Howell High School Bagpiper
Communications & Connections for Howell Public Schools Alumni & Friends
Tales from the Trails
Tales from the Trails
Tales from the Trails, Feb. 2010
It’s a long ways to
It has been a desire of mine for the past ten or so years
to go to
The next question is why in the world would you want to
travel from
My reasoning for the brevity of time is simple; I’m not
getting any younger even though you might hear me boast about it from time to
time, LOL. Some say 60 is the new 30, so that would make me 30 something, LOL.
Some days I feel like it is the other way around, ha-ha.
So, it’s a long ways to
So, it’s a long ways to
Keep on running,
Ken
Resolution for New Year, 2010.
Most people I know don’t make New Year’s resolutions. They
mostly say that it is too hard to keep them and I guess the unspoken part of
that is why try anyway? But someone else said, someone who is much wiser then
I, LOL, although I don’t know who it is; “if you aim and nothing, you will
surely hit it.” So where does that leave us?
Where indeed, now that is a good question. Here is what I
think; almost everyone makes resolutions anyway, only they don’t call it a
resolution. They call it a commitment, a goal, or a plan and that’s all right
as far as I am concerned.
My dictionary says that a resolution is defined as, “to
decide firmly or solemnly, Firmness of will, belief and action, determination.
Many of us don’t broadcast our resolutions because we think that we will fail,
but when we put it in the proper context and refer to it as a goal, it then
becomes something to be achieved and that is more palatable.
I had some goals for last year that I remember because I
accomplished them. One of those goals was to read more. You see, after
finishing college and grad school I was so burned out on reading that I
resolved to only read what was necessary, and looking back, that is exactly
what I did in school, I read because it was necessary. So, this past year and
maybe a bit of 2008 I began reading, and reading, and reading. I can’t tell you
how many books I read, but I loved every minute of it. I also decided to read
every piece of work by my favorite author, not quite finished yet, but getting
close.
I decided to do more with music. As situation would have it,
I spent a lot of time listening to music and really enjoying it. Then on a
recent trip to visit my mother in-law, she gave me an entire collection of
music on cassette, maybe 75-100 in all and I am chewing through those a few at
a time.
Those are just a few things that I accomplished. There are
others, of course. And there are some that I did not accomplish. So, what are
my resolutions or goals for the New Year? I must say, I am still formulating my
goals. There is no rule that says you have to have them done by January 1. Of
course I am going to continue with the reading and the music, that’s a given. I
plan on getting physically stronger this year. I now have a gym membership to
help me accomplish that. I also plan on running is some local races this year.
This is a more complicated goal because I have to get past some physical
problems which lend itself to several more goals in itself. I also want to get
out on some long pain free trail runs. Being out there all alone in the wilderness
is a great experience. I also plan on spending more time on me. Does that sound
selfish? Yes, probably, but it seems like whenever I plan on doing something
for me, something else comes up that requires my attention. The answer to this
can be summed up easily with flexibility and better planning.
That is pretty much it for now, although I know I will add
to this list. So, today is New Year’s Day, did I do what I had hoped to do this
year? I believe the answer is yes. I read a lesson on early childhood
curriculum development; I listened to some great easy listening music on the
TV. I spent 60 minutes on the treadmill while watching the Tournament of Roses
Parade. And I sat down to write this article.
Let me leave you with this, it is a new year, my friends,
and you can set out to do almost anything you want to do. So, don’t let the
opportunity pass you by or pretty soon you will slide into February and the
next thing you know it is March and you will be asking yourself, what did I
accomplish? So make some plans. Now…get to work on them.
Keep on running,
Ken
Tales from the Trails, Dec.
2009
This month has been great for the ski
resorts and the like. We had nearly 3 feet of snow out of a single storm and
very cold single digit temperatures at night. It also is now great snow shoeing
weather. My problem with that is and has been some recent back problems.
So, what am I doing about it? I
started working out at the gym today. The G.T. Athletic Club is running a great
special. Anyone can get a fitness membership for the year for only $150. Years
ago I had a membership there and currently a couple that we know owns and
operates it, so it all fits for me.
I stayed conservative the first day
and only did one set of strength training exercises and then 20 minutes on the
treadmill. I will gradually increase both of those, but even so I could tell
that it was working the very muscles that I have been giving me trouble.
Some of you have already done some holiday runs and I
would love to hear about them. We are having our Jingle
After my workout I spent about 6
minutes in the sauna. I spent enough time to really sweat. I know I can go
longer but not the fist time. When I entered there was a guy in there in his
underwear, LOL. I asked if there was room for two in there and he just grunted.
I told him I would take the higher level, and let me tell you it was hotter then
Hades up there. The other guy finished putting on his gym stuff and went through
some stretches while I just sat up there and sweat. It will be nice to use that
sauna when it is 20 below zero.
I also want to take this opportunity
to wish all of you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I do hope you enjoy
Christmas this year and with the approach of the New Year many people make
resolutions. Many have said they quit making them because they always break
them. So, here is what I propose, start early. Get a head start and begin doing
some of those things early and then by New Years it is a
habit.
Keep on
Running,
Ken
Tales from the Trails, Oct/Nov
2009
The trails have been a bit quiet
this time of year, unless you count the bow hunters. I guess this year they
made it legal for them to use cross bows. In fact just as the bow season opened
there were hunters in the woods so the deer came up into the neighborhood to
feed. Sometimes they are pretty intelligent.
The month of October saw me turn
yet another year older and I would love to say I was out there running every
day. This, however, was not truly the case as I came down with the fall crud.
You know what I mean, it takes you a week to come down with it as your body
fights it off, then you have it for a week, then it takes yet another week to
get over all of the symptoms.
We did have one local race which
bears mentioning though and that was the first Zombie 5K. I opted out of this
race, even though I had my costume all laid out, because I was just getting
over this cold.
Now it is November and almost time
for the hunting rifles to come out. It can get quite scary when some of these
guys get into the woods with guns as they are apt to shoot anything that moves.
But November also is a month for giving thanks. It is good to give thanks to
God no matter what your religious persuasion happens to be.
