May Day
More on this later...
Friday, April 27, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Menopause?
I can't stand being me right now. Everyone around me seems more rational and has their life together and mine seems fractured and complicated. My parent's lives and needs are a great part of mine. My business is demanding. My personal life is failing. I feel like I'm suffocating.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
On Being Different
We have this interesting old goose on our lake- Pang-Pang - who by all accounts has lived here forever. I know for certain he's lived here for 10 years because that's how long I've lived here.
As for where he came from, I have no idea. I picture his former owners skulking up to the lake in the middle of the night and dropping him off. I know he didn't fly here - he can't fly more than to flap his wings as he skims the lake surface.
He has no others of his kind here. In the past few years I've seen him keeping company with the mutant, injured, and rejected Canadian geese. When I first met him, he had a harem of white mutant Pekin Ducks, but they've since died.
Pang-Pang always seems the saddest in the spring. All the other geese and ducks do whatever geese and ducks do to find mates and poor Pang just honks his mournful melody without so much as a soft honk back from a prospective mate.
It reminds me of my mother. Lately she's been crying in the morning because she has no friends. What she says is, "I just want to be like everybody else," or "nobody wants to talk to us." I don't know what to say or do to help her. Her old friends stopped calling long ago. She can't carry on a conversation because she can't find words to fill the spaces in a sentence. We've signed her up for twice weekly all-day care at the Alzheimer's Day Center so she can have friends "like her." But that doesn't seem to fill the void.
The best I can do is watch sadly from the side as my mother and Pang-Pang seek someone like them so they don't have to be alone.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Evening of the Day
"All I hear is the sound of rain falling on the ground.."
What a world we live in.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
10-Mile Slog
I overslept my running club's 10-mile run today so decided to create one of my own. This was not one of those days I was eager to get outside. In fact, I was downright anxious. Why? It was 44 degrees, raining, overcast - let's face it, bone-chilling miserable.
I made it slightly more inviting by creating my own little biosphere. The challenge to runners when going farther than 3-5 miles is choosing the right clothes. There is no chance of staying dry on a rainy day, so one wants simply to stay warm - but not too warm. My rainy day outfit always includes a baseball cap. Other than that, it all depends on the temperature. Today I chose well, except I should have added gloves (a winter coat, rainproof jacket, wool hat, umbrella, waterproof boots, indoor treadmill, etc..).
My waterproof ipod, with new surround sound earphones, and Garmin Forerunner GPS completed the illusion of an enjoyable training date with myself. I found the miles adding up on my wrist, along with the personal music selections drumming in my ears, somewhat numbed me to my actual miserable circumstances.
To give my run a purpose outside of training, I worked on staying present-focused. What I noticed along my run were tons of displaced earth worms, puddles of murky sidewalk water, the cherry blossom pedals giving way to green leaves, the daffodils in varying stages of display and death, and the general beginnings of winter brown giving way to spring green.
While I tried to go a full 10-mile route - logging as many miles far from home as possible to prevent short-cutting - I ended up at mile 9 very close to my house and too cold and wet to add another lake loop. The map below shows my actual route as recorded by my Forerunner (during the first 1/2 mile my forerunner couldn't locate the satellite).
And this is the link to my entire route on Motion-based.com: My 10-Mile Slog
I made it slightly more inviting by creating my own little biosphere. The challenge to runners when going farther than 3-5 miles is choosing the right clothes. There is no chance of staying dry on a rainy day, so one wants simply to stay warm - but not too warm. My rainy day outfit always includes a baseball cap. Other than that, it all depends on the temperature. Today I chose well, except I should have added gloves (a winter coat, rainproof jacket, wool hat, umbrella, waterproof boots, indoor treadmill, etc..).
My waterproof ipod, with new surround sound earphones, and Garmin Forerunner GPS completed the illusion of an enjoyable training date with myself. I found the miles adding up on my wrist, along with the personal music selections drumming in my ears, somewhat numbed me to my actual miserable circumstances.
To give my run a purpose outside of training, I worked on staying present-focused. What I noticed along my run were tons of displaced earth worms, puddles of murky sidewalk water, the cherry blossom pedals giving way to green leaves, the daffodils in varying stages of display and death, and the general beginnings of winter brown giving way to spring green.
While I tried to go a full 10-mile route - logging as many miles far from home as possible to prevent short-cutting - I ended up at mile 9 very close to my house and too cold and wet to add another lake loop. The map below shows my actual route as recorded by my Forerunner (during the first 1/2 mile my forerunner couldn't locate the satellite).
And this is the link to my entire route on Motion-based.com: My 10-Mile Slog
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
Wordless in Reston - My T.V. Debut
Today our company, DogOn Fitness taped a segment about Dog Fitness for a local Reston T.V. spot. Lesley and I shared the stage with a former client and now business owner, Steve, who runs Performance Dogs.
While this seemed like an excellent marketing opportunity when first presented, I found myself in the grips of full-blown stage-fright by the time taping began. Since I'd already expected this reaction, I'd tipped the ever-confident and chatty Lesley off in advance, "if he asks me a question and I don't say anything, please take over."
Fortunately Lesley is never at a loss for something to say. She maneuvered her way around questions like a pro, whether or not they were directed at her.
I probably should have been more assertive from the start...when I was finally able to utter something coherent, I'd no more than open my mouth before Lesley charged in to finish.
Our show airs 4 times this month - the first one this Wednesday night. But I'll have to watch it on DVD - I just found out I don't even get this station.
