Training Log Archive: bl

From North Haven, out & back before even a cup of coffee. Felt hot esp with what breeze there was behind. Foggy/hazy Maine morning. Ran this a year or so ago - could not recall if I'd run a loop - was doubtful because it was too long - then turn around point popped into mind & eventually sight.

AM DP, usual characters. Down to slough & to other side, around BG 3 CP. Water is high, damn in good repair but no lodge so not sure why water would be a high as it is. Lots of bird prints in smooth sand - a big turkey tandem with tiny feet of another feathered critter. No treat to get dogs back in car. Probably done for the day with drive to Maine & getting to North Haven.

I was sitting at my desk the other day and the phone rang. I picked it up and entered a time machine. It was a first cousin, David Harvey, calling from Athens, Ga. (a place I had spent the summer of '69 at Navy supply corps school and where I'd chased a Georgia coed or two). I don't really know first cousin David. Mother's side of the family was from Michigan & Wisconsin. We did not travel there much when I was young. David was calling me to tell me that Aunt Lois had died in April at 93. Lois was my mother's sister-in-law. Jack & Lois lived in Rockford, Illinois when I began grad school at Northwestern. Occasionally, I'd leave that big, windy concrete jungle for a gentler place even if 'only' Rockford. Anything feeling of country felt better. Lois was a music teacher. I was pursuing classical guitar at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. She'd play scores for me on the piano. David was calling to see if I could come up with any memories or stories for Lois' memorial service this 17 July. I went looking & found a photo of the two of us from February, '68. Somewhere, I know I have a music score with a note she wrote on it. I told David I don't have the greatest of memories for such facts. I have a "Diary of Seasons' Passing" begun August 17, 1974 with a last entry of November 6, 1984. I went looking there as it began at that time but, alas, noting said. It was fun perusing these old notes - seeing through the looking glass around age 28. I could not find any particular mention of visits to Rockford which was a bit disappointing. I found plenty of glimpses into myself from that period. I was occasionally pleased, more likely amused. There was much Northwestern medical early experience, names written, faces forgotten. But the diary entry, September 27, 1974, (at Chequamegon National Forest, north-central Wisconsin) was, in part, about nature. I'll add that part to this log/diary. The entire entry is pages long, alone in nature with thoughts and pen, what would one expect.

"From Neillsville (where mother grew up), I headed north for the Apostle island district but, in passing through the town of Cadott, suffered a $40 setback (speeding ticket) which changed my plans. I spent from a Thursday at 3 to a Saturday at 11 in the Chequamegon National Forest, just Duke (my lab) and me. Autumn was in a state of fiery rage: reds, yellows, golds, and reddish orange and delayed green. I set my tent up and perched myself against a log where I remained in comfort reading some of Emerson and "Papillion." It was a joy to look upward to the blue through those multicolored leaves. I was reminded of Thoreau's statement to the effect that it was enough of an occupation to merely observe the passage of the season. Even in the brief time I was there, I was aware of the sun and moon's paths across the sky and their distances above the horizon. I had a continual desire - but for some reason continually aborted - to try some poetry to capture the experience."

The next paragraph starts with commentary about an "acute and chronic" awareness of passage of time....

I will look for the music score for a memory aid of Lois. At some point in the near future, I'll sit down with a glass of wine, appropriate frame of mind and
try to write a few paragraphs to celebrate close people, paths crossing in the past and the best of recollections that serve to resurrect close people in a brief moment of pause known as a memorial service.



Town Pond 'gentility'

C • older 4

AM DP, murky sky, cooler, bit of a breeze, walked to the slough to see what's new but not much. DFs a bit at bay. The Moroccan O per ONA article I was reading looked very worthwhile. Feb/March Portuguese/Spain O visit has potential.

SPS noon, still over 90F. Ran on trails and around a soccer field. Cooled off briefly in the stream running by.



Turned into Bow town hall parking the other day so as to not get angry at a tailgater & came upon this family. They made me smile. Geese have been in NH papers as one waterfront association solution to their presence was to exterminate them.

Water hole of my own at noon

AM DP, velvety in shade but half was on PL where being shirtless was de rigueur. Topped out at 99F yesterday.

SPS XC, again. 90F, included a dip in the stream. Only fdf's for company.
Occasional breeze & nearly all shade made it a reasonable lunch hour
activity. 40' tho & not a second/step more. NHH parking lot is over 100F given dark surface.

AM DP, hot day in the making - parked in shade, went in woods for shade. Velvety morning when and where a breeze (by PL) - forecast is for 100F.

SPS XC, one 2.1 mi loop & then 2 times round one end to stay entirely in
shade. Very plausible considering temp >95F. Had Scottish 6 day '05 map
along - M55L, 72' for 5.7k! Hugh Moore 56'. RC's usually fairly easy on
these maps. Slow running & some too conservative RC's. Would not tolerate a comparable performance now - must have been a sleeper period, certainly not a lot of (essential) running preparation.

PM DP - was not counting on this but high pester factor that the OL just ignores: "they're just dogs, they can wait (important addition)." Had ONA & read about WOC team members as well as went over Morocco middle distance course which ended thru narrow village passageways - looked like a lot of fun & good armchair practice.

Wet dog

Faraway series, photos from elsewhere, #23
Northern Norway light and reflection in the Skaergaard, July, 2000

95F PM - went in search of the swimming "hole"/sandy beach shown in the Sunday CONCORD MONITOR near the Sewall's Falls bridge. Found it, parking, people, dogs, sandy beach, clean, deepish river flowing by. Sampled a pine-needle path along the river, a hot cart track & lots of greening corn. Perfect antidote to the heat of the day. Mocha sat on the beach for the most part - 5pm, time to go home, late for dinner. 12.8 mi from house, 4 fm north side of town.

Watering Hole

Honest physical work in the yard - feel badly that I am not going to gym as it becomes more "necessary"/useful with age; took physicality for granted for the first part of life but now it calls for a bit of studied effort.

PM DP, second for them. Drove back from Maine & needed to get my bearings. Bower loop with heat, humidity & df's as expected. Wouldn't think of forgetting a cap.

218mi thru Augusta on the Kennebec, attractive enough in places - and a stop at Rob & Joyce's in Portsmouth. Surprisingly little July 4th traffic. 17W away from the coast is reasonably fast.

Maine capitol building, Augusta, out the window



Looking at the NA maps makes me wish I were there of course. Haven't O'd much on maps with such a distribution of yellow. Looks like fun. Probably Europe or bust/injury next summer

C • Wishful thinking 3