Ironman Florida 2005 Finish

The central character in the formation of my way of thinking was my father, Harman Thomas.  My repertoire of expressions is filled with things that my dad would say.  “Never, ever be a quitter.”, “Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn’t mean it’s right.” , “They can kill ya’, but they can’t eat ya’!” , ” Love the Lord, hate the devil; vote straight Democratic ticket.”

To my father’s credit, he was able to escape a small coal-mining town in the mountains of southwestern Virginia on a football scholarship to Morehead State University. This was no small feat for a Melungeon kid from Banner Hollow, where a hardscrabble life was the norm.  Like his own father, my father always wanted something better for his own children.

That meant that he often pushed us to achieve, and would never let us quit a project that we had started.  While that often was the source of some friction, I see now as an adult that it has served me well.

As a high school teacher my father was always drawn to the underachievers and misfits. He would take them under his wing and encourage their independence and non-conformity as a thing to be treasured.  This is not to say that be mollycoddled them. Quite the opposite; he would push them to excel. Often my father was the sole advocate in their life. While he has been gone 18 years, hardly a week goes by where someone doesn’t comment on the impact that he had in their lives.

One of central themes that my father expressed ( not in so many words) was the idea of authenticity. You cannot live your life based on what others might or might not think of you. You need to be proud of who you are and be willing to stand up for your ideals; regardless of the consequences.

It is this kind of character upon which my Ironman training is based.  Sometimes God’s testing of us is his way of polishing our metal.  It brings out the lustre within.

This Ironman’s for you, Dad!! (I expect your ass to be beside me all 140.6 miles.)

EMBRYO SD from illuzia.net on Vimeo.

One of the most fascinating clips I have ever seen. In 6 minutes and 20 seconds it takes you through the history of mankind and from conception to birth.

“When the student is ready, the teacher arrives.”

Clear enough???

Hey, it will not take long to give this week’s update. Zero!  Nothing.

Of course there was the matter of the kidney infection and hospitalization.  Then upon returning home I catch the cold that my kids are passing around since my immune system is compromised.

I will prevail!!

Oh, my pretty! Don't you look fetching?

Early in my career with the state we received a report that there was a “weirdo uncle” who was in love with a store mannequin and had “relations” with said mannequin in front of two children who lived in the household.  The children also were not enrolled in any school.

While the investigation wasn’t mine, I very quickly glommed onto going to the house just for the curiousity factor. Before we could leave the office a particularly loud-mouthed co-worker threw down the gauntlet. “You guys are p*ssies if you don’t come back with a photo of that mannequin!”  Game on!

“Deirdre” and I pulled in behind the home and a large, shirtless man with sunburnt manboobs that hung down below his navel emerged and confronted us.  We explained who we were and asked if we could step inside to go over the nature of the report.  The man puffed up his chest and exclaimed that he was a preacher.  In doing so, he revealed that he had at most three teeth in his head.  “Deirdre” fired back that we are all the time arresting preachers.  “Oh, for dumb. It’s sad and sick that they use God to cover for their sins.” she said in her thickest Minnesotan accent.

At this point Rev.Billy Bad-Ass pulls out a cellphone and announces that he’s “calling the fuzz on you!” We just looked at each other. All the better. Why should we have all the fun? Plus, it will add verification points to an already interesting story. Within minutes an officer that we were familiar with showed up. He explained that, yes, we had every right to be here and he was required to allow us into the premises.

During this time Mrs. Rev. Billy Bad-Ass had emerged. She was small and her mouth was pinched and her arms were folded across her chest.  I saw Deirdre having to turn her head away to avoid laughing out loud.  The lady looked like a carnie at a Hell’s Angels Circus.

The leather halter top: a favorite of carnies

She was clad in a leather halter top and tight-fitting jeans that were tucked into knee-high boots. Her skin was brown and tough like rhino hide.

Once inside, the couple explained that they were the children’s grandparents and they produced a hand-written document giving them guardianship.  It was, however, notarized and legal.  I asked who else lived in the home and there was an awkward silence.  ” Well,see, there’s Troger, but he ain’t exactly right. He keeps to hisself mostly.” He started to show us the house and once he spyed his steel guitar he insisted on playing a song for the officer.

