I jogged about three miles this morning and when I looked at my watch after 8 minutes, I thought to myself, “Why am I doing this?”

My least favorite time to run outside is late July, August, December and January. I run on the treadmill during the winter, but I am an outside type of runner. Maybe it was my start many years ago in track running the streets to train that made me into a person who wants to run outside and breathe the fresh air.

In my competitive distance days, I was a terrible runner during July and August. I remember running a Firecracker 500 run in Southern Illinois when I was in my 20s and how my performance was awful. Then a few months later in September, I was back finishing near the top of the pack in my races.

I finished the run on Thursday and even swam inside in normal fashion, but the run wasn’t easy. I encourage people to drink plenty of fluids when they finish their runs and try to run during the times where the temperatures are the lowest during the day.

It is predicted to be in the upper 90s this weekend, so if you are exercising, I encourage you to run early and immediately drink water after finishing the task.

My question to fellow runners is how do you beat the heat? Do you run early? What do you do about hydrating yourself?

Send me a response back to my blog.

The paw print outside Glenhaven Gardens assisted living facility apparently was not a feline, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources told The Telegraph last week.

The picture was submitted by a local woman from her cell phone and drew some attention.

I still think that there must be something to the supposed sightings of large black cats in the region, but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

I encourage anyone who does locate the big cat again to contact The Telegraph newsroom and we will continue our quest to see if the animal does truly exist.

We posted video online from our Memphis trip to the National Civil Rights Museum and with Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles recently. I urge people to check out the video work. I appreciate the editing assistance of Laura Griffith, The Telegraph Web news editor.

It seems as of late we have been busy chasing cougar or panther or whatever-the-cat-is sightings around the region.

We had another one come in last week from an area woman who spotted some paw prints near her work. We will write about this soon. We have been trying to verify with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources whether or not a cell phone photograph shows the paw prints of a large cat or something else.

I talked to a local public relations person this week and she claims she saw something of this nature a few years back. For a long period of time, she said she thinks people thought she was imagining the creature, but now she feels some validation that what she saw actually might have been a large black cat of some type.

It seems to me that we have had too many sightings for something not to be going on out there, but who knows.

I encourage residents to take a photograph or videotape any large black cats you happen to come across, of course staying enough distance to avoid any harm.

I also urge people to send us the photographs and videos and to contact the Telegraph news editors at (618) 463-2576, (618) 463-2515 at night or (618) 463-2560 during the day if you happen to see the fleeting black cat in the region. The only way we will prove there is such a thing is to get the right photograph or video.

If you see anything, I also encourage you to contact the local authorities.

A trip to Memphis, Tenn., provided an eye-opening glimpse to the civil rights movement and the work of one of the key leaders.

On Saturday, I drove to Memphis with retired Telegraph reporter Ande Yakstis to visit the National Civil Rights Museum.

I met with Barbara Andrews, museum currator, and Beverly Robertson, the organization’s president. The two and all the others at the museum were most gracious.

The museum captures the essence of the civil rights movement, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassination and much more. I will write a lot more about this in some stories and commentaries in the coming days.

The same holds true for the visit to Monumental Baptist Church in Memphis with Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, the pastor and his congregation. Kyles is one of the last living leaders in the key inner circle King. He also was with him the last hour of his life and also tried to help him after he had been shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The congregation and Kyles made us feel right at home and spent a considerable amount of time with us.

My question is how many of you have visited the National Civil Rights Museum? What are your thoughts?

I encourage readers to look for our upcoming series, videos and photos from the weekend. This will culminate the series I have worked on with Ande marking the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination.

I also urge residents to consider a trip to Memphis to see the museum if you haven’t visited before.

I attended the funeral of my uncle Bob Graner last week and in my quick trip there was able to connect with several relatives.

My cousin, Mike Graner, Bob’s son, was there and he gave an eloquent summary of his dad’s life at the end. He is now a medical researcher in the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina. He talked about fishing and some of the lessons he learned from his father out in the boat. It brought me back to memories of my own dad and tossing the line in the water from creeks and lakes.

It may sound odd, but now some of my best memories come from those trips to the fishing holes.

Mike Graner talked a little about his father, Bob, donating his body to medical science. I didn’t know of the donation until he died.

I don’t know if part of Bob’s reason for donating his body to science came from his son, Mike, having insulin-dependent diabetes from a very early age or not, or his own ailments that he battled in his 77 years of living. Or if the decision came from Mike’s work in his professional career as a researcher.

I always admired Bob Graner. He was a quiet man, not an ultra-talkative uncle, but he would always seemingly open up to me. Maybe it was the reporter in me, but I always able to get my relatives to carry on a detailed conversation.

Bob Graner was always working at track meets, basketball games and coaching. Those memories will be what I remember about him the most. As far as admiring him, I don’t think I have ever thought more of him than on the day of his funeral, not seeing his body because it had been donated to medical science to further research.

We need to think more carefully about the importance of medical research. We have so many ailments that we need to address and without research, we will never discover cures.

If you have a similar story, send an e-mail to me that I can post in my blog.

The City of Alton faced a difficult decision in regard to the annual fireworks celebration along the riverfront, but the decision to cancel the celebration was the right one.

City officials cancelled the celebration with plenty of notice to the public. The Mississippi River conditions made it impossible to have the festival along the riverfront this year.

Also, if one thinks about it, there wasn’t a good alternative for the city. I have heard some say that the display could have been held at Gordon Moore Park, but I don’t think that would have been possible.

I encourage people to have fun in their celebrations on July 4 and don’t drink and drive. The State Police and other law enforcement officials will be out in force.

If you get a moment, tell me about your plans for July 4 and your traditions. I think others would be interested.