AUG-B-8
RE-ENTRY FROM LONG
ABSENCE ABROAD
FOLLOWING
‘LADAKH-02” AND “LINGSHED-02”
ARRIVING IN TIME
FOR THE ANNAPOLIS TEN-MILER RACE
August 23—25, 2002
I thought I was hot and sweaty in Delhi, but I have been through a couple of experiences on my return to Maryland, which have made me hotter and sweatier. I deplaned from my rather luxurious return flight at Dulles, and claimed my Action packer and newly purchased bag from check in to struggle with in carrying them both with carryon backpack through the airport, to Washington Flyer and then on the metro to carry them up the steps (Why is it that the escalators and elevators are only out when you really need them?) into Foggy Bottom. There was an unusual stirring as the 23rd Street was being blocked off and a plastic sheeting of a tunnel brought across the street to privately shelter the patients being moved across from the now “old hospital” in which I had worked a quarter century, and putting them all in the new hospital, a state of the art facility, first to be opened in almost half a century in the District of Columbia. So, I arrived on the auspicious occasion of the first moments of the real opening of the GW Hospital—right on schedule.
I was dripping with perspiration as I struggled to get the bags through the door of the medical school and into the downstairs parking lot, where I unloaded the film and brought the three bags of already enveloped film series into my office. It was already after hours because of my later flight, so there was no purpose in trying to drop it off in the AVS, but it will be ready to go on Monday. I then cleared my voice mail and the new emails, but did not touch the mails, which will also be piled high in the Post Office plastic bins when I get home. I got home by way of the Giant grocery, where I stocked up on the perishables I had cleaned out on departure.
I then drove the Bronco, which started on the first turn of the key with no indication it had been idled for two months, up into the steamy Derwood woods, which was dripping from the first rain ion the whole period of my absence. Other than a rain of large branches that are always falling down and are quite apparent when accumulating during my absence, Derwood appeared unmolested. Inside, there are the usual we3bs of spiders and dust accumulations also, but I made a quick check on the facilities, and found that the freezers were OK, and there was hot water in the tank. Hold the idea that the freezers were fine, since I opened the one downstairs that holds all my fish and game meat, and noted extraordinary ice build up, and that the freezer door did not shut as well as it should. But, I was so excited about the first hot water shower possibility in five weeks in se3veral hotels in which there never was any hot water for me to shower, that I left the luggage to be unpacked the next day and got the first of my rewards following a long time in wilderness.
I awoke at mid morning and started to pull apart the large
plastic bins of mail that had been dropped that day with a plastic trash bag to
protect it all from the rain. I then
set out on a series of errands beginning with getting my haircut, and several
items repaired. I got new library
audiotaped books. When I returned up
the Derwood drive, the tricentennial oak had dropped a big limb across the
driveway, which took out three smaller trees.
I pulled them all off the roadway, and came up to the house. There was a peculiar smell. I went downstairs and found that all the
fish and game that had been wrapped and were carefully tucked in the freezer
door were thawed, since the ice made an insulating barrier from the cooling of
the coils. So, I had to pack out
several bags of spoiled meat, which was not an easy thing to get under the
circumstances when I had collected most of it.
I made a special run in the heat of the night to get rid of the spoiled
stuff of multiple hunting and fishing trips, now insulated from the cold, and
therefore smelling like I needed to make a rapid ruin to somewhere I might be
able to start disposing of much or most of it.
THE 27TH
RUNNING OF THE ANNAPOLIS TEN-MILER
This race, billed as one of the top 100 in America, is always a challenge of how to stay alive in a race of 90+% humidity and 90+* F. It is surprisingly hilly, with the biggest hill represented by a big bridge up and over the Severn River with a high arch over the river to let the sailing boats through.
I did not want to be late, and thought the jet lag from travel in this direction would help. I got up and out at 3:00 AM, thereby having the distinction of coming to the Starting line first, if not the Finish Line. No one was there as yet. I could recline in the Bronco and wait until a few of the people were set up to claim my tag and get started with the pre-race rituals of pinning on the bib and looking for a place to pee. I was about three hours early for the 7:50 AM takeoff, with a lot of the 5,550 runners from 35 states coming in at the last minute.
It was a good race if no one were interested in a speedy “PR”. I hung back and realized my time in the Himalayas had added lots of endurance, but had not made me lose heat faster or increase speed, so I hung around 8 ½ minute pace and just kept on going. I probably could have done twice the ten mile distance, but was glad that I did not have to. I crossed the Champion Chip finish line, and then got the premium, a nice tunic. I had a bagel or two and then started my way back home. After a shower, and a bit of laundry, I cannot remember whatever else I was supposed to be doing on this day, and I am still groggily opening mail, prepared again to takeoff early to go to work to start on the Xeroxing of my travel log of Lingshed-02 and a number of other “closure details” on this re-entry from an extended absence.