Seek The Substantial

Running Things

I ran a 50k with my brother in early October. This was not a race with bibs and a start and a stop, this was just he and I going for a run. We did the Snoqualmie Valley Trail, which was an old rail trail. We started at Rattlesnake Lake, where his wife dropped us off and then we dropped the car off at Carnation, where we knew we would have to do a bit of an out and back as to Carnation was only 21 or so miles. I finished 31.11 miles in 5:53:59. My goal has been to finish a 50k in under 6 hours and was happy to say that I can check that off of my list. We did stop our watches in order to filter water along the way, thankfully my brother brought a filter because we ran out of water sometime along the way. We were able to find a creek that ran close enough to the trail to fill up. It was definitely an adventure.

I also had the chance to go to Tucson for work and there was a 9-hole golf course around the Conquistador resort and that was pretty much perfect to run around. It was hilly and difficult and fun. I love running in new places.

With the year not quite finished I have run 1,653 miles and I think that I’ll break 1,700. Last year I ran 1,431 miles so I sort of kicked the shit out of 2024 and that was not my intent, but I did it anyway.

Books

I cleared a few books since we last checked in, but that was back in June. Here we go with the number of stars:

1. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman ****
2. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel ****
3. Orbital by Samantha Harvey **
4. The Magician King by Lev Grossman ***
5. North Woods by Daniel Mason ****
6. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride ****
7. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller ****

I’m currently working on Enemy of All Mankind by Steven Johnson and hope to finish it by the end of the year. That will give me 16 books for the year. That’s not a lot, but I have other things keeping me busy as well. I should also mention that I started Shantharam by Gregory David Roberts and about 50 pages in I was not enjoying myself. Remember to give yourself permission to not finish a book if you aren’t loving it.

My books of the year would be Beautyland, Anxious People, and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store with Beautyland being the best thing I read. North Woods would be right there in spot #4.

A/V

Fits and I saw Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts and Superman in the theater. We loved them. They are what movies are supposed to be.

In terms of shows, as of right now, the only shows that I watch, maybe once a week, is Slow Horses and Shrinking. They are both good shows, Slow Horses is probably the better of the two, but I’m not always in the mood for something heavy. I believe I’ve finished seasons 4 and 5.

Life

Me. I don’t know that life is that much different. I have absolutely continued to blog the shit out of Staking The Plains and it is still something that I love to do. Texas Tech is in the College Football Playoff and I can say that this is not something that I ever thought would happen in my lifetime. It’s a bit of a dream in a way.

Miranda. Miranda was offered and accepted the principal position at the elementary school where she was the assistant principal. The current principal is taking an admin position so she was offered the principal position. She’s amazing in so many ways and she never ceases to amaze what she’s able to do.

Fitsum. Sophomore year started for Fits and he had a singular goal of marching in the marching band this year. Hell or high water. Well, he was struggling and the band director contacted Miranda and I and he was about to lose his marching spot. That day I told him about my conversation with the band director and he was devastated, gut punched. I promised him that I would not let him fail and that we would do whatever it took to make sure he made it. That day we went up to the grid and marched while I held the phone to play music. Every free opportunity, we went and marched and we went from noticing his mistakes to noticing that he was absolutely kicking ass, his movements were sharp and he was on cue and he was great. Of all things, Kaufman ended up going to state in San Antonio and this was one of those moments where as a dad you make these promises not knowing if you’ll be able to keep them, but this was a success all the way around. Add in cross-country and honors classes and I think he will be glad to take a break.

Youssouf. The school year started great for Yo and maybe the 2nd or 3rd game of the year, he tore his hip labrum on a run where he was carrying a couple of kids and his femur came out of the joint. He had surgery to repair it within a week of his injury and we are about 3 months into a 6 or 7 month rehab process. This has been a tough lesson for him and the surgery has been something that he wasn’t ready for. The good news is that it has forced him to slow down a bit and he’s attacking the rehab with the intensity that I sort of expected with him. In a bit of different news, Yo was named one of the top 25 players in the Dallas area for the 2030 class. This comes with a few caveats in that some of the kids on that list are not actually 14 years old, a few of them are older and there are some players that are ahead of Yo who are simply not as good as him. I can say that objectively.