Blogging on the Powwow

I finally found a use for the Facebook timeline! I was able to look up which day last August I injured myself while on a planned 19-mile run. It was August 30, which is 364 days ago. Today, I again headed out for a 19-mile run, since I am training for the same marathon, and fought the same near-injury as last year, but in the other foot. And, I succeeded this time! I didn't have to call Neil for Aleve at mile 7 and I didn't have to call Neil at mile 9 and ask him to pick me up. Instead, I called Neil at mile 10.5 and told him that I was playing it safe. I was on Plum Island. I stopped at a convenience store for a Gatorade and asked for a cup of ice, went outside, stripped down the right foot and applied the ice - hoping to stave off any impending injury. It worked.  Moreover, the owners of the convenience store were quite the team. A man nearing 80 rang up my purchase for Gatorade. He said, without batting an eye, "That will be $18.61." His son turned to me and said...

Our neighbor, Richard, is one of the most helpful neighbors a person could ever want. He gives willingly of his time, knows the area and resources available to residents, is endlessly patient, and has a house full of tools, supplies, household items, and small machinery that he is willing to lend to anyone on a moment's notice.  My readers might remember me saying that within a couple of weeks of moving into our present home we decided to take down a small bundle of trees. Richard showed up and saw that Neil was missing a tool. He said unassumingly, "I've got that tool. I'll be right back." He was back within 10 minutes, with said tool and spent the next three hours helping us cut and discard of our trees. This scenario has been repeated about 50 times over the past 4 years. Richard - helping us cut down tress in our new yard, summer 2008. Despite last year's light snowfall, the years that preceded it brought us significant precipitation. Richard likes ...

A couple of years ago my friend, Kathy, was reeling after a vacation. You know the feeling - lost, endlessly tired, unproductive, unmotivated, etc. She was discouraged. Why was she feeling this way? What do you expect?  I asked, You have PVAD - Post-Vacation Adjustment Disorder! That began a longstanding, and endlessly helpful, tradition of explaining away all of our woes with a simple phrase: P [fill in the blank]  Adjustment Disorder. In addition to PVAD, we could add PLRAD --Long Run --  the syndrome that I get about 24-48 hours after a run of 18 miles or longer, when I am exhausted and I think that I will be hopelessly behind in all of my professional work (which is actually true) and that I should give up running forever (which is silly, of course). When I have PLRAD, that seems like the only solution. How about PSAD, which is the crushing exhaustion that one feels as the end of a Semester;  or PYOTO, which is what I experienced when the Year of the Oboe ...

We checked into a motel in Dubois, Wyoming on the evening of August 10. At the desk, I noticed that there was a 5k being held in town the following morning, August 11. I inquired about the location and learned that it was being held less than 1 mile from the motel. I talked to Neil, who said, "Why not?" So, it was official. I would run a 5k in Wyoming. Unplanned. Spur-of-the-moment. I registered online and learned that the race was part of a series called Run 4 Chance ,  to support the Chance Phelps Foundation , named after a 19-year old soldier who was killed in Iraq in 2004, and who is buried in Dubois, Wyoming.  It was a long night before the race. We went to bed in time to get 8 hours of sleep, but the partying on the street kept me awake for nearly an hour-and-a-half. Then Neil woke. We both managed to sleep some, but when the partying moved off the street and into the motel room below us, Neil was up for an hour or two, fuming about the noise and disrespect of ou...