I did run today, a wonderful easy 7 mile run. Enjoyed it tremendously. However this blog will not, from this point forward mention anything about my run. Instead I am going to focus on my walk with our dogs.
I've been trying to take the dogs out for a walk every day, rarely do I do it every day, but I am trying. They now understand that when I walk out to the yard with the leashes it is time to get some exercise and they are excited. I used to struggle to get the leash on them because they would not sit still long enough for me to get it clipped on their collar. But now they know they have to sit for me if they want to walk. You really can teach old dogs new tricks!
Today was a beautiful day, in the 60's, no wind, sunny and clear, perfect day for a walk with the dogs. We head out, as usual they are pulling me along in the beginning, noses to the ground, stopping to take care of bodily functions along the way. As we go along I talk to them (I know that's a shock), and it occurs to me how nice it would be to have someone to walk me so that I get exercise, someone to feed me just the right amount of food with the right nutrients, someone to give me my vitamins and other medications just exactly when needed. Someone to praise me and talk to me as if I am the sweetest thing they have ever seen and to take me to the doctor when I need my vaccinations. And someone to give me a treat now and again.
Oh shit, when the kids put us in the old folks home, all those dreams will come true!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Cold, Steam, Bells
It's been awhile since I wrote and this one has been bouncing around in my head for some time. As most know we had a cold spell here that had the masses of the Dallas Fort Worth area completely baffled. The small little quaint town of Granbury was no exception. Eight, Nine, Ten, degrees is just a little too cold here. Interestingly enough there was not a lot of moisture in this storm which is always a nice thing.
I, of course, will not allow a little cold to ruin my run. This fine morning it was 18, not bad really. I wait until it's closer to 21 and head out. I love the crisp cold mornings, I feel refreshed even though I cannot move my mouth because it's frozen. It's interesting, I've run in this temperature in New Mexico and Colorado many times and yet here it feels so cold, they tell me it's because of the humidity we suffer.
In any case the run was a normal run, nothing very unusual, and then I take a turn down toward the boardwalk at the lake. The sun was just coming up to the point that the few clouds were bright orange and pink with the rays of the sun peaking through. As I run toward the water I see that there is steam coming off of the water rising soflty and creating a fog that just hovers over the water's surface, the fog and water are reflecting the orange and pink hues of the sunrise. It's breathtaking. As I am taking this all in I hear the bells from a nearby church playing Clair de Lun. Although they are located on the other side of the lake the water carries the music to me through the fog and the color of the sunrise. My senses are overwhelmed and I must stop to take it all in. Here in this little town the beauty is there waiting for us to take notice. God really paints a beautiful picture.
I, of course, will not allow a little cold to ruin my run. This fine morning it was 18, not bad really. I wait until it's closer to 21 and head out. I love the crisp cold mornings, I feel refreshed even though I cannot move my mouth because it's frozen. It's interesting, I've run in this temperature in New Mexico and Colorado many times and yet here it feels so cold, they tell me it's because of the humidity we suffer.
In any case the run was a normal run, nothing very unusual, and then I take a turn down toward the boardwalk at the lake. The sun was just coming up to the point that the few clouds were bright orange and pink with the rays of the sun peaking through. As I run toward the water I see that there is steam coming off of the water rising soflty and creating a fog that just hovers over the water's surface, the fog and water are reflecting the orange and pink hues of the sunrise. It's breathtaking. As I am taking this all in I hear the bells from a nearby church playing Clair de Lun. Although they are located on the other side of the lake the water carries the music to me through the fog and the color of the sunrise. My senses are overwhelmed and I must stop to take it all in. Here in this little town the beauty is there waiting for us to take notice. God really paints a beautiful picture.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Nostalgia
The week between Christmas and the New Year was spent in New Mexico with our families. Before we arrived they received quite a bit of snow "like the old days" according to my friends and family there. It snowed twice while we were there, beautiful soft, quiet snows. Being there with that kind of snow coming down I feel nostalgic.
It did make it hard to run. The first day I needed to run I was able to do so on some roads rarely travled and somewhat clear of ice and snow. But the second day my plan called for running was after the last large snow fall and was a bit more difficult.
I started out on the walking/biking path that circles a golf course. I thought that perhaps they would have plowed the path, alas I was incorrect! The path had been used despite the ice under the snow but it only made it packed with hard little balls of snow and ice. This hurt my feet terribly! And so I ran 3 miles on this surface. This path happens to be very close to the neighborhood I grew up in so I made the decision to take off for my old house and see what the neighborhood looks like now. Of course the roads are not main roads and so they too had not been plowed but were also packed from traffic and made it a bit easier to run.
As I came up on the house of my childhood the nostalgia flooded through me. I remember those days of climbing trees, riding horses over the hills, spying on the adults from my perch high up, days sleeping in the yard under the willow tree, the endless hours I spent outside in that yard and in the forest next door. Of course it has changed so much, there is no more forest as the houses have sprung up and that makes me sad.
