Podcasts about 6a

Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Head of Futures and Forex, talks with Jermal Chandler about the calm before the storm that is the February Federal Reserve rate decision.Tune in as they discuss the drift higher in equity futures (/ES, /NQ, /RTY, /YM), the small rebound in bonds (/ZT, /ZN, /ZB), and thematic opportunities in FX futures (/6A, /6J).

Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Head of Futures and Forex, talks with Jermal Chandler about the calm before the storm that is the February Federal Reserve rate decision.Tune in as they discuss the drift higher in equity futures (/ES, /NQ, /RTY, /YM), the small rebound in bonds (/ZT, /ZN, /ZB), and thematic opportunities in FX futures (/6A, /6J).

This week on Inside the Headset, we are featuring our 2022 Regional Power of Influence Award winners in a roundtable discussion. The coaches discuss their journey, some of the mentors who have had an impact on them, and some pillars of their football program. 2022 AFCA/AFCF Regional Power of Influence Award winners are: Region 1: Jim Kelliher, Abington (Mass.) High School Region 2: Rodney Saulsberry Sr., Whitehaven (Tenn.) High School Region 3: Dwight Lundeen, Becker (Minn.) High School Region 4: John King, Longview (Tex.) High School Region 5: Todd Sloat, Fall River (Calif.) High School Jim Kelliher has been the head coach at Abington High School for 49 years and currently sits fourth for career victories in Massachusetts history with 305. He has guided the Green Wave to three Eastern Massachusetts State titles in Division 5 (2002), Division 3 (2005) and Division 4 (2012) and two overall state championships in Division 5 (2014) and Division 4 (2019). Kelliher graduated from Abington in 1966 and played his college football at the University of Massachusetts. He returned to Abington as an assistant coach for three years before being named head coach in 1974. Rodney Saulsberry Sr. is in his 25th season at Whitehaven High School and 19th as a head coach. He has an overall record of 180-48 with two Tennessee 6A state titles in 2012 and 2016, the first championships in program history. Over 200 of Saulsberry's former players have gone on to play college football, and 15 of them have become coaches. He has served on the board of the Tennessee Football Coaches Association and served on the Rules Committee for the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. Saulsberry has been a speaker at various football clinics around the country, including the 2013 AFCA Convention. In 2020, he co-founded the Minority Coaches Association of Tennessee, which helps high school, college and professional coaches in Tennessee foster job opportunities and hosts clinics for continuing education. Saulsberry has earned many awards over his time as head coach, such as a two-time Tennessee Titans Coach of the Week, a Tennessee Titans/Shelby Metro Coach of the Year award winner in 2012 and 2016, three-time Regional Coach of the Year and winner of the Rex Dockery Award from the Memphis Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. Dwight Lundeen started the Becker High School football team in 1970 and has never left. In his 53 years as head coach, Lundeen has amassed an overall record of 390-166-3 with three state championships, 19 section titles, and 24 conference championships. He has served as president and on the executive committee of the Minnesota Football Coaches Association, the Minnesota Interscholastic Activities Administrators Association, and the Minnesota State High School League. Lundeen has been inducted into the National Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2019), Minnesota Activities Directors Hall of Fame (2014), Minnesota High School League Hall of Fame (2014) and the Minnesota Football Coaches Hall of Fame (2009). He is a four-time Minnesota Football Coach of the Year and was named Minnesota Football Coaches Association Man of the Year in 2015. John King is in his 19th year as head coach at Longview High School. He currently has the Lobos in the semifinals of the Texas 5A state playoffs with a 14-0 record. His overall record sits at 211-43 with a 6A state championship in 2018. King is a past president of the Texas High School Coaches Association and has served on the THSCA Board of Directors. He has served on several committees for the THSCA as well as Treasurer of the East Texas Coaches Association. King was inducted into the East Texas Coaches Association Hall of Honor in 2019 and was named Texas Sportswriter Association 6A Coach of the Year, along with Longview News Journal and American State Bank Coach of the Year in 2018. He has won 15 District Coach of the Year honors in his 19 seasons. Todd Sloat has coached football for 23 years, with the last 21 coming at Fall River High School. His overall record in eight years as a head coach sits at 78-16 with one California 7AA state championship and six Northern Section titles. Sloat earned California Coach of the Year honors in 2021 and six other Coach of the Year honors in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2017, 2018, and 2021. He stepped down as head coach after the 2021 season and works as an assistant coach with Fall River, helping the Bulldogs to a 12-0 record and the Northern Section championship. 0:50 Meaning of Power of Influence Selection 1:55 Pillars/Culture of Each Program 10:20 Impact of Program 13:50 Significant Influences 18:05 Creating a Community within Your Town & Team 21:00 Camaraderie of Coaches

Brad has a little bit of everything on this week's episode. For starters, there are a lot of important basketball games being played this week. One of them occurred Tuesday, when No. 1 Starkville beat No. 2 Tupelo in a Division 1-6A boys showdown (1:45). Going back to the weekend, Chris Carter led New Albany...

