Training Log Archive: chitownclark

Hardly worth getting dressed. Just didn't feel like running anymore after the first mile. Too late for a long run for next Saturday's 10 miler anyway. Went home and enjoyed some PGA golf on TV, looking forward to the next two days.

From home, through the flower-bedecked springtime streets of Lincoln Park, to the train station, and back.

With clubs. From train to bus; from bus to GC and back again, way up in Waukegan and Gurnee, near the Wisconsin state line.

Bittersweet GC, by self; partners backed out when rain threatened. First time here. Not a bad commute. Went way north to avoid thunderstorms evident to the west on the radar at 6:30 this morning. Sure enough, not only did we not get rain, the clouds blew away by 10am and I was golfing in bright sun.

A great course, and I shot just about as consistent and carefully as I've ever done...so score was an all-time low for me! A new record, on "independence day," for us taxpayers too!

Finished, copied and mailed tax returns around 2pm. Then took off for Northwestern Hospital, to pick up test reports from Tuesday. All clear and cool...very good news! And almost two years after ceasing medications. Only the bone scan indicated increased signs of arthritis. Oh well...I'm still able to do pretty much as I wish.

Our first day in the 80's...a beautiful afternoon to run through Lincoln Park to Michigan Avenue, and back along the Lakefront and through the zoo. The lions were out (the most social of cats; the female hunts, the male guards the pride) and the seals were cavorting, blinking in the bright sun. With the taxes done, it was a beautiful afternoon to be alive!

Working down to the wire on my federal and state taxes. Fortunately I closed out my buildings books last month. So I still have to put finishing touches on Schedules A, B, C, D and E...plus random forms, the 1040 itself, and our Illinois return. I kinda enjoy the exercise. Even tho a prominent tax guru scoffs at those of us who try to do it ourselves.

I guess it is because I genuinely enjoy the taxing process. I think our taxes are scandalously low in this country, compared with other developed countries of the world. I'd love to see federal gas taxes ten times higher, for instance :-)

But I'd also like to see capital gain, income and VAT taxes raised....as long as all my wealthy friends paid them too. IMO the rich in this country are just TOO privileged.

The Sanctuary GC, New Lenox, IL. Left home at 6:15am to get The Rock Island's early express train down to New Lenox. Temps were significantly warmer, but very windy. Little has been done since the prairie days to add structure to the landscape, and the strong spring wind howls across the links. Nevertheless I played 27 holes...the last 18 with Dan, the president of the local Lion's Club, a local entrepreneur, and a southside guy originally...so had the effusive gregarious spirit you expect from southside folks.

When I first played this course last summer, I thought the fairways were too narrow. Today I was much more in control, and the course seemed just right...took 15 strokes off my previous score!

From the New Lenox train station to the GC and back again, hiking golf cart paths, then service roads alongside the tracks. Actually very convenient, yet all the suburbanites I told about my commute expressed amazement.