This afternoon I was frustrated by the stress of domestic duties in Connecticut and needed to go for a run to clear my head. But I did not want to simply run away from the house and toward the town center. I have tried that route before, with my sister (who couldn’t keep up, and thats when I used to smoke… no, sir she’s not gonna ‘preciate me mentioning THAT). But the roads around here are choked with sand and salt; easy to lose one’s footing and unpleasant to run on. I searched the internet.
I did not use the computer pictured above; that was my project yesterday. That is the machine that I used from my senior year of high school all the way to when I moved to Central Square, Massachusetts. Roughly the years 2000 to 2005. The guts of my (even older) high school hard drive are attached to this mainframe as well. All day, its a machine who’s digital record stretches back to 1997. Last night, over the course of four hours, I ripped all the information from these hard drives to portable media, and when I get back up to Cambridge, I will feed this media to the Imac.
Soon I will have the most complete collection of my personal media ever assembled. Yes, I am excited about that; sorting out decrepit machines on top of maintaining my aunt’s house also kicked up a lot of dust and frustration that collected in my dome. I required a long run to clear away the cobwebs. The web search brought me to a really neat website called MapMyRun.com, where users share their favorite local running routes. In the 3 mile range, I picked out a run that traces the outlined head of an Indian chief, called the “Old Sachem’s Head Loop.”
Imagine that the picture above is turned upside down. Can you see the headdress? Sachem is a title of leadership historically given to the head of some Native American tribes. This running path brought me down out of the hills and a pine forest to a peninsula surrounded on three sides by salt water bogs. I crossed over a footbridge that eliminated car traffic, past rich folks and construction teams diligently preparing their exclusive residences for warmer weather. The salt air was refreshing as I loped along the jagged coast.
I think that exercise is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered – in large quantity. That and sunlight and fresh air moving over.
Sorry though – you forgot to mention your power to turn yourself into an ostrich. That power is really the only thing that allows you to run faster than your sister, who only has the power to transform herself into a marmot, which is a power that is good for the mountains but largely useless for flat byways. So I think that your post misleads the reader: let me clarify that a marmot is not in any sense SLOWER in objective terms than an ostrich, though it is adapted to different terrain
Sunday, after brunch we will extricate R2D2 from its space and work loops around Freshpond followed by merriment and a dancing rite to Spring