I certainly am very grateful for
many things. I am grateful that I lost my job! What, you can’t be serious! But
yes I am. I have found that life can be much more relaxed away from the hustle
and bustle of the retail market. Our child care business has picked up so there
is still plenty to do around the house. All of our kids and grand kids are all
right as the flu has taken a minimal toll. I am also grateful that I have had
more time to get my weekly exercise in and get all my stretching done, what a difference
that makes!
This month we will be having the
Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I have not run in this race before so it
will be fun if I can get in enough miles to feel confident about entering. Do
you ever wonder where they came up with the name “turkey trot?” Yup, I’m gonna
tell ya, LOL.
Do you remember a while ago I told
you about the turkey that chased my car down the road? I am sure some of you
were saying, yeah, right, not! Well, it was true and now I can even top that
one.
The other day I was on my way back
from dropping my grand children off. I was driving down East Arbutus
I put my passenger window down and
honked the horn to annoy them and then did my best turkey gobble sound. As I
went past them honking and gobbling I looked in the mirror and all three of
those turkeys were trotting after me giving chase. I will tell you what; I
would never want to meet one of those in the woods unless I was carrying a
weapon of some sort. Them are tough old birds for sure.
So, gobble, gobble, enjoy your
Thanksgiving holiday. And if you are in my neck of the woods come on over and
run that turkey trot race before eating enough for two, LOL.
Keep on running,
Ken
Tales from the trails, the wine
trails, Sept. 2009
This has been quite a month for
me. I was planning on running the 5K at the Harvest Stompede here in
But there is a different kind of
therapy and that was what the wine tasting event was all about. In connection
with the race people can purchase separately tickets to do some wine tasting on
the
Accompanied by my two daughters,
we headed out for some libation therapy; also know as attitude adjustment on
Saturday morning. Our first stop was Black Star. They greeted us with some
mulled hard cider which tasted really great. After that we went inside. This
was part of our strategy to visit this place first before most of the crowds
hit. We got pretty good service although I didn’t think that the kid who waited
on us knew much about wines. I asked him a couple of questions from off their
web site and he kind of gave me that blank look which said it all. That was
also part of my preparation for this event in which I looked up each winery and
copied a blurb or two about what each place had to offer. This way we were a
little prepared for each stop. I must say, Black Star had some of the best
Cabernet Franc that I have ever tasted and yes, I purchased some for my
collection. We also normally buy some of their Leelanau cheese spread. It is
very good and hard to find in the local stores. So my daughter bought two of
them, one to take home and one to share on the trip.
The next stop for us was Leelanau
Cellars. They are a winery in Omena. They used to be just a hole in the wall
place but they always let you taste as many wines as you wanted to, and believe
you me, they make a lot of different wines compared to some of the other
places. Recently they built a great new facility right on the water in town on
highway 22. Last year we were kind of disappointed because they limited our
tasting to just a few. The problem with that is this, if I only taste a few
then that is all I am going to buy even if they have half and full case
discounts. I think they saw the error of their ways and went back to their old
way of treating wine tasters. The guy that served us, we will call him Jeff,
was from my old alma mater CMU. He was there a few years after me and we
enjoyed talking about football and their marching band. He was very
knowledgeable about the wine and after tasting over a dozen samples we finally
bought a full case between the three of us. I should also mention that they
have a great patio that overlooks the bay, what a great view!
After this we turned and headed
back south again and stopped at a small winery called Raftshol which was not on
the tour but they were open. We had stopped there last year and had loved there
wines even though they only had a small selection. This year’s vintage was not
as good and I only bought one called Any Port in a Storm. My daughter calls
this the
The next stop was a place called
Silver Leaf. It was open but not on the tour last year even though we still
stopped there. This year it was hard to find a parking place and even harder to
find a spot at the bar. The owner was taking it all in stride and coming out
and pouring wine for us even though we had not found a place as yet which was
quite nice of him to do. When we got to the bar we got a server, we will call
him Scot.
They had two selections for pinot
noir. One of them was filtered and the other was unfiltered. We asked Scot what
the difference was and he said, “One is filtered and one is not.” Then with a
grin he told us he was a welder, how would he know, LOL. The difference was
indeed in the tasting. The unfiltered had much more flavor then the filtered.
This year we went high tech. By
that I mean rather then trying to make some had written notes or trusting my
memory which gets kind of clouded after the first couple of stops, I brought
along my lap top and had my daughter make some notes for each place so we could
remember who said what and where a bit more clearly. And as we were making our
notes from Silver Leaf, one of my daughters felt it was time to open up the
stinky cheese, LOL. It had some water that had collected on top and she decided
to dump it out the window, and in so doing she managed to dump all the stinky
cheese on the ground. Oh well, stuff happens. I am sure the ants enjoyed it as
well as the flies.
L Mawby was our next stop on the
tour and they are a very small place and only make sparkling wines. So, if that
is your taste then this is a great place. And if you are a Star Wars fan, they
had a guy with a light saber parking cars. Each place also served some kind of
food along with their featured pour. They served some kind of short bread wafer
with blue cheese on it and it was really nasty. It took me quite a while just
to get the taste out of my mouth. Once inside we were only allowed two extra
tastes and I was offered some Sex by a male server. I tried it and it wasn’t
too bad, so I also bought some Sex before I left. Oh and yes, Sex is the name
of one of their sparkling wines, just in case you were wondering, ROFLMAO.
Next on our tour was Ciccone which
is kind of famous because Madonna is in their family. Normally they have some
really good food to try but this year along with tons of fruit flies they
served something that kind of looked like a green terd. I kid you not! What it
was, was some kind of rice wrapped in a basil leaf that they heated up in the
micro wave. From there we went out to their tasting bar area to do some tasting
and weren’t really happy with them. They didn’t tell us that we could only
taste 5 and then just rudely cut us off, so we purchased no wine from them and
may skip them on the tour next year.
Around the corner was Chateau de
Leelanau. They used to have a very knowledgeable wine guy but this year he was
not there. Maybe he skipped it because last year they gave the tour people the
featured pour and zero complementary pours. That didn’t set well last year and
I kind of told them what I thought of that. But this year they offered three,
so we went to the bar that was closest to the door and sampled. So then while
one of my daughter toured some of their shops, I told my other daughter to just
hang out for a minute or so, then while they weren’t looking we went to the bar
in the back and did some more tasting, hehe. This kind of helped make up for
last year.
