Springdale and and old Running Friend: Steve Foster, RIP (11 years later)

Below lies a post I made on a different blog 11 years ago.

This morning, I ran my course from the Riverplex front entrance, through the Gateway Building and around the fountain, down the path, around the gooseloop, through Springdale, up the mausoleum hill, then up the hill to Prospect, through Glenn Oak park, down the hill past the Ingersoll statue and back. That reminded me of some of the runs I used to take with Steve Foster (and his good buddy Jack Stone) and how Steve would always be ahead of me when we got to the hill and he’d take the opportunity to walk up it. I never gave him grief about it because..well, he WAS ahead of me. 🙂

Today, on a crisp (high 30’s-low 40’s) sunny day, this course took me 1:44 to do. When I was running it with Steve (and often Jack), it would have taken us 1:10-1:15 to do the same course. It turned out to be 8.6 miles. Weight: 184 before running (Riverplex scale, no clothes)

Back in December 2006, I had blogged about finding out that a running friend had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Today I had some sore legs and so decided to take a yoga class prior to trying to run. The class went ok, though I irritated the “behind the knee” area of my left leg when I did backbend; I’ve had some trouble with this recently. So, I had to stop running 22 minutes into my run and walk it in.

I was a bit irritated and feeling sorry for myself; I did the old “my stupid body is made of tissue paper and spit” routine.

Then, just as I got back to the Riverplex, Jack Stone (a fellow runner who is built like an NFL linebacker) called out to me; he wanted to talk.

Steve Foster, one of my running buddies and an active Illinois Valley Strider member, has pancreatic cancer.

Steve’s cancer was inoperable; he was given until June 2007 to live.

But Steve never gave up. After the unsuccessful operation (which did add to the quality of his life), he continued to go to the Riverplex and walk. He also swam and lifted weights; as of the fall of 2007 he was still doing that.

But eventually the cancer became too much; he became bedridden earlier this year (2008) and died a couple of nights ago.

EAST PEORIA – Steve Foster, 54, of East Peoria, Ill., died at 9:50 p.m. Thursday, April 3, 2008, at his residence.

He was born Jan. 19, 1954, in Peoria, Ill., the son of Henry J. and Merry C. (Justice) Foster. He married Cathy L. Donath in Chillicothe, Ill., on Sept. 23, 1972. She survives.

Also surviving are his mother, Merry Foster of Chillicothe; one daughter, Carrie A. Foster of East Peoria; four brothers, Mike (Carol) Foster of Peoria, Jim (Vicki) Foster of Morton, Tom (Char) Foster of Chillicothe and Tim (Beth) Foster of Fondulac, Wis.; and one sister, Teresa (Larry) Painter of Chillicothe. Also surviving are several nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his father and one niece.

Steve graduated from the Caterpillar Inc. apprenticeship program in 1977. He was an engineer and worked for Caterpillar in the TBU department in East Peoria. He worked for Caterpillar for 33 years, having last worked in November of 2006.

He received an associate degree from Illinois Central College in December of 1994.

He was a member of the Illinois Valley Striders Club and served on its board of directors. He was also a member of the Peoria Tri-Athletes and was a mentor for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters for 10 years.

He was a singer, songwriter, musician and artist. But most importantly, he was a devoted husband, father and good friend.

Graveside services will be at 12:30 p.m. in St. Joseph Cemetery in rural Chillicothe. Visitation will be from 10 to noon Monday, April 7, at the Weber-Hurd Funeral Home in Chillicothe, Ill.

Memorials may be made to OSF Hospice or the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245.

Online condolences may be made to the family at www.weberhurdfuneralhome.com

To see what some of his running buddies had to say, go here.

I’ll say a few words:

My last contact with Steve was when I sent him a letter with a photo of myself doing the 2008 version of the Austin 30K.

My first contact with him was as follows:

Back in 1997, I ran the Eureka “4 mile” race (not the Eureka spring classic; this one was during the summer, I think). It was called the “do two”, and the shirts were tye-dyed singlets with Ronald Reagan’s picture on them.

At the time, my best 4 mile run time was around 28 minutes or so and I hope to beat that.

I followed this tall, skinny, long-haired guy the whole way; try as I might I could not close the gap.

We finished and the clock said 25:XX.

I walked up to him and asked “was your time a bit faster than normal?” He blurted out “that ain’t no 4 miles!” and I burst out laughing.

