Family

nap dreams

I had some nightmares while napping this afternoon. One sad, one scary. I was in a large house in a neighborhood that backed up onto a river, a very small river that was really more of a creek in size. There were rows of rickety wooden lawn chairs between the house and the river, facing the house. I was sitting in one at dusk with my feet up on the wall of the house, and I looked down and realized the legs of the lawnchair were only about 2 inches from the rim of the riverbank. I moved the lawnchair closer to the house and continued reading my mail. One piece was a flyer for a dentist’s office that featured a large photo of a little girl that looked just like Brittney might have at that age. Another one was for an insurance company that also featured a large photo of Brittney, and I knew that she didn’t know they had used her photo. The house I was at alternated between being Auntie Fran’s house (although it didn’t look anything like her actual house) and a shed on Grandma’s property (which she didn’t actually have in real life). I got out of my lawn chair and realized that I could go see Grandma’s house. On the other side of the river were rows of new condominiums and fancy shops, facing away from us. I knew that her house was somewhere in those rows of condos, and that the beach and ocean must be on the other side. Bob came outside and we decided to walk across the “river” and onto a sidewalk on the other side that paralleled the river. We walked for a little ways until we came to a T where the sidewalk turned and went between two […]

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mile(age)stone

MILESTONE!! I ran 4.2 miles tonight. That is the farthest I’ve ever run without stopping. 44 minutes, so that translates to… let’s see… about a 10:30 mile. I’m very pleased with that; my goal is not necessarily to run quickly or to decrease my time per mile, but to increase my endurance, even if I’m doing 15 minute miles or whatever. If I can complete the half marathon in under 3 hours, I’ll be very happy. I sprinted the last lap and a half to catch up with Brittney, and after slowing to a walk it felt like I was starting to have an asthma attack. It subsided after a few minutes of wheezing. Which reminds me, I should make a doctor’s appointment so she can reassure me that my body will be able to stand up to this crazy training schedule. I was supposed to do 4 miles on Saturday (my long run day) but only did 1.5, on the treadmill. Sunday I did an additional 1 mile on the treadmill, then went outside and ran another 1.5. I don’t think that really counts, even though it adds up to 4. I felt really awful about myself all weekend as a result. On the treadmill I have been running a 12 minute mile. I don’t know how I will ultimately feel about the treadmill. Right now we have a love-hate relationship. (I hate that I don’t love it.) The most I’ve been able to run on it is 1.5 miles. It feels much more difficult than when I run on regular non-moving ground. I seem to get hotter and sweatier, and I’m really unhappy and my muscles hurt and I tire out quickly and I’m always looking at the mileage gauge. Maybe it’s that I know I can step […]

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fun with playlists

An anonymous comment was left on this post: Let’s see you nailed the top 10 for me. Almost. ‘In your eyes’ by guess who. ‘New Year’s Day’ by guess again. ‘Headhunter’ and ‘Diamonds on the soles of her shoes’ by people not on your list. How cool is that, that I got someone’s top ten! (Almost.) I like your taste in music, Anonymous. I’ve started making playlists that correspond to specific people or time periods in my life. Sometimes that’s easy, sometimes it’s not so easy. I find it really interesting that something as esoteric as a specific set of songs can evoke memories, when the individual songs by themselves don’t necessarily do that. I want to post my “Songs That Remind Me Of Doc” playlist, but it’s 43 songs long so far and I’m not done. Y’all’d get sick of reading my playlists if I started to do that. You probably already are. Damn. I can’t resist. I’ll just list the top ten from that playlist: Sanctum Sanctorum (The Damned), God’s Comic (Elvis Costell0), Alone Again Or (The Damned), The Carnival Is Over (Dead Can Dance), Strength of Strings (This Mortal Coil), Jane Says (Jane’s Addiction), Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie), Somebody (Depeche Mode), The Killing Moon (Echo and the Bunnymen), and Appetite (Prefab Sprout).

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flow

Flow is amazing. Exquisite, haunting, strangely addictive. Play online or download for Mac or PC. Thanks to Doc for the link.

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The spooky tree

Out walking on Saturday, Doc and I discovered a tree we’d never seen before. It’s right on the other side of the creek from us. I’m pretty sure it’s a mesquite tree, although it’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen. The trunk is probably 3 feet in diameter, and it’s incredibly gnarled and twisted. There are big thorns on the lower branches, but none that we could see on the upper ones. The bark is twisted too, and in some parts looks like it was shredded and then glued back haphazardly on to the branches. It’s spooky. It’s beautiful. I went back after dark and took some pictures.

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