RAMBLINGS VOL. III

RAMBLINGS VOL. III

I have a funny feeling … this summer is going to be a blast – I mean lots of fun!

2012 Resolutions:  (1) Learn to swim.  (2) Buy a truck.  (3) Re-enroll in university.  Note:  If I learn to swim this summer, I get to make another resolution!

If I could be a TV character for a day, I would be – I have given this serious thought, and I don’t want to be a TV character.  I like being who I am!

Here we go again:  I had a serious chili dog craving the other day.  It’s time to make a batch of chili.  Or just stop by Ben’s Chili Bowl….  I think I’ll go the latter route this time around.

So many little things went right today that I am almost afraid to write about them!  I’m not going to write about them, though.  I have learned that I don’t have to write about everything.  (My wife will really appreciate that last sentence!)  I’ll just say that I am grateful for this day, and that I appreciate how special today was.

“Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”  Proverbs 11:2

Today I ran to catch a train.  And I was not out of breath afterward!  At this rate, I’ll be dunking again in no time!  Hah hahahahahahahah!  Seriously, though, I know better.

The above statement is a lie.  If I can dunk again, I am sure as hell going to try to pretzel the rim one more time!

This is the time of the month when I have to go without or do things on the cheap.  Many months ago, my goal was to have a steak in the freezer at this time of the month so I could pull it out and for at least one evening eat like a rich man.  Yesterday morning, I pulled a pound of chopped meat out of the freezer so I could make a batch of authentic Texas chili (no beans, no tomatoes) in the afternoon.  It wasn’t exactly a boneless ribeye, but it still tasted pretty good!  I am thankful, and I am looking forward to chili dogs later this week.

Summer tasks:  1) Dentist; 2) Learn to swim; 3) Develop characters for children’s book series.

I choose to thrive instead of survive.

I really like writing.  I am going to make the full commitment, as soon as I figure out what that means.

You have to respect fate and the Lord for what they are – the final arbiters of your past, present and future.  Respect.

I had a chef moment yesterday.  My wife brought home an herb salad, and I could smell something different on my way to the kitchen.  I asked if I smelled rosemary, and she confirmed that I did, along with sage, basil, thyme and mint.  I’m looking forward to my next trip to the supermarket….

You can take a brutha out of the ‘hood, but you can’t take the ‘hood out of a brutha.

Quick Update

Two changes to my routine:

1) My dry weight has been increased yet again to 100 kilos (220 pounds).  Me big boy again!!  Knock wood, there's no end in sight for my weight gain.  As long as it isn't fat or water, I will go along happily.

2) I've changed shifts from 3rd to 2nd, which means that I show up for dialysis at around 11:30AM and am on the way home around 4PM or so.  Schedule-wise, the change is much more in my wheelhouse because I'm up at the crack of dawn most mornings.  The only downside so far is that I have to commute home during the rush, and that is no picnic.  I was quickly reminded of man's inhumanity to man on the Blue Line in particular, but during the entire trip home in general.  Noo Yawkers have nothing on Washingtonians when it comes to lack of common courtesy.

That's it!  Well, I could write more but I don't want to.  It involves blood, and the blood ain't mine.

A Dietary Winner: Authentic Texas Chili

My diet presents a daily challenge.  Due to my kidney failure, there are a host of food products that I cannot eat or have to watch my consumption of like a hawk.  Some that come readily to mind are junk food, dairy products, tomatoes, potatoes, cheese, and bacon.  Oh, and don’t forget chocolate!  This means that I can almost never eat on a whim, and that I have had to give up a slew of foods that I love.  These include pizza, french fries, meat sauce/marinara sauce, ice cream, M & M’s, and double cheeseburgers slathered in ketchup.  It’s a tough road to hoe, but I do the best that I can day after day.  Every once in a while I slip up, but the monthly report I receive from my nutritionist slaps me back into reality.

One of my big no-no foods is lasagna.  This presents a problem because I make a damn fine four-cheese sausage-and-chopped-meat two-pan lasagna, and I absolutely refuse to compromise on the ingredients.  For my money, there’s only one way to make lasagna:  the right way!  So I only make it about twice a year, doctor’s orders be damned, and I eat it like it’s my last meal.

