another sunny day in oxford,etc

where has all of the rain gone and can it please stay there?

got up early enough at 6:30 am and read in bed until i finished my second book club book -two bookclub meetings this week. then went out to run about 8:30 with a slightly upset stomach from what i don't know. took 4 miles to run through it though. usual route today-up to
st margaret's church- built in the 17th century - and then down the river and cut over the channel to the oxford canal and up towards wolvercote. the oxford crew teams were all out training and they are fun to watch.
stopped short of heading into the village and headed back over to port meadow and down the railroad trail, and did the loop around the abbey and train station and then over to the grocery store to get a sunday paper. and then home. about 9 miles all in all. turned into a nice run and the temp. went from 33 to 45 degrees while i was out. not the best of legs, but got it in and it gave me 53 for the week. should be doing more speedwork with such low milage, but doing the best i can right now. need a good break and i know it.

headed over to the range after breakfast to try and work on the new swing; went really well for the first 7o balls and then just lost it. off and on for the next 60 balls or so and then the last 20 were ok. not hitting any long clubs as it is easier to work on things with shorter clubs. had great balance and then didn't. the swing stuff will drive you crazy if you let it. will work a little longer on it this week i hope. but the back must get looser. gets tight as i go and then i know i just cannot make the right turn. is this the way of the senior golfer? am still stretching.
will make sure i keep practicing the short swing also. yesterday i was hitting so well and hitting draws and cuts and then today i fought to hit it clean and not thin. oh well....

later in the day gail and i took a walk down to north hinksey and went to the cemetary of the war graves, where they have buried soldiers and nurses from the 1st two world wars, including soldiers from belgium, france and germany, as well as british of course. very moving reading the little notes on the stones. a very pretty and old cemetary. much colder as we walked home.
always makes me think being in a veteran's cemetary. sitting on the stone wall looking over the gravesites as the sun set and the temperature dropped and i wondered what these men and woman would of accomplished if they had had the chance. the families and kids they could have had. the bad golfers they could have become.
always makes me think i should have done more since i came home from nam. how one can get caught up in the day to day stuff that life is made up of. i wore a bracelet of a pilot for years who had been missing and then one day he was declared dead. wonder how his family felt then? i could walk down to the vn wall and right over to 9e and just put my finger on his name and he didn't feel dead to me.

i used to love going down to the wall at 2am when nobody was around and just sit there and watch the wall and try to get some meaning out of it. how i hated nixon back then. so many names. and now people go to nam to visit. more power to them.

not many talk about about nam much these days. heck they barely talk about the war going on now. how many lives have i touched since i have been back? how many lives could 58,000 plus more people have touched. what makes old men send young kids into dumb wars? how do we get them to stop? voting sure didn't help.

4000 is just around the corner. 10,000 less children to be born. and more old men cannot wait to get to the next war. hope they have a better reason next time.

thank you neil young wherever you are tonight.

sunday night is catch up night and there are lots of little chores- laundry, trash to put out, bills to pay, cats to take care of, emails to try and send, etc, etc....

busy and cold week ahead. funny where a blog can tke you once you start typing.