November 12, 2006

Go Vertical


This morning I climbed to the top of the Sears Tower and, man, was it easier than I thought it was going to be. Climbing 103 floors (2,109 steps) in around 30 minutes seems pretty good. I took the first twenty flights pretty well but my mouth was parched because of the poorly ventilated stairway. I got water at the 30th floor and every 10 floors after that. The continual goal was to make it to the next water stop instead of thinking of the top floor. At floor fifty I was a little discouraged but once you break through the 70's you know that you are going to make it. The easiest floors were 100 - 103 because you can hear the beeping of the chip timers and the announcers. You just grab onto the handrails and vault yourself up to the finish. The view at the top was, of course, awesome.

I'll be honest, I was a little worried about my ability to make a respectable try out of this race. My training regime included running up NCC stadium's steps twice, working out on the stairmaster once, and taking out the garbage a couple of times. Oh, and I kind of trained for a marathon before that.

November 11, 2006

The Road - Read It

I've never read much (any!) Cormac McCarthy; mostly because I'm a contrarian. Some people recommend his books and say that I'll really enjoy them. Others say that it's probably not the writing for me. That leaves me with little room to be contrary.

Anyway, the long and short of it is: I love it. It is in my top 10 books: it is a masterpiece in subtle characterization. It has one of those perfect endings: one that at first leaves you feeling a little cheated but then when you stop to think about it, it makes perfect sense. I couldn't wait to recommend it to others.