The Race

THE RACE
It was the 1970-1980 period of my life and I was working for an international Licensing Company. I had the responsibility for the Far East and Canada as well as certain accounts in the U.S.

I needed to make a business trip to Japan and so I contacted our Agent in Tokyo and asked him to make reservations for me at a reasonably nice Hotel.My only requirement was that there be a nice place close by for me to Jog. I was really into Jogging at that time (having run in a number of competitive races and that was an important consideration for me.)He set me up at The Imperial telling me that was where most of the foreign business men stayed while in Tokyo on business.

Right across the street was Hibya Park," perfect" he explained, "for Jogging".First morning I had free I laced up my shoes and rolled out the front door of the Hotel into Hibya Park. Harry was correct. It was beautiful and did have a jogging trail. Only one problem. I was running 10k's (6.2 miles) in those days and this park was small.In fact it took me about 10 minutes to run the entire course. So I did it twice around...3 then 4 times round."this'll never do" I thought,

What could I do to correct the situation? I could see days on end with no jogging. and I was a jogging junkie. Woe is me!!! Then, the next morning as I was leaving the Park after my morning run, I saw 2 men dressed in jogging clothes, approaching me from the opposite direction and running towards the Imperial. I stopped them and asked where they were coming from. They saw I was dressed in my running outfit and so felt comfortable sharing that information with me."The Palace" they shouted excitedly. It's right up the street and a perfect 3.5 miles in a loop around the Imperial palace. "Beautiful view of the Palace grounds too, with a lake in the middle." The path took one in a climb around the grounds and when the top was reached, the view was fantastic....and so I thanked them profusely and the next morning set out upon a jog around the Palace grounds, about 5 blocks from the Hotel.
It was everything they said and more...
I ran there whenever I could get time away from my duties.

On Friday Harry explained that he had Sat. all planned for me as I did not have any appointments. He planned a trip to see some Japanese Art.which, interestingly enough, in Tokyo were displayed on the top floor of their major Department stores.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and beautiful and accordingly I laced up my running shoes, put on my running clothes and rolled out the front door of the Hotel in the direction of the Imperial Palace to the amused stares of the Hotel employees. "Bucatadi" they quietly whispered shaking their heads as I passed them in the lobby. Roughly translated it meant...ginja nut (Japanese for non-Japanese) I picked up the path at the bottom of the trail that led around the Palace and started jogging. After a while on the path I began to notice distance signs. Suddenly from out of nowhere, runners began passing me from behind. When I picked up the pace, they picked up the pace.

"My God" I thought..."Im in a race." My competitive juices began to flow and I picked up the pace still more.(Ask any runner and they will tell you exactly how I felt.)
...and we kept passing little Japanese men posted on the side of the path glancing at their watches & speaking into 2-way radios. "My God, they are timing us," I thought. I really am in a race!!
We mounted a rise and as we got to the top I could see the entire Palace grounds lying below us To my left near the bottom of the hill was a huge wooden gate, the entrance to the grounds.!!! and the huge doors were open!!!

There were only 3 runners ahead of me and they were turning into the open gates. " I started REALLY getting excited. The doors were closed during the week so this meant I would have a chance to see the Palace grounds and possibly....WIN THE RACE. I had a split second to make a decision.
I went running through the huge gates, turned right and saw a large reviewing stand, filled with people watching the race. I suddenly realized they were looking & pointing at me in puzzlement and saying "How round-eye get in race??? "

I felt one japanese runner close behind me slowly closing the gap between us.
My breath came in short bursts, my legs were starting to go and I put forth one last effort. We raced past the reviewing stand and all I remembered, was I was supposed to stop and accept a trophy or plaque ?...I ran right past everything... out the other side....AND KEPT ON RUNNING. Since I was the first runner to pass the reviewing stand I assumed I had won the race. Where were my registration papers?? Where was my number?? I thought I was in deep trouble...I never stopped until I got to the street leading to the Imperial Hotel. I was afraid I would be arrested or something worse.

That Saturday I got to see the Palace Grounds without being bothered.
.

Posted by seniiorblog at 10:53 AM 2 comments Links to this post
Labels: THE RACE
Saturday, December 20, 2008

BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS
CONSERVATIVE vs LIBERALSTRUGGLE FOR THE TRUTH...(but what is the truth?) the truth is out there....WATCH Seniiorblog in the near future. We will be hosting a battle royal between a conservative and a liberal. Both will present their point of view in their own words and you be the judge.But here is the fun part...oh yes...forgot to mention...they are Father & Son, the father a member of the Senior generation and a former member of the military and retired business management individual. The son, graduate of a popular eastern university, liberal professors and all.ONE..Neutral towards George Bush..the other a virulent Bush dis- liker (don't want to use the word "hater" here.)Each will write in his own words and then the other will respond..should be very interesting. Remember, this is TRUE stuff...every word from the writers pen....er, ah...keyboard...and they are still talking to each other!!!Only found on http://www.seniiorblog.blogspot.com/ or go tothe following link: http://wwwiamangry.blogspot.com/ for an up to date glimpse of the battle.LOOK FOR: STRUGGLE FOR THE TRUTH
Posted by seniiorblog at 5:47 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Sunday, December 14, 2008

