Let Me Buy You A Beer

I suppose this is a safe offer, because everyone who reads this blog is not nearby. Nevertheless, I would love to buy you a nice cold beer of your choice after work today (Friday). Let me suggest Mackeson XXX Stout. Don't let the stout part scare you off, this is a smooth beer with a chocolate taste to it.

The stout has very dark, black color to it, typical of English stouts. The body is very full, with low carbonation. At initial pour, the head has a light tan color, and is thick, but the head does not last long. The bouquet is hoppy, somewhat burnt in nature, with a strong mossy presence.



Mackeson XXX has a good balance between the chocolate sweetness and the bitterness of the mash. It coats the mouth with flavor, and leaves a taste reminiscent of black licorice. While the alcohol content, which is a relatively low 3.75% won’t stop you from enjoying more then a couple, the fullness and lastingness of it’s flavor just might. Mackeson XXX Stout is a very enjoyable beer, indeed. -Source

Barbara bought me a "Beers of the world" box for Christmas. It is an assortment of 10 beers. This is a nice way to sample beers and find new ones. The Mackeson is one I will be searching for at the store.



I hope to see you this evening at the Tap Room right after work. I will be the guy sitting at the bar drinking a pint of Mackeson. I will be more than happy to buy you a round. It seems a fitting treat since this is the first Friday I have been required to work in three weeks.



Until the next time

John Strain

The Next Thing

I have learned that I need "a next thing" to keep me motivated to run, lift weights, and watch what I eat. If I do not have a future race to put pressure on me, I tend to get lazy. I believe they call that accountability. My next thing is the Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans February 27, 2005.

This marathon is good because I do not have to travel. I first ran it in 1981. At the time, the route was over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. The Causeway is the longest bridge in the world, 24.88 miles.



The marathon course now is entirely in the city of New Orleans. It begins and ends at the Louisiana Superdome.



This marathon does not carry the pressure of the last one. I don't have anything to prove. The only pressure will be the pressure I put on myself.



Until the next time

John Strain

A Fresh Start

There is something hopeful about a new year. It is as though a book closes and another one opens. As the seconds drain out of the old year, a brand new one awaits full with hope and promise. Our attitudes are refreshed and renewed. The things that plagued us during the year and felt so heavy in December; now seem conquerable in January. We have another year. The sun came up again after all. Maybe there is reason to hope. Take another step. Try a little harder. Rethink a strategy. Can you see it now? There are other ways to skin the proverbial cat.



Take heart, look up, hang in there, give it hell, just don't quit. It is amazing the progress you can make with focused attention and effort. Problems do not stand a chance against such assaults. Our phenomenal power is often untapped because we lack effort and belief. Great things are not achieved because great things are not attempted. Do not be afraid to reach for the stars. Do not be afraid of failure. Instead, fear paralysis and inaction.



What you believe in your heart can be achieved with your own tenacious effort and God's grace.



Until the next time

John Strain

One Last Look Back at 2004

As we close the book on another year, I have looked back to compile a list of my more notable experiences and memories from 2004. A blog is a living scrapbook of sorts. It was fun going through the archives and remembering the things I felt were important enough to write about. It was a year with the usual mixed bag of good times and sad, but they all work together to make a full life.

January

My mother begins blogging. Essentially Esther is born.

Spent an evening in the ER when John sprained his ankle.

Went to the Parish Inauguration to watch my friend Marty sworn in as Parish Councilman.

My cousin Dale begins a blog Kokomo's Korner is launched.

I buzzed my hair off and have kept it that way since.

I started writing a book, Lamron, a story about a man with schizophrenia.

Captain Kangaroo died, January 23.

Someone in the UK purchased $5,000.00 worth of doorknobs on my credit card.

Barbara and I attended the Juno Mardi Gras Ball.



February

Janet Jackson exposed her right breast during the Super Bowl halftime show.

I displayed my own right breast to the world Feb. 5.

We enjoyed the Olympia Parade, which goes, near our house.

Barbara and I celebrated our 21st anniversary.

Mardi Gras 04



March

I celebrated my 47th birthday.

We went to California to run in the Napa Valley Marathon and toured wine country and San Francisco.