Sunday was a shorter day of
tasting so we decided to skip a couple of places. Our first stop as per our
tradition was
Bel Lago was next and once again
the view of the water was spectacular. They had no limits on tasting and even
had some ice wines you could try but you had to pay to taste them because they
are on the pricy side. My daughter, Amy, unlike me is pretty much a white wine
only person when it comes to taste, but she actually found a Pinot Noir that
she liked. One of the unique things here was that they encouraged the staff to
also sample the wines, plus outside they had complementary coffee and bottled
water.
Following our course north Chateau
Fontaine was our next stop. Every year they serve the same thing, Dixie Chili
over noodles. They actually sell this chili for $4 a can. The owner’s wife
always does the serving and she is normally three sheets to the wind every time
we are there, but she does enjoy her work. This year they added on to their
tasting room and have plans for another building on site for processing of
their wines. This was a very enjoyable place. They have a cheese ball that they
prepare and serve with their wines inside which is also available for purchase
and it is very good. They had the best Cherry wine that I have ever had, and
every place has at least one.
Holy Fruit Flies is the way to
describe 45 North which was the next stop. They had everything in kind of a
pole barn building and the flies were terrible to say the least. They had many
wines but limited on their tasting. They will be a good place some day but they
just don’t have it right as yet.
Gills Pier was next on our list.
They had a really nice server who could talk your ear off. But they were very
stingy with their pours and only gave you two so it was hard to tell if you
really liked anything or not. They had also closed their gift shop which was
disappointing.
Our last stop for the day and for
the tour was
In conclusion, if you read all of
this, bless your wine loving heart! We purchased several on the tour so my
coffers should be full for a while anyway. There were less people on the tour
this year. I don’t think they sold out which is unusual. I think this made most
of the wineries more generous with their sampling. It just makes good sense,
the more one samples the more one buys and visa versa. The food was better and
pared better with the wine on Sunday, not sure why. My guess is that the west
side wineries have to try a bit harder because they are spread apart farther
then the east side wineries. It was a really great tour. It covered about 200
miles and we tasted well over 100 different wines. I will do it again next year
and hopefully be able to run the Stompede race as well.
Keep on running,
Ken
Tales from the Trails, 8-18-09.
What a weird couple of days! It all started yesterday. In
fact the day started out quite well. I didn’t sleep much on Sunday night but
that is not all that unusual. So, I was tired to start my day on Monday. I had
an appointment that I was not about to miss. I was having breakfast with my
son, Dan. I always enjoy that time as we talk sports, kids, churches, running,
shoes, you name it. After we got back to the Running Fit store I got my new
running shoes. They are a great pair of Brooks Adrenaline. I could hardly wait
to get them on and go for that first run, but the run would have to wait.
By the time I got home the day care was in full swing. I
learned we had a person coming over for an interview, and then another later
that afternoon. The first one went very well. She was very easy to talk to and
is going to start her son with us tomorrow. The second one was a totally different
story. She came in and wouldn’t sit down. She scooped up one of the day care
kids and wouldn’t put her down, kind of like she was using her for a shield or
something. I had put my dogs out before she entered the house because they
always get so excited when new people visit. So it is better to keep them
outside for a while and then bring them in after we are able to talk a bit. OK,
so I was showing the gal around the house and we looked out the deck door to
see the play yard. My dogs looked at her and went nuts, not in a good way
either and they never act that way. I could see the mean look on both of their
faces and then they both started scratching at the deck door glass. They were
hitting it so hard I thought they might break it. So, I figured, what the heck
let them come in and say hi.
Right from the get go the dogs kind of got one on each
side of her. She started putting her hand down to shoo them away. So, with that
I decided that they needed to go back outside again. I turned my back for a split
second and Moose jumped her scratching her calf. He has never done anything
like that before, so I got them out and scolded them soundly and tried to
apologize to the gal who was there for the interview. But as was with her the
whole time, I could not start any kind of conversation. I got my wife’s eye on
the side and said, NO. She knew what I meant. There was something very wrong
with this person. Now this is where the story gets wired.
The rest of the day seemed fine. We agreed that if for
some unknown reason she called us back we were going to tell her no, that we
could not take care of her child. The dogs acted kind of strange the rest of
the day, not misbehaving but just kind of clingy. Later we got them bedded down
for the night and then went to bed ourselves. After about a half hour we heard
this unearthly howl. My wife said, what was that? I said, I think it was Moose.
He had done that one time before after his first experience being boarded for a
couple of days. So, I got up with them, let them outside again, and then sat up
with them reading my book while they settled down again for the night. After
about an hour I turned in myself. I think I must have had the same bad dream
that Moose had and as I kicked at something in my sleep, I fell out of bed
landing on the floor and crashing into my night stand. At first I wondered if I
had broken anything on me, then wondered if I had broken anything on the night
stand. Neither was the case. I crawled to my feet and headed back out to the
living room, as my crash onto the floor had gotten the dogs up once again. I
figured that sleeping the rest of the night was out of the question. I sat
there and just talked to them, letting them know that everything was fine and
got them settled down again. Then I decided to try and sleep in my recliner as
it would be next to impossible to fall out of that, LOL. I have to say this…I
sensed an extremely evil presence there. Haven’t had anything like that happen
for a long, long time, but I did recognize it nonetheless.
I was up by 6, before daylight to work on getting the
trash out. I was sincerely hoping that, that whole scene was behind me and I
believe it was. After that I dug out my new dogs (shoes), and took them for a
test run. The top of my right foot hurt some going down the first hill, so I
had to stop and adjust them. After that the run went fine. On the way back I
saw a gal with three kids and a dog in tow, out for a walk. She had three boys,
the youngest in a stroller, and the other two I would guess were 5 and 6 years
old. The dog was a fawn boxer with a lot of the same markings that Moose has.
