Decided to go for my run even though we’re under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning & things were darkening up ominously. Got to Courthouse Pier as the rain started or restarted & headed East. Got about a mile out when the wind picked up to where I thought I might possibly be blown off the sea wall. Turned around & ran into the wind back to Courthouse. That was the worst part as the wind was gusting & the rain stung. At Courthouse, I decided to keep going & ran on to Hewes Ave. as the lightning got closer & the thunder got louder. Turned around when I begin to think I could smell the lightning. So, I ran just over 4 miles in the rain & wind & lightning. A few people honked their horns at me, I tried to imagine it was to be encouraging but I rather think their intentions might have been less generous. It was a good run.

I’ve begun reading a novel, Little, Big, that I’d not heard of before & that was written by a novelist, John Crowley, who I am not familiar with. I’ve read just a little of it, although as I’m reading on a Kindle that’s not really very easy to determine, but I am finding it quite a nice surprise. It is apparently a long novel, I felt that I’d been reading for some time but when I exited the book it showed I’d read less than 20%. That’s an odd aspect of reading on a Kindle, one engages the book as a single page w/ a sort of independent physical existence. My reading of War and Peace, for instance, was different than the reading of In Watermelon Sugar in ways that begin w/ simply picking up & holding the books. On the Kindle, that quality is missing.

It makes me happy to think that it will be long, it is a world that I am enjoying inhabiting. In some ways it reminds me of One Hundred Years Of Solitude, but I don’t think it would fit w/ what one ordinarily thinks of as magic realism, more of fantasy I suppose. Even so, the feel/taste/smell of reading the two books is, so far, very similar.

This Kindle has re-excited my reading life. I’m liking the experience of pulling random books from the air at will & the physical experience of reading on a Kindle, which I’d had my doubts about, is a nice one. I have a heavy leather cover that opens & holds like a book so I’ve maintained the comfort of habit.

So, this evening I ran 4 miles in the rain on the beach while thinking of a house that is many houses, a wood that grows larger the deeper one goes into it, & a lovely, tall girl named Daily Alice.

Got up at 5:00 this morning to get my short (3 miles) neighborhood run done.  77 degrees & 89% humidity that early, looks like it will be a long hot summer.  Love the birds around here at sunrise, makes me think of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.  Suppose that if I were to wake up & realize I could fly some exuberant lunacy might be called for.  

Doc Watson died yesterday, hate to see him go.  By all accounts he was a gentleman & a heck of a guitar player.  Seems I’ve reached an age where when I recognize a name in the news more often than not they’ve died.  Feel I haven’t valued the people in my life nearly enough.

92 degrees, blistering headwind, sandblasted, all in all a very nice beach run. Oh, & Dylan got the Medal of Freedom today, how cool is that!

may need to eat a little something before these Sunday early morning runs, or change my route, I pass an IHOP at about mile 4 & the smell of pancakes just about does me in.

Got up at 5:30 & made it to Courthouse Pier just before the sun cleared the horizon. Temp in the mid 70’s already & a light breeze. If it weren’t for the traffic, which is starting to get heavy even this early, I’d run w/out the ipod on these sunrise runs. Be nice to listen to the water & the sea birds. Lots of Pelicans & Herons fishing this morning, always makes me happy to see them.

When I was a boy, during the 60’s, there were lots of them. We’d go crabbing or fishing off the piers & the Pelicans would try to steal our bait. Then, during the 70’s, they disappeared. None on the beaches, none on the islands. Things were pretty barren. DDT was banned sometime during the early 70’s but it would take years for them to make a comeback.

This morning there were many of them, skimming the water in pairs or groups of three they work the schools of small fish. In the tide pools & storm drains, the Herons fished, beautiful, enormous birds. Something else that had all but disappeared, I saw several people wade fishing w/ cast nets.

On an unhappy note, I saw a dead Ridley Turtle. A little something left us by the oil spill.

Today is Bob Dylan’s 71st birthday! Happy Birthday Bob! I’m very thankful that you’ve been in the world at the same time that I have. It’s made it that much more bearable. For today's run I loaded up two of my all time favorites, Bringing It All Back Home & Blonde on Blonde. Both of these albums are from the mid & late 60’s when he was saturated w/ himself & poetry crackled in the air around him. I love to see film of him from that time, it’s like looking at one of those plasma globes.

It was a very nice run, there were bikers here for Memorial Day Blowout, pelicans, gulls, walkers, & runners. Bikers don’t see that many runners apparently, I got a lot of whoops & hollers. Nothing ugly. I hadn’t listened to Bringing It All Back Home in quite a while so that was absorbing. I’m as astounded by it today as I was when I first heard it. In 1973 I started high school & met a guy named David Thornton. He played Positively 4th Street for me. Changed my world. Don’t know where David is now, he’s one of the people I’ve lost.

