I always hated running. I never had much stamina. When I played high school basketball and the coach made us run laps, I usually straggled in close to last. In 11th grade, in California, I had the great misfortunate that the new junior varsity coach was also the cross country coach. He’d send us out on lengthy runs through the neighborhoods surrounding the school, and I could be counted on to trail the pack. Coach Ross Gentry was his name. Cursed be it. 

But of late, I’ve started running, and I enjoy it. “Of late” being April of this year. I decided it’d be nice to work up to a 5K race, and was shamed into the idea by the fact that our pastor’s wife had just run a 5K race. But I knew the first step would be managing to run a quarter mile without collapsing. I started running–run an eighth of a mile, then walk, then run again–and I found it fun. But I quickly realized I had done something to my ankle. That something turned out to be a stress fracture. I am terribly fragile. 

I stopped running for a month. And then, when the ailment persisted, I saw a specialist, who confirmed it was a stress fracture. BUT, he said I could still run. The stress fracture would heal, as long as I ran in moderation. He repeated that when I saw him again last Friday.

So since early June, I’ve been running maybe a couple times a week. I did a mile and a half, and then a mile and three-quarters this past Saturday. And I really enjoy it. Why? Why did I hate running as a teenager, and now I find it satisfying? What makes the difference? The difference can be summed up in one word:

iPod

Yesterday, once again, the Office Depot at Covington didn’t have what I needed. And once again, they offered to order it from their website. Several times, it’s been computer monitors (even though they had plenty of those slips which indicate that they’ve got extras in the back). Once it was a laser printer (again–plenty of slips). Yesterday, it was color toner cartridges.

News flash: there’s a reason I make a special trip to your Big Box. If I want to order from a website, I won’t GO TO THE STORE.

Mom and Dad’s house. You can see them with Pam, especially if you click on the photo to enlarge it.

Pam and I spent the last two days helping Mom and Dad with their Memorial Day Weekend garage sale. We did three garage sales last summer, and will be following the same schedule this year–May, August, and October. 

The four of us were selling not only for ourselves, but for my sister-in-law Joyce and her daughter, Paula. So it was a job tallying everything separately. But with a crack CPA running the cash register (well, okay, the legal pad with rulered columns), it was no trouble. At least, not for anyone but Pam. 

Of the $1083 we made collectively, I made $187 and Pam made $139. So that was pretty good. But Mom took in the most money, thanks to her cookies, which she sells for 25 cents each in bags of 2 or 6. She made 58 dozen cookies, and all of them sold. 

Mom’s cookies–peanut butter, sugar, and monster–are famous. People come early just to get cookies, which she bakes fresh and brings out to the garage as soon as they’re ready. We ran out by noon today, and all afternoon disappointed people stopped by to ask, “Got any more cookies?” People would buy cookies, move on to the next garage sale, and then, having dipped into their cookie bag, would return for more cookies. Happened over and over.

Oh, and let’s not forget the homemade noodles. Those went real quickly. We convinced Mom to raise her price, which was at $2.50 a bag last year. We suggested increasing a dollar, but she went with $3.00. People didn’t flinch. Didn’t even notice the price. They just saw noodles, started salivating, and grabbed a bag or two. 

Probably a dozen other homes in the neighborhood also held garage sales. I toured the neighborhood once, checking out the other sales (and bought nothing, I’ll have you know). This is a neat neigborhood, located in a somewhat secluded area on Fort Wayne’s south side, near Waynedale. The neighbors are neighborly; they know each other, enjoy each other. Quaint.

Here are some of random observations:

• For some reason, the “professional” yardsalers who arrive while you’re still setting up–they annoy me. Hey, wait until we’re ready, you vultures.
• A large percentage of the people who come to Mom and Dad’s garage sales are Hispanic. Seemed like a much greater percentage this time.
• I favor a national moratorium on manufacturing mugs. Garage sales are littered with mugs people are trying to unload. We have enough. No more, at least for ten years or so, til we deplete the excess inventory.
• Quite a few Amish people came thorugh. Nice people. I was noticing footwear. Pretty much any footwear seemed okay, as long as it was black. And no open toes. Some women had slip-ons with open heels. Men all wore full shoes–no sandals or anything of the kind.
• I’m not a fan of dealing. None of us were. “Will you take 75 cents for this?” someone would ask, trying to knock 25 cents off an item that originally cost $25. No, we wouldn’t. The price that’s marked–that’s the price. Sure, we did some minor bargaining, but not much. Spoilsports.
• Several people remarked about how clean and organized our garage sale is. Mom is a garage sale commando. She doesn’t go to garage sales, but she loves holding them, and like the perfectionist she is, everything is in its place and properly marked.

