amkean pronunciation

My student considered my spring break activity of visiting battlefields to be the lamest, and that was before she learned that there weren't any actual battles going on in the year 2011 when I was there.

A macro overview of what's been going on:

During spring break two weeks ago, I flew into Charlotte, stayed in Huntersville, had breakfast in Chapel Hill, and supper in Fredericksburg, Va. Battlefields I visited: Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Richmond, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Touring during the offseason is nice. I was the first person to Appomattox the day I went, I was often the only person in the park buildings. No worries about traffic or crowding. On the downside, there were no special programs. Only one building was closed for the season, though. I returned to Huntersville in time to attend the Rush concert in Greensboro. My first time seeing them, although in high school they were playing across the street at Target Center while I was watching Primus at First Ave. Les Claypool asked us "Why aren't you over there? No, seriously! It's Rush!"

I just joined the Ed Bearss appreciation society on FB. A new thing this year was that I downloaded podcast that gave battlefield tours. This offset the problem of not having as many tours in the offseason. I didn't have any Ed Bearss tours like I did at Vicksburg, but the park rangers I listened to were very good.

What else do I talk about on here? I was not happy with the end of the college basketball season. If the favorites hadn't been knocked out, I wouldn't have the disappointment I experienced through the simulation heuristic.

Bowling league ended. Softball starts Wednesday. We did not win bowling.

Running has been going differently. I've been doing speedwork consistently, following a minimalist protocol. I feel like I'm in decent shape except for not running for two weeks around spring break, but I don't know if I can run the three marathons I've signed up for this year without doing mileage. I would have won a race this year, albeit a small town one, but I went the wrong way once I took the lead. The brain wasn't working correctly. After spring break was where my training regiment went off the rails last year, so we'll see how it goes from here.

Obviously, the writing isn't going great. It's so much easier to follow a physical regimen which has a distinct outcome and finite ending time than to write. If I go running, I know that every step is getting me closer to the finish. With writing, there aren't short-term wins.

I plan on making my first bike ride of the year tomorrow in addition to visiting St. Cloud. Nine weeks still summer.