Saturday at Town Lake

I know, it is a very boring title but that is what this is about so, I have to skip titling it something exciting like "Sandra Bullock called me,, Again!".


First off, a public service announcement; I follow several Blogs that I find interesting and inspirational. One of the more inspriratioanal ones is by author Seth Godin. Seth (yes he and I are on a first name basis), is an author of several books that discuss business transformations. He has been referred to as an "agent of change". I think as an agent of change he gets to carry a badge but no gun. His Blog is at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ and it is very interesting. He not only posts stuff about business but also items that are more personal. One of the items that he recently wrote about was "accepting limits" and he ended the entry with the following "And isn't it even worse to write off a person or an organization merely because of what they are instead of what they might become?"


Okay, down to the lake. First off the lake in downtown is officially called "Lady Bird Lake" but used to be called "Town Lake". It is still "Town Lake" to me. Lady Bird makes it sound like Austin used the random noun generator to name the lake. It could have just as easily been named "Tricycle Jerky Lake". Many people have no idea who Lady Bird is. Children of the 60's know, most Texans know, other than that not many people know who she is. Saturday, I was down at Town lake, for a rare afternoon run. I do not usually get down there at this time of day. The trail was packed with people. Runners, cyclists, walkers, families, dog walkers,, you named it. Being down there at this time and seeing so many people, there were lots of opportunities for observations.

• First off, high praise for me, I had a great 14 mile run.
• First criticism goes to me, for not looking at the schedule and running 4 more miles than I needed to.
• There was a guy, (Yes a man) who was wearing the T-shirt with "PINK" on the front of it, part of me hopes that you live alone because someone should have warned you when you left the house and the other part of me hopes you accidentally pulled your daughter's t-shirt from the dryer and did not pay attention. Either way,, yuck…
• I stopped to assist a visitor to Austin. He had a map out and was looking lost so I offered up some help. He was looking for the bridge near his hotel, he could not remember the bridge name,, it was the "something And Richard bridge". Evidently, not too many people know who Ann Richards is. (see also Lady Bird).
• There are two forms of idiocy down on the trail, there are the idiots who do not make their kids wear helmets while riding their bikes and then there are the other idiots who make the kids wear helmets and they don't. Please note, there are more than two forms of idiocy, these are just two examples. (see also, PINK t-short guy and not looking at the schedule guy)
• There was a woman down there who had the coolest Batman utility belt,, it had two water bottles, a pouch, a cell phone and a iPod. Any more equipment on there and she would need some Bat-suspenders to hold it up.
• Best words of wisdom came from a Mother who, after her kid fell down said "Don't fall down".
• Baby Joggers – Fun for some kids, vehicles of torment to others.
• Too many butt crack wedgies to count, not that I want to, I am just saying.