Monday Bacon: Literature

It is a sad fact that, in general, folks don’t read enough these days. I blame Obama. And Carter.

Anyway.

I’d like to highlight my most recent read. It was entertaining and thought provoking. It evokes emotion like nothing I’ve read in a long time. While tragic, it remained light hearted and you just never knew what the next page would bring. That, my friends, is a good book.

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Andy Riley’s, Dawn of the Bunny Suicides is one in line of many highlighting this oft tragic event. It is sure to make you think from now on, while managing daily menial tasks, how your actions are affecting suicidal bunnies. Example:

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The Ozman just took his drivers test last week. He was doing great, but then almost got t-boned in an intersection because he failed to look left. He had his step-mom’s car so he said they were playing down the actual incident a bit. Heh. Anyway. Because of that, he gets to try again this week. He’ll be fine. I’m going to make sure he looks out for suicidal bunnies in cones though before he goes. And cars in intersections. I’m helpful that way.

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I’m not very good at going to the movies. Usually I’ll just fall asleep and I don’t like to pay $10 to take a nap. Matt and I decided to hit a Tuesday cheap night where all movies are $5. Cool deal. We sat in the bistro lounge where, when you push a button, they bring you all the food and drinks you want. VERY cool deal. Our tab was $85. So that’s the last budget movie we’ve been to. Live and learn, folks. It’s part of life.

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We go through the limes here at tosabarbell. Tell ya what, we’ll never get the scurvy in this house! Well, unless we run out of gin and tonics or brandy mules. Then we’ve got bigger problems than scurvy. Last Friday was hot. SO hot. Like, 80 something. How people bitch about winter and like the 80’s I’ll never know. Matt was on the road last week and caught an earlier flight home. He rolled in, hot as fok, and announced he was making a brandy mule. I was all, “Nooooooo, we’re almost out of limes and I want a gin and tonic when I’m done training!!!” So he ran to the store and got limes. Crisis averted.

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The kids and I lived in a cozy little town called Hutchinson in Minnesota. Our house was right off the country highway JUST as you entered town from the north which meant we saw people getting pulled over all the time because they were still going 80 and the speed limit changed to 30 parallel to our street. The city decided to build roundabouts to try to limit crashes on heavy intersections AND slow down those entering town.

The caveat was that this was the route truckers/haulers would use, including those extra long carrying the bases for windmills. The first convoy that came through, post roundaboot, and tried to maneuver the narrow passage immediately got stuck. Uhhhh, fail. They tore up the roundabout; the grass on the roundabout, and stopped all traffic for about two hours until they could get help.

A week later? Same thing. The next convoy did the exact same thing. Now, I am no windmill carrying convoy expert but if I were, I’d call ahead and say something to the effect of, “hey guys, don’t go on that roundabout. It’s a trap.”  So after it happened the third time (yes, there was a 3rd time. Wonders never cease) the route changed to a much longer, but straight, one from the west AND was given a police escort in town. It was very dramatic. But I still think of it whenever I see a windmill. Now I’ll think of that and suicidal bunnies. Life is strange.

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Call me Ismael! or something like that. I dunno. I never read Moby Dick. You could almost ask yourself how the bunny stayed alive in the ocean, found tape and situated himself on the snout of a whale. Don’t do that, it ruins the funny.

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Yesterday we went and watched Sue Hallen and Ruth Welding throw at a Masters track & field meet here in the Milwaukee area. Well, kinda. They started at 9 and I didn’t get out of bed until around 8 or so. I had to cook my food for the day and I made such amazing coffee that I had to sit down and enjoy it. At 10, I told the hubs it was uppy uppy time and then HE sat down with a cup of amazing coffee and by 10:45 I’m crackin’ the whip to get movin. So we only saw their weight for distance event which was still awesome. We also went and got some post throws food and beverages and had the most awesomely horrendous service that  I was pretty sure we were being punked. (Example: at one point, she came and asked us if we were ready for the bill. Pretty normal, right? The problem was that our food wasn’t out yet and we hadn’t been sitting there too long. The list goes on, but that one was a first for me.)

Lastly, but shirley not least:

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Now, hopefully the bunnycidals that wish to go this way know to attach themselves to Cabers being thrown by folks with last names such as Wilson; Vincent (pick one, doesn’t matter), or Crowley (may also use Steingraeber, also doesn’t matter.) They’re wasting their time if they pick one of mine, I haven’t turned a Caber yet this year. That may be more sad than suicidal bunnies. It’s a toss up.

