Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South this morning in 32:20.

Pam's Path

I walked Pam's Path at lunchtime today in 1:01:09.

Levy Trail Loop

I walked the Levy Trail Loop in 31:16.

Lakewood Lake No. 3

Several other Geezers and I walked from Lakewood Lake No. 3 this morning. I was out for 1:08:44.

Levy Trail North/Hash

I alternated four-minute walks with one-minute jogs to complete Levy Trail North this morning in 28:40.
Early this afternoon, I was out for 1:02:22 with the Little Rock Hash in Cammack Village.
It's nice to have a few days off after having written about Oaklawn Park the last eight days.

Hot Springs/Hot Springs/Oaklawn Park.

HOT SPRINGS—I walked from the Arlington Hotel for 37:07 after Oaklawn Park's opening day card last night. Today, I walked the Oaklawn Loop in 1:08:20.
I made a total of three bets over the first two days of racing and lost $2.

Levy Trail South/Pam's Path

I alternated one-minute jogs with four-minute walks to complete Levy Trail South at lunchtime today in 28:13.
Now I am adequately warmed up to write my final of six Oaklawn Park advance stories. The season starts tomorrow, two weeks later than in the recent past, with nine races, including the Smarty Jones Stakes.
Right at sunset, I walked Pam's Path in a record slow 1:10:26. For starters, my legs were deader than the legs of two dead motherfuckers. Next, with about a mile left, my blood sugar dropped so slow I started stumbling. Fortunately, I had a couple Halloween-size PayDay bars with me. Here's hoping I live long enough for Greta Kuntzweiler to see the new wool coat I bought at Sears.

Pam's Path/Levy Trail South

I walked Pam's Path this morning in 1:06:41. It's overcast, wet, and 33°F. My hands remain cold.
At 7:41 p.m., it's 31. I bought a heavily-line mid-thigh-length wool coat for $43 at Sears last night (when I got home, I tore off a tag on one of the sleeves that had a retail price of $119.95 on it), and it worked perfectly as I walked Levy Trail South tonight in 30:57.
I bought it for early mornings in and around Oaklawn's barns.

McCain Mall

Much earlier this evening, I walked a little over two miles at McCain Mall in a bit over 34 minutes. By the way, any of my readers could've won the Miss McCain Mall Pageant tonight, and that includes fucks who find this while googling themselves, like Alyssa Mastromonaco (even after all the cheeseburgers and French onion dip you've packed away since Charlie Rose put you on his show "for the hour").

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South tonight in an easy, blazing 29:51.

33rd Street Loop/Levy Trail South

I completed the 35th Street Loop this morning in 1:09:54 by alternating one-minute jogs with four-minute walks except for 25 minutes when I alternated four four-minute jogs with three-minute walks. My mile splits were 14:22, 13:59, 13:19, 14:02, and 14:22.
After writing a one-thousand-word story about Smarty Jones and his jockey Stewart Elliott in two hours that took me nearly two more to cut back to eight-hundred words, I alternated four-minute walks with one-minute jogs to complete Levy Trail South in 28:29.

OVERHEARD
"Believe it or not, and I know you know because. ...and by the way, let me tell you about your reputation. You're impeccable, and you really know what you're doing, so you're going to know what I'm about to say."
—from my first ever conversation with 70-year-old Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito. This is the first season he has permanently stabled horses at Oaklawn. He went on to tell me more about the progress of the racehorse benevolence organizations he is associated with. His was the second compliment I had ever heard from a trainer at Oaklawn

PARAGRAPHS OF THE DAY

Stewart Elliott, who rode Smarty Jones into the hearts of racing fans worldwide and within one length of horse racing’s pinnacle, has returned to Oaklawn Park as a full-time jockey for the first time since 2006.

Elliot first came to the track in 2004 when he was a journeyman jockey and he and Smarty Jones, a three-year-old Pennsylvania-bred colt, held no more than middling distinction. Smarty Jones, under Elliott's and trainer John Servis’ guidance, would become the first horse in years to become a household name in Arkansas and to crossover into the consciousness of the general public. No one at Oaklawn on Friday — opening day of the 2019 meet — will wonder about the significance of the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes' namesake.

