be read as a standalone, but I suspect you’ll want to dive into the earlier Ryder Creed books — and maybe even the Maggie O’Dell series — once you’ve read it.

Explore More About Alex Kava:

Wikipedia

Website

Facebook

Goodreads

Amazon

Something New an HIIT Bike Workout

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Ok so yesterday in the morning it was raining again, so I didn’t go for a walk. But I also didn’t do a hard workout. By the afternoon I had very few steps, so I knew I had to do some kind of indoor workout.

I stared at the stationary bike and thought should I?  One of the reasons that I don’t really workout on the bike is that I have never really done an organized workout. I would get on the bike and pedal for 20 to 30 minutes maybe changing the tension every now and then. Overall, I used to think it was too easy!
 
The Bike Workout
You noticed I said used to think it was too easy? See yesterday I found a 20 minute Bike  HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) video on YouTube. Oh, there’s another reason I haven’t worked out on the bike a lot. I used to need to move my laptop around so I watch any YouTube videos to workout with. But now YouTube is on  Xfinity so I can watch it on the TV.
But back to the workout. The workout started out easy 6 – 15 second hard burst followed by 15 seconds of easy riding.  However,  when the burst of hard pedaling went up to 30 seconds and then 45 seconds, my heart rate started to climb and the sweat started to pour from my pores.

The Results

By the end of the workout I had burnt 225 calories, and had an average heart rate of 115 beats per minute (bpm). My maximum heart rate was 142. Not bad!
The end result was that it was a good cross -raining workout. Here is the breakdown of my time in each heart rate zone, during the workout:
peak – 1 minute
cardio – 16 minutes
fat burn – 8 minutes
 A New Workout Schedule??
So all in all it was an unexpectedly good workout. So now maybe I have a new workout schedule (remember Work at Target serves as my workout on Mondays and Fridays).
Tuesday – run
Wednesday – indoor cardio
Thursday – run
Saturday – cross train bike ( stationary or outdoor)
Sunday – run
In  addition to the above I will still be doing my daily Hatha or other Yoga. And if I can keep this up maybe by July I can run a 5K! Wish me luck!

Here is the workout. Give it a try!

Featured Image from : Amazon

A Valentine’s Day Surprise Leads to Karn Genealogical Discoveries

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My wife posted the above photo from Ancestry.com on my Facebook time line yesterday and described my status as being genealogical heaven. She was correct and her Valentine’s Day gift to me was the reason.

Probably a year or more ago through Ancestry, we found the marriage of my great-grandfather Henry Karn. He married Pauline Hechler in Brooklyn New York in May  of 1886. We never got around to ordering the certificate from the city though. The hope was that his parents names would be listed on the certificate. The only thing I knew was his father’s name on his death certificate was listed as Andrew.

As far as I knew Henry came to the US  from Hesse Germany in 1882 by himself. In the 1890s he was in the Philadelphia area and by 1895 he was living in Bridgeboro NJ. I have never found any Andrew Karn in any Federal Census  in either the Philadelphia or New York areas.

A Valentines Day’s Gift leads to Karn Genealogy Discoveries

Anyway, for Valentine’s Day, my wife contacted a researcher in New York and he went to the City Archives and got the certificate. To our surprise,his parents were listed. His father’s was not Andrew, it was Kaspar! His mother’s name was Katherine Sohl.

Edward Researches on Ancetry.com

On Thursday I was busy because we were picking up Oliver and then taking him and Zoe to play bingo at our elementary school. Sometime later that evening, I discovered a birth certificate on Ancestry among the Hesse Lutheran Church records. It was for a Peter Karn born in 1872. His parents were listed as Kasper and Katerina Elisabeth Sohls Karn. He was Henry’s brother!

A few more minutes of searching revealed a second brother named Andreas. Andreas was born in 1875 . Both of the brothers were born in Oberaula, in Hesse.  Next I found the children of Peter and Andreas. Peter had three girls Katherina Elizabeth, Anna Barbara and Martha Pauline.

Andreas had only one child listed in the database. A daughter Anna was born in 1906. Sadly, she died in 1907. Andreas died a year later in 1908.

The database, which had all this information, only covers births until 1901. I haven’t been able to find any of the children of Barbara who married Heinrich Moller or Katherina who married Johannes Braun in 1919 and then William Seiple in 1924.

The Research Leads to Ancestors in Oberaula Hesse in the Early 1800s

The final find was the death certificate of mother Katherina Elisabeth, Kasper’s wife. Katherina was born in 1838 and her parents were Johannes Sohl and Anna Maria Roth. While I have not found any death certificates for Johannes or Anna, based on Katherina’s birth year, they would have been born in the early 1800s.