At the end of the day, the mission is clear. We need to read more. I’m going to go out and get another Riley book. He has one called, “great lies to tell small kids.” I already love it. Stay tuned for a review.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Benjamin Franklin

 

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Monday Bacon: From The Beginning

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When we had tosabarbell built up, I had very specific ideas on the energy I wanted. See, I had just spent two years in a gym where A. I loved it’s people; but B) I hated it’s energy. Oppressive. Aggressive. Mean. Abusive. I lost count of how many people, both regulars and visiting dignitaries, told me I needed to leave for my own good. They were right.

Anyway.

I wanted tosabarbell to be strong; you play here you work hard; understanding; stern yet calm; you learn; you apply; your coach is constantly learning; and it’s boundaries are firm but fair. Our walls were filled with plates and barbells and as I looked to fill it’s space without cluttering it up, I started looking for just the right picture. Oh sure, there are some very kick ass Arnold posters that you see here and there at true strength gyms. And they are awesome. There is a scene from Pumping Iron where he is posing in his last Mr. Olympia and looked at the camera with a smirk on his face. I love that look. I can’t find it in a poster though, only the one where his arms are spread as if he’s saying, “just look at all my glory.” That’s pretty cool. But, imo, a bit overdone in gyms. The smirk is gold, if I found that one I’d get it.

But then I came across this poster:

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Yup. That’s it. If you’ve seen any training videos out of tosabarbell, you’ve seen this poster. From the beginning, it’s been on the wall.

I grew up watching Muhammad Ali on the Wide World of Sports. His bantering with Howard Cosell is legendary and, I believe, some of the best television in the history of television. There were even some Saturday’s when my dad would have the luxury of an afternoon lounge and come watch with me. And this is where our parents can unintentionally impact our lives with one glib little statement. When Ali was on, touting himself as “the greatest”, Pastor John laughed and said something to the effect of ‘no one can call themselves the greatest, except for Muhammad Ali.’ 

BOOM! The respect my dad showed for Ali was impressive to me. Through hard work and a belief in oneself, you can achieve good things. Maybe even great things if you’re lucky enough.

That’s the energy I wanted, and still do, for tosabarbell. And I have it. Oh sure, there have been a few folks here and there where we’ve had to part ways for one reason or another. But at the end of the day, I protect the energy of my gym. If someone threatens that energy, they’re out. Sorry I’m not sorry. The people who train here are high in integrity and low in bullshit.

I believe I can honestly say that Muhammad Ali was one of my first sports role models. Now, I had absolutely no interest in boxing. Yes, it’s kick ass (boxer Scott LeDoux had a bar on the edge of Nordeast Minneapolis we would hit often. The upstairs was more ‘club’ but we’d head downstairs after grabbing a girly drink and listen to his stories. He was the shit and could portray boxing as a ballet mixed with a locker room brawl through his stories. I’m a lucky girl to be able to listen to them.) But I knew that the attitude and self worth that Ali gave himself was something to behold. Nothing I possessed until, probably, I hit 40 something.

And now he’s gone. Well, quite honestly, he’s been gone for a while for those of us not directly related. His lighting of the Olympic torch in Atlanta is embedded in many of us. The shaking; almost questioning look of the true G.O.A.T. It was heartbreaking for me to watch. But then I realized that it was actually a gift. Because we’re not always going to be who we are in our strongest moments and that’s okay. We’ll falter and if lucky enough, grow old. And right now, we don’t know what that will look like.

But those who love us will know. They’ll know what we “once were.” The attitude; the skill; the talent, and even the ego. They’ll remember. And maybe they’ll tuck a little bit of that attitude into their heart and let it come out in their own work. Because, I think, that’s what I do with those memories of Muhammad Ali looking straight into a camera telling the world that “…I’m in a world of my own.”

Ballsy. I like that. I’m confident you’re not surprised.

It’s not bragging if you can back it up.

Muhammad Ali

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Outrage

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I’m not talking about a zoo bound dead gorilla. Ever. JHMFC people, you are the media’s puppets.

That should outrage you. See, today everyone is outraged. I’ve seen the word on different social media posts no less than two dozen times. It’s only 11:00am and I slept in and the Americans are outraged. Not because our next President and leader of the free world will either be (imo) half of one of the most corrupt political couples in U.S. history (the Clinton’s make Francis and Claire look like Ricky and Lucy, srsly) or a bumbling, egomaniac that has the ego of Putin without the diabolical smarts. Either way?