The kids started to wave first, so I stopped and told the gal that I had a
boxer at home who looked a lot like hers. She said that her boxer was 14 and I
said mine was 4. I walked up and stroked her neck and told her she was a good
girl, the dog, not the gal, LOL, what were you thinking? Haha. We chatted about
kids and dogs for a while and then I had to go finish my run.
I was determined to stay ahead of the county street
sweeper that was making its way slowly down the road. I managed to stay ahead
till just before my road and then it passed me. It had the big sweeper on it
but he was not sweeping, just driving the road, our tax dollars hard at work!
And in case you were wondering, yes, I took both dogs out
for a walk a few hours later. If all goes well training for me now, my next
opportunity for a race will be this Saturday in
Keep on running,
Ken
Shoe sale, Aug. 2009.
Some of you have not read about these but I always find
them to be a great time. I get to be right down in the trenches selling shoes
on the street. This is part of sidewalk days and also, Friday Night Live, where
they have entertainment and lots of things out in the street that people can
brows. Other year it has been held at the same time as the Film Festival which
drew massive crowds. This year, however, the Film Festival was the previous
week so the crowds were down.
I arrived for my 2-8 shift and quickly found myself in my
old familiar spot inside the booth that features women’s shoes. The first thing
I noted was that there were not as many shoes for sale as in other years. On
the men’s side there was ample but not so on the women’s side. These shoes
which are returns, and old model shoes were first offered at the
It was pretty slow at first. How slow was it? Well, right
behind us and off to the side a bit was a bearded barefoot guy sitting on the
sidewalk playing his mandolin and of course he had a jar out for tips. When I
looked over that way I noticed that his jar was stuffed full of money. I
wondered if he was making more then we were, LOL?
It did pick up later but the sales were a bit harder this
year. So, we just made one sale at a time and kept at it. When I did a quick
calculation in my head, I found that I was doing all right in the sales
department. But shoppers are a funny lot. Men shoppers wade in, sit down, and
try on several pair of shoes and find what they like and buy it. Women shoppers
are a whole different breed, LOL, but of course, dah! They like to walk up and
touch the merchandise first, then pick it up and look at it. At this point I am
telling them that it matches their outfit. Then maybe they might try it on if
it looks good and then buy it. They aren’t all like that, some of them shop
like the men, but they would be the ones who are committed to workouts and
such.
So, part of the sales strategy was to make eye contact,
flirt with the gals, young and old alike. Then offer suggestions and get them
to try a pair on. Most who try a pair on would buy a pair of shoes.
The atmosphere was pretty good, especially when the band
started to play. They did a great variety of music and everyone seemed to enjoy
it. This brought many shoppers down closer to our booths so that all by itself
helped sales. Then when the band was playing sometimes, you could not hear a
thing so communication was more by hand signals, haha.
In retrospect I do believe that this was a successful
street sale for the store. I think the numbers were down a bit, but all in all
we did well. And the best part, I earned most of the next pair of shoes that I
will buy.
Keep on running,
Ken
July 2009
Today I had the privilege of running in the 5K event
during the National Cherry Festival of races. I ran in the 5K, however, others
ran in the 15K. It rained the night before. I was up around 2am shutting
windows and things, then up to stay around 4:30. It kind of always bugs me when
I know I had time to sleep a little longer and could not.
I got over to the race area early so I could get my
choice parking place and have my choice of porta johns, LOL, only a runner
would get excited about that. It was warm and humid for the start of the race.
The temp was in the mid 60s with humidity around 90%. I did two rotations to
warm up, that meaning run 4 minutes and walk one. That was plenty as the sweat
was pouring off from me by then.
I read that there were upwards from 2500 there for the
two races. We were lined up quite a way back so I can believe it. I had checked
the start line earlier and there were lots of puddles there from the rain the
night before. So, I knew not to line up to go through them. Some others were
not so fortunate. It can be kind of awful to run an entire race with wet shoes
and socks.
Everyone cheered, a motorcycle started up, and we all
surged forward. Then just as fast as we surged forward we all stopped. There
was a guy beside me fidgeting with his ipod and some other gadget. I made sure
I was going past him instead of going behind him. OK, we finally walked across
the starting line and the chip mats. Chirp, chirp, and we were on our way.
About all the preparation I did for this race was a few
walks with the dogs, and two weeks of resting my legs from working on the
cement floor, which thankfully is in my past. I know I will be a better runner
for it too. Our event wound its way through the NMC campus, then across the
main street and into the
I remembered how I had unmercifully criticized the race
people last year because there was no hill in this race so it lacked challenge.
Well, they ran us up and over the hills on the hilly end of the
Somewhere in the middle of all this was the hot dog lady.
She was all dressed up in a wiener costume. I teased her about it and so did
many others. Finally she started going a bit faster and I could tell that the
heat from the costume was getting to her somewhat. I never saw her again after
that so either she ran really fast, took the costume off, or was totally
consumed by the race, LOL.
My first split was 13.06, so I was going a little faster
then I had planned. No wonder I was having a hard time catching my breath. The
really new thing about this race was the fact that it ended this year on
We had one more water stop which I thought was
ridiculously close to the finish line, but I was glad to stop and take a drink
of water. It was just past there that we had the three mile mark. Only one
tenth of a mile to go and I was beat. I turned my cap around backwards and had
a quick conversation with my self and started to run hard for the finish line.
As I passed this one gal I heard someone from the sidelines yell to her, �Don�t
let that guy beat you!� I looked to the right and could see her shadow and she
was picking it up to give me a run for it. I really didn�t want to sprint
coming down the last stretch but I did open up my stride and picked up my pace
considerably, thinking to myself, �Not today baby. No way are you beating me to
the finish line.� I also managed to pass another person in my pursuit of the
finish line. If they called my name upon finishing I did not hear them. My time
was slightly faster then my last 5K, finishing in 43:44.
