Alan and Billie Online

Who was Saint Valentine?

2009-02-15T10:19:00.003-06:00

Last night was our 131st monthiversary. Billie and I decided early on after we got married in 1998 that we would celebrate our anniversary every month, rather than every year, so last night we went to a St. Valentine's day dinner dance to celebrate our monthiversary. While enjoying the food and the music, I wondered about St. Valentine: who was he, and how did all this February 14th stuff start?

So today I googled him. The first link I found was broken, but Wikipedia, as usual, turned out to have more information than I could possibly use. Mostly, it says that he is a melange of multiple martyrs, but this quotation is the most succint:

Historian Jack Oruch has made the case that the traditions associated with "Valentine's Day", documented in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, had no such tradition before Chaucer.^[20] He argues that the speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. In the French 14th-century manuscript illumination from a Vies des Saints (illustration above), Saint Valentine, bishop of Terni, oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni; there is no suggestion here yet that the bishop was a patron of lovers.^[21]

Sadly, then, he's probably just a legend. Even if I had known that, though, I don't think it would have stopped us from having a great monthiversary celebration. And next month is our anniversary, so we'll do something really special then!

Your Chance to be on TV!

2009-01-30T14:55:00.012-06:00

Tomorrow, the last day of January, will be huge for us! I'll be running in a 5K in Conroe in the morning, accompanied by my daughter Sally, in memory of her mother. My granddaughter was intending to run with us, making it three generations, but she has a strep throat, so will not join us.

Then in the afternoon, Billie and I are heading to Dallas for Trent Willmon's Live DVD recording, which is taking place at his show at Gilley's in the evening. Billie is now a best selling author, and will be signing both her books at the merchandise table after the show. Trent will be also be autographing the CD audio version of the book, in addition to his usual merchandise of CDs, T-shirts and other memorabilia. This CD was completed in Nashville yesterday, so tomorrow night will be the first time it will actually be available

The DVD will include a lot of audience participation, so come on out and join us. This is your chance to be in the DVD, which will be shown on TV!

Where else can you get a triple opportunity like this:

To be in on a live recording
To meet and talk with a Nashville recording artist
To meet and get autographed books from a best selling author!

Oh, did I forget to mention that I'll be there too? If you need some more excitement that day, you could come to Conroe and cheer me on in my 5K, starting at 9:00 AM. Ending, I trust, within an hour or less ...

Billie's a Celebrity!

2009-01-19T11:46:00.005-06:00

"Billie Willmon Jenkin's office in her Elkins Lake home is proof of her colorful character. Frogs of every size, shape and color adorn the walls and dance across the filing cabinets. Photos from her many travels, including an up-close and personal visit with a dolphin, are plastered to every surface."
So begins the front-page article in yesterday's Huntsville Item Lifestyles section. Matthew Jackson, from the Item, interviewed Billie last week, and the result is an excellent article about her life in Houston, West Texas and Huntsville. The article is titled "Journey of Acceptance" and tells of the events that led up to her publishing "The Knock-Kneed Cowboy".
To read the full article, go to this link.

Trent Willmon and the Knock-Kneed Cowboy

2009-01-11T16:28:00.003-06:00

I stumbled out of the door today for a long, slow run and noticed that Fedex had left a package by the door for Billie. For the next hour and a half, I didn't think much about it as I enjoyed the sunshine and the fact that I was running again. I have had an upper respiratory infection that just didn't want to quit, and when I tried to run earlier this week I found that I got so out of breath that even walking was tough!

Right now, I'm getting back to my half training schedule for the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville in April. From others who have run it, I hear that it's a lot of fun. So, at the end of April Billie and I will spend a few days in Nashville and get to visit Trent (her son the Nashville recording artist).

When I got back from my run, Billie was really excited. Her new book "The Knock-Kneed Cowboy" came out in time for Christmas and she had the idea of creating an audio version. The only problem was finding someone to read it.

Then she had the brilliant idea of getting Trent Willmon to record it. He would record the books, they would both market it and share the proceeds! And the Fedex package contained the recording.

She was listening to it when I got back, so I stopped for a while to listen, too. Trent was reading the part where Casey meets Gus, the fairy godfrog. It was amazing to hear what a great job he did with the voices of Casey, Gus and Honey -- this record is destined to be a collector's item!

Billie already has a lot of orders -- you can get the book, the CD or a combination from her website http://empoweringforchange.com. Go look now, while you're thinking about it!

What we've been doing

2008-11-15T10:23:00.004-06:00

Somehow, the summer slipped away from us -- we got so busy doing things. I've been developing websites and blogs, Billie's been writing.

Here are my main websites:

Beginning-Running.com is, as you might suspect, a site for Beginning Runners. It has a weekly newsletter service with about 200 members. As of now, this is a free service, but I intend to make it a paid service soon. For those members who subscribe while it's still free, they will continue to get a free service. So if you know of anyone who might be interested, get them to join before the price goes up!

GettingStartedRunning.com is a similar site, but at present it comprises articles and links to places where runners can buy stuff at special rates. It also has lots of links to other resources, mainly for runners. There is also a blog, consisting mostly of items from my newsletters, at GettingStartedRunning.com/blog.

Some people, though, aren't all that interested in running (!), so I developed some other sites. PracticeProactiveHealth.com is intended for anyone who wants to take control of their own health. This doesn't mean ignoring what your doctor says, but it does mean being informed about your own health needs. This one also has a blog at PracticeProactiveHealth.com/blog.

