Just another gray day

Michigan is living up to its reputation of becoming rather gloomy, just in time for the holidays. I'm one the road a lot, this week, trying to tackle some of my farflung tuning clients. Bloomfield Hills on Tuesday, Pinckney on Thursday. I hope things slowing down in the next week or two. I'd rather be out in the weather than looking at it from indoors. Oh, and my new mobile firepit is just sitting there, waiting to be fired up.....

Well, off for a run.

She's gone, dammit.

My racquetball buddy, Neile, is gone. She packed her bags into her rabbit (with a little help from her friends) and drove west on Monday. She's in Santa Cruz, CA, far, far away.

I'm left struggling with the absence of a regular, reliable racquetball partner at the beginning of SADD season. Crap.

Racquetball anyone?

Yoplait: Maker of the Critter Torture/Death Cup

I'm pretty peeved at General Mills. When I was out running, today, I happened upon a squirrel whose head was completely encased in one of those tapered yogurt cups. The squirrel had just narrowly escaped being squashed by cars and trucks as it dashed across a busy street before crashing into a curb and catapulting itself onto the running path. Luckily, the critter had the sense to hold still while I slowly extricated its head from the yogurt cup (the actual death cap, pictured above). It shot away into the bushes before I had a chance to see if its neck had been lacerated by the sharp, inward-pointing edge of the opening.

There's been a bit of static on this topic; the Animal Protection Institute wrote an article back in 1999, This is Broken, a website put up by Mark Hurst included an article about how the yogurt cup is a bad design (it was a commenter who brought up the wildlife-unfriendly design), an archive at a website called Lopolis comments on the cup's deadliness.

I dunno. I don't eat the stuff, anyhow, because it has way too much sugar in it. (Ingredients: cultured pasteurized grade A low fat milk, SUGAR, strawberries, modified corn starch, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, whey protein concentrate, kiwis, kosher gelatin, colored with beet juice concentrate, citric acid, tricalcium phosphate, pectin, NATURAL FLAVOR, vitamin A acetate, vitamin D3.

Yummy.

The inside of this Yoplait death cap doesn't smell like strawberries, though. It smells like rancid squirrel's breath (I had to see if the critter really had reason to shove his face in there....apparently not.)
Alright. Quick reality check. When was the last time you crushed the Yoplait container when you were done with it? Never, right? Believe it or not, General Mills would like you to think that it's YOUR fault that that darned squirrel's head got stuck in there. If you had only crushed the container when you were through....yeah, the red print on the container says

PROTECT WILDLIFE
CRUSH CUP BEFORE DISPOSAL

Why wait until disposal? Why not right after you're done eating the stuff? Because you can't get all of the yogurt out of the cup with a spoon and if you try getting the rest out with your finger, you'll cut your finger up!! Yeah, that's a sharp edge there. Look out.

Boycott? I don't select the product, but my wife and kids do. Maybe I can convince them that they shouldn't. My wife boycotted tuna fish for years because of the dolphin fatalities. I'll bet more squirrels and skunks (and other critters) are killed every year by Yoplait Yogurt Death Caps.

Shame on General Foods for claiming to have redesigned this cup. They're only looking out for their bottom line. A few dead squirrels aren't going to change their minds (or cup).

Down with Yoplait Yogurt Death Caps!

It's 2007: Dig In!

Found out, yesterday, that I may not be getting an office with a window any time in the near future. On the bright side, though, the rationale is based on the hope that a new building is in the offing. Looks like the move will happen within the next week - gotta get "shopping" for a new desk (that gray military-issue thing ain't stayin'!), and an area rug. Lino floors are yuck. We're all supposedly getting carpeting, this summer, so I may just make do with a rug that someone abandoned in one of the Moore Building studios. OTOH, if I can get something a little nicer, on short notice.....

Saw the good doctor (Kwok), this morning, and got an EKG (which took less than 2 minutes!). The readout says I'm quite healthy - doc noted that the electrical impulses in my heart are consistent with someone who is very physically active. P (upper heart) and T (lower heart) waves were normal as was the straight line between the ST segment and T wave. (You can decipher all of this at WebMD.) The reason I went to see Kwok is because my new Polar RS100 heart rate monitor (received as a birthday/Christmas gift from my in-laws - Thanks, Mel & Eleanor!) was reporting strange figures. Having gotten the green light on training for a marathon and a couple of centuries (biking 100+ miles per day), I can hit the Start Button on the training program.

So, here are some of the events I may do in 2007:

Heat the Streets 10K* (Downtown Detroit, February 10)
Goal: Complete the course in 52:45 (8:30 pace) or less.
*A fundraiser for the City of Detroit Department of Human Services and The Heat And Warmth (THAW) Fund, Heat the Streets is part of Detroit's Winter Blast festival.




Martian Marathon (Dearborn Heights, MI; April 1st)
Goal: Complete the course in 4 hours (9:10 pace) or less.

Dexter-Ann Arbor Run (Dexter, MI; June 3rd)
Goal: Complete the half-marathon course in 1:55 or less. (PR = 1:57:24)

One Helluva Ride (Chelsea, MI; July 7 or 14 - website not up to date)
Goal: Complete the century course in 5 hours or less. (Avg Spd = 20 mph)

Run Through Hell (Hell, MI; August 11th? - no info available)
Goal:

Apple Cider Century (Three Oaks, MI; September 30)
Goal: Complete the century course in 5 hours or faster than One Helluva Ride.

I'm Diggin' In!!