As he was playing “Amazing Grace” I continued my search for that mannequin. The home was a monument to clutter,as are many of the homes that we encounter.  I heard Rev. Billy Bad-Ass remark about me, ” I hate that guy! He’s bossy and mean!” Undaunted, I entered the front room that belonged to Troger.  Holy Moly! This was an older house with 12 foot ceilings. There was a mound of clothes that reached to the ceiling.  The room was completely filled with “stuff”  and smelled of mold and “man-juice”.   Where to begin looking?  “Dang, Troger! Have pride in your woman!”

We needed to get the kids interviewed. The boy was ten and was heavy-set and mean. The girl was 8 and was filled with questions about Deirdre and I.  It was apparent that she had very little contact with the “outside world” despite the fact that she lived in the middle of town.  The children were home-schooled by the grandparents. [Editorial note: Indiana Home Schooling Laws are a colossal joke. Any parent or guardian can announce that they are home schooling their children and that is pretty much it.]

The kids who should be in second and fourth grades produced for us some biblical coloring assignments that would not challenge a 5 year-old. They stated that they mostly colored or played games as schoolwork.  Legally there was nothing we could do other than suggesting to the guardians that the school work was not age-appropriate and that the children badly needed socialization.

As we were heading back towards our cars, we heard the kids yell, ” There’s Uncle Troger! See!!”

Adult tricycle

Riding across a parking lot was a man with coke-bottle glasses riding one of those three-wheeled bicycles with the large rear baskets.  Once he spyed the police car he turned around quickly and pedaled off at a pace that was impressive for a tricycle.

I pulled the 10 year-old aside quickly and asked, ” Where does Troger keep his girlfriend?” He replied, “ We’re never supposed to talk about that!” And he just hunched his shoulders and raised his hands toward the sky. Somethings are beyond explanation.

While I was convalescing, Flick sent me a link to www.peopleofwalmart.com .  This is some funny stuff!  Readers submit photos they have taken at Wal-Marts all over the country. Here are some random samples.

Oooops! I sharted!

She likes it from behind. I go to another checkout.

OK! It's one way to fix a window.

Booty Call! Aisle 5

These boots are made for shopping...some of these days these boots are goona walk all over you.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade.

Hey!  No sugar-coating this one. I am back in Schneck Medical Center again with a kidney infection. I spent the better part of two days at home sleeping with alternating high fever and chills.  Shaving and taking  a shower were monumental tasks.

Saw the doctor today and he decided to admit me since the kidney is not one of those optional organs.

Am I bummed? You bet!  Am I out? Hell no!  “Daddy’s no quitter!!” If I can run 7 miles on a broken ankle to finish the Chicago Marathon, I can bounce back from this set back.

“Fortune favors the brave” …….and the slightly offbeat.

I’ve been reading a lot about health care reform on a number of websites: Liberal, Conservative, and middle-of-the road. Since I don’t watch television, I have been spared the agony of the public relations campaigns from all sides of the arguments.

Health Care Reform: What are the answers?

I had my own immersion recently into health care with my bout of kidney stones and my four day stay in the hospital. This coincides with an observation of my mine about the motorized shopping carts at Wal-Mart.  This got me thinking about personal responsibility and the sense of entitlement  with which many in this country suffer.

As adults we need to take personal responsibility for our own health.  That includes eating a balance diet, exercise, seeing a doctor on a regular basis to detect disease in its earliest stages.  It also includes foregoing habits like smoking, drinking to excess, eating unhealthy foods, illegal drugs, abuse of prescription medications, unsafe sexual practices, medical non-compliance.

Back to those motorized shopping carts at Wal-Mart.

Simplybrent was able to come up with this pic. Do note the crutches in the basket and the lack of Little Debbie Snacks. Still, Karma is a bitch!

I cannot count the number of times that I have observed people walking into the store and then sitting down in one of those motorized carts.  Mind you, these are individuals who could use the exercise of walking the aisles of Wal-Mart!!!   I always make a habit of checking their baskets further back in the store.  Usually the cart is filled with Little Debbie Snack Cakes, Doritos, and assorted junk food. This is where I have a problem with paying for these individuals’ health care.  Where is the personal responsibility?

Beer/Fries/Cigarette...can Nascar be far behind?

The other burr under my saddle is smoking. Smoking is just bad for ones health and those around them.  Again, where is the smoker’s premium in either plan?  Smokers should bare a MUCH higher health care cost than the population at large.

