Almost a Tragedy

A near tragedy, narrowly avoided.

Yesterday morning in the gym I almost lost a treasured veteran: The pair of shorts that I ran the 2008 Boston Marathon in. I took them to Iraq and had happy thoughts everytime I wore them, but the Iraqi environment and questionable laundry system took their toll on the Fastest Shorts Ever.

Like most Iraqi vets, on the outside, they looked OK, just a little worn, but that is normal. But,on the inside, they were having some problems. The liner on the shorts has lost it's elastic capability. I still wear them, but may retire them to the drawer next to the Fastest Shirt Ever.

Yesterday, I wore them for an outside run (my first good run in several weeks) and they were just fine, and honestly, were trying to get me to run a bit faster than I should based on my most recent running related injury. After the run, I hung them on the hook in the shower room (Tan Man and the Zombie were not around) and then took my shower. I got done with the shower, went upstairs to work and realized I had left a veteran on the battlefield.

After I put my uniform on, I made a bee-line back to the shower room to recover my shorts, luckily, they were hanging patiently on the hook when I came back. They are now waiting their turn to get washed with the rest of my laundry. I was a little disappointed with myself for leaving them behind, but I will take more care the next time around.

Other news: NO FOOTBALL on TV is tough this time of year. NASCAR is trying, but unless Jeff Gordon is winning, I don't have any interest in the race. Duke basketball is making it's late season surge to win the ACC tournament. They pounded the unc tarheels on Saturday, 4 years of frustration came out in Cameron Indoor Stadium and the ghost of Tyler Hansborough was exorcised. The ACC tournament starts this week, I think it will come down to maryland and Duke, but you can never tell. The Blue Devils will get a good NCAA seed, and will probably make the Sweet 16, maybe the Elite 8, but that will be about it. Once again, live by the 3 pointer, die by the 3 pointer. We'll see, I hope the Duke Big 3 (John Scheyer, Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler) can get hot and bury some three pointers.

Survivor is back on. Unfortunately, nobody on the Joint Staff watches the second best show on TV, so I got nobody to talk to about the show. Last week's episode was a classic blindside: Tom used the newly found, hidden immunity idol and blind-sided Cherie on the Heroes team. Russ needs to clean up his act on the villains, or he may be out of there. We'll see. Thursday nights, 8 PM EST, don’t call during that hour.