A long run and a pleasant surprise

I managed to bang out a 7.7 mile run Sunday morning which is the longest since I last injured my foot back in late winter. The foot feels fine even after that so I guess a I am good to go. Speaking of good to go, I had a great experience this weekend at both the Apple and Nike stores. My wireless keyboard to my Mac was malfunctioning and my Nike watch stopped synching so I trotted down to the Back Bay to see what I could do about it and I was pleasantly surprised when both Apple and Nike just switched out the defective items for brand new ones no questions asked. This clearly makes the case for shopping both these brands with this kind of customer service. I certainly don't mind spending a few extra dollars on these brands when I know that they are standing behind thier products like this. The Mac keyboard was 2.5 years old and I would not have been surprised if they told me it was out of warranty. The Nike watch was a little over a year old and I was hoping to get that replaced so I was very pleased with the overall outcome. Customer for life I am of anyone who makes my life this easy and painless.

Religion

I am starting 3 hours of back to back meetings but I just came across this while forcing down a quick lunch. I found this to be hilarious and quite accurate. Enjoy. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/religion

6 Hours of Hell aboard an AA flight

I have a few minutes before my 1pm meeting but I wanted to chip in on the fact that apparently NBC has paid American Airlines for the rights to broadcast a completely mind numbing 3 hour clip of NBC sitcoms and NBC promo material on AA flights these days. Last week I traveled from Boston to Miami to St. Croix and back on a 5 day family vacation and was subject to this torture in both directions and both flights. That is a total of almost 12 hours (BOS/MIA/STX - STX/MIA/BOS) of nothing but NBC sitcom drivel. Apparently AA is not all that concerned that most of us were not watching and would not watch if given the choice. I thought that you got a movie or something to watch instead of Rob Lowe and I don't know who or what the other shows were but I can tell you that I will clearly avoid flying AA anytime in the near future if this is their idea of inflight entertainment. I usually fly Jet Blue or US Air and will now stick to them to steer clear of this lack of consideration for my sanity.

So right now I am sitting in St Croix, US Virgin Islands attend of a 5 day stint at the Carambola Marriott resort. This is our second stay here and I highly recommend it if your looking for a nice quiet and relaxing seaside resort. I did manage to squeeze in 18 holes at the Carambola golf course. I would put this place on par with a decent municiple course back home in Boston. The grass obviously is suitable for the climate so it's certainly different from back home. Shot in the low 90'swhich isn't bad given a new course and rented clubs. I think that with my own sticks and a few rounds under my belt I could go mid 80's easy. Anyway, off to the airport.

Not to get to far away from the running but this picture is a riot as it shows a great white shark stalking a kayaker down on the Cape this past weekend. The woman who sits next to me at work was on the beach when this was going down, she said it was the funniest thing to see this guy paddling like an olympian to get away from this shark. What I don't understand is they have been broadcasting for weeks now to stay away from the seals in Chatham because they are apparently on the top of the menu for Great White Sharks. Personally, if someone tells me that there are sharks in the water, I am not going in. Especially if the sharks are only in the water around you because they are hungry and looking for a meal. Perhaps I am overly cautious given that lots of people were swimming there over the weekend.

Anyway, a nice weather weekend for running and biking. I got a nice long bike ride in on Saturday. We rode over to Cambridge and spent a couple of hours walking through the Mt. Auburn Cemetary which is designated as a national park. It was a great experience, lots of history and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is visiting the area. Sunday I managed to slog through a 6 mile run that wasn't very good from that start. I felt like crap throughout the entire run and was fortunate to be able to finish even though I stopped and rested numerous times. 

Had a nice 3 mile run last night on a nice track and field facility that Robert Kraft was nice enought to have supported here in Brookline. I am told that he grew up in town and attended the local high school. I normally run past the track on my usual 5k run to and around Jamaica Pond but the wife and I thought we would give the actual track itself a test run and it was a great experience. I have never run or walked an actual track before, I mainly stick to the streets or trails and this was a pleasant surprise. It felt to be made of densely packed rubber on top of asphalt so it was easy on the feet and legs. The only thing I didn't care for is that your looking at the same scene, lap in and lap out. I do like the variety of a run through the town with different sights to see. Anyway, it was a nice change and the community is very lucky to have the Kraft family support.

What a great weekend of weather that was. I love the heat and it was in the low 90's all weekend with bright sunshine and no rain whatsoever here in Boston. I got out early on Sunday morning and put in a quick 3 miles at a nice average mile around 9:30 thanks to the last 3/4 of a mile being all down hill. I will take any help that I can get. Anyway, on Sunday afternoon we went on the motorcycle out to Shirley Mass. to see Hot Tuna and take in some great food as well at the Bull Run Restaraunt in Shirley. The building has been there since the 1700's and is outfitted with a small concert hall in the back that looks like it holds maybe 200-250 people max so all the seats are up close and personal. We sat against the side wall and were maybe 25 feet from the band at the most. We were there for the first set and the show was great. I was particularly happy to hear Good Shepherd, Come Back Baby and Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning. I could almost hear Jorma's voice and guitar screeching from the Good Shepherd version on Volunteers which has to be one of the greatest collections of songs ever put together. Aside from that, I pulled the set list from Cracks in the Finish, which is Jorma's blog and website. It was special to be able to see a couple of guys who have really been there and done that and survived to tell the tale.

First Show:
1. Been So Long
2. Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out
3. I’ll Let You Know Before I Leave
4. More Than My Old Guitar
5. Second Chances
6. Let Us Get Together Right Down Time
7. Barbeque King
8. Children Of Zion
9. Come Back Baby
10. 99 Year Blues
11. Bread Line Blues
12. Good Shepherd
13. Parchman Farm
14. Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning
15. Encore: Embryonic Journey
Second Show:
1. Serpent Of Dreams
2. Hesitation blues
3. There’s A Bright Side Somewhere
4. How Long Blues
5. The Terrible Operation
6. Living In The Moment
7. Mama Let Me Lay It On You
8. I See The Light
9. Red River Blues
10. Uncle Sam Blues
11. Vicksburg Stomp
12. I Am The Light Of This World
13. True Religion
14. Re-Enlistment Blues
15. I Know You Rider
16. Encore: Water Song

http://jormakaukonen.com/cracksinthefinish/