You’d never believe that I actually think about this blog at least 3 or 4 times a week. I load my daily run post under the Run Streak page (found above), but I never really get anything posted as an actual blog post. Frankly, it’s because most of my daily “blogging” occurs on Facebook and Twitter and I don’t think about putting it here. So, here’s a review of February 2023 to get us caught up and a hope to be more present here on the blog.
Linda and I attended a Wynona concert.
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Linda is seen here at a Town Hall, which she holds monthly with Senator Holscher and the other local State Representatives.
Enjoyed the Kansas City Brew Fest with friends at the Union Station.
I did some long training runs for my marathon training with my good friends Mark and Ron.
You’d never believe that I actually think about this blog at least 3 or 4 times a week. I load my daily run post under the Run Streak page (found above), but I never really get anything posted as an actual blog post. Frankly, it’s because most of my daily “blogging” occurs on Facebook and Twitter and I don’t think about putting it here. So, here’s a review of January 2023 to get us caught up and a hope to be more present here on the blog.
Linda and I attended the Inauguration and Ball for Governor Laura Kelly. We had a great time celebrating with friends.
We attended a KSU basketball game in Manhattan – and we won.
It’s been over 18 months since I last posted an update here on the blog, but I have been posting my daily Run Streak run in the list at the top of the page. I’ve thought a lot about posting things, but every time I think about posting something, then I think I should’ve posted about something else that occurred earlier. So, I might as well jump in now and post about my recent accomplishment – hitting my Gump Day in my Run Streak. That is – 3 years, 2 months, and 14 days. This is the time that Forrest Gump ran in the movie before he decided to stop. I won’t be stopping, but it’s fun to reach my 1170th day of running at least a mile or more (almost always at least 2 miles).
I recently became a member of a Facebook group of international runners doing the Run Streak. A few people were posting about their Gump Day and I was intrigued. I decided to jump in wholeheartedly and run in costume as Forrest Gump.
My daily runs are usually along the quieter backstreets of my neighborhood, but I decided to get out on the main road for this run so that I could share the joy with every car that drove by. I ran for 3 miles out on the 4-lane road near my house – and got quite a number of honks and “Run Forrest Run” cheers. I even had some snapping pictures of me as they passed by. It was a lot of fun.
It’s shameful that I’ve not contributed to this blog since the “Happy 4th of July” post, merely sharing a picture of a beer (albeit, a great beer to be enjoyed by 07.04.21). So, in an effort to catch things up, I’m going to try to give a brief run-through of events from this year.
June 2021
I didn’t post about our first big “post-pandemic” vacation that occurred in June 2021. The four of us travelled to Phoenix, AZ and visited the surrounding area, including Sedona. We rented a house in Surprise (not far from the Royals spring training camp). We visited the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin West house.
We drove up to Sedona and did some hiking…
One of the most fun things we did was a kayak trip
July 2021
In July, Linda and I travelled to Seattle and Portland. I’d never visited the Northwest and it seemed like a perfect time to escape the heat of the midwest and enjoy some cooler weather. Seattle and Portland did not disappoint.
We visited the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. It was absolutely amazing. The blown glass sculptures were breathtakingly beautiful.
While in Portland, we met up with old friend from medical school, Robyn, and her husband Jonathan. Robyn is a family medicine physician in Portland; it was so good to see them again.
We also visited the Japanese Garden in Washington Park; this included a wonderful view of Mt. Olympus.
We visited yet another Frank Lloyd Wright house. This was a smaller structure, but still had all of the hallmarks of FLW.
In the final days of July, our house was painted – and we LOVE it. It’s interesting how changing the color of a structure can update and enhance what had previously seemed just fine. Our has had been blue-gray with white trim for about 12 years; we decided to go to white with black trim – a bold move, for sure. We were worried that it might be too crazy, but we love it and the neighbors love it.
Old colorNew color
What is not seen in the above picture is the new roof that was also added – all black. The house looks very sharp with the white paint and black trim and black roof.
August 2021
Linda and I got to do something that we’ve always wished we could, but never got to do… attend a Garth Brooks concert. This concert occurred just as the pandemic was starting to pick back up, but because this was an outdoor concert at Arrowhead Stadium, we decided to attend fully masked and just enjoy ourselves. We most certainly enjoyed it as the performance was fantastic. Due to the worsening pandemic, almost all of the remaining Garth Brooks concerts were cancelled after this one, so we felt very fortunate to have been able to attend.
We visited Omaha for a weekend with some best friends. This was a weekend to visit breweries and some fun restaurants.
We also visited the Omaha Zoo.
A highlight of the trip to Omaha was meeting up with another medical school classmate, Neil, and his wife Elissa.
September 2021
Life seemed to start to return to a little bit of normalcy – we were able to go back to Manhattan to attend KSU football games. We still wore masks, but at least we were in the Bill Snyder Family Football Stadium once again.
At the end of September, I was fortunate to get my booster COVID vaccine. Working as an emergency physician in the ER over the previous 18 months had been very challenging, but having the vaccine made it less stressful. Getting the booster vaccine as the Delta variant was surging gave me a little more peace of mind.
October 2021
We got to see comedian Brent Turhune at the local Comedy Club. We laughed a lot!
The Kansas City Symphony Chorus had finally regrouped for the first time since March 2020 – and our first show was backing up Andrea Bocelli for his performance here in Kansas City. A truly amazing experience.
Finished October with a celebration of my birthday with great friends. To start the day, I ran 5.1 miles for my 51st birthday. Afterwards, best friends took me to a couple breweries on my birthday and returned me home to a surprise party that Emily had arranged. This gathering was one of my favorite of the year.
November 2021
I ran the Garmin Olathe Half Marathon, earning a PR of 2:09:08. I had planned to just enjoy the run and not worry about my finish time. In fact, I started with the 2hr30min pace group, but felt really good and continued to pick up the pace until I had joined the 2hr15min group. It felt great to challenge myself during the race when I hadn’t planned on any challenging at all.
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Linda, being a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, was invited by Kansas State University to join in their hospitality suite at a football game. Although we faithfully attend all home football games and enjoy our seats next to the student section, this was a nice treat to be up high on the other side of the stadium. We were given great food and drinks (and we won the game).
We joined Linda’s family in Myrtle Beach for Thanksgiving. We rented a 5-bedroom house right by the beach. There was beautiful weather and we got to run on the beach.
One of the fun moments of the trip was going to a 4D theatre and watching a Simpsons short movie. I smile and giggle just thinking about the experience – what a blast.
December 2021
Linda and I started off December by enjoying the Luminary Walk at the Overland Park Arboretum. This was a beautiful display of lights.
Anna joined the Kansas City Symphony Chorus this year and we got to do our first concerts together – Handel’s Messiah. It was awesome to be back in the Kauffman Performing Arts Center, singing with all of my friends.
Christmas time found us together with family again. Linda’s sister and her family joined us in Kansas. The weather was phenomenal and we got out and did some hiking on Christmas eve at the Shawnee Mission Park trails.
Christmas Day was a busy one – we travelled to Topeka to spend the first half of the day with Linda’s family and then travelled to Branson to see my family.
And…now it’s New Years Eve. The blog is mostly caught up, but there’s a whole lot more that could be said. Here’s my resolve to give more frequent updates on the blog. Happy New Year to all of you.
It’s been 401 days since we last saw each other (as we were ending our vacation in Cancun). It’s SO VERY GOOD to be with my parents in person. Thanks to vaccines.
Manhattan Social Club || Boulevard Brewing Company Imperial rye ale aged in rye whiskey barrels with cherry added 12.5% ABV, 9 IBU Boozy, rye, barrel-aged flavors; 4.5/5.0
