This morning I had been

This morning I had been at my desk for about 15 minutes when the phone rang. Jose’s car battery was dead. What are the odds that his battery would die less than a month after mine? I drove over to his apartment and sure enough, dead dead dead. A jump start got him on his way, and after work I’ll have to give him another one so he can make it to NTB while I go to class. I bought my car in April 2004 and the battery died two years and five months later. He bought his car in July 2004 and the battery died two years and four months later. This just furthers my belief that factory-installed car batteries SUCK.
Last night the news showed the clip of Robert Cheruiyot falling and banging his head hard on the pavement as he crossed the finish line to win the Chicago Marathon. He slipped on some plastic stretched across the road at the finish; the plastic was printed with the marathon logo. I was surprised enough that the marathon would have something potentially dangerous there (the weather was misty, making plastic more slippery); I was even more surprised to read what the head race referee said.
Although Cheruiyot slipped before the tape, he did cross the finish line. It was a painful ending to a race in which he sprinted away from Njenga in the final stretch and finished in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 35 seconds.
“He just slipped,” race referee Pat Savage said. “Luckily for him, he slipped forward.”
Is he seriously implying that had Cheruiyot slipped and ended up two inches from the finish line, he would not have won the race? (The second place finisher was seconds behind.) He slipped while he was running through the finisher’s tape! He slipped on something that the race put there, and that the race is responsible for. The race’s decision to put down a plastic logo made the course dangerous. If Cheruiyot had finished second because of the slip, I think he’d have a serious case to file with USATF and the Chicago Marathon.
But enough of that, and on to the runners I know who ran yesterday! Congrats are in order for Erin, Lisa, Jill, Christy, and Jan, who all finished in style and hopefully did not slip at the end!
My own weekend was less exciting. I spent all of Saturday taking photos at the previously mentioned marching band competition. It was fun, though long, and though I’m scheduled to shoot another one in a few weeks, I’m not sure if I’ll do any more after that. Then again, when I do the math, the money I’ll earn for the six hours I spent there (and the mileage I drove) is about the same as what I make in one day during the week. So, not too bad as an occasional means of supplementing my income.
Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Wings Over Houston, the annual airshow they do at Ellington Field. My favorite two acts were Sean D. Tucker (an aerobatic specialist) and the Thunderbirds. The static displays were ok; yet again, I found NASA’s display to be absolutely pathetic and uninspiring. The Super Guppy was in its hangar, and not on display. The 747 had flown in from Dryden, but you couldn’t go inside. I got to walk through a C5 from nose to tail, get inside a helicoptor, and could’ve gotten in the cockpits of countless planes if I’d wanted to wait in line. But you couldn’t go inside the empty NASA 747.
Sigh.