Chili presents a different issue.  Chili is to me more of an everyday food, and I eat it a lot more often.  It’s comfort food goodness that is great over rice, hot dogs, or nachos, or all by itself.  Problem is, the way I make it contains tomatoes and beans – two foods that are explicitly forbidden from my diet.  And I have insane chili cravings every now and again.  Until recently, I dealt with this dilemma sort of like I dealt with the lasagna issue – by damning the food gods.  Bad idea.  I eat chili a lot more often than I eat lasagna, so “just doing it” is not a good solution.

I then remembered from a cooking show – most likely one of those excellent chili cooking contests – that “authentic” Texas chili does not contain beans.  Tomatoes?  I wasn’t so sure.  A quick bit of Internet research provided a most agreeable answer:  authentic Texas chili contains only beef, onions, chili peppers or chili powder, salt and a little animal fat (like lard or bacon grease).  Touchdown!  All the ingredients are part of my already-truncated food list.

Once I tried cooking authentic Texas chili, I was even happier, because it is one of the simplest recipes known to man.  Making a good burger from scratch is more difficult.  You simply render the fat, brown the beef, add the onions, add garlic (optional), and add chilies, chili powder or a combination thereof.  Simmer and stir on very low heat for two to eight hours (depending on how much time you have) while adding salt and pepper to taste, and you’re done!  You’ve brought an inexpensive, healthy, stick-to-your-ribs batch of chili into the world.  And any chili aficionado will tell you that this is only the tip of the iceberg.  Authentic Texas chili can be the starting point for a multitude of variations on the original recipe; the only limitations are common sense and, in my case, diet.  A cook can also take the opposite tack and work on refining the original recipe – a little more heat, a little less onion, a little more liquid, a different cut of beef -- until it comes out just as they like it.

I look forward to spending many hours refining my own authentic Texas chili recipe and sharing the results with friends and family – and my readers, too!

Reading Revisited

My reading material is mostly comprised of  e-mails, Facebook postings, Web pages, signs or advertisements, instruction manuals, my own writing, recipes or cooking instructions, and TV/movie listings.  I haven’t read many books lately, though.  The last book I read was The Art of War by Sun Tzu three or four years ago.  Every once in a blue moon I open up Larousse Gastronomique or another cookbook to get some cooking tips.  About a month ago, I received two items that changed my reading habits forever:  a Kindle, and my first pair of reading glasses. 

I was gifted the Kindle by a very good friend who I am sure would prefer to remain nameless.  She had upgraded to an iPad and no longer needed the Kindle, and was thoughtful enough to remember little ol’ me in my dialysis chair.  Next thing I knew, the Kindle was in my hands!  I immediately started downloading and reading free samples and, as I cannot currently spend much to order reading material, posted an inquiry on Facebook’s Kindle page asking how and where I could obtain free reading material.  Within a half-hour I received a dozen recommendations and links to free reading sources.  (Interestingly enough, all of the responses were from women.  Why I am learning all of this now that I am married?)

The first book I chose to read on the Kindle was Shoeless Joe Jackson by W.P. Kinsella.  Shoeless Joe is a nice read for a baseball fan like myself who missed out on baseball’s “golden era”; it is truly invigorating.  One vignette was the coolest thing I’ve read or heard in a while.  Two pages later, a flat-out prejudiced racial aside has me bristling like I do when someone stares at me for too long.  The book also contains wonderfully useless information; for example, Shoeless Joe Jackson has the same birth date as my mom!

I am currently reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin on the Kindle.  I downloaded it to indulge my interest in history, the man, and his thoughts.  As it turns out, Ben Franklin’s writing style is very timely and only the tiniest bit stilted for a work that is well over 200 years old.  I’m about a tenth of the way through the book, and have not yet once had to consult a dictionary or thesaurus.  I get the sense that if Mr. Franklin were alive today, he would indulge in a lot of smack-talking.  It’s not that he’s a blowhard; he just liked to hear himself talk and see his written words.  And why shouldn’t he?

