With the warm air in New England this week I spent some time out in nature. The other day I woke up early and ran six miles, before the temperature soared into the nineties. As I was cooling down and catching my breath, back in Harvard Sq. at the end of my run, I walked past David Gergen and his wife. He stood tall in a dark suit and she was fussing over him, squawking about studio appearances. This is not the first time the Gergen’s have entered my bubble. In fact, my life in Cambridge is being lived out largely in David Gergen’s shadow.
At high noon the same day, I picked up a friend and we went to Blue Ribbon for barbeque. I got the spicy pork sausage. After an hour of digestion, I had the Center for Disease Control on speed dial. I thought I had the swine flu but luckily, it was just the meat sweats.
That evening I rode my bike to Alewife Station and picked up the Minuteman Trail. From there it was eleven well-paved miles out to Arlington, Lexington and Bedford. The return trip I got smart and drafted in a peloton of Lance Armstrong types. The eleven miles back had to be fast ones… Celtics game 5 was not to be missed. Rajon Rondo punched Brad Miller in the mouth… for the win!
Today, I got the longest and most entertaining haircut of my life. Peter at the Hair Connection was meticulous and left my hair the best its ever been. I feel like he took the time to really listen to my whorl and jibed with my hair’s asymmetry. Plus I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. After a two hour hair cut some people would have thrown in the towel. Truth is, the Minuteman Trail only whetted my appetite for more riding. I called up Eliot and we hit the seventeen mile Paul Dudley White Charles River trail.
That picture is a bird on a stone facing a small waterfall. The breakwater is up the Charles River near Watertown. Actually, if you look carefully at the pictures of Eliot and I, you will see the same bird is in both pictures. That bird is resolute. Even when the whitewater surged, knocking bird off perch, the bird was able to catch itself in the air and land right back on the stone. Eliot and I rode from the Museum of Science out to the end of the P.D.W. and ate dinner at the dark, Greek watering hole that is Demo’s. We each had bottled water, gingerale, salad, Syrian bread, kabobs (of lamb and chicken), and baklava.
Sometime during my two hour haircut, I asked Peter his favorite part about living in Cambridge. With a very dry sense of humor, he told me its that he lives close to his business. I haven’t been living and working in this city for 29 years like he has, but I do love living in the city. A friend asked me earlier in the week what would be the best way to spend my days off, and I replied that I would like to be out in nature. Perhaps a hike. Well I didn’t quite make it to the mountains, but I did run and bike over 45 miles in two days, and saw parts of my city that I hadn’t seen before.
Snork-star! You are shining like a desert star! Like a twinkle in a gull’s eye. Like the gleam of the helmet that protects your head.
I am glad that you had a good ride. I need to get on the cycle wagon myself more often!