So thanks to my wife and Ancestry.com in two days I went from knowing only my great grandfather came from Hesse Germany to knowing who his parents and at least two of his siblings were and where they lived in Hesse!  Now that I know that my roots go into the early 1800s in Oberaula, I can do some more online searching using German websites. Wish me luck!

Here is a link to Oberaula with some interesting pictures of my ancestors homeland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Introduction to My Family Tree

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The Beginnings – The Karn – Ashton Family Lines

I believe it was probably more than a year ago now, when I wrote that I was going to write more about my family heritage. So I guess it’s about damn well time I got started, don’t you think?

So let’s begin, I was born in the hospital in Riverside, New Jersey. My mother thinks she was there but she was never sure! They zonked her with some strong drugs and the next thing she knew, I was in her arms!

Anyway all the DNA evidence points to the fact that I am the son of Edward Karn and Helen Ashton. Born in Riverside, NJ on October 1, 1951. A date that always made me the oldest person in our class that hadn’t been held back. The reason was that the cut-off date for enrolment was September 30th!

The Ashton Family (My Maternal Line)

John Heen Eva Ashton Family Picture
John, Helen and Mon Elva

My mother was Helen Ray Ashton. The middle name Ray is correct. She was given that name by her grandmother Charlotte Trout Regars. Ray was the name of my grandmother‘s sister Cora‘s first husband! Note I said her first husband!

So much for using an in-law‘s masculine first name for your granddaughter‘s middle name! Well, Cora’s second  husband was William Atz, so I guess Ray is better than William!

At least she used the names of her brothers for her grandsons. One grandson‘s name came from her brother Howard – John Howard Ashton.The other one Elmer was from another brother and her grandfather. – James Elmer Ashton. Jimmy hated the name Elmer so much he would tell people his name was James no name“ Ashton.

Helen Ray was born in Tupelo, Mississippi I’m sure. But my mother was born in Beverly, New Jersey on June 12, 1928. She was the daughter of John Sherrington Ashton IV and Elva Mildred Regars. John was born in Beverly. Elva was born in Florence and raised in Burlington.

Helen was the third of three children Her oldest brother was the aforementioned John Howard born in 1923. James Elmer was born in 1923.

I never knew my Uncle Jimmy. He was killed on July. 1944. in the „hedgerows of hell“ in France. Shortly after D-Day as Us troops moved away from the beaches of Normandy.

Uncle Johnny I knew well and I will write about him in a future post.

John Sherrington Ashton IV

My Grandfather John Sherrington Ashton IV was the son of John Sherrington Ashton and Margaret Agnes McCloskey. He was born in Beverly, NJ
While my grandmother, the daughter of John McCloskey and Mary Stewart, was born in Northern Ireland. She had too many brothers and sister to list them here.

The Karn Family

Arther, Kenny and Edward

My father Edward Henry Karn,  Jr. was the son of Charlotte Frieda Meyer and, drumroll please, Edward Henry Karn. He was born in Riverside,NJ on June 23,1923 and was the oldest of the three Karn boys. His brothers were Arthur Herman Karn and Kenneth Irving Karn. Uncle Kenny may belong to the what the kind of name is that, club! I’ve never understood where Irving came from.

Edward Henry Karn

My grandfather was born in New Jersey, his parents were Henry Karn and Pauline Heckler. Edward was the younger of five children. He had two brothers Harry and Charles and two sisters Emma and Anna.

Based on the only immigration records that’s I can find for a Heinrich Karn that match Henry indicate that Henry was born in Hesse, Germany.

Pauline and her family came from Switzerland.

Charlotte and Irmagard

Charlotte Meyer

My paternal grandmother, Charlotte Meyer was born in Dresden Germany. She was the daughter of Herman Adolph Meyer and Helene Wendel. Herman was born in Konigswalde, in the Kingdom of Saxony and Helene in Dresden.

Charlotte had one older sister Irmagard and one brother Albert. Both Charlotte and Irma were born in Dresden while Al was born in NJ.

Summarizing My Ethnicity

Ok so based on the above here is my ethnic background. Karn -German, Heckler – Swiss, Meyer and Wendel -German, McCloskey and Stewart -Irish and Ashton- English and Regars your guess is as good as mine!

So there you have it! My family tree back through my great-grandparents. Two of the families, the Karns and the Hecklers came to the US In the 1880s. The McCloskey‘s arrived in the late 1870s. The Meyers and Wendels came in the early 1910s. Herman was the first to arrive coming in 1911, with Helene and the girls coming the following year.

I hope this initial story wasn’t to boring but it lays the groundwork for further explorations of my various family lines. I will try to tackle their stories, at least as much as I know about them, one post at a time! First up, in the next post, will be the Ashtons!

