I’ve only been gone about three weeks, but things can change quickly. As many of you already know, Jean has decided to sell the house in town and we’re buying a condo near Hastings Country Club. It’s the house that Jean grew up in and I didn’t expect her to ever want to move, but things change.

We ran today from Jon and Laura’s house. Everyone is kind of “in between” events, so we’re all just running to stay fit and not running all that long (if you call running 6 miles “short”). After the run we were standing out in front (it was a beautiful day for running) and I noticed Martin was missing most of a couple of his teeth. I asked him if he was getting ready to move to West Virginia, but he didn’t really see the humor in that.

Apparently he was pulling on a wrench really hard and it slipped, hitting him in the mouth and breaking off a couple of his front teeth. That’s the story he’s telling, but he may have told Jane he was going to do another Ironman next year and she took exception to his plan.

At coffee yesterday morning “Never Again Diane” said she would be interested in doing Ironman North America at Lake Placid in 2008 if others of us did also. I can still see her at The Great Floridian, her first Ironman race, coming across the finish line saying never again! I was sleeping quite a bit after Ironman Wisconsin in 2003, but people tell me she said several times after she finished, never again! Apparently “never again” has arrived.

I’ve said that I wouldn’t ever spend another winter in Michigan when I could be riding my bike and running in warm weather in Florida. I’ll be leaving to go back on December 5th and arriving there on the 6th. Jean will fly down on the 21st to spend the winter. But I’m guessing we’ll be back sometime in January to close on the condo. And, if the house on Green Street sells, we’ll have to come back to move. That coupled with the time I’ll need to be available to assist in interviewing and hiring a new CEO at Pennock, and I can see myself spending more time up North than I had planned. Things change.

But as I looked around the table at coffee yesterday morning and at the run this morning, things haven’t changed all that much after all. Life goes on and we’re all along for the ride. So if everything stayed exactly the same, life would be really dull. I guess the changes are normal and I just notice them more, either because I’ve been away and am seeing them for the first time, or because I’m about to hit the big six-oh and I’m trying to take my mind off being officially “elderly”.

Just (Still In My Fifties But Time Is Running Out) Jack

 I know it’s a problem in Florida, but each year I have to relearn to not be in a hurry to do anything. Most of the people down here don’t have much to do, so when they’re out, they take their time. A couple of days ago I had been over talking to brother Bob (aka Bobbie Butane) and, on the way back to the mobe, I decided to stop at the grocery store for some Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce. I had roasted a chicken the night before and the white meat is often dry when reheated.

It was around 4:30 and the store was busy. I grabbed the sauce and looked for the shortest line. There were only three cashiers open, one of which was in the “express lane” for 10 items or less. It had about four people in line and one of the other lanes only had one in line waiting while the cashier was finishing up with a customer. I chose that line and stood there for a couple of minutes until I noticed that the customer was having trouble swiping his credit or debit card. The cashier was trying to help him, was leaned over the counter trying to swipe it upside down, and wasn’t doing very well either.

I looked down toward the express lane and there were two people in line plus one finishing up. I went down there and waited in line knowing it would be faster. Unluckily, a young guy around thirty was having trouble with his credit card too. After trying it several times and the cashier trying to help him, he said he’d go out to the ATM and get cash. The cashier couldn’t continue until he came back. After four or five minutes she realized he wasn’t coming back and went to get her supervisor to clear her register.

By that time the other lines were packed and I decided to wait it out. I had enough time to look at the cart of the guy ahead of me. He was a geezer (over 59) and had thirteen items. Here I was standing behind an express lane criminal and I didn’t do anything about it. Is that wrong? When it was his turn he slowly, very slowly, unloaded the items from his cart to the belt and was old enough to barely be able to lift the case of beer. When the cashier had run everything through and gave him the total, he slowly, very slowly, reached into his pocket for money.

He had a huge wad of cash and fumbled through it picking out two twenties, a ten, and three crumpled up coupons. The cashier was bagging his groceries, turned around and found the coupons. She had to read each one of them and look through the bags to make sure he had bought whatever the coupons were for. She started to run them through and noticed that one of them had expired three days earlier. When she told the guy he got angry and disgustedly tossed the money at her.

She completed the transaction and we all stood there while he slowly, very slowly pocketed his change and slowly, very slowly put the bagged groceries and his case of beer back in the cart. My transaction took forty seconds and I beat the geezer out the door. There were several times that I wanted to put the sauce back on the shelf and stomp out. But I, too, didn’t have anything better to do, I wasn’t in any real hurry, and, although I was aggravated, I was entertained for free.

