run on sentences

So far I have knitted (knat?) two pair of socks.  I gave both of them away to people I love.   I will give away many pairs of socks, but only to people who I  know will appreciate them. I wrote about my first pair of socks already but here is a picture of my second pair: It occurred to me that making socks is as addicting as running marathons (or half marathons or 5ks) can be.  You make one pair after gathering up your courage to tackle the turning of the heel and the picking up of stitches for that so called gusset, or as I call it, "gasket".  Then, encouraged, you race to the toes and maybe slow down a bit - but the end is in sight so you keep going.  When you are done,  for a while, you don't want to do the other one, but you do, because you can think of a million different things to do that will make the next pair even better....like knitting tighter (or looser) or doing the toe in a different way or making the ribbing longer and the sock come up higher on your l

My sister and I talk about how we never realized we were poor growing up.  Maybe it was because there were a lot of other people who had less than we did and no one was really rich.  Or maybe it was because our parents loved us and never let us forget it.  Our house sounded like the "little house on the prairie" show.  Every night we would say "Good night mom, I love you" or "good night dad, I love you" several times - maybe to  make sure they were still there or maybe for reassurance that they really did love us. Christmas was always a special time.  Once one of the neighbor ladies who was of the proper shape and girth, dressed up as Santa Clause and peeked in the window at my sister.  My sister, who exhibited sleuth like qualities at a young age, followed the footsteps to the neighbors house and figured it out.   I was too little (or "still walking in front of my father" as my dad always said) to remember this one but I do remember when my un

....but a pasty, lying on the sidewalk so clear. a pasty.  On the sidewalk.  In Salt Lake City? Okay it is not the best poetry, but I am still puzzled over how this seemingly perfectly baked pasty showed up on the sidewalk, a block below the high school?  No one, or at least not many people in this city, beautiful as it is, knows what a pasty is even. Jack and I were running along yesterday on a cold but sunny day, minding our own business.  I could see something lying on the sidewalk ahead of me, which isn't too unusual...sometimes there are bagels, old french fries, or bags from the many nearby fast food joints...but a pasty?  Never.  As I approached it, I stopped and stared.  Jack wanted to sniff it and eat it of course.  I got off the sidewalk and circled it suspiciously, wondering if I was going crazy or just so homesick that I was hallucinating?  Maybe my wild college days finally caught up with me and I was having flashbacks? I thought it might be an empanada, which

Yesterday I knew I had to run because we were going to get a bad windstorm that afternoon.  I was actually looking forward to it and felt good.  Jack could sense we were going to go so kept coming in and nudging me as if to say, "Now?" Jack's favorite "waiting" pose" I got dressed, primed the ipod with some good Christmas tunes and we headed out the door and up the hill, listening to Barbara Streisand singing "Raindrops on roses...etc"...not one of my favorite things, but it seems if I skip a song I am not fond of, my pod gets back at me by playing it more often. I was just doing the usual 5 mile loop and Jack and I, both of us having a good day it seemed, ran along, enjoying the familiar scenery.  It amazes me that even though I do this route a lot, I often see things I have never seen before or at least noticed.   It is Christmas tree season (began about two weeks ago) so the neighborhood Smith's Marketplace has their Christmas trees

For some reason I wanted to knit a pair socks.  My mom was a great sock knitter (and a great knitter in general) and I wish I would have appreciated her homemade socks, mittens and hats more than I did.  My sister also could knit socks.    I always thought that I would be unable to master using all those knitting needles at the same time, so never tried.  Until recently.  Ironically, my sister, my daughter and I all decided we wanted to knit socks.  I didn't tell my daughter (Kseniya) that I, too decided to take up the challenge, because I wanted to surprise her with a pair  at Thanksgiving. I found a pattern and some yarn.  The pattern called for 5 knitting needles, which surprised my sister, who said she and my mom only used four.  But I was determined.  I watched a You Tube video on how to cast on to five needles.  I still ended up starting several times, tearing out my stitches and starting over - swearing a lot!  I was not having fun.  I went to bed and dreamed about the soc

My father in law died about two weeks ago.  Bruce and I headed to Wisconsin on my birthday and I felt honored to be able to share the day of my birth celebrating my father in law's life.  What a great life he lived and what a great example of living he was to all of us.  His children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will carry on with a part of him. The minister who conducted the funeral was, as she put it, "the minister du jour"  and did a less than optimal job of eulogizing him.   I bet he would have smiled at her mistakes (such as saying he was born on Christmas day, December 5th) and not wanted his children to exchange looks and shake their heads at her inaccuracies.  I thought I should give it a try - eulogizing him.  He deserves at least my attempts to describe what he meant to me. I know all of us had different memories of him. My father in law, William Gilbert Thomas, was born on Christmas Day, December 25th, in 1914, the oldest of several children.  I

The  main street of the little town I grew up in once was lined with fine maple or oak or maybe elm trees on each side.  Over the years, many of them grew victim to old age, some tree disease, or to the power company because they were interfering with the power lines.    One lone oak tree stood proudly across from the post office - all that remained of those old trees that used to shade the lovely main street....until a few days ago, when it also met it's fate.   I wish  I had a better picture of this tree but you can see it in the picture below, on the left side of the street. My sister had heard rumors that this tree was going to be taken down by the power company.  A home owner feared that it would fall on her house.  The tree looked healthy and did not appear to be dying.  I don't know...maybe it was interfering in power lines and was a potential hazard.  But if that was the case, it was not apparent.   A few people in the town threatened to chain themselves to the tree an

"Fall is such a beautiful season.  It really is my favorite time of year.   But sometimes it is also the time when I feel very sad.  Everything is dying.  I find myself missing every person I have ever known that is gone.  It is almost painful, that missing". My elderly friend, Enid made this comment a few days ago when we were driving back from lunch.  I thought she described it very well and found myself thinking about it a lot for several days after that - including a few days ago when I got up in the morning feeling very blue.  It was the first freezing cold day of the year at 29 degrees.  Jack followed me around the house anxiously waiting for me to signal him, by putting on my running clothes, that we would go for a run, I wasn't in the mood to go out in the cold, but Jack's hopeful old eyes, now rimmed by white eyelashes, made me realize we had to go.  I knew if I put my running clothes on I could not break my own rule "If you are dressed, you gotta go

When I was a little girl, I got a Thumbelina doll for Christmas.  I can remember getting up at 4 a.m on Christmas morning that year, as we always did.  My mom made us go back to bed after we opened presents and Thumbelina lay next to me on my little twin bed that my mom got at an auction.  I can still remember how she smelled - that new doll smell that is so distinctive - a mixture of rubber, plastic and some petrochemicals, I suppose, but it was a "new" smell and one that brings back memories any time I catch a whiff of it. Thumbelina - not mine but she looks exactly like this I think I received her in the early 60's.  Thumbelina was one of the first very "lifelike" dolls and she had a big pink knob in her back.  Later after I became a pediatric nurse I called the knob a myelomeningocele because that's what it reminded me of.  A myelomeningocele is when part of a baby's spinal column and nerves, etc, remain outside the body at birth.   Thumbelina 

My mom in her youth.  She was a beauty! Today is my mom's birthday. She would have been 83 years old.  I was more sad last week thinking about her, but today I just smiled at some of the good memories and made it a good day  remembering the good times we spent together.  Me and my mom when I was about ten months old...I sure didn't have much hair! My mom had many sayings - Some of them were handed down to her by her own mom and who knows where they originated.... Might as well, can't dance.  And it's too windy to haul rocks. (I have no clue what this means). It will be better in the morning (any time we were sick, or felt bad about anything). They're just jealous! (any time someone was mean to us.  She didn't say what they were jealous about). People come to see you and not your house. I'm broke flatter than piss on a platter (when she didn't have any money). Oh well (her version of the more popular version of today "it is what it

I was kind of surprised at first, that my son Bill and Scarlett got Bruce and I a hot air balloon ride for Christmas.  He knows I don't like heights or even flying all that much - what was he thinking? When he was little, he and his brother used to tease me by leaning over the railing on the second floor of the mall we used to visit.  Not that this has anything to do with this story, but I also hated when people looked cross eyed or stuck their finger in their belly button.  Bill and his friend used to stick their fingers in their belly buttons and look cross eyed at the same time - just to irritate me - which it didn't; it just made me nauseated.  So I guess the balloon ride made sense in some way. Anyway it took almost a year for us to go on the ride with Park City Balloon Adventures .   I thought about it a lot all summer and at first, I said I wouldn't do it.  I really shouldn't have to do it if I didn't want to, right?  I mean Gretchen Rubin in her book The

I am going to confess to something.  Yeah I know I am always positive and uplifting in my blog posts.  This will be the one time when I probably reveal something personal...my Achilles tendon so to speak. I have been called a "Pollyanna" because of my usual positive outlook on things   Or an "eternal" or "terminal" optimist.   Ever since I was little, when I complained about something, I always was told by my mom, dad, or Ernie (an adopted family member) "Some people have it a lot worse".  That is always true - I have never had it as bad as others. I grew up poor and I didn't even realize it till I got older because I was loved.  But there were poorer people.    Even if things are not going well for me, my motto has always been "never let them see you bleed".  I have been, under most circumstances, able to live up to that motto.  The only problem is that sometimes the pent up stuff boils over all at once when you least expect it. 

Yesterday I completed my 17th St. George marathon and my 30 something marathon overall.  It was great as usual - easy to say now that I am done.  But it really was great.  It was St. George - the best, the most scenic, and most organized marathon ever. It was really hot... maybe hotter than any of the other 16 I have done.  When my friend Suzanne and I got on the bus to take us to the start it was already 80 degrees at 5 AM.  When we got to the start we didn't need to put on our extra clothing to keep warm.  Usually we have to wear long pants, gloves, jackets and a hat because it is about 30 degrees up past Veyo, which is at an elevation of around 6000 feet.  The race starts at 6:45 so we had over an hour to wait in the dark with about 7000 other people. We did our usual pre race rituals - hanging around in the porta potty lines and then sitting on the pavement drinking a last Gatorade and eating a banana or an orange, quietly observing other runners and listening to their stor