Sex trafficking is ubiquitous, even though many people fail to notice it. That is why the Rotary Club of North Cobb hosted “The Truth About Sex Trafficking In Our Community,” a forum this week that brought together Cobb leaders, concerned citizens and groups combating sex trafficking in the county and across Georgia. North Cobb Rotary member Hicks Malonson is an ambassador for Rescuing Hope, a Marietta-based nonprofit fighting sex trafficking through educational programming and support for survivors. Human trafficking has gained greater attention in Georgia since 2019, when Governor Brian Kemp established the Georgians for Refuge, Action, Compassion, and Education Commission, chaired by his wife, Georgia first lady Marty Kemp. The commission, composed of public officials, experts on human trafficking, and representatives from law enforcement and advocacy groups, is tasked with combating human trafficking in the state. Georgia's heightened focus on the issue extends to law enforcement agencies. Georgia Assistant Attorney General Kaitlyn Salinas works for Georgia's statewide Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, created in 2019 as the first of its kind in the U.S. Salinas, speaking at the forum, noted that it is far less likely nowadays for traffickers to walk through an airport or hotel with large quantities of cocaine, but it is much easier for them to walk through either with a young person they are trafficking. Susan Norris, the executive director of Rescuing Hope and a member of the GRACE commission, moderated a panel of local “first responders” to human trafficking at Tuesday's forum. Ana Murphy, the school social work supervisor for the Cobb County School District, said it is difficult to identify whether a student is being trafficked. She noted it is “a major red flag for us” when students are frequently absent from school, a trend that worsened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Norris said one study showed a 40% jump in trafficking during the pandemic because students were online, not only in class, but socializing with other students and, potentially, traffickers. Norris encouraged attendees to become involved in volunteering for Rescuing Hope and other anti-trafficking organizations at the forum, like Out of Darkness (www.outofdarkness.org), Wellspring Living (www.wellspringliving.org) and The Table on Delk (www.thetableondelk.org).  More information about Rescuing Hope can be found at www.rescuinghope.com. For help or to report suspicions of human trafficking call 911, the Georgia Coalition to Combat Human Trafficking, or the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Kennesaw State University's Wellstar School of Nursing has received a federal grant to teach graduate students how to help patients break increasingly deadly opioid addictions. Assistant professor of nursing Kathy Barnett and Wellstar School of Nursing Associate Director of Graduate Programs Susan Beidler teamed to earn the nearly $729,000 grant, which comes from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Barnett and Beidler will implement curricular revisions in the KSU Masters of Science in Nursing programs that address decreasing stigma and increasing access to early interventions for substance use disorders. According to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health, drug overdose deaths increased by 61% from 2019 to 2021, and fentanyl-involved overdose deaths increased by 230%, illustrating the urgent need for more medical training in helping people with opioid addiction. Opioids include many prescription pain medicines, fentanyl and the illegal drug heroin. In a theatrical, winding speech interlaced with musical tie-ins and clips from “Back to the Future,” Mayor Derek Easterling recapped his seven years in office before a crowd of civic and business leaders this week. Easterling, first elected in 2015, was reelected without opposition in 2019. This year marks the final year of his second term. The mayor told the MDJ after speaking that he intends to run for a third term this November. Ever the showman, Easterling emerged ahead of his speech to the Kennesaw Business Association to the tune of “Rockstar” by Nickelback, carrying a guitar and clad in jeans, cowboy boots and a leather jacket. With his back to the crowd, the speakers then began to blare the opening riff of “Back in Black” by AC/DC as Easterling pretended to play guitar. The mayor then shook his head and yelled for the music to stop. The same sequence then played out with Ozzy Osbourne's “Crazy Train,” and Guns N' Roses' “Sweet Child O' Mine.” Finally, City Manager Jeff Drobney, dressed as Doc Brown from “Back to the Future,” yelled out “Mayor, you've got to get back to the future.” Easterling then began speaking. In his State of the City address, Easterling ticked through a laundry list of developments the city has seen during his time in office, recapping improvements to parks, roads and other infrastructure; new businesses and housing developments; changes to city services and systems; and more. Those developments were listed chronologically, and as the mayor started speaking about a new year, a “Back to the Future” clip would be played on the screen. To accompany the theme, the city also procured a DMC DeLorean, which was parked outside the Adams Park Recreation Center, where Easterling spoke.  Easterling said some of the things the city can look forward to this year are the opening of the Depot Park amphitheater, progress on a new public safety center, the start of a Cherokee Street streetscape project, improvements to Ben King Road and more. McEachern pulled away early and never looked back as the Indians made the short trip to defeated archrival Hillgrove 68-57 in Tuesday's Region 3 6A opener. McEachern reversed an early Hillgrove advantage and took control of the game with an 18-0 run that began late in the first quarter and lasted until midway through the second quarter. The Indians went on to outscore the Hawks 42-20 through the second and third quarters combined. Though the win gave McEachern an early leg up in the region standings, for coach Tremayne Anchrum Sr., and his players, getting the win over their crosstown rival was more significant. Moses Hipps scored 15 points and Ace Bailey added 14 points to lead McEachern. McEachern went on to outscore Hillgrove 23-11 in the second quarter to take a 40-32 halftime lead, then outscored the Hawks 19-9 in the third quarter to widen its advantage to 59-41. Hillgrove did narrow the gap a little bit at the end, but the Hawks were only able to get as close as 10 points — 61-51 — with 5:00 remaining in the game. The Marietta Board of Education voted unanimously this week to elect Kerry Minervini of Ward 6 as the chair for another year. Minervini, a real estate agent who was first elected in 2017, also served as chair last year. Unlike the Cobb County Board of Education, Marietta school board members can serve consecutive terms as chair. The board also unanimously elected Ward 1's Jeff DeJarnett as vice chair. DeJarnett replaces Jason Waters of Ward 2 in the role. Board attorney Clem Doyle distributed index cards to the board members, each of whom privately wrote down their nomination for chair and vice chair. Doyle then announced the results — seven nominations for Minervini for chair, seven nominations for DeJarnett as vice chair. Votes were then held to approve both appointments. The chair and vice chair elections stand in contrast to those of the Cobb school board last week, where members split along party lines, with the Republican majority winning out. Marietta's school board is nonpartisan. The Marietta board elected its leaders at the top of its first work session of the year. In other action, the board reviewed several items it will vote on at its Jan. 17 meeting.  South Cobb welcomed a new community garden this week — or, at least, the beginnings of one. A coalition of agricultural, gardening, and healthcare groups gathered off Powder Springs Road at the Cobb County Farm Bureau offices. There, partners broke ground on a garden that's intended to help out with food insecurity and healthier living. The Wellness Garden, as it will be known, so far is simply a lawn next to the Farm Bureau with a few posts sunk for a fence. But it will one day feature 15 garden beds — each 12 feet by four feet — along with a pollinator garden and hoop house. Unlike some community gardens, which are merely shared spaces for residents to grow their own produce, the Wellness Garden will be geared specifically toward providing food to those in need and spreading the word on how to use locally-grown produce. To that end, volunteers alongside nutritionists from Wellstar Health System — one of the partners in the venture — will be holding classes in the Farm Bureau offices on healthy cooking and eating. Other partners include the Cobb County Conservation District, the Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County, and Cobb EMC, which is helping to financially support the effort. Renae Lemon, one of the master gardeners, has been involved in several community gardens throughout the county including one which opened in Acworth this summer. She said the group has been meeting regularly to plan the Powder Springs garden since June, with the hope of starting to get plants in the ground this Spring. #CobbCounty #Georgia #LocalNews      -            -            -            -            -            The Marietta Daily Journal Podcast is local news for Marietta, Kennesaw, Smyrna, and all of Cobb County.             Subscribe today, so you don't miss an episode! MDJOnline            Register Here for your essential digital news.            https://www.chattahoocheetech.edu/  https://cuofga.org/ https://www.esogrepair.com/ https://www.drakerealty.com/           Find additional episodes of the MDJ Podcast here.             This Podcast was produced and published for the Marietta Daily Journal and MDJ Online by BG Ad Group   For more information be sure to visit https://www.bgpodcastnetwork.com        See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 The Georgia Bulldogs are national champions once again, and this time, it wasn't even close. Georgia became the first team to repeat as national champions in the College Football Playoff era with a 65-7 thrashing of the TCU Horned Frogs at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Monday night. Despite the cross-country flight, plenty of Georgians and Cobb locals made it out west to witness history. Cobb Chief Magistrate Judge Brendan Murphy, a “double Dawg” graduate of the University of Georgia and its law school, said he was feeling “about as good as you can be” the morning after the big win. Murphy said he is happy for all the Georgia players, especially quarterback Stetson Bennett.Despite a controversial ban on tailgating around SoFi stadium, including no pop-up tents or grills, Murphy said fans had a drink or two at their cars before entering the stadium. He added that, despite heavy rain, there were still some fans tossing a football in the parking lot prior to kickoff. In honor of the University of Georgia's historic feat, Times-Journal, Inc. is publishing a commemorative championship edition with a special poster page, stories, highlights and photos from the national title game defeat of TCU. The edition was in Tuesday's home-delivered MDJ and will be available for purchase for $3 at the MDJ office, at 47 Waddell Street. The first Board of Commissioners meeting of 2023 was derailed Tuesday as the board's two Republicans refused to vote on county business amid Cobb's ongoing redistricting controversy, and were asked to leave the dais by Democratic Chairwoman Lisa Cupid. Republican Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill said they would not cast votes while the county remains at odds with the state government, and embroiled in a constitutional dispute, over its effort to redistrict itself via its home rule powers. The two Republicans were ultimately asked to leave the dais by Cupid, who cited county rules requiring commissioners vote on every item unless they are faced with a conflict of interest. The duo would spend the remainder of the meeting seated in back of the room while the board's three Democrats carried on with voting. Tuesday's was the first meeting since two conflicting county commission district maps took effect on January 1. The first, passed by Republicans in the General Assembly last year and signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp, sparked controversy as it drew Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her seat midway through her four-year term. The second is a map the Democratic commissioners adopted in October in an untested assertion of its home rule powers, which the county says allows it to amend state laws including redistricting. That map would keep Richardson safely within the boundaries of District 2, which she currently represents. The county's map has been subject to a legal challenge from east Cobb activist Larry Savage, but Superior Court Judge Ann Harris has yet to issue a ruling. A man was seriously injured in a crash on I-75 early Wednesday morning after his motorcycle collided with a parked car, Marietta police said. Brian Vaughn, 36, of Chatsworth, was riding a Kawasaki motorcycle in the northbound lanes near Delk Road when he struck a parked and unoccupied Volkswagen Jetta, per Officer Chuck McPhilamy. The crash occurred around 12:40 a.m.; police said they do not know why the collision occurred. Vaughn was ejected from the motorcycle and was transported to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital with serious injuries, according to a news release. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Investigator Gunkle. State Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, will host a town hall this month on the efforts to de-annex portions of Mableton from the newly created city. The town hall will be held at the Cobb police training center at 2435 East-West Connector, starting at 6 p.m. on January 18. Wilkerson has been a vocal critic of Mableton cityhood and told the MDJ last week he would file legislation this year to remove portions of the city from its boundaries. The areas in question are in the city's northern precincts, where a majority of residents voted against cityhood. Across the whole of the proposed city, 53% of residents voted "yes" for cityhood in the November referendum. Elections for mayor and City Council are set for March 21. A news release advises that residents "who now reside within the corporate limits of Mableton have the option of requesting de-annexation and, if approved, returning to unincorporated status." Interested residents can learn more at deannexfrommableton.org. Lassiter's wrestling team won its first region duals title since 2018 on Saturday, beating Pope 42-39 in the Region 7 6A finals. It went down to the final matchup. After a first-round bye and a 60-22 win over tournament host Johns Creek, the Trojans edged out the Greyhounds behind a crucial pin by Carter Brickley in the 126-pound weight class. Brothers Casey and Riley McElligott were among the standouts for the Lassiter on Saturday. Casey, a junior, and Riley, a freshman, both nailed down important wins, along with a key pin from Carter Brickley. Jacobee Connell also energized the team, beating a rival and adding key points to a one-match decision. Lassiter was a top-six team in the state last season and the final team remaining from Cobb County in the Class AAAAAAA tournament. Despite graduating more than 20 wrestlers over the last three years, the Trojans have remained relevant and continued that trend with just five upperclassmen on the 2022-23 roster. On Saturday, Lassiter will host Morrow in the opening round of the Class 6A state prelims, and if it wins, would match up with the winner between River Ridge and Tift County. The champion of that bracket will head to Gainesville for the state tournament January 21. Atlanta cellist-songwriter Okorie “OkCello” Johnson and Georgia Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Conductor Timothy Verville will present the world premiere of a new work for cello and orchestra on February 25. The piece, titled “Liminal: an Atlanta Concerto” was co-written by Johnson and Verville and will be first performed at the Georgia Symphony Orchestra's “You Shall Hear…” performances celebrating the works of black composers. The music offers a unique perspective on Johnson's creative life here in Atlanta, and his exploration of what contemporary African Diasporic stories and song forms sound like through an orchestra. This three-movement composition is comprised of music originally written by Johnson for solo looping cello which has been adapted for solo cello and orchestra. Two of the utilized pieces within the work are the results of previous commissions from Atlanta Organizations: the National Black Arts Festival and Freedom Park Conservancy. Participants can hear these pieces on February 25 at 8 p.m. and February 26 at 3 p.m. at the Marietta Performing Arts Center. For more information please head to Georgia Symphony dot org, OK Cello dot com, or Timothy Verville dot com. #CobbCounty #Georgia #LocalNews      -            -            -            -            -            The Marietta Daily Journal Podcast is local news for Marietta, Kennesaw, Smyrna, and all of Cobb County.             Subscribe today, so you don't miss an episode! MDJOnline            Register Here for your essential digital news.            https://www.chattahoocheetech.edu/  https://cuofga.org/ https://www.esogrepair.com/ https://www.drakerealty.com/           Find additional episodes of the MDJ Podcast here.             This Podcast was produced and published for the Marietta Daily Journal and MDJ Online by BG Ad Group   For more information be sure to visit https://www.bgpodcastnetwork.com                      See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Primeira Leitura: Hebreus 2,5-12 Leitura da carta aos Hebreus – 5Não foi aos anjos que Deus submeteu o mundo futuro, do qual estamos falando. 6A esse respeito, porém, houve quem afirmasse: “O que é o homem, para dele te lembrares, ou o filho do homem, para com ele te ocupares?7 Tu o fizeste um pouco menor que os anjos, de glória e honra o coroaste 8e todas as coisas puseste debaixo de seus pés”. Se Deus lhe submeteu todas as coisas, nada deixou que não lhe fosse submisso. Atualmente, porém, ainda não vemos que tudo lhe esteja submisso. 9Jesus, a quem Deus fez pouco menor do que os anjos, nós o vemos coroado de glória e honra, por ter sofrido a morte. Sim, pela graça de Deus em favor de todos, ele provou a morte. 10Convinha de fato que aquele por quem e para quem todas as coisas existem, e que desejou conduzir muitos filhos à glória, levasse o iniciador da salvação deles à consumação, por meio de sofrimentos. 11Pois tanto Jesus, o santificador, quanto os santificados são descendentes do mesmo ancestral; por essa razão, ele não se envergonha de os chamar irmãos, 12dizendo: “Anunciarei o teu nome a meus irmãos; e no meio da assembleia te louvarei”. – Palavra do Senhor. Salmo Responsorial: 8 Destes domínio ao vosso Filho / sobre tudo o que criastes. 1. Ó Senhor, nosso Deus, como é grande / vosso nome por todo o universo! / Perguntamos: “Senhor, que é o homem, † para dele assim vos lembrardes / e o tratardes com tanto carinho?” – R. 2. Pouco abaixo de Deus o fizestes, / coroando-o de glória e esplendor; / vós lhe destes poder sobre tudo, / vossas obras aos pés lhe pusestes. – R. 3. As ovelhas, os bois, os rebanhos, / todo o gado e as feras da mata; / passarinhos e peixes dos mares, / todo ser que se move nas águas. – R. Evangelho: Marcos 1,21-28 Aleluia, aleluia, aleluia. Acolhei a Palavra de Deus não como palavra humana, / mas como mensagem de Deus, o que ela é, em verdade! (1Ts 2,13) – R. Proclamação do Evangelho de Jesus Cristo segundo Marcos – 21Estando com seus discípulos em Cafarnaum, Jesus, num dia de sábado, entrou na sinagoga e começou a ensinar. 22Todos ficavam admirados com o seu ensinamento, pois ensinava como quem tem autoridade, não como os mestres da Lei. 23Estava então na sinagoga um homem possuído por um espírito mau. Ele gritou: 24“Que queres de nós, Jesus nazareno? Vieste para nos destruir? Eu sei quem tu és: tu és o santo de Deus”. 25Jesus o intimou: “Cala-te e sai dele!” 26Então o espírito mau sacudiu o homem com violência, deu um grande grito e saiu. 27E todos ficaram muito espantados e perguntavam uns aos outros: “O que é isso? Um ensinamento novo, dado com autoridade: ele manda até nos espíritos maus, e eles obedecem!” 28E a fama de Jesus logo se espalhou por toda parte, em toda a região da Galileia. – Palavra da salvação.