One other memory: Steve and I took off from the gateway building in hopes of getting 10 miles or so; it was colder than all get out. To make a long story short we made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on Prospect; we were out for something like 2:30 or so and when we finished we hadn’t a clue of how many miles we had run.

Steve and I were on different sides on political terms; yet our discussions were always respectful.

I’ll say one more thing: Steve was one of those who, when you saw them, you started to smile. But at the same time, in the back of your mind, you realized how much this guy did for others and you started to ask yourself: “what are you doing to make this community a better place?”

The world (and our community) is a better place because Steve lived here.

Of course, I am sad that he is gone but that is part of the price of having friends.
Maybe I’ll think about him the next time I think of myself as being too busy to lend a helping hand.

How should Democrats react to the Mueller Report?

I am still mulling this one over. Yes, I know that an impeachment from the House would be DOA in the Senate; there aren’t the votes there (2/3 are required for removal). It is not even close, period. Congress will NOT remove Trump from office.

But should the House do it anyway? Here are a couple of editorials as to why the answer should be “no.” The basic idea: practically, impeachment is a political act and it might well backfire. And of course, impeachment is a recommendation that the country’s vote in 2016 be overturned and..ok, yes, Clinton won the popular vote by a healthy margin..but we still had an election. It wasn’t as if Trump was appointed by someone. And a substantial number of people approve of him (low 40’s nationally, 75-80 percent of Republicans).

Vox (Ezra Klein)

Washington Post (Karen Tumulty)

On the other hand, your Republican friends and neighbors are likely to see it this way: New York Times ( Christopher Buskirk)

Ah…time to go for a run.

So proud of Bradley Baseball…

Dallas Baptist is a strong program; and BU beat them after beating Illinois in Champaign this Tuesday. 12 wins in a row versus good competition. And their series sweep loss to Evansville isn’t looking as bad as it initially did.

Ok, what of Trump and the Democrats in 2020?

Ok, how popular is President Trump? Fivethirtyeight: 41.6 (note: this reference lists comparisons to past presidents) and Real Clear: 43.9.

Of interest is Trump’s approval among Republicans: it is in the mid 70’s by this poll:

So, while former Governor William Weld will attempt to challenge him for the nomination, I expect the challenge to gain no traction at all.

The race will be on the Democratic side, and do we have a number of candidates. As of right now: Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders lead and of my “favorite 3”, only Kamala Harris has any traction at all (I also like Corey Booker and Amy Klobuchar).

It is early though and who knows where things will lead.

Ok, do the Democrats push for impeachment in the House?

Yes, I know; the House impeaches and the Senate convicts and there is no way in the world that the Senate is getting to 2/3. So, President Trump will NOT be removed from office.

But should the House take it up anyway?

First of all, what are the political implications? Of course, two situations are never exactly the same and Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about sex during a civil deposition. What Trump did appears to be far more sinister.

But anyway…let’s revisit Clinton: in 1998, while impeachment was being debated, the Republicans held both the House and Senate, though the D’s picked up 5 House seats (no net change in the Senate)

In 2000, the R’s held onto the House though the D’s picked up 1 seat. The D’s picked up 4 seats in the Senate to get it to 50-50, then got to 51 when Jeffords became an Independent and caucused with the Democrats. Ok, Bush won the EC (due to Florida) but lost the popular vote.

What role did impeachment play in this? I am not sure though Clinton left with stellar approval ratings.

So, what are the views?

Some say that the Democrats are ethically and duty bound to at least seriously consider impeachment or start impeachment proceedings, regardless of the political cost.

Some say that the political cost wouldn’t be worth it, given Trump won’t be removed and it would be a distraction from the agenda.

Some say that it would make good political sense; that voters want it. (I disagree that “voters want it.”

So, where am I? I am torn and can come down either way.

I do not know what will happen.

I surprise myself

I wonder if my “run 3 days, walk 1 day” workout schedule is working.

Today’s weight room: rotator cuff, pull ups: 15-15-10-10-5, bench: 10 x 135, 3 x 185, incline: 6 x 150, decline: 10 x 165, military: 5 x 50 stand, 15 x 50 seated, 10 x 180 (90 each arm) machine, rows: 2 sets of 10 x 50 single arm, 10 x 110 machine, planks, headstand, goblet squats: 6 x 25, 6 x 50 (paid attention to integrity), leg press: 6 x 160..ball sits: 4 lbs. medicine ball is almost comfortable…working lower..

All of that went well. Bodyweight: 187.5 with shoes and shorts, which is about 185 without. We shall see.

