Back from where we'd never been

One week ago today, Mary and I were riding a van with a tour guide and a couple from New Hampshire, exploring the south rim of the Grand Canyon and the adjacent Navajo Nation.

Grand doesn't quite describe the Canyon. Magnificent, awesome and spectacular come closer, but if Grand is enough for the people who named it, guess it's good enough for us.

The tour was part of a really fun week-long trip that started and ended in Las Vegas and also included a detour to Hoover Dam. Neither of us are really gamblers -- Mary likes the slots a little and I played a few times -- but Vegas was still a lot off fun. We about broke even and took in shows staring Ray Romano, the winners of "America's Got Talent" and a "Rat Pack" tribute cast -- the guy doing Sinatra was pretty good.

Neither of us had ever been there before and I wouldn't place a Vegas wager on us ever going back. But much like our 25th anniversary trip to Hawaii three years ago, this was a blast from start to finish.

Among the highlights:
-- Getting the two-seat, more leg room row on Southwest both coming and going. When you have a five-hour flight ahead of you and are 6-foot-5, leg room is everything.
-- Seeing Romano at the Mirage the night we flew in. It started at 1o p.m. -- 2 a.m. by our east coast body clocks -- but we hung in there and laughed it up like natives.
-- Getting to see some of our favorites from "America's Got Talent," a show Mary and I watched quite a bit this summer. The woman who should have won -- in our opinion -- opera singer Babara Padilla --was even better live and I got to meet her after the show. We also loived the Texas Tenors and when those three guys and Padilla teamed up, it was fabulous.
-- Getting to learn all about the Grand Canyon on Wednesday and then heading out to explore it ourselves on Thursday. It just takes your breath away.
-- Dinner at the Hard Rock cafe with that iconic huge guitar out front, and drinks at Caesar's Palace.
-- The musical fountain show outside the Bellagio
-- Not working for a week and spending great time together.

The only down sides: It was pretty damn cold at the Grand Canyon -- 16 degrees when we woke up there Thursday -- and Wednesday night we found ourselves in a hotel pub where a couple actually wanted to watch a stupid early season hockey game instead of the World Series, and talked the bartender into putting it on the big screen TV. Amazing. For a few minutes I wondered if I was still in America. Needless to say we found another place to watch.

We planned this trip initially because we needed to use money we had on account with Southwest after we cancelled last spring's trip to Arizona, when son Dan was left off the travel roster with the Division III College of New Jersey baseball team

So basically, to some degree, we owe the great time we had -- not to mention the fact that Dan is now on the roster of the much better Division I George Mason University baseball team -- to the TCNJ coach being a jerk and not wanting to play those recruited by his much better predecessor.

Thanks, Coach.

Later.

Which decade do you identify with?

I was born in the 1950s.
I started high school in the 1960s.
I graduated college and got my first real job in the 1970s.
I met and married my wife and we had our first three (of four) children -- David, Katie and Danny in the 1980s.
In the 1990s, I really came into my own in my career, becoming top editor of two papers and winning president's rings as one of my company's top editors. We also had our fourth child - Megan.
This decade, I've made it to USA TODAY, seen two kids graduate college, sent two others on their way to college and survived -- so far -- in the struggling newspaper industry.
The other day I read a piece asking about which decade you felt was really yours.
Yes, it said, you've lived in all of them. but which one shaped you, had the biggest impact, influenced who you are?
For me, I think I did most of the defining of who I would become in the 1970s.
I love 60s music and the 69 Mets
I love my wife and kids.
I hate the fact that I most came of age in the days of disco
But that's the fact.
That's when I went from a naive, shy kid to almost and adult who could take care of himself.
That's when I started the career that has helped pay for those kids to go to college.
That's when I went on my first dates, kissed my first girl,. had my first girlfriend, had my first part-time job and met the most people I am still friends with today.
That's when I went to my first concert, my first car and my first job in the media.
Lots of stuff has happened all the other decades...hard to believe this first one of the new millennium is almost done.
But the 70s' made me who I am...Stayin' Alive.
Later.

This and that about that and this

It's October 1, so here's a few ups and downs from the past month...

UP: The Jets are 3-0 (who would have thought?) and the William & Mary football team is 4-0 (for the first time since 1994. The Tribe has am awfully tough game at Villanova this weekend. I credit the fast start, in some part, to daughter Megan and the very peppy pep band for their tireless inspiration.

DOWN: The Mets have been absolutely decimated by injury and absolutely awful since August. The regular season cannot end soon enough. They announced they will lower ticket prices for next season. Good idea. Paying me to watch would be a better one if they are anywhere nears as bad next year as they have been this one.

UP: Son Dan is doing great as a walk-on for the George Mason University baseball team. Off of what he's accomplished since he transferred and tried out in August, it's looking like he might end up on this Division I team with a chance to play.

