There is some good news for Pittsburghers.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Also staying on are Chief Information Officer Howard Stern, Emergency Medical Services Chief Robert McCaughan, Citiparks Director Duane Ashley, Public Works Director Guy Costa and Bureau of Building Inspection Chief Ron Graziano.
I remember wondering as a child if I would live to see the year 2000. With Vietnam, the arms race, and the general stupidity of adults, I wasn't sure. And now, here comes the end of 2005!
Just to be the man who walked a thousand point one miles to fall down at your door!
I finished today's walk — 3 miles in South Park — and drove right over to Fleet Feet by South Hills Village. I've now got a long-sleeved Hind technical shirt in blue! I'll get a picture up soon of it.
The folks at Fleet Feet have been really encouraging me, as have all the readers who have posted here. Thanks.
2006 has two goals: weight loss and 1200 miles. God willing, I'll pull it off. 2005 was a near thing, I have to admit. Fleet Feet now has a policy that runners and walkers get a new shirt after completing 1000 miles. I'm going to try to get the next shirt by next August, but we'll see.
Your friends need what you can be when you are no longer afraid, when you know who you are and why you are and what you want, when you are no longer looking for reasons to live, but can simply be."
Lorien to Sheridan in the Babylon 5 episode "Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi"
I'll probably have lots more to say about this quote and another one, but I just wanted to post it now. The depression isn't quite gone, but it's so much less I almost feel manic. Walking isn't the entire answer, but apparently it's a big chunk of what's needed for my soul.
Right now, I am no longer afraid. I think I've always known who I am. What I want is even simpler: to do everything; that may be a problem. And, instead of having something to die for, I think I've got soemthing to live for.
It's a start.
A friend started selling Pampered Chef products. I needed a new wok, and I was sick of the ones I could find here. And yeah, she's a good friend, so I figured "Hey, why not?" and got the Professional Stir-Fry Skillet.
This stir fry skillet absotively posilutely rocks! You need one!
Please read the story " Memories Shrouded in Doubt" in the LA Times. While it starts out a story of tragedy, pain, and unfairness, the ending will leave you with hope for humanity…and some tears.
At the end of 2004, I decided to try to walk or run 1,000 miles in 2005. Training for the Cleveland Marathon helped an awful lot. I was well on my way to reaching my goal, and then October hit.
Disaster!
I had to get ready to go to New Orleans, which involved renting a trencher. You don't want to know how that makes sense. Then I went to New Orleans. Just after I came back, I went on the church retreat, and then got the respiratory infection from heck. Just when my lungs felt like they could take the walking again, I got the GI infection from heck.
December 20th, I'm still suffering from the GI infection and I realize I'm 31 miles short. I was going to miss the 1,000 miles.
No. I. Wasn't.
I walked 2 miles that day. My gut couldn't take any more, but I got in two. 29 to go.
Over the next days, I managed to get walks in where I could. The day I finished all my "Christmas shopping that can't be done after Christmas," I didn't get any mileage in. It's a shame I couldn't count the walking in the stores. Christmas was too busy for walking. Friends came in from out of state, and I chose to visit with them rather than get a walk in.
So today meant a 7 mile walk, which conveniently happened on a day when I visit Floyd for lunch. Including the trip to Eides, it's over 7 miles. The GPS unit won't work reliably downtown, so I can only claim 7.
This means tomorrow, God willing, I'll get three miles in and have 1000.1 miles. I may go for one extra mile just to say I did it. I'd hoped for over 1200, but I'll take a thou.
I'm feeling better, too. Perhaps part of the reason I've been feeling so miserable is that I've been unable to walk. Exercise is known to ameliorate depression.
The lists (by decade) at CrazyFads are interesting to read through. Check them out and see how many you've ever heard of (or personally remember)!