I circle around the street to where my grandparents house was and there it stands. It doesn't look much different. Again the feeling is overwhelming, joy, sadness, wonder. There was a small forest group of lots between our house and theirs with a path we had beaten into the dirt from going back and forth. Now houses sit right in the middle. I remember going back and forth in the dark and being sure some kind of scary creature was going to jump out from behind the trees to eat me alive. I remember the signal my grandmother gave for when we were not allowed to come over, typically when she and her friends were playing bridge and having cocktails! If the curtains were pulled she was entertaining, if they were open we were to come on over.
After stopping for a bit I go on around the area, running on the streets where I used to ride bikes for hours on end, up and down the hills with no thought of fear of traffic or of someone snatching me. From morning until way after dark we would ride and explore the series of streets.
Sometimes I wonder if nostalgia is a bad thing, for me it always leads to a series of "what if" questions. This day the questions centered around my parents. "What if they had not moved from this house while I was in college", "Would they have stayed together?". "What if they had not divorced?" "If they had not what would they be like as grandparents together?" "What would our holiday be like if they had toughed it out? Would it be happy and fun or sad and tense?" "How would my relationship with Terry and my children be different had they stayed together?" See, the house where I grew up symbolizes the good times in my family, it was after they moved that it fell apart. I was already married when they divorced and sometimes I feel I've never had the opportunity to really grieve over the loss. When I go by our home the sense of sadness is overwhelming, yet it's good to remember the love that was there and the fun we had together before things turned in the wrong direction. We really cannot go back can we? Only forward. For me that means making my marriage and my relationship with my children happy, loving, trustworthy, and lasting.
What does all of this have to do with running? Well running allows these thoughts to ebb in and out of my head, it allows my heart to hurt and to be lite, it allows the feelings to flood in without someone there to see the affect it has on me.
And so for the New Year my resolution is to make this year with my family the very best year we've had so far in our time together. We will be adding two to our lives this year as our children get married. I want them to remember us as a happy loving family.
Happy New Year
It did make it hard to run. The first day I needed to run I was able to do so on some roads rarely travled and somewhat clear of ice and snow. But the second day my plan called for running was after the last large snow fall and was a bit more difficult.
I started out on the walking/biking path that circles a golf course. I thought that perhaps they would have plowed the path, alas I was incorrect! The path had been used despite the ice under the snow but it only made it packed with hard little balls of snow and ice. This hurt my feet terribly! And so I ran 3 miles on this surface. This path happens to be very close to the neighborhood I grew up in so I made the decision to take off for my old house and see what the neighborhood looks like now. Of course the roads are not main roads and so they too had not been plowed but were also packed from traffic and made it a bit easier to run.
As I came up on the house of my childhood the nostalgia flooded through me. I remember those days of climbing trees, riding horses over the hills, spying on the adults from my perch high up, days sleeping in the yard under the willow tree, the endless hours I spent outside in that yard and in the forest next door. Of course it has changed so much, there is no more forest as the houses have sprung up and that makes me sad.
I circle around the street to where my grandparents house was and there it stands. It doesn't look much different. Again the feeling is overwhelming, joy, sadness, wonder. There was a small forest group of lots between our house and theirs with a path we had beaten into the dirt from going back and forth. Now houses sit right in the middle. I remember going back and forth in the dark and being sure some kind of scary creature was going to jump out from behind the trees to eat me alive. I remember the signal my grandmother gave for when we were not allowed to come over, typically when she and her friends were playing bridge and having cocktails! If the curtains were pulled she was entertaining, if they were open we were to come on over.
After stopping for a bit I go on around the area, running on the streets where I used to ride bikes for hours on end, up and down the hills with no thought of fear of traffic or of someone snatching me. From morning until way after dark we would ride and explore the series of streets.
Sometimes I wonder if nostalgia is a bad thing, for me it always leads to a series of "what if" questions. This day the questions centered around my parents. "What if they had not moved from this house while I was in college", "Would they have stayed together?". "What if they had not divorced?" "If they had not what would they be like as grandparents together?" "What would our holiday be like if they had toughed it out? Would it be happy and fun or sad and tense?" "How would my relationship with Terry and my children be different had they stayed together?" See, the house where I grew up symbolizes the good times in my family, it was after they moved that it fell apart. I was already married when they divorced and sometimes I feel I've never had the opportunity to really grieve over the loss. When I go by our home the sense of sadness is overwhelming, yet it's good to remember the love that was there and the fun we had together before things turned in the wrong direction. We really cannot go back can we? Only forward. For me that means making my marriage and my relationship with my children happy, loving, trustworthy, and lasting.
What does all of this have to do with running? Well running allows these thoughts to ebb in and out of my head, it allows my heart to hurt and to be lite, it allows the feelings to flood in without someone there to see the affect it has on me.
And so for the New Year my resolution is to make this year with my family the very best year we've had so far in our time together. We will be adding two to our lives this year as our children get married. I want them to remember us as a happy loving family.
Happy New Year
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