The Shot Heard 'Round the Room

You’d think we would have known better. I’m not sure how old we were, but we were a couple of bright, but curious, boys. We really should have seen, er, heard what was coming.

My best friend, Chris Farrar, and I must have been in eighth grade, maybe ninth, when we found the 12-gauge shotgun shell. Maybe it was in the gutter along a street on our way home from Churchill Junior High — I don’t recall. But, unlike the spent shell I found on my run two weeks ago, this one was live ammo.

Lacking a shotgun to put the round to proper misuse, we decided to dismantle the shell to see just how it was made. We knew the basics, though I’m not sure if we’d already been through the hunter safety course taught by Vern Coates, one of our venerable Boy Scout leaders. But we wanted to see all the elements — powder, shot, wad, primer.

In the back room of my dad’s garage we used a sharp knife to slice through the plastic casing near the brass base of the shell. We dumped the shot — I don’t recall what size it was — extracted the wad and dumped the powder. I can’t imagine we didn’t burn the powder, but I have no recollection of doing so. Maybe we were chicken, fearful it would flash or flare and burn us or something. I don’t recall. But the primer seemed innocent enough…

Somehow we extracted the primer from the base of the shell and clamped it firmly in a pair of vice grips. One of us then held the vice grips and the other grabbed a punch and a hammer. Well, we had no idea that tiny primer would be so loud. I’m sure it was compounded by the confined space, and poor Chris managed to take the brunt in his left ear. I’m pretty sure his hearing was permanently, though not seriously, damaged.

Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Wear hearing protection when you do stupid stuff.

Today’s Stats (April 24, 2014)

Temp: 52 degrees F

Distance: 4.01 miles

Weekly Total: 8.92 miles

Treasure: 2 pennies, 1976 and 1981, both heads up (double good luck?)

iPhone Playlist (Matchbox Twenty Mix)

All Your Reasons

Black & White People

Angry

If You’re Gone

Someday

Snowblind

Bright Lights

Hand Me Down

Bent

Disease

Problem Girl

Streetcorner Symphony

Today’s Stats (April 22, 2014)

Temp: 55 degrees F

Distance: 4.82 miles

Weekly Total: 4.82 miles

Treasure: Nada. Didn’t look.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle)

Come Sail Away - Styx

Bed of Lies - Matchbox Twenty

Everybody Plays the Fool - The Main Ingredient

Bad Woman Blues - Trampled Under Foot

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer

I Was In The House When The House Burned Down - Warren Zevon

Bron-Yr-Aur - Led Zeppelin

Too Many Tears - The Call

When I Get Home  - The Beatles

Hung Up On You - Cake

Glad Tidings - Van Morrison

Radio - Matchbox Twenty

More Than A Feeling - Boston

Something 'Bout A Woman - Lady Antebellum

American Honey - Lady Antebellum

Today's Stats (April 9, 2014)

Temp: 39 degrees F (41 at end)

Distance: 4.2 miles

Weekly Total: 8.9 miles

Treasure: Nada. Didn’t look.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Bigger Than My Body - John Mayer

Drop Dead Legs - Van Halen

The Bird & The Worm - Owl City

Brick (Live) - Ben Folds

Catch My Disease - Ben Lee

Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry

Best of Times - Styx

Dig A Pony - The Beatles

She’s A Beauty - The Tubes

I Should Have Known Better - The Beatles

I’m Only Sleeping - The Beatles

Today's Stats (April 7, 2014)

Temp: 46 degrees F (55 at end)

Distance: 4.7 miles

Weekly Total: 4.7 miles

Treasure: 51 cans; 1 spent 12-gauge shotgun shell

iPod Playlist (Yourself Or Someone Like You):

Real World

Long Day

3 AM

Push

Girl Like That

Back 2 Good

Damn

Argue

Kody

Busted

Shame

Hang

(Mad Season)

Angry

Black and White People

Crutch

Running for a Reason

It’s time to start training. Of course, I never should have fallen out of training. But the sad fact is I got lazy this winter — and sometimes distracted. I haven’t been running regularly and now I’m paying for it. 

The founders of Asha for Life Community,
Tommy and Tom Colclasure and Harsha and
Shrikant Mehta, all of Galesburg.

Not only have I not run regularly, I have not run competitively (like I’m really a “competitor”) since the Bix last July. And now I’ve gone and committed to running the Run Galesburg Run Half Marathon Express again — yes, the whole half! I made the mistake of taking a poll on Facebook and none of my friends was kind enough to tell me the 5K was plenty. In their defense, they were all encouraging and supportive of my ability to complete the half.