Last Monday night, while watching “24,” I received a call from a guy, speaking with an Indian accent, who claimed to work for Hewlett-Packard. He said they were checking on a computer purchased in my name. He asked me if I had a credit card ending in a certain four digits, and I told him I did. He read my billing address. It was correct.

But I was really really suspicious. Would he just continue asking me to verify information? 

I told him I needed to check on some information, and would call him back. Could he give me his number? He did. As our conversation concluded, I sensed some frustration in his voice. 

Then I called Discover and reported the matter. They looked up our charges, and the last five charges were not ours. About $2000 worth. Two were for computers, probably laptops (since they were under $1000)–one from HP, one from Toshiba. Someone opened a Yahoo! Wallet account (which a Discover security woman said was probably a test to see if the card number worked). There were two other purchases–five, altogether.

Discover shut down our account, transferred all account activity (minus the five fraudulent charges) to a new account, and sent us new cards, which arrived Saturday. So we’re back in business. 

As for that HP guy who called? I know why he sounded frustrated. He thought I didn’t believe him. And I didn’t. But if he hadn’t called, we wouldn’t have caught the fraud that early, and many more charges would undoubtedly have been made. Because whoever had our credit card info (and we have no idea how they got it), they were in a spending spree.

Note to HP: for jobs like that, don’t use someone with a foreign accent.

Okay, I’m ready to talk about it.

I skipped church Sunday to play in the Newgy Robo-Pong St. Joseph Valley Table Tennis Tournament in South Bend, Ind., and I feel like I got swallowed by a whale for my transgression.

My goal was to knock off one or two players who were higher rated, and thereby improve my rating with the US Table Tennis Association. This was my seventh sanctioned tournament, and my third time at St. Joseph Valley. I got my first rating–995–here in 2007, and won my table in both categories I entered (they put you in a group of four persons, and you play a round-robin, with the winner advancing to the next round). Last year I jumped nearly 200 points, playing probably my best ever in a tournament. My rating jumped from 1107 to 1298.

Then came the Highland tournament last fall. I had been suffering a lot of vertigo, wasn’t practiced up, and stunk up the athletic center. I lost about 50 points.

So this past weekend, I wanted to gain back some of those points. I wanted to at least break past the 1300 mark. I entered three categories, which occurred in this order: under 1625 (at 9 am), under 1500 (noon), and under 1750 (2 pm).

I started out playing a 1500+ player, an Indian fellow named Ruup. He tore me apart the first game, but in the next two games (we play the best of 5) I had a game point in both games. But couldn’t pull it off. Lost 3-0. I missed a lot of shots I normally make.

Then I played a 1434 player, almost 200 points above me. And I WON, 3-1. So that’ll help. Next I played a lesser rated player, around 1170 I believe, and beat him 3-1. So I was pleased. I would gain quite a few points.

In the under 1500, my table included just two other guys, both higher rated. I played badly, and lost to both of them 3-0. I should have at least made it competitive.

Then came the under 1750 category, where I expected to be blown away. All three guys were rated at least 200 points better than me. One guy had beaten me easily in a previous tournament, and he did that again. The other two–I could have beat them. I’ve beaten much better. But they played well, and I didn’t. 

Those last five losses won’t cost me any points, since they were all to high-ranked players. I beat the only lower-ranked player I played in the tournament, and knocked off one high-ranked guy, so I could jump past 300 when ratings are posted in a couple weeks. But I had prime opportunities to do even better, and I blew it.

So, though my rating will improve, I still went away disappointed. I’ve been trying to change some things in my game, and it has left me a bit confused. For now. And it showed. But I know what to work on, and I’ve got plenty of time before the next tournament (probably in September).

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