Digging For Wizdom previews State Championship Weekend. Professor Diggs and The Wizord analyze every state championship matchup from 6A to 3A with some 2A action sprinkled in. They address Wizzy being disrespectful at the mouth to DeSoto and Diggsy gives an impromptu Top Ten list of what to not do at state.

Zach Alvira and Eric Newman return for Episode 111 of the Take it EZ Sports Show. It's finally the weekend for Arizona high school football state championship games. The guys preview ALA-Gilbert North vs. Snowflake in the 4A Championship before welcoming a special guest. Joseph Ortiz, coach of Perry football and former coach at Cactus and Higley, joins the show to preview the 5A Conference title game between his two former schools. He takes the guys through a typical week leading up to a championship game, before previewing the 6A and Open playoff bout. The guys finish the day with the best thing they ate in the last week, and coach puts the hosts to shame.

Digging For Wizdom previews the State Semifinals. Professor Diggs and The Wizord analyze every semifinal matchup from 6A to 3A with some 2A action sprinkled in. They discuss in detail the game of the week, DeSoto vs Denton Guyer, plus there are 3 games Diggsy can't quite figure out and they'll discuss them as well.

Q : ที่มาของ “ข้าวก้นบาตรพระ”A : คือ อาหารที่เหลือจากการพิจารณาของพระสงฆ์ เป็นอาหารที่พระได้มาจากสัมมาอาชีวะ จากการบิณฑบาตด้วยปลีแข้งของตน เป็นอาหารที่เกิดจากบุญ จากศรัทธาของผู้นำมาถวาย จากผู้รับคือพระสงฆ์ ที่มี ราคะ โทสะ โมหะ น้อย พิจารณาแล้วจึงบริโภค อาหารนี้จึงเป็นอาหารทิพย์Q : รักษาจิตด้วย อัปปมัญญา, พรหมวิหารและทิศทั้ง 6A : อัปปมัญญา คือ การพ้นที่อาศัยพรหมวิหาร คือมี เมตตา กรุณา มุทิตาและอุเบกขา “เมตตาเจโตวิมุต” คือ ความหลุดพ้นแห่งจิตที่อาศัยเมตตา จะกำจัดความพยาบาทได้ จะมีผลคือ “สุภวิโมกข์” (ความสุขที่หลุดพ้น สุขที่อยู่ภายใน) “กรุณาเจโตวิมุต” คือ ความหลุดพ้นแห่งจิตที่อาศัยกรุณา จะกำจัดความเบียดเบียน คิดให้เค้าได้ไม่ดี ในจิตใจของเรา“มุทิตาเจโตวิมุต” คือ ความหลุดพ้นแห่งจิตที่อาศัยมุทิตา จะกำจัดความไม่ยินดีในความสำเร็จของเขาอย่างใดอย่างหนึ่ง ที่มีในจิตใจของเรา ให้ออกไป“อุเบกขาเจโตวิมุต” คือ ความหลุดพ้นแห่งจิตที่อาศัยอุเบกขา จะกำจัดราคะในจิตใจของเราออกไป ถ้าเขาได้ไม่ดี ให้เราวางเฉยเสีย ให้อุเบกขากับทุกคน ไม่ว่าจะรักเราหรือจะเกลียดเราเจริญโดย ให้แบบไม่คิดว่าจะหมด ให้ทุกคน ไม่เว้น ให้ทุกทิศทุกทาง(ทิศทั้ง6) เสมอหน้ากันQ : พรหมวิหาร 4 ของศาสนาพุทธ ต่างจากศาสนาอื่นอย่างไร ?A : คือการเจริญพรหมวิหาร 4 ที่ประกอบไปด้วยกับโพชฌงค์ 7 Q : ผลของการเจริญพรหมวิหาร 4 ที่ประกอบด้วยโพชฌงค์ 7A : ผลของการเจริญเมตตาเจโตวิมุต คือ จะมี “สุภวิโมกข์” (ความสุขที่หลุดพ้น ความสุขที่อยู่ภายใน) เป็นอย่างยิ่ง ผลของกรุณา คือ จะทำให้เกิด “อากาสานัญจายตนะ” จะละปฏิฆะสัญญาได้ ผลของมุทิตา คือ จะทำให้เกิด“วิญญานัญจายตนะ” ผลของอุเบกขา คือ จะทำให้เข้าสู่ “อากิญจัญญายตนะ” ซึ่ง การเจริญเช่นนี้ มีผล มีอานิสงค์ คือ จะละธรรมะที่เป็นเสี้ยนหนาม 4 ประการนั้นได้นั่นเอง Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Digging For Wizdom previews the Regional Finals of the post season. Professor Diggs and The Wizord analyse every fourth round matchup from 6A to 3A with some 2A action sprinkled in. They discuss in detail the game of the week, Southlake Carroll vs Denton Guyer, plus a look at quite a few rematches happening in the regional finals.

It's high school football championship in Mississippi. The Rock in Hattiesburg will be the site of six championship games, including Saturday night's 6A showdown of Brandon against Starkville. Starkville head coach Chris Jones, the former Jackson State standout and state championship coach at Kemper County, talks about the state championship, as well as his alma mater in the SWAC Championship, and his former Starkville quarterback Luke Altmeyer entering the NCAA portal,

Cleveland Storm senior quarterback Evan Wysong discusses his teams win over La Cueva in the 6A state title game, how they came together this season and what he is looking forward to becoming a Lobo football player next season. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brett Rump is back in his rightful host seat of The Sports Rush today, and we spend a good portion of the first hour today catching up on everything that happened this past weekend in sports. Including an incredible weekend for Purdue Boilermaker athletics as they win the Big 10 West in football as well as win the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament in basketball over the likes of Duke and Gonzaga. We also discuss the results of the 6A and 1A State Championships in high school football that featured two area teams, Carroll and Adams Central. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

#86: David Mason is the Founder of Elev8Hoops. He has helped train NBA players like Joel Embiid, Jason Tatum, Tyler Herro, & many others. David started his basketball career at Jenks Public Schools. In his senior year, he assisted his 6A nationally ranked (#1 in the State) team to a 27-1 record and finished as a state runner-up. He then went on to play college basketball at Oral Roberts University. While there, he set a single-game ORU assist record for that season. No one has surpassed that record since he graduated. After his playing days came to an end, he stayed on staff at Oral Roberts as a Graduate Assistant Coach while seeking his MBA degree. One of his duties as a Graduate Assistant Coach included helping the team with skill development for the marquee players. Through this process, Mason found his love for developing players. For the next three years, he went on to become a full-time skills trainer. To date he has trained 45+ Division One players, 9 Professional Players, 3 NBA G-League players, and 300+ 2nd-12th graders. Mason has two main passions in life; basketball and helping others succeed. To him, there is no better way to fulfill those callings than through skill development. That is the reason why he created Elev8Hoops.

A big the of football all around as th Manhattan Indians win 6A state, then K-State takes care of KU to earn spot in Conference title game!

Coach starts the first full hour of the show off by reviewing the championship games with Brendan King, who will also have the call for the Class 3A Game tomorrow! Brendan King then speaks to Coach Ryan Knigga, from Lawrenceburg, who will see his team take on Chatard in the 3A Championship tomorrow. Greg Rakestraw, from the IHSAA Champions Network, then calls in to talk about Center Grove winning the Class 6A championship game tonight! John Herrick, also of the IHSAA Radio Network and who had the radio call of the 6A game, then joins the show to go over the championship games, as well as IU basketball and the Old Oaken Bucket game that'll take place tomorrow between IU and Purdue!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Previewing the 6A title game

Preview the 4A, 5A and 6A state championship games.