Levy Trail North

I walked Levy Trail North late this afternoon in 33:03.

Levy Trail Loop/War Memorial Golf Course

I walked the Levy Trail Loop this morning in 32:31. It's gray and cool today and should be perfect for an early afternoon of golf.
I'm on the sixth day of an attempt to run a daily deficit of five-hundred calories. Though I have done this several times over the last ten years or so, this time I have struggled mightily with hypoglycemia. Burdened through the first 11 or 12 holes, I played War Memorial Golf Course this afternoon with nines of 60, including a 16 on No. 2, and 45 for a round of 105. I played with John and Ed, who scored 94 and 90, respectively.

Levy Trail South/Levy Trail Loop

I walked Levy Trail South through steady mist this morning in 30:58.
This evening, after a nice interview with Stewart Elliott, I jogged for a total of twelve minutes to complete the Levy Trail Loop in 28:48. Elliott was Smarty Jones' jockey in 2004 when Smarty won the Southwest and Rebel Stakes, the Arkansas and Kentucky Derbies, and the Preakness Stakes before losing the Belmont Stakes maybe thirty yards short of the wire.

Levy Trail Loop/War Memorial Golf Course

I walked the Levy Trail Loop this morning in 34:54.
John Czarnecki is back from Argentina. He, Ed, and I played War Memorial Golf Course this afternoon. My card is out the car, I think. Anyway, it's too goddamn cold to get it right now. I scored 94. John was probably close to that. Ed probably scored in the mid-80s.

Levy Trail 5K

I am on the fifteenth day of my New Year's resolution to walk, run, or jog at least two miles a day and at least twenty miles a week. It seems as if it has already begun to pay off.
This morning, for instance, I walked the Levy Trail 5K in 45:54, with mile splits of 15:13, 14:40, and 14:40, and it was somewhat easy.

Lakewood Lake No. 3/War Memorial Golf Course

Several other Geezers and I walked Lakewood Lake No. 3 this morning. I believe I went about five and a half miles in 1:40:14, a good warmup for about three and a half months of Oaklawn Park coverage that I will begin tomorrow.
This afternoon, I played the front nine of War Memorial Golf Course in a one-man two-ball scramble format in 40, with 3 pars, 5 bogies, and 1 double. I should do that more often when I'm by myself and the course is as empty as it was today. It's great practice.

Levy Loop

I walked the good ol' Levy Loop this morning in 31:24. It's cold and grayer than two motherfuckers today.

Levy

I went for what was about a five-mile hike through primarily the northwest section of Levy late this morning. I was out for 1:23:04 and walked on at least two streets I had never seen before. One was within a half mile of my house.

LOCK OF TWO MOTHERFUCKERS' LIFETIMES
I haven't bet a football game in a long, long time, and I don't play to start today, but I have recommended to the few sports gamblers I know that they load up on the Indianapolis Colts, currently five-point underdogs to the Kansas City Chiefs, which will host today's AFC semifinal game. I believe the Colts will win outright. In fact, I'm confident they will win the Super Bowl

Result: The Chiefs won, 31-13. I am no longer confident the Colts will win this season's Super Bowl

Pam's Path

I walked and ran Pam's Path this wet, cold morning in 55:58, with splits of 14:37, 12:27, 13:47, and 15:07. After the first half-mile walk, I alternated four-minute runs with three-minute walks four times.

Levy Trail

I walked three miles on the Levy Trail late this afternoon in 49:44.
By the way, I had forgotten how much it helps my writing to read Michael Chabon's fiction. Moonglow—eighty pages in— is wonderful.