Somewhere along the way,  many people in this country became divorced from the idea that our own health is our own responsibility.  Far too many people are simply willing to smoke cigarettes, eat pork rinds, and, down 12 beers a day and then when their health inevitably hits the skids they want SOMEBODY ELSE to fix the problem and also pay for it.  It just cannot work that way!!!

Take a look at our corporate culture and advertising and it explains much of the reason why personal responsibility is not included into any version of health care reform.  Nestle, Sysco, McDonalds, Kraft Foods, ConAgra, Pepsico/FritoLay, are among many, many corporate giants whose job it is to produce and market crap food that is a slow form of suicide. It would take a complete re-invention of American food culture to turn the tide on diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and a host of conditions due to poor health choices.

Given the current state of Americans’ health habits and their lack of personal responsibility for those habits, we really cannot afford a universal health care plan.

Should health care costs be addressed? Absolutely!  The cost  for my four days at Schneck Medical Center including professional fees, tests, etc, was $38,400.00.  Staggering! Surely I’m not naive enough to believe that that was the actual cost of performing those services.  I’m also paying for people who don’t have health insurance and Schneck is passing those costs along to me since I have insurance and the ability to pay.

I say our elected officials need to go completely back to the drawing board and come up with common sense solutions that factor in personal responsibility and make corporations pay for marketing crap that is detrimental to the health and welfare of Americans.  Universal Health Care does work in some countries and works well.  We need to reform some of our thinking before we can reform health care in America.

Sorry for the lack of recent reading posts.  It’s not that I haven’t been reading, just a plate and a half of stuff trying to be put on one plate.

One of my absolute favorite sessions during the American Library Assoc. Annual Conference recently in Chicago was First Books, First Authors.  The session had six first-time authors who each told the story of how their books got published and how the stories took shape.  Each book and author was very different.  But they each had one thing in common: they had to listen to the word “NO” repeatedly before their book was published.  At the end of the session, each attendee received a special signed copy of the books. Sweet! With all these books to read I have been keeping busy.

Hot House Flower, by Margot Berwin

Hot House Flower is a book I typically would not have read.  The author’s story was so compelling that I had to give the book a read. I was not disappointed.  While Margot Berwin had written a couple of other books before this one was published, this one came to her in a flash of thought.

She told the story of how she was walking along First Avenue in NewYork and came upon this laundromat.  There were plants growing everywhere inside.  The owner explained that the laundry was an ideal environment for so many tropical plants and it created a different experience for his customers, who were mainly from Central and South America.   The storyline took root from that one experience.  She has also sold the movie rights to Sony Pictures and the movie will star Julia Roberts.

The Great Perhaps, by Joe Meno is about the modern American family.  In this first novel the writer alternates characters in this family by chapters and explores their inner thoughts and motivations.  While slow to get going and a trifle short on real action, it does give some insight into the inner workings of being a family and how each family comes to terms with its own problems.

The Great Perhaps, by Joe Meno

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan

Tinkers, by Paul Harding

Come Back, Como, by Steven Winn

World in Half, by Christina Henriquez

Oh, I'm back on the chain gang..."

Circumstance beyond our control, o-o-oh
The phone, TV and the news of the world
Got in the house like a pigeon from Hell,
o-o-oh
Threw sand in our eyes and descended
like flies

And put us back on the train, yeah
O-oh, back on the chain gang

The powers that be
That force us to live like we do
Bring me to my knees
When I see what they've done to you

If you are not of fan of 80's music,
that is from
The Pretenders, with Chrissie Hynde. (1982). 

Anyway, I feel like I am back!! After last weeks
 episode with kidney stones, I have managed to rebound.

I spent a couple days after I got out of the hospital exercising at the health club because I didn’t want to get outside and get dehydrated.

Saturday, August 29, 2009: Rode 47 miles.  Absolutely beautiful day!! Picture perfect.  A nice mix of hills and flats.

Sunday, August 30, 2009: Ran 16 miles.  Felt good.  Stayed well-hydrated.  Nice cool day.

Monday, August 31, 2009: Exercised 90 minutes on the Precor Elliptical machine at Anytime Fitness.

OH!! Big news!!  I gained a free extra week! I saw TT at the soccer fields yesterday.  He informed me that Ironman Florida is on NOVEMBER 7th, not November 1st.