Sebastian Noel from Proview Networks breaks down the state football title games this weekend. Will we see a classic 6A game?  Was playing in an empty gym an option for UNM/NMSU?  Best side Thanksgiving side dish? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The TC Game Time Podcast crew is back just before Thanksgiving to preview the upcoming Prep Bowl Championships at U.S. Bank Stadium, joined by special guest Craig Norkus, the co-host of KARE 11's Prep Preview Show! Before Craig joins the exclusive two-time guest club, Logan, Matt, & Bill break down a matchup of unbeatens in the 6A Championship between Maple Grove and Rosemount next Friday (6:25). They also preview how an unstoppable force matches up with an immovable object as Elk River's State-leading rushing attack faces Mankato West's high-flying defense in an intriguing 5A title bout next Saturday (15:08). Finally, Winter sports are here so "North of the River" Bill is back to talk about some of the top teams in the Metro in the podcast's girls hockey season outlook. Interview with Craig Norkus starts at (34:09), including previews of the 6A, 5A, and 4A title games, a discussion of the KARE 11 All-Metro team, and a controversial debate about the merits of Thanksgiving turkey.

Digging For Wizdom previews the Regional Semifinals of the post season. Professor Diggs and The Wizord analyse every third round matchup in regions 1 and 2 for 6A and 5A. They discuss in detail the game of the week, Mansfield Timberview vs Frisco Reedy, plus a look at the resurgence of South Oak Cliff and they talk some lower classifications.

Talking about the 6A semifinal

It's playoff time in the desert. Jose Garcia from AZ Preps 365 joins Mark McClune to preview the first week in a playoff action in Arizona high school football. The 6A, 5A, and 4A take center stage on Friday night.

Did the Packers figure something out late against the Cowboys? Who will win on the ground between Tennessee and Green Bay?  Sebastian Noel from Proview Networks discusses the 6A football semi-finals and the stories you need to know this weekend.  How many quarterbacks is Taylor Heinicke playing better than right now?  Do you know about a rivalry until you play in it? Lobos/Aggies men on deck Saturday. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Digging For Wizdom previews the Area Round of the post season. Professor Diggs and The Wizord analyze every second round matchup in regions 1 and 2 for 6A and 5A. They discuss in detail the game of the week, Denton Guyer vs Highland Park, plus a look back at what they got wrong and what they got right in their first round predictions. Click below to listen on iTunes or Spotify!

Manhein Township's Hayden Johnson and Landon Kennel had one of their biggest wins of the season thus far as they carried the Blue Streaks past Cumberland Valley in the District 3 6A quarterfinals. Johnson and Kennel talk with Brian Linder and Nebiy Esayas about that game and previewing their match against Hempfield in the semifinals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Logan and Matt are back to first preview a pair of State Football Semifinals in 6A pitting Lakeville South against Maple Grove and Rosemount against Eden Prairie this weekend in Minneapolis (3:02)! Also discussed are games of note in the other classes of football (17:56), including a come-from-behind winner for Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton in 3A and a suprising upset of St. Thomas Academy in a 5A tournament shake up. Logan also shares his notes from the State Volleyball Tournament last week in St. Paul (21:30), including a dominant run by Wayzata to claim their third straight title with strong showings from the Swenson sisters and head coach Scott Jackson's blue jean game. Finally, they talk the start of the girls hockey season in the South Suburban Conference (27:15) and share their "notes from the field" about a famous race horse from Savage.

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager give an audience member a trip to Edinburgh Scotland as part of the Trip A Day Giveaway. Also, actress and producer Tia Mowry in studio 6A to talk about her life and career. Plus, Ben and Erin Napier from HGTV “Home Town” in studio 6A to talk about their new movie “A Christmas Open House” and share some stress free Thanksgiving hosting ideas. And, Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager play a fun game of “The Great Debate" with comedian Heather McMahan.

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager give an audience member a trip to Lisbon, Portugal as part of the “Trip A Day Giveaway.” Also, Jessica Biel in studio 6A to catch up on her life and career. Plus, Hoda Kotb, Jenna Bush Hager and Jessica Biel get to play The Ultimate Showdown Game—where Jessica Bail has to guess a famous TV show. And, fashion expert Melissa Garcia gives two viewers a makeover.

Hey it's part 2 (607-613) of our Futurama season 6A episode! Remember, if you become a Cursed One you'll get access to full, uninterrupted episodes a week early. Get on it! Hosted by Johnny2Cellos and ToonrificTariq Produced & Edited by Michael Yunez Character and Logo Art by Kerrifique Theme Song by Jakeneutron

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager start the week with live shows in studio 6A, and to celebrate they give an audience member a trip to Paris. Also, Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager catch up with Michelle Obama and talk about her new book “The Light We Carry.” Plus, the inspiring story behind Irene Dimatulac and her letter written to Michelle Obama.

Maryville HC Derek Hunt joined Sam Forman & Logan Ward on the New Balance Knoxville HSFB Wrap Up Show to discuss his teams 28-10 2nd round win, how good class 6A is in East Tennessee, their quarterfinal rematch with Science Hill and more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maryville HC Derek Hunt joined Sam Forman & Logan Ward on the New Balance Knoxville HSFB Wrap Up Show to discuss his teams 28-10 2nd round win, how good class 6A is in East Tennessee, their quarterfinal rematch with Science Hill and more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen in as Dr. Barlow interviews Reagan Riley, Harry Clark and Coach Michael McGovern to discuss the boys and girls cross country team's recent 6A state championships. **PLEASE NOTE we apologize for the fluctuating sound quality**   Listen to the Mountain Brook Schools podcast wherever you get your podcasts and follow MBS on social media @mtnbrookschools.  

It's State Tourney week for prep football and volleyball! On the 56th episode of the podcast, Matt, Logan, and Bill welcome in third-time guest Jim Paulsen, a prep sportswriter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune! Before Jim joins the show, the guys catch you up on the 6A football playoff 2nd round, including but not limited to Stillwater going to the ground for an impressive rout of Lakeville North (7:39), East Ridge upending Prior Lake in the suprise of the week (15:50), and a compelling rematch between Eden Prairie and Shakopee on Thursday after convincing wins by the Sabers and Eagles to get back to State (21:27). They also talk about 5A State Tourney predictions as heavyweights St. Thomas Academy, Mankato West, and Elk River all get set for an exciting field of eight! Interview with Jim Paulsen starts at (23:59). First discussed is storylines in State Volleyball at "the X" this week. Football conversation starts at (41:32), including in-person impressions of potential Mr. Football Carson Hansen, and Paulsen's predictions for this week's quarterfinals in 6A and 5A!

Digging For Wizdom previews Week 1 of the post season. Professor Diggs and The Wizord analyze every first round matchup in regions 1 and 2 for 6A and 5A. They discuss in detail the game of the week, Allen at Lewisville, plus potential 2nd round bangers and which teams are trending up in the second season.

Anchored by Lance Smith, 5A Olympus takes out 6A state champs Lone Peak and 4A state champs Crimson Cliffs to win the revamped Arctic Circle Above the Rest high school invitational tournament. Smith, Derek Fox and Jeff Petersen join the pod. 

On the latest episode of the pod, Matt & Bill take over the show to react to the 6A football playoff first-round, focusing in on key results of Lakeville North beating Minnetonka (2:48), 7-seed Mounds View's bracket buster over Champlin Park (7:20), and a thrilling comeback for Edina over Blaine in a 6 vs 3-seed upset (14:10). They also discuss some vulnerability shown by top-seed Stillwater and Prior Lake and look ahead at an intriguing second-round matchup between the Ponies and North this Friday (20:31). Also discussed are notable 5A Football Section Finals between defending champs Mankato West and Chanhassen & Elk River vs Andover this week (26:08). They also dive into the State soccer championships for both boys & girls to be decided this week (29:23) and discuss a pair of Section Championships of note in volleyball to wrap the show (33:43).

In this week's episode, I have 5 guest to talk about their season, state meet, and post season races. First part I have Corbin Galt. Member of Oklahoma Project since January 2022. He finished State Runner up in Class 4A and is favorite to win the individual title next year. Time of 16:07. Improving his time from 17:05 from last year's state meet. Next, I have Cole Davenport. Member of Oklahoma Project since November 2022. He finished 21st in Class 6A. Time of 16:24. Improving his time from 17:46 from last year's state meet. Member of Edmond North State Championship team. Next, I have Andrew Pletan. Head coach of Edmond North, who are the 2022 state championship team. We talk about how the season went and how the boys cam together when it most mattered. Next, I have Kinley Kite. Member of Oklahoma Project since June 2022. She finished 8th in Class 6A. Time of 18:56. Improving her time from 20:03 from last year's state xc meet. Lastly, I have Josh Cherry. Member of Oklahoma Project since May 2020. He finished State Runner up in class 6A. Time of 15:37. With a short senior xc season, he ran his season best when it most mattered. In last year's state meet, he ran 15:30 and got state runner up.

It's playoff time in high school football, with Classes 2A, 3A and 4A playing first-round games on Friday. On this episode, Brad previews some of the notable matchups (10:22), including Shannon at Houston. Meanwhile, teams in 1A, 5A and 6A are jockeying for playoff berths and seeding. There are a bunch of possible scenarios (7:41),...

Pete Mulmat joins Anton from the tastytrade Research Team to review the futures markets at the end of the week and to place a trade in currencies. Today's trade idea was a wide iron condor in the Australian Dollar futures (/6A).

Pete Mulmat joins Anton from the tastytrade Research Team to review the futures markets at the end of the week and to place a trade in currencies. Today's trade idea was a wide iron condor in the Australian Dollar futures (/6A).

