Happy New Year!

Let's hope 2016 is a happy, healthy, and prosperous year.  It certainly might be a watershed.

It just crushes me to hear, again this AM, that another murder occurred on the streets of Detroit.  This one wasn't too far from where one of my aunts lived, maybe a mile or two.  There were, according to a newspaper article the other day, about 300 murders in Detroit this year.  That doesn't include the suburbs.  And I wonder how many murders don't get reported, for a variety of reasons, or bodies just disappear and nobody notices--homeless, drug deals, trash bins, etc.

Just the other day I was telling some folks how great it was to live and grow up and do things in Detroit--back when.  Last night I was googling old ball fields where I used to play baseball and had wonderful memories.  OK, I was distressed at the condition of the fields/parks today on the photos, but they were great places to play in the '60s.  All right, I must admit there were a few of them that, when I'd go down to block a ball, sometimes I'd come up with a bloody knee, kneeling on a piece of glass!  I know people think I'm crazy when I reminisce like that, but it's all true.

I read a great piece online this AM.  Of Hillary Clinton, it read she "is a tired, sick, incompetent, mentally rigid, unpopular old woman."  Somewhere in the article he added, "a career criminal."  I laughed until I realized she might well win the Presidency.  I can't imagine anyone but those who live off government freebies and the brain dead voting for her.  But many will and maybe enough to win the election.  Maybe those voters think that voting for a woman, as lousy a candidate as she is, would be "cool and self-validating," undoing centuries of discrimination against women.  Wow!  Do they need to re-examine things.

Another column wrote of President Obama.  He's "always been able to mimic intelligence and...an aura of cool."  Ha Ha!  I fully agree.

Let's include the Establishment Republicans in this onslaught, too.  They were cited as "a black hole for attracting stupidity."  Yep......

For 2015, I put in about 1600 miles on my bike, but ran almost 3000.  It might have been the most miles I've ever hit.  And that was intentional.  I wasn't training for anything specific, but merely wanted to challenge myself, my body, at age 66.  I had a few aches and pains with some of the 60- or 70-mile weeks, but nothing at all serious, nothing that lasted more than a day or two.  I was helped by some of the mild weather, esp in the fall and early winter, and with my extra runs with my two running partners, Michael and Carrie, who had also established goals.  I think the major problem now will be to cut back to my normal weeks/months of running.  I still see that "50-mile week" or "60-mile week" flashing in my mind.  Some cold or snowy weather would help me with cutting back.