Intellectually: I am studying the relationship between liner difference equations and time series. Interesting stuff; it is amazing how much utility linear algebra and its principles has.

Mitch McConnell’s book: The Long Game. Manager of Team Republican (encore post)

IF you are a sports fan (NFL, NBA, MLB, or some other team sport) think about what happens when you cheer for your team: do you honestly think that the world will be a better place if your team wins? Honestly, that just isn’t a concern during the game, is it? You want your team to win, and you want your coach to coach to win and your players to play to win. That’s it.

And so, I turn to Senator Mitch McConnell’s book The Long Game. (New York Times review is here)


Yes, there is the obligatory attempts to humanize him (and some of it IS funny…for example, the story about then President Elect Bush during his inauguration asking him where his podium was; McConnell didn’t know for sure..but when the podium rose through the floor at the appropriate time, McConnell gave a cool nod as if he knew all along…)

You learn about his attempts to play baseball (flamed out before high school), and that he likes chicken enchiladas and sports cars. But over and over again, you hear about his love of professional baseball and the Louisville Cardinal football and basketball teams. That is a recurring theme. And, when you think about it, it is very telling.

What you do NOT hear about, at least in detail, is policy. Oh, there is the usual “The ACA bill is horrible”, “McCain-Feingold is horrible”, “Obama talks down to people”, “Obama is a far left politician”, etc., but it is very shallow boilerplate…Sarah Palin caliber stuff. The exception is the discussion of First Amendment issues as it related to the attempted flag burning amendment and to campaign finance reform. The discussion of why he supported sanctions on the apartheid South African government was also interesting.

But you’ll see no detailed discussion of foreign policy, supply side economics, conservative interpretation of law or anything like that. There was next to no mention of religion either.

And very tellingly, there is no discussion of how he wanted to make people’s lives better, or even enable them to live better lives.

The vast majority of the book was about two things:

1. His personal ambition. He made no bones about wanting to warrant a better office, attain membership on better committees, and to attain leadership positions..oh yes..and get elected.
2. His legislative victories; you can almost feel the gloating over his clever filibuster or clever use of the Senate rules to kill legislation he didn’t like or to attain the goals he wanted..and to get members of his team elected.

Moral and logical consistency were not issues for him. He decried Harry Reid’s “destruction of the Senate” (by using the rules to advance legislation) while dancing on the 50 yard line the times he did the same thing.
He decried Al Gore’s Senate theatrics and then described his own. He decried “show votes” (voting on something that the other chamber will not pass or that the President will veto) but then, IN THE NEXT LINE, admitting that he took them.

Hypocrisy does not bother him. Ridicule, so he says, does not bother him (he asks cartoonists for signed copies of cartoons that lampoon him)..though he did dress down Al Franken for making faces while he spoke in the Senate.

What matters to him is WINNING, period..he wants Team Republican to win. Now this might mean taking incremental victories here and there, even if it means getting attacked by “WE WANT IT ALL, NOW” activists (yes, Democrats have to deal with this too). Set things up…get better field position. Hence the title: The Long Game.

And winning (in terms of Team Republican) means winning votes, winning elections..and winning, on a personal level, means advancing. And he does offer quite a bit of insight here (e. g. the way to win a position is to run unopposed, and the way to do that is to lock up key support, early). And he planned, planned and planned some more. Hence the title: The Long Game.

Early in life, he took on jobs so as to better position himself for political opportunities in the future…evidently it wasn’t to serve constituencies. Hence the title: The Long Game.

Still, I was surprised at how little he talked about policy, either the philosophy of it or how it makes people’s lives better.

This tweet really gets it:

Claire McCaskill: “[McConnell] is a very, very political leader. This isn’t somebody who is sitting around at night figuring out how he can move the needle on really important policy issues. This is someone who is figuring out how he can win elections.”

And that brings me to his discussion of President Barack Obama (called “Professor Obama”, as if that were an insult). Here and there he did praise him; he complimented his campaign, and how well he spoke about the TARP issues (called it “masterful”, without notes).

But he claimed that Obama spoke down to people in private, just like he does in public.

That claim got me scratching my head at first; one of the things I liked about Obama is that he didn’t insult me when he spoke. But after thinking about the praise that McConnell had for Joe Biden..and why he praised him, I think I got it.

Obama IS a policy heavyweight and is a pragmatist ..a problem solver. He sees a need in society and goes about trying to get that need met or that problem fixed; whether the solution is a traditionally conservative one or a liberal one doesn’t really matter to him. He is a thinker.