Before a conversation with Eagan football coach Nick Johnson to break down Eagan's road upset of Shakopee, Matt, Logan, & Bill are back to react to the 6A football bracket release (6:05)! They key in on favorable draws for Shakopee and Centennial & discuss the ins & outs of an exciting first-round coming up Friday. Discussed are where the tough seeding decisions were made for Forest Lake, Woodbury, Minnetonka and others (17:37) and the best games to watch for in the first-round, including a compelling 4 vs 5-seed bout in Minnetonka this week (24:03). Finally, they make their predictions on who will reach the State Semis (27:03). To close the show, they also talk volleyball section playoffs and Bill's thoughts on the 5A playoff field! Interview with Nick Johnson starts at (40:47).

The volleyball season wraps up this week in Starkville with the state championships, and Brad has previews of the three matches involving area teams – Ingomar, Belmont and Alcorn Central (1:37). There's plenty of football talk today, too. Tupelo is now in sole possession of first place in Division 2-6A after blanking Madison Central (4:59)....

Liz and Jenny talk about selling put spreads in /6J. They also roll their /6A out in time since their current position only has 21 DTE. With the VIX at 33, they place a SPY iron condor.

Liz and Jenny talk about selling put spreads in /6J. They also roll their /6A out in time since their current position only has 21 DTE. With the VIX at 33, they place a SPY iron condor.

