Levy Loop/Ridge Road Loop (aborted)

I walked the Levy Loop early this afternoon in 29:49. My legs felt thirteen years younger.
This evening I walked the first three miles of the Ridge Road Loop in 47:25, which was enough.

Maple Street Loop/Levy Trail North

I walked the Maple Street Loop this morning in 31:41 and was nearly eaten to death by mosquitoes.
This evening I walked Levy Trail North in 33:13.

Levy Trail Loop/Levy Trail

I walked the Levy Trail Loop at lunchtime in 32:25.
This evening I walked Levy Trail South in 33:40.

Orange Street Loop

I walked the Orange Street Loop this morning in 48:31. Jo turned eight today. I told her she doesn't look a day over six.

Levy Trail North

I walked Levy Trail North this evening in 30:25.

I PLAN TO STAB...
...the next television meteorologist who tells me what I need to do after he or she has declared a tornado warning for my area. They're the equivalent of those people at games who ask me to please stand and remove my hat

River Trail

I walked four miles on the River Trail this morning, out and back from the Big Dam Bridge, in 1:04:50. You should've seen the field in the Miss Big Dam Bridge Parking Lot Pageant.

BY THE WAY...
Research has shown that Pam's Boy received by far it's longest streak of twenty or more daily hits after I wrote the name Alyssa Mastromonaco, the former adviser to President Obama who exposed her pretentiousness on the Charlie Rose Show last spring. I guess the NSA is doing its job. Anyway, I want to see if it will work again. Alyssa Mastromonaco. Who knows? Maybe she Googles herself a lot

Hard to say

The last few entries are ones I left incomplete several years ago. After I tried to update those drafts, from roughly 2009-2011, employees of the National Security Agency were clearly baffled and posted them as if I wrote them tonight. Anyway, that's my best guess.

Park Hill Loop

I slept two hours last night and will leave here in an hour for a 100-mile drive to Monticello, drive back and spend the evening at work typing in the innumerable names of high-school and junior-college football players who sign today to play for small colleges across Arkansas.
But I didn't let any of that stop me from running the Park Hill Loop. I started 10 minutes after I rolled out of bed, with a slow run of the first, third, and final miles, and an easy walk-jog of the second and fourth.
It was much cooler this morning when I started. I felt better than yesterday, not springy but with some signs of life in my legs, at least enough for me to feel comfortable from time to time.

33rd Street Loop

I jogged the first three miles of the 33rd Street Loop, starting at about 6:30 p.m., and then walked home. I was out for 33:31 , with splits of 11:03, 11:11, and 11:17. It's been eight days since my legs last felt good running. For some reason, I had nice runs on Nov. 10, 11, and 13, when those three interrupted about two months of feeling like I did tonight. Oh well.

York Gary Loop/First Tee

NASHVILLE—I walked the York Gary Loop this morning in 34:37.
I played First Tee with Randal Hunhoff this afternoon and scored 101, with nines of 51 and 50. I had 1 birdie, 7 bogies, 7 doubles, and 3 triples. I used 37 putts.

York Gary Loop/First Tee

NASHVILLE—I walked the York Gary Loop this morning in 34:37.
I played First Tee with Randal Hunhoff this afternoon and scored 101, with nines of 51 and 50. I had 1 birdie, 7 bogies, 7 doubles, and 3 triples. I used 37 putts.

35th Street Loop/First Tee

I walked the 35th Street Loop this morning in 1:01:32.
I saw a Dustin Johnson swing in slow motion in a promo for the President's Cup, and it looked as if he were trying as hard as he could to keep his elbows as close together as possible throughout his swing. Hogan taught that, keeping the elbows together, but I'd never noticed anyone seemingly put such a pronounced effort into the attempt. I went to the range at First Tee and started taking slow-motion back swings full of the tension it took to keep my elbows together. I was killing the ball. I hit maybe fifteen shots, and then Bill Zhang, Jung Kim, and Steve Grace walked by on their way to play a second nine. I went with them and scored a 48 from the back tees, with 2 pars, 4 bogies, 2 doubles, and 1 quadruple. I used fourteen putts.

Levy Trail 5K

I walked the Levy Trail 5K early this evening in 47:19.

Orange Street Loop

I alternated one-minute jogs with four-minute walks to complete the Orange Street Loop tonight in 43:14. Originally I planned to merely walk, but it's too cold out. At 9:42 p.m., it's 58°F in Levy.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY
If the artifacts of Palmyra, Syria, are so important, then why had no one on the face of the fucking earth heard of them before last Tuesday?*
When is this red-nose-day, pink-everyfuckingthing, colored-bracelet, ice-bucket-challenge bullshit going to stop? I'll donate everything I own if they'll just stop it
*no shit, someone wrote a headline in the LA Times that read, "The city that makes Rome blush" Do what? "Hey, Vinny. Look here what they wrote in the LA Times. ...Yeah, right, that's what I said. We're all blushing our asses off aren't we? Fucking Palmyra."

Levy Trail Loop

I walked the Levy Trail Loop this morning in 31:23.
American Pharoah won the Preakness Stakes. My pick, Divining Rod, looked ready to pounce at the head of the stretch but drifted right all the way to the wire and finished third. For the next three weeks we'll read how superior American Pharoah is and why he will win the Triple Crown. I hope he does, truly, but will likely bet against him.
Why isn't every single news story today about all those fat motorcycle fucks and their shootout in Waco? To me it's one of the great stories in world history. Will we have to wait on The New Yorker?

Burns Park

It took me 1:17:56 to set the Great Cross Country Race in Burns Park this morning through a steady mist and occasional bursts of cold rain. There are all sorts of patches of heavy rain nearby and therefore my fingers are crossed.