I got some water, a banana, a couple of oatmeal cookies,
and a diet Pepsi and headed back up the course to watch the 15K runners come
in. I saw two elite runners come through, and then headed to the spot where the
runners come out of the tunnel and turn and go out onto
It was interesting, the very fast runner were all clad in
nothing but shorts, no shirts. Many of them had cyclists riding along with
them. I thought that was against the rules, but guess that only applies to
normal runners, LOL. Then the rank and file runners came by and most of them
had shirts on. They were by no means slow. There were indeed ahead of the
majority of the pack of racers. I watched a little longer and saw my son coming
up the path. I slapped 5 with him and cheered him on. Then I cut across the lot
and picked him up to run with him on Front St. At that point I think he was
doing an 8 minute mile. So, I stepped in next to him and said I would run with
him for a short distance, knowing I can keep that pace for a short while. It
was funny, as we ran together there were people cheering for him, then I heard
someone say, who is that old guy running with him. We all had the same kind of
numbers on so there would be no way for a spectator to tell the difference between
a 5K runner and a 15K runner. It was just hilarious and I had to laugh about
it. Soon, I turned him lose so I could catch my breath and he could accelerate
to the finish. This was a real highlight of my race.
Then I walked the couple of miles back to the college. I
stayed on the south side of the road as all the runners were on the north side
and I didn�t want to get in anybodies way. One guy teased me, saying, the
finish is the other way. I said, I know, I have already finished and am walking
back to my car. He just kind of looked at me, like, is he kidding?
It was a nice way to unwind walking back and refreshing
too. By refreshing I mean there was a lot of traffic, and instead of people
putting their windows down to shout profanities at the runners, they were
honking and cheering for them. Now that how it should be all the time, don�t
you agree?
Keep on running,
Ken
June 2009
There is an old saying that goes
something like this: Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.
This run was definitely one of those times that I ate the bear.
It was late Sunday afternoon, not too
hot and a bit windy. It seemed like a great time to go for a training run and I
really wanted to do 4 miles. I had just finished watching track and field on TV
and after seeing Nick Simmons show some real guts as a runner by winning the
800, I just had to go out and run.
The problem is this, I am a diabetic.
I have had a couple of times this past week where I did not check my blood sugar
and tried to exercise. It was way too low and it turned out to be a lousy
workout. So, I checked it this time and it was too high for exercise according
to my doctor. Dang, I didn�t want to just sit around so I began to ask myself
some questions. Question #1 am I a diabetic first and a runner second? Question
#2 am I a runner who happens to be a diabetic? I chose door number 2 and decided
to just run carefully doing my 4:1.
I made myself stretch first and I
believe that helped me. I began to run and felt really good. I made myself walk
after 4 minutes. It is at this point that I have two large hills to climb. I
welcomed that one minute walk to catch my breath and check my pulse rate. What
made it harder was that the wind was blowing very hard and I was running right
into it. I was having trouble keeping my hat on,
LOL.
By the 4th rotation I
didn�t feel like I needed to walk anymore but I still did. I looked at my watch
and said, What? Is it time to walk all
ready?
Before the turn around my left hip
started to hurt a little but I felt that I could run through it. Once I hit the
turn around spot I forgot all about it. While cutting through the subdivision we
call bird land I saw a dog house for sale for $40, note to self, my daughter is
looking for a good dog house.
Coming back the wind was playing
tricks on me sometimes it was blowing at my back side and then it would get
really still. During one of those windy segments I made another note to self,
don�t fart into the wind. It will catch up to you really fast, LMAO. When the
wind would stop the deer flies thought it was open season on me. I had to keep
running and use both hands to fend them
off.
As I started down the two hills
coming close to home the wind totally stopped and the flies swarmed after me. I
didn�t think I could out run them but I sure as hell tired, LOL. I really had to
catch my breath at the bottom of the hill but the flies went away.
Then as I climbed the last hill to my
house the sky opened up and it started to pour. What a way to cool down, LOL. It
felt great. I ran a negative split coming back by 3 minutes. Now I need to
register for the 5K for the Cherry
Festival.
Keep on
running,
Ken
Tales from the Hardware Store, June
2009, final edition.
This will be the final edition of
Tales from the Hardware store. I know some of you will up happy to hear this,
LOL, while I know at least some of you will miss them. The good news is that I
will still continue to write tales about other things, just not the hardware
store. Why, you might ask? The hardware store and I parted company earlier this
week. It was a stupid incident which I won�t go into here, but indeed my 8 year
career in hardware has come to an end.
No longer will I be helping people
pick out just the right fertilizer, or tell them how to start a beautiful lawn.
No longer will I be advising people how to rid themselves of bugs and rodents.
No longer will I help people pick out the right power tools. No longer will I be
cutting and threading pipe or helping people solve their plumbing problems. No
longer will I be cutting keys or helping people with weather related problems.
No longer will I help people find the right motor oil for their car or lawn
mower. No longer will I be mixing and matching paint or greeting customers with
a ready smile and a willingness to help them solve their problem of find what
they need, be it metric or SAE.
So, what am I doing now? Well, first
of all I caught up on my sleep. Then I managed to get caught up with and in my
reading. Soon I will be out running every day. Also I might once again devote
some time to my music.
Life is good and always full of
challenges. This will be one more chapter in my life and I am really looking
forward to it. Feel free to email me direct if you have any questions or for no
other reason then to let me know you will miss some of those tall tales.
al
fine
Keep on
running,
Ken
May 2009
Maybe you are wondering what is new in the hardware store
in the month of May. Just the fact that it is May means for us busy, busy,
busy. The snow left and the lawn and gardening season began with a bang. I have
been so busy just trying to keep up that I injured my right shoulder. It is
improving and I am taking some necessary steps to get it healed up, but the
work goes on.
We survived Cinco de Mayo. On that particular day we had
a customer absent mindedly leave his unemployment check on our counter. Then we
had another person leave their cell phone, and a third leave their wallet. All
three, however, were returned to their rightful owners by the end of the day. I
wonder if some of them were celebrating a bit early, LOL?
There is also another tradition in May where the girls
all go �a Maying.� They all seem to want to hit on the guys. And where better
to find guys then in a helpful hardware store. I had one gal tell me that she
met her husband in a hardware store. Anyway there seemed to be a lot of older
women, by older I mean, not ready for retirement, but a bit older then middle
age. Anyway there seemed to be an abundance of them who more then anything just
wanted to hang around and talk. My wife says they are just lonely and she is
probably right.
