The Susan Kormen Race for the Cure 5K was a great race in spite of all the difficulties. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong in getting ready for the run. First off, the alarm did not go off at 5. Last night I very carefully set the time back to regular time. At […]
Susan Kormen Race for the Cure Read More »
Today I did the Tour de Gruene, starting in Gruene Tx. My day started at 6 AM when Mike picked me up for the ride down to Gruene. It took about 50 minutes to get there. The temperature at start time was a little under 60 degrees. I had worn my red coat but decided
Tour de Gruene Bicycle Classic Read More »
I had a physical exam today. Dr. Hahn found everything okay. My cholesterol was about 179 which is okay, however, I will start taking Lipitor in a couple of days. This is based on the presentation I attended several months ago about cardiovascular health. The presenter had a compiling case for taking the drug.
Tuesday run went a whole lot better than expected. I expected the times to be 9 minutes or more and I thought I might have trouble getting all the laps below 10 minutes. Here is the results: Lap Time Pace RT 1 2:09 8:36 0:54 2 2:13 8:52 1:17 3 1:59 7:56 0:35 4 2:15
Tuesday’s Interval Run Read More »
Here is the plan for tomorrows interval run. Wait until lap key Repeat 6 times Go .25 miles at a pace of 8:00 / mile to 9:30 / mile. Let heart rate go under 105 bps. Wait until lap key. Go 1 mile The first interval will start at the top of the hill and
Plans for Tuesday’s Interval Run Read More »
I have signed up for both events this weekend. Wurst Bike Ride in Gruere. (Saturday) Komen Austin Race for the Cure (Sunday)
Have signed up for both events this weekend Read More »
I have added a new advanced workout to my Garmin 305. The name is “Nov Long Run” and consists of the following steps: Wait for lap key 12 miles with not target speed, heart rate or time. cool down for 1 mile Hopefully, I will get to use this sometime this month. Next weekend is
I ran 10 miles today. Daniel, and his wife Andrea ran with me for the first 6 miles. Andrea’s mom joined us for several miles. It was a beautiful run, the sky was clear, the temperature about 60 with very little wind. We ran at about a 12 to 12.5 mile pace. You can check
This was my first tempo run this season also the first with my Garmin 305. I was hoping to be able to run as fast as I had last season but alas I was much slower than before and there were some strange anomalies. The most interesting one was my heart rate. I’ve used 165
Last Night’s Tempo Run Read More »
Why a blog of my own? I want to have a better record of what is happening in my life — my running, and eating. Also help my memory.
My First Blog Entry Read More »
In October 7, 2007, Marilyn and I were out for the Luckenbach run with the Volkssportverein Friedrichsburg. Here are some of the pictures that we took. I had heard about Luckenbach, which is just a few miles from Friedrichsburg, for a long time. Both places started as mid-19th century German settlements in the Texas Hill
Marilyn and I traveled to the very small settlement of Mountain Spring, Nevada.
Nevada Trip for A Margutti Family Reunion Read More »
Sunday I did Patti’s 45 mile ride from the Salt Lick in Round Rock Texas. I loved the ride, it’s one I am going to remember for a long time. There are several reasons: I was able to complete the ride feeling stong. I have ridden shorter versions of the same route several times before
Patti’s 45 Mile Ride Read More »
In June 2020 Larissa was on a 6 month visa allowing her to work in the UK in the BUNAC program. She had been rewriting and editing materials for the Inland Revenue Service and she was renting a room from Valerie and Malcolm Light, whom she had known since her junior high days. Leeds Castle
Visit with Valerie and Malcolm Light near Chingford, a London suburb Read More »
Edinburgh Castle Cramond Kirk tour with Willa Stewart Edinburgh was a special treat because we visited it with a native! Marilyn’s college friend, Moira Lees, often called Willa Stewart her “oldest friend” because Willa, at age 12, had braved the wartime blackout (without telling her parents) and had ridden her bicycle across town to see
Edinburgh, Scotland in June, 2000 Read More »
Hawkshead in the Lake District Hilltop Farm in the Lake District England’s Lake District, nestled in Cumbria, in the northwestern area of the country, is well-known as a holiday spot. Lake Windermere, shown in the first photo above, is one of the most famous lakes in the area. The uncultivated mountains in the area, known
Visiting the Lake District, June 2000 Read More »
To celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, we visited Paris together. A collection of wonderful memories…
Gary’s Romantic Afternoon with his Sweetheart along the Seine Read More »
In May of 1996, Larissa was graduating from Scripps College. She had done a good job with her studies, and her parents decided to give Larissa a car as a graduation present. We purchased a used 1 year old Nissan Sentra at Roger Beasley Mazda in Austin. She came home the week before graduation, just
Larissa and Gary’s trip from Austin TX to Claremont, CA Read More »
Back in the late spring or early summer of 1990, Rodney called our house in Austin and asked if Larissa would like to accompany their family on a camping vacation, driving west from Texas to Arizona and then Nevada. We told him that Claire, an exchange student from France, was going to be visiting us
Claire’s Visit to America Read More »
Replenishing supplies was always a big chore for the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11, or any other navy ship. There were several ways to do this. It could be done in port, either by using cranes or just by using simple manpower. Or it could be done at sea from a resupply ship. The Chicago could come
Radio Watch at midnight was, in my opinion, the worst watch of all on the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11. It was important, but boy, it was boring. Radio Watch only happened to me, and to the other members of the ON Division, when we were in port and the people who normally stood Radio Watch were
Standing Radio Watch at Midnight Read More »
Abandon Ship was a very interesting drill, because we guys in the computer room would get to go outside. There were two phases to this drill. When I was a junior person in the division, I would go with my group to the exterior of the ship as fast as possible, and we would assemble