If you're into gym equipment, especially for home gyms, take a look at FitEquipped.com. There's a blog for this one, too, but not much on it yet.

In the line of business, I have a site for business networking at gr8netbiz.com. There are 12 other sites (subdomains) associated with this one, covering topics like trademarking, using social sites, paper shredders for security, home offices -- lots of stuff. Let me now if you're interested in any of these -- I can give you a list.

Then there are about another 50-100 sites I aim to develop in the near future.

Looking back on this, no wonder I've been busy!

Alan

Some Days are Diamonds ...

2008-08-06T10:07:00.002-05:00

I am writing this in the dog days of August. We have had a week or more of 100+ temperatures, so I have been running early to avoid the heat.

Yesterday, I stepped outside the door intending to do a pace run before a storm came through. Unfortunately, I was just too late -- it had already started raining. I decided against going out, and postponed my pace run until today.

As I was warming up today, I realized that it seemed a lot tougher than usual. I thought it was foggy, but when I took off my sunglasses I realized what the problem was. After all the rain we had with the storm, the temperature had dropped, but the humidity was at least 100% -- my shades were fogging up!

I decided against a pace run, and just stuck with an easy run, although it didn't feel that easy. I felt like I was breathing underwater! Today was not one of those diamonds ...

When that sort of thing happens, I am tempted to feel disappointed in myself. but then I remind myself that it was just one run. Tomorrow will be another run, and I'll have forgotten all about today's run by then. I take each run as it comes: not good, not bad, just the way it was. And I remind myself that, just by going out there and doing it, I'm doing more than most folks!

Right now, I'm not training for any particular event, so my emphasis is on enjoying my running, rather than pushing to excel. Even when I'm training, though, I recognize that some days I just can't follow my plan. Not to worry, take a break -- there's always tomorrow.

And enjoy the diamonds when they come.

Tips on Running Form

2008-08-04T20:49:00.002-05:00

There are as many different styles of running as there are runners. Sometimes, what looks like poor running form can work well for a particular runner. The great Olympian, Emil Zatopek, used to run with his head rolling from side to side. This became his trademark: if his coach had trained him to keep his head straight, he would probably never have broken as many records as he did.

Having said that, there are several pointers you can use to make your running more efficient. Just remember that if one of these feels really awkward to you, it may not fit with your particular style. Be flexible.

First, let's talk about posture. The idea is to run tall, with the work being done by the lower body and the upper body relaxed. Think of it as though you were on a horse: the legs do all the work. If your shoulders and arms are tense, you will tire more easily and you're wasting energy on the parts that are not contributing to your run.

The next topic is the feet. If your feet are slapping the ground, you are wasting energy there. Run quietly and you'll feel the difference.

Your feet also should "pull" you along the ground, This means that you will pull back after each foot strike and push forward with a little spring at each toe-off. If you're bouncing, you're probably wasting energy here, too.

Your stride should be comfortably long. Beginning runners, especially, have a tendency to overstride, believing that this will help them go faster. Overstriding, though, puts undue stress on the legs and can lead to injuries. Stretching out your legs with strides once in a while during a run is good, but you should not try to maintain long strides throughout your runs. Running tall, as if there were a string pulling your head up, will help lengthen your stride length naturally.

When running up hills, you'll find that using your arms to "pull" you up the hill can help. Otherwise, your arms will normally be relaxed and moving more or less straight ahead and back. I find that my arms tend to cross over my body, especially when I'm tired, but this is less efficient than having them move straight ahead and back. On longer runs, it's a good idea to let your arms just hang down and flap around for a while every now and then, as it helps to relax the arms and shoulders and get the circulation moving better through the arms and hands.

All this applies after you have warmed up. The warmup phase, the first ten minutes or so of each run, is when your body is getting used to moving. After that, when you are starting to run easier, is when to concentrate on your running form. At first, it's best only to concern yourself with your form during your easy or long, slow runs. If you can concentrate on good form during the middle third of each of these runs, you'll find that it begins to feel natural. Your form, and hence your pace, will gradually improve.

Here's to your great running form!

Enjoying the Heat?

2008-07-20T15:20:00.005-05:00

With August fast approaching, those of us who live in the
Northern Hemisphere are starting to feel the summer heat. I just got back from a long, hot run and found myself envying those of you who are running in Australia and New Zealand!

It's been a while since I sent out one of these quasi-occasional "Special Edition" newsletters -- I've been busy on other things. Mainly in developing a business networking web site at http://gr8netbiz.com (shameless plug!). It still has some bugs, but take a look and let me know what you think.

And finally, a lot of those who completed my survey
were interested in hot weather running, which is the reason for
this post. (If you didn't complete it, you can find it
here.)

The first hot weather question that comes to my mind is what to
wear. You probably know that cotton is your worst enemy,
especially if you run in high humidity. Where I run, the
humidity is generally well above 50%, which encourages profuse
sweating. Cotton, in these circumstances, quickly gets wet and
clammy, whereas synthetics are designed to wick the moisture
away from the skin. They still get wet, but help to cool you
through evaporation.

The second issue is hydration. All the books warn about staying
well hydrated in hot weather, even if you're not running. I've
found that the best way to hydrate is to drink before and after
a run. If the run lasts for an hour or more, I'll carry water to
drink during the run, and generally start drinking about 30-45
minutes into the run.