Bleed the Seniors, they have all the money!!
Can't you just see a group of avaricious "bottom line" executives (similar to the ones you've been reading about lately in the financial world) sitting around a conference table making the smug, arrogant comment that you see above in the title.
Well, maybe I've gone a little too far but sometimes it sure feels like they may have said it..... but...remember, I was once one of them and heard what went on at management meetings.
Take the eye-care products found in Drug Chains and Mass Merchants as an example. I'm not making any eye-opening statements when I say people develop more & more eye problems as they age. Obviously the Senior-Friendly management folks at Bausch & Lomb know this and they set their pricing accordingly.
Seniors have a lot of dry-eye problems. Have you checked the prices of Bausch & Lomb dry-eye products lately? ... and they are not alone. Take a look at the prices on Alcon products and the new eye-care products coming to market.
But you only need to stroll down the aisle containing the eye-care dept. at
your local Walmart, CVS or Walgreen.. $8 and up for a tiny bottle of eye drops.
Here is one for you. My wife had a condition brought on by a dry eye problem. Her Opthamologist (I'm sure I'm spelling this incorrectly but let him contact his lawyer and correct the spelling. As a Senior on a fixed income I don't have the financial means to afford Spell-Checker.)
The Eye Doctor (much less spent on his degree) prescribed Zylet eye drops, made by you know who...you guessed it, the aforementioned Bausch & Lomb. It's an anti-biotic, tiny 5ml. bottle of eye drops...cost$70.
$70. ....Yes, you read that correctly.
The rest of the eye-care Dept. is not much better. What causes a category to be priced so outlandishly high? Monoply...identification of a group whom they feel they can gouge without much fear of backlash...namely
Seniors.
TIME OUT:
Time for an investigaton. The congressional commitees love to call hearings, sit high up on their thrones and hurl insults at the executives who have made our country so great. Why not look at this group?
Posted by seniiorblog at 7:35 PM 2 comments Links to this post
Friday, November 28, 2008

Bet you thought an older person would never be able to create a Blog eh?
Ha!!! I'll bet you thought an older person would never be able to create a Blog eh? Double Ha!! This is the first one I've attempted..and without help. It's not great but give me a chance, it'll get better.We have a lot more to contribute...we are growing as a demographic group...wield more power...control more money...and it's about time we had a place to express our point of view...and this Blog is going to try very hard to do that.Welcome Seniors; Do you hate/love that label? What would you rather hear? Please leave a post with an answer to that question. Maybe you'll change our world...Looking at the name of this blog, no, I didn't spell it incorrectly. My title of choice was already taken and I had to settle for this...for now.This site is still under construction and will be until I get it the way I want it which may take awhile. Please forgive the appearance. In the meantime this Blog is as much yours as it is mine so please don't hesitate to leave your comments and I will try to answer each one.
Posted by seniiorblog at 6:00 PM 1 comments Links to this post

ANDY ROONEY
I really like Andy Rooney. I've been listening to 60 minutes for years and I look forward to his essay every week that he is on. The one time they dropped him for some other non-interesting commentators, it didn't last.ANDY ROONEYhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Rooney Accordingly I have provided a link to his site so that you can read what he has to say any time you wish. Just click on the website adress shown on this page, hit "copy" on your edit button and paste in his url.
Posted by seniiorblog at 5:59 PM 0 comments Links to this post
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ENLIGHTENMENT....POST 2 under Seniiorblog.Blogspot.com

When we finally decided to move to South Florida from South Jersey I had been working in New York City for close to 10 years so I had an idea of what to expect from the local S. Florida population. Loud, Aggressive, Pushy (not the entire population of course but many of them were repatriates from the N.Y. area.)

In addition there were a large number of..uh,oh...Seniors...and you know what their reputation is,...cranky,opinionated,loud boorish...that combination coupled with my pre-formed judgement gave me very low expectations for our new environment.

So why move?... #1 of course, the cold weather. As we got older it became more difficult to tolerate. Then there were the amazing number of N.Y. Deli's and other great places to eat. In South Jersey they didn't even know what a real N.Y. Deli was. In order to find one in those days you had to travel to..well..New York.

Home values at that time were excellent (although later, prices rose dramatically.

All year round you could play tennis, golf, swim, jog and other outdoor activities.

However, there was the issue of the residents.

But...shortly after we moved down here, much to my surprise, I found out how perceptions could fool you. I was diagnosed with a form of Parkinsons that affected only my legs so I couldn't walk without a cane. Carrying a cane introduced me to a different breed of Senior. Much to my shock, whenever I approached a door, they rushed to assist me. They were solicitous. caring, asking if I needed any help,
some insisting they hold the door until I was safely inside.

Once I encountered a rough-looking individual wearing a head scarf and looking all too menacing.He ran at me & I thought I'd wind up in a hospital emergency ward.
BUT..HE WAS EVEN MORE CARING THAN THE REST,
.......
Talk about being completely wrong!!Then I realized...they were speaking with that same accent!!
So I learned about brain-wiring. My brain had been wired to dislike a person with a certain accent. To such a degree that as soon as I heard it I not only disliked that person but an entire group who spoke with that accent. I learned that I must get beyond that and rewire my brain to look for a person's behaviour, his inner self...not what kind of accent he or she spoke with.

When my wife pointed out to me that I had best friends who spoke with a heavy accent
at first I refused to believe her. Once I realized she was correct I proceeded with the brain re-wiring job. I still have somewhat of a problem getting past the accent to get to the inner core but when I asked myself if I was a prejudiced person, my rewiring job kicked in.

Now I must admit...I feel better about myself...try it, you'll like it.



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