The Kindle is a marvelous instrument.  It is in fact nothing new – this technology has been around for a while – but the geeks at Amazon have figured out how to package it in an inexpensive and pleasing way.  Forget all the technological whiz-bang stuff – just imagine carrying a single slim, light book around with you for the rest of your life.  Just one slim little book – that’s it.  Whatever you want to read is already loaded on it, and for all practical purposes it will never wear out.  The Kindle makes the time go by much faster for me both in the dialysis chair and on the commute to and from dialysis.  It has also contributed hugely to my reignited interest in prose.  I recently downloaded Their Last Suppers:  Legends of History and Their Final Meals by Andrew Caldwell just in case I don’t feel like reading my other choices.  It remains to be seen whether I can indulge one of my favorite hobbies – learning foreign languages – on the Kindle; I’m sure I can as it has an audio component for audio books and music.  Boredom should not be a problem for quite some time going forward.

Whoops!  I just searched for Larousse Gastronomique on the Kindle Store, and it is not available.  As my hardcover version weighs about 7.5 pounds, an electronic version would be sweet!  I don’t think I’d buy it, though.  I’m just sayin’….

It is a most interesting coincidence that I purchased my first set of reading glasses the same week that I received my Kindle; without them, the Kindle may as well have been kindling!  Whilst I have fighter-pilot vision in all other circumstances, I cannot read anything at arm’s length without some sort of assistance.  I had noticed this for the last year or so but endured the condition by use of a magnifying glass, squinting, and just reading less.  My reading ability at home was assisted by my 32-inch bedroom TV which doubles as a computer monitor; if not for this setup, I probably would have taken my reading deficiency seriously much sooner.  The condition really became noticeable during my recovery from kidney failure; I was having a devil of a time reading all the pamphlets, handouts and papers about my condition and the treatment of same. 

A visit to the ophthalmologist confirmed that all I needed was a pair of reading glasses (1.5 magnifications).  Thanks to my high school alumni Facebook group, I knew that I could purchase reading glasses at the local drugstore, and that I should probably purchase more than one because they are inexpensive enough to do so.  I purchased a three-pack, and three is currently the magic number for me.  I leave one pair on my nightstand, one pair on top of the microwave in the kitchen, and one pair in my knapsack.  No doubt when I purchase my next vehicle I’ll stick a pair in the glove compartment or the center console.  In my opinion, a vision test should be made mandatory for anyone over age 40, because there are lots of people out there squinting to read things like I was who don’t have to be squinting.

There is a certain “dork appeal” aspect to wearing reading glasses.  I vividly recall the first time I looked at myself in the mirror while wearing them; I had to resist the urge to smack myself around a little.  The urge passed by fairly quickly as I got used to them, and I must admit that I love when the other Metro passengers stare at the huge dorky black dude with the reading glasses and the Kindle.  They set me apart, even in Washington D.C., a town where geek is always chic.

The Kindle and my reading glasses have revolutionized my reading habits.  Reading was a necessity and sometimes a chore; it is now, once again, a joy and an adventure.  And, since I am threatening to go back to school in 2012, the timing could not be better!

The Political Animal

The Political Animal

As it turns out, I probably should have majored in Political Science in college (I first majored in Economics, then Mathematics).  In my last term of enrollment I took a Political Science course (Political Science 201 -- Introduction to American Political Science, as I recall) and scored an easy B-plus.  I enjoyed every minute of the course and found no test, assignment or preparation onerous.  My interest in electoral politics is no keener than the average Joe or Jane’s (or Dave’s, for that matter).  I have, however, noticed that politics pervades our lives and our thinking.  Some people who claim no interest in politics are in fact quite political, and some of these people immerse themselves in it quite willingly.  Put simply, politics in everyday life cannot be avoided.

Politics is in the home; politics can be found on the way to and from work, school, or wherever; politics can be found in the meat market (pun intended!), stock market, and supermarket.  The word “politics” is in and of itself quite supple.  While the Greek source – politikos or citizen – is straightforward enough, an exact definition is hard to pin down.  Is politics a way to an end, or is it an end in itself?  Or both? 

