My Mom the [once a year] Runner
We’ve had an annual tradition (as in it’s happened more than once in a row) until this year. I go up to Medford, Oregon and run once a year with my mom in the Pear Blossom Run. Since we’ve been doing it (aka. since 2005) I’ve been running at least semi-regularly. My mom never runs, unless it’s to get behind the ball and smash it back into the half-her-age-or-younger opposition. (When we talk about tennis, I’m really clear it’s the one time when I can say bad words without repercussion, the usual being, “GO KICK THEIR ASS!”) But I can only get her to run once a year, and it has to be in her hometown, at the Pear Blossom Run, and this year I missed it [insert good wedding and money excuse here].
But my mom, the now-email-addict-once-a-year-runner, gave me the following replay of the run:
Dear fellow runners,
- 6am – I wonder why the radio is coming on in the dark. Oh, yes, it’s Pear Blossom Run day.
- I crawl out and peak out the window. Deck is wet. It’s been raining.
- 6:40 – I park beside the jail house. Take a pit stop in the still fresh portajohns. It’s just a slight mist, so running won’t be bad.
- 7am – we’re off from the starting line.
- 7:33:49 – I huff across the finish line. Gatorade, banana, water; some long sustained leg stretches, and it really starts raining. I head home, shower and now I’m having my morning tea with you.
It’s foggy and dreary – a good day to be inside.
Thanks for the good thoughts – I needed them.
Love
Myrdith
Go mom! That’s an average (assuming the 5k course is really ~3.1miles) 10:54 mile. Rock on! I run slower than that normally. Maybe I should start playing tennis.
I’m an Alan Rickman Fanboy
I’m watching Galaxy Quest (on VHS, borrowed from the library, totally old school) for the third or fourth time with Janna, adding to the list of all of the movies I’ve ever watched (I’m up to 408 right now… wow, do I ever have too much free time) and am dubbing myself an Alan Rickman fanboy. Everything this guy is in is pure entertainment.
“By Grabthar’s hammer, what a savings!”
By the way, Tony Shalhoub is quite great, too.
Wikinomics
Just finished the book Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. Excellent work. In the wiki tradition, instead of telling you about the book, go and participate in the writing of its spin-off at The Wikinomics Playbook.
My favorite two paragraphs are on the bottom page 275:
Sure, ask any manager if they would prefer to compete in a “well-mannered” economy where every new innovation was subject to their approval, and they would overwhelmingly respond in the affirmative. But a well-mannered economy is not today’s reality.
Stability is dead. The idea that you can invent a business that will never be disrupted by technology is over. As blogger and science fiction author Cory Doctorow put it, “Blacksmiths weeping into their beer about their inability to sell horseshoes in the era of railroads doesn’t make horseshoes more popular. Blacksmiths learning how to become auto mechanics, on the other hand, puts food on their table.”
Long live collaboration!
My Girlfriend Loves Me
Conversation that takes place after I finish a 20 mile run.
Call Janna on her cell phone.
Jeremy: “Hi honey, I’m back at the park and done with my run.”
Janna: “Oh, I’m not there yet.”
Jeremy: “That’s okay, I need to get out of the sun so I’ll meet you at home. By the way, what did you make for our picnic?”
Janna: “I didn’t make anything.”
Jeremy: “Umm, okay, what did you prepare?”
Janna: “I didn’t prepare anything.”
Jeremy: “What are we having for our now indoor picnic?”
Janna: “Well I got you your favorite burger.”
Jeremy, crying big man tears and depleting the remaining amount of liquid in my body: “That’s so sweet! You went to In-n-Out?”
Janna: “Yeah, I got you two double doubles and animal style fries.”
Jeremy, still crying: “That’s perhaps the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. I love you honey!”
Janna: “I love you too baby.”