DOWN: It's October and we're still nowhere near health care reform. It has to happen. We can't have people without access to health care losing everything when they fall seriously ill.

UP: Gannett stock -- over $12 a share at this writing.

DOWN: Gannett stock -- I still have shares obtained at over $80 a share. Sigh.

UP: Mary and I saw Bill Crystal at the National Theater in D.C. on Sept. 13 in his "700 Sundays" Show. Absolutely fabulous.

DOWN: We were supposed to see Peter, Paul & Mary at Wolf Trap, but sadly Mary Travers became gravely ill and passed away.

UP: Peter, Paul & Mary's music will live forever.

DOWN: Saw a really, really bad Adam Sandler movie titled "Funny People." None of the people in it were.

UP: Saw a funny movie with Sandra Bullock -- "The Proposal." Wasn't the chick flick I thought it was going to be. It was laugh out loud funny.

DOWN: Have seen several bad new TV shows I will not be seeing again, including "Cougar Town," "Hank" and the new Jay Leno Show.

UP: Saw three good new ones I'll watch again -- Modern Family. Flash Forward and The Good Wife.

DOWN: Hate having to wait till January for "24" to come back.

UP: "24" comes back in January.

DOWN: Looks like this will be the last season for "24."

UP: It definitely will be the final season for "Lost" I like the show, but it's becoming too much like homework now. Time to wrap it up.

DOWN: My weight -- 12 pounds total so far.

UP: Oldest son Dave has a great new apartment in Hoboken, which I got to see the weekend of Sept. 19-20 when I started helping him move. His sister Katie and her husband Nick came the following weekend to help with the heavy lifting.

DOWN: He lives a little further away now and we don't see him often enough.


Later.

The coaster heads down

I've always loved roller coasters, though I must say it's been a few years since I've ridden one. My kids love them too. Mary....not so much.
The roller coast of weight I've been on all my life is another matter. The way I've continually ridden that one, you'd think I really loved it too. But believe me, I'd be only too happy to get off, and now I'm trying again.
The past two weeks I've been on a nice steady downhill segment. Been stepping up the walking -- more like 4 miles a day instead of 2. And been really watching the food intake -- averaging under 2,000 calories a day. The results have been good -- down 10 pounds the past two weeks. (I always tend to drop a good number the first two weeks before settling into that pound or two a week tedium.)
There's plenty more to go, but I'm feeling good. Just got back from a 4-mile Sunday walk at the park. Made it back feeling like I might go again later today.
I have confidence I can lose the weight I need to drop. Been there, done that. Twice in my life I have lost in excess of 100 pounds. Several other times 40 or more.
Problem is, a lot of it always comes back. Not as much this time, I am happy to say. But enough so I had to stop the coaster from climbing up once more.
I believe things will be different this time. The kids are all moved on, either on their own or in college, so there's not as much tempting junk food around. I'm trying to make lasting changes, not to "diet." (An ugly word if there ever was one.)
Plus, we've discovered a nearby farmers market and have been getting some great fresh, corn, apples and other fruits and vegetables. I've particularly come to enjoy eating strawberries.
I don't know if I can completely get off the coaster. There's lots of stuff I enjoy that will always make it hard. I don't think it'll ever come naturally to turn down pizza and a couple of beers, or a nice thick steak.
But when I've succeeded in the past, it's been through lots of walking and other physical activity to burn those calories. As long as my legs and sneakers hold out, I've got a shot.
Going down on a coaster is fun, thrilling and a little scary. But it's a whole lot more fun than going up.
Later

Falling for an early autumn

It began Aug. 31.
After weeks of hot, sticky dog days of August, we suddenly were treated to a tase of fall.
Morning temps have been in the upper 50s. My wife Mary wore and I almost put on a jacket on our daily 6:20 a.m. walk.
Lunchtime temps have been in the mid-70s -- great to get out and walk at lunch time without fear of working up a sweat.
It simply does not get better than this -- weather-wise -- in Virginia this time of year.
As my son Dave said this morning, while I spoke to him by cellphone as he walked from Penn Station to his job as a Macy's Human resources exec on Sixth Avenue and 45th, "it feels like the first day of school today."
Speaking of the first day of school....
Strangely, although the weather is suited for it, the public schools have not yet reopened here in Virginia.
Apparently there is a state law that requires schools to stay closed until the day after Labor Day. And, since Labor Day is absolutely as late as it can be this year on Sept. 7, that means no school till Tuesday, Sept. 8.
It's an extra week for me of fewer cars and no school buses to compete with on my commute to work, but it does seem strange. Seems the tourism industry got this law passed years ago.
Could be no problem, but then again, if we have more snow this winter -- as the Farmer's Almanac is predicting -- the schools might find themselves in an unnecessary scheduling bind.
As it is, in my home Loudoun County district, the number of scheduled days is the minimum 180 this year, down from 183 last year.
Later.