There is little if any politics in the world of plants and insects.  There is simply the survival of the fittest.  Is there politics in the world of dolphins, chimpanzees, whales and other intelligent animals?  “War is a continuation of politics by other means” quoted Karl von Clausewitz.  We know that chimpanzees have the capacity to wage war.  But do they also plot and scheme, or are they just acting instinctively?  Politics highlights the thinking capacity of homo sapiens and illustrates the fact that brute force or tangible physical superiority is not always necessary to achieve a desired end.

Office politics provides a window into our never-ending desire to bend situations to our liking.  There are the classic individualists who maneuver and gossip to achieve specific objectives or to prevent others from doing so.  There are “cliques” or “elites” – groups who find that there is safety in numbers.  Some people engage in office politics because they find it fun and/or essential, while others do it without consciously knowing that they are doing so. It is frightening how quickly otherwise normal people can become blood-thirsty survivalists when talk of substantive change circulates around the office.  At the managerial/administrative level and above, being able to politic is an absolutely essential job survival skill.  Those who claim to be “above the fray” had better be firmly in charge, or they risk being steamrolled by their coworkers/competitors in the blink of an eye!

Politics and government go hand in hand.  Every type of government – democracy, communism/socialism, monarchy, constitutional monarchy, dictatorship, deity – contains some sort of political activity:  some of it prescribed, some of it clandestine, some of it catch-as-catch-can or issue-specific.  Many of the qualities necessary to be a good politician – planning, working well with others, a thick skin – come in handy when governing a group or state.

The driving force behind political activity is the desire to get things done.  It is the urge to get involved, the id saying “I have to have a hand in this”.  Politics involves reasoning, communication, observation, planning, and in some cases strategy.  Chimpanzees display all of these qualities.  So it would seem that chimps can politic; the question is do they?  And if not, why not?  Is it easier to just “go at it” like animals?

While chimpanzees simply want to survive and procreate, humans wish to improve their lot and leave their progeny with better living conditions – on most days.  On some days, humans descend to levels that literally make us scatter.  In the animal world, fewer options are available; most situations reduce to a choice between good and bad, or good and better, or bad or worse.  Or life and death.  Not so in our world.  The various choices found in our world bring out the best and the worst in our species.

Politicians provide some insight into why only humans perform this activity.  They make a living convincing others to do their bidding.  How cool is that?  Some people even make careers of convincing politicians to do their bidding:  lobbyists, other politicians, and other government entities (like defense and other departments/agencies).  And let’s not forget the criminal element.  Finally, there are the voters, who most definitely influence politicians’ behavior.  And all of the above-mentioned entities are influenced by other people, issues, and events.  It becomes easy to see why political science is just what it is called – a science.  It is the antithesis of simplicity.

As I conclude this essay, it is worth noting that it took me months of painstaking rewrites to arrive at this one-and-a-half-page result.  During this process it became easier to see why politics and public service are such engaging and worthwhile endeavors:  they are uniquely human activities that provide satisfaction on many levels while posing pitfalls and challenges at every turn.  Writing this essay made me use both sides of my brain in a way that few activities do.  No wonder I loved Poli Sci 201!

RAMBLINGS VOL. II

RAMBLINGS II (slightly edited for publication)

Not posting anything in Facebook for a week was an excellent exercise in self-control.  It really wasn’t that difficult.  I could still speak my mind via “Like”s and comments, and I got back in tune with listening to others as opposed to shooting off at the mouth half-cocked all the time.  I like the change.  In addition, the writing is now coming out of me like a fountain!  Readers, enjoy!

My blog service was currently unavailable for a few hours.  No right-minded ISP takes services off-line during prime business hours, and I know Google must be using redundant servers.  That means that they either got hacked or they were cleaning up some pornography.  Or both.

Things that pay for themselves:  hair clippers, smart phones, blenders, nicotine patches.  Oddly enough, the patch didn’t work for me, but cold turkey has.

Pandora is playing my Stevie Wonder station.  Ah, yes … Pastime Paradise….