(Long slow distance runs, when abbreviated to ell-ess-dee runs,
are likely to attract unwanted attention from web crawlers, so
I'm changing the references to long-distance slow runs, or LDS
runs. Makes more sense, anyway!)

So, for my LDS runs, I'll drink a couple of glasses of sports
drink before and after the run and carry water with me.
Personally, I like the Gatorade lemon-lime flavor for the sports
drink. I carry water because sports drinks tend to be sticky and
messy when I'm consuming them on the run.

In hot weather, unless I'm training for a specific event, I
don't push myself as hard as in cooler weather. Specifically,
I'll run slower and for a shorter time than I would otherwise.
However, rather than just piling on the miles, I'll be careful
to maintain good form so the runs still count as quality runs.

On the subject of humidity, I've found that if it's much below
50%, I don't seem to sweat at all! What happens, of course, is
that the sweat evaporates as soon as it hits the skin. This is
dangerous, because you can become dehydrated without realizing
it.

Running alone is generally easier than running with a group for
me, because with a group I tend to push too hard. That's OK in
cooler weather, but it adds unnecessary stress in hot weather.
However, some people prefer running with others -- the choice is
yours.

Choosing where to run in hot weather is fun. I pick places where
there is as much shade and as much breeze as possible. I also vary
my route to avoid boredom -- a good idea in any case.

Picking the right time to run is a matter of personal choice and
opportunity. I used to run in the morning before the sun was up,
but found that it was easy to trip in a pothole and get injured.
Also, the relative humidity tends to be at its highest at that
time, which doesn't work for some people.

I find that evening running doesn't work too well for me. If I
leave my run until the evening, I'm inclined to skip it
altogether.

When I was working, I used to run at noon. That way, I ate a
light lunch (very healthy!) and used the lunch break to
exercise. By starting noon time running early in the year, I
built up my resistance to where the heat didn't bother me for the
shorter runs.

For longer runs, I prefer to run in the morning at weekends. The
weather is relatively cool, the humidity has dropped a bit, and
if I run before breakfast I still have the day ahead of me to
use as I choose. In the end, though, it's whatever works for you!

Enjoy the heat!

New Running Website, New Running Blog

2008-07-09T18:24:00.001-05:00

This week’s big news is that I have finally got the new website for runners up (and running ).

It looks a lot different from my other site .
I’m still trying to figure out the best way of combining them (or even
whether that’s a good idea). The first site is more of a web service,
with weekly e-mail newsletters, but this is a resource site with lots
of links. It also has several articles posted, some of which were
written for me and others that I took from my newsletters.

You might also be interested in my new running blog.

I have copied the previous content from this blog to it to get it started, but there is more being added to it all the time.

Capitol 10K was huge!!!

2008-03-31T11:38:00.008-05:00

Sunday was a great day for running -- mid 60s with light rain
showers to cool me off! That was the day for the Capitol 10K.
Here are a couple of pictures taken after the race, and a copy
of the newsletter I sent out to my subscribers at
http://www.beginning-running.com/.

Your Beginning
Running Newsletter

Capitol
10K and Last Day of Sale

Yesterday I hit another of my goals! I ran the Capitol 10K in
Austin, Texas. There were 6,566 timed runners, and I was not
last! (I was #6,355, so there were 211 slower than me.)

I don't know how many total runners there were, as there were a
bunch more fun runners, many in costume. All I know for sure is
that they were still finishing some time after I had stopped for
refreshments, so I felt really good about that. Since this is my
first race in nine years, I was excited, and it turned out just
great!

For those interested in statistics, my time was 1:34:27.8 and I
was 10th out of 18 in my age group. I don't know if he was the
oldest runner, but a 97-year-old crossed the finish line about
20 minutes after me. The winner's time, by the way, was just
over 30 minutes; his pace was exactly 5 minutes per mile. (I
console myself by noticing that he is my junior by almost 40
years!)

If you're thinking about a race, you'll find a big race is a
wonderful way to boost your enthusiasm. This was the biggest
race I have run, and I have found that the bigger the race the
better my chance of not being last! Not that it really matters
-- the last person to finish gets cheered by the crowd almost as
much as the winner.

My wife took the photo of me finishing -- I had a great kick at
the end and passed the finish line before she saw me! They
announced my name just as I crossed the line, so the shot is a
little late.

Remember, today is the last day of the Road Runner Sports
sale.

One of the great things about them is that you can run in their
shoes for 60 days and then return them if they don't work for
you. Where else can you get a deal like that?

Sincerely

Alan
Jenkin Fitness Runner with a Beginner's Mind

Huntsville,
Texas

beginningrunning@gmail.com

I'm stoked!

2008-03-17T20:56:00.005-05:00

Yesterday (Sunday), I ran 10 miles for the first time in more years than I can remember. I was stoked! I couldn't wait to put out a special newsletter to the members of my running site.

Then, today, it dawned on me that I could also put it on this blog. Duh!

So here it is:

Your Beginning Running Newsletter

Special Edition

I am so excited that I need to share this with you right away!

I just got back from a long run (actually, a jog, rather than a
run). If you're in the second stage of my program, you know
about LSD runs. Well, my last long run was 8 miles.

I had set a goal to run 10 miles before April 18. Today, the
weather here was perfect, sunny and breezy and in the 70s. When
I set off for my run, forcing myself to keep my pace as slow as
possible, I knew it was going to be a great run.