QUESTION OF THE DAY
Has anyone other than I let a pet die at home rather than at a vet's office, and if so, why?*
*I'm gonna post this on quora.com to see what I get

Answers are flying in:
Ironic you ask me this today…My parent’s dog died this morning. He was my dog’s best friend…Uncle Moose. He suddenly got sick and tests came back with a lot of problems. He was 9. My dad wouldn’t put him down. Took him home. It was heartbreaking to see him laying there. I took my girl to see him so she would know he was sick and may die. She was worried and nervous the entire time. We had to let her see him so she wouldn’t always look for him when she went over to their house. My parents sat on the couch with him and petted him until his last breath. I’m heartbroken for my girl and for them.

—someone named Cari who doesn't know the difference between irony and coincidence

I got a tiny gray kitten for Mother’s Day, named her Zoe, and she died when she was 22 years old. We kept her son and got her fixed, and then she just became part of the house, not too affectionate, but always getting along with the other cats, mostly keeping to herself, coming around for some scratches once in a while. She was always very healthy, and as the years went on, her son passed away, but she soldiered on. When she started to slow down, we took her to the vet, all organs OK, teeth good enough, so we took her home and life went on. Then she got so skinny, the vet said things were giving out, did we want to put her down? No, she could still walk around, eat, use the litterbox, and she wasn’t in pain, so why would we? One night, we were in the den watching TV, and all of a sudden, she jumped up on the computer desk chair and just laid down. That was very unusual as she was keeping more and more to herself lately. I somehow knew she wanted to be with us, her family, and as the evening wore on, she died. We buried her in the backyard, next to her son, and I cried (as I am now) but I loved her all her long life and am so glad she went on her own terms, with her family.

—scifi writer, Albuquerque

We did. Our cat was dying of kidney disease. He quit eating a week before he died. The vet said it wasn’t painful, and the cat enjoyed being with us and acted pretty normal, so we just kept an eye on him after we all went back home. The night he died, he was on my lap - he had climbed up when I was on the floor. I had to go put the kids to bed, so I laid him on my husband’s lap. When I came back downstairs, I realized that although he was still breathing, he had slipped into a coma and wasn’t responsive. About twenty minutes later, he quit breathing. We were glad he had died at home with the people who loved him.
—Johns Hopkins employee, Baltimore

Levy Trail North

I alternated one-minute jogs with four-minute walks this morning to complete Levy Trail North in 29:51.
Ed Pennington and I played War Memorial Golf Course this morning and early afternoon. Ed scored 93, and I scored 107, with nines of 47 and 60. I used 40 putts, including a five-putt for a 10 on the par-3 13th hole. I pulled shot after shot after shot. Somehow, I still managed to have fun.

OVERHEARD
“It’s too bad this is such a big deal. It’s too bad our society isn’t further along.”
—Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, at a press conference before her first spaceflight in 1983

Levy Trail North

I walked Levy Trail North this afternoon in 35:26. Hypoglycemia significantly burdened me.

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South this morning in 35:47.

Levy Loop

I walked the Levy Loop this morning in 32:13.

River Trail

Several other Geezers and I walked on the River Trail from the Clinton Library to the North Little Rock skate park and back this morning in 1:57:14. We went right at seven miles according to several watches.  Led by Bill Brass, a few of us alternated four-minute jogs with three-minute walks four times en route to the turnaround.

Levy Trail South

I walked Levy Trail South this afternoon in 32:34.

Levy Trail Loop

I walked the Levy Trail Loop this morning in 31:05.

Pam's Path

I alternated nine-minute walks with one-minute jogs to complete Pam's Path today in 1:01:28.
It started raining again, and I'm telling you, if it doesn't stop soon, I plan to become one of those obnoxious let's-do-something-about-climate-change motherfuckers. You know, the sort who stand around dead bodies in Houston and choose fossil fuel as the starting point for their conversation with fucking Robin Young.*
And, oh yeah, this isn't because I care about anyone's grandchildren. I just want to golf more than once a month.
*I am not a climate-change denier. I am bored to annoyance by media personnel who—every fucking time—allow their political bend to intrude on their public response to disastrous weather

Maple Street Loop

I walked the Maple Street Loop at lunchtime today in 34:24.