Houston Texas

I made a quick trip to Houston this week - in one day and out the next. Every time I visit Houston I am impressed by the shear size of the place and the number of people there. This last week there were more people there than usual. With a significant number of refugees from Hurricane Katrina already in town, last week we added some 5,000 quilters for a quilting conference and untold numbers of baseball fans for the World Series of Baseball. I struggled to find a hotel and ended up staying in less than salubrious accommodations on the southwest side of town.

Fortunately there were no reported incidents of drunken quilters armed with needles attacking unsuspecting baseball fans and, although the Houston Astros lost the World Series to the Chicago White Sox, we at Infostat gained a new customer. Congratulations to the White Sox, once again an American team clinches victory in the World Series of Baseball.

Another Weekend, Another Run...

This Sunday it was the Nike Women’s Marathon and Half Marathon in San Francisco. Although it was a Women’s race in name, they did allow males and I entered the Half Marathon. The course was a nice tour of San Francisco – starting at Union Square, moving down to the Embarcadero, through the Marina district, through the Praesidio and over the hill to Golden Gate Park and then finishing by the Ocean.

Of course any run in San Francisco has to deal with hills and we had our fair share. I have never seen this before, but at the top of the 1 mile hill from the Bay up over to the Pacific side, they had an Oxygen station. A series of oxygen masks to help you catch your breath after the climb I guess - I didn’t see too many takers and I didn’t participate. Apparently this is a service you can get in certain bars these days.

At the finish line, being a women’s race sponsored by Nike and Tiffany (the jewelers), we each were presented with a Tiffany necklace and a Nike shirt that was a shade of light blue that was just a little too feminine for my liking. That's what you get for entering a woman's race - there are other benefits however.

Shana Morrison

Saturday Evening I saw Shana Morrison (Van Morrison’s daughter) and her band (Caledonia) play. The band was excellent, and Shana wasn’t too bad either – she has a very strong voice and tends to wail a bit too much for my liking, but, all in all, it was a good show – I particularly liked the 2 or 3 of her dad’s songs that she did.

Dallas, Texas

I just spent a couple of nights in Dallas this week on a quick business trip. I had not been to Dallas for a long time (in the early 90’s I used to visit quite a lot) and I realize that I haven’t missed it one little bit.

When I got in my rental car at the airport, I was struck by the number of religious radio stations at the bottom end of the FM dial. Usually when I get into a rental car I tune the radio in to the local NPR station and, without exception, these all seem to be at the bottom end of the dial. In Dallas it seemed like there was an awful lot competition from religious stations in that part of the spectrum. Not that there is anything wrong with that but it did make me realize that I was in the Bible belt.

The other thing I noticed was the frigid air conditioning in my hotel room. It is just another characteristic of Texas as far as I can see - warm muggy weather outside, and frigid air-conditioning inside. My hotel room was particularly extreme in this respect. I wore a sweater in the room, and took it off when I went outside.

Another issue I had, and I don’t mean to be picking on Texas, but when I came to the rental car counter I was offered my choice of a compact Chevrolet for $69 per day, or a Hummer for $99 per day. Now I have never been offered that before, and I bet you can’t get rental Hummers in Sacramento at all, never mind at only a $30 premium over a Chevy. There’s just something wrong about that.

That’s just a few of my gripes about Texas, I am back home in California now, where I know where my NPR station is and where I can control my air conditioning and where I can still grumble about Hummers.

The Bizz Johnson Marathon

This last weekend I ran perhaps the best marathon I have ever run. It wasn’t the best in the way of a personal best time, in fact it was quite slow, but it was the most scenic one I have ever done. It was the Bizz Johnson Marathon in Susanville. It was a trail marathon on an old railroad bed that was just stunningly beautiful from start to finish.

The Bizz Johnson Trail is more normally a mountain bike trail that winds down from just outside Westwood to Susanville. The nice thing about running down an old rail road track is, one it is in the down direction, and two none of the grades are very extreme (a steam train cannot go up or down and steep grades so everything is nice and gentle). The tunnels were pretty cool (in more ways than one) to run through too.

I have never really spent much time in the North Eastern part of California, but the area is quite beautiful and, being in a remote corner of the state, it is not as developed as some of the other areas. So nothing but rave reviews of the Redwood Trails marathon in Susanville, and equally good reviews of the Bizz Johnson trail and Susanville (worth another visit and perhaps a cycle trip down the trail next time).