A while back I got a notice of a swim from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park in San Francisco Bay. When Diane, Harry and I swam from Alcatraz, we swam to the Cressey Field/Marina Green area. When my son, Matt, swam from Alcatraz last year, he swam to Aquatic Park.

There are several swims from Alcatraz each year, so I looked them up on a Google search. There’s one on July 8th, one on September 2nd, and one on September 16th. On one of those swims you get out at Cressey Field and then run across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. Anyone interested?

Whenever you talk about swimming from Alcatraz, most people think of them as shark infested waters. Matt keeps telling me that there has never been a shark attack inside San Francisco Bay and I believe him. In fact, he sent me an article about some of the beautiful wildlife in and around Aquatic Park. Click on the following link.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/16/SEALION.TMP

I’m on my way back to Michigan tomorrow so I’ll see many of you soon. I hope it’s warm since I’ve already become a cold weather weenie.

Just (I’m Still Cold From IM Wisconsin) Jack

 I’ve always hated using the word stupid. It isn’t the type of word that rolls off your tongue unless you’re in a fight with your sibling, spouse or a guy in a bar that you know you could take. But it’s the way I feel and I can’t find a more appropriate term.

I told you all last week about taking Jean to the wrong airport. I can make all the excuses in the world, and who would think that, when you buy a ticket from Orlando, the plane wouldn’t take off from Orlando. But the receipt showed that the plane would depart from SFB and arrive in LAN. I lived in Orlando for two years during the “Big War” and I knew that the airport at that time was at McCoy Air Force Base. After all, I was in the Air Force and I should know these things. The letters for Orlando International Airport are MCO.

I took Jean back to the Sanford-Orlando Airport in Sanford, about fifteen miles on the other side of Orlando on Thursday. From door to door it was a 231 mile round trip and had to include about $8.00 in tolls. That coupled with the same trip on Monday when we missed the plane and she could have flown first class from Tampa for the same total cost as the “bargain” ticket from Sanford. Dumb!

If that wasn’t enough, Jean told me on Monday morning that we had no hot water. When I left last spring, I went through a page of instructions to close the place up for the summer. For the hot water heater, I turned the breaker off so there would be no power. The instructions for the fall (developed by people from Hastings who have been coming down here for years) said to turn the water on, but don’t turn on the breaker to the water heater until it had a chance to fill. Otherwise the heating element would burn out.

When we got here on Sunday, the first thing I did was turn the water on. We unpacked quickly and went to Mom’s for dinner. After we ate, we came back over and started opening up the mobe. It was then that I turned on the breaker to the water heater.

So when Jean said we had no hot water, I didn’t know what to do. I flipped the breaker a couple of times and waited. Still no hot water. In mobes, the water heater usually sits in a cubbyhole with an outside door cover. I took that cover off, took off the cover to the electrical panel and checked the reset button. It didn’t look like it had tripped but I pressed it anyway and waited. Still no hot water.

Brother Bob (aka Bobbie Butane) came over and we hooked up a hose to the drain and flushed out some of the water. Some sediment came out but that’s not unusual. I had turned off the breaker when we did that, so Bob and I went in and turned the breaker back on and waited. Still no hot water.

At that point I was out of options so I called CoolQuest. The guy came at around 5 PM. The first thing he did was check the wires for power and there was none. He asked if there was a switch and I told him I didn’t know of any. I took him in to the breaker box in the master bedroom. There on the wall was a switch that said “TANK”. It was in the off position so I turned it on. We walked outside and we could hear the water heater heating up. As I wrote the check for a $39.95 service call I really felt “stupid”. The story is already coursing through Central Florida and the Upper Midwest. Jay Leno ought to have a ball with that one.

I’ve been out on a couple of bike rides and it really feels good to be on the road again. I rode the Suncoast yesterday on a 21 mile loop. About five miles into the ride I saw a group of large birds ahead walking on the bike path. As I got closer I realized they were Peacocks. There were three males in some of the most brilliant blue plumage I have ever seen.

They were strutting around and fanning out trying to impress four hens. I’m not up on my field biology so I don’t know whether the best strutter would get all the females or the “bonus” one. It just doesn’t seem right that male Peacocks can win over more than one female and most men can’t handle the one woman they already have, and I use the term “handle” in the most sensitive and respectful of ways.

Just (Ran Alone This Morning And I Don’t Like It) Jack