As I settled down, after 5 or 10 minutes, I found myself getting
into "the zone". That happens when suddenly everything seems
perfect and I feel that I could run all day without getting
tired.

So guess what? I met my goal a month early! Just blew away 10
miles.

Of course, this means I broke my 10% rule, but what the heck! If
you never break a rule, you never live. The bad thing about is
that that last mile was really hard work, but who knows how much
of that was just because I knew I was breaking my rule?

Anyway, it feels great to be there already. Now I can
concentrate on picking up my pace in time for a 10K in two
weeks. Wish me luck!

Sincerely

Alan Jenkin Fitness Runner with a Beginner's Mind

Huntsville, Texas

beginningrunning@gmail.com

We've been busy!

2008-03-14T21:31:00.002-05:00

Sam Camp is exciting and is giving us a lot to do. Reaching our goals is challenging but fun!

My goals for Camp are:

1. I have developed a website and newsletter service for beginning runners, and have 100 or more members by Friday 9:00am PST April 18th., 2008.

2. I have run 10 consecutive miles or more by Friday 9:00am PST April 18th., 2008.

3. Team Laser (our small group of five) has selflessly committed 16 hours or more of community service per person, for a total of 96 hours or more by Friday April 16th., 2008 at 9:00am PST.

Working backwards through this list, I have 5 hours of service so far (30%) and have run 8 miles (80%). The first goal is lagging: I have the website and the newsletter service, but so far have only 21 members (21%).

I'm sure I'll get the other 79 members within the time frame, but I'd like to get at least 200. After all, what's the point in having a goal if you can't blow past it?

So, dear reader, if you want to support me, sign up now! The good news is that until April 18th. it doesn't cost anything. The even better news is that you can drop it anytime (only please hang in there until after April 18th.!) Meanwhile, you can assist me by letting me know all the errors you find or suggestions you may have for improvement. Even if you're not a runner.

BTW, one of Billie's goals is to lose weight until she can get into size 12 jeans. She made it already, and is now trying for a 10. Way to go, Billie! She's lost about 30 lbs., and looks great for it.

We're Back!

2008-03-01T20:07:00.007-06:00

We made it back safely to Huntsville after an exciting two weeks in Phoenix, San Diego and Ventura. Billie got some great photos (I think) but they're all still in her camera. The first weekend of Samurai Camp 14 with Klemmer was amazing. I came back with three goals (including a team goal) -- all to be accomplished by April 18:

1. I have developed a website and newsletter service for beginning runners, and have 100 or more members who are receiving my regular newsletters by Friday 9:00am PST April 18th , 2008.
2. I have run 10 consecutive miles or more by Friday 9:00am PST April 18th , 2008.
3. Team Laser has selflessly committed 16 hours or more of community service per person, for a total of 96 hours or more by Friday April 18th, 2008 at 9:00am PST.

The current status for Goal 1 is that the web site is now up and running properly, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please encourage them to look at the site and (hopefully) enroll. I am making it free for the first fifty. If you or anyone you know, would be available to test it for me (by enrolling), that too would be helpful.

For the second goal, I ran 8 miles today, so am well on my way. I'm still v.e.r.y slow, but am working on my speed because I'm running the Capitol 10K in Austin on March 30.

I have not yet started on the third goal.

The following week with Klemmer, staffing Heart of the Samurai 24 was also amazing, but slightly marred by the fact that Billie and I both got allergies. We think it was caused by mold in the room: the weather was pretty damp most of the time. If/when we staff again, we'll probably stay off site.

We saw Paul, Alisa, Kai and Judy for a brief visit last Monday and Tuesday and flew back to Houston Tuesday.

On Thursday we went to the World Championship Barbecue Cook Off at the Houston Rodeo to see Trent perform a great show. Billie stayed on in Houston at Rusty's house to work on her Samurai Camp goals, while I'm working on mine in Huntsville. I'll see her again Monday, when Trent's label has a Houston Rodeo Kick-Off and CD Release Party. Then, in the evening Trent will be performing at the Hideout (formerly known as the Astrodome).

After that, maybe things will quiet down for a while so we can continue to work on our goals!

My new web site is up!

2008-02-13T09:05:00.007-06:00

It seems a long time since I blogged. I have been very busy getting ready for the first weekend of Samurai Camp with Klemmer in Phoenix. One major task was to get my new web site prepared.

Things were going well until I hit an unexpected hitch. The site that I had developed was unusable with my hosting service due to a software incompatibility -- one of the problems with trying to do something new in a limited time. So I was now slipping behind on my goals before I even got started.

I had already contacted the Small Business Development Center at Sam Houston State University here in Huntsville, so Monday I called them with an urgent message that I needed help in developing my web site. After playing telephone tag for a while, we finally got together, and last night they put the site together for me, using my provisional text. So today, one day before the deadline, the site is up!

It needs work still, but at least the hard work is done, and it looks a lot better than it would have done if it had been left to me. The person who put it together has worked for fourteen years on web site development. I had only about fourteen days' of experience, so the difference showed!

Go look at it -- I'm looking for suggstions for improvement. And, if you're one of the first fifty people to sign up, you'll get a lifetime free membership. (Unfortunately, the membership form is not working yet, but you have a link on the site you can use. Getting that form working and setting up the e-mail responses are my first two tasks when I return at the end of this month.)

Today, Billie and I are leaving for Phoenix. We shall be there for the weekend, then go to San Diego next Monday. That week we are staffing Heart of the Samurai, where about two hundred people, including Trent, will be taking part. What an incredible two weeks lie before us!

