The family in this shot above, complete with L as apparition in the background, dancing to something while her brother snoozes on mom and #3 tucked nicely into E’s bahiga. These are the moments you thank your blessings and take a snapshot in hopes that many years down the road, you remember how special this time was for the purity of the moment itself and in context of your babies as they age.
On to what I’ve read, which is actually quite a lot since I last posted on the topic. I’m likely going to end up shelving a lot of the articles I saved the last 5 weeks and stick to the more current content in that media. So books will dominate this edition and speaking of those, well, see below:
Running with the Buffaloes – Most folks who follow running these days are more familiar with Kara Goucher, the wife of Adam Goucher, who was a prolific cross country runner for the CU Buffs back in the late 90s. One of my good friends, Greg Krause, from back in Colorado is married to a runner (Lindsay) who ran for the women’s squad during Goucher’s tenure at CU, so I had a tangential tie into this book prior to picking it up. Author Chris Lear follows Goucher, his teammates and famed CU coach, Mark Wetmore, through a full season, capturing the emotional highs and tragic lows in this “season in the life” narrative. Interestingly enough, I knew of Wetmore only through Lindsay and had heard some small stories about him. What I didn’t know until I started this one is that Wetmore is a Lydiard guy. And as such his approach resonates intensely with me and immediately endeared me to his approach. If you are into sport, and a bit interested in running, this one’s a good one to pick up. If you’re not a bit interested in running, move along.
SEAL Target Geronimo: My family shares a Kindle Library (am I allowed to write that?). We all operate under the same account and therefore download to the same Kindle Archive. My Dad and his wife foot the bill and we all get a nice cross-section of topics from across our different personalities. It’s pretty neat and opens up the content drastically. For whatever reason that my father and I have never really discussed, my Dad is into the SEALs. Fortunately, so am I. And as a result, I plowed through this book on the operation to go get UBL in Pakistan and at the same time reading my 4th SEAL book in the last two years. Overkill? Probably. Interesting? Always. Author Chuck Pfarrer takes you through SEAL Team 6 training, provides background on Al Qaeda origins and weaves it into an ongoing narrative around discovering Bin Laden’s hiding compound in a small, peaceful town in Pakistan. Pfarrer does an admirable job breaking down the complexities of weaving all of this content coherently. While his sources have come into question by the military and government I imagine there has to be an element of truth to it if he is able to illicit a response from these bodies.
iOS Apps for the Triathlete – This one is hot, hot, hot off the presses. Ray Maker of DCRainmaker fame just published his list of 7 iOS apps he uses the most. There’s some well-known ones in there – MapMyRide, Wahoo Fitness, Pele – but there’s also some hidden gems in there, too. If you have an iOS device and are a triathlete, this one is worth the 5 minutes. And by the way, if your significant other has an iOS device, you can use the Find My iPhone app in lieu of Maker’s suggestion for the Garmin Tracker app. My wife and I just started using this approach on my long rides which are usually done solo, mid-week. She can pull it up on her iPhone and see where in rural Georgia I’m pedaling. Then again, she can also see whether or not I’m squeezing in a mid-day movie, too. Tradeoffs. Always tradeoffs.
