Feeling old? (or just experienced....)

Had a race this morning. It was a 10K. I went out just to have a comfortable run, and did just that. Doug Steele, a former REI employee who's a pretty darn fast runner, was there and we met up before the start. We ran together until just after the turnaround, when he took off. As I said, I wasn't trying to go fast, so I was a bit surprised to find that I'd finished in about 51:53. That's pretty fast for me. An 8:21 pace. I didn't have my Forerunner, because I apparently didn't recharge it after my last outing on Thursday, and it died before the start.

Thursday was a weird day. INCREDIBLE wind. I did 3 laps on my bike and it was a real struggle. It was over 50 when I started, although it was really windy. I was riding leaning against the wind. I saw one guy up ahead of me actually blown down by a gust. Anyway, when I finished my ride I had intended to do a run. But with 40 mph gusts of wind and the temperature having dropped into the 30s (according to weather.com when I got home) I was not prepared. After just a little bit of run I gave it up. I felt kind of like a wimp, but not too much. That was the first time I've cut short a run like that for the weather.

Boring, I guess, for anyone but me.....

I think I'll report on an interesting (again, interesting to me....) school event.

Started doing my unit on Civil Rights this week. As a lead-in, I was trying to help them understand at least something about the Civil Rights movement. Part of that was playing for them the Gil Scott-Heron songs "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and "Whitey on the Moon." (I'll bet it's been a long time since any of you out there have heard those!)

Of course they didn't understand a lot of the "ancient" cultural references (e.g., "The revolution will not put a tiger in your tank or a giant in your toilet bowl..." and of course they'd never heard of Hooterville) but I expected that, and even warned them not to be put off by it. On the other hand, I didn't expect to have to explain to them what "Whitey on the Moon" meant. They didn't know who Neil Armstrong was!!

I guess it's not a good thing that when I don't know something I tend to sit back and not say anything, hoping to figure it out from the conversation, unless it's clearly something important. Many of my students, though, are not that way at all. I had 5 or 6 hands up in all three classes, wanting to know "What did he mean by 'Whitey on the Moon'?" I think that's one of those things I would have sat back and waited for. At least for a while. I'd already told them we were going to spend some time talking about the songs. Oh, well. I guess I just expect too much.

Oh, and speaking of expectations, I somehow didn't realize that I wasn't going to get a paycheck from the District at the end of January. I suppose that makes sense, because I didn't teach any winter term classes. Somehow I was thinking I'd not gotten everything from the Fall yet. Oh, well (again....)

I'm going for a bike ride now. See ya later....