Bike Report… Here is a slightly more scripted version of my 2 day ride across Massachusetts.   I scheduled it as a 4-day adventure.  This is one of those things that you learn from doing long or hard or ultra-type events.  Give yourself some buffer time. I have always violated this rule.  Partly because my life has always been busy, or I have convinced myself that it was, and I had to rush to get to events and then rush back.  I have always tried to not be that guy who talks too much about this stuff at work.  I realized early on that this is my obsession, and the rest of the world may or may not give a shit.  I've been more than willing to talk about it in depth when asked, or in this purpose-built forum for that outlet, but I have always taken pains not to be THAT GUY in the office.  As a result, most of the people I've worked with know vaguely that I train all the time, but seldom have the gift of knowing exactly what or when I'm doing an event.  That vagueness allows work activity to crowd around the events and I find myself running a marathon in the morning and jumping on a plane in the afternoon.  I think it also fits that egoistic self-image I have had of being the indestructible man that can pop in and out of events that other people can't even fathom.  Even my acts of humility are ego-centric! There are advantages to not buffering time around an event.  If you show up just in time for the event it doesn't give you time to think too much about it.  You can get much more adventure in the day by not being prepared and not knowing the course, etc.  Just show up doesn't fit many peoples' brains but I enjoy the adventure of it.  If you jet off after the event you don't have time to wallow in your misery. But the disadvantages of this cramming in events, especially big events, are manifold.  You can make mistakes that you could have avoided by being just a bit more prepared.  Like, for instance, not thinking about how the temperature drops below freezing in the mountains at night.  And, most regretfully, you don't really get a chance to let it sink in.  Many of those races I've run are just blurry memories of a fast weekend spent somewhere doing something hard.  I've found that no matter how good shape you're in, a multi-day event will mess with your thinking ability.  It's best to take a day off after because you're going to be useless anyhow. For this ride, I took 4 days off to ride around 250 miles in 2 days.  I enlisted my wife to crew for me.  I suppose this is one of the advantages of having a long-term relationship.  You can just casually drop something like this… “Hey, take Friday and Monday off we're going out to Western Mass and you're going to follow me while I ride across the state for 2 days.” And that doesn't end the relationship.  … Day one was Friday.  We got up and I took Ollie down to the local kennel when it opened at 9AM.  This was Ollie's first time being kenneled – so it was a bit like first day of school for your kids.  I had a pang of sadness driving back to the house in my truck with the passenger seat empty.  I had done my best to make sure all my stuff was organized.  We drove out a pretty section of Rte 2 west into the Berkshires and the Mohawk Trail.  Western Mass is a pretty place.  All hills and farms and little; towns. Those same little towns that you'll find in Vermont or New Hampshire.  A bit of a tourist trap but really pretty without being entirely off the map. We took the new truck with my bike in the back. I prepped my bike earlier in the week.  I washed it and cleaned the chain and derailleurs as best I could.  It's a messy and dirty job.  It requires using a degreaser and a toothbrush.  Kids, this degreaser chemical is very dangerous.  Remember to wear rubber gloves and safety glasses when you're cleaning your bike chain.  Once you get it all sparkly clean then you can rub a little bike grease back into the chain and sprocket.  This really helps the efficiency of the drivetrain and keeps the shifting action clean.  You can ride on a dirty chain, but it will slow you down and eventually something will break. I wore my old Northface water backpack.  I think it holds more than a liter.  It has enough room to carry my tools and food and whatever else I need comfortably.  That old pack is like a second skin for me.  I've worn it in many, many ultras.  For tools I carry a small pump and a multitool.  In my underseat pack I carry an extra tube, levers and a patch kit.  I had one bike bottle in the cage on the bike for just water.  I actually found this bike bottle by the side of the road after the local triathlon.  It was perfectly new from one of the local bike shops.  You may think I'm crazy, and you'd be correct, but I washed it out and it's fine.  I prepped up enough 24 oz water bottles with Ucan for the ride and put those in a cooler with ice.  I made some protein smoothies too, for emergency meals, extra fuel if needed and recovery.  Smoothies are a good source of clean calories.  The 24 oz bottles of Ucan mix I stuck in the back of my bike shirt on both sides for the ride.  This provides clean fuel with some electrolytes. This sounds like a lot of stuff, but it was all the result of what I had learned in my training over the summer.  I knew I could get 4+ hours of hard work in the heat with that set up.  A liter or so of clean water in the pack.  A full bottle of water in the cage and 2 X 24oz bottles of fuel mix in my shirt.  That may sound uncomfortable to carry, but it really isn't bad on a bike.  You've got the mechanical advantage and can carry a lot of stuff comfortably.  I stopped at a grocery on the way out and bought a handful of Cliff bars and other packaged edibles.  I also had my favorite pitted dates in a baggy.  All this fuel went into the back pack.  Then there was the electronics. I decided to use Google Maps with the bike route option selected.  This meant I would have to have my phone with me, and it would have to stay charged.  This is a challenge because having the maps open for navigation all day long drains your phone battery very fast.  Especially when you're riding through the mountains in the middle of nowhere.  Yes, it also uses a ton of data.  If you don't have an unlimited plan, don't do this at home kids.  Where to put the phone?  While I was training, I started out putting the phone in a plastic bag in my backpack. But that is a pain in the ass because you have to stop and get it out of the pack to use it.  So I bought a fairly inexpensive handlebar mount for it.  It's basically a stretchy rubber cage that I attached right in the center of the handlebar.  In this set up the phone is inches from my face and easy to access. If it rains you can put the phone in a plastic bag before you put it into the holder.  That plastic bag makes it harder to use the touch screen, but for my ride both day were sunny, so I mounted it au naturel. Next question was how to keep power in the battery.  This worked out way better than I expected.  I bought a pair of those charging bricks from the internet.  I didn't know how long they would last.  I had a plan to swap the charge brick out for a fresh one if needed in the middle of the ride.  I put one in the under-seat pack with the cable running along the frame tube up to the phone.  At first, I thought I'd have to zip tie the phone cable in place, but I was able to snake the cable around the top tube in such a way that it was attached to the phone and the battery pack with no slack.  That worked great.  I didn't know if this pack would give me 30 minutes of juice or 30 hours of juice.  That's why I got two.  I figured I could hot swap them out when I met Yvonne during the ride.  But as it turns out I had nothing to fear.  Even burning all that data with the GPS and radio on the whole time the charge pack kept the phone at 100%.  To cap this all off I had my Mifo ear pods.  These are little, wireless ear pods, that I trained all summer in.  They fit snuggly in the ear and had both the stereo headphones and a microphone for talking. It was a great set up. I listened to podcasts and audio books all day.  I had my phone right in front of me so I could even skip commercials!  I could also make and receive phone calls without even slowing down.  And the Google maps lady was instructing me with turn-by-turn voice commands the whole time, so I wouldn't get lost.  It was awesome! Besides that, I wore normal bike Chamois shorts with underarmour sport undergarments.  I lathered up all the risky bits and my under carriage with Squirrel's Nut Butter.  I had this left over from my last ultra.  It works great as an under-carriage lube.  I also wore a knee sleeve on my left knee, which is the one that was giving me trouble.  I wore my Garmin 235 watch but did not use the chest strap.  I don't really need to know my heart rate with that much precision when I'm riding.  It never gets anywhere near max.  That was my set up.  Was I nervous?  No, not at all.  I was confident I could do it.  It wasn't that much of a stretch.  I was happy to be off on an adventure.  To be spending some time out of my home office with my wife.  Friday we got out to North Adams in the afternoon after a casual drive on a nice day.  We had a nice lunch.  We drove around North Adams, Williamstown and Williams college.  We had an early dinner and I set the alarm for 5:00 AM. … Saturday morning I got up with the alarm and made a cup of coffee.  The sun wasn't going to come up until closer to 6:00.  Making room-coffee in the dark I mistakenly had a cup of decaf before I realized my mistake.  I loaded up all my stuff and woke my wife up to drive me to the starting point.  … I'll cover the ride itself in a subsequent episode.  … Continuing with my bike report.  Let's pick it up at Day 1 of the ride. This is the one part of the ride that I had done some actual research on.  My original plan had been to find the marker for where Massachusetts, New York and Vermont touch in the western corner of Massachusetts.  But, on Googling the map I saw that the point was actually back in the woods a good distance with no real road access.  And it looked like the access trail was on the Vermont side which added significant miles to the trip. Given that I was riding my mountain bike I could probably find a way to make that work; but consulting the map again it would make the trip very long.   It would add some unknown trail miles right out of the gate and I didn't really think I'd have the time to go up and plot the route. To avoid that little bit of drama and the extra miles, I looked around the map to see what the closest town was to that point.  I discovered that Williamstown was right there in the upper corner and had a hotel I could use points at.  So, I booked that.  This was probably about a month out.  Then I started looking at potential bike routes.  I did this by using the bicycle option on Google maps.  It's a swell tool, Google maps.  If you choose the bicycle option it will keep you off the highways and find any available rail trails.  The first pass route, starting from the hotel was 256 miles, which seemed doable in 2 days.  Unfortunately Gooogle Maps also provides the elevation profile.  You have to understand that Massachusetts is relatively flat state.  We've got rolling hills.  Lots of rolling hills.  But we don't have any mountains.  Any real mountains.  As it turns out our tallest mountain is mount Greylock.  Mount Greylock is only 3489 feet tall.  As it also turns out Mount Greylock is in Adams Massachusetts.  Adams, as it turns out is just to the east of Williamstown.  I had, in my hubris created a route that had me climbing the highest point in the state first thing in the morning on the first day.  I have not doubt I could do it, but it caused some consideration.  I decided that it might be a good idea to start on the top of the mountain ridge.  Which, in fact would shave about 20 miles off the ride.  That seemed like a reasonable thing to do.  My race, my rules – as McGillvray always says. I really wanted to get out and drive some of the route, but did not really have the bandwidth.  An opportunity arose, like they sometimes do, when my running Buddy Frank suggested we go for a motorcycle ride one Friday afternoon a couple weeks before my scheduled ride.  I took him up on it.  On a brilliant August afternoon we rode the length of Route 2 out to North Adams and Williamstown.  I checked out the hotel.  We did a bit of poking around the towns.  My plan was to ride as much of the bike route as possible on the way back home.  Frank had to bail but I was able to trace the route up out of Adams on an old 2-lane highway, 8A. I knew that where 8A met 116 would be about the peak elevation and I rode to that point on my motore cycle. Let me tell you it was not an encouraging route.  It was a few thousand feet of steady climb, some of it quite steep, on roads with no shoulder.  Bad roads too,  beat to crap roads.  And in places the Google route actually routed me through some old hilltop farms on a dirt road, which was quite scenic and everything but not good for making time on a bicycle.  That reconnoiter of the climb up and out of Adams over the steepest, highest ridge in the state sealed the deal for me.  I made a mental note to have my wife drop me off at the high point. I mean it wasn't that I thought I couldn't do it, it just seemed unnecessary to the project.  If that climb had been in the middle of the ride, or even at the end, I would have been more optimistic about it. But given I was planning on a century a day, I didn't want to burn all my matches in the first hour.  … Going into the ride I had trained over the summer.  Basically 3-4 rides week with one of those being along ride on the Saturday.  I managed to get my long ride up to somewhere around 70-something miles.  I also got some good data on nutrition and fluid consumption, especially in the heat of the summer.  A couple of those long rides were really hot days  This is how I figured out that I could carry enough to get through 4-5 hours on a hot day before I needed a pit stop.  On a cool day I could ride all day on the same water and fuel.  Back to the route.  Since I was shanghaiing my wife into this adventure I thought I should at least consider making things palatable.  Looking at the possible routes and where we would end up at the end of the first day I realized that it was close to Foxboro, which of course is the home of the New England Patriots, who my wife loves.  And the Hotel at Patriot's Place, it turned out, was another I could use points at.  Now it was coming together.  Looking at the revised route, with the new start point and the planned end point, that gave me about 120ish miles for Day 1.  That seemed reasonable.  Next I had to figure out how long that would take me.  Since I was riding my mountain bike I wouldn't be able to go as fast.  I knew form my training I was averaging around 15 miles an hour.   Doing the math on that would give me a 8 hour day.  But, in training, I knew the routes and was pushing pretty hard.  I didn't want to push that hard on the ride, because I had a long way to go and didn't want to burn out.  If 15 was the top end guesstimate, what was the worst case?  I figured if I really got in trouble and slowed way down, I'd still be able to manage 10 miles an hour.  That would give me a 12 ish hour day.  Which was still within the daylight hours.  I definitely didn't want to be out on the roads exhausted in the dark.  I wasn't as concerned about the second day.  I knew that part of the ride was pretty flat and when I got onto Cape Cod I would know where I was.  I would be in familiar territory.  … On the morning I got all my stuff packed up and ready and loaded into the truck.  She wasn't super happy about being woken up at the crack of dawn from her comfy hotel bed to drive me to the drop off.  She got exceedingly less happy as we wound through the old farm roads and up the mountain.  Finally as she dropped me off I was bubbling with excitement.  I was nervous and happy and ready to roll. She was in a foul mood.  From her point of view, I had just driven her into the middle of nowhere and abandoned her.  I had to stop her and give her a speech.  Something like “Listen, your role here is to support me, not to bitch at me.”  Which seemed to bring her around. And I was off… It was cool, in the 60's and after 6:00 AM when I finally launched.  The first sections flew by.  Literally.  Because I had started on the top of the ridge there were these long downhills where I was probably holding 30 miles per hour for miles at a time without touching the pedals.  Of course what goes up must eventually come down and there were some good size climbs as well.  For those climbs I took it easy, stayed in the seat and used my gears to conserve energy.  My strategy on this first day was to not do anything stupid.  I had looked at the maps and tried to find some really obvious places for my wife to meet me.  I settled on a grocery store in North Hampton that was about 25 miles in and then another grocery store in Worcester about 77 miles in.  That would give me 3-4 hours of riding before each pit stop.  I wrote all the stop addresses and approximate distances and times out for her – which if you know me, is probably the most organized I've ever been for an event.  I usually just wing it. That first 25 miles was wonderful.  Lots of downhill, some interesting back roads.  The traffic was light.  I took it easy and enjoyed myself.  Pulling over when I needed to, pull over and staying hydrated.  The ear buds and the phone worked like a champ.  The phone stayed fully charged and the nice lady from Google was reading turn by turn directions into my ears.  I had my phone right in front of me on the handlebars and could sort through podcasts and fast forward when I needed to skip commercials.  This is where my first logistical mistake got me.  With my wife needing to go back to the hotel to check out, she couldn't catch me for the first stop.  I had just assumed that with me being out on the road for 8-12 hours she would be able to leisurely follow along and take side trips as she wanted and still have plenty of time to catch me.  But this first morning with here having to go back to the hotel and me flying down the hills there was no way she was going to make that 25 mile stop.  It was ok.  I had her on the phone through the earbuds, so we weren't lost or panicking, I was just going to need to push through.  I had my wallet and my phone with me, so I probably wasn't going to die. At the same time as this stop got aborted another wonderful thing happened.  I found the Norwottuck Rail trail that runs 11 miles from North Hampton through Amherst on a beautifully maintained trail.  Amherst is where the University of Massachusetts is.  The trail has a nice bridge over the Connecticut River.  It was a joy to be spinning along on a rail trail.  They even had porta-potties.  I stopped and ate some food and enjoyed myself immensely in this section.  It was now mid-morning.  And it was starting to heat up.  The next section through the hills towards Worcester was challenging.  Lots of construction.  Lots of hills.  More traffic and bigger roads without much tree cover.  The day peaked out around 95 degrees and sunny.  It was hot.  As I was grinding the hills in the heat I realized I wasn't going to have enough fluids to make it to the next stop.  I was losing too much sweat in the baking heat.  My energy was good but I was getting dehydrated.  With another 40-50 miles to ride and another long day coming I uncharacteristically pulled over to a gas-station convenience store.  I bought a liter of water and a Gatorade.  They were ice cold.  I drank all the Gatorade right there and it was mana from heaven.  My feet were falling asleep from all the climbing.  I was soaked with sweat.  My butt was sore.  Back on the bike feeling hot and tired and a little bit nauseous I cranked through the city hills to where my wife was waiting in the parking lot of a big grocery store.  I drank some more water, filled up my fluids and swapped out two more bottles of UCann.  I was beat.  I took my shoes off and let my feet air out a bit.  It was a welcome respite.  Knowing the evils of spending too much time in the aid station I bid her adieu and mounted back up for the final push of the day.  But, I did feel a bit refreshed.  The last chunk was a bit of a grind.  I had another 40-something miles to push.  At least the sun was starting to go down, but I was worn out.  Two things happened that made the day longer.  The first one was I lost one of my earbuds.  I was screaming down a hill and felt it coming loose.  I tried to grab it with one hand.  I thought I had caught it and trapped it in my shirt.  But I couldn't brake with one hand .  By the time I was able to slow down and stop it was gone.  I dis a desultory search along the length of the shoulder of the road on the hill, but it was gone.  It wasn't a total loss.  I still had the left one and could still here the navigation and everything else.  It actually was kind of nice because with only one I could hear the noises around me better.  The second thing was a detour.  I was watching the map click down.  I knew I was under 20 miles form my destination.  All of a sudden the road was blocked!  There was a detour.  And as I followed the detour, of course the map was screaming at me.  So I had to stop and zoom in and out and see how to backtrack around the detour to get back on route.  It ended up adding 6+ miles to the day.  Which doesn't sound like a lot, but it happened right towards the end for maximum emotional impact! Finally, as I was turning into the back parking lot of Patriot's Place in Foxboro, I heard a noise.  That noise was the loud leaking of a punctured rear tire.  That's right.  Less than a mile away from the hotel I picked up something in the back tire.  I road it until it went flat and called my wife.  And I called it a day. I was tired, sore and hot.  There was no way I was going to change a flat tire by the side of the road for the priviledge of riding ½ mile to the hotel.  I stopped the Garmin at 127.78 miles, 10:03 total time for an average speed of 12.7 Miles per hour. Yvonne came and rescued me.  We took some pictures.  