JUL-A-4
AN INTERVAL OF
LONG RUNS,
AN EASTERN
SHORE TRIP,
AND A “TWIN
RUN” AMID TWIN FAWNS
AND A PLEASANT VISIT
July 7—14,
2002
Summertime! And the livin’ is not necessarily easy—but it DOES slow down a bit in the humid heat. I made a quick trip out to the Eastern Shore to visit the Schaefers and then had stopped in to see Gary Pusey who had his cousin’s Honda CRV on the lot, since her husband fell over dead, and she was interested in having him sell it. He was not interested in having it on his books, and said he had just got this “Cute Ute” small SUV and it had 12,000 miles on it, garaged in Tilghman like new. But, I did see something bigger and better. I drove the four-door, big silver Ford F-250 Power Stroke Diesel pick-up truck custom designed to pull a horse trailer with a 6,000 pound towing package, CD player, etc.
And
here, the biggest thing I was contemplating was trying to get a single memory
card that would fit in digital camera, PDA’s and MP-3 players—and could not
find a single one with compatible technology.
All week long, I was trying to get an Audiobook on disc downloaded onto
the MP_3 YEPP I had got at the George Award, and it still has not happened. I
had hoped to carry out an extra memory card filled with books on tape, in a
format without moving parts so that it would not be disturbed by the jiggling
the tape player is plagued with when I run. I had a dream. I wanted to load up a memory card with
audiobook chapters, and listen to them on the run. Erasing the chapters as I
heard them successively as I go, coming back with a memory card filled with
pictures. No such luck.
And,
now, I am looking at a truck too big to park in the GW garage, and that would
not be parallel parkable anywhere except under the Derwood trees! But it could hold a few bales of hay, and
could pull a trailer. It would make
long cruises easy such as Cumberland hog hunts or Western elk hunts. But, I am going away, so we will see about
this one.
I got a call from Judy who said she
was at her Dad’s house in Vienna with the twins who had all been out for over
two weeks already, since she had gone to Florida to visit Sally and her
Grandmother, and then had gone to Atlanta for Laura’s wedding which I heard
about from the pulpit on Sunday. She
was now here since her sister Laurie had had a baby girl Nora Elizabeth, and
she had been put under lights for a rising bilirubin. I went over to visit to play with the rapidly crawling, pulling
themselves up to standing and cruising around tables, and very verbal twin boys,
my Grandsons, Devin and Jordan. Jordan,
especially, is happy to crawl over into my arms and put his fingers in my
mouth, since he is very proud of two teeth that he has and wants to check out
everyone else to see how many they have.
He also likes to pull beards.
Devin and he are happy campers and are rapid crawlers, liking to go up
and down stairs. They do not scootch on
their bottom the way Michael did, who never did crawl, but only popped up one
day and walked. The twins are near this
stage, since they can walk when I hold one or both hands, and they can make a
step or two over to the coffee table.
They went down for their nap shortly after we had played together for a
while, then I had made arrangements for a visit to Derwood and a run in the Twin
Baby Jogger that Judy has with her. Her
grandmother is up here with her and goes back on Saturday as Judy goes back on
Sunday.
On Thursday morning, Judy came over
late, and we packed the kids over to Needwood, and loaded them in the jogger,
which I pushed along the Needwood Bike Trail as far as Aspen hill parking
lot. I had told them about the deer and
the twin fawns, and right on cue, the doe and the two twins jumped right out in
front of them as I pushed them along. I
was eager that they should see my Derwood neighbors, but, alas, they did what
they do when in motion, they had both fallen asleep as the deer were prancing
in front of them!
We
came back and they got their bottles and back into their car seats to go off to
Vienna. I have tried to work on getting a number of long runs in as I still
have the Reebok test shoes which I finished evaluating. Most of these runs have been done before
dawn with Joe. I got one more run in
with the twins, around the neighborhood streets and a small bike trail in
Vienna, and then came to Derwood to set up the picnic that Joe and the whole
family were eager to do for some time.
We had the full grill on the picnic table in the yard, and then the kids
had to go back to the tire swing, and walk in the woods. We walked to the stream, which is very much
down without any rain for six weeks, all of which turned around the next day in
a very heavy soaking long rain—when Joe and I had sat in the Bronco awaiting it
to slow dawn at dawn—no such luck. It
did quit, but only after four in the afternoon, by which time we went to the
stables, and ran down into the “no motorized vehicle” Beech Drive of Rock Creek
park.
So, it has been a long-running
season, with a few momentary distractions when I thought I would have to update
certain things of mine—like the Bronco, now at 197,000 miles but running well,
and the digital devices I should graduate to and soon. But, this is also the tie that the stock
market decided to take its biggest hit in over five years, and drop to the low 8,000’s
from 12,000, setting up for a third straight losing year in a row. It is not a time I should be making major
investments in items that do not return a very good reward. The remodeling of Derwood is on hold, and
the purchase of a truck half as big as the house should also await some idea of
what comes next since the retirements funds have taken the hit as well, and
none of them will be in a position to support me any time soon, despite a very
great promise earlier.
So,
it is back to work I go, to try to protect whatever I still have in a defensive
position with a lot of folk trying to take advantage