My daughter HATES it when I quote Eminem (or Snoop Dog, or Flava Fav etc), but I can't help it if I'm a 'happenin' guy, if I'm the shizzle. Took off to the Baltimore/D.C. Secret Service Academy graduation, yep, my oldest son is now Special Agent Haralson - I don't usually 'blog' on trips or before I go just in case there's some nefarious plot afoot to break in our house and steal our 8 track tapes. Anyway, it was cool and sad because he's been assigned to Houston and they went from Baltimore to Houston...*sniff*, that's okay, if all goes well M, the Indomitable, and I will go to Houston for the marathon (it's a lottery now...oy!) and then we'll hang a few extra days. Oh yeah, the Astro's are there too....yay! We saw the National's play and lucked into watching Strasburg pitch and he's as good as advertised. He gave a lead off home run then settled down and mowed 'em down. 2/3 of his pitches were strikes...fun game average stadium (for a new one). I didn't love the 'sight lines', and we had good seats. If people one section over and a few rows down stand, you're blocked. Oh well, still, you can't beat fun at the old ball park! Oh yeah, they had some pretty tasty brews up there! Love Baltimore...HATE their drivers! Wow! They'll cut you off in a flash....let's see if I can squeeze between these 2 cars doing 80.....yep! Just enough room! They made our local idiots look like AAA school graduates! Slow in the left lane, oh you're gonna be 'cut' fo sho! We were in a suburb really, so the running was like being anywhere else - so when we returned late Saturday early to bed it was for 15 this a.m. The funny thing is as hot as it is down here, they were having a heat wave so it was HOTTER up there. This morning was a balmy 75 at the start, and I did not have a dry stitch after the first 5. Ahh, but it was good to be back in the saddle, running with my favorite person (the divine Miss (Mrs.) M...for Micki) as well as Al and Kenny...are we the only 2 that call him 'Kenny'....Kenneth sounds so, so....pretentious. He's a lot of things but pretentious he ain't ! This blog is gonna take a serious turn today so 2 things....1) soon to come....the DUMBEST thing the local TNT chapter could have done; and I don't know the particulars - but it's still dumb - and 2: I write about this a lot, a LOT and every time it rears its head I get sad and try to make myself better. We were in Orange Beach last weekend and saw in the paper about a lady who drowned in the gulf going in after a 3 year old (not hers). Man, I thought, what a tragedy - 1) how did the 3 year old...you know...and 2) how sad about the lady. It turns out she's the ex-wife of a good friend and running buddy of mine...she left behind 3 daughters all at or near adolescence. He was on good terms with her (a rarity) and has been having to re-arrange his life to take his daughters in. He doesn't mind, in fact he'd love it if it were any other circumstance.....People - when you run miles with someone you can't help but get close; you talk about anything and everything and a lot of times nothing. Often times after 10 miles or so the silence is still a method of communicating because you're friends! I'm reminded of the story of Laurel and Hardy...I love their comedy. Most people are WAY too young to know them, but what a great comedy team. They made dozens of movies and shorts, they were the model for Abbott and Costello as well as the 3 Stooges (I'm smiling just thinking of these guys). Oliver Hardy was the big one and Stan Laurel was the smaller of the 2 and near the 'end', Oliver had a stroke, was bedridden and pretty much incommunicado. Every day Stan, despite his own declining health, would come by and just sit, silently, with his friend and partner. I like to encourage people to 'give flowers to the living'. Laurel was too ill to attend Hardy's funeral, he said in fact, "Babe (one of Hardy's nicknames) will understand." He gave flowers to Oliver Hardy when he was alive. I tell my runners all they time how good they look running, and otherwise, how well they are doing etc. etc. I try to do it with my kids, and probably no where near enough with my wife (I'm usually right though...thought I'd get that in HERE). When someone's gone, what good do the flowers do then? Not saying I'm great, I'm terrible at it, I just want YOU to think about it. Just surprise 'em sometimes...your husband, your kids, your friends and your running partners....hey you're running partners pull you through DAILY!!!! Just a simple, "I really enjoyed our run today"....hey when I hear that, I walk on clouds for hours. Anyway, she's gone now and she'll be missed. When my friends are gone, they are missed - when I quit training with people I miss 'em and I get excited when we run again on the 'every so often' trail. But I try to let 'e, know I love 'em....in that running buddy kind of love...like a combo of little sisters and great friends. The guys well...I love 'em and miss them too....we've had some good times and great conversations. Nothing wrong with telling them; because when they're gone.........Just think about it....Tim McGraw does that 'Live like you were dying' song....I prefer to live like I was living...That way my focus will be on giving...yeah, I like that, think I'll write a song for Snoop Dog, "Live like you were living, the shizznit flowers are for giving...to da living"! I LIKE it.........