Christmas and music

Christmas Day - There was a nice TV documentary on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It HAS been along time since I was in a choir. They sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic (the Gould arrangement) - how I liked that piece! These days it is hard to carry a tune. But, like riding a bicycle I hope you don't forget and some day, given the opportunity, I can sing in a chorus. One of the latter songs on the program was "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing". Mom used to sing that and is a favorite hymn of mine. I thought it was of Scottish background, but is an American melody (Shaker?).
Anyway, it brought back memories of Mom, Don my brother who loved to sing, my youth and a past now long ago.
It was nice to reminisce.

Accessing blogger account

Had trouble logging into the blogger account the past week. Things have been messy ever since trying to use Internet Explorer 7. Went back to 6.0, but still some problems.

Sample Map of Dec 2 Sprint O

This is just a test to see if the map we're making for the Dec 2nd O' on Mt. O' reproduces OK. This should be a fun meet and any KU Alumnus will be pleasantly surprised what the campus has to make for an interesting course. Final scale will be either 1:4000 or 1:5000.

30 years of O' at Clinton State Park

March 7, 1977 - that's when Paul Jordan and I hosted a PTOC meet at Clinton State Park - or whatever it was called before the water filled up Clinton Lake (reservoir). We had a training workout today - I just hung streamers and Mary Jones, Dick Neuburger, Fritz Menninger, Eric Saggars and one more KC guy ran the course. We also had a Jr ROTC group from Manhattan, KS doing the beginner's course. About 13 people total. I might send a copy of my Randolph Park map so the Manhattanites can orienteer closer to home. My first time at the Randolph Park Area was the O' meet Dale Bryant (KSU O'Club) on Mar 26, '77.
The Lake Henry map used today is out-of-date with vague treelines, vague line of outcrops and missing trees in open areas. Hope the runners managed to cope with the fuzziness.

You are My Sunshine. . .

Listening to Prairie Home Companion this morning, the Wailin Jennys, Garrison plus Bonnie Raitt sang "You are My Sunshine." Beautifully done. Growing up in Wichita I got to see Gene Autry at a rodeo at the old Lawrence Stadium. That seemed to be his signature song. . . can't remember if he sang at the rodeo.

Music was a big part of my youth - church choir, church bell choir, violin and orchestra (4th to 7th grade), junior high choruses. As much as I liked to reminisce about "You are My Sunshine" I can't carry a tune any more. But I'm out of practice. My brother Don sure liked to sing. I miss his enthusiasm to respond with a song to questions.

NBA's Notwitzki & fencing & Naismith

According to the AP story today, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks got his speed as a big man partially from some footwork with fencers recommended by his basketball coach. That reminded me that the inventor of basketball was also a a fencer and fencing instructor. Here's a photo (from 1926) of James Naismith with some of his students at KU. The footwork helps the fencer score - she or he needs only a touch and not a millimeter more to score - the exact distance improves your chances to score.

a turkey vulture's wind tunnel

I was out on a morning bike ride to Clinton Lake. At the far west end before the boat ramps is a nice gradual descent between the trees. A turkey vulture came in over my head about 15 ft up and soared above me for quite a ways keeping pace just ahead of me (half-wheeling me?). Staying just below the tree tops, the road must be sort of a wind tunnel where this bird was catching a good draft.

The Pan American: to be (served) or not to be

Just finished Wayne's book. Curious to see what Kim thinks of the story as he made contributions to facts about the Pan American Cafe. Nice photo of a Pan American lunch crowd in the book, with grandpa (King Mar) serving customers behind the counter. I need to dig up a good photo of the apartments that were above Pan American (150 N Market, my first home address. Mom and Dad and I lived there my first year).

Wayne mentioned that blacks were served in the back. I remember the sign in front by the counter, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone." A common sign back them to keep blacks out. The Pan American customers were mostly whites on a business lunch or between work as the book mentions the boom days of the El Dorado oil fields and the aircraft industry. The Chinese population in Wichita of 0.1 % made it nearly invisible and no race relations can be made if you don't see someone to interact. I always wondered if that sign would come back and bite the Pan American owners and cooks.

Still, it was a black and white society right up to the 60s.
I got two traffic tickets about 6th grade - once I was labeled white, then second time Dad was amused see I was labeled black. And then Sam as a high school student leader had to deal with the race riots. Mom and Dad mentioned to me Sam agonized on his proper role and reponse. Do you see i from the black perspective; from the white view? Wichita was still in the B&W TV mode and had yet to discover NBC's Wonderful World of Color. This was a few years before the 1998 movie, "Pleasantville" posing the possibilities of life beyond black and white.