So, the biggest event in May should be the Memorial Day
sale. We had one and were very busy but for us, this was overshadowed by our
hardware store garage sale the following weekend. We went through and pulled
many items from each department that had not been selling and marked it down
50% for the sale. I kept telling everyone that this would be the mother of all
garage sales with everything hardware that they could imagine.
We ran this sale for three days out on the front sidewalk
with some pop up tent canopies set up in case of rain. Thursday was the first
day and it rained lightly on and off all day long. This was also the day the
supermarket next door had their annual parking lot plant sale. I arrived at
6:30am and they were already in full swing. We got set up and ready for
business in about an hour. I ran the sale for the day on Thursday and it was
kind of slow starting but once it got rolling we were swamped. No one haggled
over prices; they just grabbed their treasures and headed inside to pay for them.
Early on it was mostly women shopping and they picked through and bought mostly
household goods, but they must have told their husbands because the next wave
was the guys. Many of them were looking for tools and we had tons of them for
sale. It kind of tickled me to see them, digging through totes up to their
elbows to see everything that we had. Then of course we had some modern guys
who after looking at everything got on their cell phones to ask permission from
their spouses to buy stuff. And then we had one dear old lady who wasn�t sure
where she was. She wanted to know if she should make her check out to the
supermarket. I told her that we were not the supermarket but the hardware store
next to the supermarket. It took a minute for it all to sink in but she finally
wandered inside, check book in hand to pay for her goods. Me thinks she may
have had a nip of gin for lunch, LOL.
On Friday I was off but it was still a busy day. The
store took an additional mark down on many products. We also had the Blood
Mobile set up in front of our store so that was an added draw for us.
Saturday, the final day of our great sale, I arrived at
noon, my normal Saturday starting time. We were so busy inside and outside of
the store, that my feet had to hit the floor running. It was non stop for at
least two hours when finally I had to sit down for a cookie break, LOL. To go
with the Saturday sale, we had the Boy Scouts there to help out. We set up a
grill and purchased hot dogs and such. They were selling lunch for a donation.
They have been raising funds for Hess, who is part of the K9 unit of our local
sheriff�s department. They are purchasing a vest for her which costs around
$800. I also had two of my granddaughters, Sarah and Adelia, there to help out
for a few hours, so we had all hands on deck. Right in the middle of things we
heard a large bang! Yup, it was thunder. Shortly after that a quick but severe
thunder storm rolled through. Most everyone weathered the storm. We already had
out stuff under canopies, but the Boy Scouts had to quickly erect theirs to
keep everything dry. The Sheriff�s department also brought Hess buy for a short
while which was kind of nice, kind of a short meet and greet time.
At the end we tore everything down and moved what was
left inside. Most of the good stuff was gone, but we took another markdown on
the rest and hopefully will sell off more of it today.
Keep on running,
Ken
As a writer many things run through my head. Sometimes I
think my brain is running in several different directions, but somehow when I
write it all somehow seems to come together.
I think I will use this forum to send out the latest
information I have on Scott, the runner who was recently hit by a truck. He is
home but doctor ordered complete bed rest except for bathroom trips. He had a
cat scan and that came back negative. By now he has had an MRI but I do not
know the results of that as yet. I do know that he is quite bruised and blood
pooling is of concern to the doctors at this point. He still feels that he can
run the Bayshore Marathon which is a scant 6 weeks away. Now you and I know
that after getting hit by a truck that isn’t going to happen, at least not this
year. More information just in:
Scott got his MRI results today and he has no ligament or
tendon damage!!! He does however, have bruised bones so they want him to
minimize any pressure on his leg for two more weeks but at least he can use the
pool and do some upper body work.
So, here is my thought on the subject. Since I can run
and he can’t, I am running this year simply “for Scott.” No, I don’t think I
will be able to run the marathon this year or maybe not even a half marathon,
but whatever this 61 year old, fat, our of shape body can do, I will do it, One
run at a time, one race at a time “for Scott” until he is able to run again.
OK, now for the hardware news, glad you asked, LOL. We
are in the mid spring swing right now. Rakes, shovels, and potting soils are
flying out the doors. Much of my work day involves loading and unloading
fertilizers as well. It comes in on a truck and I unload it, then I stock it,
then I load it up for the customers and unload it again in their car or truck.
So that means every 50+ pound bag is handled 4 times. Gladly I don’t have to
move it all myself, but I do have to do a lot of the lifting and by the end of
a busy day; I am normally one whipped puppy.
We have had some unusual things happen. I had a “job
beggar” come into the store. I was helping someone in plumbing when I got a
call on the radio that someone wanted to talk to the manager. This normally
means one of two things, someone had a serious gripe or they are a salesman of
some short. I finished with my customer and she was waiting for me at the end
of the aisle. She was young, maybe early 20s at most with shoulder length black
hair. I went up to her and asked if I could be of assistance. She asked if we
could talk in my office and I said that we could and went there as she
followed. By this time I was getting an uneasy feeling about the situation. I
led her into the office and purposely left the door open. She then closed the
door and asked if she could sit down. Now I was really ill at ease. She then
proceeded to tell me that she had just been fired from McDonald’s for theft and
that she had never stolen anything in her life. She mumbled something about a
child and wanting to go to Harvard and that she needed a job really bad. I
guess she was pulling out all the stops. I told her that we did not have any
opening at this time, but suggested that she try the mall. She then told me
that she didn’t have a car but that she had been everywhere in the Chums Corner
area. I then asked her if she had been to the coffee shop, to which she
replied, what coffee shop. I told her that it was the one across the street
next to Walgreen’s. I then got interrupted and had to excuse myself and go out
and help with a situation at the register. As I turned around I saw her kind of
slither out the door. Yes, I agree, very strange.
On a regular basis, I get asked for some strange things.
Sometimes I don’t know what they are talking about because either I just don’t
know or they are using a name for it that they just made up. Well this one was
really odd, they asked for a pea inoculant. Now I know what an inoculation is
and I know what peas are, but I didn’t know that those two things ever went
together. Now maybe some of you who have more expertise in that area can shed
some light on it. I always try to draw a customer out so they can explain about
what they are really trying to accomplish but they didn’t want to talk about
it, they just wanted what they asked for so I had to tell them we don’t carry
that and referred them to a feed store in the area.