I love turkey breakfast sausage links, but pork sausage links are the bomb!  You can taste the difference in the very first bite.  [Author’s note:  I’m re-reading these notes, and I’m going to go cook up some links right now.  Pancakes and sausage for lunch.  I love it!]

I don’t know of anyone who is in a hurry to start using video chat.  I myself kind of like having that curtain up on a typical phone call.  If we all start using video chat, will you be in such a rush to answer the phone if you are relaxing in your skivvies?

I flipped from TV to computer via my monitor’s remote, and the computer was off!  OMG!!!

An iPad 2 is starting to look like a very good purchase.  At this point in my life/career, how much computing power do I need?

Things happen for a reason.

I actually applauded when Ellsbury came up in the top of the 5^th inning today at Yankee Stadium in a 0-0 game with the bases loaded.  So much for fantasy baseball!

Never run out of anything.  Always have something in reserve.

The Night Skies Network is amazing.

Today’s Silly Free Android Application is “Today in History”.  On May 15, 1940, McDonald’s opened its first restaurant!

No one has asked me to copy their status and post it in my status in a good twelve days.  Are we running out of material?  Not to worry – Father’s Day is right around the corner.

Thousands of police officers have descended on the DC metro area for National Police Week.  For some odd reason, I do not feel any safer.

Facebook is running ads on my wall that begin “Mathematics Major?”  Could this be because I listed Mathematics as my major on my profile?

I have a yearning for an authentic, very large Philly cheese steak.  This is not going on my birthday food wish list because nothing on a cheese steak is explicitly forbidden for me to eat.

My last writing effort was so long that I had to write page numbers on the bottom for my readers who don’t own computers!  Now I’ll have to start using page numbering like the pros!

I could use a double helping of fried clams!

Watching “Man v. Food” right before dinner is deliciously excruciating!

Sometimes, being “ghetto fabulous” is necessary.  Sometimes, it isn’t.

I just came in from a workout and was able to check Facebook and e-mail without touching my PC.  Nice.

Writing adds to the universe.  Write on!

Project:  Take Army Physical Fitness Test.  Goal:  score at least max (300).  Deadline:  Sunday, October 2.  First task:  select a public outdoor track to train on.  Possibility:  The Mall.

Try sending documents to Kindle!  xxxxx@kindle.com [Author’s note:  I did this, and found out that the service is not free.]

Download “Moonface” by Angela Balcita.  $9.99. [Author’s note:  downloaded a sample to my Kindle.  The sample was uplifting, but not worth ten bucks in my opinion.]

Part of my breakfast this morning was Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes.  For about four seconds there, I felt like a kid again.  Yay!!!

I saw a very good friend for the first time in a long time on the Metro today!!  I did exactly what I said I would do if I ever saw her again.  It felt great!

Two words:  smartphone chess.

Meal I am going to have ASAP:  Fried Calamari, Fried Clams and Corn on the Cob.

There are some former acquaintances I would like to see again, and some whom I would prefer not to see again.  Each situation must be addressed individually.

I was somewhat turned off by the thought of interleague ball this season.  Then I saw some Cubs/Sox highlights.  Then I saw Yankees/Mets highlights from last night.  Tonight:  Yankees/Mets at Yankee Stadium.  I love interleague ball!

I am listening to my newly created Afrika Bambaataa Pandora station.  Best Pandora mix yet by far!!!

One of these days, I will come back into the money.  When I do, I will remember all the tips and tricks that I used to get by when I had very little money.  And I will keep doing all of them!

Michelle Obama is far and away the coolest First Lady ever.

When things aren’t going well, stay the course.  Don’t panic.

I am watching the UEFA Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium.  Wayne Rooney just tied the score at 1 each.  It must feel great to be Wayne Rooney right now!

