run on sentences

I have a new definition of optimism. It is waiting till you are 99 years old before you write a will. My neighbor Vic (he is 99) and his wife recently had Bruce and I witness their signature on their will. After we signed all of the various places presented to us by the lawyer who treated Vic like he is a dottering old fool, (he is old but far from dottering ), we toasted to a long life (another optimistic wish when you are 99) with a 12 year old bottle of scotch. How many folks get to drink scotch with a 99 year old guy? This was actually my second time. The first time, Vic and I drank straight from the bottle. He had been been going down hill for the past few weeks and did not even get up from his bed for my usual Saturday afternoon visit. As I stood up to leave, I heard him come down the hall with his walker. He peered at me around the corner as he always does. "Shit, Donna, Just Shit!" he said after with much effort, he aimed his bum towards the chair and sat down. He lo...

Today I ran 5 miles in new shoes that felt great. I then went to work wearing clothes that did nothing for my self image. Stuff like that happens sometimes and no matter how much I try to practice techniques discussed in the book The Secret I am not going to attract enough positive energy to make me not wish I had heeded the inner voice that said "don't wear that it makes you look fat". Thus, I attracted negative energy and acted like I looked fat all day! And if the laws of attraction are correct I possibly gained 10 pounds because I caused my body to excrete so much cortisol that my pants got tighter. And I walked hunched over and scowled all day. Some days are like that. But I did run. And I am about to go lift weights. Take that, laws of attraction! And the secret really is no secret - just written in a nice font with fancy paper and quoting a lot of folks who are vaguely famous - the chicken soup guy for example. If you read this and forward it to 10 of ...

Today, Labor day 2007 I headed out at around 8:30 for a 15 mile run. It's the usual pre-St. George marathon (coming up the first weekend in October and my 13th running of it and about my 30th marathon) panic when I realize I haven't put in any long runs or at least not enough of them. I don't know if I can count last weekend's Hood to Coast even though that was 15 miles in three separate legs. That relay run deserves an entry of its own and I better get to it before I forget how great it was. Oh and there's another experience that I had a few weeks ago drinking Chevas Regal from the bottle with my 99 year old neighbor - I should write about that too. I need to be more disciplined. Anyway, I headed out with the beginning of a run optimism, my ipod playing songs that my son loaded on for me. Most of them I really like. Most of the time though I don't like running with my Ipod because it keeps me from thinking deep thoughts. But today I needed it I thought...

If I were a really good blogger, I would have faithfully placed an entry in here every day while Bruce and I were in Michigan and Wisconsin. I would have mentioned staying in a motel in York Nebraska and drinking my first of many Leinenkugel beers of the trip (a Wisconsin favorite), and maybe mentioned how boring it was driving across Nebraska and how I felt at home once we got to Minnesota. But a lack of wireless Internet connection in my mom's small town and maybe a lack of motivation kept me from revealing all of the details, so here are some of the highlights for anyone who cares to see what it is like to spend a week in the wilds of northern Michigan and another week somewhere in mid Wisconsin. Michigan was our first stop. We slept on the most uncomfortable hide-a-bed, that was a hand me down from my Dad's sister Helen. Why do they always have a bar right across your back? We went to the casino and I won nothing but my mom had fun. I had my traditional bloody Mary that is ...

Well, I was unable to run for a week because of a sore calf muscle. The past week when I could not go out at 6 am and run with Jack the dog made today's run even more enjoyable and made my work day better. It was the usual 5 mile run through familiar neighborhoods but I felt so lucky to have just a nagging stiff calf instead of the feeling of someone sticking a knife into it. It was also the usual Monday work day but it was made better because I ran before getting there. I got this injury just because I had to show off. I am not so good at running up hills but I am fabulous going down them at breakneck speeds (nearing 7.5 minute miles for God's sake, at my age). My friends Tom and Craig and I were doing our usual run up Millcreek canyon before they open it to cars. Going up is pretty much torture and makes one question the entire running thing. It is 4.5 miles up - quiet, beautiful and the air smells so good it is intoxicatin (I tried to think of a description that wasn...

For the first time, I am without a dad on father's day. My dad died last August, and I miss him. So I join the many people who have no father to celebrate father's day with. I feel lucky though, to have had this father, through all the good and bad, for 81 years. Happy Father's day, dad. I love you. The Eyes of My Father I looked into the mirror and saw The eyes of my father staring back I suddenly saw all the things he saw The happiness and sadness of my growing And going. I saw the times we went out into the woods He with his lunch pail, And I with my orange pop Happily sliding down the fallen trees, Wet and stripped of their bark Sometimes on Sundays we would all go the farm I was “just a girl” and wasn’t allowed to drive A tractor. But, I could sing a Finnish song and earn a dime. It was about a pig being slaughtered in a sauna Maybe that song was the reason I became A vegetarian in college. Soon I became too grown up and too busy For the trips to the woods My father ...

My friend Bob showed up today for our run barefooted and wearing some soccer shorts that must have belonged to one of his kids. It wasn't that he was in a hurry. He wasn't late meeting us at Dan's Foods where he, Tom and I agreed to meet. It was because no one in his family was awake to help him pull on his usual running shorts and get his socks and shoes on. Bob has ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. This disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually lead to their death. When the motor neurons die, the brain can no longer control muscle movement. Bob can't use his hands very well any more and has lost almost all of his upper body strength. Sadly in some ways, the mind is not affected and people with this disease are aware of how...