Abandon Ship Drill Read More »
I don’t recall any fire drills while I was on the ship. I’m sure they had them, as fire was one of the greatest dangers of being on a warship. We had extensive training in bootcamp on extinguishing fires on a ship. We had numerous shipmates who could tell us about fires aboard ships. The
I was never involved in one of these exercises, although we did have several people fall overboard while I was on the ship. The first thing to do was to throw the person a flotation device, and then report the event to the bridge. The bridge would immediately note the location and would report the
Man Overboard Drill Read More »
This was a problem for which we did a lot of drills. The purpose was to prevent an individual or a small group of people from coming aboard to sabotage the ship and its mission. As we practiced it, the intrusion could could be a single individual or a protest with hundreds of people. When
Repel Boarders Drill Read More »
The computers I worked on printed a continuous log of the activities that the computer was monitoring. These logs were printed on teletype paper rolls several hundred feet long. Many times a day, we would have to remove the paper, date it, and put on a new roll. When things were really busy, we had
Destroying Classified Information in the Incinerator Read More »
The U.S.S.Chicago CG-11 had a ship’s vehicle, an old gray van. It was wrapped in a gray Navy canvas and was lashed to the side of the ship when we were at sea. The van provided the land transportation for the general needs of the ship when we were in port. Taking the ship’s vehicle
Driving from the Long Beach Naval Shipyard to the LAX Airport Read More »
On one of my duty days in 1975 when the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11 was in port at North Island in San Diego Bay, I was assigned the task of escorting a prisoner from the ship’s brig (jail) to a larger brig run by the Marines at the San Diego Shipyard. I knew several days beforehand
Escorting a Prisoner to the Brig Read More »
When I finally got my second class rating, it opened me up to many more responsible duties than I had previously been qualified to do. For example, as a Second Class Petty Officer, I could be a guard in the ship’s brig, the small jail for miscreants on the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11. One day my
Guarding the Ship’s Brig Read More »
One of my first times to do guard duty was at the Naval Tactical Data Systems (NTDS) Command School on Mare Island in Vallejo, California, in the winter of 1971. I had the midnight watch, so I tried to get some sleep before going to my watch location. I always had the intention of going
Guard Duty in the Snow at Mare Island, California Read More »
Shore Patrol duty was always something I dreaded when I was serving in the U.S. Navy. Sailors, after weeks at sea, would reach port with extra money in their pockets, and they would go ashore to do all sorts of activities—shopping, eating real food in restaurants instead of eating Navy chow in the ship’s galley,
Shore Patrol Duty in Olongapo in the Philippines Read More »
Fleet Week, or Navy Days, as it was known locally at the time when I was serving in the Navy, has a long tradition in San Diego. The very first celebration of the prototype of Fleet Week, or Navy Days, was held in San Diego during the California International Exposition of 1935. This was a
Lowering the Colors for Navy Days in San Diego, California Read More »
On the U.S.S. Chicago, there was a ship’s whaleboat, a small motorboat that was pointed at both ends (we carried several on the ship) which ran regularly between the Broadway Pier and our ship when we were in port in San Diego. We went down an “accommodation ladder,” which was a narrow flight of portable
Accommodation ladder (and whaleboat) watch Read More »
On one memorable occasion, one of my friends in the ON Division missed the first step on the ship’s accommodation ladder as he moved from the whaleboat to the Chicago on a particularly rough day, with a storm brewing. He ended up floundering in the water. In the rough waves, the whaleboat was sometimes high
In the summer of 1973, Marilyn, Tom Benton, and I drove out East of LA to climb mount Baldy. We drove as far as we could go, then hiked the rest of the way. It was slow going but the scenery was pretty. I found this very detailed web page about climbing Mount Baldy today.
These letters commend the U.S.S. Chicago after the 1971-1972 WESTPAC deployment, which was my first cruise. This deployment was highlighted by the success of Operation Pocket Money and the mining of Haiphong Harbor. The original documents were posted in the officers’ wardroom. The text of each letter is copied from The Old Bluejacket website. http://oldbluejacket.com/chicago.htm
Commendation Letters to U.S.S. Chicago CG-11 in 1972 Read More »
WESTPAC TALES: When the U.S. Navy Mined Haiphong Harbor (Operation Pocket Money) by DS2 William Gary Pickens First, let me explain how I happened to be involved in this military action…. After I enlisted in the Navy (as an alternative to being drafted into the Army) during the Vietnam War, I was sent to Boot
When the U.S. Navy Mined Haiphong Harbor (Operation Pocket Money) Read More »
WESTPAC TALES: One night in the wee dark hours of the morning sometime in the spring of 1972, when I was a brand new sailor, with a month or so of shipboard experience on the U.S.S. Chicago CG-11 under my belt, I was awakened by a call to GQ (General Quarters, or battle stations). I
My first (ghostly) adventure on the U.S.S. Chicago Read More »
March 16, 1970 — Day One On the day when my enlistment in the U.S. Navy officially started, my parents drove me to the Federal in Building in Denver Colorado. It was a bleak and snowy day, and we had to get up very early to get me to the building on time. I had
Naval Boot Camp Adventures Read More »
In a little-known appearance as a thespian, Gary Pickens appeared in the Flagler High School Junior Class Play, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, adapted by John G. Fuller. The play was presented on March 26th and 27th. Gary appeared in the second performance, as the redoubtable (if blundering) knight named Sir Sagramor. This
Gary as a Thespian Read More »