Will There Be Enough Water?

Well, Tropical Storm Danny is doing his thing today, which for us in the greater Boston area means rain and lots of it. I had originally planned to golf today with some folks from work, but that was rescheduled to tomorrow afternoon, when it should be nice out again. I needed to get a long run in today but didn't want to get drenched, so I opted to do the 13 miles on the treadmill at the Beverly Y. Not my favorite thing in the world, but it had to be done. I struggled through the first five miles, but got into a good groove after that. Just took the girls to the library to check out some new books; Hannah cranks through them so fast. Other than that, looks like we're just hanging at home the rest of the day.

Deb and I went to the Sox-Jays game last night, which unfortunately for me ended in a 6-5 Sox victory. It was drizzling on and off from the start. We stuck around until the beginning of the 7th. Both girls have been dealing with a stomach bug all week and we got a report from home that Hannah was having some more problems. We were meeting some friends at BeerWorks, so we headed over to do that and get home. Right after we got to the bar, the game went into a rain delay. And then we ended up hanging out longer than we planned, so we didn't get home until 12:45. We parked at the Copley Plaza garage and when we went to get our car, the police had already begun closing off streets in anticipation of all the dignitaries arriving today for Ted Kennedy's funeral.

The rest of the week was fairly busy. Wednesday night, I ran in the Lynn Woods Relay; it's a 10-mile race in which each member of the four-person teams runs the same 2.5-mile leg. Even though I was 24 seconds slower than last year, I ran my leg in 18:29, which ended up being the fastest time (by a few seconds) for the North Shore Striders. Whenever I'm the fastest, that doesn't bode well for a team.

I had a new running column this week in the Salem News, this time looking at the ways technology has helped us map our runs.

Played hockey Thursday night. The high school kids were back, so I played defense. We got smoked. Despite running the relay the previous night and 5.25 miles at lunch, I had pretty good jump and skated well (for me, anyway). I managed to pop in a nice one-timer (hockey term) and make some decent defensive plays. My Lynn skate starts up in a few weeks, so at least I'll be in somewhat good shape for it.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I'm preparing for a couple of fantasy football drafts. The first one is on Tuesday and is a 14-team league. I've got the number 2 pick and the guy with the top pick has already told the commish he's drafting Tom Brady (wonder if he'll change his mind after seeing Brady get banged up in last night's exhibition game). If he sticks with Brady, I'll take Adrian Peterson of the Vikings and then will have to wait until pick 28 for my next selection. I also have the second pick in my other league, but that's a smaller league so I won't have to wait as long between picks.

You're soaking in it:

• It hasn't quite been at the same level as the Michael Jackson death coverage (which is still going on), but the Ted Kennedy death has been all over the news, especially in Boston. You'd be hard-pressed to find out about anything else with the wall-to-wall tributes and such. I was fortunate to get on a treadmill in front of a TV that had ESPN on instead of all the others, which had Kennedy funeral coverage. I was never a huge fan of the guy, but there's no denying he accomplished a lot of good things in the Senate (well, I guess there is if you're a conservative Kennedy-hater).
• Speaking of MJ, the LA coroner just came out and ruled the death a homicide because Jackson was given an overdose of propofol, a powerful sedative. Man, this thing is gonna drag out until 2015.
• Just in time for the start of hockey training camps, a new book looks at the general ineptitude of the jamokes running my favorite team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. No shockers here. Anyone who's even taken a cursory look at the team over the last 40 years knows about the culture of stupidity that's entrenched itself in the Leafs' ownership and management teams. Hey, 41 years since the last Cup win and counting, folks.