From San Diego, we shall leave for Ventura to have a quick visit with Paul, Alisa and Kai before returning via LAX.

We try not to let the grass grow under our rocking chairs.

To your good health and may you always have as much fun and excitement as we do!

Alan and Billie

The cast party was a huge success!

2008-01-27T18:24:00.001-06:00

We drove from Huntsville to Enchanted Springs Ranch in Boerne, TX, on Thursday in time to have lunch with Trent. When we arrived, he was already at lunch with the cast, and we got to meet a whole group of people, including Mel Tillis, Roy Clark and Joaquin Jackson, all of whom play in Palo Pinto Gold. Roy is waiting for a hip replacement -- I later heard that he had postponed it in order to take part in this movie. What a trouper! (The picture shows Roy autographing Trent's guitar, while Mel seems to be looking for a ride!)

Joaquin is the real thing: a genuine Texas Ranger, he is author of "One Ranger" and "One Ranger Returns".

In the afternoon, we watched while they shot closeups of Mel, Roy and others for some indoor scenes. The weather was overcast, very cold with occasional rain, so we were pleased that the shooting was indoors! Cesario Garcia, from ZForm Film & TV Production, then interviewed Mel and Roy and then Trent and Joanne for the local News TV station.

A crowd of about two hundred cast, friends and relatives showed up in the evening to enjoy the party. After we all had a chance to visit, eat and drink, Steve Schmidt opened the proceedings with several welcoming speeches. We were then treated to a show of video clips from the movie, followed by outtakes (hilarious bloopers) and a great slideshow of pictures taken by Scott Reed. You can see the slideshow on his site www.isyteimages.com. Scott is a brilliant photographer, and has some wonderful shots on this site. Follow the links "Palo Pinto Gold" and "Galleries -> Concerts -> Trent Willmon". The second link has some great shots of the video for Trent's current single "Broken In". (The picture shows Scott talking to Trent.)

After that, the music started. Josh Allen opened up for us and, after a few songs, Trent joined him. Numerous other artists, including Bethany Jackson and David King followed -- what a talented bunch! I have given up trying to remember everyone's names: there were just too many.

The highlight was when Mel and Roy put on a performance. They decided not to sing, but to have Mel tell stories (with some feedback from Roy!) If you ever get a chance to hear Mel Tillis tell stories, grab it. He is one of the funniest story tellers I have ever heard.

I particularly enjoyed one brief comment Roy made. He and Mel have had this double act going on for a number of years now (they have been friends for fifty years). Roy mentioned that he would watch Mel telling a story, and when he saw Mel's jaw start twitching as he stammered, Roy would fill in the word. Then Mel would change to a different word, just to fool him!

Having been up since about 5:45 AM, we left the party around 10:30 PM to get some sleep. By then, only the hard core remained, anyway.

A wonderful time with a crowd of wonderful people. We are all looking forward to a reunion when the movie premieres at the Palladium in San Antonio. The date is uncertain yet, but will be sometime between May and July this year. We'll keep you posted.

I Was A Palo Pinto Gold Walk Off

2008-01-17T12:46:00.001-06:00

What an exciting couple of days!

Monday we drove to Enchanted Springs Ranch, Boerne, Texas to watch a movie shoot. Our GPS did a great job of finding what should have been the quickest route from Huntsville to Boerne, but for one major goof. It dropped us into the middle of the Austin rush hour traffic on I-35, adding about an hour to what should have been a four hour trip.

However, we chose Monday because they were shooting night scenes, so we didn't miss too much. We watched a couple of scenes of Palo Pinto Gold being shot with Trent Willmon, Joanna Goode and Anthony Henslee, following which we got to visit with the great folks at Enchanted Springs Ranch and Joanna's family. We finally tumbled into bed around 12:30, and crawled out again about 7:00 AM Tuesday.

Monday had been cold, but clear: Tuesday was cold and wet. So Tuesday's shoots were indoor scenes, specifically a couple of scenes shot in a bar, with Trent, Anthony and David King (who plays one of the villains). The other character in that scene is Doug, the bartender.

The production team got started setting up around 10:00 AM, and broke for lunch around noon. It was then that they realized the bar looked too empty, so they approached me to ask if I would be willing to play as an extra standing at the bar. After a few nanoseconds of deliberation, I said "Of course -- I'd be delighted to help you out!"

So they got their extra, and I had a lot of fun!

Afterwards, Steve Schmidt showed Billie, Trent and me a clip of the bar fight scene (an obligatory scene for a Western!).

I've seen a lot of bar fight scenes over the years, and this one is certainly up there with the all-time best. I'd watch the movie just for that one scene (even though I'm not in it!)

I can't remember when I met such a fun group of truly warm-hearted, loving people as the cast and crew of Palo Pinto Gold. David King is a mean-looking villain, and looks totally intimidating until you get to know him, but he's great guy, with a good sense of humor. He's heading for Hollywood this year, and I wish him all the best in his chosen tough profession. I didn't get to meet any of the other bad guys, but I'm sure they're also just as much fun as the good guys I met!

For me, this was a double first time experience. I've never seen a movie being shot before (like all movies, it's a closed set). And I've never appeared in one before.

Are you wondering what a walk-off is?

Well, you've probably heard of a walk-on -- someone who just walks onto the set, but doesn't say anything. I didn't do that. I did slightly less, because I was in the bar when the scene opened, but walked off later.

