Nothing. That's right. I did nothing.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010


If you’ve got money to burn, try driving through East Cleveland and not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. You WILL get busted and it WILL cost you a lot of money. At least to me it’s a lot. I hate doing dumb things that cause police to have to deal with me. They’ve got way more important things to handle than some goof ball who can’t obey simple traffic laws. So yeah…I was mad…at me.

The officer told me I could call the number on the citation and find out what I owed. She was nice…but she was wrong. I tried the ‘calling’ thing and, of course, got into a loop of ‘if you want this…dial that’. After three of those, I tried hitting ‘O’, normally a sound move, but not today. ‘Improper entry. Try…’ I gave it up.

I drove to City Hall and went in to see what the fine would be and how I could pay it. The lady behind the counter was very pleasant…almost sympathetic…she knew where this was going.

“It’ll be $171.00 and you’re early. We don’t even have the ticket yet. You can send a check any time before the 28th,” she said.

I tried not to, but I’m sure I flinched. Maybe I’d run over the sign and hadn’t noticed and I was paying for a replacement. And maybe this is the going rate…I don’t get tickets much, but damn…I was suffering from sticker shock.

Next stop was the doctor’s office. I was going in for a colonoscopy next week – we have a family history of colon cancer and I was overdue. I’ve had two already, but it was time again. The part that was bugging me was coming in for a visit to give them information I knew they already had. Well…it would probably be included in the price of the colonoscopy.

“That will be $15 co-pay. Could you stand on the scale over there?”

So if I was paying $15, I’m sure my carrier was paying $80-90 for the rest. I was really getting pissed. If they’d been reading my blog, they’d know how much I weigh and we could have saved me a lot of time and money. I needed every penny to pay the IRS and the city of East Cleveland.

I went into a windowless office and waited another 10 minutes for the doc. He came in and began asking me questions and writing down things that I’d already filled out on the initial form – which was something that reiterated all the information they already had on me. After the third such question I answered in frustration “it’s right there on that paper under your hand.”

I assure you…it is bad form to get snippy with a guy who’s going to give you stuff to drink that makes you crap your brains out and then puts you to sleep and sticks God only knows what up your…well…you get the picture. I was in terrible form and couldn’t stop the diarrhea spewing from my mouth.

I got out of there and headed for Jack’s track meet. I’ve never felt less like working out in my life. I could see this was going to be a rest day. I love the track and track meets and thought maybe this would revive my flagging spirits. It did. I ran into an acquaintance – Glenn, and old runner like me – and we talked track. He brought up the book on barefoot running ‘Born to Run’ I think – I wrote it down - and shared the theme. I knew he was surprised I hadn’t read it already, but was diplomatic. Enter Mike. He’s another track and running junkie – probably in his late forties and going on 15. His enthusiasm is incredible and we love him. Glenn mentioned I hadn’t read the book…

”You’ve never read ‘Born to Run’ and you call yourself a…a…a,” he was stuttering with incredulity.

“…a learned man? An amazing writer? Coach extraordinaire?” I offered.

I suppose I better read it. Lot’s of folks talking about barefoot running to cure what ails the runner. Right after I finish ‘Bowerman and the Men of Oregon’.

Sedentary duration: 24 hours

Training heart rate: 2

Calories burned: Way fewer than calories eaten.