I cleaned up.  We went out for dinner in Patriots place – Pizza and beer.  I slept well, wondering what it would be like to get back on the bikein the morning for another full day of riding. Outro…  So that's where I'll leave it.  I'll pick up on Day 2 in the next episode.  To take you out I'll give you an update on where I'm at.  Right now I'm freezing. It got cold today.  It's the first day of autumn here in New England.  I'm a cold weather guy, but it takes a few weeks for your body to adapt.  And it's dark when I get up in the morning.  Winter is coming! Fitness-wise I still tread the crooked path.  I started a body-building campaign 3 weeks ago, on the first of September.  It was going great.  Really was.  I felt strong.  My balance felt good.  My legs had some bounce in them.  I would recommend this beginner body building program. A question you might ask is what's the difference between weightlifting and body building.  That's a good question.  Both involve lifting weights.  Body building is lifting weight to shape the muscles.  Which I didn't really get until I started doing this program.  Think about it like shading in a picture that makes a feature stand out.  Body building is weightlifting for muscle growth in specific places.  Which, on my old body, doesn't' make a hill ‘o beans of difference, but it's kinda fun to see the muscles changing shape in a very short period of time due to this focus.  Kinda fun. But that fun came to an abrupt end last Friday when I was pulling a dumbbell off the rack at an odd angle and threw out my back.  I know you're getting that schadenfreude felling, aren't you?  You thinking, “I know that idiot was going to over-do it and hurt himself.” Yup.  I'm that idiot.  But in my defense I wasn't actually doing a weightlifting exercise at the time, I was pulling the weights off the rack.  So at least a week off.  Couldn't straighten up for a couple days.  Lots of pain.  A trip to the chiropractor, who by the way is on a first name basis with me.  What does it say about us that our doctors are always excited and happy to see us? Speaking of which my physical bloodwork didn't turn up anything awful but…  But… They did add a note to tell me that my cholesterol doubled in the last year.  Not running + shitty diet = bad cholesterol.  I immediately went on a plant-based diet.  I needed to anyhow.  I was just too have and it's not healthy. My plan is to restart my body building next week.  To take it back to day 1, because I was only 2 weeks in, and lower the weight, focus on the form.  At the same time the Dr. wants me back in 90 days to check that cholesterol.  I will eat plant-based until then and most-likely lose 15-20 pounds in the process. And next week, drum roll please, I meet with the knee Doctor.  Maybe he'll have some new ideas.  I tell you what, this cool weather makes me want to head out into the woods on a run.  If all those things come together just right … I might end up being a mediocre old guy. I'll take it.  As we say it's all frosting on the cake at this point. The warranty has expired and there's no expectations except opening your eyes and smiling in the morning.  Smile baby, And I'll see you out there. … Day 3… Hello again friends.  Let's wrap this race report up.  If you haven't been following along, this is the third in a series of recaps for the 250 bike ride I did this summer across Massachusetts.  I budgeted 4 days for the trip with 2 days of riding bracketed by a day of buffer on both ends. This is Day 3 of the trip and Day 2 of the ride. As I recapped last time Day 1 of the ride from Savoy Mass to Patriots Place in Foxboro ended up being 127.7 miles based on my Garmin.  It was a challenging hot day through the back roads and hill towns of western Mass that took me just over 10 hours.  I did not stop my Garmin at any point, so that 10:15 includes all the breaks.  I have learned that whenever I stop my watch at a break I inevitably forget to turn it back on.  I hit a detour and had a flat at the end that slowed me down a bit as well.  After dinner on Saturday night I changed the tire and tube of the flat.  I had 2 extra brand new tires with me.  As I have recounted earlier, I was riding my Mountain Bike.  I bought some small block tires with a less aggressive tread.  These were not road tires, per se, but they were closer to road tires.  But by the time I got to this ride they had worn significantly from all the road training.  Especially the rear tire, where I picked up the flat.  I decided to swap out the whole tire and tube for new.  Partly because it was easier than monkeying around with the old stuff, partly because it was time.  I left the front old front tire on.  It was in better shape and I didn't see a need to do the work in my tired state or to introduce more variables at that point. I cleaned up the bike a bit.  Put some more lube on the chain, got all my gear ready to go for the next morning, set the alarm and slept like a rock.  Both of the hotels we got for this trip were newer properties and really nice.  No problems at all.  Nobody gave me a hard time dragging my dirty, smelly self and my big bike through the hotel.  As a matter of fact, there was a wedding going on at the Patriots Place hotel and my wife saw Rick Hoyt. I did not go in and say ‘hi' but apparently one of the Hoyt clan was having a wedding reception in the hotel. Day two I had about 120 miles on the plan.  My first pit-stop planned was at a Starbucks 40 miles in to meet Yvonne.  I had scheduled 3 stops into this day thinking that I might need them.  I'd need to get across southeastern Mass from Foxboro to the Cape Cod Canal.  I'd need to get over the Canal.  From there I would find my way over to the start of the Cape Cod Rail Trail that runs from Yarmouth all the way up to Wellfleet, where I'd meet my wife again and have just a short push up top Provincetown to the end.  When I got up in the morning it was cool and foggy.  I felt good.  Part of the unknown about this trip was how it would feel to get back on the bike on that second day.  Turns out it felt fine.  On this day Yvonne didn't have to get up to drive me anywhere, I departed from the hotel and made my way out through the parking areas of Gillette Stadium to get back on route.  I had the same set up with my phone mounted on the center of the handlebars and wired into a battery pack under the seat.  I had my one remaining left ear pod in with the nice Google Maps lady giving me the turn by turns.  I had purchased an audio book for the ride called “Team of Rivals' about Abraham Lincoln's presidency and cabinet.  There I was peddling easy in the cool morning mist through the back roads of southeastern Mass learning all about Salmon Chase and Edward Stanton.  Fascinating stuff. The geography of southeastern Mass is different from the northern and western parts of the state.  It's mostly flat and near the coast.  There are cranberry bogs and small cites.  I rode through Bridgewater in the early part of the day which is a, how shall we say, ‘working class' part of the state.  I got yelled at for jumping a 4-way-stop.  And he was right.  We Massholes are very particular about some things, 4-way-stop rules being one of them.  There was a fair amount of road construction in this section where I had to deal with the sticky new road and the prepped, grated gravel.  Some of the back roads were a bit beat up.  My legs felt fine.  I was able to keep my nutrition going fine.  My butt and feet were okay.  All systems go.  Answering that question of ‘how would that second day feel?'  I felt fine.  I was also able to spend more time in the aero position which helped me relax. I met up with Yvonne at a Starbucks in Wareham.  She managed to get there ahead of me!  I fueled up and had her order me an iced coffee.  She came out with a hot coffee, which was fine, but I just got off the bike from riding 40 miles and really wanted an ice coffee.  After much waiting on the Starbucks brain-trust, I finally got my iced coffee, but I wanted to get going so I put it into one of my bike bottles which was an awesome treat as a rode the next few miles. As I got closer to the canal I was on some busy roads through Wareham and had to pay attention to not get run over by tourists.  The next big unknown for me was how I was going to navigate the canal.  Google maps seemed to think it was possible.  I would find out.  The Cape Cod Canal is a waterway that cuts straight across the base of the arm of Cape Cod from south to north.  It was created 100 years ago so that ships wouldn't have to go all the way around Cape Cod the long way.  It is about 17 miles long running from Buzzards Bay in the south up to Cape Cod Bay in the north.  For the purpose of our narrative the canal cuts right across our route.  We have to get over it.  There are two big Army Corps of Engineer bridges over the canal.  The Bourne and the Sagamore.  These are old-style high bridges to allow ship traffic to go under them.  They are two narrow, highspeed lanes in each direction with a high sidewalk on one side.  They were not designed for bicycle traffic. Back to the story.  Again the Google Maps did a great job of finding rail trails for me to follow.  It popped me out on the southern end of the canal and onto the canal trail.  This was another one of those cool discoveries for me.  It turns out there is a beautifully maintained bike trail that runs the length of the canal on both sides.  This was about 50 miles into the second day, and it was late morning by the time I hit the canal trail.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day.  Lots of people and families were out on the trail.  It routed me up the west side of the canal under the Bourne Bridge and all the way up to the Sagamore, where, apparently I'd be making that crossing. I had to get across one busy road to circle around the back and up onto the raised sidewalk of the bridge.  This sidewalk is raised up above the road surface by a tall granite curb.  There is no railing. So you are a couple short feet away from the screaming metal hellscape of 4 narrow lanes of highspeed traffic.  The signs said to walk your bike.  I did not.  But I did stop at the apex of the bridge arch to take a video with the boats way down below in the peaceful canal.  One funny thing was that the sidewalk was covered with pennies and other coins.  As far as I could determine people were throwing coins out the window of their cars over the sidewalk and railing into the canal.  Like a big wishing well, I guess.  I think this custom goes back to the Romans paying tribute to the water gods.  The pennies that didn't make it over the railing gathered up on the raised sidewalk.  I wonder if there's a notice for boats in the canal to be wary of high-velocity coinfall? Once I got over the bridge it was a quick button-hook back down to the canal trail on the other side.  It was starting to get hot again, but the trial was beautiful, paved, wide, and of course porta-potties! Yay.   The next bit of road was the dicey-est part of this day's ride.  After I got off the rail trail I had to navigate Rte. 6A which is an old, windy, narrow highway with no shoulder and a lot of disappearing shoulder that dropped off into sandy nothingness. I met Yvonne again at another coffee shop around 70 miles in and was in very good spirits.  The ride was going well.  I felt fine.  And I now knew everything there was to know about 19th century American politics. AND I was about to get on the Cape Cod Rail Trail which was home territory for me.  This 25 mile stretch of paved rail trail was where I had been training all summer.  Or at least on those weekends when I was down at my house in Harwich.  But, I had to get over to the rail trail in Yarmouth from the coffee shop on 6A where I met Yvonne.  This ended up being harder than I thought.  First I had to deal with 6A again and then I had to cut across the ‘Arm' of the Cape from north-ish to south-ish to pick up the trail.  One thing most people don't know about Cape Cod is that it is quite hilly in the interior.  Not hilly like Colorado or even like where I live but lots of pesky little rolling hills.  And finally it turns out Google Maps is confused about where the western trailhead for the trail is.  The maps routed me to the middle of nowhere with no trails in sight.  Luckily I knew generally where I was and was able to route to a landmark next to where I knew there was a trailhead in Dennis.  But, it wasted a lot of time and energy.  Once on the trail I was on easy street for a couple hours.  It was still a hot day but the trail has great cover and it's easy going.  Which was good because I was into the 90's mile-wise and was starting to feel the cumulative tiredness of riding for two days straight.  The next and last stop was at the Wellfleet trailhead at the north end of the trail.  This would put me about 100 miles in and just a short push up to P-town.  What happens here is that the rail trail ends and you have to get back on the roads to get the final bit up.  This was probably the low point of my ride, if there was a low ride.  I was pretty tired and looking forward to the end.  As I pulled in and met Yvonne she somehow was under the impression that this was were I was going to stop.  She got mad when I told her, no, I'm going up to P-town.  Not a great point in the journey to get in a fight with your crew.  She went off in a huff.  I climbed back on and cranked my tired legs up 6A again towards the end.  You can use back roads to kind-of zigzag around rte. 6A at this point but I was too tired to mess with it and mostly stuck to the big road.  Which sucked.  It was hilly and trafficky with no cover and my legs were trashed.  In this section I was battling a bit. Finally I got onto the access road that runs along the bay up into the town.  This was a pretty, flat section with the ocean on your left.   It's funny how the big miles at the beginning of the ride seem to fly by but those last few seem to take forever.  It was here that I walked a hill.  What happened was, I was coming down a slight hill into an intersection with the intention of using my momentum to get up the other side, but a car cut me off and I had to come to a complete stop.  I couldn't convince my trashed legs to grind up the other side, so I took a break and pushed the bike for a little bit.  Before long I was getting into Provincetown proper.  Now, one thing I had not thought about was how difficult it would be to get through the center of P-Town on a Sunday afternoon.  P-Town in August is a bit like Carnival.  It's a 200 year old fishing village that has thousands of party-ers dumped into it.  Tiny roads filled with stop and go cars, tourists, scooters, it was Bedlam.  And here I am, fairly wobbly on my big mountain bike trying to navigate it all without crashing.  And then I was turning out onto Macmillan Pier.  I rode all the way out to the end and hit stop on the watch at 123.73 miles and 10:15 for an average pace of 12.1 MPH including all the stops.  My wife called me, which was good because I thought she may have abandoned the project and gone home.  In fairness to her it was a pretty big ask, and probably not the best use of her weekend. She wasn't able to get into the downtown and was idling at a parking lot a few blocks away.  I got some bonus miles riding over to her.  We threw the bike in the back and took off back down the Cape to Harwich where our house is.  All-in-all I was pretty pleased with myself and the ride.  In terms of difficulty, it really wasn't that hard, but it was the right adventure for me at this point in my journey.  We stopped at our house just long enough to shower and change and got back on the road.  Yvonne was sick of travel and wanted to get home.  I wouldn't need that 4th buffer day after all. Turns out we got turned around trying to short cut across the suburbs back home, but we got there eventually.  And we slept in our own bed that night. The next day I felt fine.  No hangover at all from the riding.  I could have easily gotten back on the bike for another day.  I did have some saddle burn that took a week or so to heal up.  Overall, I find bike riding to be easy in the endurance sense.  My heart rate stays low, even in these long, hot, back-to-back rides.  It's a good workout, but it's never hard.  I never felt like I was at the edge.  Maybe that's what I need at this point in my life?  Who knows.  So that's it.  Two days, 250 miles.  127.7 in 10:03 on the first day and a slower 124.73 in 10:14 on the second day.  Found some new trails.  Had an adventure. … So what's going with me?  Well, it's taken much longer to get over throwing my back out than I would have liked.  I tried to restart the weightlifting last week but it was too soon, so I'm taking this week off as well. I'm feeling quite sad and broken around this latest setback.  Not being able to do something, anything to stay fit, makes me squirmy.  I suppose it's another good lesson in resilience, but who among us takes their foul-tasting medicine well?  My company shut down travel for the rest of the year which means I've been trapped in my home office looking at the walls far too much.  I feel a bit like a recluse.  Without the daily run or the daily workout it makes the walls close in.  I guess it's time for me to take up some new hobbies, like competitive lawn bowling or pickleball.  It's all very confusing and transitional for me to be sliding into my 60th birthday on this dust ball not knowing what the future holds.  I had my follow up appointment with the knee Dr. and he was not very encouraging.  I've got an MRI tomorrow and then a follow up.  I really miss running on these cool fall days.  Ollie-Wollie the killer collie is doing fine.  We get out for our walk everyday.  He's 3.5 now and getting much less crazy everyday.  I've got no races or projects on the calendar except the Mill Cities Relay in December.  I am planning on restarting the body building campaign as soon as my back lets me.  And, depending on what the MRI reveals maybe I can work some light running in over the winter.  … At this point I guess I have to tell a story.  My company requires us to use two volunteer days a year.  On the surface this is a great thing.  In reality it's hard for me to find and plan something important to volunteer for during the work week.  I have friends that work at homeless shelters or habitat for humanity and all sorts of other charities, but for some reason I find it hard to coordinate with official charities.  Last year I used my two volunteer days doing trail maintenance in the local trails that I run.  Basically I hiked the trails, picked up trash and cut/moved deadfall.  I always discover that I have to use these days about this time of year when time is running out.  This year I decided to take a Friday off and pick up trash on the roads around my house.  I figured I could clean up those roads that I used to run every day.  It always bothers me to see the trash along our beautiful New England roads.  I don't understand why people can't just keep it in their cars until they get where they are going?   So, last Friday I took a volunteer day.  It was a bit harder than it should have been because my back was still really sore and I couldn't bend over or lift very well, but a deals a deal.  I went to a section of road near my house which is part of a 5-mile route I've run 1,000 times.  It's an old road.  In this section I targeted, it runs flat through a swampy area and there are no houses. With the dry weather this summer the water table is low, and thus more of the swampy parts are accessible.  I drove my truck over there and parked about midway in the section.  I took out a couple big black plastic trash-can liner bags and got to work. It felt a bit strange being by myself out walking and picking up trash on a Friday during the day.  I didn't know if maybe someone would report my ‘strange behavior' to the local authorities who would come and chase me off for not having the proper permits or something.  I began filling my bag with cans and bottles and bags and wrappers that I could get to.  It was maybe a ¼ mile stretch.  I stayed off the shoulder as much as I could to stay out of the road and away from cars.  There isn't that much traffic here, but it's an old road with narrow shoulders and I didn't want to cause anyone to swerve.  When I got to the end of the road I crossed over and turned around to walk the other side.  A strange thing happened when I was midway down the other side.  A passing car slowed down and pulled over.  The driver rolled down his passenger window to talk to me.  “Here we go!” I thought to myself.  I've offended someone or something.  The guy leans over from his driver side and shouts out the window at me, very earnestly, “Thank you!  Thank you for what your doing!”  He was incredibly earnest.  Apparently somehow moved by me dragging a trash bag of beer cans down the road. He may have said some other praiseworthy things before driving off.  Frankly I had my (one) headphone in and was listening to a compelling science fiction story.  I really didn't know how to respond.  I guess I probably smiled and nodded my head in acknowledgement.  I finished up that side of the road and completed the circuit back up the other side to my truck.  Collecting two bags of miscellaneous cast-off refuse.  When I sorted it out the next day, I found that the majority was recyclable.  I even got some money for returning the cans and bottles.   The lesson here is that you think that what you are doing is a small and, maybe, even a meaningless act in the grand scheme of things.  I wasn't feeding the hungry or helping the homeless or solving world peace.  But, what I did on that day, that small action, apparently had a large impact on a fellow traveler.  I always use the metaphor of ripples in a pond.  Every act we take, no matter how small, crates ripples that spread out in ways unknown to us.  Make that act an act of kindness and it will spread kindness.  Make that act an act of helpfulness and it will propagate helpfulness.  Even small actions change the world. Thanks for staying with me on this bike narrative thing and I hope you enjoyed the narrative. With any luck I'll see you out there. Chris,    