Fucked. That’s outrageous. This is your country. What could Americans accomplish if their outrage was channeled towards making America better? We just won’t know, we’re too busy letting the media sway us onto benign topics and chewing on their bone for however many days they are told to keep us busy.

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Meet Za’layia Jenkins. She was 9. Sitting in her house watching television in Milwaukee when a shoot out opened outside her home. A shoot out. Not a cool, Kurt Russel’ish ‘AND HELLS COMING WITH ME’ shoot out but a real one. Where a little girl was shot and eventually died just because she was sitting in her house watching tv.

That, friends, should elicit outrage. That is outrageous. If each and every one of you fools who are ready to string up a mom for letting her kid out of her sight (like you NEVER have/did/would do) marched your asses over to North Milwaukee and were led by Sheriff Clark (we love him too) and said,

“No more. We are OUTRAGED that you are killing children in your own neighborhood. You’re DONE.” And that’s just north Milwaukee. Name any city and you’ll find that neighborhood where these outrageous things are happening every day.

Oh, and uhhhh, the elephant in the fucking room (I was going to say the ‘dead gorilla in the fucking room’…too soon?) is that pesky number of abortions in America since Roe v. Wade. Something along the lines of 59 million plus. Now, pro-life or pro-choice, don’t care. Really, I’ll respect your right to own a solid opinion on the matter. But your opinion doesn’t dismiss the fact that over 59 million babies have been aborted.

59 million babies. One gorilla.

Wow.

Living life through meme’s? Check.

Moral outrage on something that has no affect on you whatsoever? Check.

The media’s sheep? Check.

I find that outrageous. Absolutely outrageous. Today is a day to read a book. Or watch Soap Operas. Or mow my lawn by taking an eyebrow scissors and individually cutting each blade of grass at a time. But stay off social media (except to read this blog post of course). Because the amount of outrage makes me outraged. And I’m trying to be zen today. So piss off pretend gorilla lovers, you’ve done nothing in the way of furthering the species to date. Why start now?

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A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

Thomas Paine

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Things I’m Not…

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A few weeks ago, I mentioned who I am. A little earlier today, I started thinking about ‘who I’m not.’ (Yes, it’s a late post. I was going to write about this during the weekend but then Air Force One came on. Come on! Han Solo v. Dracula. Srsly.)

So, in order of no importance:

1) Blonde. I spent about 8 years using ‘Sun in’ to try to make my hair blonde. It never worked. I was a swimmer, so during summer season my hair would turn a silverish green when swimming outdoors, that’s as close to it as I came. I dunno why being blonde seemed cool, those Sun In girls just looked like they were having so much fun. But here I am, brunette as can be.

B. Long.

Look, tall or short, there are people who are long. That’s all I wanted to be. Long and lithe. Think Misty Copeland,

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who will always be long no matter how short she is. But no. Not me. I’ll always be short; a bit stocky; and the polar opposite of lithe (I don’t know what that word is, let me know if you think of it.)

III

Young

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…and this, friends, is probably the most challenging of all. I am not young. Oh sure, I mostly live in denial with my training and the way I walk through life but there are a few realities that I deal with.

A) I’m 49 and at 49 I am limited in how I can compete with those 20 years younger than me. I know I can make up some ground with hard work; an ability to catch on to things, and being coachable with advice from those who know what they’re talking about and are kind enough to share with me.

But,

B) I’m fighting time. That’s what this year and (if I’m lucky enough) next year is about. Competing at a high level into my 50’s. Quite honestly? I don’t know if I can. Even with being sick this past spring, I am blessed with good health and good strength. Can I keep that up? I don’t know. I’ll try. That’s all I can do. Try.

But it’s a bit daunting. Because at some point, I will become a true Master’s athlete. Still competing but not able to keep up at the pace I want to. I’m not taking anything away from Master’s athlete’s. Really, in some sports that clarification begins at 30. 30. Srsly. If I were 30 I’d have 20 years of kicking ass ahead of me and all the time in the world.

But I’m not long; lithe; young; blonde; as strong as I want to be; as explosive as I want to be; as ‘fit’ as I want to be, etc.

I’m just me. Short; chubby; old; stubborn; unreasonable at times; unable to deal with others stupidity most of the time, and not able to eat all the pizza I want to.

Will it stop be from wanting to be more? Nope.

Come on, you’ve met me. Right?

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing you are doing; knowing it is not enough; that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose. 

Margaret Thatcher

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