Lastly, a lady was in the store and was asking another
associate about some hooks to hang something up. At the time I did not know
what it was for, then in a voice that would make Angela Lansbury (Bedknobs and
broomsticks) proud; she cackled “I’ll go get my broom!” She followed this up
with a well practiced witch’s laugh. When she returned with her broom, again a
witches’ classic, I asked if that thing could fly, and then told he in a joking
tone, “I heard that laugh!” She said, “Well, we’re gonna find out.” By this time
I was nearly rolling on the floor with laughter. I went back to what I was
doing at the front of the store when she came up to the front of the store with
her friend and started looking through our Webkinz stuff for a
Keep on running,
Ken
Protect yourself at all times, 4-9-09.
I am so glad that spring has sprung here in northern
Anyway two weeks ago I went out with the intensions of
running 3 miles on the outdoor track. Well, I found out quickly that my lungs
were not in good shape. I got in one mile and I was huffing and puffing so I
had to walk the second mile and my back hurt the entire time. So, after that I
got some good therapy on my back.
This Thursday I had the same thing in mind and it was a
different story. I did the three miles. I did the run walk thing and found out
I was still going just as fast as if I had run the entire way. I find that during
the run segments I run much faster knowing that I can walk and catch my breath.
I had a few doubts at the finish of the first mile, but I stayed at it and got
in the entire three miles. So, that's a start. I still have a long way to go. I
plan on running and racing myself into shape.
After I finished my run, I went in for some great massage
therapy. That is where I heard some really disturbing news. My therapist had
been out running with a friend who is in training for the marathon. Well, they
were on their way back, running against traffic, and it was getting dark out.
It is a busy 4 lane road but it has wide sandy shoulders and they were running
well off the road. She was in front and he was behind when all of a sudden he
got hit by a truck.
The collision was forceful enough that it actually took
some parts off the truck. And the driver did not stop. You can imagine the near
panic that ensued after. They finally got 911 called and an ambulance arrived.
According to the last report, he came away with some bumps and bruises and a
cracked rib. While still on some good pain meds, he said that he thought he
might still be able to run that marathon, LOL, only a runner would say or think
that, for sure. This was a very traumatic situation.
This leads me to my point. As runners or as non runners,
we have all had our close calls. So, when you lace up your sneakers and head
out for a nice friendly run, you might want to think of it as a prize fight.
When the two fighters face each other in the middle of the ring and the ref
gives the instructions, and they touch gloves, the very last thing he says to
them is, protect yourself at all times. This could have been a very tragic
situation, but as far as I can tell for now, it will go down as a tough lesson
in what can and does happen out there from time to time. And yes, I think and
hope the police catch that SOB.
Keep on running,
Ken
March 2009
I hope where you life it is spring time. The calendar
says it is but our weather has gone back and forth. One day it is nice and the
next it is cold, windy, and.nope not going to use the s word, even though
they say we are going to get several inches of it again this weekend.
I guess I am somewhat of a celebrity, NOT. But I was quoted again in our Traverse City Record-Eagle. They did a phone interview with me for an article called Signs of spring emerging, which they published in the paper on March 20th. My part was the last three paragraphs of the article which are as follows:
"Nobody's buying snow shovels, even though they are
discounted," said Ken Siderman, assistant manager at the Ace Hardware store
near Chum's Corner.
Customers are picking up vegetable and flower seeds,
potting soils, garden tools and rakes, he said.
"We haven't sold much fertilizer. It's a little early for
that yet. We are getting a lot of browsers and people waiting for the weather
to break," Siderman said. "Once it breaks, it will go fast. We are all stocked
up and ready to go."
Yes, spring is in the air, at least somewhere, LOL. We
will struggle to reach 40 today. But even though we are in transition some
customers still are not happy. One customer threw a file on the counter that he
was purchasing saying that the price was ridiculous. While looking him straight
in the eyes I said in a very quite voice, "I don't set the prices." Another guy
was just furious because he was waiting to get checked out while I was giving
some directions to another customer. Again, with the same approach, I looked
him square in the face and said in a quite but firm voice, "You need to be more
patient." I find it rarely helps to raise my voice to match theirs, so the
quiet reaction (at least on the outside) seems to work the best.
OK, are any of you out there "red necks" and proud of it?
Here is one for the books. You have all heard the Foxworthy joke that goes
something like this, "If you have your dog and your wallet both on a chain, you
might be a red neck." Well, this guy went one step further; he bought a chain
saw chain to go from his belt loop holder to his wallet. He said it would come
in handy if he wanted to cut some branches off a tree. He also said it would
work well around someone's throat, and I just let that one pass as he went out
the door.
Sometimes, however, situations with fellow associates are
the most funny. One of our guys was just getting over a bout of bronchitis and
had been working on the register. He said he was feeling kind of crappy and
wanted to get out on the floor to be a bit more physical. He said he figured
that would help him feel better. And having just gotten over bronchitis myself,
I knew what he meant. So, I put someone else on the register. In the mean time
a truck came to deliver a load of fertilizer. I went to the back to help unload
and he told me that he had it, so I said all right and went back to my project
in the other part of the store. Well, after unloading it onto a 6 wheel cart
two of them, one pulling and he on the back pushing brought it up to the front
of the store so I could stock it. Someone said on the radio that he was having
a sugar low (three of us are diabetic), so I joking said on the radio, "just
give him a Kit Kat and a cup of coffee and he will be fine." They the gal on
the radio said that he was on the floor. YIKES! That got my attention, so I
hurried over to where they were and by that time he was up. It was kind of a
combination sugar low and after having bronchitis he wasn't getting enough
oxygen for the amount of exertion. If you are a runner, that is also called "oxygen debt" and I also know what that is like. So, the upshot of this story
is, he went to the back room to have..a cup of coffee and a Kit Kat bar.
He came in a week later with his arm in a sling. He
jokingly said that his wife pulled it out of its socket and beat him with it,
LOL. The truth was that he tore something in his shoulder at home and the
doctor told him to immobilize it for a week.
