Monthly Archives: December 2009

Christmas Eve Traditions

We still had more dishes to wash, and King John was waiting, waiting, for a big, red, India-rubber ball.
Shaine asked, “How much soap should we put in?” Nobody laughed, even though it was the funniest thing I’d heard all night. Continue reading

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One Step Closer to Knowing

This time around, “health care reform” has meant several things: Increase the number of people who have health care insurance Make that insurance affordable to everyone Reduce the rate of rise of health care costs These primary goals have at … Continue reading

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Christmas 2009

December’s fog slowly fades, and the lazy sun struggles low above the horizon, falling back before it ever clears the tops of the holly and rhododendrons. If we can’t have a white Christmas, at least we get the florescent greens of winter, moss sparkling on tree trunks and sword ferns snuggling under cedars.
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Cutting For Stone

Cutting for Stone is a full-bodied tour through mid-century Ethiopia, with stops in India and America’s Northeast. Verghese knows his subject, knows his people, and most of all knows his story. Complex, human, and honest, this book is immersing and rewarding. Continue reading

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Dope

The headline reads: “Doctor Who Treated Top Athletes Is Subject of Doping Inquiry”. Doctor … Athlete … Doping – those words linked together are so mundane nowadays. But as someone who is both a doctor and an athlete, they carry some resonance with me. Continue reading

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Cold, and Dark – It Must Be The Holidays

December is an aperture from the old year to the new. Up here in the temperate northern hemisphere, the short, desolate days bring cocooning weather, storms of all variety. Continue reading

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Fitting Body to Bike, and Vice Versa

Currently I am struggling to avoid “training”, and trying to have a 4-6 week period of free time. My coaches tell my to “Stand down!” and take a break from my “beefy”, successful season just completed. It seems I have a flaw in my character. I am so used to just progressing from one IM training cycle to another (having gone through 16 in nine years), that I need outside objective experts THAT I AM PAYING FOR to get me to stick for more than two weeks with an easy does it, wait till the New Year training “plan”. Continue reading

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It’s A Question of Mind Over Matter

I suspect that everyone, with the possible exception of Fitzgerald’s Benjamin Button, is interested or at least curious in the effects of aging. I regard myself as a somewhat dispassionate observer of the process, with a ringside seat to some of the remarkable possibilities in athletic performance. Continue reading

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Happy New Year To The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

If you love a complex story which grows tauter with every chapter, but demand an equally complex mind behind the story, with enough time to pause and think about what might be going on, these books will raise your spirits. No cheap thrills, hack writing or logorrhea here, just a well-constructed mystery story and multiple fully drawn engaging characters, flaws and all. Continue reading

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