001You approach a door. Test perception. If you fail, go to paragraph 105. If you succeed, go to paragraph 166.105You fail to notice a sharp thing, so you step on it and take 1 wound. Go to paragraph 166.166On the other side of the door are things you must kill for reasons. Dig out tiles 2B, 4A, 6A, 8B and 12B and get ready for some paperwork.02:23 AYURIS: Tungaru (Louis Malz & Stefan Malz, Alley Cat Games, 2020)Games Played Last Week:03:48 -Blood Rage (Eric Lang, CMON, 2015)06:29 -Wormholes (Peter McPherson, Alderac Entertainment Group, 2022)09:16 -Envelopes of Cash (Andy Schwarz, Envelopes of Cash LLC, 2022)13:52 -Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan (Gordon Calleja, Mighty Boards, 2023)18:44 -Albedo: Yggdrasil (Kai Herbertz, Herbertz Entertainment UG, 2019)22:47 -Anachrony: Fractures of Time (Richard Amann, Viktor Peter, Dávid Turczi, & Mindclash Games, 2020)27:58 -Trudvang Legends (Jordy Adan, Fel Barros, Guilherme Goulart, Eric M. Lang, Marco Maggi, Francesco Nepitello, Umberto Pignatelli, & Fabio Tola, 2022)34:13 -Long Shot: The Dice Game (Chris Handy, Perplext, 2022)37:10 -Hanabi (Antoine Bauza, ABACUSSPIELE, 2010)40:42 -G.I. Joe Deck-Building Game: Shadow of the Serpent Expansion (Matt Hyra, Renegade Game Studios, 2022)42:45 -The Mirroring of Mary King (Jim Felli, Devious Weasel Games, 2022)News (and why it doesn't matter):44:45 SHUX! September 30-October 2. SVWAG on stage for two live shows on October 1.46:25 We stream games on Twitch and rebroadcast those session on Youtube! Most recently, Anachrony.47:09 Space Dwarfs aka "Squats" from Games Workshop: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/09/13/welcome-to-the-big-leagues-who-are-the-five-biggest-leagues-of-votann/47:50 Fuse: Countdown expandalone48:21 Topic: What a Campaign Needs