Monday, August 25, 2014

THINGS I THINK ABOUT WHILE RUNNING

On a six miler the other afternoon, here is what went through my mind. 

1. How I have gone through four years of serious running and cycling--in all four seasons--and not been seriously injured or killed by drivers is nothing short of a miracle. I wear bright colors and have flashing lights....drivers just do not expect to see people, outside, exercising in central Maine. I am in the minority, and if that sounds jerky, then I am sorry. I havent written this before, but I have been hit by a car two times while running (both times I was okay for the most part and both times it was ONE THOUSAND PERCENT the driver's fault). Folks dont expect to see people out. 

2. I ran by a former tanning parlor that is now out of business and will be replaced by a 'Cigarette Shopper" store and laughed out loud at the appropriateness of this on two levels. One, the store USED to kill people from the outside in...but now it will kill people from the inside out. And, two, the same people who went to this tanning place will still go there on the regular...but just for a different purpose...ya know what I mean? I mean, it was one of their every-other-day stops anyway, most likely.

3. This whole stupid natural gas pipeline stupidity....so let me get this straight: We are using an exorbitant amount of fossil fuels (diesel gas for machinery...petroleum based products for asphalt...electricity out of control) and contributing IMMENSELY to greenhouse gases (by having literally thousands of cars in Maine, daily,  sit and idle for sometimes five minutes at a time while flaggers have them stopped) JUST SO we can finish up all this construction so that we can rape the earth of yet another non-renewable resource? Kind of like using your visa to pay your mastercard, aint it?

4. I thought about the silliness and hypocrisy and flagrant, shameless marketing of Mikes Hard Iced Tea stuff...now the bottles (ya know...the ones that contain malt liquor) all come in 'pink' and have ribbons on them to 'support' breast cancer awareness and research. I dont even know where to start. In other news, all Marlboro cigarette products now donate some of their profits to cirrhosis awareness and research....do you see what I mean? What a shameless marketing gimmick and example of dramatic irony--their product (like all alcohol) can contribute to caussssssssssssing cancer. 

5. Near the end of my run, a really awesome DIRE STRAITS track came on my iPod, and I was rocking out to a Mark Knophler solo, and I got to wondering: How come, so often, when rock guitarists solo, do they simultaneously 'mouth' strange shapes and indiscernible words that are incongruent with the guitar stuff they are doing? Do you know what I mean here? Many of them do it. 

Then I finished my run. 

Here are some pics

Dressing up like "ElfOnTheShelf" and 'Santa' in the middle of August....sure....


We took a daytrip to Camden last week.....one of our favorite places...LOVE it there.....and so do my mom and dad...it is a special place to me because it is one of the few places I have been with both of them, separately, in Maine

Callum was doing some legos with Grampy last week. It was an RV that Michelle, Steve, and Emma gave him for his birthday...


Devil's Chair hike...Devil's Chair is a rock and ice climbing destination in the Quarry Road area...the kids loved it...Quarry Road is such an awesome place....




No comments: