Chris's Musings

I'm flying home for Thanksgiving on Tuesday afternoon, and I am really looking forward to spending some time down in Houston (or "H-Town" as we native Houstonians call it).  I know from the outside looking in, this city is a huge flat sprawl of concrete and is hotter than Hades in August (it's true!  I don't complain about the summers in Atlanta), but I love this city. Now, I am looking forward to the challenge of trying to convince someone that this place, and the State it calls home, is actually a great place.  It really doesn't help that our beloved baseball team lost 106 games this year and is selling out to the AL, or that the Texans' season is once again at risk with Matt Leinart under center after Schaub got hurt and is out for the year.  But, here are some things I love about it... We have the best Mexican food on the planet! And yes, that includes Mexico :-).  And I know we have the infamous designation of being the "fattest city in Amer...

If you're in any way interested in sports, or follow the news, or know someone who does, you have probably heard Joe Paterno's name mentioned this week.  During our dinner club conversation last night, talk about "Joe Pa" got a lot of airtime...  But why? Is it because he's 84 and was still coaching a successful Division 1 football program? Is it because of his D-1 record 409 victories as a head coach? Is it because Penn State has a real opportunity to play in the first ever BIG (Big Ten) Championship this season? Um... not exactly. It is because, for several years, one of Joe Paterno's assistant coaches... ahem - his heir apparent at the time.... Did something SO horrible that I can't really mention it on this blog.  The thought of it disgusts me and makes me want to vomit. And yet several people around the Penn State football program knew this was going on, and apparently.... Nothing... really...  was done. Joe notified the Athletic Dir...

Anyone who knows me, or pays attention to my goings on, knows that this weekend was my second half marathon weekend.  Yes, I did the half insanity again, beat my first half marathon time by 16 minutes (easy to do if you had the foot issues I had last year :) ), and had an absolutely fantastic weekend touring Savannah, St. Simons Island, and lots of traffic jams.  I really felt truly blessed this weekend (maybe not for the traffic jams, but for everything else :) ). Thinking through the weekend, a couple of deja vu conversations got me thinking.  The first one was at the McDonald's in Dublin, GA.  I was ordering a snack wrap and a coffee drink, and this woman behind me in line strikes up a conversation like this...  "Are you running the full or the half?" This person happened to be traveling to her home in Savannah and knew about the race (it was a pretty big deal for Savannah), and her husband had just completed the Marine Corps Marathon the week before and ...