McConnell is NOT a thinker and is utterly disinterested in talking about the Laffer curve, what the data says about supply side economics, when a stimulus works or what the economists say the size should be, etc. So if Obama tries to explain to him why current Republican positions are really crank economics, McConnell is not only disinterested, he is insulted. It is a bit like trying to explain scientific evolution to a dyed-in-the-wool religious nutter creationist. It is a colossal waste of time..and comes across as arrogant and insulting. He’d much rather hear: “ok, this is what I want..and I know this is what you want. What can you live with?” without all of the attempts to change one’s philosophy.

So, you had the classical “thinker” vs. “wheeler/dealer” mismatch. And there is something else.

McConnell worked long and hard to turn his talents (and yes, he has them) into personal success…he just had a Gollum like focus on being the MAJORITY LEADER. And here comes a young freshman Senator onto the scene and just blows past him as if he was standing still. And he has to know that Obama will go down in history as one of the most loved politicians where he will be remembered by mostly political junkies and as an answer to trivia questions: “which Senator lead the most filibusters?”, etc.

That HAS to sting. 🙂

And there is this (which McConnell bellows was taken out of context)

Yes, Senator McConnell. You had a lot of victories. But you lost the World Series, and President Obama won. 🙂

I needed to be outside today

Yoga…then I started a treadmill run due to chilly, drizzly conditions. But after 2 miles (23:20) I was ready for something else..one lap around the track..nope. So I walked back to the car and decided to run 3 outside (on the rivertrail). Then…round the gooseloop..to the end of the ball field…24:30..hmmm…then on the way back I decided to go for an even hour. I looped around the fountain area near the Gateway building to start…distance was something like 4.96 in about an hour even. That, plus the one lap gave me 7 miles for the day.

Knees: not what he says about squats..the unevenness. I have to pay attention to that.

What else? Ah…there is a lot I could talk about; I might read a summary of the Mueller report (yeah, redacted).

No old people, you cannot go home again…

Trump is actively targeting older people in his ads and it appears that much of it is “let’s try to make the country what it once was” in terms of, well, demographics. What is interesting is that we are going to need MORE new workers to come in and pay taxes to prop up things like Social Security and Medicare, and one way to do that is to, well, welcome legal immigrants…perhaps more of them. And those who want to come here are, well, “exotic looking” to many of the olds. (that is, non-white, non-western European in culture).

In reality our culture was never perfectly static, and it will never be.

Personally, I think it is great that I can live in a midwestern decaying rust belt town (ok, I don’t like the “decaying rust belt” part) and still have choices of Indian, Thai, Mexican and Middle Eastern food. And, much of what I enjoy (e. g. yoga) was brought here by others.

But, in some sense, I “get” the yearning for “how it was”, but in my case, I think that I miss the days when my body worked better.

I just lifted weights and was struck by, how over time, I’ve become weaker and weaker. The 300 lb. bench press from 1992-1993 is gone forever. 20+ pull ups at one time is probably gone forever. When 19-20 year old male who is within shouting distance of my size lifts, they will be stronger than I (if they are at all experienced). And in the campus 5K runs, I’ve moved from top 10 percent to the median in my finishes.

So there is a longing for days gone by but…the culture of new immigrants has little to do with it.

Workout notes: weights: pull ups (5 sets of 10), incline, 10 x 135, 4 x 150, decline: 7 x 165, military: 15 x 50 seated, 10 x 45, 10 x 40, rows: 2 sets of 10 x 50 single arm, 10 x 110 machine, usual pt, plank, goblet squats (trying to keep as vertical as possible), etc.

Weight: 188, knee rehab: now 4 lb. medicine ball only. Slightly sore back.

Chiefs 2 Lumberkings 1: fast moving pitcher’s duel

What a game. For 8.5 innings, save two home runs (1 by each team), the pitching ruled; Clinton’s starting pitcher went 7 innings and gave up 3 hits, one HR and struck out 8. The Chief’s pitcher went 8 innings, gave up 4 hits and struck out 8. But it was still 1-1 going into the top of the 9’th when the Chiefs got 2 singles with no outs..then struck out twice. The next batter walked to load the bases with 2 outs and a single won the game.

As I write this, Bradley and Illinois are going into the 9’th inning in Champaign with Bradley up 12-8..but in this slugfest, no lead is safe. Note: they are 3:18 into the game; the Chief’s game went a snappy 2:13 with a lot of 1-3 pitch outs.

I won’t be able to sleep until I know how this turns out…

Ok…BU wins 12-8!!!