Pajama Pants Nation

I’ve never seen The Sopranos. The people I work with never bring it up at the proverbial water cooler. My family, if they see it, never mention it. My school chums never mention it, either. I also don’t watch or read news stories about the show. I’m just not interested.

But I know a lot about it’s ending–which I thought stunk, but now I think may be pretty cool.

If I don’t talk to anyone who talks about the show, I don’t watch the show, and I don’t follow stories about the show, how do I know about it? Sports. I follow sports. And, unbeknownst to me until yesterday, the show seems pretty popular amongst sports commentators. I happened to see a bit of Mike and Mike, the sports-talk radio program they show on TV. (Yes, they put radio shows on TV.) And they disagreed on the quality of the ending. Then I read the paper, and a columnist mentioned the show. Then I read Peter King’s column and he discusses the ending. There’s even a link on the Sports Illustrated web site talking about the connection between sports and The Sopranos. (I don’t know what it says because, like I say, I don’t follow the show.) By the way, the Tuesday Edition of King’s Monday Morning Quarterback (yes, they have Tuesday editions of Monday columns, which you can read while watching radio on TV) gives a great explanation of why the ending of The Sopranos is good: Peter King column. I won’t talk about it here because the writer explains it well enough.

I just find this all interesting. First off, no one really mentions the show until it’s over. (Okay, King talked about it a lot. I think. I don’t know.) Then it’s all they can talk about for a day or two. Third, everything I need to know about The Sopranos I learned from sports talk. It’s all surreal.

Anyway, I’m off to watch the weather channel to find out how the Detroit Lions will do this year.

For your consideration:

Izzy Stradlin’s new album, MIAMI, has been released and can be found on Itunes. Now, I’m not one to celebrate Itunes, but Izzy is one musician who’s worth losing your soul. Plus, it was pretty much necessary to release the album this way. When you don’t promote yourself so much, you need to be a be more flexible in your album releases. I’d much rather see Izzy’s albums on Itunes than see Izzy on a morning news show.

Anyway, the album rocks. Jr’s Song is a bit light-hearted. And how many other albums do you know which have two final tracks? Everythings Alright and FSO Ragga could both be excellent closers to an album.

So, feel free to download the album. While you’re there, grab some tracks from his Ride On, Like A Dog, On Down the Road, and River albums. You won’t be disappointed … unless you don’t like the songs.

Okay, ready.

Here is my typical health club schedule. Monday and Thursday: weight lifting. Tuesday: running with my sister, running on the treadmill, or running with the treadmill on my sister. Wednesday: running on the treadmill. (I know; that was, let’s say, unusual use of punctuation in those lines. Sorry.)

This week.

On Monday, because of the hours of shovelling snow on Sunday, I thought I had earned a day o’ rest and lifting weights after lifting snow might be detrimental, so I did not lift weights.

On Tuesday, I ran with my sister. The bike trail was unplowed so we ran on sidewalks which were equally unplowed. I ended up with a sore back and sore ankles. Plus, I ended up late to work. In my rush to get my workplace shoes tied, I broke a lace; which made me even later.

On Wednesday, the treadmills were all full. I started out on a stair climber machine. When a treadmill became available, I switched to that. It was 7:00 at that time, so I asked the people to switch the channel on one of the televisions to Comedy Central so I could watch the Daily Show. Unfortunately, the foam cover thingy for my headphones had a tear and kept falling off the earpiece, which, in turn, kept falling out of my ear. Then my swinging arms kept knocking the headphone plug from the connection. Furthermore, the Daily Show turns out to not be on at 7:00 as I had thought. So, out of guilt, I spent my workout with an earpiece falling out of my ear, the plug falling out of the jack, and watching a movie starring the duo of John Larroquette and Kirstie Alley.

Tomorrow, Thursday, my schedule is to lift weights. I’m afraid. It’s one thing to have a mishap on a treadmill. It’s another thing altogether to have a mishap with 100 lbs (read 350 pounds) of metal over your head. I’m fearful of what might happen.

However, my curiosity has the best of me. Will nothing happen? Will odd, but not overly dangerous, things happen? Will I collapse and 450 pounds will fall on top of me? (450 because my fellow lifters like to throw things at me.) I’ll be interested to find out. Check back here or the obituaries to find out.

As of today, we are over the hump winter-weather-wise. While the average low remains 3, the average high skyrocketed 5 percent from 19 to 20 degrees. At this rate, in 21 days the average high will be 55 degrees. (Although, the average low will still be 3.)

I love Minnesota!

I’ve never considered myself a runner. Sure, I send time on a treadmill. Sometimes, I even go running with my sister. However, I’ve never thought of myself as “A Runner.”

Today, as I was spending my half hour on the treadmill, once again breaking my New Year resolution (“No more sobbing on the treadmill”), I came to realize that I truly am not a runner. I can take comfort in that, all this time, I was not lying to myself about who I am . . . or, actually, who I am not.

I guess they were serious when they say something positive can come out of exercising. Good news there.