Nixon resigns

Fifty years ago today. After work I put on nicer clothes and went to a friend's parents' house in Newton to watch the resignation speech on TV. Then friends and I went to Cabots for hot fudge sundaes.
Nixon is gone, but it's still there. https://cabots.com/

Edit: I had the thought of reaching out to D and saying that I remember the day. We haven't been in touch since some time in the early 1980s. probably, but I found an email address online that might still work. Is that stalkerish?

She cleared her mind and got it out of her body's way

Commentator synopsizing the preparation of German Yemisi Ogunleye before making a 20.19 meter shot put throw. Gold.

:-( plane crash in Brazil

62 people on board. Thought to be due to ice on the wings. I started to watch the video, swore, and then quit, angry at myself for watching. I am not an aviation expert, there is nothing I personally can do by watching to improve future flights.

Not-tiny shorts

Sifan Hassan (bronze in the women's 10K) was not wearing the tiny shorts that most of the other women were wearing, but some that looked more normal to me. I was rooting for her because of it. I can be as arbitrary with my short-term fandoms as anyone else.
Here she was last year at the Chicago marathon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sifan_Hassan#/media/File:Sifan_Hassan_2023_Chicago_Marathon_(cropped).jpg
Also almost everyone in the field had either yellow or orange high visibility shoes. Looking good.

Some of the women in this race will be in the marathon on Sunday, starting at 2 AM EDT (8 AM in France).
What would my Sunday be like if I get up a little bit before that, check to see if there is any chance of seeing some meteor shower action from the Perseids, then watch the marathon live? On my training schedule Sunday will also be my long-run day, but after all that would I be able to ring without falling over from tiredness?

(I'm planning to record the men's marathon).

Shoulder focus

Sometime in late 1977, I think, I fell while ice skating ("Toe pick!") and hurt my left shoulder. I just kept going to work, and didn't know anything about PT. It got lots better over time but never was entirely the same. Falling in November 2022 was different. I was way older but more conscious of rehab, ice, etc. I think I am back to where I was in earlier 2022, in terms of shoulder stuff, which is to say that strength and flexibility are OK but some things just hurt. It took me 18 years to decide that I am not going to do the part of the Tai Chi warm-up that makes the shoulder hurt. The warmup varies a bit from week to week but is so structured that my (not exactly joke) to myself was that I could predict shoulder pain at about 9:25. Phooey to that. I don't know why it took me so long to decide to skip those stretches.
All of this is background to my immediate reaction to finally watching the kayak races I recorded on Wednesday. I have rented a kayak once in Concord and didn't find it as pleasant as a canoe, but jeez, watching what must be the best form for Olympic kayaking prompted immediate hell no reactions from my body. There are many sports that I couldn't even do at an amateur level. A lot of them seem dangerous to the point that I won't watch. Some things look like pain is just part of it, even when one is not injured, but I had not had this kind of reaction to any other sport.

Speaking of kayaking, unrelated to actually doing it, a year ago two of the BTS members did a short travelogue in NY state. The two episode result, called "Are you sure?" started airing on Disney+ yesterday.
One of their activities was kayaking. Another was buying clothes, including a t-shirt with a crab that says 'Salty to the core." The company has made a fan version. I definitely do not need an additional t-shirt and my plan for 2024 was to not buy any new clothes, but I'm considering it anyway. My hope is that they'll sell out so I won't have to decide. ("not to decide is to decide" used to be a slogan in this household).

Unrelated - the neighborhood skunk is upset again. I have closed the windows and cranked up the air filter.