Running Commentary

No blue skies and flowers today--we have cool spring rain instead. Through my window a few minutes ago I saw a very fat squirrel in the process of bulking up, as if a nip of autumn were in the air. He's not quite in the Fatty McFat class yet, but is working on it. I had another wildlife encounter Saturday morning as I took a short hike in Martinez after arriving too early at the Contra Costa shoreline for my running club's weekly training run. (Training run sounds far more respectable than fun run, which also describes the event pretty well.) Poring over Google Images results makes me think my little friends (I saw two) were common newts. I wouldn't tell them they're common to their face, however; they should go on thinking they're as special as I think they are. The run was near Rankin Park, pictured below, but it was no walk in da park. We ran the course of the Brickyard Race , which is next weekend. My running companions and I meant to go out four miles and then ...

This flower thing--let's just get it taken care of right now. Soon I will be back in this space with more heavy thoughts about physical and spiritual nourishment, but the featured topic today is flowers. This time of year, as I walk and run my way through my daily life, I am a hopeless fool for flowers. The only thing worse than a hopeless fool is a hopeless fool with a camera phone. So here are my flower photos, all in one sweet, fell swoop. Here are two from my walk to work in San Francisco. And here are a couple from the East Bay. These are from our very own front yard. And here's the finale--a crimson carpet showing how all good blossoms meet their end. So now, please go out and have a flowery day!

I just read over my first-ever post, from December 2005, and realized what a wiseacre I was in those ancient days. Rather than being appalled, I found myself hoping my writing hasn't lost that wacky edge. I bring this up because some days I feel myself, and consequently this blog, heading off in a pretty serious direction. Today (this past week, actually), the topic is food. What it is that I eat, why I eat it, and whether I want to modify my choices. I've been interested for a while in the nutritional and philosophical implications of choosing to eat vegan. The last time I ate meat (on purpose, anyway) was in 1988. I've continued to eat dairy products and fish, but still figured that if I did choose to go vegan it wouldn't involve making any very dramatic change in my dietary habits. I stopped eating meat in the first place right after I read Diet for a Small Planet . Frances Moore Lappe was so articulate in her indictment of the meat industry that after that eschewing...