Bringing It All Back Home came out in 1965. Dylan was 24. Between March of ‘65 & June of ‘66, Dylan came out w/ BIABH, Highway 61, & Blonde on Blonde. 

nice sunrise run, still reasonably cool in the mornings. this is my only timed run of the week & I kept to a 9:15-9:20 pace which is fine for this old tortoise. I also run w/out my ipod as this run is in the neighborhood & I like to be able to hear what’s going on around me. some of my neighbors seem to think it is fine to let their large dogs out to run early in the morning. I don’t like that kind of surprise. it’s very pleasant running early, no one is out, just me & the birds singing, couple heron flying over on their way to fish, box turtles, one raccoon, & a pink & orange sky to finish. have a great day!

Creeping up on 90 degrees out there, may have to push my evening run back some. For tonight’s music, I left Dylan’s Together Through Life on the ipod & in what turns out to have been a bit too random an act, added OK Computer. There was no insightful feeling. It just made us all uncomfortable. So I just dumped everything when I got home & will start clean next time. Suggestions are welcome.

Oh boy, got the new keypad for the iPad! Toys! It's the Zagg Folio. Seems to work well, surprisingly easy to type on, screen is a good size when the onscreen keyboard is not in the way, & makes for a nice case. Sweet!

very, very nice run at the beach this morning, great temp, light breeze, beautiful morning. Loaded up Beck's Mellow Gold & Dylan's Together Through Life on the ipod & set it for random, no insights but felt insightful. Have a great Sunday!

Hoo Rah! Got to go for a run this evening, after two weeks off it really felt good to get back out. Did a five mile sunset run at the beach. Few others out there this evening, couple bike riders & some walkers. Kept a good steady pace & was feeling pretty good about myself when some guy passed me while running on the actual beach. In the sand. Wearing a backpack.

I didn’t get the stitches out.  Because of where the incision is, on my upper back, he wanted to wait another week.  He did say I was ok to run & I thought I would get my Tuesday evening beach run in.  Instead I was at Taekwondo w/ my son while my wife dealt w/ a “situation” at work.  She’s a Nurse Practitioner.  They occasionally have situations.  This one, oddly enough, involved an insurance company & its willingness to pay for a needed treatment.  Imagine.  So, I’m still out of sorts & I won’t be able to get out today as it’s my late day & I didn’t get up early enough this morning.  Ah well, there’s always tomorrow.

On a happier note, I think we’ll get the kayak out this weekend!  Still have to keep an eye out for the mating gaters but should be very nice in the bayous.  

Well it’s been a week since I had the surgery & I go in Monday to get the stitches out (I hope anyway).  Now I only run about 20 miles a week, maybe just a little more than that, & you might not think a week off would make that much difference, but I’ve been just about to lose my mind.  I’ve been irritable & anxious, snapping at everybody, my wife’s mad at me & my kid’s avoiding me.  The dog’s the only one tolerating me right now & she may think she has to as I’m the one that feeds her.  OK, maybe it’s not been that bad, but I haven’t been my usual chillaxing self & it’s because I can’t get out there & run!  The weather’s been great, cool nights & breezy afternoons, & we won’t get many more days like this before we get into the misery of summer & I CAN’T GET OUT THERE & RUN!  FOR A WHOLE WEEK!  I’m feeling sorry for myself.  And my incision itches.

Ok, so this should be the link to the store & I understand the shirts or at least some of the shirts are up now:

See my store at Zazzle


as I figure this out and make changes they’ll be posted here.  Couldn’t run last night so I spent the time setting up some of the shirts.  Hopefully, my skills with the computer and ipad will grow considerably as right now this is quite tedious.  

So, I got up this morning, brushed my teeth, washed my face, got my coffee, got my newspaper, & sat on the couch moping about not being able to go for my run. Sunday morning runs are my favorite run of the week. I go early, at sunrise, to the beach, it’s cool or cooler, very few people are out, very little traffic, & it’s my long run so it feels like something I’m committing to for awhile. But not today. Today I’m on the couch w/ my newspaper.

Ah well.

Had a minor (very minor) surgery this morning, a surgery that I’d been told I would be able to run a day or so after. Turns out I’m asked to wait two weeks. Two weeks! If it weren’t for the happy pills they gave me I would be even more upset than I am. As it is, I’m quite upset but in a relaxed & upbeat way.

Very nice five miles on the beach watching the pelicans fish. Hot today with a wind that blew from the east when I was running east & from the west when I was running west. Interesting that, I tried not to take it personally.

Listened to selections from Blonde on Blonde on the way out, I think that may be my favorite Dylan album. He was on such a roll during that time, when I see video of him from then it’s like the air around him is crackling.

Have a wonderful evening.

Had very nice 5 miles on the beach yesterday evening & another 3 around the neighborhood this morning.  The wind yesterday was fierce, my skin was raw from the sand blowing by the time I finished.  Interesting aerodynamical curiosity, running into a headwind is a battle, but running w/ a tailwind seems to make no more difference than the breeze off a butterfly’s wing.