Featured Image: the Karn Family at my first birthday party at the table: me and cousin Jim Ashton. Family: left to right: Father’s Brother Art, Nana Karn, behind her Art’s wife Polly, John Ashton’s wife Jim’s mom Jean Plant Ashton, My dad Edward Karn, his brother Kenny and my grandfather Edward H Karn Sr.

Pauline was born in Switzerland.

Sixties Baseball Memories of Some Great Seasons….

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Baseball Memories – Thank You “Uncle” Barney

As I sit and watch the Cubs in the baseball play-offs memories arose of some magical years in my life. I was born in 1951 and I have vague memories of the 1957 or 58 World Series my mother was rooting for the Braves over the Yankees. The first time I really remember watching the games was 1960 when the Pirates beat the Yankees in a seven game series, which ended on a Bill Mazeroski homer. I remember getting home from school just in time to see the homer!

1961 – Barney Gets the Call!

The following year 1961 was also a big year for me.. In that year, my mother’s first cousin Barney Schultz was called up to pitch for the Chicago Cubs. Barney was a knuckleball relief pitcher. He languished for most of his career in the minor leagues. By the time he was called up in 1961 he was 34 years old!

We went to several Phillies games that year. One of the times when my Uncle Kenny took me to an afternoon doubleheader, Barney collected a save in both of the games!! That feat was on the back of his baseball card the next year!

Another time because we were family, we got to go below the stands to the hallway outside of the visitors locker room.

That night I got autographs from several Cubs players. At one point I walked up to a player who was standing by himself near the exit. I got his autograph, when I looked at it, I saw it was the hottest rookie in the league and the future savior of the Cubs- Ken Hubbs.

The sad part of that story was that after the  season in the league Hubbs died when private plane he was piloting from Provo, Utah to Colton, California crashed during a snowstorm. Topps issued the In Memoriam card below in 1964.

 

1964 – What a Year!

Speaking of 1964, now there was a season for a 13 year-old to remember! In Phillies history . In Phillies year that the year that Ruiz’s steal of home started the Phillies Plop that saw them blow a 61/2 game lead with 12 games to play. (1) But in my baseball history it is the year that “Uncle” Barney helped lead the St. Louis Cardinals to the pennant! At 38 years-old Barney was a September call-up for the Redbirds. He appeared in 30 games and saved 14 of them. His ERA over those gamed was 1.64! His 14 saves placed him 5th best in the National League and the Cardinals in the World Series against the hated (at least by me) Yankees.

Barney Pitches to Mickey Mantle – Oh My!

Oh and it placed me in the left field bleachers in Yankee Stadium for game 3 of the Series. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning Cardinal manager Johnny Keane summoned Barney from the bullpen to replace started Curt Simmons. What I didn’t know at the time was what an aging Mickey Mantle told Yankees starter Jim Bouton. Bouton relates….

 “He was standing there with the bat on his shoulder watching Barney Schultz. His warm-up pitches were coming in about thigh high and breaking down to the shin, to the ankles — two or three in a row. Mickey said, ‘I’m gonna hit one outta here.’ (2)

 

Catcher Tim McCarver recalls what happened next……

Mantle stood in. Schultz wound up. McCarver knew right away:

“Nothing good was gonna come of this pitch. There are a lotta pitches that don’t do anything during the course of a game. There are fastballs that aren’t fast. There are fastballs that are meant to hop in on a lefthander and they don’t hop. There are breaking balls that are meant to break and guys pop ’em up, foul ’em back, or pull ’em foul, or hit ’em for a single, or hit ’em for a home run. But nothing like this.”

The first pitch to Mantle, a knuckler, didn’t dance or flutter or defy expectation. It didn’t do anything at all. “It wasn’t thrown,” McCarver said. “It was dangled like bait to a big fish. Plus it lingered in that area that was down, and Mickey was a lethal low-ball hitter lefthanded. The pitch was so slow that it allowed him to turn on it and pull it.” (2)

And Mantle sent it sailing over the right field fence! It was Mantle’s record-breaking 16th World Series homer!

Schultz took one quick look over his shoulder and walked off the mound. “I crossed the third base foul line as he was rounding third base,” he recalled. “I didn’t even watch him run the bases. I wasn’t interested in that. I was interested in punching myself in the mouth.” (2)

It Was Still a Great Year!

The car ride back to our home in New Jersey was sad that day, for every but my Yankee loving cousin Jimmy Ashton!! However, the Cardinals went on to win the Series in 7 games, capping a pretty great 1964!