There is always something to smile about at work if you
just look for the humor in it. Last Halloween we had some stuffed rats in
various poses for sale. They looked pretty life like even though few bought
them. We have had lots of fun with these little critters. You never quite know
where one might be hiding, hehe. Well, one of our customers asked about them so
we dug them out of storage but then she wouldn't buy it because it looked too
real. So, now they are all on the shelf above my rat and mouse poison. And when
you look up at them it really looks like they are having a great time just
yucking it up. Why are they laughing, well we had a lady come in and after seeing
one mouse in her garage, she bought $50 worth of traps and poison to get that
one little rodent.
Keep on running,
Ken
Feb. 2009
Here it is the end of February and I realized that I have not written
anything for this month yet. I caught some kind of virus and it really took me out
of my routine for a couple of weeks. But thanks to modern medicine, I am well
once again.
We are into the full swing of things at the store and getting everything
ready for spring. I set up the entire lawn and garden department as our goal was
to have this all done by the first of March. So, it looks like I made it
with a couple of days to spare.
Just a couple of storms ago we got a huge winter thaw. At the sides of the
parking lot we have snow piled up from the plowing of the lot. These snow
piles are 15 to 20 feet tall and you know what happens when you have a rapid
thaw, yup, instant flood. The water had filled the front of our parking lot, so
we had to get out into the water to locate the storm drain and clear it from
junk. It still took it quite a while to catch up. Fortunately for us it did
not go over the curb and into the store itself, but our poor customers had to
wade through the water to get in. Yes, and we heard about it several times
from them but there was nothing we could do.
So, what has been happening with our customers? I had a guy come in one
night and wanted spider spray. Now that is not an unusual request, but then he
began to tell me about spiders crawling on him at night. He also told me that
he doesn't have any nose hairs left and spider mites get in there. YUCK! That
was more information then I really needed.
Then during the day we had a lady that had come into the store to pick up a
few things. When I came back into the building after my lunch, I saw her van
with the inscription on the side, Furry Godmother, pet sitting. I talked
to her in the store and said that her saying was certainly unique.
Now, every store has at least one of these customers, in our case more then
one, LOL. I am talking about really obnoxious people. Well, this one
particular guy is always loud and smelly. He races dirt bikes and snowmobiles, noting
wrong with that, but he thinks the entire world rotates around him. Most of
the time when he hits the door, our associates quickly go the other
direction. Well, this particular night I was caught in the line of fire. There was no
way I could avoid him and he always has some kind of story to tell. This time
it was about one of his neighborhood kids who had bugged him about shoveling
the snow out of his driveway for $10. He always told the kid no. Well, this
last time it had just thawed and there was no snow in the driveway, but the
kid came around anyway. Our customer (we will call him John) told the kid that
if he wanted to earn $10 he could clean up all the dog crap out of John’s
front lawn. The kid did it and filled two full garbage bags up with it. Well,
John came in bragging about it and said to me, "Does that make me lazy?" I
laughed and said nope, that makes you smart, ROFL. I think that is the first
time in his entire life that anyone has called him smart. I told him that he got
a great deal because I would have paid twice that much.
We often do special things for our customers like fixing things for them for
free. We had a guy come in with a broken snow shoe. Since I snow shoe
myself, I jumped at the opportunity to help him. All he really needed to get was
less then $1 worth of hardware, but we got it for him and repaired it on the
spot. He sure didn't expect that kind of service.
Then the other night we had a young couple into the store with a broken
toilet. Steve, one of our associates, got them. He got the right stuff for them
to do the job and then tried his best to explain to them how to do the job.
The last thing he said to them was that if they couldn't fix it to call him and
he would come over and help. I heard him say that and kind of cringed,
because you just know that they were going to call. Well, sure enough they called
the store later that night. Steve had gone home for the night. So, I took
their number and called Steve and he then called them back. I knew Steve was
tired and just wanted to relax, what I didn't know was that he and his wife were
headed out for the evening to go to dinner. But true to his word and against
his wife's wishes, on their way out he stopped by their house and within 15
minutes he had the job done, no charge.
I guess that is one of the things that make our store different; we really
try to help people as much as we can. And lastly, here is a story about
Valentine's Day. We had a lot of single flower vases that had been left over from
some other promotion, so we bought a bunch of long stemmed red roses with some
extra greenery and put a single rose into each vase. Our intent was to sell
them for $5 each during the day. It became evident that these were just not
going to sell. So, we decided to give them away to the ladies who came into
our store. So, during the day most of them had been given away. It was getting
close to closing time and we still had 4 left. Our associate, William, was on
the register and he was a little shy about giving them away. Anyway I was
talking with this one guy who was in the store with his son and he said that he
was just kind of killing time while his wife and daughter shopped in the
grocery store next door. I asked him if he would like to take a free rose for
each of them and he smiled and said yes.
That left two. I put them both on the counter so William could easily give them away.
At about 15 minutes before closing time two women came into the store.
They were looking at this special section we have set up with some green technology
things. I told William that when they checked out to make sure that he gave one to
each of them.
Since I told him to, he couldn't avoid doing it. I just stood back and watched as
the event unfolded. He smiled and put a rose before each of them and said,
these are for you, with a slight blush. Then one of the gals nearly broke down
in tears. She said that this had made her day. I guess lots of things had
gone wrong and this simple act of kindness had really helped her. WOW! We didn't
expect that! And William was just thrilled that he had had a part in that.
So, March will soon be here, and with it, dare I say SPRING? I am so sick of
this snow and cold weather. I want to put my running shoes on and get out on
dry slush free roads. I want to begin selling top soil and fertilizer. I
want to not have to warm up my car and get the ice and snow off from it.
Hopefully, soon Spring will be in the air when girls' thoughts turn to handsome
hunky guys, and guys' thoughts turn to worms, grasshoppers, and tractors.
Keep on running,
Ken
Featured Products
HHS Torch Yearbooks - assorted copies (new) QUANTITIES ARE LIMITEDUpcoming Events
Recent Forum Posts
Recent Photos