It’s a lovely Saturday afternoon, and I just admitted to myself that this will be a serious do-nothing kind of a day.  I had just thrown the covers back on my bed when I had a serious pang for chocolate.  A chocolate brownie would be perfect.  Wait a minute – there’s one nice square of chocolate cake left in the fridge!  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[Author’s note:  As I re-read this, I see that I’m on one of my food benders.  Every so often I go nuts about tasty food.  Perhaps it has to do with my sense of taste getting sharper because I stopped smoking???  I just had a simple sandwich:  deli-sliced roast beef on Wonder bread with Giant mayonnaise.  It was the tastiest meal of the day!]

There’s a new stupid reality TV show that’s right up my alley:  ‘Southern Fried Stings.’  The title says it all.

Three words:  lemon coconut cake.

I just literally Googled my house from outer space (satellite photo).  It actually felt like I was watching myself type.  This is nothing short of amazing!  The entire planet has been Googled via satellite.  I Googled my ___th floor apartment balcony!  And I thought that seeing the rings of Saturn through a telescope was cool … that has nothing on this!

The eternal question again rears its ugly head:  To work out or not to work out today?  Pros:  working out is always its own reward.  I feel a little better just thinking about it.  Cons:  I have to commute downtown for dialysis in about three hours, and today promises to be the hottest day of the year.  Wait – I think I just answered my own question.  I’ll hold off until tomorrow.  I have a couple of outdoor errands to run tomorrow, and it promises to be even hotter than today.  But dialysis is not one of those errands.  All things considered, I’m much better off waiting a day to work out.

There is a little bit of wildlife where I currently live.  The great majority of it is vegetation and insect life.  There are a few mammals, like raccoons and feral cats.  And, of course, mice and rats.  This area is blessed with all sorts of birds.  On occasion I get to watch what I think are crows just surfing the thermals with their wings spread all the way out just gliding along.  They circle up the draft and glide around and down.  And then go up again.  It’s very, very cool.

My new Nikes just arrived!  Black low-cut running shoes in the oh-so-elusive size 12-1/2; $84.77 including tax and shipping.  I am very excited because I do not buy sneakers often.  I have one pair for chillin’ (purchased nine years ago), one pair for working out (purchased four years ago), and one pair for everything else (purchased 10 years ago).  The new ones are my new chillin’ sneaks, so out with the old ones!  Long live the clearance aisle!  Next month, I’m getting a new pair of running shoes.  Full price.  I can’t afford to skimp when it comes to training.

Online Jeopardy! is a blast!  I was initially worried that it would be too much fun and that I would waste too much time playing it.  Then, while scrolling through my Facebook wall while in the dialysis chair, it occurred to me that I could play while sitting there!  The feeling of pure joy was almost the same as the rush I got whenever I put a quarter into the “Space Invaders” arcade game back in 1979-80.  I am so thankful that Space Invaders pretty much burned me out on video games forever.  I’ve had a couple of nice indulgences since then – Super Mario Land, Jet Moto 2, a Risk-type game for the PC, and NASCAR ’98 – but no game ever came close to satisfying my videogame lust like Space Invaders did.

Should I consider taking a writing class, or should I remain a purist?  Should I have paid more attention in Mr. Walsh’s English class?  For the record, I totally blew off only one school year assignment (Great Expectations), and I did none of the summer reading assignments.

I saw General Dempsey (incoming Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman) on the news, and I couldn’t stop thinking of the Three Stooges “Back to the Front” film.  I have great respect for the military, and am a proud veteran myself.  But the thought of Curly in uniform with all that “fruit salad” on his chest never fails to crack me up!

I’m watching Divorce Court and there’s this completely ignorant light-skinned youngblood pontificating about how light-skinned blacks are somehow above darker-skinned blacks.  For starters, his spoken English is pitiful.  Other than that, do not get me started.  This guy is a walking, talking ad for birth control.  Pitiful!!!

Decision trees are fun and can be quite useful.

Today is ME day!!  It’s all about whatever.  No dialysis, no cooking, no cleaning, no dietary restrictions, no “yes, dear, no, dear, I’m sorry, dear”, no working out if I don’t want to.  Me happy!  F*ckin’ A.  The only thing I will commit to today is prayer.  Possible theme song:  “Stairway to Heaven”.  It just happens to be ending as I am typing this.  iTunes is playing an awesome all-styles mix that I didn’t mean to ask for.  From Led Zeppelin to John Legend … now that’s progressive!