Last year I ran my first half marathon and I survived. I was part of Team Acapulco, sponsored by Galesburg’s Acapulco Mexican restaurant. While I’d love to be a part of the team again, I’ve committed to a cause this year. I’m running for Team Asha. As the flyer says, “Join Team Asha and make a difference!”

Here’s the rest:

Help raise funds to aid in the battle against human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Sign up to participate June 1^st 2014, in “Run Galesburg,” at rungalesburgrun.com

Join TEAM ASHA and ask your friends to family to sponsor you for the half marathon, 5 “K”, or mile dash.  Proceeds will support direct assistance to survivors of sexual slavery as well as fund human trafficking prevention effort.  Slavery in the world today is real!

Be a champion for freedom from human trafficking and sexual slavery!

An alley in the Mumbai, India red light
district. Brothelsl are accessed from
alleyways such as these. It is estimated
that in Mumbai alone 20,000 minor girls
are held captive in the sex trade.

I first heard about Asha for Life Community two years ago when my friend Tom “Tommy” Colclasure — along with his father and two other Galesburg residents — founded the organization after a trip to Mumbai, India. Tom and his dad, Tom Sr., were moved by the living conditions — “the crushing poverty” — they witnessed in Mumbai. Friends of theirs, Drs. Harsha and Shrikant Mehta, natives of Mumbai, informed them the real horror of life in Mumbai is human trafficking.

“We found that 1.25 million people are trafficked each year … hundreds of those a trapped in the sex slave trade,” Tom told The Register-Mail in a March 2012 story.

You can read more about Asha for Life Community here.

Anyway, when Tom posted on Facebook some months back that he was putting together Team Asha to run for a cause, I chimed in my support. So here’s the deal: I need your support, too. I am seeking pledges — by the mile (13.1, round it to 13) or a flat sum — as a member of Team Asha. The money you give will go toward the fight against human trafficking. That’ll help assuage my inevitably aching knee and heaving lungs — who isn’t rejuvenated and inspired by a warm-fuzzy feeling?

To pledge, email me at rob.buck7@gmail.com or send me a private message on Facebook and I’ll add you to the list. I’ll update this with information on when pledges are due as soon as I know.

To paraphrase Bartles and Jaymes: I thank you for your support.

Today's Stats (April 2, 2014)

Temp: 39 degrees F

Distance: 3.54 miles

Weekly Total: 3.54 miles

Treasure: 26 cans.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Piano Man - Billy Joel

The Long Run - The Eagles

I Will - Matchbox Twenty

Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O’Sullivan

Get It Straight - Trampled Under Foot

Hold My Hand - Hootie & the Blowfish

Bitch - Meredith Brooks

Reconsider Me - Warren Zevon

One Week - Barenaked Ladies

King Tut - Steve Martin

When Will You Come Back Home (live) - Ryan Adams

Two weddings and two funerals

It dawned on me this week — two months from my eldest daughter’s wedding — that as father of the bride I will be expected to say something at the reception. I am more than a little nervous. So I did what everyone does these days — I googled “Father of the Bride speech.” In the top five hits were the intimidating: Father of the Bride Speech Has to Be Carefully Written; Best Father of the Bride Speech 2013 (YouTube); and the seemingly helpful: What Does the Father of the Bride Say in His Speech?

I guess the latter was genuinely helpful, offering up the basics in a single, if poorly punctuated, paragraph (thank you, Ask.com):

The bride’s father in his speech should act as the warm up man. He should give comprehensive introductory remarks and welcome the groom's family. He must also get the groom's name right, and should not indulge into embarrassing any person especially the x wife, His speech should also look to the future of the families.

I’ll bear that in mind.

About.com takes it a step further, providing three sample speeches. One presents the standard advice, and I wonder if I should deliver it out of tradition or skip it because it’s common wisdom.

Be true to each other always; share your joys and your burdens; love much and laugh much; be each other's best friend. Always speak well of one another, even in private. And when things don't go well, forgive as often as it is required. Married life is an adventure and you embark today on that adventure together. Even though you are individuals, your covenant today makes the couple more important than either of you separately.

I suppose the best plan is to dig deep into my heart and search for the words I want to impart to my daughter and son-to-be. I’m sure some will cover the common ground and I’ll be certain to remember the introductions and salutations, having been reminded by those Google answers.

I’ve delivered one wedding speech, as best man a year and a half ago, and two eulogies — for my best friend in 2010 and his father two years later. So this one will balance the scales. 

Now it’s time to start thinking.

