Sterling Heights, MI

Sterling Heights High School

Run Time: 65:11 + 2-minute kick

I wasn’t sure I was going to get a run in. Thunderstorms were on the horizon, so to speak. I was glad I did. It was the only run of the week. Canada sent all of their wildfire smoke across the border in retaliation for tariffs. It was warm and muggy, but a nice breeze made for a good run. Most of the run was on the way to and back from the school. I will remember that track, though. It will be a good spot for future trips.

It was a nice, older neighborhood, with cracked and uneven sidewalks and well-manicured lawns. Probably an HOA community. You never know when you are in an unfamiliar city, and the Detroit area in particular. I ran by two schools on the way to the high school, and schools are always a safe option. Even the bad guys generally don’t mess with the schools. As long as the students aren’t hoodlums, you’re safe.

Not ten minutes from the hotel earlier that day, I had hesitated to stop for gas until the neighborhood looked more friendly, basically a few blocks before I got to the hotel. You wonder what some of these strange buildings contain, with trash and debris strewn all around, and some old guy sitting on an old dining room chair in an open doorway, smoking. Whatever is going on there, I don’t know the password.

The business climate seems a little rough here in the Mideast as well. I had a record sales month in April, mostly due to impending price changes due to tariffs, and then May was a high dive into hell. There may just be a disconnect somewhere between the powers that be and the power-free. We’re all just riding the same wave together, which is sloshing back into the backwater right now.

My Canadian customers are particularly miffed about paying tariffs on our products. They seem to be taking it personally, and I guess it’s okay for them to be generally angry that we elected a clown to hold our highest office. Immediately after our price hike, we sent one shipment to a customer in Alberta and mistakenly listed the U.S. as the country-of-origin for the items we imported from Taiwan on the customs forms, which led to a 25% tariff they had to pay that they shouldn’t have had to pay, because Canada has no tariffs on items from Taiwan. There was stern language and genuine vehemence in the emails I received, more than is warranted for simple incompetence.

The work travel has been wearing on me lately. For this trip, I abandoned podcasts while driving and listened only to music, which was helpful. Also, on this evening, after the run and dinner and a shower, I fell asleep at 9 pm, which is extremely rare. Kind of a kung pao coma. I had strange dreams that I could not remember.

Going through my photos for this post, I can tell I was a little off my game. No screenshots of the compass or the sky tonight apps. Rituals disrupted. No bueno. But the music and the run and the smokeless air was good. I’ll get back on track next trip.