Which smells worse – a smelly fart, or really cheesy cologne?

I cannot go on my feet all day long.  They just can’t take it like they used to.  I can make it through a day, but there must be sitting involved.

How honest should I be when I write?  The writer in me is dying to go for it, but there are some things that most people just don’t want to hear about.  Illness is one of them.

Phew!  I just gave my smartphone an excellent workout.   Boo-yah!

“Dick Stubbs”.  Heh heh heh.

Bad Flashback

Bad Flashback

I’m sitting here in “the chair” closest to the dialysis center patient entrance/exit.  It’s 3:40PM; I’m almost a half-hour into the 4.25-hour session.  As James Brown (a former St. Albans resident, by the way) would say from time to time:  “I Feel Goooood!”  I’m accepting the changes that come my way, and sticking with the program when things get “slow.”  Just chatted with the medical staff who agree that all my numbers are looking good.  Dr. Patel even suggested that I contact the National Kidney Foundation about having them sponsor my athletic quests – if I’m serious, that is (and I am!).  I even applied for two more jobs - - this time, government admin (non-IT).  In short, all systems go.

Then I remember:  this is the chair/location I was in when I had The Nosebleed Session.

I had suffered from a lingering nosebleed all weekend long.  The problem wasn’t that it got worse; the problem was that it wouldn’t stop.  I’d gotten used to having nosebleeds from time to time because they would eventually stop.  Not this one.  It just kept leaking through the weekend.  When I looked at myself in the mirro on Monday morning, I knew that something was wrong.  My nose was mostly red and starting to swell a little.  My wife and I discussed whether I should just go straight to the hospital instead of going to dialysis that afternoon.

This is a tough story to write.  But it falls within my three rules, so I am going to try to finish it.

[Author’s note:  Odd coincidence:  the dialysis machine alarm, which indicates that a nurse/technician should check the machine “just in case”, did not go off once during this entire session.  This has only happened once or twice before in the 19 months I have been doing dialysis.]

[5/27/11:  I still don’t feel like finishing this.]

[6/2/11:  This subject is too depressing to write about.]

Yards Park - or - Fried Chicken, Anyone?

It’s Sunday morning and I am visiting Yards Park in Washington, DC’s Southeast quadrant for the first time.  I’m in the middle of walking from the Navy Yard Metro station through Yards Park to Popeye’s in the Barracks Row section of the District.  I chose Popeye’s as today’s next-to-last stop more for its biscuits than for its world-famous fried chicken (yay!), and because I could cover some heretofore unknown ground (unknown to me, anyway) during my walk.  I’m down here this morning scouting out Yards Park’s boardwalk to see if it will be suitable for my training runs.  I’m starting training for the Army’s physical fitness test. 

I am a 49-year-old male who is on the mend from October 2009 kidney failure.  As part of my recovery, I have taken on a renewed interest in physical fitness.  As such, I plan to take the U.S. Army’s physical fitness test in October of this year and score at least 300, which is a maximum score.  I took the test way back in 1982 as a 20-year-old recruit and scored a 265.  To “max” the test as a 49-year-old, I will have to (a) perform 59 pushups in two minutes – no sweat, thanks to my “100 push-ups” training regimen; (b) perform 66 sit-ups in two minutes – also no sweat, since I’ve always been a natural at doing sit-ups and maxed them the first time out; and (c) run two miles in less than 14:24.  The running part will be the biggest challenge because I started smoking at age 17 and just stopped this last New Year’s Day.  My lungs feel much better and I can already feel improved lung capacity during my treadmill workouts, but there is no substitute for actual running.  You either do it, or you don’t.  Period-end-of-discussion.  That’s why I’m scouting for an outdoor running training location.