Gregory Bork, principal of California Lutheran High School, worries me. didn't like two female students being friends. He thought they might be more than friends, and so he grilled them for hours in his office, asking over and over again about their emotions and sexual thoughts. Eventually, under the pressure, Bork succeeded in forcing one of the girls into confessing that she loved the other one. Never mind that all Christians are supposed to love one another, Bork saw this as a reason to expel the girls from school:
I saw another Christmas Meme at reverend mommy's random thoughts:
On the TV series "Babylon 5," Marcus Cole loved Susan Ivanova from afar. When Ivanova lay dying in the infirmary from injuries received in battle, Marcus connected himself to her via a terrible machine, one that had been designed as a means of execution by draining the life force of a criminal into another. Marcus drained his own life into Susan, saving her and killing himself. Ivanova, still weak, awoke to find Marcus dying but was unable to stop the process. She was forced to watch another give his life that she might live, and in fact someone she'd treated poorly.
"All love is unrequited, Steven," Susan said to Dr. Franklin as she mourned Marcus' death, "All of it."
You'd think Richard Gibson of Seattle was a nice guy. He worked as a lab technician, helping take care of cancer patients. Eric Drew found out just what kind of scum Richard Gibson actually was, and got Gibson put in jail…all while battling a vicious form of leukemia!
Flipping through the radio stations on the way home from Christmas, I came across Aselin Debison singing "The Gift." My eyes teared up, and not just because of our love of birds:
Babylon 5 (by J. Michael Straczynski) is still one of my favorite TV shows. The quotes that will be appearing in the UnSpace tagline for the foreseeable future (i.e. until I feel like doing something else) are from that show, and in some way or another say something I want to say.
Fox News has a wonderful, cheerful article about Muslim Christmas in Senegal.
Here are the instructions for asphalt mosaics. I found it via iheartpgh, which explains those decorations in some of the downtown crosswalks.
(From the Christmas, 2005 "One Big Happy" comic)
Merry Christmas from the parrots, including Lily, the latest addition! Lily is an 11-day old baby cockatiel in this photo. She's now 13 days old and her eyes are open all the way. You can't see the nictitating membrane anymore (the extra lower eyelid, barely visible if you click on the link). I included a quarter to give a sense of scale.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Hanukkah!
Blessed Eid!
Glorious "The Moon is eclipsing Spica about 5:30 EST." Unfortunately, it's not visible in Pittsburgh. Even if it were, it wouldn't be.
Happy Holidays everyone!
I wasn't tagged by anyone. No one tagged me. Wimper.
Still, I'm doing it myself, 'cause it looked fun! I got it from the Unseen Blogger:
1. Hot Chocolate or apple cider?
I'd prefer hot, spiced apple cider, but I can get hot chocolate sugar-free, so I'll go with the hot chocolate.
2. Turkey or Ham?
Turkey. It's a bird thing.
3. Do you get a Fake or Real you cut it yourself christmas tree?
Fake. I feel guilty for taking the life of a tree. Besides, to me, a Christmas tree is aluminum with red glass smooth spherical ornaments.
4. Decorations on the outside of your house?
Wanted to, but I've been too sick.
5. Snowball fights or sleddin?
Sledding! I love going down a hill, hitting a level spot, and then catching air as you go down the rest of the hill. Midnight sledding is great, too.
6. Do you enjoy Going downtown shopping?
Any shopping is good, but downtown Pittsburgh doesn't have the bargains usually — especially after you pay for parking. And that is why downtown Pittsburgh is dying.
I loved shopping with Nancy the day after Thanksgiving. We'd shop all day, and at 2 a.m. we'd sit in the Zayres parking lot and drink Coke and eat M&Ms so I'd have enough energy to drive her to her house and then drive myself home.
Nzubamunu Mitete, a minister for the Pentecostal Temple in Pittsburgh's East Liberty, also worked as a jitney driver. I'm reminded of Paul making tents and some of the apostles fishing.
Mitete was shot to death in his car Dec. 20th, 2005.
Please pray for his friends, family and church.