04-AUG-A-10
THE EVENTS
OF A HARD-RUNNING, RAINY WEEK
IN AUGUST WITH A SURPRISING COOLING OF
TEMPERATURES, FURTHER DERWOOD WORK, BLOOMING HOLLYHOCKS, A BLOOD PRESSURE CHECK, AND CONCERN FOR A
FRIEND IN DESPAIR
I am
certainly glad that I stained the deck with the weatherproofing, since water is
beaded up on both decks now as I sit through the rain coming down hard on the
overhead skylights. Earlier today, I was
on the roof, sweeping off the cicada-killed twigs and had taken a bottle of Windex
to each skylight, so this must be the rinse cycle. The water has come down the steps so
vigorously that it has washed out and eroded the back embankment down toward
the creek behind the woods. Those woods
are so chock full of big deer, that I have no need to take further pictures of
them, since I already no each of the bigger ones by name, and they have even
let me rattle the lawn mower past them without being upset with me. All but two of the fourteen deer here as I
did yard work are bucks, and many of them are eight points in velvet and on
up. Up means
I make a regular run around the drive picking up the cicada-amputated ends of the tree limbs, with the browned broomings of the tree limbs looking like they are festooned with the early Christmas ornaments. I presume the stems are embedded with the eggs that are making their way to the ground to sleep for the next seventeen years, and I wonder what will be the status of Derwood or its owner in the next cicada cycle?
I wonder
this for cause, since a number of my good friends are having serious
problems. I spoke with Laurie Harken
this week, and she is contemplating whether she should have chemotherapy for
recently diagnosed breast cancer for which she has just had a mastectomy. An even “closer to home” friend is even less
health, having serious swings of mood to deep depression and is now getting
medicine, but still has thoughts of self-harm.
I had been running a lot in anticipation of getting yet another set of
“Pump” Reeboks tomorrow to test during the “run-ups” to the marathon season
when I will be doing my 22nd MCM in the 29th running of
the race on October 31, for which they are sending me my “Twenty Year
Patch”. I had gone to get my BP checked
at the Lipid Research Clinic as a part of a study testing a machine that would
test the flexibility and pliability of blood vessels, for which they test my
blood and urine. My cholesterol was no
longer at the bottom of everyone’s scale, but it was still low and in the right
proportions with a high HDL from and I came out with the lowest of all possible
cardiac risks. But, they called me back
to have my BP redone. So, yesterday I
had three observers and a machine repeatedly take my BP while seated with
readings done three times of 86/48, P= 60, 88/50, and 88/46. So, I do hold the record in the Lipid
Research Clinic for the lowest BP of anyone seen there who was not getting a
pressor drip for being in shock at the time.
I celebrated by going out for a run eight miles up the Capital Crescent
Trail and down the C&O Canal Towpath, passing the mules Nell and Anne run
by the NPS park service as they tow the canal boats up through the locks while
interpreters in period costume and language tell of the glory days of canal
traffic. For me, the glory ended after I
showered in the Wellness and
I have
assembled the tenth photo album of the year and tried to get it labeled up in
time for Saturday night’s team reunion and picture party. I am also writing up the results of the pre-
and post-trip questionnaires which were amazing since each of the students
attest to a life-changing experience in the mission to
Derwood is showing all the effects of continuing attention, and has not been more beautiful in summer, with white hollyhocks having come out in the rain, not yet browsed away by the deer herd. The official date for the professional photographers for magazines and the 2005 calendar pictures has been moved to September 1, which will follow immediately the dates of the ELDP session in which I should turn in the papers I am typing now as well as for which I must have a half dozen books read for discussion. The next morning after the course, I will be running the Annapolis Ten Miler, possibly with Joe.
Tomorrow is the Opening Ceremony of
the Olympics, and Joe is in the Sand Diego training camp where he will be
“watching “ the events on a large screen TV.
With a little help from a number of contributors, I and all my sisters
among them, all his family will be going to
I will have to be near home on the
next Mon/Tues when the plumbers return to dig up the lawn again in a second
attempt to find the well and the pump to replace it to stop the air leak and
the silting up of all the new plumbing.
I will then go to visit Craig Schaefer on the