Mom, Rocky, Becky, and George came to celebrate Becky's 50th.

Mom gave me her piano.



April

We attended the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival. I ran a 10K in the AM.

Cory Hall and two other teens die in a car wreck; they were friends of my son.

I went to my annual retreat at Manresa in Convent, LA.

John's 19th birthday.

I began building a workstation in a corner of my house.

We took a trip to Destin, FL to have a time share pitch.



May

I hired a coach online to help me qualify for the Boston Marathon.

I went on the cottage cheese and peaches diet to get down to my running weight.

Outback food poisoned me.



June

We found an apartment for John in Baton Rouge when he transfers schools in the fall.

Ronald Reagan died.



July

Ran a 4 mile race on July 4.

Went to Orange Beach on the Florida / Alabama line. The area would be hit hard by a hurricane a few months later.

I spent the month watching Lance Armstrong win the Tour De France for a record sixth time.

I fried my digital camera and scanner by hooking up the wrong power source to them.



August

We had a garage sale. We de-cluttered and made money.

John moves to Baton Rouge to begin his second year of collage at LSU.

Summer Olympics.



September

The workstation was finally completed.

Hurricanes were all over the place, but especially Florida.

Barb's 46th birthday.

I ran a 21:03 5K and placed 4th overall.

I met Riri in New Orleans, a fellow blogger.



October

Training hard for the marathon in December, resulted in a pulled hamstring. Most of the month was spent nursing myself back to health.



November

Justin McLeese was killed fighting in Falujah. He was one of my son's friends. We attended his funeral.

John and I went to Venice, LA with Big Roy and Little Roy on a fishing trip.

We totaled our car the day before Thanksgiving.

I got a Christmas card from the President of the United States.

A fight in the NBA spills over into the stands.



December

I made my goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon by running the Baton Rouge Marathon under 3:30:00.

I register for and am accepted into the Boston Marathon April 18, 2005.

We bought another car.

Here's to a great 2005

Until the next time

John Strain

Losing Things

I teach people how to deal with stress. One of the things I tell them is to accept reality, because freaking out will not change things. I stress thinking over feeling and I give all kinds of good advice. For the most part I practice what I preach, but when it comes to losing things, all bets are off.



I hate to lose something. I hate it when I cannot find what I need when I need it. This is the second Christmas in a row; my magnifying glass has gone missing. It probably got thrown out with the mountain of paper and boxes. I went all over the house looking for it. The longer I looked, the madder I got. I was forced to utter profanities worthy of any self-respecting sailor. Only such language seems to soothe my pain at the moment. Barbara has grown accustomed to this behavior and it no longer fazes her. She knows not to interrupt my strings of potty mouth, because they are the balm, which is healing my pain.



Another time this seems to occur, is when I am working on something. I may need a 3/8 inch wrench and cannot locate one. My original task of fixing something is now secondary until I locate the blankety blank wrench.



I suppose I could organize things to reduce such situations, but naaaa. The other things I tend to lose are phone numbers scribbled on envelopes, bills, and sundry mail items. This seems to occur more after Barbara has "straightened up" the house.



I think you can guess how I react when the remote is misplaced. God forbid I have to push the buttons on the actual television. Some traumas are too difficult to write about.



Today at work, one of my colleagues was demonstrating a device she had on her key ring. It emitted a series of beeps if a loud noise were to occur. This was a device to help locate the keys if lost. It worked like the "clapper." That made me think about looking for the cordless phone. My son was notorious for leaving the cordless phone laying anywhere but the charging cradle. Fortunately you could push a button on the base station, and it would make the handset beep. The trouble was, the phone only beeped a few times. If the phone was at the other end of the house, I had to push the button and run to the general area and try to get a fix on where the beep was coming from. I have good hearing like you would expect from a blind guy, but it was hard for me to hone in on where the sound was coming from. Therefore, I would have to push the button and run several times. I did not utter the string of curse words in this setting, because I had to be quiet in order to fix on the sound.



So that's it. When I lose things, I tend to lose my temper. Fortunately, my sense of humor closely follows. Humor is one thing I don't think I will ever lose.



Until the next time

John Strain