Correspondence: Fight club

By Moristotle

Allen Crowder is fighting at 5:00 p.m. today, Las Vegas time. I saw the poster shown below at the fitness center yesterday morning:

New year’s exercise

By Moristotle

After doing 150 reps on the strength machines at my local fitness center this morning, I noticed an MMA (mixed martial arts) poster on the wall next to the chalkboard extolling us to honor our exercise habits. Allen Crowder, whom we interviewed on October 31, 2012, has a fight coming up later this month. The interview was long before he turned professional and became a leading poster boy, and he frequently checked in with us for our old First Monday with Characters column.

First Monday with Characters

What long legs Envious has!

Edited by 
Morris Dean

Bettina Sperry, off to the races

While work on the farm had been settling down during the hot days of August, focus on my racehorse heated up significantly. There is so much more to horseracing than appears. Horses themselves can pose problems and race unpredictably, as has been the case with my boy. Horseracing is arguably hard on the people involved, for myriad reasons, though from the outside this can be conceivably difficult to understand. It is a world of constant problem solving, competition, and working towards improvement in racing – at the slow pace of one race at a time.
    I am also enjoying Franklin Hill's new thoroughbred foal [see photo]. Her name is Envious. At just a few months of age, she is gorgeous. She's a rough and tumble foal, and is mean spirited. She has been biting and kicking since day one on the farm. She recently left for her new home where she will be managed professionally during the months ahead. She is clearly a racehorse in the making.

First Monday with Characters

Our new calf, Midnight

Edited by 
Morris Dean

Bettina Sperry, calving

With all the snow and sub-zero temps, the days on Franklin Hill Farm have been spent ensuring that the newly arriving and newly born calf was greeted by the warmth of a cared-for mom. Beginning on Valentine's Day, I spent every morning and evening hauling water and hay to the cow. Finally, on Thursday, Feb. 19th, in single-digit temperatures, she calved her little one. Franklin Hill Farm has four more calves on the way in the coming few months. Our small business thrives.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Siegfried, at 6
    Siegfried’s sixth birthday was January 24. We commemorated the event with our cousins Duvall over lunch at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock [see André’s &Morris’s reports, below]. In the photo right, Siegfried, recently groomed, seemed unsure about being top dog. He's a modest companion, but demanding all the same. He has us well-trained, though, so it works out fine.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Tom Lowe, in remembrance

Fella by the name of Clemens complained years ago, “The coldest Winter I ever spent was a Summer in San Francisco”....He left too soon. From the middle of September to around Thanksgiving the Bay Area experiences the warmest part of its year. That’s where we are right now, with afternoon temperatures in the mid-eighties some days, and foggy mornings. A good season to get some work done, I’m hoping. Finishing my “Spring cleaning” would be a start.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

The Rogers, going with the odds

Sorry I left you believing Janie had Parkinson's Disease. We were told a couple of months ago by our neurologist in Costa Rica that she didn't have PD, and we wanted to wait until we saw our doctor in the States and she had an MRI before sharing that happy news.

First Monday with Characters

March 25, 1942 - March 31, 2014

Edited by Morris Dean

Jack Cover, in memoriam
Jack died one week ago today, at home, in Raleigh. His obituary in the Raleigh News & Observer mentions some activist work of which he was rightly proud and which he liked to recount:

Jack was honored to be a delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, where he became acutely aware of the church's injustice to LGBTQ members. He served two terms on the Board of More Light Presbyterians. He campaigned vigorously for More Light in the last fifteen years of his life, seeking equal treatment for LGBTQ members within the Presbyterian Church. Jack learned to knit just so he could make rainbow scarves [he's wearing one in the photo] for awareness of More Light issues. He was a strong supporter of peace and justice causes, and was disappointed that he was too weak to risk arrest as part of the NAACP-organized Moral Monday protests during the summer of 2013.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Madison Kimrey, on stage

This month I'm looking forward to marching in Raleigh on February 8th and appearing in Les Miserables opening at the Paramount Theater in Burlington on February 21st. Last month I gave a speech at Girls World Expo to encourage other girls to get involved with the issues that are important to them:

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Jack Cover feeling reborn

This late summer and early fall have been much better for me. I now have weekly infusions of Torisel, which seems to be keeping my cancer under control. Cam and I now go every Wednesday to Duke; if it's Wednesday, it's Duke day. I am past the hiccups and swollen legs (edema), but still have a little problem with balance.

First Monday with Characters

Used to be Left Hand Canyon Road

Edited by Morris Dean

Chuck Smythe above the Great Flood

On Monday night, September 23, it began to rain. The forecast was a few hours of light drizzle. We woke up the next morning to a driving, tropical downpour, the sort that just doesn’t happen in Eastern Colorado. It continued all day Tuesday, all day Wednesday. On Thursday it rained the longest and hardest I’ve seen since New Zealand, nine inches in a single day. It rained all day Friday.

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Paul Clark, aka motomynd, in growing family in North Carolina

In a bit of news that may be every bit as petty as it sounds, I am very pleased to announce that not only did my step-daughter not yet dethrone me as fastest half-miler in the family, but I almost had to carry her back from a trail run because I goaded her into a speed workout on hills. Next month we go back to track workouts and I am doomed, but this month age and guile again trump youth and superior athleticism.
    Oh, we did have additions to the family: The resident white-tail does that hang out in our backyards in NC and VA both gave birth to fawns in June and paraded them out for formal introductions.

First Monday with Characters

The new Bay Bridge to San Francisco
from the upper floor of Tom's building
[Transamerica Pyramid far right]

Edited by Morris Dean

Tom Lowe, unmobile

This has been the Spring of my discontent. Back around Xmas I injured a toe while navigating my living space in the dark, and the recovery process, complicated by my diabetes, has gone very slowly. In the meantime I been wandering from doctors office to doctors office working out a strategy to solve this mess. Latest effort is physical therapy, followed by acupuncture to increase circulation when my doctor returns from China. After a couple of weeks the mix of techniques seem to easing the tightness and pain.

First Monday with Characters

[Click to animate]

Edited by Morris Dean

Siegfried at home at home
    About time we included Siegfried in our updates!

First Monday with Characters

Edited by Morris Dean

Click photos to enlarge

Allen Crowder,
the King of Jacksonville
     On January 19, Allen fought William Baptiste in the "King of Jacksonville" mixed martial arts event in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

First Monday with Characters

A new monthly column

Edited by Morris Dean

A month ago, Contributing Editor motomynd, our Green 101 editor, suggested that we establish "a regular update on what one might call feature character stories." The idea instantly appealed, and I started planting. Today we see the first sprouts.

Ask Wednesday: Allen Crowder on mixed martial arts

Our interest in mixed martial arts (MMA) was piqued by the movie Warrior, a very well-done and exciting movie that we reviewed on July 22.
    We learned in September from a poster at the fitness center where we participate in the Silver Sneakers fitness program for seniors that there would be an MMA event in Wilmington, North Carolina on October 7.