Today's Stats (Saturday, March 22)

Temp: 33 degrees F

Distance: 3.99 miles

Weekly Total: 8.6 miles

Treasure: 33 cans

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Waitingfor a Girl Like You - Foreigner

Hard Day - George Michael

ThePromise - When In Rome

And Your Bird Can Sing - The Beatles

Time - Pink Floyd

The Battle of Evermore - Led Zeppelin

The Nightis Still Young - Billy Joel

Peaceful Valley - Ryan Adams

Safe – Phil Wickham

Raspberry Beret - Warren Zevon

Catch MyDisease - Ben Lee

Maybe better than beer

It’s no secret that I enjoy beer. But as an Irishman by heritage I am a little ashamed to confess I like something even more than beer around St. Patrick’s Day: Irish Soda Bread.

Technically I could procure soda bread any time at Uncle Billy’s Bakery, but I have to think about it and request it the day before. I have done that, but it requires thinking and remembering (I would feel bad if I ordered it and forgot to pick it up, though I’m sure somebody would buy it).

That’s the joy of March and St. Patty’s Day season. I know, since when did it become a whole season like Halloween and Christmas? Well, since the bakery started baking Irish Soda Bread at the start of the month. Anyway, I remembered that a week into the month and headed in for my fix. Since then I’ve been in about eight times, usually buying two loaves (are they loaves? Mini-loaves?) at a time — just in case. …

Now, it’s a little disappointing to learn that what Uncle Billy’s calls Irish Soda Bread isn’t traditional. It’s a variant. It may be a variant brought over by immigrants at least. But traditional Irish Soda Bread is a savory quick bread, not sweetened with dried fruit and sugar and filled with caraway seeds. Still, that’s the way I like it — dessert- or breakfast-like. And that’s how I enjoy it: breakfast, afternoon snack, lunch, dinner. I figure the fruit and seeds make it quasi-healthy.

So what’s the deal with Irish Soda Bread? I scoured the Internet in search of the story and found several. The best, which starts off with the information above — that United States “Irish soda bread” isn’t really Irish — was on Epicurious, which turned to chef/cooking teacher Rory O’Connell. With a name like that, I don’t really care what his credentials are, but O’Connell “also founded the renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School with his sister, Darina Allen, in 1983 — both continue to teach there and are regarded as two of the foremost experts on Irish cuisine and food history.

O’Connell tells us bread soda (baking soda) was introduced in the early 1800s, enabling those without an oven to make bread — cooked in a cast-iron pot with a lid, called a bastible (sounds like a Dutch oven). He goes on to explain that the addition of dried fruits — raises, currants, what-have-you — would have been a luxury.

For more on the bread, you can visit Epicurious. But I want to share this one question and answer, mostly because the loaves I’ve bought the past two days didn’t have the cross cut into the top, which made them slightly less fun to eat.

Epicurious: What is the purpose of cutting the shape of a cross on top of the bread?
Rory O'Connell: It's scientific, primarily, because it allows the heat to penetrate into the thickest part of the bread, so it assists cooking. And obviously the cross is a cruciform shape, so in a Catholic country that had a resonance—it had the symbolic note of crossing the breads and giving thanks. There was also the expression "to let the devil out of the bread," so it was slightly superstitious. And if you make that cruciform shape on the bread, when it comes out of the oven it breaks beautifully. So you've got the blessing of the bread by putting the cross on it and then you've got the symbolic breaking of the bread.

Today's Stats (Tuesday, March 18, 2014)

Temp: 34 degrees F

Distance: 4.61 miles

Weekly Total: 4.61 miles

Treasure: Soda Bread! Bought Monday, St. Patrick’s Day.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Soak UpThe Sun – Sheryl Crow

Saturday Night – Bay City Rollers

Sullivan Street – Counting Crows

Rhinestone Cowboy – Glen Campbell

Kelsey – Metro Station

Pour SomeSugar On Me – Def Leppard

What The Hell (Bimbo Jones Remix) – Avril Lavigne

Captain Jack – Billy Joel

I’ll Wait – Van Halen

Hold MyHand – Hootie & The Blowfish

Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl) – Looking Glass

What The Hell (Acoustic Version) – Avril Lavigne

Exercise hurts

It’s time for a little exercise. Yes, I know, I should include physical, but this time I’m going to stick to mental. I’m growing ragged, rusty — slack. I need to write.

George and Winnie in front of Toad Lake Town Hall.

Some people don’t understand bloggers — exposing our inner selves to the harsh, sadistic or just plain uncaring world around us. Sharing one’s life with the masses is dangerous. Nobody else needs to know, unless they’re a close friend, in which case they can ask.

