Mid-August Musings: Running, Reading, and Random Thoughts

The month of August is almost half over. That is hard to believe. It has already been a busy few weeks. Time is certainly not standing still as the days march on toward the end of the year. It is no joke that the older we get, the faster time seems to go.

Today, I am struggling to decide what to write about, so this post will be a collection of random thoughts.

My running a few times a week had been going extremely well. As I reported, I was able to run twice while I was out of town. This week, though, I struggled to get my runs completed. I was busy on the nights that I usually run and did not make adjustments to run in the mornings or on different days. The last time I ran was August 9. Today is August 16, and although I had planned to run, I simply did not feel like it. Even though the weather is nice, with temperatures in the low 80s, missing two runs this week made it harder to get motivated. I will start again on Tuesday and get back into my routine.

I am doing well on my 2026 reading challenge. My goal was to read 25 books this year. As of today, I have completed 16 books. According to Goodreads, I am one book ahead of schedule. As you may recall, I am trying to read about two books each month to reach my goal. So far, that has gone well. The two books I am currently reading are both lengthy, so I need to spend more time reading if I want to finish at least one of them before the end of August.

The end of baseball season is fast approaching. Well, for the Kansas City Royals, the season has been over for a while. I still manage to watch some of the Royals games, but often turn them off after a few innings. Anymore, I do not tune in to Royals games in the late innings even if we are ahead by a run. In past years, I would have turned the game on to watch the end and hopefully see a win. This season, though, we seem to find ways to lose games. Our bullpen has been awful.

On Saturday, the Kansas City Chiefs played their first preseason game of the season. As you may recall, last season was not the best for the Chiefs. The offensive line struggled, which forced Patrick Mahomes to spend too much time running around and avoiding pressure. Late in the season, he was injured and missed the remainder of the year. He did not play yesterday, but reports say he is ready for the start of the season.

I have high hopes for this team as we get closer to early September. There are still two preseason games remaining before the regular season begins. As is typical during the preseason, the starters do not play much. Mahomes did not play at all yesterday, which was expected, and I am not sure whether he will play in either of the final two preseason games. It will still be interesting to see how the team develops as the season approaches.

Switching to television and movie tracking, I am still enjoying the Trakt app that I mentioned a few weeks ago. It continues to work well and helps us know where to watch our shows and movies. I am still getting used to using Trakt to track everything I watch, but I like it better than TV Time, which I had used previously before discontinuing it in July. I highly recommend giving Trakt a try if you have not used it yet.

That is about it for today and my rambling post. Sometimes these kinds of posts are fun to write, but I was struggling today to think of something specific to share. Have a great rest of your Sunday and a fantastic week.