Highs and Lows

"I dont know what happens when people die

Cant seem to grasp it as hard as I try

Its like a song I can hear playing right in my ear

That I cant sing

I cant help listening

And I cant help feeling stupid standing round

Crying as they ease you down

cause I know that you'd rather we were dancing

Dancing our sorrow away"

Jackson Browne

I'll be heading to the Washington DC area this week. My 94 year old grandmother who was given a week to live last June, finally decided that it was time for her to leave this world and passed away sunday evening. I know the last thing she would want is for someone to make a fuss or feel bad about this. She had an incredible life and spent the bulk of her last two years in the presence of her two loving daughters. She was a loving mother to my mom, and I owe much of who I am to these two wonderful ladies. She will be missed but she will also be remembered.

The Derby this weekend again showed all that is wonderful about horse racing and all that is sad. Big Brown certainly delivered, it was as overwhelming a Derby win as I have seen, very similar to Barbaro's victory in its ease and race style. It will take something freaky to get this horse beat at Pimlico and an injury or something unforseen to get him beat at Belmont.

I have seen thousands of races, I have seen lots of horses sadly breakdown, I have seen a few horses breakdown after the wire, I have seen a few horses collapse after the wire mostly from heat exhaustion, once or twice from a heart attack, but never in my life have I seen or heard of a horse collapsing after the wire from multiple compound fractures in both legs. It's beyond unbelievable to me that something like that could even happen. When I saw her lying down I never once thought she had broken an ankle much less both ankles.

That being said she ran an incredible race, and chased a freak of a horse. I'm always sad when a horse is euthanized, I have a print of Go For Wand on my wall, but I take solace that this breed of horse is bred to race. They love to run, love to compete, and if not for the sport of horse racing would never have had a chance to live. She's not a doped up cheap claimer, and trainer Larry Jones is a damn good trainer, who cares about his horses. He is a true cowboy, gets on their back himself to train. He would never do anything to put this horse at risk. What happened was an incredible freaky injury and she will be forever remembered for what she did before the finish line.

I spent two nights last week in the Hilton Garden Inn in the suburbs of Chicago. I walked past a number of things some good, some bad. Each morning the Hilton was kind enough to serve a full breakfast buffet. Sausage, Bacon, Eggs the works that I walked by. They also had a fairly nice workout room and pool, I walked by them as well. I didn't bring any shorts not that it would have mattered because I was horsing it from 9am until 11pm both days. They also put out the nicest smelling chocolate chip cookies each night. I walked by those as well, but then turned around and grabbed one:)

My wednesday weigh in was -2.6 lbs for a 3 week total of 14.6 lbs. I didn't get a 5 lb sticker this week from weight watchers. My volleyball team got run over on wednesday night, swept away by the team we played. I felt young last week and old as dirt this week. No live music this week but I did feel obliged to atleast pass some new tunes on to some new friends.

I get to see my family for the first time since fitness ridge this week. One thing's for sure they won't be commenting on my tan thanks to the Wisconsin spring. That skin tone is long gone. Peace, Jim