A year that also saw me go also go to my first and only All-Star game! In that game the Phillies’ Johnny Callison hit a walk-off homer to send the National League home winners!! We also went to the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows that year!

Also in 1962 and 1964 my Little League baseball team Hope Hose, in spite of me, won two league championships!! Great Times!!

Links

  1. Today in Philly Sports History: Chico Ruiz Steals Home, 1964
  2. The story behind Mickey Mantle’s 1964 walkoff Series home run
  3. Fifty years later, memories of Ken Hubbs still glowing

Is Fall the Best Season for Sports?

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Yes, When Else is There Hope in So Many Sports?

So is the fall one of the best tones of the year for. sports fans or what’ it starts in the beginning of September as the baseball season winds down and your teams is a quizillion games out of the playoffs. (Hey more years that man not that has been the case with my. Home team Phillies!) You are given either college or NFL football! I choose both!

First there’s Football – College and Pro!

I follow the Eagles in the NFL and my college teams are those where I went to school the Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs. An odd combination,eh?

Well see I went to Florida and my wife to Georgia. When we married she wanted to go back to school so we moved to Athens. She said in school for a quarter but we lived in Athens for four years. I eventually went back to school at UGA I only went for one year to get the credits I needed to get a Bachelor of Science degree in Education. By the way both my Florida degree in Politcal Science and my Georgia degrees have prominently been displayed on my walls unused!
They did lead to my being hired by the consulting engineering firm for which I worked for over thirty years!

Then There’s the Start of the NBA and NHL Seasons

So back to sports in the fall. So with the footballs seasons three to five weeks into swing the baseball playoff start, the National Hockey League season starts and the NBA pre-season gets underway!

And the MLB Playoffs and World Series

So last night I watched the Sixers lose to the Celtics, the Indians beat the Yankees (I just flipped back I time to see the grand slam that made the score 8-7!) and the Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks. Oh and a saw bits and pieces of the Nationals and Cubs game!!

Oh and earlier in the evening I even got my nightly political fix by watching a little of Hardball with Chris Matthews and All in with Chris Hayes!

The party has continued today! So far I’ve watched Georgia crush Vanderbilt And am now watching the Gators lose to LSU. Come on Gators! Later tonight I’ll be watching both of the National League Divisional series games capped off with the Flyers in the road playing the Anaheim Ducks!

Does Get any better?

Yes it is the best sports time of the year the season are all new and hope is springing eternal! Unlike the end of the basketball and hockey seasons when your teams are once again watching the playoffs. Or February when the Eagles are watching the Super Bowl.

!! It maybe this year will be different at least for one of the teams!!!

So do you agree that this is the best time of the year in sports?  I know many probably think that July is the best month. You have the Tour de France going and football training camp starting! Yeah right!

 

 

 

 

A Call During Run, Slows First Mile, But Leads to a Fast Run!

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For All We Know’s Latest  – Take Me Home Provides the Music

:So today was a running day, I left about 8:15 knowing that would give me enough time to finish, take a shower and eat before 10:30 when I had to pick up granddaughter Zoe at school. The one thing that I didn’t remember was my wife had A doctor’s appointment at 10! One of the reasons that I forgot was that she was sick this morning and didn’t go to work.

II was made aware of my forgetfulness a little more than a half mile into my four mile run. In order to answer the phone I had to take off my headphones. That action along with the call I need to make to the doctor to make to cancel the appointment forced me to walk a short distance.

When I started again I was a short distance from the first mile. I passes that point in a time of 11:28 ! That was not a bad time considering the walking I did! In addition, I actually felt better than. I did before I walked and my average pace was dropping

I decided though to deviate from the course that I had planned to run. The basic reason for the deviation was the course I had planned to run would have required another lengthy uphill run!

The Run Post Phone Call

Anyway for the rest of the run, my overall pace continued to drop which meant that I was on pace to run the course in about the same time that I would have run it without the stop. By the time I finished 4 miles my pace was 10:50 minutes per mile! Since I felt pretty good i decided to kick it home with a little sprint. That brought my overall pace time down to 10:48 per mile. That makes the run one of my fastest!

The one thing that I did like about the runs was that because the first mile was so slow for the remainder of the run my overall pace kept going down! That kept me positive any running hard for the full run!!

The Results

Total Distance 4.15 miles    Total Time: :4 Average Pace: 10:47 (m/m)

Mile Splits Mile 1: 11:38 m/m Mile 2 – 10:33 m/me 3 10:28 m/m Mile 4 10:43 m/m   0.15 – 9:34 m/m

Average Heart Rate ; 144 bpm  Max Heart Rate 160 bpm

Calories Burned: 586  cals

The Soundtrack: Take Me Home – For All We Know