My trek to Yards Park takes me past Nationals Park, the jewel of the redeveloping Southwest/Anacostia Waterfront district.  It seems to be a nice enough place to watch a Major League Baseball game or concert or whatever, but it does not possess the ambience or feel or history of the old Yankee Stadium or its neighborhood, “da South Bronx”. I’m a New Yorker born and bred; I moved to the District of Columbia in 1999 to advance my career and get a change of scenery.  I’d been to the old Yankee Stadium about six or seven times in my life to see the Bronx Bombers play baseball and hold court.  Suffice it to say that Nationals Park looks like a nice place to visit.  So much for that.

It took a while, but now I can smell water.  Is the smell coming from the fountain 30 feet away, or is it coming from the Anacostia River 200 feet away?  It’s the river.  This area – known locally as the Waterfront -- is being redeveloped from bow to stern, and so far the results are impressive, from Fisherman’s Wharf about two miles east to the newly-named Yards Park and the don’t-even-think-about-having-any-fun-around-here Washington Navy Yard.

So here I am at the Yards Park fountain.  What’s missing?  The brothers and sisters, that’s what!  One would expect to see a few more black people here in the middle of a city that is mostly black.  I’m snapping as many photographs as I can, and I can’t resist the feeling that I am a scout or spy of some sort.  My, oh my.  There’s a white kid with a soccer ball and soccer uniform, including cleats, and dogs are being walked on politically correct leashes.  This has got to be some level of -- wait a minute.  Is this suburbia?  Not quite.  This is gentrification!  I’d only seen it once before in my life:  about twelve years ago, when I would spend weekends with my then-future wife in East Harlem.  I vividly remember a few years before that in 1996, when I was looking for my very first all-by-myself apartment, that 96th Street was the de facto Maginot/Mason-Dixon line when it came to Manhattan real estate – if you weren’t black or brown, you didn’t want to be looking north of 96^th Street for a place to live.  Here I was a few years later wondering what white people were doing on Lexington Avenue and 116^th Street!  Were they lost?  In its defense, the Yards Park area has quite literally not been around very long, so it’s possible that the tens of thousands of black people who live within a twenty-minute walk do not yet know that it exists.  Okay – so how did all the white folk hear about it?  Times change, places change, and people change.  Perceptions also change – but they take their sweet time about doing so.

My walk from Yards Park to Popeye’s takes me through Barracks Row, a quaint neighborhood of townhomes, brownstones, and the Marine barracks where servicemen and -women and some civilians live.  The main drag/business district is on 8^th Street SE, and I walked up 8^th St for about five blocks to get my chicken and biscuits.  This area is decidedly multi-racial and upscale in a hoi polloi kind of way.  There’s a nice mix of restaurants, bars and specialty shops.  I picked an exceptionally good day to walk up 8^th St, as the warm weather and Memorial Day weekend enticed hundreds of denizens and visitors out to lunch, brunch, see, be seen, and just have a good time.  I must say that there was some serious eye candy out there!  Me likee!!

Half an hour later, I’m on the 36 bus about 15 minutes away from a 10-minute walk home.  I just left Popeye’s with four pieces of dark meat chicken, onion rings, coleslaw and two biscuits.  Now on to home, the Indianapolis 500, Hilva, and the Coca-Cola 600.  So, what have I learned today?

-         Nationals Park looks pretty antiseptic from the outside.

-         Yards Park was apparently built for white people.

-         Barracks Row is an excellent location for people-watching.

-         I can make it walking around on my feet if I have to!  I just have to be smart about it.

-         I can make it walking around in the hot weather.  I just have to be really smart about it.

-         I most definitely live in The Hood.  There’s nothing upscale about Hillcrest Heights, Maryland.

-         If and when necessary, I can fabricate writing topics to fit any desired purpose.

-         I need a bigger memory card for my ten-year-old Canon PowerShot A20 camera.  Will I get one?  No way.  I have a newer camera (a PowerShot A80) -- with a memory card three times as big -- that I haven’t used yet because I spent $500 on the A20 and my wife found the A80 in a taxi cab one day.  It looks like technology and economics will finally win out over foolish pride.

Upon arrival at home, I gave the biscuits to my wife, and scarfed down the chicken and onion rings.  I can’t wait until fried chicken time comes back around (I allow myself the indulgence about once a month)!