So I call myself a walk-off!

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

2008-01-12T12:39:00.000-06:00

We're off to the Rodeo!

The tickets went on sale today for Tim McGraw at the Rodeo on Monday, March 3. We've bought four -- Rick is bringing a friend (not the one in the photo!). The main attraction for us is that Trent will be performing at the Hideout after Tim McGraw has been on the main stage.

Before then, we also intend to see Trent play at the World Championship Barbecue Cookoff at the rodeo on February 28. Might even get to taste some of that good Texas barbecue ...

In other news, we intend to visit the set of Palo Pinto Gold next week, but have not yet fixed the day.

In case it looks like we're getting bored, we are also in Samurai Camp with Klemmer and Associates. This is keeping us pretty busy already with homework assignments in advance of the first Sam Camp weekend February 15 in Phoenix. From Phoenix, we leave for San Diego where we will be staffing at Klemmer's Heart of the Samurai, which Trent will be attending. From San Diego, we'll drive up to Ventura to visit Paul and Alisa and then return on February 26 from LAX. We then have about eight weeks of Sam Camp at home before the second weekend in Phoenix in April.

We don't believe in letting the grass grow under our rocking chairs yet.

http://kiosk.alanjenkin.com

If you want to call me click here:
https://me.vonage.com/billiejenkin

The Good News ... and the Bad!

2008-01-10T20:22:00.000-06:00

(No, of course that's not me in the picture! It's Trent, taken about a year ago in El Campo at Muldoon's.

I was younger then ...)

First, let's get the bad news out of the way. No less than FIVE of my friends have died in the last month (I just heard about one today). To put it in perspective, only two of them were older than me. I remember my father saying that that one of the sad things about growing older is that all your friends keep dying ...

Now for the good news.

A couple of years ago I had a diagnosis of "possible" non-Hodgkins lymphoma. (A more complete story of that is on one of our web sites -- see My Story.) This week, after another visit to my oncologist, I had another CT scan, and today I got the results.

Guess what?

No sign of lymphoma!

In fact, after a full CT scan, his only recommendation is that I follow up with my urogolist because my bladder wall is slightly to moderately thickened (which it was a year or two ago). I knew I felt healthier than I have for several years, but it's great to have the confirmation.

In other good news, Billie's son, Trent Willmon, has started working in the Texas Hill Country on the movie Palo Pinto Gold. They are shooting early every morning for a couple of weeks and we hope to go out there to watch a shoot sometime soon. Trent's playing the lead, and has also written the music for the movie. Other members of the cast include Mel Tillis, Roy Clark and Kinkie Friedman as the Governor of Texas! Check it out on Trent's web site.

Maybe we'll have a film star in the family!

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-07T13:45:00.000-06:00

The picture shows Alan and Billie with their New Year's Day coffee at dawn on Galveston Island.

We are having such wonderful weather here! I just came back from a run and sat outside for a while in the shade wearing tee shirt and shorts. It's in the 70s!

One of my goals is to run my first marathon in the spring of 2013, so I've started training for it. Today was my long run -- 90 minutes -- and I managed to increase my pace from staggering to shuffling! Instead of an 18-minute mile I cut it to 17 1/2 minutes.

(I try not to remember the day I saw Roger Bannister run the world's first four-minute mile -- it just reminds me how slow I am! I wonder if he's still running? I do know that last year they had a special celebration for him at the Iffley Road track in Oxford where he set the record, and he was in attendance -- but not running.)

My short term goal is to run the Capitol 10K in Austin this March. Before then, I hope to speed up a bit and increase my pace from shuffling to plodding. My intent is to finish within my age (i.e. no more minutes than my age in years), as I did in my first 10K when I was 55. One benefit of growing older is that I can extend my times and still reach that target!

Another New Year's Resolution for me is to lose weight. Apart from anything else, I don't need to be dragging all that fat around with me when I'm running. Two years ago I used the USANA RESET program to lose thirty pounds, but over the years between I gained back twenty. So my goal now is to lose between twenty and thirty pounds before the summer. So far, after five days, I'm ahead of schedule after losing seven pounds.

In case you're wondering about all this activity, I plan to live to 120, with an option to 130! My children will all retire long before they get their inheritance (if I don't spend it all). Like somebody said, age doesn't matter unless you're a cheese.

One thing I have discovered is that the reason New Year's Resolutions generally fail is that I start from the wrong end. By this, I mean that I need to start from my dream, then work that into goals. My dream is to live a long, healthy life: to achieve that I need to take action now. So I set goals to reach that dream, rather than setting them just for their own sake.

Feel free to comment on this blog -- it's starting to look more like a journal now!

Second web site up!!!!!

2008-01-02T17:29:00.003-06:00

I'm stoked!

I now have a web site promoting the First Step Internet Marketing program -- the one I used to learn how to do it! It's a much simpler, less cluttered site than the previous one, and I started work on it yesterday. Took me all of two half-days.

It turns out the hardest part is figuring out the content I want -- building the site is a snap. I imagine that it will get easier with each one now that I know how to do it.

You can see the site here.

In other news ...

I hope you all took some time off for the holidays -- I know we did. Scott and Rusty came by and visited on Christmas Day. Sally brought Michaela, Christian and Michaela's boy friend Juan to visit on December 27th. And we joined Scott and Rusty and several friends in Galveston December 29th.