That’s valid. Perfectly. I didn’t understand the concept when my former brother-in-law started a blog while in college several years ago. Why would you want to put yourself out there? Who besides family would care to read it anyway?

Some of us just need to do it. I don’t share everything. I have been perhaps too open with parts of my life and yet I’ve held back, too. And I’d just like to remind those folks that blogging doesn’t have to be personally revelatory.

How about I write about someone else’s life? Someone I don’t know. In fact, I’ll concoct their life from fragments I’ve seen through time. Remember those vacation slides from the 1950s and ’60s  — from Minnesota and Arizona? It took some digging to find those two entries; it was a year ago —— last February! Let’s explore some more of those photos…

George and Winnie loved Toad Lake, Minnesota. Bambi Resort beckoned every summer and they would pack up the Packard and join Lou and Mary and sometimes another couple or two and spend a week in the woods, fishing, frolicking in the lake and lounging around one of the rustic cabins. It's easy to see why they loved it there. The scenery is beautiful.

Bambi Resort, established in 1949, is on Toad Lake is situated between Detroit Lakes and Park Rapids just off Minnesota Highway 34 on the edge of Smokey Hills State Forest. Sometimes the “campers” would make a side trip to the state forest to walk the trails and scout wildlife. But most days they'd tool around the lake on a boat, looking like typical 1950s vacationers. 

Anyway, George and Winnie were boring old farts, so we may have to check on their friends later to see what fun they had at Bambi Resort.

p.s. I started this Thursday and didn’t finish. When I came home from work today I decided to go for a run — it was 44 degrees after all!

Today's Stats (March 7, 2014)

Temp: 44 degrees F

Distance: 3.47 miles

Weekly Total: 3.47 miles

Treasure: 22 cans.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Trampled Under Foot – Led Zeppelin

Sarah – Ray LaMontagne

Helter Skelter (live) – U2

TheReflex – Duran Duran

Two of Us – The Beatles

Why Can’t This Be Love – Van Halen

O MaryDon’t You Weep (live) – Bruce Springsteen with The Sessions Band

Stuck in the Middle With You – Stealers Wheel

A Certain Girl – Warren Zevon

Scenesfrom An Italian Restaurant – Billy Joel

Back on Track

It’s been a while. Six weeks in fact. And after all that talk Jan.1 about a new beginning, a fresh start. Well, I really have no excuse. Sure, it’s been cold, snowy, icy — the usual winter weather in Illinois. But I’ve run in it before. For some reason, though, this year is different. It’s colder. Snowier. Icier.

And my focus is elsewhere. While I haven’t been running, I have been writing. Would you believe love letters? Nearly 60 of them in the past couple months. She lives all of three miles away so most people think I’m a little nuts for writing. What’s wrong with email, text, Facebook, they wonder. We use that for everyday communication like anyone else. But expressing yourself to the one you love is best done the old-fashioned way. Even with lousy handwriting like mine.

Hold on. I took a break to organize my blog files — recently migrated to a Macbook Pro — and discovered I did run twice in January, the second time around Jan. 12, though I didn’t complete a blog. (See note on distraction and focus above.) Hooray for me. So it was only a one-month hiatus, not six weeks.

Anyway, I wouldn’t qualify this single run as really being back on track, but I came up with the seemingly clever — all right, clichéd — title when I crossed the railroad tracks on Farnham Street near Fifth Street. It seemed a good location for a selfie with the tracks stretching out behind me. Unfortunately I didn’t get the effect I was going for, as I’m pretty inept at self-portraiture. I do know someone who is maybe as bad, but I won’t mention any names. Would that I could capture myself with the skill of my friend Jane Carlson, who makes the most awesome self-portraits for her Facebook profile pics.

So this isn’t the most satisfying or interesting blog. I’m struggling getting back into the swing of it. I need a really good run — one that is not only physically and emotionally uplifting, but also productive in the scavenging. I haven’t found squat in months. Winter used to be so rewarding: gloves, hats, scarves, stuffed toys, frozen foods. I need to find something good … and soon!

Today's Stats (Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014)

Temp: 17 degrees F

Distance: 3.66 miles

Weekly Total: 3.66 miles

Treasure: 2 cans

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Radio – Matchbox Twenty

New Deep – John Mayer

The Difficult Kind – Sheryl Crow

Can’tFight This Feeling – REO Speedwagon

I Want to Know What Love Is – Foreigner

Let Her In – John Travolta

City Love (live) – John Mayer

Don’t Ask Me Why – Billy Joel

BlindedBy the Light – Manfred Mann