|
 So Friday
I got no exercise, as I had again blown off riding to work and spent the
hour between work and party with Blake instead of walking. If he'd wear
his harness he could come for a walk with us, but that's another story.
Saturday we went to the museum and so I missed Saturday's lap swim. Sunday
I swam.
First I talked
to my father. He had his cordless
phone by the pool, so I told him about BDL's hanging up their cordless
phone after every call, so the battery doesn't go dead according to him,
so the battery actually wears out sooner according to anyone who knows
how that sort of battery works. Sheryl asked me what I meant by the Bad
Seed (a reference I made in his card) and I explained and she denied,
which was nice of her.
Then I nearly
killed Blake then got email
from DEDBG, which I call
the best of all possible timing.
This is part of what I wrote to DEDBG, sic:
Right now I am fairly shaken up and am glad to have just gotten email
from you because it makes me feel like you're not so far away when I
just nearly killd my buddy. We got a little harness and leash for him
and he hates the harness and chews it all the time. I had him outside
(the point of the harness) and was trying to distract him with the outsideness
and either something startled him or he was just trying to get away
because he lifted off, in the harness (which does affect his balance
because it's unaccustomed weight) and trailing the leash (two feet of
light lanyard), which I did drop, and he flew about 18 inches off the
ground half the length of our apt. building, around the corner, and
into the parking lot with me pelting after him, having screamed "Rich!",
throwing myself at the leash, and I don't know if I did grab the end
or if he got winded or why he finally lit on the blacktop where I dashed
to one side quickly enough that I didn't stomp a running step onto him
and threw myself on him before a car could come tearing through the
lot and of course he was only 20 feet from the road, having flown about
100 feet altogether. I was hysterical and Rich was mad at my carelessness
but only for a moment and then he was very sweet and pointed out that
everything is okay. So. I am sitting at the desktop with Blake on my
knee and Booboo on my shoulder--Rich
left for the gym a little while ago and I am going to go for a long
swim when the rec center pool opens at noon. Right now I am breathing
and relishing Blake's weight on my knee.
And then
I went for a swim.
Stroke and breathe, stroke and blow. Flip, push, breathe. Swimming. It's
all that matters.
Round about the 24th lap everything just faded from my brain. Blake's
narrow escape, my carelessness, missing DEDBG, not seeing anyone but 3SK
when I was home, my mother's betrayal, concern for my grandmother, my
unspoken rebellion against being ruled by my sister, missing SEM, it was
all gone.
I didn't think I could do a mile in 40 minutes (lap swim is only so long)
but I did my 36 laps of crawl and then another four of backstroke, breaststroke,
sidestroke, doggy-paddle, whatever, just enjoying the water. I had forgotten
how big the pool was and asked if it was 25 yards. "Twenty-five meters,"
the guard said. Oh. That means a mile in 32 laps and that my 40 laps were
2k. That's right: that was my standard distance last year.
I realized that if I swim all five lap swims I can in a week, that's
10k. Plus bike-commuting 65 miles a week. I felt pretty good about that.
RDC and I
had lunch and then decided to explore. We saw a northern (I think) Harrier,
a mule deer doe and fawn, and a mule deer buck. Also a dream-catcher hanging
in the rear window of a Bronco: a Denver Broncos dreamcatcher. I hurled.
We drove and hiked along some wonderful stretches of the South Platte
including bits that looked like the bit of the Colorado River northeast
of Moab: Wile E. Coyote territory. I decided there are places in
Colorado I would like to live--not just pie-in-the-sky Aspen or an adequate
little bungalow in the city but houses with character on real rivers with
natural waterflow, surrounded by willows (and mosquitoes), and that risk
flashflooding every spring. It was gorgeous.
The drive did entail some washboard dirt roads that made us long for
the comfortable suspension of the Terrapin. Sigh. Ha! It's hard to believe
this car was really intended to do this sort of terrain and I asked if
it was going to jiggle itself to an early death. Nope.
Home again,
we fed Blake and ourselves and watched "The Pirates of Silicon Valley."
Anthony Michael Hall must be glad he matured from his role as The Geek
in "Sixteen Candles" to the biggest meanest least ethical nerd in the
world. I thought Hall was tall now though--but he played short well. And
Noah Wyle did well as Steve Jobs. I would have used a tarbrush, myself,
properly to depict Gates, but he probably owns Ted Turner and tied TNT's
hands.
|