We left Galveston in 70 degree plus temperatures New Year's Eve in time to experience the cold front that came through that night. It's a shock when we now get temperatures in the 20s at night and no more than 50 or so during the day. With a c.o.l.d wind blowing, too!

(The photo was taken New Year's Eve just after sunrise in Galveston -- we went to the beach to see the sun rise!)

The good news is that the weather should warm up over the weekend. Great, because we plan to go to Fort Worth to see Trent perform at Billy Bob's Saturday night.

Have a wonderful 2008!

First Web Site is Up!

2007-12-21T19:54:00.001-06:00

Today I got my first web site up and running and it looks powerful!

I'm excited that the whole process was much simpler than I thought it would be, and, of course, the next one will be easier still. Just take a look at some of the offerings I have found -- many of them free -- which make the whole process a lot easier than I could have believed. Yes it helps to learn a little HTML, but that's only because sometimes it's quicker to code stuff directly than to use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor when it's small stuff.

Like they say, don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

The interesting decision now is what do I want to do with this. I have several choices:

1. Become a professional web site builder.
(I don't think that's where I want to go, but it's a possibility.)

2. Become an affiliate marketer.
(I'm doing that -- it's a great way to started with low cost and the potential for good profits. Just look at some of the deals on my site, and you'll see how they could be very profitable for anyone who wants to take advantage of them.)

3. Develop a web site to link to my USANA site.
(I think that will be my next project.)

4. Develop and sell my own products.
(That may be the project after next!)

5. More things that I'll think of later!

The best news is that I can start making this all automatic, so that when I'm off traveling the business will still carry on. There is so much help available from the people that I'm teamed with that I don't need to be there personally.

It doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Oh yes, the web site is currently at
http://www.alanjenkin.com/ja/

My First Home-Grown Web Site!!!!

2007-12-20T13:29:00.001-06:00

I'm excited!

I've finally finished putting together a five page web site.

Tomorrow I plan to have it uploaded and ready to go. It's been an interesting few weeks getting it together, and I've learned a whole lot more than HTML. It sure ain't perfect, but one of the things I learned was that if I wait for it to get perfect, it won't happen.

When I get it uploaded, I'll post the link and wait for the comments -- the good, the bad and the ugly.

One of the best things I learned is that there is SO much information out there on how to do this that the problem is finding the good stuff. Fortunately, I started with good stuff, but found it easy to get led astray into other areas -- but for this, I would have finished sooner. I'll know better for my next site, which I plan to start on soon.

If anyone is interested to know more, put in a comment on this blog. I can show you how to get a site up in an hour or two, if that's what you want, or how to get help to set up something more complex. Just let me now what you'd like -- I'm an expert on getting started and will probably forget that experience in a few weeks!

One of the benefits of being retired is that I now have time to play with some of the new technology and can even use it to earn some money if I choose to. Sure beats working for a living!

Happy Holidays 2007!

2007-12-19T12:56:00.000-06:00

Well, I'll be durned! It's that time of the year again already, and Billie has sent out her annual Christmas letter. Every year, we try to pool our ignorance and dig out all the addresses we can remember (why does it get more difficult each time?) and every year we get Christmas cards and letters from people whose addresses somehow got left off the list.

As often as not, they're people who could be mortally offended by the fact that they've been forgotten.

So if your name fell through the cracks, please forgive us! It was certainly not intended. Most likely Billie and I each thought the other was handling it, which means that you SHOULD have had TWO Christmas card from us. There, now, doesn't that feel better?

On the other hand you may just be one of those people like me, who doesn't even notice when they don't receive a card from someone. In that case, you are beyond hope.

(The penultimate sentence above should have read "... doesn't even notice when he or she doesn't receive ...". I think I'm going to avoid the PC trap in future by using the neuter form, so that the sentence would read "... doesn't even notice when it doesn't receive ...". But that looks just as ugly, so I prefer to use the grammatically incorrect and possibly non-PC form "they", even though I secretly believe that anyone who advocates Political Correctitude deserves to be referred to as "it". But, of course, I'd never admit to that.)

Read on ...

Dear Friends,

“They” say time speeds up as we age. If not for our digital assistant,

it might be impossible to recall the joys of this Mach 3 year, which

now races to its close.

Our electronic memory, though, reminds us that we spent January and

February on Roatan, where we relaxed, snorkeled in the sea, and

prepared Alan for a Honduran root canal. Just as the dentist injected

the anesthetic, Roatan’s famous electricity went out! The project was

happily aborted until we got back to Texas!

Spring and early summer took us to Mexico for health assessments; two

trips to California for seminars; a trip to the Smoky Mountains for

recreation; and a trip to Nashville’s “Fan Fair” and Trent’s first

“Ropin’ Pen” party. In July, Chris’s daughter Andie, Trent’s daughter

Montana, and her little sister entertained us for a week, following

which we enjoyed a month in the UK, France, and Spain - visiting

friends and family; exploring bits of Spain and France (including a

French country music festival. Yes! Texas and Nashville music in the

escargot land!) In August, a “TB scare” prodded us to our own research,

resulting in a retraction of the diagnosis and Alan’s avoiding

dangerous drugs. (Yes, Virginia, “false positives” do exist).

In September, to celebrate Alan’s 75th birthday, we visited Chris and

Kristie (who also celebrated birthdays that week) in Corpus Christi,

TX. A beach party in October lured us to Puerto Aventuras, Mexico,

where we had vacationed our first three Christmases together. A few

days later, Alan headed to Roatan to begin maintenance on our house

there, while Billie followed a week later (using the interim time to

visit family and gather repair items unavailable in Honduras). A

three-week working holiday left the house looking great! Next time,

though, we’ll plan to play!

