Phabulous Phelps Perphormance

I love the sport of swimming.  I have a passion for it.  Having said this, I was surprised by how excited I was to watch Michael Phelps make his run at history and his 8th gold medal of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

I have been thoroughly impressed with his performances all week.  The 400 IM, 200 IM, 200 Free, and 200 Fly races were all dominating swims.  The 100 Fly was an incredibly exciting individual performance.  But the relays were the best.

I have to admit that I am partial to relays, and the non of the US men's relays disappointed.  The 400 Free was a wonderful team effort with Jason Lezak's heroic finish.  The 800 Free showed how far ahead the US men are in the 200 Free.  That left the 400 Medley Relay.  The last win needed for the US to sweep the relays, and for Phelps to achieve reach his destiny.

My heart was pounding throughout the 3 and a half minutes.  Were they nervous?  All told they did what they needed to do.  Each member put together strong swims and brought home the victory.  

Phelps' teammates were very gracious afterwards.  They know how special his achievement is regardless of how they felt about the attention he has garnered over the last week or so.  They did what they did for themselves, there country, there family, and there home teams as much as for Michael Phelps.  Does he know how special an achievement his winning 8 gold medals is?

I am not sure that he does.  He is only 23 years old after all.  I saw much emotion from him this week, but I did not see a single tear.  I am pretty sure that I shed more tears over his achievements this week than he did.  In all fairness, I cry pretty easy.  :)

I have no doubt that, in the end, Michael will understand and will reflect solemnly on this week and all that it means.  It was pretty wonderful and he is now a hero to millions of people.  I hope he appreciates it, owns it, and makes the most of it.

Political "Reading" and Thoughts

I have been reading Barack Obama's, The Audacity of Hope.  Actually, I have been listening to his audiobook, which is how I prefer to "read".  Just doing my daily driving I spend 60-120 minutes a day in the car.  It seems an efficient use of my time.  I have also downloaded John McCain's, Character is Destiny and plan to "read" that book next.

Obama's book seems to be a good blend of his politics and how he arrived at them.  I like his easy style and background on his live and thoughts on current events.  I wonder how McCain's book will compare.

I was inspired to pick up his book because one of my swimmers is working in Obama's local campaign office.  As much as I admire her I consider her something of an ideologue.  As such I don't consider her a good source of information regarding the upcoming presidential election.

She was actually discussing Obama with one of my swim parents the other day.  Overhearing the conversation I asked her how her internship with Obama's campaign was going.  It naturally shifted to me asking how I could find out more about his positions on things.  Somehow the swim-mom interjected how McCain was not an option as president.  I asked why and she said (and I am paraphrasing) that he was ugly and gross.  I asked if being good looking was a pre-requisite for political office.  She didn't answer, but proceded to talk about how sweaty and gross McCain was.  My swimmer, trying to help the swim-mom's argument, stated that Obama would be a great president because he had more experience than Abraham Lincoln had before he became president.

I thought about telling her that this was a ridiculous argument on her part, but chose not to.  It seemed that the discussion was pointless.  Why is it that most ideologues are unable to put together any sort of cogent discussions or arguements to 

English Setters are Dogs Too

I have had the pleasure, over the last couple of days, to puppy sit my friends English Setter puppy Carat.  It has been a pleasure to have a puppy in the house again and it has definitely been making the older dogs stay on their toes.

Friday I took the dogs for a walk on the Jodphur Loop at Kincaid Park.  Yesterday JD, Crystal, and Carat played at the Kincaid Beach.  The tide was high and the dogs played along the gravel stretch, in the dunes, and in the tall grass between the bluff and the dunes.