PETE THE MAGICIAN'S GOD-DOG SOLID GOLD LOCK OF TWO LIFETIMES PREAKNESS PICKS
Bear in mind, I haven't successfully picked a Preakness Stakes winner since Secretariat in 1973. Nevertheless, I will go for a long-shot special for the 42nd consecutive time.
I'm going with Divining Rod (7) on top.
Let's bet:
$5 on Divining Rod to win. The payout should be somewhere around $65
$5 exacta with Divining Rod over American Pharoah (1) and Firing Line (8). That should pay between $250 and $400
$5 buy-that-NBA-franchise-you've-always-wanted Superfecta with Divining Rod followed by Firing Line, Dortmund (2), and Danzig Moon (4)
That will cost us a total of $20

Maple Street Loop

I walked the Maple Street Loop tonight in 33:51.

TWO TRUISMS
No matter where you live, except for Honolulu, Hawaii, or Fairbanks, Alaska, someone will say, "If you like don't the weather here, just give it fifteen minutes."
No matter where you go to college, except for Liberty or Brigham Young Universities, at some point someone will tell you that Playboy Magazine once named it America's No. 1 party school*
*this only applies to schools anyone could imagine the average Playboy reader has ever heard of. Arkansas-Little Rock is out, as are Arkansas Tech, Henderson State, Harding, and Ouachita Baptist. The Universities of Arkansas and Wyoming are in

Levy Trail

The Geezers and I walked for 1:14:01 on the Levy Trail this morning. I had an A1c test last Friday for the first time since 2009. An A1c tells a person's average blood glucose level for the previous three months. I scored a 5.1, which means on average my blood glucose level was 103.5 milligrams of glucose/deciliter of blood, or perfect. The vast majority of non-diabetics fall between 80-120.

Mount Magazine Trail Run

HAVANA, Ark.—A Hasher named Bill Dobbins and I decided to do the shortest of options at the Mount Magazine Trail Run today, which was seven miles rather than 12 or 18, but we got lost. It took us quite a bit more than three hours to go 9.52 miles (according to Bill's GPS watch). I felt shitty every step of the way. My calves were stiff, my right heel hurt, and my right shoulder is stiff and sore from a pneumonia vaccination someone gave me yesterday afternoon. Afterward I got colder than two motherfuckers waiting for Bill Brass to finish. On the other hand, I was served three wonderful, very greasy cheeseburgers, and on the way home Brass told me some of his memories of the end of World War II and navigating harrowing, nighttime flights in Vietnam. Brass is a good story-teller.

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South this morning in 34:24.

Levy Trail 5K

I jogged for maybe three minutes but otherwise walked the Levy Trail 5K this morning in 45:39. I went through three miles in 44:09.

Cooks Landing

The Geezers and I walked from the Cooks Landing parking lot near the Big Dam Bridge to the Two Rivers Bridge and back this morning in 1:33:34.
Today is Pam's 14th birthday. She's doing better after three months of ice cream and her pills for either an overabundance or lack of something I can't remember. Thyroid stuff of some sort. What's cool is the Eubanks Veterinary Clinic sent her a happy-birthday email today. They successfully impressed me.

Levy Trail Loop/Levy Trail South

This morning, before I drove to Nashville, I walked the Levy Trail Loop in 31:53. Late this afternoon I alternated one-minute jogs with four-minute walks to complete Levy Trail South in 28:28.

Maple Street Loop/Hash

I walked the Maple Street Loop in 30:24 this morning and did the ol' not-look-at-my-watch-until-the-finish. The time surprised me. It felt as if I were going much slower.
This afternoon I walked and jogged for 49:21 with Z Man out east of I-30 near downtown Little Rock. The Hash run was set by a new, nice guy named Ben and ended in MacArthur Park. We went a little over three miles.

DR. PETE'S KENTUCKY DERBY brought to you by Yum!® brands RESULTS

For the second year in row, after a ten-year drought, my Derby picks paid off.
The $20 win ticket on American Pharoah returned $78. The $5 exacta, which cost $10 since I threw in Dortmund, hit with Pharoah and Firing Line and paid $181.50. The $1 trifecta ticket cost $16 and, with Dortmund on the bottom, paid a disappointing $101.50.
My $1 go-for-the-house-in-Marseille superfecta ticket is in a dumpster somewhere in Hot Springs. Nevertheless, for a total of $47, my readers and I were paid $360.50 for a profit of $313.50.

Levy Trail 5K

Obviously I like this new course, the Levy Trail 5K. Maybe I should set some longer ones. This morning I alternated two-minute jogs with three-minute walks to complete it in 40:17, with miles splits of 12:37, 12:45, and 13:19. I went through three miles in 38:41.

DR. PETE'S SILVER BULLET LOCK-OF-A-LIFETIME KENTUCKY DERBY SPECIAL

I'm going with American Pharoah (18) on top.

Let's bet:

$20 win on American Pharoah—(estimated return) $80
$5 exacta with American Pharoah over Dortmund (8) and Firing Line (10)—$155, $255
$1 trifecta with American Pharoah over Dortmund, Firing Line, and Frosted (15), and Dortmund, Firing Line, Frosted, and Far Right (20)—$250-$1,500
$1 superfecta with American Pharoah over Firing Line, Far Right, and Mr. Z (17)—$30,000-$50,000

38th Street Loop/Ghetto Cat Loop

I walked the 38th Street Loop this morning in an easy 32:06.
Late this afternoon I walked the Ghetto Cat Loop in 33:03. My legs feel a little tired. I might eat a couple of grilled Swiss-and-rye sandwiches tonight as I watch the Reds play Atlanta.