Wayne's World of Wichita

During my lunch break, I happen to walk by the Asian-American History section in the Oread Books (shop) at the Kansas Union. On the top shelf was American Paper Son: A Chinese Immigrant in the Midwest, by Wayne Hung Wong. I was thinking, this can't be the Wayne Wong that my brother, Kim, and my Dad talked about years ago. Then, looking at the photo pages, the pictures sure looked like our family albums. Then, there was a shot of the Pan American Cafe - the downtown restaurant I grew up in and owned (partly) by my granddad, King Mar.

Info on the book is available from the Univ of Illinois Press. I always thought it would be nice to see an account of the Chinese in Wichita. I'm glad Wayne and others with the talent and resources assembled the story.

The photo shows the Pan American (circa 1950).

Bike Race at Perry Lake

Here's the peleton on the Ferguson Road (crossing the Slough Creek bridge). Dee and I were there partly to catch the racers on the steepest hill - nothing to bother most of the riders. A national championship event in the Lawrence area is a long ways from the big packs of 12 guys in tne 70s training on these hills. Riders from ALL OVER! Will catch the downtown criterium tomorrow.

TioMila video from France

I happen to come across this video of the Tiomila Relay last weekend (Apr 30, 2006) and also posted it in the runLawrence web page - partly because I'm intrigued by these net video productions and partly to share the excitement of team orienteering events. After viewing it a couple of times, I finally read the results scores posted with the video and figured out the three guys that anchored had a super race to the finish - seconds apart. But Halden wins - again.

Raintree Run

I wanted to get a nice photo of this year's Raintree Run, but did not want to repeat the overhead shot looking down on the line of runners. Well at the same spot, I took this photo of Vincent Topiwo with the rocky wall in the background. Are we still in Kansas or does this have a foreign feel?

Storm damage and Udall

The following were the top three news releases from KU today. The first two refer to the recent storm damages. While it's nice that three students are being considered for the Udall scholarships, Udall has a special meaning to Kansans and in particular those from the Wichita Area. A very bad tornado disaster truck Udall (near Wichita) in the 1950s. There probably wasn't a bigger tornado disaster story until Topeka was hit in the mid 60s.

* Force of microburst wind pressures wrought havoc on KU campus roofs; Damage assessment on March 12 storm
http://www.news.ku.edu/2006/march/16/damage.shtml
The competing negative and positive wind pressures lifted roofing materials, in some cases tearing them off and in others slamming the roofs back down.

Media Advisory: KU officials to discuss storm damage, cleanup
When: 1:30 p.m. today
Where: Danforth Chapel, Jayhawk Boulevard and Lilac Lane
Who: Jim Modig, director of design and construction management, and Jim Long, vice provost for facilities management

* KU nominates three students for national Udall scholarship competition
http://www.news.ku.edu/2006/march/16/udall.shtml
The Morris K. Udall Foundation awards 80 scholarships nationally to students focused on careers related to the environment and to Native American and Alaska Natives planning careers in health care or tribal policy. HOMETOWNS: Overland Park and Salina, Kan.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Vancouver, British Columbia

Perception of effort in workouts

When posting my workouts in Attackpoint you're asked to rate your workout from1 to 5, 5 being the hardest. The plan was to run this morning doing 3x1.5 mi with half mile recoveries - at tempo. Years ago we sold a textbook inthe Union Bookstore, "Physics for Poets" - a text for non science majors, of course. I wonder if there are any real measurable standards to determine the workout effort. My formula is a 3 is for a training run, a 5 for a race and a 1 for warmups, or walking around an airport at a brisk pace. This morning, the "at tempo" is new enough to me in that I had to think a pace to keep than just "go out and run." The effort could have been more a 4; but there's the recovery which should rate a 1. So, it was 3 workout on my log. That's the poet's measurement.

Good run wasted - another boom

Mark Roodhouse set a 7.7 km red course at Shawnee Mission Park. After a good New Year's Day trail run, I decided being careful and slow will get you clean, but slow runs. So, made it a point to run harder today. No major complaints up to 13, then then went back to 4 instead of going to 14. Cost me at least 3 places in the results. Can you see a comtributing cause for the error, besides the oxygen debt?

New Years Day 2006

Here's a shot of the New Year's Day run at Clinton State Park. Note that Mike Eglinski has a map. I left mine at home.