Hank Kalet

Runner’s diary Thursday

I'm still in the slow rebuilding of my stamina — in terms of wind, muscle strength and mobility. So thee miles on the treadmill in 26:20 was pretty good. That's three three-mile runs this week. I'll add another run next week and then progressively increase the distance.

By the way, I think I need new sneakers (old ones pictured).

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Leaves

The colors are shocking this morning, like the trees are on fire. Looking out the window at our patio — well, we couldn'T see the patio for the blanket of leaves. To think, I spent time on Sunday cutting the lawn and mulching and it looks now like I haven'T been in the yard in months. Mother Nature is a tricky one, you know.

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Making voting more convenient

The New York Times offers a useful solution to the long lines experienced by voters in New York. I think the paper has a point and that the suggested solution — simply to allow voting to be done over a longer period of time — should be implemented nationally.

Novak on the fringes

Never let it be said that Bob Novak is an unbiased fellow. The conservative columnist, writing a short blurb at the Chicaco Sun-Times, makes the claim that Obama’s victory last night lacks any broad mandate for change.

Novak admits that the results were a landslide victory, but not enough to do much more than offer a push.

He may have opened the door to enactment of the long-deferred liberal agenda, but he neither received a broad mandate from the public nor the needed large congressional majorities.

OK. But Democrats picked up five Senate seats, lost none and still have a shot at one or two more.

That’s not filibuster-proof, but 54 Democrats — plus Bernie Sanders and maybe Joe Lieberman — is a stronger majority than 49. And while there is disagreement within the party, there maybe enough Republicans now willing to buck their party and fill in the blank.

Basically, my question is why we even bother listening to Novak at this point.

Tears amid the joy

It’s official: Proposition 8 has passed and same-sex marriage is no longer legal in California. I just don’t understand, as I wrote to a friend, how a state that supported Barack Obama by such a massive margin also could vote to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. It is astonishing and horribly sad.