Even if days and months seem to blur, this year has brought

re-evaluation of who we are, what’s important, and what we want to do

with our lives. To live with unforgiveness toward self or others, to

retire to a rocking chair, to declare we’re too old to learn and be

challenged – none of these suits us. Life is so precious, so short,

that we want to experience as much as we can. Though we’re not likely

to be accused of “acting our age,” we’re enjoying new adventures,

meeting new friends, and sharing a moment, a day, or a beer with the

sojourners along our paths.

We are thankful to have crossed paths and walked a few – or many –

steps with you. Thank you for the special warmth that thoughts of you

create in our hearts!

I found it! --and why I have so many e-mail addresses.

2007-12-16T17:20:00.000-06:00

Remember those bumper stickers?

Well, I lost my blog -- duh! Now I found it again.

What happened was this:

A few months ago we (Billie and I) became dissatisfied with our ISP. Sometimes the service was great and sometimes it sucked. (This, of course, is the U.S. ISP. The one in Roatan always sucks.)

So we decided it was time for a change.

If you've ever changed ISPs (and who hasn't?) you'll know that we now faced the agony of e-mail address changes. It would be nice if we could just tell everyone in our address book (via a blast e-mail) our new address, but spam filters would block the blast even if we could get it to go out!

By way of history, another reason for the change is that our ISP had changed its domain name twice in the previous year. So people who were writing to a year-old address were getting dumped and people who were writing to a six-month old address were also getting dumped. Meanwhile, we had three inboxes for each e-mail address, to correspond with the three different domain names!

So, in a stroke of brilliance, we decided to create our own domain name and forward from there. If you're keeping up with this, you may remember the domain alandbill.com, as in alan@alandbill.com and billie@alandbill.com. Now we didn't EVER need to change our e-mail address again, and we were freed from the tyranny of ISPs.

Alas, it didn't work out that way.

From time to time e-mails would be bounced from our own domain without our knowledge. And sometimes messages would just disappear into that great bit-bucket in the sky. What had promised to be a solution became a bigger problem!

But to get back to the ISP story, we tried a different ISP. So we now also replicated our previous e-mail addresses on the new ISP. And probably told some people those addresses -- are you confused yet?

But wait -- it gets better (or worse, depending on your point of view!) When we found out that alandbill.com was losing e-mails, we decided to try something different -- Gmail. And we also found that we could use our Thunderbird e-mail client to send and receive from Gmail.

So far, apart from sometimes selecting e-mails as spam which should not be, Gmail seems to have been 100% reliable . It even saved me yesterday when Thunderbird starting acting up, because I could use the Gmail webmail account.

What has all this got to do with the blog, you ask? I was coming to that ...

When I set up the blog, I used a Gmail account and password. However, by the time I came to make a second entry (several hours later) I couldn't remember how to get there! Today, it dawned on me that I can link to it from my Gmail account, if only I could remember which Gmail account it was!

The rest is history.

Except that I forgot to mention that after running two ISPs in parallel for a few months it became apparent that the new one is too slow for us and cannot give us more bandwidth. So we're planning on dropping it and reverting to the old one. The good news is their bandwidth seems to have improved and is now streets ahead of their competitor.

I just hope they don't change their domain name again.

We're back from the Third World (or is it the Fourth?)

2007-11-17T11:33:00.000-06:00

After a month in Roatan (mostly in the rain) I made it back to Texas last weekend. Billie missed the first week, but joined me there for the last three weeks. As usual, we tried to fit six weeks' work into three!
We had been away from Roatan since February and needed to do a lot of work to the house. Not helped by the fact that we had a break-in while we were away. I lost my power tools, but apart from that no damage was done.
Much of the time was spent making sure that the house is as burglar-proof as it can be made until the next visit. This took time, and cost a lot more than the things I lost so far, but we both feel much safer than we were before. Anybody breaking in now will need to work REALLY hard, as we have secure doors and windows all around (provided we remember to lock up).
The rest of the time was spent renewing our residency. One of the joys of living on an island thirty miles offshore of a third world country (hence the fourth world!) is that rules change with the wind. The lawyer we had hired to update our residency in February seems to have processed Billie's twice and failed to process mine, so the papers were totally messed up. Also, this year (for the first time) we had to go to the mainland to complete the process. It was when we got there that we found the problem with my residency, but, of course, my papers were back in Roatan; hence another round trip was required. All this at a time when Roatan airport is closed most of the day for runway repairs and the mainland was closed part of the time due to floods!
Still and all, I always feel sad leaving the island.
Now I'm back and working hard on catching up with an Internet Marketing course I've been taking. Once I can figure out how this blogging works, I'll let you have a link -- it's a wonderful course for digital cripples like me! If you can type you can do it.
Billie has gone to Dallas this weekend. Trent is performing at Gilley's and his girl friend is taking Klemmer's Personal Mastery course in Dallas. So Billie decided to audit the course to be with her. Since for me that would mean four days away from home, I decided to let her go alone. Probably bad news, as I didn't lock up the credit cards ...
Let's see if I can give you these links:
First Step Internet Marketing: http://tinyurl.com/2kljz9
Trent's web site: www.trentwillmon.com
Klemmer's site: www.klemmer.com