Finally, a run

I ran my first "long" run of the year yesterday, 5 miles of hills in the subdivision behind the 'hood instead of on the Mall as originally planned when the person I was going to run with bailed.  I ran on New Year's day also, and two days ago as well, but those were only runs of a couple of miles.

I like running through new neighborhoods; I get to looking at the houses and speculating as to what it might be like to live there or how much it might cost or what the view might look like from the porch.  This particular house took the prize yesterday as the coziest brick house, always a favorite category of mine.

I got to thinking about things as I loped dreamily along thinking about the new year, did the math in my head and determined that it has been ten years since I last heard from any son of mine.  The last communication was a breezy letter from my youngest son asking me to provide for 100% payment of his college tuition and fees at VCU, which I did.

Hey, you're welcome, youngest son.  And happy birthday, middle son!

Desultory

It's a new year!  So far it seems to be like the old year, no job, no money, no motivation to run.

On New Year's day I went to a favorite restaurant to have lunch at noon.  No company, no conversation, only the empty chair.

It rained the next three days.  I went to the mall, but it was desultory wandering around in there and I had a horrid food court lunch.

But I think things are about to change.  Also, later today I'll run on the Mall with a friend from awhile back.

 

The new year

Practically every day I hear about tweets.  I don't tweet because it's even more shallow than FB and it's frequently akin to, in my opinion, emotional and intellectual diarrhea being spewed forth impetuously.

But I hear or read about The Donald's ("TD") narcissistic tweets practically every day, from friends or on FB.  Don't you get all your news only from friends and FB?

Government by daily messages reduced to 140-character bites.  Calling Aldous Huxley!

Welcome to the new year, it's looking more and more like it will be momentous and/or very ominous.  DTS, or meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

A year comes to an end.

2016 was an eventful year for me.  I was forced to retire prematurely and precipitously.  I had stomach surgery.   Out of an abundance of precautionary foresight, I worked hard for the Hillary campaign in the fall yet a carnival barker beat her (with 3 million fewer votes) with the telling assistance of the Russians and the FBI.  Most of my friends either moved or have dropped away.  My running dropped off a cliff after my surgery, and then again this month when a painful calf injury felled me.

But the biggest event of the year for me was finding out this year that my youngest son got married last year.  Congratulations, Danny, and welcome to the family, Laura.

Tomorrow I'll be at my usual lunch spot.  Perhaps I'll see one or more of you all there, eh JJD&L?  

The year in review, part 3 of 3

In September I slowly came back to running after my surgery from the prior month and I saw my sister who came to town for a visit.  I also started working for the Hillary campaign so that, in the ridiculously unlikely scenario that The Donald actually won the presidency, I could hold myself above reproach for any repercussions from such an outlandish and disastrous occurrence.

In October I worked really hard for the Hillary campaign, canvassing in Northern Virginia and electioneering in North Carolina.  I hadn't worked for any campaign since the McGovern campaign in 1972, which should have been a sign.

In November I took a trip to Newport News to poll watch on election day, an undertaking which, in retrospect, was a complete waste of time and money, as a vocal minority of Americans spoke loud and clear on that day.  I also spent a day in Shenandoah park getting use out of my lifetime National Park pass and took a trip to Colorado to inspect some properties, where the weather cooperated and the views were, as usual, spectacular.

In December I laid off running for a few weeks due to injury and I unsuccessfully tried once again to start healing my fractured immediate family by going during the noon hour on Christmas to my favorite restaurant in Westover.  I also attended a very nice Hanukkah party at a friend's house and spent a lovely Christmas afternoon in the District with a friend.

Do you think 2017 will be more, or less, momentous?

The year in review, part 2 of 3.

At the end of May, after more than a quarter century on the job and after working hard all year doing more with less as people at work left to take new jobs or went out on maternity leave, I was suddenly forced to retire by the impossible demands of, in my opinion, a bullying manager acting as the point man for a group of in-it-for-themselves managers a generation younger.  I already had an active age-discrimination complaint going at the time but these people consider themselves to be bullet-proof and, in my opinion, do whatever they want, paying only lip service to rules put in place about retaliation and the like.

On the day after I was precipitously and prematurely forced to retire due to ageism, I bought new running shoes and ran five times a week during the month of June, mostly around Northern Virginia and sometimes in the District, taking on the task of running home from all of the furthest-out Silver Line Metro stops.  I also discovered from a neighbor that my youngest son had gotten married a year earlier to some girl named Laura.

In July I kept active by continuing running five times a week, sometimes in the District with friends from my former place of work.  I also did some hiking and bicycling on some of the many recreational venues available around the District, like here on the C&O Canal Towpath.

August was a most interesting month.  On the eleventh, out of the clear blue sky, I got friended and then unfriended within the hour by my daughter-in-law Laura, and then the next morning I underwent stomach surgery, which put me down harder and longer than I thought it would.

Our lives were about to change.

The year in review, part 1 of 3.

In January I waited at a reunion that apparently will never be.  Dining with the perennially empty chair and the ever-full 2d beer on my middle child's 28th birthday.

I kept on running during the noon hour through a cold and raw February.  Here I ran by some school children on a field trip dispensing hot chocolate at the MLK Memorial.

In March I ran my only official race of the year, a 5K on the W&OD Trail half a mile from my house.  I won my AG and received a pie as my prize.

On my birthday in April, I was delightfully surprised when I was joined by friends at the place I normally go to for lunch on birthdays and holidays.  The couple in the middle are newlyweds who in the fall moved to AZ, while the woman on the right, a colleague at work, had had a baby less than three weeks earlier.

My life was about to change.