Archive for March, 2010
I don't want to run Old Waterford Road!!
After the run on Saturday there was a voice mail from my son that his wife was having some contractions and they were going to go into the hospital to have things checked out.
About noon the word was that they were going to go ahead and induce labor.
By 5 pm he said things were progressing slowly and that there was no hurry.
I got to the hospital around 9 pm and settled in with the other grandparents for the vigil. It was slow going until around midnight. By 1 am the urgency in the steps of the nurses back and forth from her room had increased and the doctor was called.
At 1:48 am Sunday morning, Amelia Elizabeth Wiley came screaming into the world with ten little fingers and ten little toes. She is my fourth grandchild and (of course) she is beautiful. Everyone involved is doing fine.
It just doesn’t get much better.
Weekend Runs
Saturday looks perfect for a nice little out and back on The Woods Road.
YUCK!!!
Last Saturday after the Faith Chapel run in Lucketts, I noticed an advertising banner for the Saturday night bluegrass concert at the old schoolhouse in Lucketts. I like bluegrass music and for several years I have intended to check this venue out. Since it was such a lovely day last Saturday, I decided the time was right. Before last Saturday, I thought – in general — bluegrass was bluegrass. However I now know that not all bluegrass singers are created equal.
Last Saturday’s band was The Hazel Dickens Band.
What can I say about Hazel Dickens? Since my mother taught me that “If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all,” let me just say… Bless her heart.
The old schoolhouse at Lucketts was packed to the gills last Saturday — full of people who probably know a lot more about bluegrass than I do, and when we left at the first intermission, there didn’t seem to be a mass exodus.
Did all those people hear something different than I did? I know there is a sophistication that happens with repeated exposure to things like music, but I don’t know why you would subject yourself to that the second time?
I’d like to go back another Saturday for another evening of bluegrass at the old schoolhouse, but I’m definitely going to do a little research first the next time.
Google is my friend.
Weekend runs
Looks like the weather will be good for another twofer this weekend!
Market Station on Saturday — might be an opportunity to go from Purcellville to Paeonian Springs.
Rust Library on Sunday — walk up those hills, baby!
Are we going up or down?
(No, this is not a picture of Amelia. My daughter-in-law’s blood pressure has stabilized and the doctor is now letting nature take its course.)
I’ve sat through my share of graduation keynote speeches. The only one I remember was Scott Hamilton, the Olympic Gold Medal figure skater, who spoke at my daughter’s graduation ceremony from Ithaca College in 2004.
He spoke of the tremendous high points in his life, and he told of the incredible challenges he had overcome, including a mysterious childhood illness that caused him to stop growing, testicular cancer and a brain tumor. He’s not unusual for this, I suppose — few people have lives that are completely struggle-free (and would you want that even if you could?). What was unusual was his perspective on it.
He said that he used to think that after every victory in his life, he had been cut down with a hardship.
At some point, however, he realized that the opposite was actually true — for every lowpoint in his life, a victory had followed.
Within a week, Sandra Bullock was celebrated for being the worst actress of the year and also the best actress of the year. And now, if tabloid reports are true, her real-life circumstances are eerily similar to the plot in another movie she made in 1998 entitled Hope Floats.
At the very end of Hope Floats she narrates:
Beginnings are scary. Endings are usually sad, but it’s what’s in the middle that counts. So, when you find yourself at the beginning, just give hope a chance to float up. And it will..
For every ending there is a beginning of something else and another chance for success. I like that. A lot.
I’m having these thoughts today because I’m taking a friend of mine out to walk/run the last two miles of the Taylorstown run this afternoon. It’s really a beautiful couple of miles, and I’m glad I didn’t let my apprehension about the difficulty of the “run” stop me from going out to check it out that first time.
I don’t have to run uphill.. I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I can do that.
Peaks and valleys — a lot more interesting than the flat track at the rec center.
Weekend Runs
I haven’t done the Faith Chapel run yet and it looks like Saturday is going to be a beautiful day for it. I see a <5 mile option that looks quite suitable.
Good old Greenberry’s on Sunday would be a very nice twofer.
…unless Amelia makes her grand entrance, in which case I’ll be enjoying another peak in my personal life doing the grandma thing.
Can Spring be far behind?
I went for a walk with my little grandson Tuesday afternoon and was excited to be able to point out undeniable evidence that spring is coming. There it was – a tiny little purple and yellow flower amidst the dried up leaves and twigs in the mulch of a neighbor’s landscaping. We bent down and inspected it and he said it looked like a butterfly. I suppose it did.
When we resumed our walk, he looked up at the cloudless blue sky and said, “What a beautiful day!”
No question about it.
My family is anxiously awaiting the arrival of another new life this week — my son’s first child, Amelia Elizabeth. The doctors have said that if she isn’t here by Monday, they will induce labor. I look forward to sharing a picture of her next week!
It’s that time again
Daylight Savings Time returns this weekend. Don’t forget to set your clocks forward Saturday night before you go to bed, or else you’ll miss the Sunday run — which is the trail cleanup, beginning at the high school — on the corner of Dry Mill Rd. and Catoctin Circle in Leesburg.
I’ll be there — unless Amelia has made her entrance, or the drops on the weather map turn out to be a deluge (which it looks like could happen on Saturday).
It's melting... melting... melting....!
The glacier that is my front yard is beginning to recede. (I’m still waiting for a verdict on the shrubs up by the house. The front yard faces north, so it takes a LONG for anything to melt in the front yard.)
I don’t see anything awful in the 7-day forecast.
The stock market seems to be holding its own for the time being.
The Girl Scout cookies that I ordered from the little girl who lives next door arrived yesterday.
I’m recovering fairly quickly from a little stomach something my grandson brought home from pre-school that laid waste to the entire family this week.
I finally got around to loading up the Theme from Rocky(the first one) onto my iPod. Can’t believe it took me so long. I can almost picture myself bounding up a flight of stairs two at a time (after I completely recover fromt he little stomach something, of course!)
The vernal equinox is only 16 days away.
All these things lead me to conclude:
Life is good, my friends. Life is good.
Weekend Runs
The Saturday run is from Market Station. I might just be up for that by then. No muss, no fuss, just a friendly out and back on the W & OD. (no 10K loop for me!).