I Gotta Move

I'm a creature of routine. Every morning, I pretty much know what I'm going to do. And for 13 of the past 15 years, that morning routine has included driving to Marblehead to go to work. It's an 8-mile drive that takes about 30 minutes because of the twists and turns along the way from Beverly and through Salem on my way to Mhead. There's no quick, direct way to get there. This is New England. That's just the way it is.

Tomorrow, my routine will change. I'm still working at the same company, but we've moved to Danvers, which is the next town over. My commute will be a scant 8-10 minutes on back roads, over almost before it begins. And really, a 25- to 30-minute commute isn't that bad, especially when you consider what some folks have to do each day. When I was working at Webnoize in Cambridge, I was commuting more than an hour each way between commuter rail, subway and walking. After doing that for a few years, going back to Marblehead was a blessing. But still, after so many years of the same commute to the same crappy old building, this is a welcome change.

Our offices were spread out in an old warehouse building that had a leaky roof, mold-laden walls and a parking lot that flooded regularly. We're moving to a relatively new office park; the offices and cubicles were built in the last few months. Alas, the biggest adjustment for me will be going from having my own office to being in a cube. It won't be a total shock, because I spent eight years of my career working in newsrooms that had no walls whatsoever. But it has been nine years since the last one, so this will take some getting used to.

I'm not complaining, though. Change is good. I'm looking forward to a new routine, in a new town, new building, etc. I was in my last office for six years and it was amazing how much crap piled up. Just files and junk I never needed. I ended up tossing nearly all of it. It was pretty liberating. I'll certainly miss the privacy and the wall space, but at the same time it'll be a whole new adventure. Well, sort of new. I'll still be doing the same job, just in a different location.

I'll also have to come up with new running routes and find a new gym to work out in. There's a small gym in the office park with showers, but not much in the way of equipment. Again, a new adventure. It's going to be weird. But weird can be good, man.

My Reality

Back to the grind this week. It wasn't as bad as I expected. It helps that there wasn't a ton of work to do this week, which helped me ease back into things after a week off. And it also helped that the air conditioning was blasting away so I didn't have to deal with the 90-degree temps outside.

I was going to go for a 13-mile run this morning, but my legs are a little sore from the last few days so I'm going to run tomorrow instead. I had a couple of lunchtime 5-milers in Marblehead early in the week at the height of the heat wave, but they didn't seem so bad after running in Hilton Head. Then I played hockey Thursday night for the first time in six weeks. We had about half as many players as we did the last time I was there, so I had double the ice time. I felt pretty good and popped in a goal and an assist, but my timing was off; I should have had three or four goals. All the high school kids were gone, so it was mostly the older dudes. My legs were pretty sore from hockey yesterday, but then I ran the Derby Street Mile in Salem last night. I was worried that the tightness would slow me down, but my time was almost identical to last year's. I didn't start out as fast, but finished strong in an official time of 6:01; my actual time was 5:59. Not bad, though; 58th out of 269 runners. My friends Jon and Kerry both kicked butt; Jon was fifth overall with a 4:45 (wow!) and second in our age category (I was 17th) and Kerry won her age group with a 5:54. This year, they split the race up into competitive and family events; my buddy Rick ran the latter with his kids.

Next week, I'll be doing the Lynn Woods relay with the Striders, which is a 2.5-mile leg through some hilly terrain. Should be fun. Speaking of relays, Reach the Beach is less than a month away. I plan on doing some two-a-day runs to get my body used to that, since I'll be doing three legs in 24 hours. I imagine a lot of it's going to be adrenaline-driven, but I don't want to be unprepared, either.

Feel the burn:

• I've gotta say I was shocked that the British government released the Lockerbie bomber this week because he's terminally ill. The 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killed 270 people, including 189 Americans. It's about as despicable an act as you can imagine. I have no sympathy for this guy; they should have let him die in prison.
• Must be tough to be a Minnesota Vikings fan. The last bunch of years have been awful, and now they have to root for once-hated rival Brett Favre. Well, at least they have nice weather there.
• I make fun of Pitchfork at times, but they have some cool stuff up there. This week, they unveiled this massive Decade in Music package featuring their top 500 tracks of the '00s. I need to dedicate several hours to sift through it. Unlike 10 years ago, it seems as though folks aren't as hyped for the end of this decade. Granted, there was all that Y2K hysteria going on then, but believe it or not, we've zipped through yet another decade fairly quickly. I'm going to start taking a look back at the decade in the podcast over the next few months in terms of music, movies, news, sports, etc.